Digital Commons Network^™

Independent Directors: The Contrasting Cases Of Australia And Bangladesh, Philippa Wells, Abdul Moyeen

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

The Bangladesh corporate governance regime is framed by legal rules and requirements, in comparison to those prevailing in such jurisdictions as Australia. However, it is arguable that such legal rules have not necessarily led to major modernisation of structures or to such significant changes to the profile of company boards that would maximise their effectiveness. This study involves analysis and comparison of some of the important characteristics of Bangladeshi and Australian company boards, with a particular focus on independent directors. To provide context for this study, the regulatory framework for corporate governance in Bangladesh is compared and contrasted with that …

The Effects Of Wages And Welfare Facilities On Employee Productivity: Mediating Role Of Employee Work Motivation, Mohammad Nurul Alam, Md Mahmudul Hassan, Dorothea Bowyer, Md Reaz

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

Purpose- Garment employee productivity in Bangladesh is the lowest compared to its competitors such as China, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Bangladeshi Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry will find it a challenge to survive in the global market unless they improve employee productivity. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to observe the relationship among wages and benefits, welfare facilities, employee work motivation and employee productivity.

Design/Methodology/Approach- The study was conducted under the positivism philosophy for which Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory was used for framing the hypotheses. A deductive approach, explanatory research design and a quantitative methodology was …

Determinants And Effects Of Voluntary Disclosure With A Focus On Corporate Governance And Firm Performance: Evidence From Bangladesh, Mohammed Shahinul Sazzad Bhuyan

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+

Increasingly awareness of corporate activity in developing and less developed economies has come under public scrutiny in terms of corporate voluntary disclosure and firm performance. Shareholders and a range of other stakeholders rely on the transparency afforded by corporate public disclosures and the governance mechanisms that ensure accountability. Therefore, studies in voluntary disclosure and firm performance that combine elements of corporate governance and shareholder and stakeholder perspectives provide insights for regulators, especially in developing economies competing in a global market. Accordingly, this study examines the determinants and effects of voluntary disclosures within Bangladesh after a severe share market crash in …

The Implementation Of The Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) In Bangladesh, Paola Frassinetti Alves De Miranda

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

In this thesis I studied the effectiveness of CEDAW’s regime of reservations to protect treaty integrity. Specifically, I examined Bangladesh’s reservation to CEDAW to illustrate the effects of impermissible reservations to the Convention, in particular, regarding the implementation and monitoring process of CEDAW. To do this, I conducted a qualitative analysis of relevant documents on the monitoring and implementation process of CEDAW in Bangladesh. The analysis focused on the challenges faced by the CEDAW Committee in effectively discharging its mandate and the interpretation of the provisions of CEDAW, according to their relevance to the implementation of the ‘object and purpose’ …

Robust Inference In Poverty Mapping, Sumonkanti Das

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Small area estimation (SAE) methods are widely used for estimating poverty indicators at finer levels of a country’s geography. Three unit-level SAE techniques – the ELL method (Elbers, Lanjouw, and Lanjouw, 2003), also known as the World Bank method, the Empirical Best Prediction (EBP) method (Molina and Rao, 2010) and the M-Quantile (MQ) method (Tzavidis et al., 2008) have all been used to estimate micro-level FGT poverty indicators (Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke, 1984). These methods vary in terms of their underlying model assumptions particularly differences in consideration of random effects. This thesis provides results from a numerical comparison of the …

Dowry In Bangladesh: A Search From An International Perspective For An Effective Legal Approach To Mitigate Women’S Experiences, Afroza Begum

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

For some 40 years, Bangladesh has fought a losing battle against the existence of dowries and their associated abuse with no indication of even a minimal impact as dowry demands inflate and violence increases. In one year alone, dowry related violence claimed the lives of 325 women and contributed to 66.7 per cent of the violent incidents against women. This article aims to investigate the appropriateness and effectiveness of legal approaches to dowry and propose a different standard for redressing women’s disadvantaged situation in the traditional culture of Bangladesh.

