Business Commons^™

Socially Responsible Investment In A Changing World, Desheng Wu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Socially responsible investment funds make up a growing segment of the investment world. This work considers the impact of including SRI in an investor portfolio both normally and during crisis times. Regimes are identified using Markov switching models. This study is based on return data of four indices, namely, the MSCI World Index, S&P 500, Eurostoxx 50, and the socially responsible index - Advanced Sustainable Performance Index (ASPI). The approaches used are portfolio optimization, GARCH and Markov switching models. Our work shows that a socially responsible index is a good asset to keep in a portfolio. Our simulation results suggest …

The Smartest "Guise" In The Room: Why America Is Doomed To Repeat An Enron-Like Scandal, Shayne Reddington

Honors Theses

There is no question that Enron has brought change to the landscape surrounding business practices both domestically and globally. After the Emon Scandal occurred, Congress passed a very controversial and groundbreaking legislative act known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a means of stopping the conditions that made this widespread scandal possible. There are several reasons why another Emon-type Scandal is prone to repeat itself in the near future. One of the reasons is that Sarbanes-Oxley is not the perfect bill. Although the controversial Sarbanes-Oxley is a valiant effort to reform the environment that fostered Enron, there are major gaps and …

Financing Nigeria's Growth After The Global Economic Crisis Within The Perspective Of Vision 20:2020 And The Transformation Agenda, Babatunde Lawal

Economic and Financial Review

The paper adopts content analysis method to investigate the underlying assumptions of the pillar of growth within the framework of Nigeria Vision 20:2020 (NV20:2020) and the transformation agenda. The aim is to show how realistic the underlying assumptions are and whether or not the available structure/measures of the financial system would be sufficient to finance the Vision. The conclusion is that the present Transformation Agenda and indeed the Medium-Term Implementation Plans adequately provide for the financing of NV20:2020 if the provisions of the documents are strictly adhered to.

December 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Harsh Realities: Five Truths Halting Your Company’s Organic Growth Making a lasting change is usually easier said than done. Most of us spend more time talking about change than actually going through with it. Businesses have just as much difficulty going through with change as individuals and Fired?

How to Sell Yourself When No One is Buying The toughest interview of all is the one you face when you are over 50. The over 50 age group has the highest rate of unemployment today. However, Tucker Mays and Bob Sloane give five important ways the over 50 job seeker can …

Diaspora Bonds: A Viable Source Of External Financing For Nigeria?, Omolara O. Duke

Bullion

The paper examines the need for external funding, arises from the inadequacy of domestic sources of funds to meet supply gaps and balance of payments (BOP) challenges and the potentials of Nigeria sourcing external financing through the issuance of Diaspora bonds. Following this introduction, Section ll reviews conceptual and empirical literature as well as country experiences on Diaspora bonds issuance. Section lll, discusses the bond market in Nigeria. ln Section lV. the prospects and challenges of issuing Diaspora bonds in Nigeria were highlighted. Section V concludes the paper.

Patterns Of Capital Structure And Dividend Policy In Pakistani Corporate Sector And Their Impact On Organization Performance, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Muhammad Bilal, Haroon Shafi, Ikram Ullah, Kashif Ur Rehman

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The purpose of this study is to determine the patterns of capital structure decisions and dividend policy as well as their level of application in Pakistani corporate sector and also to check the impact of capital structure and dividend policy on organization performance. A total of ninety one questionnaires were distributed in different companies but seventy three filled were received and sixty one were processed for analysis. The potential respondents were finance executives and financial analysts of the companies. The study concludes that capital structure decisions are being properly practiced while dividend policy is a major concern in most of …

Determinants Of Business Success Of Small And Medium Enterprises, Javed Mahmood Jasra, Muhammad Asif Khan, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Rana Aziz Ur Rehman, Rauf I. Azam

