Explore publications.

The main purpose of this study is to identify the impact of intellectual capital efficiency (ICE) also known as knowledge capital along with its components human capital efficiency (HCE) and structural capital efficiency (SCE) on bank risk-taking behavior in Bangladesh. To reveal this effect, the study uses generalized method of moment (GMM) estimator and Two Stages Least Square estimator (to check the Robustness) and unbalanced panel data of 32 commercial banks of Bangladesh consisting of 530 bank-year observations during the year 2003-2020. The main results of the study are: (a) ICE is significantly and positively connected with a bank’s credit risk which indicates credit risk grows up with the increase of Intellectual capital efficiency, and (b) Both the human capital efficiency and structural capital efficiency positively impacts credit risk but the impact of SCE is not significant as HCE, (c) Bank performance (ROA), RWATA, macro variable inflation, and size have a negative impact on bank risk whereas ID and GGDP insignificant positively impact on bank’s risk. Finally, the results of the study will assist the stakeholders, policymakers, and academicians for future research.

Natural Rubber (NR) is an important agricultural product utilized in various sectors. NR is one of the world's biggest industries and a critical component in many industries such as automotive, manufacturing, and medicine. Liberia is a top producer of NR with over 127 years of production history. However, since 2014, Liberia's NR net production has decreased by 0.7% year on year and has fallen behind Sri Lanka. NR production in Liberia has experienced scant performance due to many factors. In this project, we employ mixed-method research to examine the factors influencing the decline of the Liberian NR supply chain and propose solutions that will further stimulate the industry's growth. We conduct an MCDM study among 34 smallholder rubber farmers from Grand Bassa, Margibi and Bong counties. Their grading of ten policy objectives and recommendations are programmed using Fuzzy AHP.

China as a hot luxury market has witnessed high growth in luxury sales despite the COVID-19. In recent years, many luxury companies have further improved their brand value and influence via co-branding strategies, however, their brand cooperation received mixed evaluations. Drawing on the conceptual blending theory and self-concept consistency theory, this paper constructs and verifies the structural equation model of consumer evaluation of luxury co-branding from the perspectives of the brands and the consumers. The study reveals that luxury co-branding fit, advertising types and the consumers’ life-role transition have a positive impact on consumer evaluation. Both the type of advertising and consumers’ life-role transition have a moderating effect on consumer evaluation. Specifically, (i) In luxury co-branding, the co-branded products paired with a high fit between the values of the cooperative brands are more likely to receive high consumer evaluation; (ii) The publicity of the brand image of the co-branded products has a stronger moderating effect on the perceived quality, appeal and purchase intention of luxury users than the publicity of the features of the co-branded products; (iii) For luxury brands with a high degree of joint fit, consumers who have not experienced life-role transformation have a stronger regulatory effect on consumers' perceived quality, attractiveness and purchase intention than consumers who have experienced life-role transformation.

This study aims to investigate users’ satisfaction with e-Government services of Myanmar through a study of a specific e-Government service, the Myanmar Companies Online registration (MyCO) system. The MyCO system was chosen for this study because it is the initiative well-developed e-Government service in Myanmar. On the other hand, the company registration authority of Myanmar, the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), has continuously made every endeavor to optimize responsive its e-Government services, after almost four years from the launching date of the MyCO system, systematically analyzing for optimizing the system still remains to research. In order to track public perception of the system, an online survey was conducted. The questionnaires were designed based on the Technology Acceptance Model in the fields of customer satisfaction consisting mainly of three main factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived risk. Questionnaires were collected and analyzed with the respondents identifying themselves as having used the MyCO system. Notwithstanding the overall 79% of respondents were very satisfied and 20% were satisfied to some extent, payment transaction issues and some technical challenges are still remained in the system to be addressed to become a better user-centric public service. This study will support a number of contributions to find out the gap between e-Government services implementation and how publics’ expectations of e-Government services. The result of this study will provide awareness to DICA to improve more efficiency and effectiveness in implementing best practices in the provision of user-centric public services based on the public’s needs and demands.

Financial product awareness is an efficient remedy for poverty reduction as against lack of money. However, a holistic literature on financial product awareness in the six Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria is scarce. Using data from a quarterly survey of households in Nigeria, this paper investigated the influence of financial literacy, Socioeconomic and demographic factors on saving behaviors of Nigerians, age 15 to 70. With a pool of methods, our finding supported the observation from similar economies, but revealed some differences as well. We observed that financial literacy and proximity to financial products and services among others are the most significant determinants of savings behaviors of Nigerians. It is fair to say financial awareness and factors that influences it are necessary for the formulation of strategies to increase the inclusion of more members of the society into the formal financial stream.