Impunity Of Frequent Corporate Homicides By Recurrent Fires At Garment Factories In Bangladesh: Bangladeshi Culpable Homicide Compared With Its Equivalents In The United Kingdom And Australia, S M. Solaiman, Afroza Begum

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

How corporations can be best prevented from causing deaths of others has been a critical concern of judges, legislators, prosecutors and academics alike around the world since the 19th century. Concerns for workplace safety have mounted globally in recent decades, propelling the demand for industrial manslaughter prosecution as a more effective use of criminal suits. Like the regulation of human conduct, criminal Jaw is considered to be an instrument for changing corporate behaviour in a way that fosters future conformity with the expectations of society.

Extensive Food Adulteration In Bangladesh: A Violation Of Fundamental Human Rights And The State’S Binding Obligations, S M. Solaiman, Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

© The Author(s) 2014. The right to life is inherently connected with the right to food which implies that any foodstuff be nutritious and safe. The government of Bangladesh bears binding obligations to protect these rights under both international human rights instruments and its national constitution. The violation of these rights has, nonetheless, been commonplace causing numerous human deaths and terminal diseases. The perpetrators have been adulterating foods, flouting laws with impunity and taking advantage of regulatory impotence and governmental lenience for decades. Laws exist in books, regulators subsist in theory, but consumers die without remedies. This situation must not …

Rates Of Shoreline Change Along The Coast Of Bangladesh, Md. Golam Mahabub Sarwar, Colin D. Woodroffe

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Bangladesh, at the confluence of the sediment-laden Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers, supports an enormous and rapidly growing population (>140 million in 2011), across low-lying alluvial and delta plains that have accumulated over the past few thousand years. It has been identified as one of the most vulnerable places in the world to the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise. Although abundant sediment supply has resulted in accretion on some parts of the coast of Bangladesh, others are experiencing rapid erosion. We report a systematic assessment of rates of shoreline change over a 20-year period from 1989 to 2009, …

Application Of The Responsive Regulation Theory In The Food Safety Regulatory Regime In Bangladesh, Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Bangladesh, a developing country of the South Asian region, has been suffering from a rampant food adulteration problem for the last couple of decades. Recent studies revealed that numerous deaths along with countless physical illness are happening as the consequences of this ongoing food adulteration. Several attempts have been through to change the food safety regulatory regime (FSRR) of Bangladesh to combat this alarming issue. Unfortunately the situation has hardly been changed. Rather it is getting worse day by day. However, Bangladesh has never changed the regulatory enforcement philosophy of its FSRR to combat this severe food safety concern. The …

Improvising: A Process Of Overcoming Interagency Information Sharing Deficiency In An Aml Regime, Zahurul Haq Md

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the Anti Money Laundering reporting regime in Bangladesh. The study scrutinised the activities of the major components of the Anti Money Laundering reporting system, which is comprised of the reporting entities, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, the study identified the core concern of the persons involved in the reporting process and how this concern was continually being handled. Data was collected for this study through various methods including interviews, literature searches and observations. In order to study this substantive area where little research had been done, the …

A Study On The Possible Impacts Of Climate Change On Food Security In The Central Coastal Area Of Bangladesh, Zubyda Siddika

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Global and local climate changes can affect crop yields in the future. Recent increase of weather related stresses and damages are resulting from an increase in the frequency of climate hazards. However, agriculture in both developing and developed countries depends highly on climate factors (temperature, solar radiation and precipitation) that act as a main driver of rice production. Nevertheless, the relationship of climate variability and rice production could vary in different regions across the world. Bangladesh is perhaps one of the most climatic vulnerable countries because of geographical location and large Gnga-Meghna-Brahmuptra river systems. The costal belt of Bangladesh covers …

Manufacturing Unsafe Foods In Bangladesh: A Legal And Regulatory Analysis, Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016

Bangladesh has long faced a serious food safety problem. Food manufacturers are producing many unhealthy and adulterated food products, ignoring the regulations deliberately. There are numerous laws as well as several regulatory bodies which deal with this alarming issue but with minimal effectiveness. The current study intends to investigate the relevant food safety regulations in regard to the manufacture of unsafe foods in Bangladesh.

