Critical success factors of the financial performance of commercial private banks: A study in a developing nation

This study’s objective is to examine the impact of employee innovativeness, readiness to change, employee creativity, and learning capability on the financial performance of private banks in Bangladesh. The study involved 334 bank employees from three prominent private banks in Bangladesh. Those banks were selected with better ratings by the central bank and have several branches across the country. First, branch managers were contacted about this study and collected employee emails from each branch information desk. Then, email invitations were sent to each employee of the selected bank branches. This study involved branch managers, senior officers, officers, and junior bank executives. Past studies also considered senior and junior bank officers as they directly contribute to a bank’s performance. The study utilized a methodical questionnaire to assess the three independent variables: employee innovativeness, readiness to change, and learning capability. The dependent variable in this study was financial performance, which was assessed through key financial indicators such as profitability and sales growth over three years. SPSS was utilized to conduct hypothesis testing by considering 95% confidence interval. Correlation results show that all three independent variables were significantly correlated with the bank’s financial performance. The study’s regression results suggest that bank employees’ readiness to change (β value = 0.393) significantly impacts the bank’s financial performance, followed by employee innovativeness (β value = 0.338). On the other hand, employees’ learning capability (β value = 0.202) has the least significant impact on financial performance. Moreover, three independent variables explain 42.9% variance in bank financial performance

Network electro-thermal simulation of non-isothermal magnetohydrodynamic heat transfer from a transpiring cone with buoyancy and pressure work

The steady, axisymmetric laminar natural convection boundary layer flow from a non-isothermal vertical circular porous cone under a transverse magnetic field, with the cone vertex located at the base, is considered. The pressure work effect is included in the analysis. The governing boundary layer equations are formulated in an (x,y) coordinate system (parallel and normal to the cone slant surface), and the magnetic field effects are simulated with a hydromagnetic body force term in the momentum equation. A dimensionless transformation is performed rendering the momentum and also heat conservation equations. The thermal convection flow is shown to be controlled by six thermophysical parameters- local Hartmann number, local Grashof number, pressure work parameter, temperature power law exponent, Prandtl number and the transpiration parameter. The transformed parabolic partial differential equations are solved numerically using the Network Simulation Method (NSM) based on the electrical-thermodynamic analogy. Excellent correlation of the zero Hartmann number case is achieved with earlier electrically non-conducting solutions. Local shear stress function (skin friction) is found to be strongly decreased with an increase in Prandtl number (Pr), with negative values (corresponding to flow reversal) identified for highest Pr with further distance along the streamwise direction. A rise in local Hartmann number, is observed to depress skin friction. Increasing temperature power law index, corresponding to steeper temperature gradient at the wall, strongly reduces skin friction at the cone surface. A positive rise in pressure work parameter decreases skin friction whereas a negative increase elevates the skin friction for some distance along the cone surface from the apex. Local heat transfer gradient is markedly boosted with a rise in Prandtl number but decreased principally at the cone surface with increasing local Hartmann number. Increasing temperature power law index conversely increases the local heat transfer gradient, at the cone surface. A positive rise in pressure work parameter increases local heat transfer gradient while negative causes it to decrease. A rise in local Grashof number boosts local skin friction and velocity into the boundary layer; local heat transfer gradient is also increased with a rise in local Grashof number whereas the temperature in the boundary layer is noticeably reduced. Applications of the work arise in spacecraft magnetogas dynamics, chemical cooling systems and industrial magnetic materials processing

Design and Development of a Framework to Bridge the Gap Between Real and Virtual

Several researchers have successfully developed realistic models of real world objects/ phenomena and then have simulated them in the virtual world. In this thesis, we propose the opposite: instantiating virtual world events in the real world. The interactive 3D virtual environment provides a useful, realistic 3D world that resembles objects/phenomena of a real world, but it has limited capability to communicate with the physical environment. We argue that new and intuitive 3D user interfaces, such as 3D virtual environment interfaces, may provide an alternative form of media for communicating with the real environment. We propose a 3D virtual world-based add-on architecture that achieves a synchronized virtual-real communication. In this framework, we explored the possibilities of integrating haptic and real world object interactions with Linden Lab's multiuser online 3D virtual world, Second Life. We enhanced the open source Second Life viewer client in order to facilitate communications between the real and virtual world. Moreover, we analyzed the suitability of such an approach in terms of user perception, intuition and other common parameters. Our experiments suggest that the proposed approach not only demonstrates a more intuitive mode of communication system, but also is appealing and useful to the user. Some of the potential applications of the proposed approach include remote child-care, communication between distant lovers, stress recovery, and home automation

Perception and prediction of intention to use online banking systems: An empirical study using extended TAM

Online banking has become a vital instrument for delivering quality and easily reached banking services at the lowest possible time with ensuring affordability both for customers and service providers. Although this banking has huge potentials and benefits, the successful adoption of online banking remains a significant challenge in the context of an emerging economy like Bangladesh. The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the factors influencing the online banking services adoption in Bangladesh by using the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with government support and risk factors. A questionnaire survey method was used to collect data from 380 banking customers.  To analyse the collected survey data and test the set of hypothesis, a structural equation modelling (SEM) method was used with the help of SmartPLS3 package. The results illustrate that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude towards use, government support positively influence the intention to use as well as the intention to use positively impact on intention to continue to the adoption of online banking services. However, the relationship between risk and intention to use was statistically insignificant. Finally, the findings may assist banking professionals and programmers to develop and design successful policies regarding online banking services to boost this service industry in the future

An Efficient Key Management Technique for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) has changed our lives drastically. Customers, regulatory bodies, and industrial partners are driving us to use IoT. Although IoT provides new opportunities, security remains a key concern while providing various services. It is especially challenging how the data generated from IoT devices can be protected from potential security attacks and how to safeguard the exchange of these data while transiting through different nodes and gateways. In this research, we aim to ensure a safe IoT environment by proposing an efficient key management technique that uses a combination of symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystem to obtain the speed of the former as well as the security benefits of the latter. Our proposal considers a set of Smart Objects (SO) capable of key registration, generation and distribution for IoT data transmission. We used the open-source Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol to facilitate communications between the source and the destination nodes. The suitability of the proposed approach is measured experimentally and the results are comparable to existing works with respect to key conversion time, algorithm execution time, number of reuse connections, and bandwidth utilization

Perceived Pressures and Motivations for Environmental Disclosures: Role of Certification

In light of the gravity of environmental issues, this study investigates the influence of competitive advantage and stakeholder pressure on voluntary environmental disclosures, together with the “certification” mediating variable. The research questions and hypotheses were developed based on the essence of stakeholder and legitimacy theory, within the compass of the resource-based view. Data were collected from numerous listed manufacturing organizations and analyzed following the deductive approach. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that competitive advantage influences and smoothens the attainment of environmental certificates, leading to an impression on voluntary environmental disclosures. The evidence from the study also demystifies the dominance of competitive advantage over environmental disclosures. Furthermore, the associated effect of certification upon environmental disclosure is also established and found worthy. Other factors were not found to be significant. Finally, the study also provides various insightful policy suggestions to the wide range of stakeholders