To improve audit reports' transparency and information content, China implemented new auditing standards in 2017.  The standards, which include disclosing key audit matters, were applied to A+H share companies in 2017 and A-share companies in 2018.  This paper uses A+H-share companies as the experimental group and A-share companies as the control group and applies the difference-in-differences method to test the market response to the new auditing standards.  We find a statistically significant positive cumulative abnormal return (CAR) during the report release event window for the A+H share companies.  The results indicate a greater investor reaction to the release of audit reports under the new standards implying that the audit reforms enhanced the information of the reports.  Furthermore, the positive CAR indicates that the reports reassured investors that the audit did not reveal significant problems or that existing weaknesses were addressed.  We also found a statistically insignificant difference in the volatility of stock prices during the event window for the experimental and control group. 

Ready-made garments (RMG) are one of the most critical sectors in the economy of the South Asian region in terms of the labor force employed and export earnings. This research study aims to determine the Corporate Social Responsibility Stakeholders dimension and its influence on textile firms Performance. The study used organizational legitimacy as mediating variable between the CSR stakeholders and firms’ performances. The research study was used in the quantitative analysis approach to determine the cause and effect of the relationship between CSR and Textile firm’s financial and non-financial performance. Though the study collected primary data & secondary data from 250 respondents using survey questionnaires, the researcher obtained secondary data by analyzing the audited annual and sustainability reports of various RMG companies. We have collected data by conducting a focus group interview forming a team of employers, top-level managers, and CSR officers. We asked them all the questions, filled it, tapped it, reserved it for the interpretations. We have surveyed 67 industries, but it enabled us to collect the data from the 50 sectors—the data collected from 2016 April to 2018 December. Our study has some limitations in that the sample size is small compared to the other research. SPSS-23 & MS-Excel were used to analyze the collected data. CSR practices benefitted RMG companies in terms of long-term sustainable development by increasing the firm’s financial and non-financial performance of the RMG sector.

There is a high expectation that urban-rural linkage in general and the function of small towns, in particular, has a great role in livelihood diversification and poverty reduction in rural areas than sectoral development. However, the previous empirical studies give little attention to the function of small towns and the livelihood diversification of rural communities. We analyze the function of a small town and participating in non-farm economic activities from a rural farm household survey of 371 farmer household heads in Ethiopia. The data was analyzed using a logistic regression model and statistical description. The study found that rural households who have road access have likely participated in none-farm activities and it has positive and significant effects. Education and FHH has also a significant relationship with the function of a small town. Distance from the small town has a significant and positive impact on the non-farm economic activities of rural communities. Overall, benefits from the function of small towns such as the provision of road access, agricultural extension, financial credit services, administrative services, educational and health services are some of the provisions of a small town. Therefore, a comprehensive integrated urban-rural linkage strategy could empower rural farm smallholders to diversify their livelihoods through strengthening small town functions is mandatory. The role of small towns needs to be integrated into rural communities. Participate in livelihood diversification strategies and achieve sustainable development goals by 2030 at large. 

This study examines the effect of credit access on both agricultural and off-farm activities based on a household survey of 371 rural farmer respondents in Ethiopia.it was analyzed using a logistic regression model and statistical description. Findings demonstrated that the demographic factors; gender, age, level of education, and family size have a positive and significant effect on credit access. Agricultural credit access is impacted by each of the demographic variables as independent variables. On the other hand, the result indicated that the relationship between credit access and non-farm economic activities has a negative relationship. Credit access has a significant effect on agricultural intensification and specialization rather than diversification. Therefore, a comprehensive policy and strategy needs for credit access in both the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The Ethiopian government should follow the integration policy between both sectors and participate in livelihood diversification strategies and achieve sustainable development goals by 2030 at large.

Nowadays, the non-farm sector gives more attention and high expectations in reducing poverty in sub-Saharan African. Because participation of farm households in the none-farm sector out of their farm activities will play a great role to reduce poverty. Cross-sectional data were used to collect data in 2020 from farm household heads of 371 respondents with the mixed methodology to investigate the effect of demographic factors in none/off-farm economic activities on gender perspective in Ethiopia. In this study, we employ a Logistic regression model to explore the probabilities of household heads' participation in none/off-farm economic activities out of their farm. The result indicated, age and education level have a positive effect and statistically significant effect on increasing non-farm activities with the coefficients of 3.406, 1.956 respectively, confirmed that these variables should take into account in policy development to increase their impact on livelihood diversification. And Gender has a negatively significant on livelihood diversification. FHH is more participants in non-farm economic activities than MHH. Credit access does not contribute to increasing livelihood diversification instead; it contributes to agricultural specialization, not diversification. Surprisingly, family size has insignificant results in non-farm economic activities The outcome indicated it has its implications for the Ethiopian policy and strategy. The government should give more attention to the progressive aspects of non-farm economic activities to eradicate poverty. Whereas, decreasing its negative impact on poorer households by controlling obstacles of non-farm activities.

