Search results for: corporate credit rating prediction

Authors: Maali Kachouri, Anis Jarboui

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We focus on the causal relationship between governance and information transparency as well as interrelation among the various governance mechanisms. This paper employs a simultaneous equations approach to show this relationship in the Tunisian context. Based on an 8-year dataset, our sample covers 28 listed companies over 2006-2013. Our findings suggest that internal and external governance mechanisms are interdependent. Moreover, in order to analyze the causal effect between information transparency and governance mechanisms, we found evidence that information transparency tends to increase good corporate governance practices.

Keywords: simultaneous equations approach, transparency, causal relationship, corporate governance

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Authors: Vishwa Nath Maurya, Rama Shanker Sharma, Saad Talib Hasson Aljebori, Avadhesh Kumar Maurya, Diwinder Kaur Arora

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Present paper deals with problems of determining the relationship between the variables of corporate governance and financial performance of Islamic banks. Here, we dealt with the corporate governance in the banking sector, where increasing the importance of corporate governance, due to their special nature, as the bankruptcy of banks affects not only the relevant parties from customers, depositors and lenders, but also affect financial stability and then the economy as a whole. Through this paper we dealt to the specificity of governance in Islamic banks, which face double governance: Anglo-Saxon governance system and Islamic governance system. In addition, we focused our attention to measure the impact of corporate governance variables on financial performance through an empirical study on a sample of Islamic banks during the period 2005-2012 in the GCC region. Our present study implies that there is a very strong relationship between the variables of governance and financial performance of Islamic banks, where there is a positive relationship between return on assets and the composition of the Board of Directors, the size of the Board of Directors, the number of committees in the Council, as well as the number of members of the Sharia Supervisory Board, while it is clear that there is a negative relationship between return on assets and concentration ownership.

Keywords: correlation analysis, parametric estimation, corporate governance, financial performance, financial stability, conventional banks, bankruptcy, Islamic governance system

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Authors: Yosra Makni, Mariam Dammak, Dhouha Abed

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Purpose: This paper investigates the mediating role of corporate reputation on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance. Design/Methodology/Approach: Based on a sample of 4329 drawn from 33 developed and developing countries and over a period of eight-year ranging from 2009 to 2016, we apply an Ordinary Least Squares regression (OLS) regressions to test our hypotheses. Findings: The authors find that there is a positive association between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) engagement and the financial performance of a company. They also document that there is a positive association between CSR engagement and a company's reputation and the company's reputation mediates the relationship between engagement in CSR activities and financial performance. Originality Value: This study contributes to the literature in the following ways. First, our research advances the understanding of the link between corporate social responsibility and financial performance by responding to the requests of several researchers to study the mechanisms of mediation between these two concepts given the scarcity relative to currently available research. So we include the most important predicted advantage of CSR, namely reputation, by developing and testing a more complex relationship. Secondly, these relationships have been investigated using an international sample drawn from a large number of countries with a high reputation. Using Judy and Kenny's method, we have confirmed that the company's reputation can play the role of a mediating variable on the relationship between CSR's commitment to operations and the financial performance of the company. More specifically, the more the company is engaged in the activities of CSR, the more it can have a good reputation, more than it has a good financial performance.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, company's reputation, financial performance, mediating variable

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Authors: Saad Bin Nasir

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The research will examine the role of corporate governance (CG) practices on firm’s financial performance. Population of this research will be manufacture sector of Pakistan. For the purposes of measurement of impact of corporate governance practices such as board size, board independence, ceo/chairman duality, will take as independent variables and for the measurement of firm’s performance return on assets and return on equity will take as dependent variables. Panel data regression model will be used to estimate the impact of CG on firm performance.

Keywords: corporate governance, board size, board independence, leadership

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Authors: Zhou Yang, Heli Sun, Jianbin Huang, Jizhong Zhao, Shaojie Qiao

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Traffic prediction is essential in a multitude of ways in modern urban life. The researchers of earlier work in this domain carry out the investigation chiefly with two major focuses: (1) the accurate forecast of future values in multiple time series and (2) knowledge extraction from spatial-temporal correlations. However, two key considerations for traffic prediction are often missed: the completeness of raw data and the full context of the prediction timestamp. Concentrating on the two drawbacks of earlier work, we devise an approach that can address these issues in a two-phase framework. First, we utilize the raw trajectories to a greater extent through building a VLA table and data compression. We obtain the intra-trajectory features with graph-based encoding and the intertrajectory ones with a grid-based model and the technique of back projection that restore their surrounding high-resolution spatial-temporal environment. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study direct feature extraction from raw trajectories for traffic prediction and attempt the use of raw data with the least degree of reduction. In the prediction phase, we provide a broader context for the prediction timestamp by taking into account the information that are around it in the training dataset. Extensive experiments on several well-known datasets have verified the effectiveness of our solution that combines the strength of raw trajectory data and prediction context. In terms of performance, our approach surpasses several state-of-the-art methods for traffic prediction.

