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Innovation is the only way of solution to achieve sustainable growth, social welfare and employment in a country. This study principally focuses on the relationship between growth and innovation in the light of information derived from a general literature review about definition, sources and risks of innovation, and measurement of innovation performance. Then, the contributions of innovative capability on economic growth and employment as well as innovation systems on a country basis have been discussed, and accordingly, actions to be taken, including a shift in paradigm, for a growth-innovation-national innovation system and its sustainability have been addressed. In addition, current innovation performance indicators of Turkey have been discussed in the light of a scope which is outlined in the initial sections of the study, and the change in such performance indicators between 1998 and 2009 has been examined. After analysis of the above mentioned criteria and comparisons against practices in developed countries and communities, suggestions have been made about the activities to be carried out in order to make Turkey’s current innovation system “sustainable”, to support and improve innovation. In the study, a research application has been conducted using the content analysis method on the “President’s Message” letters of 158 state and foundation universities that are located in Turkey and that have a website, and the importance accorded to innovation by the universities has been determined.

The accelerated advancement in technology resulted to the appearance of Self Service Technology. One form of self-service technology in the banking sector is the presence of mobile banking. This study aims to examine the influence of five factors toward the reusing of Mobile Bank Central Asia (BCA) in Bandung. Those factors used in this study were the extension of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) constructs, i.e perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived credibility, customer awareness and social influence. Data was collected through distributed questionnaire to 100 respondents who used Mobile BCA by using judgment sampling. Multiple linear regression technique was employed to investigate the influence among variables. This study empirically concluded that consumer intention to reuse BCA mobile services was positively influenced by social influence, customer awareness and perceived ease of use. On the other hand, perceived usefulness and perceived credibility did not influence the intention of reusing Mobile BCA in Bandung. Further study is suggested to use probability sampling technique to cover the real voice of mobile banking user in Bandung and to explore the lack influence of perceived usefulness and perceived credibility toward reusing of Mobile BCA.

The employment policy is one of the most disputable areas between Turkey and the EU. The EU declared two opening conditions, one about union rights and the other one about preparing an action plan displaying step by step the transposing of EU laws. Although Turkey claims that she met those criteria, the EU insists on keeping the accession negotiations in this area closed. However, there is serious gap between Turkish and European employment policies and in order to comply with the EU’s, there is a strong need of enthusiasm in Turkey for proper implementation of changes made in legal and institutional structures. Simultaneously, the EU has to offer a considerable incentive, e.g. membership, for Turkey to encourage her to adapt EU rules in employment policy. Unfortunately, it is argued in this paper that the current situation is the opposite, i.e. there is no substantial incentive from the EU to encourage Turkey and thus, no enthusiasm from Turkey to comply with the EU policy. In order to analyze the impact of the EU on Turkey’s employment policy the main question designed in this paper is: ‘To what extent does the EU have influence on policy convergence in a candidate country that does not have a clear membership perspective? ‘. It is argued in this study that “without a concrete incentive, European Union’s impact on a candidate country would be limited”.  Thus, the patterns of policy change at the national level are the dependent variable to be observed. The European Union’s conditionality is the independent variable that is expected to alter the national patterns.

This paper examines the relationship between the lobbying power of different interest groups and public education spending in a panel data estimation during the period 1996-2009 for 132 countries. The resource rents, manufacture exports, and agriculture value added are used as proxy variables for the lobbying power of the natural resource owners, manufacturers, and landowners, respectively, in order to substantiate the definition of the lobbying power of the interest groups more with economic fundamentals. As lobbying power is mediated through political institutions, different governance indicators are used individually and in interaction terms with the proxy variables in the estimations. It is found that when the country is more politically stable and the more the rule of law applies, the negative (positive) effect of the lobbying power of natural resource owners (manufacturers) on public education spending intensifies. The negative effect of landowners’ lobbying power diminishes as institutional quality as measured by governance indicators improves.    