There has been an increased recognition that more attention needs to be paid to authentic leadership as it emphasizes positive psychological behavior. Organizational citizenship behavior is crucial in the public service, and there should be friendly leadership behavior that could enable public employees to engage in helping behavior. Research in this area is of great interest and with a very active research community. The problem has recently attracted more attention due to the increasing mismanagement, scandal, and corruption in various public organizations that have contributed to the demand for authentic leadership. Although public organizations were trying to introduce various leadership styles that can enhance service delivery, what and how leadership behavior contributes to employees' Organizational Citizenship behavior (OCB) in public service is not well elaborated. The respondents were leaders from 10 public service organizations. Empirical evidence revealed that leaders' authentic leadership behavior impacted employees' organizational citizenship behavior through self-awareness, sharing information, ethical practices, good relation with subordinates, mutual understanding, and transparency. The innovative results of the study revealed that political, cultural, and social aspects influence the leadership behavior of leaders in public service. This study concluded that authentic leaders play a great role in creating a positive relationship and promoting employees' citizenship behaviors. The implications and future research of the results were discussed based on the influence of authentic leadership on employees' OCB.

Investment seeking Bangladesh's economy is hungry for local and international finance for its infrastructure development. One Belt-One Road (OBOR) seems opened a golden door, not only for Bangladesh's economic reform but also created an opportunity for higher bilateral cooperation between China and Bangladesh. The geographical location of Bangladesh is playing a vital role despite being a small economy and territory in the region. Covering three sides of the Bangladeshi border, economically emerging state India has a sharp eye look on Bangladesh's strategies and policies more than any other time. The hostile looks of India (on China's OBOR initiative) are not an easy task for Bangladesh regarding Geopolitical & Economic strategies. Growing interests in Bangladesh among China and India appeared as a two-edged sword. However, India was the major trading partner of Bangladesh. However, China's trade with Bangladesh has increased manifold in recent years to surpass India from 2004 onwards. This is slowing down, and the change of economic relations between India and Bangladesh, coupled with strained and uncertain political relations, raises multiple concerns. Many dynamics have contributed to China's growing presence in Bangladesh compared to India's decline concerning trade and investment. India has lost out to China in many vital industries. While reviewing and assessing recent developments, the study also depicts a strategy to counter India's declining economic influence in Bangladesh.

This study assesses the effect of green human resource management (GHRM) practices (overall) on the organization’s environmental performance (OEP) and to identify how the organizations can improve their EP by using GHRM practices through Green Employee Empowerment (GEE). The study was based on a questionnaire survey of 340 responses from the manufacturing sectors; the key respondents were one from each industry limited to top management, HR manager, quality manager, or employee of manufacturing firms. The questionnaires were tested for reliability and validity. To evaluate the hypothesis, data was examined using the PLS path modeling technique. The empirical findings show that the GHRM practices (overall) have a significant effect on OEP, and GEE mediates their relation. This research has theoretically contributed to the green HRM/HRM literature by establishing a link between GHRM practices and their EP outcomes in manufacturing companies. This study adds to the body of knowledge by looking at the indirect impacts of GHRM practices on OEP via GEE. The findings suggested that GHRM practices might lead employees to green empowerment in order to improve environmental performance.

In this study, we review the literature to find how the financial development of a country attracts foreign direct investments for a sustainable real sector development of the country. The area is least focused on literature. Thus we don’t limit our search and review to any time or database or journal category. We find the theoretical logic and empirical evidence so far available in the literature. Our review finds that the development of the financial sector of a country is one of the most important attractors of FDIs. Theoretically, financial sector development works as a symbol of trust and goodness to the new potential investors and a good resource allocation channel for the existing investors. However, very few researchers find that FDIs are more prone to countries with a low developed financial system which may happen due to the presence of risk-taker foreign investors and risk-averse domestic entrepreneurs.

Online reviews play a significant role in supporting consumers to make purchase decisions across provided platforms. Many studies examine the characteristics of online reviews and their impacts, nevertheless, only a few studies examine the perceived value from online reviews. This study provides the integration view by utilizing the systematic approach to synthesize 36 academic papers out of 661 searched papers between January 1st, 2011, and December 22nd, 2019.  The contribution of researchers in studying the perceived value is increasing significantly and continuously since 2018.  There are two main types of online reviews regardless of online platforms: Expert-written reviews and customer-written reviews. Perceived values can be derived from online review and be transmitted to online review simultaneously upon the content of studies. The framing of questions for a review focus on five key questions and to illustrate by providing the mind mapping of perceived value to reveal components and relationship among them. The finding emphasizes the research contents of existing research and research allocation, analysis of techniques used, theories, methodologies used, implications in different industrial sectors to enhance the understanding of this relevant information, ambiguous meanings, and development of areas that lack attention in the past decade. Besides, the indication of studies could identify the importance of perceived values that has a greater impact on consumers in the pre-stage of purchase decision.   

