Foreign Investment Effects on the Banking Sector in Georgia

Using data from 2004 – 2008, we investigate the effect of foreign ownership on banks efficiency and financial performance. The data is a balanced panel consisting of 16 banks and 640 observations. In random effect regression, to investigate the influence of foreign ownership type banks’, we use the efficiency measures ROA (return on asset) and ROE (return on equity). Appling stochastic frontier analysis, we estimate banks cost efficiency. The efficiency analysis reveals that banks with foreign strategic ownership or international financial institutions involvement (EBRD or IFC) are more cost efficient than their domestic counterparts. The study also found that foreign strategic ownership positively affects the return on equity but negatively affects the banks’ return on assets. Investigation of how efficiently foreign majority owned banks are using their inputs showed that banks with foreign majority ownership are significantly less cost efficient than those with foreign strategic ownership. We find that foreign majority ownership has ambiguous effects on financial performance — it increases the return on assets but decreases the return on equity. This research highlights the importance for bank performance of a large strategic shareholder who takes a controlling interest in the bank.Foreign Ownership, Banking, Cost Efficiency, Stochastic Frontier Analysis

Ranking of Web Sites Performance of Commercial Banks in Turkey by SWARA and ARAS Method

Günümüzde teknolojik gelişmeler ile birlikte küresel olarak birçok alanda önemli dönüşümler başlamış olup ekonomik ve ticari faaliyetlerin birçoğu internet ortamına taşımıştır. Böylece birçok sektörde dijitalleşmeye geçişi hızlanmıştır. Özellikle bankacılık sektörü dijital dönüşüme en hızlı adapte olan sektörlerden biridir. Bankacılık sektöründeki dijital dönüşümün hızlanmasıyla birçok banka şubelerinde sunduğu hizmetleri web sitelerinde internet bankacılığı uygulamaları aracılığıyla da sunmaya başlamıştır. Böylece bankalara ait web sitelerin önemi artmıştır. Bu bağlamda bu çalışmada Türkiye’deki 15 ticari bankanın web sitelerinin performansını analiz ederek banka web sitlerini sıralamak amaçlanmıştır. Web sitelerinin performans kriterlerine göre sıralanmasında SWARA ve ARAS yöntemleri kullanılmıştır. SWARA yöntemi sonuçlarına göre banka web sitesi performansının değerlendirilmesinde sayfa açılma süresi ve hız endeksi kriterleri en yükse ağırlığa sahip kriterler olarak bulunmuşken, web sitesinde geçirilen ortalama süre, dünya sıralaması ve Türkiye sıralaması kriterleri ise en düşük ağırlığı sahip kriterler olarak bulunmuştur. ARAS yöntemi sonucunda hesaplanan fayda değerlerine göre ise sırasıyla HSBC, Fiba Bank ve Şeker Bank’ın en iyi performans gösteren web sitelerine sahip olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Türkiye Ekonomi Bankası, ING Bank ve Akbank ise en kötü performans gösteren web sitelerine sahip olup yapılan sıralamada son üç sırada yer almıştır

Fighting internet fraud: anti-phishing effectiveness for phishing websites detection

