Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Organizational Performance: A case Study of Public Sector Universities in Southern Punjab-Pakistan

During the last decade the growing interest in intellectual capital has been shifted from business organizations to higher educational institutions because major functions of higher educational institutions particularly Universities is to create and disseminate knowledge acquired through education and research. Now educational institutions are regarded as center of innovations and produce of innovative human capital. The main objective of this study is to analyze the concept of intellectual capital, its importance for higher educational institutions and its impact on their working environment and performance. For this purpose the author has selected two Universities, namely: Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan and Islamia University Multan and has taken a sample of 200 employees of these Universities: 150 academic and 50 non-academic. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire by conducting face-to-face interview. Three estimation methods were used to analyze the data. Five point likert scale was used to record the view of respondents about the importance of intellectual capital and its management by these two selected Universities. Regression method was used to measure the impact of intellectual capital (independent) variables on the performance (dependent variables) of these Universities. Scorecard and Ratio Analysis was used to compare the output level of intellectual capital and their relative performance. Our empirical results are robust and show that intellectual capital and organizational performance has had a significant correlation and Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan outperformed Islamia University of Bahawalpur in better output of intellectual capital, its management, and overall performance. The evidence shows that Bahauddin Zakriya University Multan has greater intellectual capital than Islamia University of Bahawalpur. As regard to the components of intellectual capital, human capital ranked first in its impact on performance while structural capital and rational capital has second and third rank. In other words, human capital has greater contribution in creation of intellectual capital and its influence on the performance of these two Universities, out study concludes. Keywords: Intellectual capital, Human capital, Structural capital, Relational capital, University, Research performance.

Role of Corporate Governance to Mitigate the Idiosyncratic Risk in Non-Financial Sector of Pakistan

The primary focus of this study is on the relationship between idiosyncratic risk and corporate governance. A secondary focus of the study is on the relationship between firm performance and corporate governance. Then, a potential corporate governance-to-idiosyncratic volatility-to-firm performance link is considered. In this study, corporate governance is approached in the context of internal governance control, based on board structure, composition, ownership, ownership structure, audit committee structure and quality. These are the essential elements of corporate governance, and relevant for studies pertaining to a market with internal-governance characteristics, such as the Pakistan market. The market of Pakistan provides a unique study that is based on market with its distinct characteristics. It is the market with internal-governance-control characteristics that operates in an internal-governance-control system. Therefore, this study has applied data draw form firms listed under the aforementioned of the Pakistan Securities Exchange (PSE). The data used in this study are taken from the PSE, the 104 listed firms for the year’s 2004-2016. The primary conclusion of the study is that there is a clear relationship between idiosyncratic risk and corporate governance. Specifically, this study finds consistent and significant relationship between idiosyncratic volatility and a number of firm-level corporate governance variables. The variables include among others, CEO duality, firm size and leverage. Thus, based on these conclusions, a link between corporate governance, idiosyncratic volatility, and firm performance is implied. The results show that the firms with batter corporate governance mechanisms tend to have a lower idiosyncratic risk. The current studies differ from previous studies on idiosyncratic risk, and also previous corporate governance studies, in its focus on a relationship between idiosyncratic and corporate governance in the context of internal governance controls, and the significant finding and conclusion. Hence, this study adds a valuable contribution to the knowledge and literature on the relationship between idiosyncratic risk and corporate governance, and also to the streams of literature on both idiosyncratic risk, and corporate governance

Role of Family Firms to Uplift the Financial Performance and Investment Opportunities of Listed Manufacturing Firms of Pakistan

This study is conducted to analyse the relationship of Ownership Structure with Firm Performance in non-financial companies listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange during the period 2008 to 2013. The basic focus of this study was related to the performance of family firms as compared to non-family firms. The distinction between both types has been explained in literature with the help of definitions given by different authors and scholars. Keeping in view the research aims and objectives the non-financial sector of Pakistan is taken as population. Simple random sampling technique is used in accordance to research requirements and extracted a sample of 120 firms for the purpose of analysis. All these firms are listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Investment Opportunities (Tobin’s Q), Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) have been used as a proxy variable to explore the firm value and firm’s financial performance. Sophisticated data analysis techniques such as descriptive, correlational, panel data regression analysis have been used. Results showed that Family firms are negatively correlated and Non-Family firms give better performance. On the basis of results obtained through data analysis it is concluded that Firm Performance critically depends on Managerial Ownership. Panel data analysis has shown that firm leverage and size has no relationship with proxy variables while remaining independent variables have significant relationship with performance variables. Agency problems arise due to increase in Managerial Shareholdings in Pakistani context, which ultimately affects the performance of the firms

