Determinants of Inventory Managements as a Component of Working Capital in Ensuring Corporate Profitability-A Conceptual Approach

Sufficient and effective management of working capital has always been associated with the financial health of all business. It is regarded as an integral part of corporate strategy aimed at maximizing corporate profit. Inventory management which is an integral part of the working capital management is viewed as a fundamental catalyst of ensuring corporate profitability. The study intends to explore conceptually the inventory management options in ensuring corporate profitability. Keywords: working capital, inventory management, and profitabilit

An Analysis of Proposed Framework on Impact of Working Capital Management on the Profitability of Selected Manufacturing Companies Listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange

Working capital management encompasses the overall idea of management of current assets and current liabilities of a business. Whether empirical or conceptual, the discussion have delineated working capital management as that part of business strategy which involves effective management of short term or current assets and liabilities to ensure optimal level and maximization of value. This paper aims to provide an analysis on the concept and propose framework that emphasizes on investigating the impact of management of working capital on the profitability of manufacturing companies listed on the Nigerian stock exchange. The paper proposes four dimensions (variables) as cash management levels, inventory management levels, receivable management, and the trade credit (Accounts payable) as measures of working capital management and the profitability of companies

Impact of working capital management on the profitability of manufacturing companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange

Working capital management refers to the management of the short-term assets of a business. It is very important and plays a vital role for firms‟ profitability. In spite of its importance, there is a serious dearth of literature on working capital management and profitability especially in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the impact of working capital management on the profitability of the manufacturing companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Panel data methodology was employed to test this relationship with both the fixed and the random effects estimation techniques. Accordingly, all the manufacturing companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange totalling 55 were drawn as the sample and the study was conducted for five years (2008-2013). Data were obtained from the financial statements of the companies through the Securities and Exchange Commission. Findings from the panel data regression analysis revealed that average collection period and inventory conversion period were significantly negatively related to profitability, which suggests that the shorter the periods the higher the profitability of the manufacturing companies. However, average payment period was positively and significantly related to profitability, depicting that the longer the period, the higher the profitability. The debt ratio and other current liabilities to the total assets ratio were not significantly related to profitability. Finally, the study provides managerial implications and the direction for future researc

A Review of Anatomy of Working Capital Management Theories and the Relevant Linkages to Working Capital Components: A Theoretical Building Approach

This study examines the importance of working capital management concepts and components, notably the receivable management, inventory management and payable management through their respective proxies as average collection period, inventory conversion period and average payment period. Due to its importance, working capital management could best be explained philosophically when theories are employed. These theories are instruments and not answer to enigmas, but their relevance and aid in explaining concepts is enormous and cannot be overlooked. Therefore, this study attempts to explain those working capital management components and concepts and establish a link with some of the suitable theories perceived to be relevant in explaining them. These theories include agency/stakeholder, risk and return, cash conversion cycle, operating cycle and the resource-based theory. The study is found necessary in view of the dearth of literature of its kind and especially in the area of working capital management. The paper therefore employed a conceptual research design approach in addressing this phenomenon. The necessary link was finally established between the theories and working capital concepts and components. Keywords: Working Capital Management, Average Collection Period, Inventory Conversion Period, Average Payment Period

Smart Health Internet of Thing for Continuous Glucose Monitoring: a Survey

Health monitoring system allows patients to monitor the health-related problem to avoid further complications which could result in loss of life. Smart health is one of the categories of a health monitoring system that uses Smartphone’s and sensors to effectively monitor patient health status. However, the smart health internet of thing methods for glucose monitoring still does not provide accurate glucose reading. Hence, diabetes patient can easily loss life. To help understand this challenge, a comprehensive survey focused on smart health internet of thing methods for continuous glucose monitoring was conducted. The paper discusses the benefit and challenge of each method applicable to glucose monitoring. It was observed that several smart health methods required sensor to function. Smart vehicles and remote monitoring have less attention. However, when accommodates can provide future opportunities

Campus realities: Forecasting user bandwidth utilization using monte carlo simulation

Adequate network design, planning, and improvement are pertinent in a campus network as the use of smart devices is escalating. Underinvesting and overinvesting in campus network devices lead to low network performance and low resource utilization respectively. Due to this fact, it becomes very necessary to ascertain if the current network capacity satisfies the available bandwidth requirement. The bandwidth demand varies from different times and periods as the number of connected devices is on the increase. Thus, emphasizing the need for adequate bandwidth forecast. This paper presents a Monte Carlo simulation model that forecast user bandwidth utilization in a campus network. This helps in planning campus network design and upgrade to deliver available content in a period of high and normal traffic load

Query Expansion: Is It Necessary In Textual Case-Based Reasoning?

