Journal of Business and Management

Determinants of Investor Awareness in Nepalese Capital Market

2023-05-01T06:12:44+00:00

Background: Capital market investors have propelled the industry, and the stock market has worked as a facilitator; hence, in order to develop a successful market system, all information must be acknowledged and delivered to the acquisition and offering sectors. It is obvious that educating investment communities or stakeholders about their possible return on Investment, investment objectives, alternatives, decision-making processes, and so on might aid in the acceleration of capital market expansion. As a result, the research aims to increase investor awareness and stock trading in the capital market.

Objectives: The main purpose of the study is to explore the extent of awareness of common stock investors and analyze the determinants of investors' awareness in the Nepalese capital market.

Methods: The research design for the study is a survey research design, and convenience sampling was used to collect 250 samples from various brokerage houses within Pokhara valley. Data was collected with a structured questionnaire. Various analysis tools like Confirmatory Factor analysis and Path analysis were used to examine the relationship between Investor's awareness and its determinants.

Results: The result of CFA with fit indices of GFI=0.938, AGFI=0.913, χ²/df=1.233, RMSEA=0.031, CFI=0.896 and TLI=0.881 advocate that the measurement model has an excellent fit. Furthermore, path analysis results show that the majority of independent factors, including social learning and motivation, fundamental and technical analysis, and evaluation of investment alternatives, have a significant and positive impact on the dependent variable investor awareness.

Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of investor awareness for effective investment decisions and the growth of the capital market in underdeveloped economies like Nepal. Investors' understanding is essential for investment decisions and the long-term growth of the capital market. So, there should be a proper understanding of various determinants of investors' awareness and work accordingly.

Recommendation: Marketing campaigns, seminars, publications, and FM/TV shows, among many other means, should be used by regulatory agencies such as SEBON to inform the general public about the dynamics of risk and profit in the capital market.

Demographic Factors Affecting Customer's Perception toward the Use of Internet Banking in Pokhara Metropolitan City of Nepal

2023-05-01T08:33:09+00:00

Background: The provision of financial services to customers has been transformed by internet banking, which employs the internet as the primary means for carrying out banking transactions.

Objectives: The research aims to assess the perception of customers toward the use of internet banking services and find out the demographic factors affecting it.

Method: For this study, a descriptive and analytical research design was utilized, in which 225 customers of banks in Pokhara Metropolitan City of Nepal were purposively selected. The study employed various statistical techniques, including frequency distribution analysis, mean score analysis, and inferential analysis such as t-test and one-way ANOVA.

Result: According to the study, most customers are aware of and have access of internet banking services. Customers of commercial banks view internet banking services to be simple, secure, and less expensive to use, with the bank providing adequate help. It was discovered that marital status, age, education, and economic level all affect awareness levels. Education influences access to internet and respondents' attitudes toward cost-saving are influenced by their marital status, education, and income level. Similarly, it was discovered that education, occupation, and income level aff ect the perception of ease of use, employment affects the impression of security, and marital status, education, and occupation affect the perception of bank assistance.

Conclusions: The study concludes that marital status, educational qualification, monthly income of family, and working status are the major factors affecting the perception of the respondents toward the use of internet banking. Further, this study concludes that people of higher age and low education level are less aware of internet banking service.

Effects of Merger and Acquisition on Employee Satisfaction in Nepalese Banking Sectors

2023-05-01T06:37:14+00:00

Background: Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are seen as effective strategies for business growth in the corporate sector. However, there are very little study on ‘merger and acquisition’ available in the context of Nepal.

Objectives: This study examines the effects of mergers and acquisitions on employees’ satisfaction in Nepalese Banking sectors.

Method: The study, which adopts the Job Characteristics Theory as its theoretical foundation, was conducted among employees from Nepalese banking sector that had undergone M&A. The study seeks cause and effects relationship amongst banking employees in Kathmandu valley due to merger and acquisition and adopts explanatory research design. Data were collected from 310 respondents and Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data.