This study observes that the existing regulatory philosophy of the enforcement of the regulations is ineffective in practice. This is because the regulations only offer direct criminal penalty for any kind of contravention. There are no …

Food Safety And Public Health Issues In Bangladesh: A Regulatory, Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In Bangladesh, most of the foodstuffs, be they manufactured or processed, are unsafe for consumption or adulterated to varying degrees. This problem persists at every level of the food chain from preparation to consumption. Food manufacturers, processors, restaurants, fast food outlets and so forth are all involved in one way or another in this corrupt practice of adulteration. Foods are adulterated by using various harmful chemicals and toxic artificial colours, on the one hand, and rotten perishables turned to poisonous foods are stored, sold and served to consumers in an unhygienic atmosphere, on the other. The unhygienic and unsafe treatment …

Rampant Food Adulteration In Bangladesh: Gross Violations Of Fundamental Human Rights With Impunity, S M. Solaiman, Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Food adulteration in Bangladesh is rampant and an increasingly serious concern for its residents. Several studies including those of the Directorate General of Health Services reveal that hundreds of people are getting killed every year eating adulterated foodstuffs and no one seems to have any real concern about such a life-threatening wrongful act. Food adulteration is criminally prohibited, but the wrongdoers care little about this proscription simply because of the continued apathy of the governmental agencies concerned and implicit acceptance or insensible ignorance of consumers. However, the current fragmented legal and regulatory regime for food safety in Bangladesh falls short …

Unprecedented Factory Fire Of Tazreen Fashions In Bangladesh: Revisiting Bangladeshi Labour Laws In Light Of Their Equivalents In Australia, S M. Solaiman

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Right to life is a core human right, but workers' lives seem to be dreadfully cheap in Bangladesh. This is so because the government appears to be complacent by offering a small amount of money to the families of victims of fires at garment factories and collapses of factory buildings. Previously, at least 1,000 workers have been killed in garment factories alone in Bangladesh from 1990 to 2012, ironically, all went unpunished. Recently, the devastating fire at Tazreen Fashions Ltd. which killed 112 in November 2012 and, just a few months apart, the horrifying collapse of Rana Plaza which housed …

Application Of Responsive Regulation In The Food Safety Regulations Of Bangladesh, Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Bangladesh, a developing country of the South Asian region, has been suffering from rampant food adulteration for the last few decades. Recent studies revealed that numerous deaths along with countless physical illnesses are occurring as the consequences of this ongoing food adulteration. Several attempts have been made through to change the food safety regulations [FSR] of Bangladesh to combat this alarming issue. Unfortunately, the situation has hardly been changed. Rather it is getting worse day by day. However, Bangladesh has never changed the regulatory enforcement philosophy of its FSR to tackle this severe food safety concern. The current study is …

Reply To “Response: Board Composition And Firm Performance: Evidence From Bangladesh - A Sceptical View”, Afzalur Rashid, Anura De Zoysa, Sudhir Lodh, Kathy Rudkin

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper replies to Chowdhury’s (2010) response to the paper "Board Composition and Firm Performance: Evidence from Bangladesh" (2010). It challenges the strength of the criticisms, arguing that the factors discussed in Chowdhury (2010) do not necessarily impair the outcome of the research. The authors elucidate issues raised, and in so doing, reproduce the results incorporating the commentator’s suggestions.

