The objective of this study is to examine the portfolio theory that suggests that diversification can potentially reduce the return variance and the probability of failure of a portfolio. The current study is to investigate the diversification measure by means of Hershman-Herfindahl index, and applies the " diversification index " proposed by Demsetz & Strahan (1997) by scaling systematic risk ...

This paper attempts to construct an efficient evaluation for a shipping industry with financial indicators, because sometimes non-financial indicators are difficult to obtain and are doubtful or untrustworthy. So financial indicators are an important method to evaluate performance. A financial statement is audited by CPA and it is easy to gather, so we do not doubt its trustworthiness. The main...

strategic alliance is a cooperation contract between two or more organizations who want to improve their competitive situation and performance through resource sharing. one of the common types of strategic alliances is the alliance between two organizations working in the same industry. one of those industries which alliances occur most likely is the casting industry. in this regard, this resea...

The knowledge base of companies is increasingly seen as underlying a firm’s performance, and the role of knowledge workers within this framework is seen as strongly associated with a firm’s competitive performance. This perspective views the effective management of knowledge workers as crucial in sustaining an organisation’s competitive advantage. The paper views the financial industry as a kno...

The value of the customer has been widely recognised in terms of financial planning and efficient resource allocation including the financial service industry. Previous studies have shown that directly observable information can be used in order to make reasonable predictions of customer attrition probabilities. However, these studies do not take full account of customer behavior information. I...

We examine how product market competition affects firm cash flows and stock returns in industry booms and busts. Our results show how real and financial factors interact in industry business cycles. In competitive industries, we find that high industry-level stock market valuation, investment, and financing are followed by sharply lower operating cash flows and abnormal stock returns. Analyst e...

What is Islamic Finance? There are at least three characteristics which makes it different from the conventional debt finance. First, it prohibits riba or interest, or in other words a fixed and pre-determined rate of return to be paid on the deposits or to be received from the borrowers. The rate of return is variable and determined by the profit and loss that the bank makes during a given per...

Asymmetric information problems on the labour and the financial market reduce private incentives to undertake activities necessary to attain the socially optimal rate of growth when the rate of innovation is endogenous. Institutional and contractual arrangements on both markets may help to correctly evaluate the long-term prospects of innovations, to protect the investment in specific assets an...

Vulnerable communities in developing countries like the poor in South Africa are not included in their country’s formal economy because the poor have little or no access to financial services. As such, the poor struggle to survive, and to capture the interests of the banking industry to provide them with access to affordable financial services. Public-private financial inclusion initiatives hav...

The paper investigates the effects of international trade in goods and capital movement on the productivity distribution and industry-wide productivity when countries are heterogeneous in the quality of their financial institutions. In autarky, firm heterogeneity in their productivities arises in countries with poor financial institutions, while all firms adopt a high-productivity technology in...