The relationship between corporate governance attributes and firm performance

A number of studies, particularly in developed countries, had been carried out to explore the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. Since, the value creation of corporate governance can be measured through the firm performance, corporate governance act as a mechanism to align management's goals with the stakeholders especially to increase firm performance. Despite extensive study of corporate governance there are still inconsistencies in the link between corporate governance and firm performance. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the relationship between corporate governance attributes and firm performance in Malaysia Public Listed Companies. To do so five corporate governance components was used as independent variables include: Independent director, board size, audit committee, leadership structure and board meeting. While the dependent variables are two firm performance measurements; return on equity (ROE) and earning per share (EPS). Based on a random stratified sampling eight hundred thirty one (831) listed companies from main board of Bursa Malaysia for the year 2009, 2010 and 2011 were selected as samples of the study. The data gathered from Annual Reports of the companies have been entered into Excel Spread Sheet, then were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Three types of data analyses have been performed; descriptive, T-test and Spearman correlation. The study discovered that, independent non-executive directors has an influence on earnings per share, board size has an influence on return on equity and earnings per share and also audit committee has an influence on earnings per share, leadership structure has an influence on return on equity and board meeting also has an influence on earnings per share. The results on the relationship between the firm performance and corporate governance mechanism suggest a positive relationship between return on equity and earnings per share as per the hypothesis testing. Therefore, the results also show that good corporate governance enforcement influence firm performance. Finally, no single theory offers a complete explanation of board characteristics-firm performance relationship, but rather rudiments of each theory can be seen to apply in different situations

Performance Assesment of Bauchi Polytechnics and Technical Colleges Using Quality Assurance Indicators in Nigeria Qualification Framework

Technical and Vocational Education emphases skill acquisition, Quality Assurance in vocational education is concept that is concerned with high performance involved activities with vocational education such as teaching, learning, infrastructures, student’s behavior and entire academic process. Good quality education is very necessary in the total development of staff and students which ensures proper development, job prospects and the realization of academic goals and objects. Enhanced and sustained to ensure accountability and improve performance. Higher educational institutions in Nigeria continue to experience carelessly attitude about the use of Quality Assurance to understand the risk they are exposed to poor standard. To address these issues, the study embarked upon to determine the level of performance and difference usability of Quality Assurance in Polytechnics and Technical Colleges in Bauchi state. Quantitative method technique was employed using survey questionnaires, 60 staff both senior and junior within these institutions were selected and a questionnaire distributed for their responses. The data were analysed using SPSS software. The result reveals that Federal Polytechnic Bauchi and State Polytechnic Bauchi has high level of Performance about Quality Assurance indicators while College of Education Azare has medium level of Performance. College of education Azare has highest mean rank of 29.87 and percentage of 31.8% obtained from the output result indicated that it has high usability to Quality Assurance, followed by Federal Polytechnic Bauchi with medium usability then State Polytechnic Bauchi has low usability to Quality Assurance. The study concluded by Quality Assurance Unit be made aware to each institution staff to enable recognize the benefits of it. Federal government should give more funding and employ staff to cater the need of Quality Assurance Unit in every institution so that it will help the students to develop their potentialities

Board characteristics, ownership structures and propensity to pay dividends : the moderating effect of blockholders ownership

Dividends payout is important to shareholders as it serves as a return on their investments and a mechanism for controlling agency problems. However, non-dividend paying firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have continued to increase over the years. The study is aimed at investigating the effect of board characteristics and ownership structures on the propensity to pay dividends and the moderating role of blockholders ownership in Nigeria. The study employs non-financial firms listed on the NSE spanning from 2009 to 2015 and return on assets, firm size and investment opportunities are used to construct the propensity to pay dividends. The study also uses random panel logit regression technique, with 89 sample firms with 596 firm-year observations. The regression results from the direct model showed that board diversity, financial experts, foreign and managerial ownership are strongly related to propensity to pay dividends. However, blockholders reduced propensity to pay dividends and theoretically, implied that they are less likely to use dividend in controlling the managers. Further, the interaction regression results revealed strong positive interaction between blockholders and board size; board diversity and CEO tenure and propensity to pay dividends. Thus, suggesting the importance of blockholders in the firm’s governance structures in the sense that they jointly increase the propensity of paying dividend and used dividend payout as a monitoring tool in addressing agency problems. The study recommends that the regulatory authorities should strengthen the rules regarding board diversity and CEO tenure as they affect the propensity to pay dividends of firms listed on the NSE

Dividend policy and political uncertainty: Does firm maturity matter?

