The Nexus between Agricultural Productivity, Oil Prices, Economic Growth, and Financial Development in the USA

Purpose. The study aims to examine the nexus between agricultural productivity by connecting oil prices, economic growth, and financial development. Design/Methodology/Approach. A newly formulated ARDL model was used to estimate an agricultural productivity nexus model using annual time-series data from 1962 to 2016. Innovation and additive structural break unit root tests were applied to determine the existence of unit roots, and the results reaffirmed that all the variables were stationary at first difference. The Chow Breakpoint test was applied to confirm a structural break in the year 2008 caused by the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. Findings and Implications. The results depicted a long-run relationship linking agricultural productivity, oil prices, economic growth, financial development and a financial crisis. The results also showed that financial development and economic growth have positive effects on agricultural productivity. The empirical findings further suggested that an increase in oil prices and the prevalence of a financial crisis have severe adverse effects on agricultural productivity. Originality. The study provides a novel viewpoint of agricultural productivity by connecting oil prices, economic growth, and financial stability and development. The study successfully demonstrated that the financial sector and oil price stability are pivotal for enhancing agricultural productivity initiatives. This study highlights the policy implications of the estimated results for policymakers seeking to boost agricultural productivity by addressing economic misfortunes induced by oil shocks and a financial crisis.

Corporate Governance and Financial Performance of Money Deposit Banks in Nigeria

Purpose. The main cause of distress in the majority of Nigerian banks is poor corporate governance in the country. Corporate governance (CG) is a contemporary subject attracting the consideration of the corporate world, practitioners, consultants, academia and society at large. As a result, this study explores the financial performance (FP) of money deposit banks (MDBs) in Nigeria as a result of corporate governance put in. It went on to investigate the impact of board size and composition, as well as the audit committee, on bank financial performance. Methodology. A descriptive design method was adopted, while secondary data in the form of yearly financial reports of banks selected for the study were obtained and relevant documents via electronic search of databases. Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing the data and an econometric model of panel least square (PLS) regression test was employed for the study. Findings and Implication. The findings affirmed that the correlation between size of board of directors and bank performance was significant, however negative. The results of the study show that the board of directors (BOD) composition significantly influences the FP of MDBs. The study results further reveal that the correlation between size of the audit committee (AC) and FP of MDBs is significant and also a negative one. As a result, based on the empirical findings of the study, it is concluded that CG has a statistically significant influence on the FP of Nigeria’s listed money deposit banks. Mechanisms such as the large size and composition of the board as well as the size of the audit committee encourage a negative impact on the FP. In line with the foregoing, the study recommended that an effort be made to improve CG, in the sense that the number of directors on board should be kept to a desirable level, and that the ratio of executive directors to non-executive directors, as well as the size of the audit committee, is kept at an optimal level.

Impact of Technological Innovation, Research and Development on the Defense Economy - Iran Country

The Purpose. This research is to investigate the relationship between the variables of technological innovation, research and development costs, economic growth, sales and export of weapons and military costs in Iran for the years 2000 to 2017. Design/Methodology/Approach. In this study, we examine using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method to explore the estimating the impacts of technological innovation, research and development costs, economic growth, sales and export on military costs. Findings/Implications. The results of this study showed that the impact of technological innovation and research and development costs on military costs is negative in short-term and long-term. Although the effect that these two variables have on military spending in the short-term is very close, in long-term the effect that research and development costs have on military spending is far greater and more significant. Also, the impact of economic growth on Iran’s defense economy is much less than the variables of technological innovation and research and development costs. So that this effect will be less in long-term. But, the amount of arms sales and exports in the short-term has a positive effect on defense spending, but in long-term it becomes negative and increase in arms sales and exports can help Iran’s defense economy. Originality. The countries defense economy can always have positive effects on military and civilian research and development, scientific innovation and technological progress, in this condition that the country’s macroeconomics can spend military spending on research and development and support innovation and inventions. Eventually adopt arrangements that use the innovations of the defense industry in the civilian sector, which will lead to economic growth. This is the experience of many developed countries that have been able to use the technological advances and innovations of the military sector in the civilian sectors as well, and to cause the economic progress and development of their country.