Recently, the Internet has become a very important medium of communication. Many people go online and conduct a wide range of business. They can sell and buy goods, perform different banking activities and even participate in political and social elections by casting a vote online. The parties involved in any transaction never need to meet and a buyer can sometimes be dealing with a fraudulent business that does not actually exist. So, security for conducting businesses online is vital and critical. All security-critical applications (e.g. online banking login pages) that are accessed using the Internet are at the risk of fraud. A common risk comes from so-called Phishing websites, which have become a problem for online banking and e-commerce users. Phishing websites attempt to trick people into revealing their sensitive personal and security information in order for the fraudster to access their accounts. They use websites that look similar to those of legitimate organizations and exploit the end-user's lack of knowledge of web browser clues and security indicators. This thesis addresses the effectiveness of Phishing website detection. It reviews existing anti-Phishing approaches and then makes the following contributions. First of all, the research in this thesis evaluates the effectiveness of the current most common users' tips for detecting Phishing websites. A novel effectiveness criteria is proposed and used to examine every tip and rank it based on its effectiveness score, thus revealing the most effective tips to enable users to detect Phishing attacks. The most effective tips can then be used by anti-Phishing training approaches. Secondly, this thesis proposes a novel Anti-Phishing Approach that uses Training Intervention for Phishing Websites' Detection (APTIPWD) and shows that it can be easily implemented. Thirdly, the effectiveness of the New Approach (APTIPWD) is evaluated using a set of user experiments showing that it is more effective in helping users distinguish between legitimate and Phishing websites than the Old Approach of sending anti-Phishing tips by email. The experiments also address the issues of the effects of technical ability and Phishing knowledge on Phishing websites' detection. The results of the investigation show that technical ability has no effect whereas Phishing knowledge has a positive effect on Phishing website detection. Thus, there is need to ensure that, regardless their technical ability level (expert or non-expert), the participants do not know about Phishing before they evaluate the effectiveness of a new anti-Phishing approach. This thesis then evaluates the anti-Phishing knowledge retention of the New Approach users and compares it with the knowledge retention of users who are sent anti-Phishing tips by email

A new multi-criteria approach for sustainable material selection problem

Sustainable material selection is a crucial problem given the new demands of society and novel production strategies that consider the concepts of sustainability. Multi-criteria decision-making methods have been extensively used to help decision-makers select alternatives in different fields of knowledge. Nonetheless, these methods have been criticized due to the rank reversal problem, where the independence of the irrelevant alternative principle is violated after the initial decision problem is changed. Over the course of this study, we observed that the solutions that are proposed for this problem, in the context of sustainable material selection, are insufficient. Thus, we present a new material selection approach that is based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method, which is immune to rank reversal. We also demonstrate the causes of rank reversal in the TOPSIS method, how the R-TOPSIS method was designed to solve them, and how it can be applied to sustainable material selection

Fake News in the era of online intentional misinformation ; a review of existing approaches

Διπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2019.Fake news is probably one of the most discussed issues of the past years. The term has acquired greater legitimacy after being named the word of the year by Collins Dictionary, following what the dictionary called its “ubiquitous presence” over the year 2017. However, the fake news issue has not been yet deeply researched. Therefore, in this thesis, definitions by the literature about the term “fake news” are gathered and through them, specific characteristics and criteria are extracted in order to verify the exact elements of false news and intentional misinformation in general. This study aims to identify eventually as thoroughly as possible what fake news is and what is not. For that purpose, through qualitative research, the total features of the term are exhibited and analyzed concluding in the classification of characteristics most of the fake news incidents present. Following the proposed feature identification is examined through specific fake news case studies. Finally, after understanding deeper and verifying specific characteristics that appear on the nature of fake news detection and mitigation actions are proposed, demonstrating the need for technological development on the issue and educational evolution on digital skills of the public, accomplishing an inclusive review of a less studied term, such as the fake news. At last conclusions are presented leading to the main remark of the current thesis, namely the need for further quantitative and statistical research as much as deeper theoretical study, to better decipher the issue of fake news and thus resolve it

Chasing Sustainability on the Net : International research on 69 journalistic pure players and their business models

This report outlines how online-based journalistic startups have created their economical locker in the evolving media ecology. The research introduces the ways that startups have found sustainability in the markets of ten countries. The work is based on 69 case studies from Europe, USA and Japan. The case analysis shows that business models can be divided into two groups. The storytelling-oriented business models are still prevalent in our findings. These are the online journalistic outlets that produce original content – news and stories for audiences. But the other group, service-oriented business models, seems to be growing. This group consists of sites that don’t try to monetize the journalistic content as such but rather focus on carving out new functionality. The project was able to identify several revenue sources: advertising, paying for content, affiliate marketing, donations, selling data or services, organizing events, freelancing and training or selling merchandise. Where it was hard to evidence entirely new revenue sources, it was however possible to find new ways in which revenue sources have been combined or reconfigured. The report also offers practical advice for those who are planning to start their own journalistic site