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play critical role in the development of the country. The success of SMEs depends on number of factors. This study examines the role of key factors in the success of SMEs in Pakistan. The study also investigates the relationship between SMEs success and its determinants. Target population of the study was SMEs operating in different lines of business from service to manufacturing. Sample size of this study was 520 small and medium lines of businesses. Responses of the subjects were collected through questionnaires. SPSS software is used for analysis. This study concludes that there …

Determinants Of Short Term Investment Decision Making, Muhammad Naeem Akhtar, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Kashif Ur Rehman

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

This study examines the impact of financial literacy, accounting information, openness to experience and information asymmetry on the short-term investment decision making of the stock market investors. For this purpose 23 item questionnaire was developed and distributed among 185 stock market investors through non-probability sampling. The results indicate that all these factors have a significant effect on the short-term investment decision making. Results also indicate that individual investors with higher educational qualifications have more intentions for short-term investments as compared to the investors with other qualifications.

Financial Crises And Economic Growth In Pakistan: A Time Series Analysis, Rauf I. Azam, Iram Batool, Rabia Imran, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Muhammad Irfan Chani

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The purpose of this research is to investigate causal relationship between economic growth and major indicators of financial crisis -- inflation rate, interest rate and the volume of foreign debt-- in Pakistan. This study also highlights the stability of the relationship between indicators of financial crisis and economic growth. The annual time series data ranging from 1972 to 2010 is used for the analysis. Johansen’s co-integration test is used to check the stability of long run equilibrium relationship between the variables used in the study. The results indicate that is long run stable equilibrium relationship between economic growth and the …

November 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

One Question Every Small Business Owner Must Answer — Understanding Your Competitive Advantage Every business owner must be able to answer one very basic question, “Why should a prospective customer buy my product or service rather than a competitor’s?” If the owner cannot answer this question, he or she should probably cut his or her losses and seek alternative employment

The 3 R’s for Dealing With Workplace Bullying Workplace bullying is a pressing problem in today’s workplaces. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), 35% of the U.S. workforce report being bullied right now! Danita Johnson Hughes gives some tips …

October 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

From Social Brand to Social Business Many organizations today are on a quest to become a social brand. They are investing in Facebook applications, branded communities and blogs

The Consequences of Living and Dying Without an Estate Plan Most of us expect that tomorrow will be another day like any other. But, as Euripides said, “No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.” If you don’t have the proper documents for your estate, the court will make decisions for you and your family

9 Timely Tips for Pre-Presentation Preparation If you ever find yourself invited to …

Application Of Finance Techniques: An Empirical Analysis Of Pakistani Corporate Sector, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Ghulam Shabbir Khan Niazi, Syed Waqar Akbar, Kashif Ur Rehman

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The study reviews the core areas of the finance functions and their level of applications in Pakistani corporate sector. A total of 70 questionnaires were distributed in different companies, 53 were received and 49 were processed, the respondents were finance executives and financial analysts of the companies. The study concludes that respondents are well aware of finance functions; out of these functions applications of capital structure decisions are being properly practiced while dividend policy is a major concern in most of the organizations. Investment appraisal techniques are not followed systematically due to constraints on capital investment and availability of resources. …

September 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Avoiding Consensus Overload: Seven Tips to Help Leaders Make Thoughtful, Yet Rapid Key Decisions To take advantage of a competitor’s weakness, as a leader, you have to be able to move quickly, and you can’t do that if you spend too much time trying to figure out what every last person on the team thinks

How to Get the Feedback You Didn’t Want to Hear (But Really Need to Know) There is only one way to find out the key things you are missing in business that could help you get even better results—and that’s by getting feedback

Sick of …

Factor Explaining The Choice Of Finance Major: Students Perception Towards The Finance Profession, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Kashif Ur Rehman, Abrar Ahmad, Nadeem Safwan, Ijaz Ur Rehman

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

No abstract provided.

