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The perceptions of Islamic banking professionals are surveyed through a questionnaire to explore whether the process of risk management mediates board involvement in risk management and risk management practices of Islamic banks in Malaysia and Egypt. The findings of this study identified that the Islamic banks in the selected countries are somewhat efficient in their risk management process. It was noticed that board involvement in risk management, process of risk management and risk management among Islamic banks in Malaysia are significantly higher than their counterparts in Egypt. Furthermore, high involvement of boards in risk management significantly increases the risk management process, and in turn, leads to significantly higher riskmanagement practices in Islamic banks. Hence, boards should take formal responsibility for setting, managing and periodically assessing the risk management culture of the banks. It is expected that the outcomes of this study would help policy setters in the selected countries to develop a well-structured and harmonized risk management process that enhance risk management practices, with emphasis on the effective involvements of the board of directors and Shari’ah supervisory boards in risk management practices.

The puzzling momentum strategies’ payoffs are defying the rational financial theory asserting the stocks returns’ unpredictability. Moreover, the momentum effect persist the main stocks returns’ anomaly escaping any risk-based explanation. The resilience of this phenomenon had favoured the development of behavioural financial field, which breaks with the investor’ full rationality hypothesis. This paper attempts to reconcile between the rational and behavioural financial theories, through the introduction of the progressive rationality concept. Especially, we argue that recognizing the temporary inappropriate investors’ reactions; can resolve the puzzling momentum anomaly.  To fulfil our objective, first we correct the monthly returns inherent to 56 stocks listed on the Tunisian stocks market from January 1998 to December 2011, from the related serial autocorrelations involved by the investors’ over and under reactions. Then, we examine the 6/6 momentum strategy’ excess returns before and after the monthly returns serial autocorrelations’ corrections. The result show that the momentum strategy is still profitable but no longer puzzling, since the related excess return is henceforth fully captured by a ? and a size effect..

The study aims to examine the effects of oil price and exchange rate on unemployment in Malaysia. The empirical analysis commence by analyzing the time series property of data. The Johansen VAR-based co-integration technique was applied to examine the long run relationship between exchange rate, oil price and unemployment and found the long run relationship does exist. The vector error correction model was performed to check the short run dynamics and found that the short run dynamics are influenced by the estimated long run equilibrium. Granger causality was done and found that oil price does not affect unemployment but exchange rate has an influence on unemployment. Therefore, putting the exchange rate under control should be implemented to control unemployment.

By employing non-parametric methods, namely Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist Index, this paper investigates efficiency of banks using a database of almost all banks in four countries in South-East Europe. The superior efficiency of foreignowned banks in intermediation is supported. It is argued that the improvement in efficiency of banks originated from the change in technology rather than scale and technical efficiency, and banks on average have not been able to catch-up with best-performers, thus widening the efficiency gap. The largest sources of inefficiency are found to be cost and scale inefficiencies and lending shortfalls. Because of its peculiarities, Kosovo banking sector is assessed relative to other economies. Findings suggest that despite some improvements, the banking system in Kosovo remained less efficient. A number of policy implications emanate from the findings, aiming at enhancing the intermediation efficiency of banks in the context of South-East European transition.


 
 
 The study aims to examine winning brands influence on fans’ brand loyalty in Iranian professional football league. A ten-minute pen and paper questionnaire was distributed to fans of five superior teams of Iranian professional football league in 2009-2010 seasons. Team’s association questionnaire developed by Gladden and Funk (2001) was used for data collection. Reliability of the questionnaire was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. A structural equation model (SEM) test with maximum likelihood estimation was performed to test the relationships among the research variables using 912 participants. The findings showed three dimensions of brand associations influenced on fan’s brand loyalty of which the attitude was the most important. Benefits and attributes were placed in the second and third rank respectively. In addition, the obtained model of this research highlighted strong interactional effects between the three mentioned dimensions of brand associations.
 
 

The stock market is a common feature of a current economy and it is reputed to achieve some necessary functions, which promote the growth and development of the economy. To achieve this objective, the endogenous growth literature and research, and recent theoretical studies have tried to provide a link between the literature of endogenous growth theory and financial markets. Providing evidence of stock market development will assist policy makers in designing reforms that do indeed promote the growth rate, enhancing stock market development as economic growth through to the banking system of financial sectors, and to the degree of investor’s right; furthermore, allowing risk sharing encourages speculative and productive investment (see, e.g. Greenwood and Jovanovic (1990) and Bencivenga and Smith (1991)). The results of the previous study, which established positive links between the stock market and economic growth, suggests the pursuit of policies geared towards rapid development of the stock market.

The paper employed a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach to examine the sources of technical efficiency in the Nigerian banking sub-sector. Using a cross section of commercial and merchant banks, the study showed that the Nigerian banking industry was not efficient both in the pre-and-post-liberalization era. The study further revealed that market share was the strongest determinant of technical efficiency in the Nigerian banking Industry. Thus, appropriate macroeconomic policy, institutional development and structural reforms must accompany financial liberalization to create the stable environment required for it to succeed. Hence, the present bank consolidation and reforms by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which started with Soludo and continued with Sanusi, are considered necessary, especially in the areas of e banking and reorganizing the management of banks.

This study examines bank competition in the loan markets in India using a new competitiveness index, the Augmented Relative Profit Difference (ARPD). The ARPD quantifies the impact of marginal costs on performance, measured in terms of market shares. The theoretical foundation of the ARPD is robust when compared to other conventional measures. Applying this unbiased competition indicator to loan markets shows that financial reform has contributed to significant improvements in competition. Public sector banks and private sector banks are more competitive than foreign banks too. In addition, we find that the Indian loanmarkets are monopolistic in nature.

In recent years the financial markets known a rapid development and become more and more complex. So, many regulatory requirements, focused on banks as well as insurance sector, have been developed. These regulatory are concentrated essentially on business risk control and required capital to cover risks. These requirements have influenced the asset allocation issue in insurance industry. These requirements have influenced the asset allocation issue in insurance industry. This section is interested by this issue. In first time it highlights some research works in this issue. Then we will investigate the relation between Solvency and optimal asset allocation. Finally we will explore the principal used methods in modeling asset and in choosing the optimal portfolio composition.

The study aims to examine the effects of oil price and exchange rate on unemployment in Malaysia. The empirical analysis commence by analyzing the time series property of data. The Johansen VAR-based co-integration technique was applied to examine the long run relationship between exchange rate, oil price and unemployment and found the long run relationship does exist. The vector error correction model was performed to check the short run dynamics and found that the short run dynamics are influenced by the estimated long run equilibrium. Granger causality was done and found that oil price does not affect unemployment but exchange rate has an influence on unemployment. Therefore, putting the exchange rate under control should be implemented to control unemployment.