Adoption of particular capital investment appraisal techniques for advanced manufacturing technologies: Malaysian manufacturing firms

The industry plays an important role in the economic growth of a country and for Malaysia the expansion of this sector continues to provide the main stimulus to the growth of the economy. however, growth cannot solely be based on traditional means of production. in order for a country to gain a competitive advantage, investment in new and high technology has become mandatory. Malaysia has moved towards capital-intensive and high technology industries in the 1990s. the Malaysian government needs to encourage the development of high-technology industries so that they can produce better products more efficiently due to the emergence of cheaper production bases in other countries, such as thailand, indonesia and China. in order for Malaysian industries to survive, Malaysia has to sustain its competitiveness by having a higher productivity and efficiency level.. Emphasis has been given to technology development and implementation in the Seventh Malaysian Plan. Various measures were implemented by the Malaysian Government to consolidate and strengthen the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. among the initiatives undertaken were enhancing productivity and quality systems, along with utilising advanced technologies. these initiatives were supported by promotional activities and information diffusion undertaken by the national Productivity Corporation (nPC) and SiriM Berhad to educate enterprises on the latest techniques in productivity and quality improvements (Malaysia, 2001). the eight Malaysian Plan has also stressed the development of competitive advantage and productivity to enable the manufacturing sector to advance further. Firms are expected to intensify efforts in technology upgrading and developing indigenous technological capabilities in an environment of increasingly competitive markets and an accelerating pace of scientific and technological change (Malaysia, 2001). Recent concerns have been expressed that many firms are failing to invest in advanced manufacturing technology as fully as they should (hayes and Garvin, 1982; Primrose, 1991). a major reason for under-investment in new manufacturing technologies centres on the limitations of financial appraisal techniques (aggarwal, 1991; Cheung and Mason, 1993; drury and tayles, 1997; ashford et. al., 1998). Lefley (1996a; 1996b) suggested that these traditional approaches used in selecting investment failed to capture the full benefits from advanced manufacturing technology projects. These benefits are often intangible and traditional approaches are particularly incapable of capturing the value of options. Boquist et. al. (1998) stated that firms have lost millions of dollars through incorrect investment decisions, most probably as firms have been using the discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques to evaluate high technology investments based on the same criteria of acceptance as traditional capital budgeting (Wilner et. al., 1992)

An empirical investigation on EDI determinants and outcomes in Malaysian industry

Government involvement is the main cause for the EDI acceptance in Southeast Asian countries (United Nation of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific - UNESCAP, 1996). This is significantly different from the EDI developments in the western countries in which private sector involvement in EDI is substantial (UNESCAP, 1996). As an initial step to spur EDI implementation in private sector, the Malaysian Government has imposed all companies that engage in international trade to implement EDI by doing electronic customs declarations through CIS (Customs Information System) DagangNet. For this, the Government also spent over RM 300 million to fully implement EDI nationwide (Star, 2003 December 3). Nevertheless, such implementation is not successful and it has been claimed that “EDI is not yet fully implemented even though it had been initiated since late 1990s, besides electronic data is also still not recognized for legal customs declaration purposes even if it was meant for paperless and electronic customs declarations” (Star, 2003 December 3). To date, there are dual customs declarations, both electronic and manual, in practices where the sole typical electronic transaction is registration of the customs form (Jimmy, 2005; Star, 2005 July 11). This is in contrast with electronic customs declarations by other countries such as Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore where there is a full electronic declaration including electronic payment for declarations charges (Jimmy, 2005; Star, 2005 July 11; Chau, 2001)

Corporate diversification and financial performance : a literature review

The impact of corporate diversification on financial performance has been subject of some studies from the past. In addition, scholars found positive or negative relationship between the two variables. However, there are some theories and motivation which explain the part of relationship that state in this paper. In this paper, we try to show measurement of diversification and summary of related studies

An Interaction between Firm Strategy, Capital Structure and Firm’s Performance

The study tries to determine the association among corporate strategy, social structure and firm performance. In this regard, the monetary reports of 78 companies listed in Karachi Stock Exchange since 2007 to 2014 were scrutinized. In this research, firm strategy (sales growth, liquidity) and capital structure (debt ratio) were used as sovereign variables, and firm performance (return on equity, return on assets, free cash flow for the firm, free cash flow per share) were functional and are used as dependent variables, so to study the affiliation between corporate strategy, capital structure and firm performance within a 8-years period from 2007 to 2014. Secondary data has been used to test the hypotheses; single variable linear regression method was used and their significance was evaluated using Statistics T (t-test) and F (Fisher). The study results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between sales growth variables and two types (among four types) of performance criteria in the study, namely return on equity and return on assets. And there is a positive significant relationship between firm liquidity and three criteria of firm's performance in the study namely return on equity, free cash flow per share and return on assets. Also, debt ratio has a positive significant relationship with free cash flow for firm and a negative significant relationship with return on assets