August 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

How to Say “No” the Right Way People who don’t mind saying no may lack the skills to do it gracefully and often instill hard feelings, even when that is not their intent. For those who have no problem saying no, but need a little guidance, Carl Van gives some tips on saying no more effectively

10 Tips to Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaigns With the multitude of laws, spam filters and confusion over the best method in using emails, Gregg Brown gives 10 tips to help you get the best results from your email marketing campaigns

Can’t Live With …

Does Money Matter? Investigating The Financing Of Emerging Firms, Casey Frid

All Dissertations

In this dissertation I investigate start-up financing by nascent entrepreneurs in the United States between 2005 and 2010. By nascent entrepreneur, I mean individuals who are in the process of creating a new business, but the business itself is not yet affecting prices and quantities in the market. Nearly all research on financing has focused on established firms. Little work, however, has been done on how entrepreneurs acquire and use financial resources during the earliest stages of the firm creation process. The availability of financial resources has been linked to firm growth and survivability, and understanding how entrepreneurs use and …

July 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Practice Nets More Benefits for Public Executive ‘Airtime’ allows workers to receive credit toward pension for years they didn’t work

Building Outrage: How Corruption Has Crippled the Construction Industry Stories of corruption should warn every major construction project owner of the dangers of placing millions—and sometimes tens and hundreds of millions—into the hands of companies with very questionable business practices

Resisting the Steve Jobs “Innovation Temptation”; Steps to Creating Great New B2B Products Steve Jobs method of creating products without his customers’ input won’t work for most businesses, especially B2B (business-to-business) suppliers. Dan Adams offers his advice on how you …

Risk And Return Relationship In Stock Market And Commodity Prices: A Comprehensive Study Of Pakistani Markets, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Muhammad Azam, Ghulam Shabbir Khan Niazi, Babar Zaheer Butt, Kashif Ur Rehman, Rauf I. Azam

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The objective of this study is to determine the risk and return relationship on the basis of univariate modeling approach. This study is helpful to analyze the asymmetric nature of data including the seasonal affect and non linear properties in risk and return relationship scenario. In this study, monthly data was used regarding gold price, cotton prices and sugar price along with KSE 100 index. The data span of all variables cover the time period from July 1998 to July 2008. The overall results indicate that asymmetric and seasonal effect is present in commodities market and stock market. But the …

Feasibility Study For Building A Tasting Room In Napa Valley, Trevor Mitchell

Agribusiness

This study was undertaken to determine if it would be financially feasible for Altamura Winery to build and operate a wine tasting room in Napa Valley over the course of a 30 year period.

This report used a feasibility study to examine the investment of the tasting room. The study used the cost approach of valuation to value the construction costs. Then capital budgeting was used as a method to determine if the tasting room should be constructed. The capital budgeting methods of this study include the use of a cash flow budget, break-even analysis, and a net present value …

June 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

The Galleano Winery—a National Landmark The Galleano Winery remains much the same from 1927 when the land was first purchased by the Galleano family. It is a national landmark right in our own backyard

Economic Forecast Employment in Riverside/San Bernardino is beginning to show signs of an imminent recovery, per California State University, Long Beach

The Exchange: Four Tips for Having Conflict-Busting Conversations in the Workplace The trick to moving past office conflicts and on to increased productivity in your organization is knowing how to broach the topics in ways that leads to improved working relationships

Getting Organized Doing too …

Examining Capm In Today's Markets, David R. Knox

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this work is to empirically assess the validity of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in terms of how can it model an equity’s return. The goal of this work is not to challenge the theory behind CAPM, nor compare it to alternatives, but simply to test whether or not it is applicable in the real world. This is an exploratory research study: rather than testing a specific hypothesis, my goal is to let the data speak for itself.