This paper investigates constraints and complexities affecting entrepreneurial and Agri-business small-scale communal cattle farming success and sustainability in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, South Africa. The respondent entrepreneur farmers were randomly selected (n=55) amongst 183 other farmers for primary data collection. A semi-structured cross-language (English-Tshivenda) questionnaire was employed to gather the data. Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were also employed. The results of this paper revealed that the entrepreneur farmers’ formal school educational levels and basic literacy skills in addition; subtraction; multiplication and division were reasonably higher while technological skills in farm risk management and production, and managerial competence in business financial skills; budgeting and marketing were low amongst the farmers. Government extension service could be employed to improve some of these deficient skills through skills training programmes for the farmers. Institutions of higher learning such as the University of Venda and Madzivhandila Agricultural College could be utilized for the trainings. 

Private use of public office for private gain could be a tentative connotation of corruption and most distasteful event of corruption is that it is not there, nor that it is pervasive, but it is socially acknowledged in the global economy, especially in the developing nations. In the present paper we attempt to assess the interrelationship between the Corruption perception index (CPI) and the principal components of governance indicators as per World Bank Governance Indicators like Control of Corruption (CC), Rule of Law (RL), Regulatory Quality (RQ) and Government Effectiveness (GE). Applying Granger Causality Test the study observes a mixed or inconclusive result. Only bilateral causal link between the CPI and CC works for UK, whereas there are unilateral causal links between the CPI and one or more governance indicators working for other countries for France, Japan, China, India, Thailand and South Africa. In no way causalities are observed for USA, Germany and Brazil.

Researchers have increasingly adopted a web survey for data collection. Previous studies have examined factors leading to a web survey’s success. However, virtually no empirical work has examined the effects of the three levels of forced responses or the two styles of question items displayed on a web survey’s response rate. The current study attempted to fill this void. Using a quasi-experiment approach, we obtained 778 unique responses to six comparable web questionnaires of identical content. The analysis confirmed that (1) there were statistically significant differences across the surveys with the 100%-, 50%- and 0%-forced responses, and (2) there is not a significant difference between the response rates between surveys with scrolling and those with paging styles. In addition to extending the theoretical insight into factors contributing to a web survey’s response rate, the findings have offered recommendations to enhance the response rate in a web survey project.

Determining the optimal capital structure is one of the most fundamental policy decisions faced by financial managers. Since optimal debt ratio influences firm’s value, different firms determine capital structures at different levels to maximize the value of their firms. Thus, this study examines the relationship between leverage and firm specific (profitability, tangibility, growth, risk, size and liquidity) determinants of capital structure decision, and the theories of capital structure that can explain the capital structure of banks in Ethiopia. In order to investigate these issues a mixed method research approach is utilized, by combining documentary analysis and in-depth interviews. More specifically, the study uses twelve years (2000 - 2011) data for eight banks in Ethiopia.   The findings show that profitability, size, tangibility and liquidity of the banks are important determinants of capital structure of banks in Ethiopia. However, growth and risk of banks are found to have no statistically significant impact on the capital structure of banks in Ethiopia. In addition, the results of the analysis indicate that pecking order theory is pertinent theory in Ethiopian banking industry, whereas there are little evidence to support static trade-off theory and the agency cost theory. Therefore, banks should give consideration to profitability, size, liquidity and tangibility when they determine their optimum capital structure.

This paper analyzes the determinants of domestic private investment in Pakistan using long time series data for the period 1982 to 2012. The conventional variable such as output is not significant in explaining the domestic private investment but the interest rate has significant negative effect on private investment in the long run. The results of the study confirm the validity of crowding in hypothesis and debt overhang hypothesis for Pakistan. This study did not find any support for Mackinnon-Shaw hypothesis. The improvement in law and order condition and existence of democratic political regime in the country has significant positive effect on domestic private investment in the long run. The focus on non-conventional variables could restore investors’ confidence and may result in the recovery of domestic private investment in the country.

