Firm-specific and macroeconomic determinants of banks liquidity : empirical investigation from Ethiopian private commercial banks

This study aimed to examine the firm-specific and macroeconomic variables which can affect the liquidity position of private commercial banks in Ethiopia. For the current study, secondary data were extracted from audited annual financial reports of eight purposefully selected private commercial banks covering the period of 2011-2017. The panel data was analyzed by adopting the balanced panel fixed effect regression model. The study revealed that firm (bank) specific factors namely the size of banks, loan growth and deposit are found to be significant determinants of the banks' liquidity. Moreover, macroeconomic determinants consisting of interest rate margin, national bank bills purchase, GDP and annual inflation have a significant influence on the liquidity of private commercial banks of Ethiopia. This study recommends that private commercial banks in Ethiopia should be more concerned with the macroeconomic environment in addition to the internal environment in formulating strategies to enhance their liquidity position. Despite its limitations, this study contributes to the scarce knowledge of firm-specific and macro-economic determinants of banks liquidity by giving equal attention to the long aged banks and banks that were emerged on later periods.peer-reviewe

Mobile commerce innovation in the airline sector: An investigation of mobile services acceptance in Saudi Arabia

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThe advancement of Information Technology (IT) has changed the business landscape in many industries and especially the airline sector. Modern Information Communication Technologies (ICT) provide powerful tools for organizations and can significantly influence their operation, structure, and strategy. The emergence of mobile technologies has created a new innovation for airline companies by increasing the availability, frequency, and speed of communication between the company and their customers. This research aims to investigate the factors influencing the customers behavioural intention to adopt and utilize mobile services during their travel process. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) provide the theoretical basis for explaining how consumers perceive mobile services which they access and operate by their mobile handset. To achieve that, this research employed a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approaches with a dominant quantitative method. A consumer web-based survey was conducted in the Saudi Arabia travel sector with respect to mobile services usage in airline sector , 307 valid questionnaires were received and analyzed by using SPSS (V.18), correlation, regression and factor analysis tests were conducted . The findings of this research revealed that, perceived usefulness, mobility and compatibility are loaded to be one predictor of behavioural intention to use mobile services in Saudi Arabia. The reason behind it may be interpreted as customers nowadays have seen mobility and compatibility as attributes of perceived usefulness. Further, social influence, perceived ease of use and personal innovativeness were found to significantly influence the behavioural intention .whereas, perceived risk was found not to be a predictor to the behavioural intention to use mobile services in Saudi Arabia. Finally, the model analysis and survey evaluation enable airline companies to make mobile commerce service provision decision, these findings contribute to a road map for airline companies to encourage their customers to adopt mobile services and keep them engaged during the overall travel life cycleSaudi Airline

Evaluation of the Financial Growth and Performance of Tepi Coffee Producer Farmers' Cooperatives Union, Sheka Zone, South West Ethiopia

Financial performance analysis of a firm can be made from its audited financial reports, balance sheets and income statements, to measure its liquidity, solvency, asset management efficiency and profitability position in maximizing the wealth of owners.  In line with this, the main purpose of the paper is Evaluation of the Financial Growth and Performances of Tepi Forest Coffee Producer Farmers' Cooperative Union, Sheka Zone, South West Ethiopia.  For attaining this objective, secondary data were drawn from audited financial statements of the union for 2010-2016 G.C. and analyzed through ratios and trend analytical techniques. The result of the study revealed current ratio, quick ratio and networking capital were above the standard denoting that the liquidity position of the union is satisfactory. However, the debt and equity ratio (all periods) and the debt to asset ratio (in some study periods) were greater than the standard and the proprietors’ ratio (over all study periods) was below the standards showing that the union’s long term solvency was very poor. It was also revealed that the inventory turnover ratio and the total asset turnover ratio of the union indicated that the union was efficiently managing its inventory and its total assets in increasing its return respectively. But, the debtors’ turnover ratio of the union was below the standard. Besides, the gross profit margin ratio, operating profit margin ratio and net profit margin ratio of the union revealed that the profitability of the union was not at its satisfactory level. Therefore, to improve the debtors’ turnover ratio of the union, there should be effective collection and credit policy and collection effort. In addition, to improve the solvency position of the union, the management of the union should increase its internal own funds by increasing cooperative members and thereby issuing additional shares, and increase reserve funds by engaging in profitable businesses. To upsurge profitability position of the union, the management bodies should decrease manufacturing and purchasing costs and other operating and non-operating expenses, design effective product pricing policies and undertake profitable business ventures. Keywords: Financial Growth and Performance, Cooperative Union, Ratio Analysis, Trend Analysi