Keywords: traffic prediction, raw data utilization, context building, data reduction

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Authors: Mohammad Zavid Parvez, Manoranjan Paul

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A seizure prediction method is proposed by extracting global features using phase correlation between adjacent epochs for detecting relative changes and local features using fluctuation/deviation within an epoch for determining fine changes of different EEG signals. A classifier and a regularization technique are applied for the reduction of false alarms and improvement of the overall prediction accuracy. The experiments show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods and provides high prediction accuracy (i.e., 97.70%) with low false alarm using EEG signals in different brain locations from a benchmark data set.

Keywords: Epilepsy, seizure, phase correlation, fluctuation, deviation.

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Authors: Muhammad Hardyan Prastyanto, Aisah Azhari Marwangi, Yulinda Rizky Pratiwi

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Globalization has become a driving force for the current technological developments. The presence of the Virtual Space provides opportunities for people to self-actualization through access to a wider world, quickly and easily. Cities that are part of the existence of life, witness the history of civilization over time, also has been the major object to upgrading on technological sector. A smart city is one where the government and citizenry are using the best available means, including ICT, to achieve their shared goals. This often includes economic development, environmental sustainability, and improved quality of life for citizens. Thus theory is the basis for research of this study. This study aimed to know the implementation of the Urban Retrofitting at Malioboro area based on Information and Communication Technologies. The method of this study is by reviewing the effectiveness of the E-commerce uses as a major system to identification the Malioboro Smart Central Business District. By using a significance level of 5 %, it can be concluded that addresses have a significant influence on the ratings obtained, namely regarding the location of the hotel establishment. But despite the use of the website does not have a significant influence on the rating of the hotel, using the website still has influence significantly on the rating, because the p -value (Sig.) of the variable website is not so much different from the significance level determined by the researcher. In the interpretation, if a hotel is located on the Pasar Kembang streets and not to use the website, so the hotel is likely to have a rating of the constant value which is 3.183. However, if a hotel located on the Sosrowijayan streets, so the hotel rating will be increased by 0,302. Then if a hotel has been using a website, so the hotel rating will increase by 0,264. It is possible to conclude the effectiveness of ICT’s (Website) uses and location to identification the urban retrofitting through increasing of building rating in Malioboro Central Business District.

Keywords: urban retrofitting, e-commerce, information and communication technology, statistic regression, SCBD, Malioboro

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Authors: Tahar Tayachi, Ahlam Alrehaili

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the corporate board characteristics and the dividend policy among firms on the Saudi Stock Exchange. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper uses a sample of 103 nonfinancial firms over a time period of 4 years from 2015 to 2018. To investigate how corporate governance mechanisms such as board independence, the board size, frequency of meetings, and free cash flow impact dividends, the study uses Logit and Tobit models. Findings: This paper finds that board size, board independence, and frequency of board meetings have no influence on a firm’s decision to pay dividends, while board size has a significantly positive impact on the levels of cash dividends paid to investors. This study also finds that the level of free cash flows has a positively significant influence on both the decision to pay dividends and the magnitude of dividend payouts. Research Limitations/Implications: This paper attempts to study the effectiveness of dividend policy among some firms on the Saudi Stock Exchange. Practical Implications: The findings reveal that board characteristics, which represent one of the crucial mechanisms of corporate governance, were found to be complementary to corporate laws and regulations imposed on the Saudi market in 2015. The findings also imply that capital market authorities should revise their corporate regulations and ensure that protection laws are adequate and strong enough to protect the interests of all shareholders. Originality/Value: This paper is among the few studies focusing on dividend policy in Saudi Arabia. Finally, these findings suggest that the improvements in corporate laws in Saudi Arabia led to such an outcome, and it has become prevalent in dividend policy decisions and behaviors of Saudi firms.