This research paper examines the corporate dividend payout behaviors of non-financial firms from Istanbul Stock Exchange (Borsa Istanbul). Survey method is conducted to investigate managerial views on corporate dividend policy. The study investigates whether the evidence in Turkish stock market on dividend policy is similar to the European and the U.S. firms’ results which are reported earlier by other studies, and moreover in what extent Lintner’s (1956) findings on dividends is supported by today’s listed firms in an emerging market. The financial managers from 38 firms out of 216 non-financial companies responded the survey. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between cash dividends and earnings. Earnings are viewed as the most important factor in dividend decision like in European and the U.S. firms. Sustainable change in earnings, stability and level of future earnings, and the desire to distribute a proportion of earnings to shareholders are the common determinants of dividend policy. The majority of the respondents reports that they target dividends. Dividend yield is the most common measure for dividend targeting. Share repurchases are not viewed as alternative to dividend payouts unlike the U.S. firms. The study finds supporting evidences for bird-in-the-hand and signaling hypotheses, and Lintner’s model.

In a data set, an outlier refers to a data point that is considerably different from the others. Detecting outliers provides useful application-specific insights and leads to choosing right prediction models. Outlier detection (also known as anomaly detection or novelty detection) has been studied in statistics and machine learning for a long time. It is an essential preprocessing step of data mining process. In this study, outlier detection step in the data mining process is applied for identifying the top 20 outlier firms. Three outlier detection algorithms are utilized using fundamental analysis variables of firms listed in Borsa Istanbul for the 2011-2014 period. The results of each algorithm are presented and compared. Findings show that 15 different firms are identified by three different outlier detection methods. KCHOL and SAHOL have the greatest number of appearances with 12 observations among these firms. By investigating the results, it is concluded that each of three algorithms makes different outlier firm lists due to differences in their approaches for outlier detection.

This study empirically investigates the causal relationship between construction production and GDP for Turkey during 2005Q1-2013Q4 period. Because it is found that, there is no cointegration which means there is no long run relationship between variables, VAR Granger Causality Method is used to test the causality in short run. The findings reveal that, the causality runs from GDP to Building Production and Building Production to Non-Building Production (i.e. bidirectional relationship). Findings of this paper suggest that, because there is no long run relationship between Construction Production (Building and Non-Building) and GDP and also in short run the causality runs from GDP to Construction Production, the growth strategy based on mainly Construction Sector growth is not a good idea for Turkey.

In modern age, positive psychological capital is as important as financial capital for organizational development and sustainability. Efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience are the dimensions of positive psychological capital. Emotional labor is defined by Hochschild as control of self emotions at work by workers who have a high degree of contact with coworkers within the organization or with external clients, so as to create an expression, voice or body gesture which is acceptible to the clients. Emotional labor is analysized under three components: surface acting, deep acting and naturally felt emotions. This study is aimed to investigate the impact of positive psychological capital on emotional labor. So a research is conducted with the aim of exploring the relationship between the sub-dimensions of psychological capital and emotional labour.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between teamwork and organizational trust. In the implementation section the data from the survey of 250 workers is employed in call centers in Erzurum by using relevant statistical methods. Consequently, it is found that there is a positive and significant relationship between teamwork and organizational trust. Thus, the hypothesis of the study is supported as it was expected. Besides, it is found that there are positive and significant relationships between communication, openness to innovation, participation-trust in teamwork and organizational trust, trust in management, trust in co-workers, and trust in workplace.

Since Sub-Saharan Africa's first independence in Ghana, the region has experienced massive and costly political and bureaucratic corruption within public service and administration. The causes of the corruption, its nature and form are wide and intertwined. In Sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to curb corruption have failed to discard it. The paper focused on the period from Nkruma in Ghana to Mutharika the 2nd in Malawi. This paper reviewed existing literature on political and bureaucratic corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa while on the other hand the paper employed key informant interviews to gather the required data to investigate, analyse and profile the genesis and evolution of corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa. The key informant interviews were employed to solicit public views and opinion from nineteen key informant participants (n=19) selected from 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper found that corruption is legendary; has entrenched itself to becoming some sort of culture in the region, and has become the most difficult socio-economic challenge to resolve in the region despite the various anti-corruption efforts employed by stakeholders to curb it. It emerged through the study that law-enforcement efforts against corruption need some reinforcement in order to be effective and eficient in uprooting corruption in the region. If Sub-Saharan Africa fails to address its corruption challenge, its development prospects would seriously curtailed.