Results: The findings demonstrate that merger and acquisition have an influence on employees’ satisfaction, with just one out of every four employees reporting high levels of satisfaction following M&A. The results exhibit that organizational climate, recognition and nature of work remain signifi cant to employees’ satisfaction and their motivation. Likewise, pay/remuneration is also statistically significant to employees’ motivation. Again, employees’ motivation also seems significant to employees’ satisfaction.

Conclusion: Therefore, this study offers practical insights to human resource managers in strengthening human resources of the organization as perceived by employees after an M&A by considering the crucial role of employees in organizational performance.

Performance Appraisal System and Employee Motivation in International Non-Governmental Organizations in Nepal

2023-05-01T06:54:31+00:00

Background: Strong organizations must maintain vital activities and help others survive. All non-profit organizations (NPOs) aim to increase customers' social well-being. These organizations have been under pressure to enhance management, efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability recently. A performance evaluation system is essential to internal monitoring and control in non-governmental organizations due to a diversified and linked workforce that works toward several layers of organization-specified objectives at different levels.

Objectives: This study aims to explore the performance appraisal system of International Non-Governmental Organizations in Nepal. Additionally, it is to analyze the effect of the performance appraisal system on employee motivation in these organizations in Nepal.

Methods: The study adopted a mix-method. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire of 300 employees, with 212 responses from six INGOs operating in Nepal and 5 HR managers of the INGOs. The performance appraisal system considered components, i.e., performance appraisal purpose, performance appraisal standard, feedback on performance appraisal, reliability of ratings, and rather assurance on employee motivation.

Findings: The results determined that performance appraisal purpose, reliability of ratings, and rater assurance significantly affect employee motivation. In contrast, feedback on performance appraisal and performance appraisal standards did not significantly impact employee motivation.

Conclusions: An organization's fair and accurate performance appraisal system helps employees feel unbiased and motivates them toward work. Employees should receive performance appraisals to verify that the authorities have reviewed their work. It inspires them.

The Influence of Traditional Exports on Economic Growth in Tanzania: The VECM Analysis

2023-05-01T07:05:10+00:00

Background: Tanzania, like other developing countries, sees commerce as one of the most important tools for the country's growth and progress. Given that export is one of Tanzania's primary economic sectors, several empirical studies on the relationship between international commerce and the country's economic growth have been conducted.

Objectives: The study looked primarily at the influence of traditional exports as the primary independent variable. Furthermore, the Natural Logarithm of Terms of Trade (TOT), the currency rate, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are control variables, whereas GDP is the dependent variable.

Methods: The research employed time-series data from the World Bank, the Bank of Tanzania (BOT), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that spans 31 years from 1991 to 2021 based on the Vector Error Correlation Model (VECM).

Results: The findings revealed a link between Tanzania's economic growth and traditional exports, trade terms and currency rate. Furthermore, studies have found a negative and substantial association between exchange rates and economic growth in both the short and long run.

Conclusion: The findings indicated that trade terms and traditional exports had a favorable and considerable influence on economic growth in the short run. In the long run, traditional exports and FDI had a negative and positive influence on economic growth, but trade terms had a considerable and positive effect. As a result, the study argues that Tanzania's government should prioritize export promotion measures above traditional exports to accelerate Tanzania's economic growth. The government should prioritize the establishment of factories that will add value to traditional export items

Safety Management in Public Building Construction: A Case Study of Pokhara Valley

2023-05-01T07:13:52+00:00

Background: Construction site safety is a major issue in the construction industry all around the world. In a developing country like Nepal, the number of construction industries is growing haphazardly at a high rate but they are not being able to cope with factors associated with construction site safety.

Objective: The main objective of the study is to explore the status of safety management in public building construction projects and to suggest measures for improvement.

Methodology: To achieve the objective of the study, data were collected from the Engineers and site management personnel through a questionnaire survey. Data were analyzed descriptively by IBM SPSS and presented in tables and diagrams.

Conclusion: The identified major safety issues for public building construction sites are lack of regular safety inspection, lack of use of personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of conducting safety training, and a lack of proper safety policy and plan including a lack of an adequate budget for safety management. Increased worker safety awareness and introducing safe working practices through training and induction programs are vital to reducing construction site safety. The outcome of the study will be helpful while formulating a project-based construction site safety policy.

