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Big Data has recently been used for many purposes like medicine, marketing and sports. It has helped improve management decisions. However, for almost each case a unique data warehouse should be built to benefit from the merits of data mining and Big Data. Hence, each time we start from scratch to form and build a Big Data Warehouse. In this study, we propose a Big Data Warehouse and a model for universities to be used for information management, to be more specific gossip management. The overall model is a decision support system that may help university administraitons when they are making decisions and also provide them with information or gossips being circulated among students and staff. In the model, unsupervised machine learning algorithms have been employed. A prototype of the proposed system has also been presented in the study. User generated data has been collected from students in order to learn gossips and students’ problems related to school, classes, staff and instructors. The findings and results of the pilot study suggest that social media messages among students may give important clues for the happenings at school and this information may be used for management purposes.The model may be developed and implemented by not only universities but also some other organisations.

Safranbolu is typical ottoman city with classical wooden houses, buildings and streets. With these characteristics Safranbolu located in world heritage list of UNESCO. Tourism is one of the most important activities in Safranbolu economy. Safranbolu is competing with its rivals to attract more visitors and earn more income from tourism. Though Safranbolu hosts many visitors, we can’t say that it seizes the opportunity to use its potential. Most probably, if Safranbolu uses all of its potential city can host more visitors and earn more from tourism. Our aim is to reveal strong and weak sides of Safranbolu city, opportunities and threads in this competition. By this way, Safranbolu can activate its potential and get more profit from tourism. To this aim, we conducted a survey to owner and administrators of Safranbolu touristic enterprises and analyses the results. We revealed interesting results about Safranbolu Tourism sector.

This paper explores complexities and constraints affecting performance and output of physical science learners in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study was motivated by the desire of the researcher to establish, profile and characterise the complexities and constraints reminiscence of poor performance of learners in physical science as measured through end-of-year Grade 12 (final year of high school education) examination results. Twenty six schools (n=26) were purposively selected from three circuits of education (n=3). From these schools, two learners were randomly selected (n=52) for interviews. In addition, two circuit managers (n=2) were conveniently selected as part of Key Informant Interviews (KII). For the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), twelve (n=12) parents were randomly selected to form two groups of six members each. Multi-factor complexities and constraints impeding performance of learners were discovered. Intensive teacher in-service programme is recommended. Community engagement should be encouraged to educate parents on the value of involvement in the education of their children. Free access learner support structures such as Homework and Extra-lessons Assistance Centre (H&EACs) should be established.

Many businesses have obtained cheap raw materials thanks to recycling and recovery activities. The aim of this study is to describe the logistics activities performed by businesses and to identify the main reasons of reverse logistics appliance. The research is a case study defined as “integrated  multi-case design” type. For this purpose, 23 industrial enterprises were examined in the scope of sample. Because the data obtained via unstructured interview form, they have qualitative characters. The single answers were used as analysis unit in this study, descriptive and discourse analyses were performed on qualitative data. Some sentences were quoted directly. The obtained results were submitted to the approval of the respondents. Thereby, it was contributed to construct validity of the research by creating evidence chain. It seems reasonable to conclude that the most commonly applied ones among reverse logistics operations are storing, selling to a mediary, destruction, recycling, regulation of customer returns new repackaging and resale. The results showed that reverse logistics operations were performed for some reasons such as providing raw materials, saving in production, raising the level of consciousness of environmental responsibility and awareness taking part in social responsibility project and consumer rights.

Freshwater fish output is taken as a proxy variable for empirical assessment of indirect benefits in terms of enhanced quantity of freshwater fish (output) cultivation. It is not unlikely to assess empirically the productivity of subsidized public scheme when rural development or rural asset generations are underlined in the said scheme, MGNREG Act, 2005. Rainwater harvesting is a major component part of the scheme since about 49.5 per cent of the total fund is already utilized on water conservation and obviously it has an impact on the cultivation of freshwater fish output. Time series data on annual expenditure on MGNREG and corresponding freshwater fish output at the state level are taken during the period 2006-07 to 2013-14 for 16 major Indian states. Fixed effect model and random effect models are being applied and the Hausman specification test suggests that fixed effect model is more appropriate than random effect model. Significant differences among the intercepts of the selected states are revealed as per F test. The results of fixed effect panel regression establish that fish output is enhanced by 0.000257 thousand tones or 0.26 tones if MGNREG expenditure rises by one crore or 10 million rupees. 