The Determinants of Capital structure in Ethiopian Private Commercial Banks: A Panel Data Approach

A wrong capital structure decision causes business frailer. However, still, what determinants optimal capital structure decision of companies remain the puzzles of many research scholars. This study is, therefore, aimed to investigate the determinants of the capital structure decision of private commercial banks in Ethiopia. The secondary data were obtained from audited annual financial reports of ten private commercial banks and the National Bank of Ethiopia covering the period of 2010-2018. The panel data were analyzed with a clustered robust random effect regression model. The study reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between earning volatility, size of banks, and taxation with leverage while profitability and asset tangibility are found to have a significant negative effect on the banks' leverage decision. The empirical findings of the study imply that the two capital structure theories, static trade-off and pecking order, are essentially explaining the capital structure decision of Ethiopian private commercial banks. Private commercial banks in Ethiopia should pay due attention to the microeconomic variables without overlooking the macroeconomic condition while articulating their optimal capital mix which can minimize the weighted average cost of capital and enhance the value of the company

Univariate And Multivariate Synthetic Control Charts For Monitoring The Process Mean Of Skewed Distributions

Alat yang paling berkuasa dalam Kawalan Kualiti Berstatistik (SQC) ialah carta kawalan. The most powerful tool in Statistical Quality Control (SQC) is the control chart. Control charts are now widely accepted and used in industries

Operational speciation of lead, cadmium, and zinc in farmlands around a lead polluted goldmine in northern Nigeria

This study was undertaken to evaluate the geochemical fractions and risk potential of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) in farmlands around a polluted goldmine in Dareta, northern Nigeria. The total heavy metal concentrations were obtained  through a mixed acid digestion. A modified sequential extraction procedure was  used in separating the total metal concentrations into five operationally defined  fractions. The results showed extremely high concentrations of total Pb (26 – 2,247 mg kg-1), and Cd (2 - 69 mg kg-1) in the soils. The fractionation results also showed very high concentrations of Pb and Cd held on the easily mobilized fractions.  However, in terms of proportions, the bulk of the metal concentrations were   partitioned to the residual fraction while the exchangeable fraction held the least.   The concentrations of Zn recorded were below the thresholds employed. Lead and   Cd, showed strong enrichment, with both elements recording enrichment factors of   32.8 and 83.0, and I-geo factors of 4.4 and 5.8, respectively. Although the bulk of  the metals were partitioned to the residual fractions, the concentration of metals   held onto the easily mobilized fractions such as the exchange, oxide and organically bound fractions may make the metals bioavailable on the long run with possible   pollution risk on this soil, especially when used for agricultural purposes.Keywords: Heavy metal contamination, Metal fractionation, Pollution inde

Analysis of tax compliance and its determinants : evidence from Kaffa, Bench Maji and Sheka zones category B tax payers, SNNPR, Ethiopia