Keywords: agency theory, Tobit, corporate governance, dividend payout, Logit

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Authors: Lucy Novianti

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The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of corporate governance, ownership structure, and cash holdings on firm value, either direct or indirect through profitability as an intervening variable for non-financial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2006 to 2014. Samples of 176 firms are chosen based on purposive sampling method. The results of this study conclude that profitability, the size of Audit Committee, audit quality, and cash flow have positive effects on firm value. This study also shows that the meeting frequency of the Board of Directors and free cash flow have negative effects on firm value. In addition, this study finds that the size of the Board of Directors, Independent Commissioner, and ownership structure do not have significant effects on firm value. In this study, the function of profitability as an intervening variable can only be done on the impact of the meeting frequency of the Board of Directors and cash flow on firm value. This study provides a reference for management in decision making concerning the application of corporate governance, cash holdings, and financial performance. Moreover, it can be used as additional information for investors in assessing the feasibility of an investment. Finally, it provides a suggestion for the government regarding the regulation of corporate governance.

Keywords: cash holdings, corporate governance, firm value, ownership structure, profitability

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Authors: Gulnara Moldasheva

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The research explores the relationship between management responsibility and corporate governance of listed companies in Kazakhstan. This research employs firm level data of randomly selected listed non-financial firms and firm level data “operational” financial sector, consisted from banking sector, insurance companies and accumulated pension funds using multivariate regression analysis under fixed effect model approach. Ownership structure includes institutional ownership, managerial ownership and private investor’s ownership. Management responsibility of the firm is expressed by the decision of the firm on amount of leverage. Results of the cross sectional panel study for non-financial firms showed that only institutional shareholding is significantly negatively correlated with debt to equity ratio. Findings from “operational” financial sector show that leverage is significantly affected only by the CEO/Chair duality and the size of financial institutions, and insignificantly affected by ownership structure. Also, the findings show, that there is a significant negative relationship between profitability and the debt to equity ratio for non-financial firms, which is consistent with pecking order theory. Generally, the found results suggest that corporate governance and a management responsibility play important role in corporate performance of listed firms in Kazakhstan.

Keywords: ownership, corporate governance, debt to equity ratio, corporate performance

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Authors: Debdatta Mukherjee, Abhiman Das, Amit Garg

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In recent years, there is a growing interest about corporate social responsibility of firms in both academic literature and business world. Since business forms a part of society incorporating socio-environment concerns into its value chain, activities are vital for ensuring mutual sustainability and prosperity. But, until now most of the works have been either descriptive or normative rather than positivist in tone. Even the few ones with a positivist approach have mostly studied the link between corporate financial performance and corporate social performance. However, these studies have been severely criticized by many eminent authors on grounds that they lack a theoretical basis for their findings. They have also argued that apart from corporate financial performance, there must be certain other crucial influences that are likely to determine corporate social performance of firms. In fact, several studies have indicated that firms operating in distinct national institutions show significant variations in the corporate social responsibility practices that they undertake. This clearly suggests that the institutional context of a country in which the firms operate is a key determinant of corporate social performance of firms. Therefore, this paper uses an institutional framework to understand why corporate social performance of firms vary across countries. It examines the impact of country level institutions on corporate social performance using a sample of 3240 global publicly-held firms across 33 countries covering the period 2010-2015. The country level institutions include public institutions, private institutions, markets and capacity to innovate. Econometric Analysis has been mainly used to assess this impact. A three way panel data analysis using fixed effects has been used to test and validate appropriate hypotheses. Most of the empirical findings confirm our hypotheses and the economic significance indicates the specific impact of each variable and their importance relative to others. The results suggest that institutional determinants like ethical behavior of private institutions, goods market, labor market and innovation capacity of a country are significantly related to the corporate social performance of firms. Based on our findings, few implications for policy makers from across the world have also been suggested. The institutions in a country should promote competition. The government should use policy levers for upgrading home demands, like setting challenging yet flexible safety, quality and environment standards, and framing policies governing buyer information, providing innovative recourses to low quality goods and services and promoting early adoption of new and technologically advanced products. Moreover, the institution building in a country should be such that they facilitate and improve the capacity of firms to innovate. Therefore, the proposed study argues that country level institutions impact corporate social performance of firms, empirically validates the same, suggest policy implications and attempts to contribute to an extended understanding of corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance in a multinational context.