The Chinese economy has reached approximately average annual growth of 9% after economic reform era that began in 1978. This economic development miracle resulted from by exploiting the economic potential of internal factors in a complimentary external environment.  Main aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of the global competitiveness of Chinese economy by considering economic development process of the Chinese economy and World Economic Forum the Global Competitiveness Index. It is vital to understand the determinants of global competitiveness for the Chinese economy in order to achieve sustainable economic development path in the highly competitive world economy conditions. The result of the study shows that the Chinese economy has strong global competitiveness indicators beside some problematic indicators. The Chinese economy is becoming more competitive by improving bottlenecks and structural problems. On the other hand the Chinese economy have to transform from cheap labour-intensive competitive advantage into high-tech innovative country with high qualified human capital in order to achieve sustainable economic growth in the long term.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the reasons for differences in national migration policies. European societies are struggling with the problem of how to best include the immigrants in their social structures.  Although national migration policies in Europe have developed some common elements in recent years the contents and structure of national programmes vary widely in terms of their scope, goals, target groups and the institutional actors involved. The main question of the paper is “What explains the different migration policies of countries?” To answer the question, after mentioning the current differences within the European Union in terms of their migration policies, the paper will take Germany and France as examples which demonstrate sharply different cases of immigrant integration policies in the public course.

This paper attempts to empirically examine the Reverse Causality hypothesis within the Nigerian context during the period 1980 – 2011. Employing Vector Error Correction Methodology (VECM), causality was found between inflation and government stocks, with causality running from government stocks to inflation, thus providing evidence in support of the reverse causality hypothesis. The results from the forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD) and impulse response functions tend to further lend credence to this finding. Accordingly, this study suggests, in part, the need for a tight monetary policy which would help to reduce inflation and stock prices, as such measures would leave the individuals with less money to buy stocks. Such efforts should be complemented by augmenting domestic production and encouraging investment through inexpensive bank finance. 

The paper aims to identify the similarities and differences in the emphases and patterns that military and civilian managers attribute to strategy. Two different analysis methods were employed in order to achieve abovementioned research objective. In the first method, the aim was to reveal and compare strategy understanding of the sample groups. Towards that end, ten different strategy definitions and nine different necessity statements compiled from various definitions/statements in the existing strategic management literature were provided to the samples. Then, the samples were requested to consider how strategy and necessity of strategy is formed in their minds, and then to choose top three definitions out of 9/10, and finally rank them in preference order, from one to three.  Lastly, we counted the ranks/perceived importance of the various strategy definitions and necessity statements that which statement is ranked to which place. Using mean rank assessment by nonparametric comparison method the study shows differences between military and civilian managers in following aspect: the comparison of the emphases that are attributed to approach to strategy identified significant differences among business and military managers. Concisely, the paper reveals the varying perceptions of business and military managers on strategy based on their personal perceptions.

Financial crises have regularly afflicted economies throughout history and the United States has been no exception.  This paper examines the Panic of 1907, the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression and the Great Recession of 2007-08 and discusses the responses of the government and regulators.  The short version of the story is that the while the government response has varied in terms of monetary and fiscal policy, the regulatory response has remained essentially the same.  The typical reactive regulation sounds good and gives the appearance of accomplishing something but, in fact, only serves to sow the seeds of future crises. The ineffective implementation of existing regulation has had a similar result. Indeed, several authors note that most financial innovation in recent years has its origins in circumventing new regulations. Likewise, government monetary and fiscal responses may or may not help the economy and often give the appearance of great arbitrariness.  Our conclusion is that there will be unforeseen financial crises in the future, sweeping regulation and promises of recent politicians notwithstanding.  Serious study of the unanticipated consequences of this regulation and the development of more robust risk management systems will help us mitigate the effects of future crises but will be of little assistance when it comes to avoiding them. Developing the analyses and risk management systems requires a detailed study of financial history keep both successes and failures fresh in our collective memory.