Information and Communication Technology Capabilities and Business Performance

This paper analyzes the rapid onset of Robotic process automation (RPA) technologies in the Czech financial sector between 2015-2020. The development and experience from the “hype-and-fear” phase contributed to business process integration and technological spillovers are expected in the future. If ICT capabilities are the source of performance differences, then most likely candidates are inventory and finances business process integration and implemented Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management systems. The RPA should not be seen only as simple automation but as a complex instrument offering a lot of advantages with a focus on benefits for internal and external stakeholders. PURPOSE. The goal is to qualitatively analyze the experience with RPA implementation and quantitatively assess ICT capabilities via analysis of differences between various organizational ICT activities and types of companies in the Czech financial sector. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH. The qualitative case study was performed in the bank ČSOB, a.s. in 2019, respondents, owners of processes in the final part of automation, were chosen randomly from different departments of the bank. Data for the quantitative part comes from the ICT survey (Czech Statistical Office), business performance dataset (EMIS) and a case study about ICT capability implementation. Differences are assessed and indirectly interpreted using goodness-of-fit approach. FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS. The results from the RPA case study revealed that the Czech financial sector is past the “hype and fear” phase and many companies focused on their return on investment and are beginning to focus more on other stakeholders. According to this development, the requirements and outputs are suggested in the phases of RPA implementation. The possible source of rofitability performance differences are integrated business processes. LIMITATIONS. Financial sector data are anonymized in ICT surveys and the measurement of the competitive advantage of ICT capabilities is only indirect. Qualitative approach is suggested with focus on technological efficiency measurement using data envelopment approach. ORIGINALITY. This paper provides an understanding of the strong experience in RPA in Czech financial sector. Certain initial setbacks in RPA are expected and this paper suggest to focus on knowledge management (lessons learned) and other requirements influencing the successful RPA prototyping and implementation process.

The Perceived Value of Higher Education and University Competitiveness - The Rubik Cube Metaphor

Purpose. Over the past two decades, concerned with how stakeholders perceive the value of their services, universities have adopted entrepreneurial orientations and relationship marketing approaches into their activities. The fierce competition on the global higher education market, forced university managers to innovate, to look for new ways to build their offer. Relationship marketing and the knowledge regarding the stakeholders, primarily the students’ perception of their offerings, can provide universities with a competitive advantage. As such, university managers need to carry out satisfaction surveys, inquiries regarding the universities image or the perceived value of the academic programs and services offered, need to plan and organize offline and online integrated marketing communication campaigns. Methodology/Design/Approach. Based on the resemblance of perceived value with a Rubik's cube, university marketers can constantly innovate through the way they match the various dimensions of perceived value or facets of the cube to meet the stakeholders’ expectations. Result /Findings. This research highlights the dimensions of the perceived value of the educational offer and determines the extent to which factors such as the university image, the source of financing the studies and the duration of the student - university relationship have an influence on the perception of value. For this purpose we conducted a quantitative research on a sample of 320 students from the largest faculty from the West University of Timișoara, Romania. To perform the statistical data analysis, the following steps were carried out: (1) the reliability of the measurement scales analysis; (2) the opportunity to perform the factorial analysis verification; (3) the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and (4) the research hypotheses testing. Research results showed that the perceived relational value affects the student’s perceptions on the quality of learning, the usefulness and quality of the acquired knowledge, the employment opportunities. The institutional image has a positive influence on the perceived value of the educational offer. For university or faculty managers, it is important to know how to combine the various facets of the perceived value-technical value, relational value, social value, temporal value- in order to provide the value expected by their stakeholders, primarily by students.

A Study of the Impact of Managerial Innovation on SME Performance in Africa

Purpose. Managerial innovation, if it constitutes a real lever for transformation and performance of companies in developed countries, in Africa, only a tiny part of SME managers make it a priority. At the same time, most African economies continue to be at the forefront of the adoption of global technological innovations. Given the fact that managerial innovation has proven itself in the Western context, and that the context of Sub-Saharan Africa is still unclear, it is important to develop management methods in this context by adapting them to new ones economic models, new objectives, new processes in order to see its impact on improving the productivity and performance of SMEs. Design/Methodology/Approach. A survey instrument based on the questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data to explain the performance of SMEs through the adoption of managerial innovation. For data analysis, multiple linear regression analysis was used. Findings and implications. The findings indicate that, managerial innovation, through its two main components, "change in management practices" and "change in organizational structure", make it possible to increase market share, production efficiency, the bottom line and, in turn, improve the overall performance of the business. Overall, the results of the study show that the fit model is of good quality and can be used to explain the theory. Limitations. The results of this study may not be generalisable to all African SMEs because they are based only on a sub-Saharan African country and the sample size therefore remains small. Originality. The contribution of this article is manifold: it supports the theories of contingency and resource dependence that organizations are adaptive systems that introduce changes to function effectively and improve their performance. Second, it allows SME managers to optimize the chances of sustainability for their businesses, because managerial innovation allows them to: differentiate themselves from their competitors by inventing new offers. Finally, it allows SME managers to no longer confine themselves to the technological aspect of innovation (products, processes) whose lifespan is constantly shortened. Studies of this nature can lead to stimulating managerial innovation in emerging and developing countries, by developing horizontal or networked organizational structures and no longer vertical and pyramidal structures which no longer meet current requirements.