Despite the fact that tax is an important stream of revenue for government of any country, there is tax avoidance and tax evasion which are constraints serving as a bottlenecks for efficient tax collection performance. Therefore, this study examines tax compliance and its determinants in Kaffa, Bench Maji and Sheka Zones category ‘B’ business income tax payers, Ethiopia. To do this, data was collected with the aid of structured questionnaires, administered to 311 respondents using proportionate simple random sampling procedure. The data was examined with the use of descriptive statistics and econometric model particularly ordered logit model. The result of ordered logistic regression showed that, among different variables tested, tax compliance was positively affected by education level of tax payers, tax knowledge and awareness of tax payers, simplicity of the tax system, attitude of tax payers towards tax, perceived role of government expenditure, and rewarding scheme for loyal tax payers. It is therefore recommended that the tax authority ought to conduct effective and sustainable awareness creation programmes and tax education to the general public in general and to tax payers in particular through printed and electronic medias and face-to-face cessions. The tax authority should also simplify the tax system particularly the tax return, tax forms and tax laws so that they become easily and clearly understandable to tax payers. Moreover, the government should consider provisions of trophy in terms of tax rewards and inducements to honest and dedicated tax payers. Lastly, the government shall maintain accountability and transparency on how the revenue collected from taxation was being disbursed and provide social services efficiently and effectively to the society so that tax payers will have trust and positive attitude towards the tax that they pay and become loyal to the tax system.peer-reviewe

STUDY ON THE INTERACTION OF AMITRIPTYLINE HYDROCHLORIDE AND MALONIC ACID BY SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC AND SPECTROFLUORIMETRIC METHODS IN TABLETS: APPLICATION TO CONTENT UNIFORMITY TESTING

Objective: The objective of this research to study the interaction between amitriptyline hydrochloride in drug products via reaction with mixed acids anhydrides: Application to Content Uniformity Testing.Methods: Malonic acid anhydride (MAA), is a labeling reagent known to react with tertiary amines and forming stable condensation colored product which can be measured either spectrophotometrically, or spectrofluorometrically. Different experimental parameters were established by varying each in turn while keeping others constant. These factors include; effect of concentration of MAA, effect of diluting solvent, effect of heating temperature and time.Results: Linearity of the proposed methods was found to be between 0.5–10 μg/ml μg/ml with good correlation coefficient (0.9998) for spectrophotometrically method, and 0.05–6 μg/ml with good correlation coefficient (0.9998) for spectrofluorometrically method. LOD was found to be 0.168 μg/ml and 0.016 μg/ml, and LOQ was calculated to be 0.510 μg/ml and 0.050 μg/ml for two methods respectively. The % recovery of the proposed methods was found to be 100.06 %-100.07 %. The method was found to be precise as the values of % RSD obtained for both intraday and interday, precision studies were found to be<2.0 %. The molar absorptivity, Sandell sensitivity and Quantum yield were calculated. Also the activation energy, enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy change of the reaction were evaluated. The methods were applied to the analysis of commercial tablet Tryptizol (10 mg, 25 mg). The study was extended to content uniformity testing.Conclusion: The present study described the successful evaluation of MAA reagent in the development of simple and rapid spectrophotometric and spectroflourimetric methods for the accurate determination of APT in drug substance and drug products.Â

Effect of Dialogue-Analysis and Fishbowl Instructions on Retention Ability of Business Education Students in Principles of Marketing in North-Eastern Nigeria

The study investigated the Effect of Fishbowl and Dialogue-Analysis on retention ability of business education students in Principles of Marketing. The study had four objectives, four research questions and four null hypotheses. An intact three classes of 370 were used for the study. The instrument used for data collection was Diagnostic Marketing Achievement Test and Marketing Retention Achievement Test. The instruments were pilot tested and the result of the pilot study established the reliability coefficient of .809. The students were tested using DMAT after the treatment. The DMAT was reshuffled and called Marketing Retention achievement Test (MRAT). The MRAT was administered two weeks after post-test. The scripts of the test were marked and subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS to compute mean and mean difference which was used to answer the research questions. Paired Sample t-test was employed in testing hypotheses one and two while ANOVA was employed to test null hypotheses four. Effect size was also calculated to further affirmed the results of research questions and hypotheses. All the hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed among others that Fishbowl and Dialogue-analysis has effect on the retention ability of students in principles of marketing. It was therefore concluded that the adoption of these instructional strategies will help reduce the rate of students’ failure in Principles of Marketing. Based on the findings, it was recommended that lecturers should be using fishbowl and dialogue analysis instructional strategies in teaching Principles of Marketing. Key words: Dialogue-Analysis, Fishbowl, Retention, Principles of Marketing DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-5-14 Publication date: February 29th 2020