Dynamic competition conditions in present day bring about the consequence for businesses to face varied problems with each passing day. At this point, current management approaches include studies that would shed light on the new problems of businesses. Organizational Silence, a concept that has recently been being voiced in business world, has come up in such context. Organizational silence could be expressed as the employee behavior of keeping silent about certain negativities due to various reasons in an organization. Since knowledge sharing in modern organizations is of capital importance in terms of responding hastily to the changes in a competitive environment, spread of this behavior of employees to organization culture and climate presents a threat of indifference. In this study, the concept of Organizational Silence is defined and the effects of conceived silence climate on management of organizations are discussed.

This study has been completed with a purpose to analyze and compare perceptions of clients of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of Croatian clients about IT security in online banking, to provide insight into similarities and differences of their view points and to create important set of information for all subjects active in banking industry. Once the survey based on six variables and specific questions assigned to each one of those variables was prepared, results regarding both countries were collected and concluded. Survey was completed in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia at high response rates. Even 207 respondents replied from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while 203 respondents completed survey from Croatia. Results were analyzed and presented using descriptive statistics. Results indicated that Croatian e-banking users trust to banks when it comes to IT security of online banking much more compared to clients of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is important to mention that clients of Croatia perceive tangible features as highly significant while Bosnian clients do not perceive tangible features that much important. This proved that Croatian clients are aware of potential security threats and they know their part of responsibility when it comes to handling money online. On the other hand, results from Bosnia and Herzegovina indicated that Bosnian clients have lack of trust in online banking, and lack of awareness about personal tangible aspects that can improve security of personal online banking experience. The main limitation of this study is relatively small sample and too generic approach. Therefore, this study may be perceived as a pilot study for future researchers. The study’s results may be of interest to marketers and managers of banks operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia to learn more about their clients’ perceptions towards their e-banking services.

Using bank level data this paper examines how bank’s specific characteristics and macroeconomic indicators affect the profitability in the Tunisian banking industry over the period 1990–2008. The results indicate that the more profitable banks are those higher amount of capital and lower operating costs. Furthermore, it appears that private banks tend to perform better than state owned ones.  Despite the great importance given to the board of directors, it doesn't have a dominant role in the Tunisian commercial banks. Finally, turning to macroeconomic conditions and its impact on banks’ profitability, we find that the real interest rate has a positive effect on bank profitability.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the market structure and degree of concentration of Bangladeshi banking industry. The study measured market concentration by using widely recognized measures like k-bank concentration ratio and Herfindahl-Hirchman Index (HHI). It evaluates market structure by applying Panzar-Rosse Model over 8 years period from 2006 to 2013. The result of concentration measures indicates a decreasing trend and low level of market concentration in Bangladeshi banking industry over the sample period. The panzer-Rosse “H-Statistic” suggests that banks in Bangladesh are operating under monopolistic competition. Present paper contributes to a burgeoning literature on banking competition that has evolved significantly over the past periods on a developing country perspective like Bangladesh.

Energy efficient technologies contributed substantially to reducing greenhouse gases emissions and contribute to economic growth. Lebanon is facing a serious problem in meeting the population’s excessive demand of electricity this fact urged consumers to lower electricity consumption and seriously rely on alternative energy sources. One of the mature technologies is the Solar Water Heater (SWH), which is considered a key element in shaping households’ demand for electricity and reducing electricity bills. In this paper, SWHs are considered as an environmental innovation. In the Lebanese market, SWH have received considerable attention through implementation of various national initiatives to boost the up-take of this type of micro-generation technology. Regardless of various initiatives, adoption of this technology still has low levels in several Lebanese regions. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze consumers’ resistance to green innovations; particularly studying SWH. The paper relies on the Innovation Resistance Theory to better identify the resistance process that consumers pass through. Data were collected from 150 households in the North region of Lebanon through self-administered questionnaire. The results were analyzed using Cronbach’s alpha for reliability and linear regression analysis. The current study indicated that value and tradition factors had significant impact on consumers’ resistance to innovations. Finally, the author calls for research on resistance of other kinds of green innovations in order to validate the ability of Innovation Resistance Theory to explain resistance of energy efficient technologies.Economic growth; Consumers; Innovation Resistance Theory; Green innovations; Solar Water Heaters.