The main difficulty with assessing CAPM is that there is no consensus on how much data we ought …

Practices Of Working Capital Policy And Performance Assessment Financial Ratios And Their Relationship With Organization Performance, Dr. Ghulam Shabbir Khan Niazi, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Majid Rashid, Syed Waqar Akbar, Muhammad Naeem Akhtar

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The purpose this study is to highlight the application of working capital policy and the performance assessment financial ratios and to determine their relationship with organization performance. The target respondents were the finance executives/financial analysts of the companies. 64 properly filled questionnaires were processed for analysis. This study concludes that the finance executives consider that the proper practices of working capital and financial ratios are very important for the growth and performance of the organization. This research study also finds that there is positive and significant relationship between these practices and organization performance.

May 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

How Much Does Depression Cost? Government statistics released in November show that 6.5 percent of U.S. adults suffer from depression

The Engagement Factor: Four Ways to Use Your Customers to Boost Innovation (and Profits!) at Your Company The best way to ensure your company will be a success is to deliver more than your share of customer value

Do We Run Universities as Businesses? CSU System is facing challenges at this time. This means that for CSUSB the budget will be around $18 million less

How to Protect Yourself Against Medicare “Gaps” Every Medigap policy has to follow federal and …

April 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Get Hired 2011: Nine Best Practices for Using Social Media to Win Your Dream Job If you’re one of the many Americans today braving the job market, you’ve probably learned that your social media presence can make you or break you. Maribeth Kuzmeski explains how to use your online presence to leave a great impression with potential employers

Regaining Conference Attendance and Maximizing Your Conference Experience Uwe Janssen gives us up-to-date tips in gaining conference attendance seeing the struggle with the decline in conference attendance due to budget cuts, rising travel expenses and concerns over impact to productivity

I Made …

Refund Anticipation Loan, Ann House

All Current Publications

This fact sheet defines a refund anticipation loan and gives the benefits to considering other options.

The Web Bank, Marco Ricci Doctor Of Business Administration, Public Certified Accountant, Auditor

Marco Ricci

Technological advances are certainly a very important factor of change that can fundamentally alter the current distribution techniques of financial services. In fact, information technologies have made it possible for banks to be within the "virtual bank", a new and separate from the traditional. The introduction of new distribution channels and, in particular the global network known as the "Internet" is just one of many changes taking place in the Italian banking. This theme could be seen as the main theme of this work, all aimed at trying to describe and interpret how the spread of online financial services has …

March 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

The Mommy Trap—Family-Prenup for Financial Insurance Susan Spencer discusses the Jack and Jill Syndrome—mothers who become single parents with no savings, no child support and no career. She suggests that a “family prenup” might be helpful before marriage —insuring the couple’s children have some financial security

Five Ways to Make the Most of the Recovering Economy at Your Company Many economists are saying that the U.S. economy is finally on an uptick. Now that more growth is possible, Dan Adams warns that it’s the time to make sure your company is poised to get its share of the economic recovery …

February 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Toward a New American Century Michael Milken believes America can extend pre-eminence on competition from China and other countries if we assume greater responsibility for its common destiny. He gives six areas in particular that provide opportunities for positive change

Create a Mastermind Group That Works for You Joelle Jay outlines six steps of mastermind creation—a small group of dedicated peers who share and support each other through the challenges of life and leadership.

The Future of Your Business is in the Palm of Your Hand—Using the Power of Smartphones to Grow Your Business What started as a must-have device …

Spring Clean Your Financial House, Ann House

All Current Publications

This publication suggests 5 simple steps to reviewing and improving your financial status.

Abnormal Stock Returns, For The Event Firm And Its Rivals, Following The Event Firm's Large One-Day Stock Price Drop, Susana Yu, Dean Leistikow

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine intra-industry contagion and the following apparent violations of the efficient market hypothesis around large one-day price decline events in individual stocks. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines daily stock returns around one-day price declines of 10 percent or more for event stocks and their rivals. Using techniques similar to those used in Bremer and Sweeney and Cox and Peterson, the paper includes event stocks whose prices are at least $10 per share prior to the event to reduce the possible price reversal induced by bid-ask price bounce. As is typical for …