Previous evidence has shown that numerous factors influence dividend policy, but how political uncertainty affects a firm’s cash dividend policy remains blurry. This study examines the relationship between cash dividends and political uncertainty in Nigeria. More so, the study analyses whether this relationship prevails on matured and non-matured firms. The study employed ordinary least squares dummy variable (LSDV) approach with robust standard error on a data set of non-financial listed Nigerian firms. The results revealed that political uncertainty strongly influences firm’s cash dividend, and a matured firm tends to pay greater dividends than non-matured firms (firms with more growth options). Thus, this finding suggests that matured firms pay more dividends during period of political uncertainty. Consequently, the study supported the agency theory and the life cycle theory

Corporate Board Attributes and Dividend Payout Likelihood

Extant literature has shown that corporate governance influences dividends policy. However, the effect of diversity on the likelihood to distribute cash dividends is scarce in the literature. Therefore, this study is aimed at exploring the influence of gender diversity and financial expertise on the likelihood of dividends payout. Pooled logistic regression was used on a sample of data from non-financial listed firms in Nigeria spanning from 2009 to 2015. The study documents gender diversity and financial experts have significant effect on a firm's likelihood to distribute cash dividends. The results remain unchanged after adjusting the standard errors for clustering at a firm. The overall finding suggests that diversity in terms of gender and expertise play a critical role all things being equal in determining the decision to pay cash dividends shareholders of listed firms in Nigeria

Firm attributes and share price fluctuation of deposit money banks listed in Nigeria

This paper examined firms’ attributes impact on the fluctuation of share prices of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was employed, and 13 deposit money banks firms were selected out of 15 from 2006-2016. Descriptive statistics were presented, and correlation analysis was conducted to understand the degree of relationship among the variables. Ordinary least Squares regression was used to ascertain the combined impact of the explanatory variables on the share prices. The study finds four firms’ attributes (dividend ratios, book value, growth and liquidity) to have statistically significant effect on share prices. Companies with high dividends and asset growth as well as low liquidity and book values are more likely to experience higher share prices; hence, the need for investors to be aware of these attributes in making investment decisions. The findings contribute to the existing literature by extending the study to the banking industry

CONTENT ANALYSES ON THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DYSLEXIA: THE ARTICLES IN THE WEB OF SCIENCE DATA BASE

Articles published in web of Science between 2014 and 2019 (March) were screened in this research. This is because of its respectable position in the field of technology and peer-reviewed secured structure of this database. From a total of 56 articles within the scope of the screening 46 articles were included in the study. Through this research, new trends on technology usage in dyslexia activities in recent years will be determined and a new way will be shown for researchers. "Technology in dyslexia" keywords used during researching process and all the articles with "technology in dyslexia" keywords were included in this study. As a result of this research, it is determined that the most studies in the field of technology in dyslexia were published in 2018 in USA, UK, Spain, and Pakistan.  Particularly children students were selected as the sample group of the researches. It is emerged that, questionnaires research was used maximum as a research instrument. Quantitative data collection tools were used most as a means of data collection medicals area as the research fields through traditional teaching method. It was emerged that assistive technology is the most widely used field in technology in dyslexia. It is seen that optometric neuropsychological assessments, digital tools and adaptive mobile learning as devices were used in the most researches. Lecture-based method is seen to be used as the teaching method in the present study. Keywords: Technology, Dyslexia, Assistive Technology and Web of Science

Audit Committee Characteristics and Audit Delay among Nigerian Oil and Gas Companies

This study examines the effect of audit committee diversity on audit delay of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The study utilized a sample of 6 oil and gas companies for the period of 2011 to 2020 listed from Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) market. A random effects regression has been employed in this study. Results from the study revealed that female directors in audit committee with financial expertise and presence of independent directors on audit committee have a negative and statistically significant effect on audit delay of listed oil and gas companies. Therefore, this study can be used by the policy makers or regulators in formulating policies on independent directors and women directors on board in Nigeria

Characterization of Doum Palm Seed Kernel as Natural Sorbent for Metal Ions Removal from Gombe Ternary Wastewater

Water pollution is one of the major challenges in cities and industrialized areas of the world. The effluent from Gombe ternary wastewater pollutes the surrounding waters thereby constituting health threat to the populace within its vicinity. In view of the above, a bio-sorption study of zinc and lead ions from Gombe ternary wastewater using doum palm seed kernel was carried out. The wastewater was characterized and was found to contain 0.03 mg/l lead metal ion and 0.81 mg/l zinc ion. The doum palm kernel bio-sorbent was obtained after oil extraction from the seed and processed as contained in the method mentioned in this paper. The kernel residue was characterized for functional groups using FTIR, surface morphology using SEM, surface area using BET, and elemental composition using XRF. The results indicated that the doum palm kernel is harmless, and possesses functional groups on its surface, which may be substituted with the metallic ions present in the wastewater. This gives the kernel the ability to adsorb positively charged ions on its surface by simple chemisorption. This mechanism is supported by the rough surface observed in the scanning electron microscopy. Adsorption and desorption of nitrogen was made at STP and the curve indicated very high correlation of close to unity. The surface area measured by multi BET method was recorded as 13.464 m2/g. This value is not high enough to adsorb metals by physical adsorption

Does size of the firm matter in the relationship between foreign ownership and dividend policy?

Prior studies have revealed that foreign shareholders have a greater influence on dividend policy. However, it is unclear how foreign owners in large firms affect the propensity to pay dividends. This paper is aimed at exploring the relationship between the propensity to pay dividends and foreign ownership. It also examined the moderating role of firm size on the relationship between the decision to pay cash dividend and foreign ownership. The study uses pooled logistic regression on a data set of non-financial listed firms on the Nigerian Stock Market from 2011 to 2015. The results showed that foreign ownership has a great tendency to influence the propensity of a firm to pay a cash dividend. The effect is more pronounced in larger firms, thus, indicating that in larger firms, foreign owners mitigate agency problems using dividends. Based on the findings, firms should be encouraged to pay a dividend to attract foreign investors and in return will help the firms to acquire the expertise of foreign owners