Keywords: corporate social performance, corporate social responsibility, institutions, markets

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Authors: Adebiyi Sunday Adeyanju, Kola Benson Ajeigbe, Fortune Ganda

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In the past three decades, there has been a notable increase in the number of firms delisting from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in South Africa. The recent increasing rate of delisting waves of corporate listed firms motivated this study. This study aims to explore the influence of institutional investor perceptions on the financial distress experienced by delisted firms within the South African market. The study further examined the impact of financial distress on the corporate performance of delisted firms. Using the data of delisted firms spanning from 2000 to 2023 and the FGLS (Feasible Generalized Least Squares) for the short run and PCSE (Panel-Corrected Standard Errors) for the long run effects of the relationship. The finding indicated that a decline in institutional investors’ perceptions was associated with the corporate financial distress of the delisted firms, particularly during the delisting year and the few years preceding the announcement of the delisting. This study addressed the importance of investor recognition in corporate financial distress and the delisting wave among listed firms- a finding supporting the stakeholder theory. This study is an insight for companies’ managements, investors, governments, policymakers, stockbrokers, lending institutions, bankers, the stock market, and other stakeholders in their various decision-making endeavours. Based on the above findings, it was recommended that corporate managements should improve their governance strategies that can help companies’ financial performances. Accountability and transparency through governance must also be improved upon with government support through the introduction of policies and strategies and enabling an easy environment that can help companies perform better.

Keywords: delisting wave, institutional investors, financial distress, corporate performance, investors’ perceptions

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Authors: Jeena R. S., Sukesh Kumar A.

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Stroke is one of the major reasons of adult disability and morbidity in many of the developing countries like India. Early diagnosis of stroke is essential for timely prevention and cure. Various conventional statistical methods and computational intelligent models have been developed for predicting the risk and outcome of stroke. This research work focuses on a multilevel approach for predicting the occurrence of stroke based on various risk factors and invasive techniques like retinal imaging. This risk prediction model can aid in clinical decision making and help patients to have an improved and reliable risk prediction.

Keywords: prediction, retinal imaging, risk factors, stroke

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Authors: Petra Buzkova, Milos Kopa

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Reliability of the credit default swap market had been questioned repeatedly during the EMU debt crisis. The article examines whether this development influenced sovereign EMU CDS prices in general. We regress the CDS market price on a model risk neutral CDS price obtained from an adopted reduced form valuation model in the 2009-2013 period. We look for a break point in the single-equation and multi-equation econometric models in order to show the changes in relations between CDS market and model prices. Our results differ according to the risk profile of a country. We find that in the case of riskier countries, the relationship between the market and model price changed when market participants started to question the ability of CDS contracts to protect their buyers. Specifically, it weakened after the change. In the case of less risky countries, the change happened earlier and the effect of a weakened relationship is not observed.

Keywords: chow stability test, credit default swap, debt crisis, reduced form valuation model, seemingly unrelated regression

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Authors: Pavel Adámek

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This study examines perception of environmental approach in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – the process by which firms integrate environmental concern into business. Based on a review of the literature, the paper synthesizes focus on environmental issues with the reflection in a case study in the Czech Republic. Two themes of corporate environmentalism are discussed – corporate environmental orientation and corporate stances toward environmental concerns. It provides theoretical material on greening organizational culture that is helpful in understanding the response of contemporary business to environmental problems. We integrate theoretical predictions with empirical findings confronted with reality. Scales to measure these themes are tested in a survey of managers in 229 Czech firms. We used the process of in-depth questioning. The research question was derived and answered in the context of the corresponding literature and conducted research. A case study showed us that environmental approach is variety different (depending on the size of the firm) in SMEs sector. The results of the empirical mapping demonstrate Czech company’s approach to environment and define the problem areas and pinpoint the main limitation in the expansion of environmental aspects. We contribute to the debate for recognition of the particular role of environmental issues in business reality.

