Sustainable Human Resource Management

The concept of sustainability is important for companies both in the case of SMEs and worldwide multinational companies. Some key factors to help a company achieve its sustainability objectives are based on human resource management. Sustainable human resource management is a typical cross-functional task that becomes increasingly important at the strategic level of a company. Industry 4.0 technologies, Internet of Things, and competitive demands, as signs of globalization, have led to significant changes across the organizational structures and human resource strategies of companies. The increasing importance of sophisticated human resource strategies in the life of companies and the intention to find optimal design and operation strategies for sustainable human resource management were a motivation for launching this book. This book offers a selection of papers which explain the impact of smart human resource management on economy. Authors from 14 countries published working examples and case studies resulting from their research in this field. The aim of this book is to help students at the level of BSc, MSc, and PhD level, as well as managers and researchers, to understand and appreciate the concept, design, and implementation of sustainable human resource management solutions

The impact of the full circulation reform on Chinese security prices and valuation

PhD ThesisSince the establishment of China stock markets in early 1990s, two thirds of China domestic shares were held by the central government or their representatives and only about one third were issued to the public investors. Government shares were not allowed to be traded publicly while the otherwise identical shares were freely-traded. This unique split share structure can lead to conflicts of interest between tradable and non-tradable shareholders and has been recognized as the source of many corporate governance problems in China. In early 2001, the Government unsuccessfully decided to sell its ownership of the listed enterprises as the market collapsed under severe price pressure. In 2005, China Government launched Full-Circulation Reform to convert the non-tradable government shares into traded shares. The event consisted of a series of sub-events, including announcement of macro policies and subsequent firm-specific decisions. China Full-Circulation Reform was set to protect the interests of minority shareholders by (1) allowing companies to devise their own proposals which took in opinions from both the holders of non-tradable and tradable domestic shares; (2) requiring the owners of non-tradable government shares paying Consideration to the owners of tradable domestic shares to compensate them for any anticipated loss; and (3) imposing some restrictions on the sale of government shares. In this thesis the event-study method is employed to investigate the effect of China Full-Circulation Reform on China stock markets. In particular, whether the scheme was fair to both tradable and non-tradable shareholders and what factors were important in the outcome. The results suggest that the procedure taken by the Government to protect the minority interests in the reform was successful with the tradable shareholders not losing in the reform. And the main objective of maintaining the market stability while floating the non-tradable government shares had been successfully achieved

Stock Market Integration Between the Hong Kong SAR and the People's Republic of China - the Use of a Revised 'H' Share Model and Enhanced Institutional Support

PhDBilateral, multilateral and regional linkages between stock exchanges generate increased sources of funds, investor return and product choice. Such associations can also lower transaction costs in both initial listing and subsequent trading, increase liquidity more generally in the secondary market and enhance investor protection and confidence in the stability and reputation of the market and the status of companies listed on the market. This thesis argues that the integration of the stock markets between The Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong ("Hong Kong") and the People's Republic of China (CTRC) is therefore a desirable objective and investigates how a more successful and substantial degree of integration could be achieved in this area. Integration, in particular, requires harmonization of laws and regulations. In 1993,H shares issued by PRC companies were first allowed to cross-list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This listing was made possible by the introduction of a new set of legal and operational rules promulgated in both the PRC and Hong Kong. This thesis expounds four models of integration, the H Share Model, the System Harmonization Model, the Mixed Harmonization and Mutual Recognition Model, and the Full Harmonization Model and argues that H share regulations are an effective way to further integration despite problems inherited from the PRC's 'pre-open door' policy. In considering other potential models, the European Union and the United States capital market are also considered as potential models for further integration of the PRC and Hong Kong stock markets despite the inherent limitations of the latter model. It is also proposed that enhanced institutional support can be used as an effective means of accelerating the integration process. Investigating both the feasibility and possible implementation of market integration within an appropriate institutional framework ensures an autonomous, legal and independent environment separate from the political realm

Enhancing Future Skills and Entrepreneurship

This open access book presents the proceedings of the 3rd Indo-German Conference on Sustainability in Engineering held at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, on September 16–17, 2019. Intended to foster the synergies between research and education, the conference is one of the joint activities of the BITS Pilani and TU Braunschweig conducted under the auspices of Indo-German Center for Sustainable Manufacturing, established in 2009. The book is divided into three sections: engineering, education and entrepreneurship, covering a range of topics, such as renewable energy forecasting, design & simulation, Industry 4.0, and soft & intelligent sensors for energy efficiency. It also includes case studies on lean and green manufacturing, and life cycle analysis of ceramic products, as well as papers on teaching/learning methods based on the use of learning factories to improve students’problem-solving and personal skills. Moreover, the book discusses high-tech ideas to help the large number of unemployed engineering graduates looking for jobs become tech entrepreneurs. Given its broad scope, it will appeal to academics and industry professionals alike