<p><em>Bank distress poses threats to financial intermediation process with serious detrimental effect on the economy. Despite all attempts made by the supervisory authorities, the problem appears to defy already established approach and the menace still continues to resurface. Hence, the need to investigate the effects of bank distress on the Nigerian economy. The cointegration and error correction mechanism were used to test the data which covers a period of thirty-one  (31) years from 1982 to 2012. The research findings revealed that the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans, and total loans and advances have significant negative effect on economic growth with p-values of 0.0240 and 0.0445 respectively. Also, total bank deposit and cash reserve ratio have significant positive effect on economic growth with p-values of 0.0020 and 0.0374 respectively. The implication of this result is that the Nigerian economy is significantly affected by bank distress. The paper suggests that careful evaluation of loan proposals should always be carried out by banks to determine the viability of the projects and the repayment of the principal sum and its interest ensured to prevent weak asset quality. </em></p>

<p><em>The aim of this research paper is to examine the Jordanian banks using financial soundness indicators. This is to establish if Jordanian banks were affected because of the 2007/2008 financial crisis and determine the underlying reasons. The research paper was conducted on 25 banks in Jordan listed in the countries securities exchange. The research methodology used consisted of examining the banks financial records in order to derive four crucial Basel III ratio such as the capital adequacy ratio, the leverage ratio, the liquidity ratio and finally the Total Provisions (As % Of Non-Performing Loans) %. The results revealed that out of the four hypotheses under examination Jordan Banks do not meet Basel financial Indicators for Capital Adequacy Ratio, Jordan Banks does not meet Basel financial Indicators for Liquidity Ratio , Jordan Banks do not meet Basel financial Indicators for Leverage Ratio and Jordan Banks do not meet Basel financial Indicators for Total Provisions (As % Of Non-Performing Loans) ratio. Only one hypothesis was accepted based on the research outcomes. The rest of the hypothesis was rejected since the average trend line did not go below the Basel III required ratio level. The general outcome of the research revealed that Jordanian banks were not affected significantly by the financial crisis.</em></p>

<p><em>We investigate bank profitability in Ghana using periods before, during and after the globe financial crises with the five step du-pont model for the first time. We adapt the variable of the five step du-pont model to explain bank profitability with a panel data of twenty-five banks in Ghana from 2006 to 2012. To ensure meaningful generalization robust errors fixed and random effects models are used.Our empirical results suggests that bank operating activities (operating profit margin), bank efficiency (asset turnover), bank leverage (asset to equity) and financing cost (interest burden)  were positive and significant determinants of bank profitability (ROE) during the period of study implying that bank in Ghana can boost return to equity holders through the above mentioned variables.. We further report that the five step du-pont model better explains the total variation (94%) in bank profitability in Ghana as compared to earlier findings suggesting that bank specific variables are keen in explaining ROE in banks in Ghana. We cited no empirical study that has employed five step du-pont model making our study unique and different from earlier studies as we assert that bank specific variables are core to explaining bank profitability.</em></p>

<p><em>The present paper measured the influence of the oil prices on the Islamic banking efficiencies scores during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. The study showed that there is no a direct relationship between the oil prices and the efficiencies scores of Islamic banks in the MENA area. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that Islamic banks in the GCC area showed a higher mean in pure technical efficiency compared to Islamic banks in the North African and other MENA. Islamic banks in other MENA countries and North Africa considered to be technically inefficient. The inefficiencies were due to the underdeveloped banking system and the lack of experiences in those countries to allocate resources between the bank inputs and outputs. </em></p>