Keywords: corporate environmentalism, Czech Republic, empirical mapping, environmental performance

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Authors: Leandi Steenkamp

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The sectional title industry has been a part of the property landscape in South Africa for almost half a century, and plays a significant role in addressing the housing problem in the country. Stakeholders such as owners and investors in sectional title property are in most cases not directly involved in the management thereof, and place reliance on the audited annual financial statements of bodies corporate for decision-making purposes. Although the industry seems to be highly regulated, the legislation regarding accounting and auditing of sectional title is vague and ambiguous. Furthermore, there are no industry-specific auditing and accounting standards to guide accounting and auditing practitioners in performing their work and industry financial benchmarks are not readily available. In addition, financial pressure on sectional title schemes is often very high due to the fact that some owners exercise unrealistic pressure to keep monthly levies as low as possible. All these factors have an impact on the business risk as well as audit risk of bodies corporate. Very little academic research has been undertaken on the sectional title industry in South Africa from an accounting and auditing perspective. The aim of this paper is threefold: Firstly, to discuss the findings of a literature review on uncertainties, ambiguity and confusing aspects in current legislation regarding the audit of a sectional title property that may cause or increase audit and business risk. Secondly, empirical findings of risk-related aspects from the results of interviews with three groups of body corporate role-players will be discussed. The role-players were body corporate trustee chairpersons, body corporate managing agents and accounting and auditing practitioners of bodies corporate. Specific reference will be made to business risk and audit risk. Thirdly, practical recommendations will be made on possibilities of closing the audit expectation gap, and further research opportunities in this regard will be discussed.

Keywords: assurance, audit, audit risk, body corporate, corporate governance, sectional title

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Authors: Ernest Nweke

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This paper examines the changing trend in ownership of Mongolian companies and how this trend has influenced corporate governance mechanisms in Mongolian companies. A study of this magnitude is essential as it x-rays the systematic transformation of Mongolia’s corporate world from the public to private ownership and the tremendous impact it has had on firm governance mechanisms. Owing to Mongolia’s Soviet past, much of the companies in Mongolia were state-owned, state-directed and state-controlled resulting in serious inefficiencies in these companies. This scenario is antithetical to the economic growth and development of any nation as it is grossly at variance with the fundamental principles of good corporate governance that drive prosperity. Consequently, the Mongolian government has in the past decades fine-tuned government policy to prioritize private ownership, establishing various frameworks that will strengthen corporate governance structures in Mongolia. These efforts have paid off and gone a long way in changing the trend in the ownership of companies in Mongolia reversing the old order. The expectation locally and internationally is that companies in post-socialist Mongolia will be more closely aligned to generally accepted corporate governance mechanisms, generally improving company performance and ultimately returns to shareholders. To achieve the research objectives, the survey research method was employed utilizing a sample of seventy randomly selected listed companies representing 22% of Mongolian Stock Exchange listings. Research hypotheses formulated to guide the conduct of the study were tested using Chi-Square analysis, and results show that ownership trend has drastically changed in the post-socialist Mongolia leading to better corporate governance practices in Mongolian companies. This result has important policy implications.

Keywords: corporate disclosure, free market, private ownership, Mongolia

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Authors: R. Niranchana, K. Meena Alias Jeyanthi

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As a result of the present climate change dilemma, the energy balancing strategy is to construct a sustainable environment has become a top concern for researchers worldwide. The environment itself has always been a solution from the earliest days of human evolution. Carbon capture begins with its accurate estimation and monitoring credit inventories, and its efficient use. Sustainable urban planning with deliverables of re-use energy models might benefit from assessment methods like biomass carbon credit ranking. The term "biomass energy" refers to the various ways in which living organisms can potentially be converted into a source of energy. The approaches that can be applied to biomass and an algorithm for evaluating carbon credits are presented in this paper. The micro-climate evaluation using Computational Fluid dynamics was carried out across the location (1 km x1 km) at Dindigul, India (10°24'58.68" North, 77°54.1.80 East). Sustainable Urban design must be carried out considering environmental and physiological convection, conduction, radiation and evaporative heat exchange due to proceeding solar access and wind intensities.

Keywords: biomass, climate assessment, urban planning, multi-regression, carbon estimation algorithm

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Authors: Mehriban Ahmadova

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Country of origin has been found to be an important determinant of the level of corporate social disclosure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences of corporate social disclosure, including sharia non-compliant information, by Islamic banks. The study applies content analysis approach of annual reports of fully-fledged Islamic banks from 24 countries. International differences are found in terms of level, methods and location of disclosure.