A Comparative Study of Immediate Annuities and Ordinary Annuities in establishing the Phantom of Zero Liability Under the Trusteeship Pension Valuation Structure

2023-05-01T07:22:16+00:00

Background: The liabilities of a pension scheme define the financial value to be paid at a definite period in the future. The underlying goal of pension plans is to provide retirees with sufficient stream of income to enable them to live a decent financially independent life post-employment period. The regulatory framework for occupational pension schemes necessitates the services of trustees as administrators who assume legal administrative responsibilities on the scheme and saddled to oversee actuarial valuations of the scheme's liabilities at definite points in time.

Objectives: The objective of this paper is (i) to empirically examine the drivers of pension liability and how they are evaluated by the trustee’s model. (ii) Specifically, the study intends to use input parameters of the trustee model to establish the conditions for which the value of liability is zero under trusteeship annuity factor.

Methods: This study applies trustees’ valuation model, the present values together with infinitesimal calculus. Salary data as well as demographic data were obtained from an agricultural production services company located in Jos-South, Nigeria.

Results: Computational evidence from our results proves that the total service liability under the conditions of the current model is vanishingly zero. However, when the annuity factor is replaced by life table annuity, the service liability does not vanish.

Conclusion: The total service liability obtained as zero therefore initiates inquiry as to whether this current valuation framework causes potential uncertainties for the pension trustees who are responsibly saddled with both administration and core decision-making responsibilities of the system.

Impact of Firm-specific Factors on the Financial Performance of Nepalese Microfinance Institutions

2023-05-01T07:34:53+00:00

Background: Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are established with the aim of providing an opportunity to financially deprived people to make them financially independent and come out of poverty. To provide financial assistance to the targeted people, MFI must be able to improve their financial performance. Thus, the financial manager of MFI needs to identify the major factors that influence their financial performance.

Objectives: This paper aims to analyze the impact of firm-specific factors on the financial performance of Nepalese Microfinance Institutions (MFIs.

Methods: This paper has applied descriptive and causal comparative research design. The annual panel data of 29 microfinance companies listed in the Nepal stock exchange for the period of 2010/11 to 2020/21 has been used. To identify the impact of firm-specific factors on the financial performance of Nepalese MFIs, an appropriate multivariate regression model is selected based on the result of the Breusch and Pagan Lagrangian multiplier test and the Hausman test.

Results: Using the fixed effect regression model, this paper found the significant influence of firm-specific factors on the financial performance of Nepalese MFIs. Further, this study found a significant positive impact on deposit ratio, management efficiency, and weighted average interest rate spread and a significant negative impact of asset quality on the financial performance of Nepalese MFIs.

Conclusion: This paper concluded that the financial performance of Nepalese MFIs could can be improved by increasing the deposit ratio, management efficiency, and weighted average interest rate spread. On the other hand, the study also concluded that Nepalese MFIs should maintain a lower level of non-performing loans to achieve a higher level of financial performance.

Perceptions of Employability of Undergraduate Business Program Graduates: A Qualitative Analysis

2023-05-01T07:53:27+00:00

Background: Students' perspective on graduate employability is an essential aspect to consider as they are the primary stakeholders of higher education institutions. Therefore, exploring graduates' perspectives on their employability and considering their opinions when designing policies and programs to improve graduate employability is crucial. However, little attention has been paid to graduates' perspectives on their employability.

Objectives: This paper explored graduates' perceptions of employability, the labour market, and their views on academic credentials and employability skills in obtaining and retaining employment. The paper also examined the role of business schools in enhancing employability and how universities have prepared graduates to enter the labour market in the context of the human capital approach.

Methods: The study adopted a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with a small sample of 38 undergraduate students from two different business programs who graduated from the constituent college of Pokhara university in 2019 and 2021 using purposive sampling. The interviews were designed to elicit in-depth responses from the participants and to allow them to share their experiences and insights. The study used the thematic analysis approach to analyze the data, which involved identifying patterns and themes within the data. The transcripts of the interviews were carefully reviewed and analyzed, and themes were generated based on the recurring patterns and ideas expressed by the participants.