Role of Family Firms to Uplift the Financial Performance and Investment Opportunities of Listed Manufacturing Firms of Pakistan

This study is conducted to analyse the relationship of Ownership Structure with Firm Performance in non-financial companies listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange during the period 2008 to 2013. The basic focus of this study was related to the performance of family firms as compared to non-family firms. The distinction between both types has been explained in literature with the help of definitions given by different authors and scholars. Keeping in view the research aims and objectives the non-financial sector of Pakistan is taken as population. Simple random sampling technique is used in accordance to research requirements and extracted a sample of 120 firms for the purpose of analysis. All these firms are listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Investment Opportunities (Tobin’s Q), Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) have been used as a proxy variable to explore the firm value and firm’s financial performance. Sophisticated data analysis techniques such as descriptive, correlational, panel data regression analysis have been used. Results showed that Family firms are negatively correlated and Non-Family firms give better performance. On the basis of results obtained through data analysis it is concluded that Firm Performance critically depends on Managerial Ownership. Panel data analysis has shown that firm leverage and size has no relationship with proxy variables while remaining independent variables have significant relationship with performance variables. Agency problems arise due to increase in Managerial Shareholdings in Pakistani context, which ultimately affects the performance of the firms

Antioxidant activity and phenolic profile of four Saudi Arabia date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) varieties

Antioxidants as free radical scavengers can combat the oxidative stress that occurs in the body to prevent chronic diseases. Therefore, antioxidant rich foods have a high demand among the healthcare consumers to maintain healthy lifestyle. One of the most potential fruit that are expected to contain high antioxidant compound is Phoenix dactylifera that have a lot of varieties. This study was intended to investigate the total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and phenolic profiles of four varieties of P. dactylifera (Khudori, Sabaka, Nabtat Ali and Soukari). The fleshes of the fruit were extracted using ethanol as the solvent using soxhlet. Total phenolic content (TPC) was measured by using Folin-Ciocalteu calorimetric method and the antioxidant activity was determined by using the 2,2,diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) method. Some phenolic acid and flavonoids profiles of the fruit (gallic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and quercetin) were analyzed by using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). TPC of the fruit was in the range of 5.8 to 3.8 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE) per 1 g of fruit with Soukari have the highest value. As for the antioxidant activity, Soukari need the lowest concentration (27.41 ± 1.68 mg/ml) to achieve half inhibition concentration (IC50 ) whereas Khudori need the highest concentration among the four. The HPLC result shows significantly higher amount of gallic acid (15.35 to 8.56 mg/g), and very small amount of ferulic acid (0.19 to 0.006 mg/g) where Soukari have the highest value for all of the compounds. This study demonstrates Soukari variety might possessed the highest antioxidant capacities among the four. Further study by using advanced and green extraction method need to be carried out to comprehend and confirm the potential of this fruit to be developed as nutraceutical and functional food. Keywords: Pheonix dactylifera, Antioxidant, Phenolic profile, HPLC

Optimisation of supercritical fluid extraction of bioactive compounds from grape (Vitis Labrusca B.) peel by using response superface methodology