Reply To "Response: Board Composition And Firm Performance: Evidence From Bangladesh - A Sceptical View", Afzalur Rashid, Anura De Zoysa, Sudhir Lodh, Kathleen Rudkin

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper replies to Chowdhury’s (2010) response to the paper "Board Composition and Firm Performance: Evidence from Bangladesh" (2010). It challenges the strength of the criticisms, arguing that the factors discussed in Chowdhury (2010) do not necessarily impair the outcome of the research. The authors elucidate issues raised, and in so doing, reproduce the results incorporating the commentator’s suggestions

Departure Time Choice Analysis Using Ordered Response Probit Model: Journey To Work Trip In Dhaka City Of Bangladesh, Ahm Mehbub Anwar

SMART Infrastructure Facility - Papers

No abstract provided.

Women's Participation In Union Parishads: A Quest For A Compassionate Legal Approach In Bangladesh From An International Perspective, Afroza Begum

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

A woman's capacity to participate in politics is a constitutionally entrenched and fundamental right in Bangladesh, repeatedly affirmed in several pieces of legislation, the most recent being the Local Government Act, 2009. Despite the endorsement of a series of affirmative features to promote women's equality, empirical research reveals very disappointing results. This paper investigates some of the fundamental constraints that hinder women's participation in Union Parishads, the third tier of local government, with special reference to a number of serious flaws in the Act. A compassionate approach is developed for the workplace to accommodate exceptional gender-centric concerns in Union Parishads …

Nonlinear Growth Effect Of Remittances In Recipient Countries: An Econometric Analysis Of Remittances-Growth Nexus In Bangladesh, Gazi Mainul Hassan, Shamim Shakur, Mohammed Bhuyan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The macroeconomic impacts of remittances flows on developing economies are not well understood. The paper is an attempt to understand the impact of inward remittances flows on per capita GDP growth in Bangladesh during 1974-2006. We find that the growth effect of remittances is negative at first but becomes positive at a later stage- a strong evidence of a non-linear relationship. This could be due to unproductive use of remittances in the beginning followed by more productive utilisation. Remittances positively affect per capita GDP growth in Bangladesh when the complementarity between remittances and financial development is incorporated into the analysis.

Customer Satisfaction Measurement For The State-Owned Banks In The Developing Countries - The Case Of Bangladesh, Muhammad Saifuddin Khondaker, Monir Zaman Mir

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Customer Satisfaction has become an imponant aspect of measuring performance. particularly for the banking and finance industry. As most banks and finance organizations offer Similar products and services. Improving customer satisfaction and loyalty is the most important factor in maintaining as well as increasing market share for these organizations. Customer satisfaction is a grossly neglected area for performance measurement in almost all Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Bangladesh is no exception. Like most LDCs. Bangladesh is also com:ng under pressure from the IMF. World Bank. ADB. etc. to reform its inefficient financial sector. Anecdotal evidence suggests that state·owned commercial banks …

Response : Board Composition And Firm Performance : Evidence From Bangladesh – A Sceptical View, Khorshed Chowdhury

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

I have read the above paper with keen interest. The key finding of this paper is interesting: the appointment of independent directors has no perceptible influence on a firm’s economic performance in Bangladesh. The conclusion was derived from a sample of 274 firm-years. The implication of this finding is also very significant for regulators in Bangladesh and elsewhere ‘in their quest for harmonization of international corporate governance practices’ Rashid et al. (2010, p76). This paper also complements the results of an earlier paper on an allied topic by Bhuiyan and Biswas (2007) where they found that (p22) ‘corporate governance disclosure …

Annual Incidence Of Snake Bite In Rural Bangladesh, Ridwanur Rahman, M. Abdul Faiz, Shahjada Selim, Bayzidur Rahman, Ariful Basher, Alison Jones, Catherine D'Este, Moazzem Hossain, Ziaul Islam, Habib Ahmed, Abdul Hasnat Milton

Graduate School of Medicine - Papers (Archive)

