Explore publications.

The study sought to determine the influence of human resource planning on firm performance of firms listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange in Kenya. The study was anchored on human capital theory and shareholder value maximization theory. The research design used was a cross-sectional survey while the study population constituted all the 68 listed firms at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) as in May 2017. The target population included the head of human resources and finance directors in all the listed firms. The sample size comprised of 136 respondents, and data was collected through structured questionnaires to meet the objectives of the study. Responses were tabulated, coded, and processed by the use of a computer Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyze the data. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to analyze the data. To test hypotheses, a simple linear model was used to test significance between the independent and dependent variable. The study findings revealed that the relationship between human resource planning and firm performance was positive and statistically significant and hence rejected the null hypothesis. The study concluded that the type and strategy of the firm, succession planning, matching skills with jobs and skills inventory are human resource planning indicators influencing the performance of firms listed in the NSE. It is therefore recommended that firms should continue to practice and maintain adequate human resource planning as it plays a fundamental role in achieving the objectives of the organizations.

Univariate Time Series Models [TSM] use only a Panel of historical data to produce forecasts. The tacit belief in using TSM is that the past information portends the future of the longitudinal data-stream. This is likely in certain cases such as strictly Ergodic Panel segments of sufficient size in the overall Panel. A question of interest is: Is the success of TSM in these contexts generalizable? The test of this question used a Litmus-Test design to examine the performance profile of TSM for a longitudinal time series the last point of which is a Turning Point [TP]. Specifically, the inference measure will use the Relative Absolute Error [RAE] of the TSM tested over three forecasting horizons. In this testing, five TSM configurations were employed; the TPs are identified using a fixed screening filter applied to randomly selected firm Panels actively traded on the S&P500 from 2005 through 2013.  There is no evidence that any of the five TSM outperformed the RW model which is incidentally the TP. The impact of these results is that one cannot assume that the effectiveness of TSM generalizes to all domains—in particular—forecasting after TPs that seems to be a Domain Lacuna where the effectiveness of TSM will be compromised.


 
 
 
 Political trust is important for the effective functioning of government. This paper uses cross country regression analysis to see whether three different measures of economic performance matter for political trust. The results lend support to the hypothesis that political trust is influenced by economic growth, the standard of living, and the appropriate use of government spending. In addition, the paper considers two institutional variables, perceived independence of the judiciary and the degree of democracy to assess their effect on political trust. It finds that perceived judicial independence has a positive effect on political trust, but democracy has a negative effect.