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was applied for the extraction of valuable compounds from grape (Vitis labrusca B.) peel. Extraction was carried out according to an orthogonal array design (OAD) and independent variables selected were temperature, pressure and modifier concentration. SFE process was optimized by using response surface methodology (RSM) for the extract yield, total phenols, antioxidants and total anthocyanins from grape peel. Effects of extraction temperature and pressure were found to be significant on all responses. Optimal SFE conditions were identified as 45-46°C temperature, 160-165 kg cm − 2 pressure and 6-7% ethanol as modifier for maximum extract yield (12.31%), total phenols (2.156 mg GAE/100 mL), antioxidants (1.628 mg/mL) and total anthocyanins (1.176 mg/mL). Experimental values for response variables at these optimal conditions match well with the predicted values. Grape peel extracts obtained by SFE showed more than 93% DPPH radical scavenging activities. Industrial relevance: This study describes the response surface optimization of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process for the enhanced recovery of total phenols, antioxidant and anthocyanins from grape peel. SFE uses CO 2 as supercritical fluid which is environment friendly solvent; allows extraction at lower temperature and the extracts obtained possess higher quality and safety. Industrially, it may be used as a promising technique for the extraction of bioactive compounds from plant materials

Clinacanthus nutans: A review of the medicinal uses, pharmacology and phytochemistry

AbstractClinacanthus nutans Lindau is known as snake grass belonging to the Acanthaceae family. This plant has diverse and potential medicinal uses in traditional herbal medicine for treating skin rashes, insects and snake bites, lesions caused by herpes simplex virus, diabetes, and gout in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and China. Phytochemical investigations documented the varied contents of bioactive compounds from this plant namely flavonoids, glycosides, glycoglycerolipids, cerebrosides and monoacylmonogalatosylglycerol. The pharmacological experiment proved that various types of extracts and pure compounds from this species exhibited a broad range of biological properties such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-diabetic activities. The findings of toxicity study showed that extracts from this plant did not show any toxicity thus it can be used as strong therapeutic agents for specific diseased conditions. However, further experiments on chemical components and their mode of action showing biological activities are required to elucidate the complete phytochemical profile and assess to confirm their suitability for future drugs. This review summarizes the medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of this plant in order to explore its therapeutic potential and gaps necessitating for prospected research work

Stereospermum fimbriatum as a potential source of phytochemicals: a review of stereospermum genus

Stereospermum fimbriatum is one of the medicinal plants that has been claimed to be used traditionally to treat several illnesses such as stomachache, ear-ache, skin irritation and postpartum illness. The genus of this plant is known to pos-sess medicinal properties in every part of the plant. Therapeutic potential of S. fim-briatum is anticipated based on numerous previous studies that documented variety of phytochemical contents and bioactivity of the genus. The most reported bioactiv-ities of its genus are antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-diarrheal and analgesic activities. S. fimbriatum is a rare species that has not been discovered yet. Thus, this review aims at highlighting the potentials of S. fim-briatum by collecting available data on the bioactivities of its genus and set the di-rections for future research on this plant

Mimosa pudica L.: a comparative study via in vitro analysis and GC Q-TOF MS profiling on conventional and supercritical fluid extraction using food grade ethanol

The present study compared conventional (maceration) extraction (EtOHconv) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) methods as a mean of comparing conventional and green process for a weed namely Mimosa pudica L. to obtain a safe antidiabetic natural agent. In vitro analysis comprised of two different assays, antioxidant assay (determination of total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay) and antidiabetic assay (inhibition of αamylase and α-glucosidase). GC Q-TOF MS profiling for both extracts was done after derivetisation to confirm the presence of bioactive compounds. SFE was performed at 40 MPa pressure, 60 °C temperature and 5 mL/min CO2 flow rate using 30 % ethanol (co-solvent) for 2 h. EtOHconv prepared using 95 % ethanol through conventional method (maceration) showed a good in vitro antioxidant potential and digestive enzymes inhibitory effect compared to supercritical fluid extract. α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities for EtOHconv at 1 mg/mL were 30.08 % (±5.23) and 38.29 % (±2.52), whereas for standard acarbose it was 28.24 % (±13.66) and 36.93 % (±2.70), respectively. Supercritical fluid extract showed less potent in vitro antioxidant and digestive enzymes inhibitory effects (15.67±4.03- α-amylase, 28.36±2.01- α-glucosidase). GC Q-TOF MS analysis was done to confirm the presence of bioactive compounds in both the extracts. Although EtOHconv showed better results, SFE was found to contain more bioactive compounds associated with various pharmacological effects especially antioxidative as per GC Q-TOF MS results. SFE being a clean and green technology could be employed in future with more focus on method development and optimization to reproduce better and safe bioactive products from the neglected weed M. pudica