Journal of Business & Financial Affairs

Managers in mature or non-dynamic industries operate under very challenging conditions and need to create competitive advantages. One potential route to do this is through innovations. This is easier said than done. Most of the studies on innovation have been concentrated in high-technology industries where the environment is highly dynamic and volatile. Limited studies have been conducted in non-dynamic environment. This study is an attempt to unravel the following research question: How does perception of environmental dynamism and pressures from competition affect firms’ strategic emphasis on innovation in non-dynamic environments? Based on a survey of 164 respondents in Singapore and Hong Kong, the study explores the impact of perception of environmental dynamism and competitive pressures on innovativeness.

Big data is here to stay. The results of this empirical study suggest that the presence of a Chief Data Officer (CDO) signals big data initiatives in annual financial reports. 150 annual reports of top Fortune 500 (F500) companies and top Fortune Fastest Growing (FFG) companies are examined by content analysis using eighteen predetermined keywords. CDOs are executive leaders in 64% of companies. FFG companies with CDOs use 58% more keywords than non-CDO FFGs, while F500 companies with CDOs use 12% more keywords than non-CDO F500s. Results by industry are compared. Three Ps (prominence, prioritization, partnership) are discussed. Increasing prominence of big data initiatives and data-based decision-making and prioritization of building analytical capabilities reinforce the need for Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and CDO partnerships. This study suggests that tech-savvy finance teams with data expertise gain competitive advantages. Further studies are needed to scrutinize financial decision-making implications, dissect roles and accountability and extrapolate industry distinctions.

This paper investigates if board diversity and expertise impact innovation and effectiveness of hospitality nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Both agency and resource dependency theories suggest that the presence of a diverse board increase organizational performance. This study explores the innovation and effectiveness strategies of NPOs. Sample represents some of the most popular NPOs. Results of the null hypotheses conclude that organizational innovation and effectiveness are affected by board diversity and expertise.

The research investigates into the impediments and the best practice use of derivatives in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. The research has been based on a mixed method research approach. The significance of the study has been to identify the gaps in the use of derivatives and the factors that have given rise to the gaps. It has been revealed that Banks in Zimbabwe only use the simple forward agreements derivative to hedge risk. In Botswana only simple forward agreements, foreign currency exchange swaps, credit default swaps and currency options are commonly used by international banks as hedging instruments. In South Africa a broad range of simple and complicated derivatives are fairly used, such as financial futures and options, as well as derivatives in commodities.

Nowadays awareness about monetary conditions is really important for economic agents. Monetary conditions index is a significant indicator in regards of central bank’s monetary policies so that it shows the expansion and contraction of monetary policies. In order to investigate the Dollar’s Rials injected into Iran economy we have applied the MCI. Actually change in real interest rate and real exchange rate to the base year are considered while positive changes in MCI indicate a contraction monetary policy and negative changes indicate an expansion monetary policy. According to our findings, application of monetary policy in Iran is severely affected by changes in foreign exchange incomes as a result of increase in oil price. Therefore, the government’s expenditures should be adjusted based on inflation and stagnation gap. Considering the lack of real data, in this study it is tried to calculate the monetary conditions index for Iran’s economy using annual time series data and Johansen-Juselius convergence method over the period 2008-1987. In fact the expansion and contraction monetary policy implemented by central bank are separated and results show that the government’s monetary policy was contractile in the years 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005. It means that there was no Dollar’s Rials injection into economy. About the other years monetary policy was expansionary and Dollar’s Rials has been injected into economy for twenty years.

It is no longer strange for individuals and organizations alike to appreciate that only organizations that are innovative will survive in very turbulent economic landscape. It is also a fact that innovations can only be achieved when an organization continuously learns and becomes a learning organ. A learning organization is characterized by the stock of both tacit and explicit knowledge which it has acquired over time and how the stock of knowledge is utilized. The stock of knowledge becomes useful only when it is shared and utilized for the overall improvement in all organizational processes and human capital enhancement.