Review of short term and long term performance of initial public offering

In today’s modern corporate world the concept of initial public offerings has gained much importance because it’s over and under performance can significantly affect the success of company. The current study aims at conducting a nonsystematic review of literature on the concept of initial public offering in order to understand its meaning and dimensions. In this regard a thorough review of existing literature has done and it has found that initial public offering concept has been explained by theorists in different ways. It meaning has significantly changed with changes in the business trends of corporate world. It was further found that over performance in short run and underperformance in the long run of initial public offering has remained mystified for the researchers although the performance of initial public offerings has significant effect on success or failure of a company. It is therefore concluded that the researchers should try to comprehend the conceptual nature and dimensions of initial public offering by examining its effects on the success of companies. In this way the companies in modern corporate world can ensure their success through effective utilization of initial public offerings

Impact of Training on Expectation of Employee and Employer: A comparative study

Organizations today spend millions of dollars on training to enhance the performance of their employees, which leads to formation of expectation on employers end as well as employees ends observing this phenomena ,this research was conducted to analyze the expectations of employee and employer and its impact on post training satisfaction, for that matter data was collected from 20 organization where training is provided ,sample size was 20 training / HR managers and per managers 5 employees, paired sample t test was applied to gauge the difference or similarity between the perception and expectation of employees and employer, after the analysis it was found that there is significant difference between the perception of employee and employers on the expected training outcomes and no similarity existed between the expectation of employee and employer which did not have positive effect on post training satisfaction

The impact of macroeconomic, oil prices and socio-economic factors on exchange rate in Pakistan: an auto regressive distributed lag approach

The study examines the linkages among the nominal exchange rate, oil prices, terrorism and three selected macroeconomic variables: Real growth rate, inflation rate and interest rate. The paper employed auto regressive distributed lag to test the long run and short run dynamics over the period 1980-2015 in the context of Pakistan. A novel technique to this research is that we demarcate the relationship among macroeconomic variables, financial variable and socio-economic variable. The findings of the research depict a robust long run relationship among variables. Furthermore, the results showed that the adjustment process is slow and short run adjustment indicating that the discrepancies adjust completely in the same period. Hence, the efficient monetary and fiscal policy should keep into consideration before devising policies that have a greater influence on the variability of exchange rate

The Impact of Macroeconomic, Oil Prices and Socio-Economic Factors on Exchange Rate in Pakistan: An ARDL Approach

The study examines the linkages among the nominal exchange rate, oil prices, terrorism and three selected macroeconomic variables: real growth rate, inflation rate and interest rate. The paper employed Auto Regressive Distributed Lag to test the long run and short run dynamics over the period 1980 to 2015 in the context of Pakistan. A novel technique to this research is that we demarcate the relationship among macroeconomic variables, financial variable and socio-economic variable. The findings of the research depict a robust long run relationship among variables. Furthermore, the results showed that the adjustment process is slow and short run adjustment indicating that the discrepancies adjust completely in the same period. Hence, the efficient monetary and fiscal policy should keep into consideration before devising policies that have a greater influence on the variability of exchange rate. Keywords: Nominal Exchange Rate, Macroeconomic Variables, Terrorism, Auto Regressive Distributed Lag JEL Classifications: F02, F31, F4

Impact of Sector Level Variables on Political Scenarios in Pakistan

 Pakistan has a long history of involvement in politics. Since independence in 1947 the country has experienced four coups that directly rule of the country over time. Most recently in 1999 the armed forces took over the democratic government. Accumulated political and economic crunches that shaped the situation in which the armed involvement would get extensive public support. In the recent period from 2008 onwards democrats are ruling the country and there has been an extensive criticism of financial administration of the preceding government but no positive amendment has been seen in financial plans in this period either. This paper wants to compare the performance of sectors in different political regimes. Sector level variables are Munificence, Dynamism, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HH Index) and Uniqueness has been used to check the impact of sectors in different political regimes. Data has been segregated between two eras (i.e., 2004 to 2008 dictatorship periods and 2009-2013 democratic period). Paired sample t- test will be used to check the impact of sectors nature in two different regimes. Keyword: Sector level variables, Political periods, Democratic, Dictatorship. JEL Classification: G