Background Snake bite is a neglected public health problem in the world and one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in many areas, particularly in the rural tropics. It also poses substantial economic burdens on the snake bite victims due to treatment related expenditure and loss of productivity. An accurate estimate of the risk of snake bite is largely unknown for most countries in the developing world, especially South-East Asia. Methodology/Principal Findings We undertook a national epidemiological survey to determine the annual incidence density of snake bite among the rural Bangladeshi population. Information on frequency of snake bite …

Social Responsibility, Business Strategy And Development: The Case Of Grameen-Danone Foods Limited, Asad Ghalib, Farhad Hossain, Thankom Arun

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

The aim of this paper is to study the phenomenon of Social Business Enterprises (SBEs) and gain an understanding of their nature, operations, objectives and implications by using Grameen Danone Foods Limited (GDFL) as an illustration. Within this context, some questions that this paper seeks to explore are: is the concept of Social Businesses just another ‘fashionable business marketing fad’ that will fade and wither with time, or does it offer a real workable solution to cure the ills of global poverty? The paper seeks to investigate, with Grameen Danone’s case, if, how and to what extent such social businesses …

Approaches To Development Of A User-Friendly Community Based Arsenic/Iron Removal Unit In Bangladesh, Khondoker Mahabub Hassan, Farooque Ahmed, Faisal Ibney Hai, Saleh Faraj Magram

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The present stydy focuses on the strategies to modify the design of a community based Arsenic - Iron Removal Unit (AIRU) based on the field performance of the AIRU and the feedback from the users. The ultimate aim was to offer a user-friendly and sustainable system. Appropriate modifications in the design of the developed unit reduced the propensities of water head-loss and media clogging, thereby yielding sustained flow rate. Introduction of a simple cleaning procerdure (98% flow-recovery with three successive backwashing sequences) successfully reduced the frequency of requirement of labor-intensive replacement of the whole filter media. Raw water with arsenic …

Local Governance In Bangladesh: Towards A “Critical Mass” To Combat Discrimination Against Women With Special Reference To India, Afroza Begum

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Women’s right to freedom from discrimination is the constitutionally entrenched fundamental right… and is repeatedly guaranteed in a series of legislation in Bangladesh. Bangladesh also assumes affirmative obligations to respect and ensure this right through ratifying over a dozen international human rights instruments. Despite that fact, discrimination persists in a pervasive form to deny women’s equal rights in legislative offices…, and women are unjustifiably deprived of their lawful rights and privileges….Legal initiatives and women’s activism across nations have forced to significant modifications in policies of political parties and laws to redress women’s meagre status in governance. Drawing upon this insight, …

The Efficiency Of Emerging Stock Markets: Empirical Evidence From The South Asian Region, Arusha V. Cooray, G. Wickramasighe

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the efficiency in the stock markets of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF-1979, 1981), the Phillips-Perron (PP-1988), the Dicky-Fuller Generalized Least Square (DF-GLS-1996) and Elliot-Rothenberg-Stock (ERS – 1996) tests are used to examine weak form stock market efficiency. Weak form efficiency is supported by the classical unit root tests. However, it is not strongly supported for Bangladesh under the DF-GLS and ERS tests. Cointegration and Granger causality tests are used to examine semi-strong form efficiency. Semi-strong form efficiency is not supported as these tests indicate a high degree of interdependence among the …

Corporate Social And Environmental Disclosure In Developing Countries: Evidence From Bangladesh, M. Hossain, K. Islam, J. Andrew

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This is an exploratory study designed to investigate the extent and nature of social and environmental reporting in corporate annual reports. Specifically, we examine the relationship between social and environmental disclosure and several corporate attributes in a developing country, Bangladesh. In order to do this, we have developed and utilized a disclosure index to measure the extent of disclosure made by companies in corporate annual reports. This study reports significant differences in levels of social and environmental disclosure, as measured by the mean values of the social and environmental disclosure index in Bangladesh. This study reports that a very few …