<p><em>This piece of work seeks to perform detailed review and analysis of those factors that precipitated global financial and economic crises in 2008 with a focus on the United Kingdom economy. Impacts of the crises from both micro and macro economy perspectives are also analysed in conjunction with the sudden change in government policies from less rigid fiscal prudence, price stability, unsupportive employment policies as well as weak financial services supervision to unconventional stiff fiscal and monetary policies as well as hard core financial regulations with a primary aim to cleaning up the economic and the financial mess that characterised the meltdown. To finalise this work, it is concluded that efficiency of policy actions to address the economic menace to a large extent, helped British Economy to get out of the crisis despite that all the measures adopted were not considered to be perfect in its entirety. Other potential areas of study are also identified. </em></p>

<p><em>The great recession heralded in by the subprime mortgage crisis, took a dramatic turn for worse as a result of collapse of the Lehman Brothers bank in September 2008. The crisis deemed to be the most devastating after the Great Depression of 1929, had a debilitating effect on world economies, developing and advanced alike.  The extent of its devastation which is still being felt in Europe and many parts of the globe reminds us the interconnectedness of financial institutions, particularly those tagged TBTF or SIFIs. Policy makers scrambled to curtail the ugly effect of the crisis by rescuing the SIFIs within their jurisdiction largely through bailout mechanism and provision of implicit guarantee for the debts of failing/failed institutions. As soon as the tide is stemmed, they cast their gaze on new crisis resolution and recovery measures that could rein in systemic risks associated with SIFIs, prevent future crises and reduce the concomitant moral hazards in the current resolution measures. The objective of this paper is to assess ex ante the potential impacts of implementing the new Banking recovery and resolution directives on Europe’s TBTF banks.</em></p>

<p><em>Banking industry worldwide has been transformed due to globalization, financial liberalization, technological developments, government policies, deregulation of financial services, financial crises and increase in mergers and acquisitions since 1980. With these changes, there is a trend towards decrease in the number of banks and increase in banking concentration. Increase in banking concentration might affect competition conditions in banking industry. The decrease in the number of banks and the increase in banking concentration dominate the Turkish banking industry after the banking crises in 2000 and 2001. This paper examines the relationship between concentration and competition in Turkish banking industry. I measure the size of banking concentration by concentration ratios and Herfindahl-Hirschman index with the data of commercial deposit banks in Turkey from 2000 to 2012. Competition degree is measured by using Panzar Rosse model. The results of the study suggest that there is no permanent relation between banking concentration and competition in Turkish banks.</em></p>

<div><p><em>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.</em><em></em></p></div>

<p><em>This paper proposes an empirical analysis of the role of memory in determining the size of credits granted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) during 1991–2003. We first build an original database from information associated with the number and contract types granted by clients, after which we develop an empirical strategy for capturing the role of memory, namely by defining three different indicators to approximate each client’s reputation. These indicators rely on the client’s identity and, when available, information associated with previous EBRD-financed investment projects. With the fixed-effects estimation technique, our results unambiguously show that the value of the first investment project financed by the EBRD, as a proxy for reputation, is the most effective indicator for established clients to determine the size of the credits they receive to finance further investments.</em></p>

<p><em>Islamic banking is based on profit and loss mechanism where the use of interest is prohibited.  Unlike conventional banks, these banks do not charge a specific rate of interest, rather provides financing in exchange for profit sharing.  However, there are studies claiming that, in practice, Islamic banking is same as conventional banking with regard to the use of interest. It is also claimed that, Islamic deposits are not interest-free, but are closely attached to conventional deposits.  On this background, the objective of this study is to examine the relationship between pricing in Islamic banks vis-à-vis conventional banks by taking the case of Bangladesh. We have used monthly data during the period of 2009-2013. The findings of the study showed that, there is no statistically significant difference between the monthly average lending rates of Islamic banks and conventional banks. However, there is significant difference between deposit rates. The existence of causal relationship was inconclusive, and requires further analysis.</em></p>