Keywords: Content analysis, Corporate social disclosure, Islamic banks, Sharia non-compliant disclosure

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Authors: Talha Sareshwala

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The purpose of this research paper is to help entrepreneurs build an environment of trust, transparency and accountability necessary for fostering long term investment, financial stability and business integrity and to guide future Entrepreneurs into a promising future. The study presents a broader review on Corporate Governance, starting from its definition and antecedents. This is the most important aspect of ethical business. In fact, the 3 main pillars of corporate governance are: Transparency; Accountability; Security. The combination of these 3 pillars in running a company successfully and forming solid professional relationships among its stakeholders, which includes key managerial employees and, most important, the shareholders This paper is sharing an experience how an entrepreneur can act as a catalyst while ensuring them that ethics and transparency do pay in business when followed in true spirit and action.

Keywords: business, entrepreneur, ethics, governance, transparency.

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Authors: S. P. Pradhan, Amulya Ratna Roul

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A number of landslides are occurring during the rainy season along Rayagada-Koraput Railway track for past three years. The track was constructed about 20 years ago. However, the protection measures are not able to control the recurring slope failures now. It leads to a loss to Indian Railway and its passengers ultimately leading to wastage of time and money. The slopes along Rayagada-Koraput track include both rock and soil slopes. The rock types include mainly Khondalite and Charnockite whereas soil slopes are mainly composed of laterite ranging from less weathered to highly weathered laterite. The field studies were carried out in one of the critical slope. Field study was followed by the kinematic analysis to assess the type of failure. Slake Durability test, Uniaxial Compression test, specific gravity test and triaxial test were done on rock samples to calculate and assess properties such as weathering index, unconfined compressive strength, density, cohesion, and friction angle. Following all the laboratory tests, rock mass rating was calculated. Further, from Kinematic analysis and Rock Mass Ratingbasic, Slope Mass Rating was proposed for each slope. The properties obtained were used to do the slope stability simulations using finite element method based modelling. After all the results, suitable protection measures, to prevent the loss due to slope failure, were suggested using the relation between Slope Mass Rating and protection measures.

Keywords: landslides, slope stability, rock mass rating, slope mass rating, numerical simulation

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Authors: Rodrigo Zeidan

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The paper identifies failures of decision making and corporate governance that allow non-financial companies around the world to develop hedging strategies that lead to hefty losses in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The sample is comprised of 346 companies from 10 international markets, of which 49 companies (and a subsample of 13 distressed companies) lose a combined US$18.9 billion. An event study shows that most companies that present losses in derivatives experience negative abnormal returns, including a number of companies in which the effect is persistent after a year. The results of a probit model indicate that the lack of a formal hedging policy, no monitoring to the CFOs, and considerations of hubris and remuneration contribute to the mismanagement of hedging policies.

Keywords: risk management, hedging, derivatives, monitoring, corporate governance structure, event study, hubris

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Authors: Francesco Venuti, Simona Alfiero

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The aim of this paper is to develop an empirical research on the nature and consequences of corporate governance on Eurozone Insurance Industry risk taking attitude. More particularly, we analyzed the effect of public ownership on risk taking with respect to privately held Insurance Companies. We also analyzed the effects on risk taking attitude of different degrees of ownership concentration, directors compensation, and the dimension/diversity of the Board of Directors. Our results provide quite strong evidence that, coherently with the Agency Theory, publicly traded insurance companies with more concentrated ownership are less risky than the corresponding privately held.

Keywords: agency theory, corporate governance, insurance companies, risk taking

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Authors: Mehdi Janbaz

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The global financial crisis and the credit crunch that followed magnified the importance of credit risk management and its crucial role in the stability of all financial sectors and the whole of the system. Many believe that risks faced by the sovereign sector are highly interconnected with banking risks and most likely to trigger and reinforce each other. This study aims to examine (1) the impact of banking and interbank risk factors on the sovereign credit risk of Eurozone, and (2) how the EU Credit Default Swaps spreads dynamics are affected by the Crude Oil price fluctuations. The hypothesizes are tested by employing fitting risk measures and through a four-staged linear modeling approach. The sovereign senior 5-year Credit Default Swap spreads are used as a core measure of the credit risk. The monthly time-series data of the variables used in the study are gathered from the DataStream database for a period of 2008-2019. First, a linear model test the impact of regional macroeconomic and market-based factors (STOXX, VSTOXX, Oil, Sovereign Debt, and Slope) on the CDS spreads dynamics. Second, the bank-specific factors, including LIBOR-OIS spread (the difference between the Euro 3-month LIBOR rate and Euro 3-month overnight index swap rates) and Euribor, are added to the most significant factors of the previous model. Third, the global financial factors including EURO to USD Foreign Exchange Volatility, TED spread (the difference between 3-month T-bill and the 3-month LIBOR rate based in US dollars), and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Crude Oil Volatility Index are added to the major significant factors of the first two models. Finally, a model is generated by a combination of the major factor of each variable set in addition to the crisis dummy. The findings show that (1) the explanatory power of LIBOR-OIS on the sovereign CDS spread of Eurozone is very significant, and (2) there is a meaningful adverse co-movement between the Crude Oil price and CDS price of Eurozone. Surprisingly, adding TED spread (the difference between the three-month Treasury bill and the three-month LIBOR based in US dollars.) to the analysis and beside the LIBOR-OIS spread (the difference between the Euro 3M LIBOR and Euro 3M OIS) in third and fourth models has been increased the predicting power of LIBOR-OIS. Based on the results, LIBOR-OIS, Stoxx, TED spread, Slope, Oil price, OVX, FX volatility, and Euribor are the determinants of CDS spreads dynamics in Eurozone. Moreover, the positive impact of the crisis period on the creditworthiness of the Eurozone is meaningful.

