WEAK FORM MARKET EFFICIENCY DURING THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS: EVIDENCE FROM THE MUSCAT SECURITIES MARKET

ABSTRACT This paper examines the weak-form market efficiency of the Muscat Securities Market i

Financial sustainability of private higher education institutions: the case of publicly traded educational institutions

Public and private education can unlock different doors and help to flood the country with a rising power, sunlight and sustainable development. Hence, this paper argued that there is a need to sustain both public and private higher education. Financial difficulties restrict private higher education from balancing their budget and maintain a balance between a quality education and maximization of shareholders wealth. This paper outlines and analyzes a critical business model for higher education institutions, Dhofar University and Majan College, both of which are publicly traded in Muscat Securities Market. Both the educational institutions are critically examined from profitability, liquidity, long term solvency and asset management perspective using appropriate financial ratios. Five year forecasts of financial statements up to 2021 are estimated to evaluate the financial stability of the two educational institutions. The paper uses Monte Carlo simulation technique to examine the issue of financial sustainability. Overall the finding shows positive financial results for Majan College compared to Dhofar University. The key take away from the analysis is that educational institutions should be funded primarily by equity and not by debt to survive, sustain and provide high quality education

Sustainable entrepreneurship development in Oman: A multi-stakeholder qualitative study

Purpose: Even though sustainable entrepreneurship has increasingly received researchers’ attention in recent years, the topic remains rather under-researched in natural resources’ rich Arabian gulf countries such as Oman. Hence, the current paper fills this gap in the literature and is one of the first attempts to assess the state of sustainable entrepreneurship development in Oman from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Design/Methodology/Approach: The current paper uses a qualitative research approach where in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with twelve (12) respondents representing relevant stakeholders of sustainable entrepreneurship development in Oman. Our interviewees included four (4) sustainable entrepreneurs, four (4) policy makers, and four (4) educationists representing entrepreneurial skills development institutes in Oman. Findings: Our findings highlight that despite some positive improvements, several critical challenges remain, which hinder sustainable entrepreneurship development. We further found the role of FinTech to be critical in this concern by all stakeholders, though its usage and acceptance remain low. Also, the costs associated with the post-carbon (sustainable) economy and different profitability evolution have resulted in a slow change in the policy development in this concern. From educational (skills development) perspective, a lack of context specific training programmes and culture-based hesitations appeared to be hindering achieving sustainable entrepreneurship possibilities in Oman. The premature entrepreneurial ecosystem, bureaucracy, and lack of human capital (attaining as well as retention) appeared to be significant challenges for entrepreneurs. Finally, our findings highlighted the need for cross-sector collaboration with clear benchmarks for effective policy development concerning sustainable entrepreneurship in Oman. Originality: The current paper is the first academic study explicitly highlighting the state of sustainable entrepreneurship in Oman by incorporating the development initiatives as well as the major challenges in the analysis. Secondly, our study is also a pioneering work specifying the interlinkage between financing (FinTech), policy initiatives and skills development, and the development of a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem in an under-researched context of Oman. Finally, the transition to a sustainable economy is challenging in natural resources’ dependent economies like Oman, as it needs to be supported by the mindset change in the larger society (legitimacy). In this concern, our paper is one of the first academic endeavours to also specify the role of legitimacy from the perspective of different stakeholders (and larger society) for sustainable entrepreneurship development in such contexts

Impact of transformational leadership, human capital, and job satisfaction on organizational performance in the manufacturing industry

This study aims to examine the factors that affect organizational performance in the manufacturing industry of Bangladesh. This study identifies transformational leadership, human capital, and job satisfaction as significant determinants of organizational performance. The analysis focused on the employees of diverse manufacturing organizations in Bangladesh treated as the targeted population. The data collection was conducted using a survey methodology, wherein a questionnaire was distributed to the participants via postal mail along with a cover letter to enhance comprehension. The ultimate sample consisted of 294 participants, obtained from a pool of 400 individuals who were sent survey questionnaires. The response rate for the survey was 73.5%. Furthermore, a significance level of 5% was employed to assess the hypotheses, and the data pertaining to the research objective of this study were analyzed using SPSS software. The study results indicate that organizational performance is significantly influenced by transformational leadership, human capital, and job satisfaction. These three independent variables explain (R2) 59.6% variance in organizational performance. It is also found that transformational leadership (β-value = 0.443) has the highest impact on the organizational performance of manufacturing firms. This study provides implications for organizational management to improve long-term organizational performance

THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE EMH: EVIDENCE FROM MSM

Abstract This paper examines the weak-form market efficiency of the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) in If the market at any stage is efficient, given the weak form, the conclusion is that past information is fully reflected in stock prices. Given a lack of research on the effect of the financial crisis on stock markets, the motivation for this research is to add research to the literature to fill the gap. Moreover, this paper aims to study the efficiency of the market at three different stages, in order to investigate whether the behavior of investors in the stock market changed during each period; pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis. Efficiency is to be measured using the runs test (Lim, Brooks and Kim, 2008). The aim of the authors is to find new evidence on the weak form market efficiency in Muscat Securities Market during the 2008 financial crisis. Section 2 and 3 presents the literature review and overview of Muscat Securities Market, respectively. Section 4 addresses the hypothesis and section 5 presents the data and methodology used in this study. Section 6 outlines the statistical and empirical results and the conclusion in section 7

Financial institutions performance evaluation in a unique developing market using TOPSIS approach

Using Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS) approach for the data from 2011 to 2015, the authors investigate the financial performance of 16 different financial institutions in Oman that include nine commercial banks, three specialized banks, two investment companies, and two finance companies. They find that the one investment company, Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding Co., was more efficient in 2015 and 2011. Moreover, Oman Housing Bank was more efficient in 2013 and 2014, while Ahli Bank was more efficient in the year 2012. In contrast, Bank Muscat that has the largest total assets was ranked number 16 for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. As a result of Spearman’s Rho (Rank-Order) Correlation, all ranked results are related to other years. If a bank is at placement in level, it can be affected by year before or year after. But Oman banks’ correlations shows that there are 2 different periods as effecting one year to the other. Keywords: financial institutions performance, TOPSIS, emerging markets, efficiency, decision making criteria. JEL Classification: G21, G23, L2

Cointegration and causality between the GCC stock indices and gold indices

This research paper presents the empirical evidence on the relationship between the price of gold and stock price indices for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock markets over the period beginning January 2010 and ending in December 2016 using Johansen Cointegration and VAR Based Granger Causality tests. The study is based on secondary data from GCC individual stock market. The international gold prices and six daily stock price indices; Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE), Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE), Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), Saudi Stock Exchange (SSE), Muscat Securities Market (MSM), Dubai Stock Exchange (DSE) and Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADSE) are used. Over the period examined, gold prices and stock price indices are co-integrated and there are multiple Granger Causality between the different GCC stock markets