Query expansion (QE) is the process of transforming a seed query to improve retrieval performance in information retrieval operations. It is often intended to overcome a vocabulary mismatch between the query and the document collection. Query expansion is known to improve retrieval effectiveness of some information retrieval systems, however, its effect in Textual Case-based reasoning (TCBR) which is closely related to the field of Information Retrieval has not been well studied. In this research, a TCBR System intended for storage and retrieval of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) named FAQCase was developed. Experiments were conducted to examine the effect of synonym-based query expansion on the system. The result has shown that there is significant retrieval improvement in FAQCase with query expansion over FAQCase without query expansion, in a situation where vocabulary mismatch between new questions and the stored FAQs is high.Keywords: Query expansion, Textual case-based reasoning, Word sense disambiguation, WordNetNigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Science (2011), 19 (2): 269-27

A SURVEY OF THE ORIGIN AND PRACTICE OF THE ISLAMIC ARBITRATION SYSTEM IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

This paper examines the origin and practice of Islamic arbitration system (Ḥākimiyyah) with particular reference to Northern Nigeria. The work traces the origin of arbitration and its application in all works of life particularly in areas where the Shari’ah system is practice in Northern Nigeria. The paper brings into limelight the history and various practices of Hakimiyyah in Islam. It also analyses Hakimiyyah in Northern Nigeria from the pre-colonial era, the Kanem Bornu empire and Sokoto Caliphate especially the role played by the rulers of the various empires in ensuring the Islamic courts plays it role in the arbitration of dispute and other issues among Muslims and non-Muslims. Secondary data approach was adopted in paper where literary materials relevant to the research were utilise. It was concluded in the paper that the early Islamization of the Hausaland and the manner in which Islam was embraced had led to the quick emergence of strong institutions that made Islam to be the major source of social and cultural identity of the people in the area. Islamic legal system as one of those social institutions, was the bedrock upon which the Hausa Muslim states were established, particularly during the reigns of the defunct Kanem Borno Empire and Sokoto Caliphate. These two Muslim empires had produced the unique legal system the like of which had existed only during the early days of Islam

Optimising acoustic cavitation for industrial application

The ultrasonic horn is one of the most commonly used acoustic devices in laboratories and industry. For its efficient application to cavitation mediated process, the cavitation generated at its tip as a function of its tip-vibration amplitudes still needed to be studied in detail. High-speed imaging and acoustic detection are used to investigate the cavitation generated at the tip of an ultrasonic horn, operating at a fundamental frequency, f0, of 20 kHz. Tip-vibration amplitudes are sampled at fine increments across the range of input powers available. The primary bubble cluster under the tip is found to undergo subharmonic periodic collapse, with concurrent shock wave emission, at frequencies of f0/m, with m increasing through integer values with increasing tip-vibration amplitude. The contribution of periodic shock waves to the noise spectra of the acoustic emissions is confirmed. Transitional input powers for which the value of m is indistinct, and shock wave emission irregular and inconsistent, are identified through Vrms of the acoustic detector output. For cavitation applications mediated by bubble collapse, sonications at transitional powers may lead to inefficient processing. The ultrasonic horn is also deployed to investigate the role of shock waves in the fragmentation of intermetallic crystals, nominally for ultrasonic treatment of Aluminium melt, and in a novel two-horn configuration for potential cavitation enhancement effects. An experiment investigating nitrogen fixation via cavitation generated by focused ultrasound exposures is also described. Vrms from the acoustic detector is again used to quantify the acoustic emissions for comparison to the sonochemical nitrite yield and for optimisation of sonication protocols at constant input energy. The findings revealed that the acoustic cavitation could be enhanced at constant input energy through optimisation of the pulse duration and pulse interval. Anomalous results may be due to inadequate assessment for the nitrate generated. The studies presented in this thesis have illustrated means of improving the cavitation efficiency of the used acoustic devices, which may be important to some selected industrial processes

The structural relationships between customer based corporate reputation, organisation public relationships, corporate social responsibility, perceived organisational culture and transparent communication

Customer-based corporate reputation (CBCR) has been identified as an emerging area of study in the field of corporate reputation. Yet, limited research has been conducted in this area. Thus, this study aims to investigate the antecedents and a mediator of CBCR in the context of the Nigerian insurance industry. Specifically, the study investigated the mediating effects of transparent communication on the relationships between organization-public relationships (OPR), corporate social responsibilities (CSR), perceived organizational culture (POC) and CBCR. This study adopts the Relational theory; Institutional theory and the Signalling theory to provide a theoretical foundation for the study. The researcher carried out a cross-sectional survey on 327 customers from three randomly selected insurance companies located in three major commercial cities in Nigeria. The study used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses. The result of the hypothesized direct relationships between OPR, CSR and CBCR was supported, while the hypothesized relationship between POC and CBCR was not supported. Also, the hypothesized relationships between OPR, CSR, POC and TC were supported. With regard to the mediation hypotheses, a complementary mediation was observed in the OPR, CSR and CBCR while competitive (as the direct and the indirect effect have an opposing sign in the Path Coefficients) mediation was obtained on the relationship between POC and CBCR. The study recommends the need for insurance companies in Nigeria to aggressively engage in CSR activities that specifically focus on social equity with a view to encourage the most vulnerable to appreciate the importance of insurance services. Additionally, insurance companies stand to benefit substantially if they can reduce the opaque nature of their operations by putting in place a transparent communication structure that provides accurate and timely information for client positive customer based reputation assessment. On the overall, the findings are significant for the Nigerian Insurance Industry and has provided new additional insights to the literature of CBCR