Keywords: CDS, crude oil, interbank risk, LIBOR-OIS, OVX, sovereign credit risk, TED

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Authors: Muhammad Awais Shafique, Eiji Hato, Hideki Yaginuma

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Recently GPS data is used in a lot of studies to automatically reconstruct travel patterns for trip survey. The aim is to minimize the use of questionnaire surveys and travel diaries so as to reduce their negative effects. In this paper data acquired from GPS and accelerometer embedded in smart phones is utilized to predict the mode of transportation used by the phone carrier. For prediction, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) are employed. Moreover a unique method to improve the prediction results from these algorithms is also proposed. Results suggest that the prediction accuracy of AdaBoost after improvement is relatively better than the rest.

Keywords: accelerometer, AdaBoost, GPS, mode prediction, support vector machine

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Authors: Shuchi Bharti

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This article intends to analyse the transforming nature of state and corporate sector relationship in the light of evolving regulatory and institutional aspects pertaining to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. The focus is on evaluating the accounts of law and decentred discourses, relevant within the changing regulatory and institutional paradigm that substantially goes ahead of formal legal control of state towards corporate actors. At this vantage point, it is important to understand the state’s posture towards a changing scenario particularly as the tone is set by regulatory parameters pertaining to CSR to drive process of engagement with the stakeholders. The tripartite framework of the article intends to focus on finding on the vital interconnected aspects of the CSR provisions (Section 135) of The Companies Act 2013 (The Act), rise of new institutions and the emergence of the decentred regulatory space. Thus is earmarked in a neo-liberal paradigm; state is witnessed to perform a responsive function in engendering enhanced public role for the corporate sector. In this overarching framework the aim is to undertake a causal, exploratory and relational analysis of aspects pertaining law, regulation and institutional transformations. Firstly, focus is drawn on to investigate the relational facets of the advent of law and regulatory framework of CSR. Secondly, in the light of the historical evolution, a causal connection is attempted between globalization, emergence of international soft law framework and the Indian case of CSR. Finally, I look into how the new Companies Act mandates CSR expenditure vis- a -vis multiple parameters and guidelines.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, stakeholders, soft law, decentred regulation

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Authors: Sudipto Sarkar

Abstract:

Capital is the primary fuel for starting and running a business. Since capital is crucial for every business, entrepreneurs must successfully acquire adequate capital for executing their projects. Sources for the necessary capital for entrepreneurs include their own personal funds from existing bank accounts, or lines of credit or loans from banks or financial institutions, or equity funding from investors. The most commonly selected source of capital is a bank loan. However, acquiring a loan by any entrepreneur requires adhering to strict guidelines, conditions and norms. Because not only they have to show evidence for viability of the project, but also the means to return the acquired loan. On the bank’s part, it requires that every loan officer performs a thorough credit appraisal of the prospective borrowers and makes decisions about whether or not to lend money, how much to lend, and what conditions should be attached to it. Moreover, these credit decisions in general were often based on biases, analytical techniques, or prior experience. A loan can either turn out to be good or poor, irrespective of what type of credit decisions were followed. However, based on prior experience, the loan officers seem to differentiate between a good and a bad loan by examining the borrower’s credit history, pattern of borrowing, volume of borrowing, frequency of borrowing, and reasons for borrowing. As per an article written by Maureen Wallenfang on postcrescent.com dated May 10, 2010, it is observed that borrowers with good credit, solid business plans and adequate collateral security were able to procure loans very easily in the Fox Valley region. Since loans are required to run businesses, and also with the propensity of loans to become bad, loan officers tend to be very critical and cautious before approving and disbursing the loans. The pressure to be critical and cautious, at least partly, is a result of increased scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As per Wall Street Journal (Sidel & Eaglesham, March, 3 2011, online), the Securities and Exchange Commission scrutinized banks that have restructured troubled loans in order to make them appear healthier than they really are. Therefore, loan officers’ loan criteria are of immense importance for entrepreneurs and banks alike.