The present study investigates the follower's voice behavior (FVB) as a mediator and follower power distance orientation (FPDO) as a moderator in relationship with Benevolent Paternalistic Leadership Behavior (BPLB) and followers' radical creativity (FRC) with an Asian context based on the social exchange and social learning theory. The study is quantitative and deductive, which surveyed 272 manufacturing industry leaders-followers used to collect the data. Findings show that BPLB with higher follower’s voice behavior directly or indirectly enhances the FRC. When the leader-follower collaborative exchange or interactions are high/low, followers' responsibility and accountability are also high/low, which determines follower’s radical creativity. In contrast, the leader-follower relationship is obfuscated and blinded when the leader's subordinates' cooperative voice engagement or involvement is low congruously. Manufacturing industries should engage in leadership training that can promote creativity and innovation. Although considering the limitation and the study provides the theoretical, managerial, and practical implication for the managers, policymakers, governmental authority, and society

The rapid developments and diffusion of new technologies abruptly changed world dynamics. This study pursued the motivational factors (controlled and autonomous) and technology factors (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) to predict the students perceived satisfaction and continued intention toward MOOCs. Using an online survey, this research collected data from 333 students, and analysis performed through PLS-SEM. The findings revealed that controlled motivation positively influenced the perceived satisfaction. However, autonomous motivation positively affected students perceived satisfaction and continued intention toward MOOCs. The technology factors such as PEU strongly impacted PU. Similarly, PU positively impacted students perceived satisfaction and continued intention toward MOOCs. This research guides essential theoretical insights and provides practical guidelines to educational institutions and technologists to develop and implement systems and strategies in online environments.

The Covid-19 pandemic restricted the people around the world's boundaries. Therefore, online learning's importance increased in the current era, an essential topic for current research. Students are actively using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) while restricted at their homes during the Covid-19 pandemic. This research investigates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) and quality factors to predict the users perceived satisfaction and reuse intentions toward MOOCs in the Covid-19 pandemic. We collected data from three public universities in Wuhan, China and 298 users who were actively using MOOCs participated in this research. The proposed hypotheses were tested by using PLS-SEM. The findings revealed that effort expectancy and social influence directly impacted users' reuse intentions while performance expectancy and perceived course quality positively impacted users' reuse intentions through perceived satisfaction toward MOOCs. This research found the critical role of perceived satisfaction in the current pandemic era. Finally, this research provides important theoretical implications for the researchers and practical implications for the developers, technologists, and policymakers for developing effective systems and strategies in online environments. In addition, this study revealed some limitations and future research guidelines for the researchers.

This article aims to test and provide empirical evidence of the moderated mediating role that plays moral identity in explaining auditor’s ethical decision making based on Jones' model of moral intensity. Therefore, this research proposes a moderated mediation model where moral identity accessibility mediates the relationship between perceived moral intensity and auditors’ moral judgment. Moreover, Moral identity centrality is tested as a moderator variable for this socio-cognitive model. This study used random sampling methods for external senior auditors operating in audit firms in Morocco. Data obtained by 125 respondents and processed with SmartPLS. The results show that the impact of an auditor’s perceived moral intensity on his moral judgment is fully mediated by moral identity accessibility and moderated by moral identity centrality. Auditor’s moral intensity perception seems to trigger the access to moral identity which in turn affects positively the moral judgment based on how central is moral identity to the individual.

This study aims to develop and test a holistic model that depicts and examines the relationships among job autonomy, its drivers, as well as autonomous motivation and influence employee engagement. This research is among the first works to deal with such a complex framework that considers the interrelationships among numerous constructs and their effects on employee engagement. A questionnaire was designed to measure the influence of Job autonomy and its drivers on employee engagement while taking into consideration the impact of turbulent times and organizational commitment on these relationships. Data collected from a sample of 317 respondents working in Ethiopian commercial banks were used to test the proposed relationships. The relationships were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using the Smart PLS 3 software and SPSS version 26. PLS is a well-established technique for estimating path coefficients in structural models and has been widely used in a number of research studies.  The proposed model proved to be fit. The findings of this study suggest that creating job autonomy and assuring autonomous motivation, may help companies gain employee engagement and enhance their performance. The adoption and implementation of such activities are driven by method, criteria, and scheduling autonomy. The successful implementation of these practices requires considering the level of turbulent environment and organizational tenure. The hypotheses were supported, and implications were discussed