Public family spending, labour productivity, income inequality and poverty gap in the group of seven countries

Purpose. Comparable data on distribution of family income provide reference point for determining economic performance of any country, opportunity to assess effects of income inequality and poverty drivers that are either country- or region-specific. This study analysed the effectiveness of composite indices of public spending on family benefits, labour productivity, macroeconomic performance indicators and moderating factors in reducing income inequality and poverty gap in the Group of Seven (G7) countries from 1980 to 2019. Methodology. The study employed fixed effects Least Squares regression model in panel environment within the framework of empirical econometric methodologies. The composite indices comprised public spending on family benefits in cash and kind, unemployment allowance payments, tax on personal income, labour productivity, harmonised unemployment rate, consumer price index, real GDP growth rate, GDP per capita and per hour worked, fertility rate and trade. After graphical analysis of the data, order of integration was via unit root tests. Hausman test was carried out to choose between fixed and random effects models. Subsequently, parameters of the models were estimated and evaluated for significance at the 0.05 critical level. Findings. The results showed that percentage changes in income inequality and poverty gap indices differed for same percentage change in components of the composite indices. Some variable-specific percentage changes in income inequality and poverty gap were statistically significant, while others were not. However, the overall percentage changes was statistically significant. The paper concluded that while some specific effectiveness of the explanatory variables in reducing income inequality and poverty gap was not significant, their joint effectiveness significantly reduced poverty. Therefore, it is pertinent that family-oriented fiscal policy thrusts should be strengthened and sustained so as to continually reduce income inequality and, ultimately, narrow poverty gap in the countries. Limitations. The study considered the G7 countries for a period of 40 years. The limitations were that the variables considered to influence income inequality and poverty gap in the countries were both exhaustive. Also, the results were conditioned to the method used, and different methods can alternatively be used by other researchers and the results compared with this. Originality. The study is original research paper. It has neither been published in any other peer-reviewed journal not under consideration for publication by any other journal.

Implementation of flexicurity in Slovenia

Flexicurity remains an important policy instrument in the EU and will be especiallyimportant in the changing economic and labor market environment, characterized with changing nature of work and development of new forms of work. Purpose. This paper examines the implementation of flexicurity policies in Slovenia and compares them with the EU countries. Design/methodology/approach. As there is no uniform measure of flexicurity, the analysis is structured in accordance with four elements of flexicurity policies, developed within the EU, and suitable indicators: (i) flexibility of contractual relations; (ii) lifelong learning; (iii) active labor market policies; and (iv) social protection system. Analysis uses descriptive statistics for last available years and compares these data with crisis year 2010. Data for international comparisons were obtained from the European Commission, Eurostat and Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and the Employment Service of Slovenia. Findings and iImplications. Slovenia has in the past already performed labor market reforms that relate to flexicurity components, yet there is still room for improvement. These are especially needed in the field of lifelong learning and expenditures for active labor market policies, where Slovenia is at the tail of the EU countries. In the front of flexibility, a significant decline in the employment protection was noticed with the last legislative change in 2013, which aimed at reducing segmentation and increasing labor market flexibility. In the front of social protection, Slovenia is among the EU countries with the most generous social systems, which, on the other hand, create high work disincentives. Limitations. This study focuses only on the presentation of the recent indicators of flexicurity components, which is one of its major limitation. Future research should study in more detail the effects of flexicurity on labor market, reconsider the importance of flexicurity in assuring decent work and develop a more comprehensible measure of flexicurity. Originality. The paper adds to the existing literature on Slovenia by giving an overview of recent developments of flexicurity concept, pointing on the areas that require policy response.

An autoregressive analysis of the determinants of private savings in Nigeria

Purpose. Despite the increasing trend of private savings in Nigeria, the country is still characterised by low investment and output growth, thus, suggesting that the average saving rate is still far from being impressive. This study investigates the determinants of private savings in Nigeria. Methodology. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model using annual time series data from 1981 to 2016 within the theoretical framework derived from the life-cycle hypothesis is employed in this study. The key variables under investigation are private savings, income, dependency ratio, real interest rate, social security payment, financial development and macroeconomic stability. The data used for analysis are sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin (2016) and World Development Indicator (2016). Findings. The results show that lifetime income and social security payment have significant positive relationship with private saving in the long-run, while adult dependency has significant negative relationship. In the short-run, adult dependency and social security payment have significant positive relationship with private savings. In addition, the result shows that 62% of deviation from the long-run equilibrium level of private savings is annually corrected for by the model estimated. Originality. This research investigates both the long-run and short-run effects of the various determinants of private savings in Nigeria. Thus, the study can serve as eye opener to the important variables that can improve the level of private savings in Nigeria.