A non-parametric index of corporate governance in the banking industry: an application to Indian data

This paper presents a methodological framework for constructing a non-parametric index of corporate governance for banks. The index is constructed by aggregating six distinct dimensional indices capturing different dimensions of corporate governance, namely board effectiveness, audit function, risk management, remuneration, shareholder rights and information, and disclosure and transparency. For aggregation, a tailored version of data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach which is popularly known as constrained ‘Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD)’ model is employed. This approach is unique and distinctive in the sense that it requires no a priori knowledge of weights, and assigns endogenous weights obtained from actual data to individual dimensions of bank governance in order to construct a composite index of corporate governance. This methodological framework has illustrated by applying it for a data set of 40 Indian banks operating in the year 2017. The data set has been compiled using 58 governance regulations as defined by relevant jurisdictions

The behaviour of individual investors in Malaysia: a governance perspective

Despite the many benefits that good governance brings to investors, academics contend that individual investors have no significant role to play in governance as it is economically unviable and too time consuming for them. On the other hand, regulators encourage and seem to expect individual investors to be governance interested, especially in exercising their ownership rights and making use of governance redress mechanisms whenever the need arises. Are such expectations of how these investors should behave at all reasonable? More importantly, there is anecdotal real-life evidence that at least some individual shareholders in Malaysia do play a role in governance such as attending AGMs. If, as assumed by academics that it is not viable for them to do so, what is the logic and/or motivations behind such observed behavioural tendencies? This study explores the many possible ways by which investors take governance into account (including harder-to-observe treatments – e.g. governance featuring in the form of share investment evaluation criteria). Yet unidentified, important actual motivations and justifications for all reported governance-related tendencies are studied as well. The actual relevance and also prevalence of such treatments and reasonings are largely unexplored in the empirical literature. Essentially, the study considers all governance-related attributes (both firm-level and country-level) that are potentially important to individual investors as well as all governance-related actions/tendencies exhibited by them throughout the typical share investment cycle. Each action/tendency is viewed and made sense of (i) as an integrated part of the sets of behaviours identified, (ii) within the governance environment and investment context where it takes place and (iii) from the standpoint of individual investors. Individual investors‘ relative propensities toward considering governance and/or undertaking governance-related actions are found to be (i) affected by, and are thus rational responses to, the governance-related institutional, environmental, cultural constraints they face and (ii) influenced by their personal investment inclinations, stylistics and preferences such as their primary investment strategies. These entail a number of implications that inform both policy and practice

Change and consolidation in the Nigerian banking industry: an exploration of two key Central Bank of Nigeria objectives.

In an attempt to correct economic shortfalls, authorities in Nigeria deployed consolidation as the main policy instrument in the 2004-2006 reform of the banking industry. The Central Bank of Nigeria drew lessons from similar challenges faced by Malaysian and Indonesian authorities. Nigerian banks were given an 18 month window, to achieve an increased minimum capital base of N25 billion. To survive, banks could either raise the new requirements on their own or engage in mergers or acquisitions. The process of consolidation resulted in the reduction of banks from 89 to 24 and the emergence of three categories of banks namely: Stand alone, Common ownership, and Common interest banks. Primarily, this study examines change management practices of senior bank managers directly involved in implementing consolidation in Nigeria, and the impact of consolidation on credit availability to the private sector. Aggregate secondary data on the Nigerian banking industry from 2001-2009 were analysed and used to inform in-depth semi-structured interviews with thirteen senior bank managers and a respected independent financial analyst. Mixed methods were used to conduct further analysis. A conceptual framework was developed through an extension of Pettigrews 1988 model, while a modified Berger et al. 1998 model was deployed to test credit availability. Findings indicate that most aspects of organisational change were successful, but a lot more needs to be done to improve cultural integration and employee motivation. The successes achieved by Nigerian banks, resulted in higher levels of credit being made available to the private sector. There is, however, scope for further improvement to be made. For example, senior bank managers should deploy a more holistic approach to planned change, and there should be an improved collaborative approach between the government and private sector which could help enhance alternative credit delivery channels such as micro finance firms, venture capitalists and business angels