Results: The thematic analysis demonstrated that graduates understood employability as becoming employable with the potential of employability skills. Graduates viewed possessing academic credentials as one of the key benefits ofbecoming employable in the competitive and congested graduate labour market. The study further illustrated that employers expect both discipline-specific knowledge and soft skills from graduates. The data on the role of business schools in enhancing employability suggested that although many graduates felt that business schools could provide theoretical knowledge, the schools need to pay more attention to practical-based knowledge, especially soft skills.

Conclusion: The study findings have provided insights into how recent graduates comprehend employability, view the current labour market and position their academic credentials in employability. The analysis has further demonstrated that students increasingly view their employability as the relative positional competition for labour market resources, which appears to have a bearing on how they perceive the role of credentials in their employability. The findings have further shown that employers expect both sides of graduate potential: strong academic credentials and employability skills. Therefore, graduates increasingly see the need to develop broader employability, which incorporates building strong academic credentials and employability skills and competencies outside the formal learning context. The study findings have implications for business schools, policymakers and researchers within the broader discourse of the knowledge-driven economy.

Teachers’ Perception on Reducing Students’ Enrollment at University level in Mathematics in Nepal

2023-05-01T08:04:20+00:00

Background: Students' enrollment taking mathematics as a major subject has decreased at the university level in recent years. Difficulty in subject matters, the attitude of students, the learning environment, uses of mathematics knowledge in real life, and existing evaluation systems could influence learners' enrollments at the university level. The purpose of this study is to identify causes for reducing the learners' enrollment at a higher level in mathematics.

Objective: This study desires to investigate the perception of teachers on the dependent variable as a reduction of students' enrollment in mathematics and independent variables, namely difficulty in subject matters, the attitude of learners, learning environment, application of mathematics in real life, and existing evaluation systems and find relation and influence.

Methodology: This inquiry consists of 109 faculty members with qualifications of master’s degree or above in mathematics based on the survey research design in Pokhara valley and its surrounding. A three-point Likert-scale survey questionnaire, 31 structured questions related to dependent variables and independent variables was made and administered by the researcher to the teachers.

Result: This study concluded that reducing learners’ enrollment is remarkably confidently correlated with the attitude of students, learning environment, difficulty in subject matters, and the existence of evaluation patterns. This finding further found that the learning environment and existing evaluation system are directly impacted by reducing the students’ enrollment, but other independent variables do not have an influence on the dependent variable, namely perception towards reduction of student enrolment in mathematics.

Conclusion: The learning situation and actual judgment system are highly aff ected by reducing the students' enrollment at a higher level. These two independent variables should be managed by research to address the learners' interest and demand within a short time interval as an international system. Further study about the perceptions of teachers in pure mathematics and applied mathematics should be done separately to generalize and validate this finding.

Give me a Vote: How Nepalese Mayoral Candidates Perform Speech Acts on Facebook?

2023-05-01T08:13:31+00:00

Background: Social media, particularly at the time of the election, are frequently used by politicians for communication with their voters. Among different social media, Facebook is the most popular media in Nepal.

Objectives: In this context, the paper has analyzed how the eighteen mayoral candidates of the Local Election-2022 from six Metropolises of Nepal have performed different illocutionary speech acts while communicating with their voters through posts on Facebook.

Methods: Developing a protocol, selected 394 posts of two candidates of the major political parties and one independent candidate from each metropolis are selected as data for analysis. The status updates on Facebook of these candidates from the day of their nomination to the election silence period before the voting day are collected for analysis. The taxonomy of illocutionary speech acts developed by Searle is taken as the theoretical base to analyze the collected written updates.

Results: The study has found extreme use of assertive speech acts and occasional use of declarative speech acts in the status updates by the mayoral candidates. There are no fundamental differences between the winning and losing candidates regarding their culture of using or ignoring particular speech acts.

Conclusions: Communicating the certainty or the inaccuracy of the proposition in the form of extreme assertive speech acts by the candidate indicates the usual reporting character of them rather than adopting other rational and expressive speech acts to move the audience. It also indicates that they perform different speech acts without being conscious of the inherent characteristics of the acts. The study supports scrutinizing the communication skills of the politicians of urban Nepal in terms of doing politics with words.