Challenges and Prospects of Multimodal Transport System Provision and Operation in Ethiopia: The Case of Modjo Dry Port

In this contemporary world, multimodal transport system faces with various challenges totransport freight effectively in most landlocked developing country, causing lost economic growthand development. The limitations of freight transit facilitation that exists in these countries arefrequent problems of Ethiopia. This study assesses the challenges and prospects of multimodaltransport system provision and operations in Ethiopia: The case of modjo dry port. Particularly,the study attempts to identify challenges of system provision, factors affecting operation of thesystem in modjo dry port and role of modjo dry port for the system to manage the problems inEthiopia. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaires, interview, focus groupdiscussion and field observation; total of 96 samples from modjo dry port enterprise, revenue andcustoms authority of modjo branch and customs clearing agents are selected. Both probability and non-probability sampling were utilized. Secondary data sources were also collected from different books, websites, pamphlets, research papers, reports, magazines. Mixed research approach that combined both qualitative and quantitative is utilized to triangulate the analysis of the finding. Generally, the major challenges of multimodal transport system provisions in modjo dry port were unfinished infrastructures; lack of essential equipments for cargoes handling; unfulfilled structure with skilled personnel; absence of railway, lack of truck; poor public private partnership, low level of technology and information technology provision. Whereas, increasing rate of foreign currency; frequent theft and pilferage; lack of training and awareness creation;high turnover rate; unbalanced trade; complex documentation and customs process; delay and congestion of cargo; un-automated service and high transport, port and warehouse fee at sea port are the major challenges of multimodal transport system operation in modjo dry port confirmed by this study. This study proves that now modjo dry port has not sufficient capacity to accomplish the activity of the system successfully. However, to overcome the challenges attempt to reduce unnecessary fee at port, give different service and provide essential equipments to run the activity of the system efficiently. At the end, based on survey result the study forwarded the possible implications to be considered to the concerned bodies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of its transit facilitation. Keywords: multimodal transport system; multimodal transport provision; multimodal transport operation and dry port enterprise. DOI: 10.7176/IEL/10-2-01 Publication date:March 31st 202

Enabling and Understanding Failure of Engineering Structures Using the Technique of Cohesive Elements

In this paper, we describe a cohesive zone model for the prediction of failure of engineering solids and/or structures. A damage evolution law is incorporated into a three-dimensional, exponential cohesive law to account for material degradation under the influence of cyclic loading. This cohesive zone model is implemented in the finite element software ABAQUS through a user defined subroutine. The irreversibility of the cohesive zone model is first verified and subsequently applied for studying cyclic crack growth in specimens experiencing different modes of fracture and/or failure. The crack growth behavior to include both crack initiation and crack propagation becomes a natural outcome of the numerical simulation. Numerical examples suggest that the irreversible cohesive zone model can serve as an efficient tool to predict fatigue crack growth. Key issues such as crack path deviation, convergence and mesh dependency are also discussed

Uncertain Multi-Criteria Optimization Problems

Most real-world search and optimization problems naturally involve multiple criteria as objectives. Generally, symmetry, asymmetry, and anti-symmetry are basic characteristics of binary relationships used when modeling optimization problems. Moreover, the notion of symmetry has appeared in many articles about uncertainty theories that are employed in multi-criteria problems. Different solutions may produce trade-offs (conflicting scenarios) among different objectives. A better solution with respect to one objective may compromise other objectives. There are various factors that need to be considered to address the problems in multidisciplinary research, which is critical for the overall sustainability of human development and activity. In this regard, in recent decades, decision-making theory has been the subject of intense research activities due to its wide applications in different areas. The decision-making theory approach has become an important means to provide real-time solutions to uncertainty problems. Theories such as probability theory, fuzzy set theory, type-2 fuzzy set theory, rough set, and uncertainty theory, available in the existing literature, deal with such uncertainties. Nevertheless, the uncertain multi-criteria characteristics in such problems have not yet been explored in depth, and there is much left to be achieved in this direction. Hence, different mathematical models of real-life multi-criteria optimization problems can be developed in various uncertain frameworks with special emphasis on optimization problems