This conceptual paper suggests that as important as the concept of knowledge management is, rather than treating it as a different management concept, it ought to be treated as a major component of organizational learning process. In fact, knowledge management is and should be an extension of organizational learning because when there is no learning; there will not be any knowledge to manage. This paper also discovered that lack of interpersonal relationship, lack of organizational trust, skills, and time inadequacy are the major factors that hinder organizational members from sharing knowledge.

This project report entitled as “A Study on Financial Statement Analysis. In Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, Kagithapuram”, is done as a part of MBA curriculum. The objective of the study is to analysis the financial statement of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, Kagithapuram. The study is carried for a period of five years from 2012-2013 to 2016-2017. Data were collected from the secondary sources. To identify the financial statements of the company and al so understand the liquidity position. The tools used for analysis, Comparative Balance Sheet, Common Size Balance Sheet, Ratio Analysis.

Oil and gas exploration sector is important for Pakistan. However, its effect on economy is often overlooked. The main objective of this study is to check the effect of corporate practice on firm performance of oil and gas exploration sector of Pakistan. For this purpose, quantitative study technique is used, secondary data is used and taken from the 4 registered companies of Pakistan stock exchanges. Data used in this study collect from the period of 2013 to 2017. Finding of this study shows that board size and CEO Duality have positive effect on return on asset and return on equity and No. of committees have negative effect on return on assets and return on equity but board size positively effect on profit margin, but No. of committees and CEO Duality have a negative effect on profit margin.

Purpose: This paper investigates into Customer Relationship Management activities done by Online Grocery Portals that leads to greater Customer satisfaction and how these activities play a major role in increasing value of the company.
Methodology: The Descriptive and Exploratory research design was used to conduct this research. Descriptive Research Design will be used for collection of primary data with the help of a structured questionnaire to assess the importance of CRM in online grocery shopping. The respondents were chosen from the National Capital Region of Delhi through Non-probability convenience Sampling with the help of a structured questionnaire.
Findings: Though all the Online Grocery stores are working tremendously on increasing Customer satisfaction from their services, they are still unable to meet the expectations of the customers in an efficient manner. As per our study of the factors taken in our research project we came to know that all the portals we have studied lack in some or the other field where they need to work with perseverance to get the adequate results and improve their competency.
Research limitations/implications: Due to lack of time and resources we were unable to conduct study on large number of online shoppers. The study is limited to only 206 people that is very less a number to implement this study to understand and view the psychology of the entire population.
Originality/value: This paper creates awareness about factors that have created customer satisfaction from the online portals studied in the research paper. It will also help the companies in understanding the loop holes that are responsible for customer satisfaction from the online grocery portals.

Steel is a big indicator in a development of a nation, India has always been on the top ranks in steel production due to its rich iron ores in Orissa but today the steel industry in the world and India are in a crisis due to throat cut competition and wafer-thin margins.

Since 2008 Indian steel industries are in pressure due to falling prices in steel and very dense competition to counter this the steel companies have tried to bring their cost down to match the pricing but to do this they borrowed huge amounts of debt to expand and use economies of scale with the building of new plants in United kingdom by tata steel, the opening of 3 more plants by SAIL but this has fuelled more problems than solutions.

In this paper a deep research in the current scenario of steel industry particularly India has been carried to understand the connection between the overproduction of steel in china and the impact of it on steel prices and Indian companies’ profitability and debt.

In this paper through use of correlations, time series analysis and regression it is inferred that the top 6 companies in India have been fuelling a lot of debt from 2009 to 2017 which is highly correlated with the overproduction in china there seems to be a relationship between lower profits and higher debts with rising production in china, so we have recommended in this paper to come up with new solutions as to who to reduce the overproduction in china rather than imposing just anti-dumping duties on steel from china, another way the steel industry in India can flourish is by integration of various steel producers to achieve economies of scale rather than borrowing more debt to increase their production.