Keywords: entrepreneur, loans, marketing, banks

Procedia PDF Downloads 231

Authors: Iman Ibrahim

Abstract:

The interest of this paper is to review the sustainability measuring tools in Interior Design in UAE. To examine the ability of creating sustainable interior designed buildings satisfying the community social culture needs related to the world eco systems and how much it’s affected by humans, as the research will focus on sustainability as a multi-dimensional concept including environmental, social and economic dimensions. The aim of this research is to reach the most suitable sustainable rating method criteria for buildings in UAE, in a trial to develop it to match the community culture. Developing such criteria is gaining significance in UAE as a result of increased awareness of the environmental, economic and social issues. This will allow an exploration of the suitable criteria for developing a sustainable rating method for buildings in UAE. The final research findings will be presented as suitable criteria for developing a sustainable building assessment method for UAE in terms of environmental, economic, social and cultural perspectives.

Keywords: rating methods, sustainability tools, UAE, local conditions

Procedia PDF Downloads 392

Authors: S. Pushkar, O. Verbitsky

Abstract:

Currently, green rating systems are mainly utilized for correctly sizing mechanical and electrical systems, which have short lifetime expectancies. In these systems, passive solar and bio-climatic architecture, which have long lifetime expectancies, are neglected. Urban rating systems consider buildings and services in addition to neighborhoods and public transportation as integral parts of the built environment. The main goal of this study was to develop a more consistent point allocation system for urban building standards by using six different lifetime shearing layers: Site, Structure, Skin, Services, Space, and Stuff, each reflecting distinct environmental damages. This shearing-layer concept was applied to internationally well-known rating systems: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development, BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for Communities, and Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE) for Urban Development. The results showed that LEED for Neighborhood Development and BREEAM for Communities focused on long-lifetime-expectancy building designs, whereas CASBEE for Urban Development gave equal importance to the Building and Service Layers. Moreover, although this rating system was applied using a building-scale assessment, “Urban Area + Buildings” focuses on a short-lifetime-expectancy system design, neglecting to improve the architectural design by considering bio-climatic and passive solar aspects.

Keywords: green rating system, urban community, sustainable design, standardization, shearing-layer concept, passive solar architecture

Procedia PDF Downloads 548

Authors: Leandi Steenkamp

Abstract:

After being in effect since the late 1970s, first generation sectional title legislation in South Africa was completely overhauled in recent years into what is now commonly referred to as third generation sectional title legislation. The original Sectional Titles Act was split into three separate statutes, namely the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act No. 8 of 2011, the Sectional Titles Amendment Act No. 33 of 2013 and the Community Schemes Ombud Service Act No. 9 of 2011, with various Regulations detailing how the different acts should be applied in practice. Even though some of the changes effected by the new legislation is simply technical adjustments and replications of the original first generation legislation, the new acts introduce a number of significant changes that will have an effect on accountancy and financial management aspects of sectional title schemes in future. No academic research has been undertaken on third generation sectional title legislation in South Africa from an accountancy and financial management perspective as yet. The aim of this paper is threefold: Firstly, to discuss the findings of a literature review on the new third generation sectional title legislation, with specific reference to accountancy-related aspects. Secondly, the empirical findings of accountancy-related aspects from the results of a quantitative study on a sample of bodies corporate will be discussed. The sample of bodies corporate was selected from four different municipal areas in South Africa. Specific reference will be made to the readiness of bodies corporate regarding the provisions of the new legislation. Thirdly, practical recommendations will be made on how bodies corporate can prepare for the new legislative aspects, and further research opportunities in this regard will be discussed.

Keywords: accountancy, body corporate, sectional title, third generation sectional title legislation

Procedia PDF Downloads 274