Harsh Purohit

Determinants of Capital Structure in Indian Manufacturing Sector

This article is an attempt to analyse the important determinants of capital structure in Indian manufacturing industries in the last decade. Over the past several years, financial economists and researchers have worked to bring more of scientific and predictive understanding in corporate finance; this has been done by preparing formal theories that can be tested by empirical studies of corporate and stock market behaviour. But this brings us to the most important issue to developing a well-defined and exhaustive theory of capital structure which also finds applicability in an actual market scenario and designing empirical tests that are powerful enough to provide a basis for choosing among the various theories. In several competing theories, researchers have given their perspective in the form of theories, since Modigliani and Miller’s famous propositions on the capital structure, to test the ground realities of capital market imperfections such as taxes, bankruptcy costs, agency costs and information asymmetries. Therefore, the determinants of the capital structure of companies have been debated for long in corporate finance. To bring more clarity on it, this research attempts to test the important determinants of the capital structure of companies.

Measuring Intellectual Capital and Its Impact on Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence from CNX Nifty Companies

During the recent years, value of financial assets has grown exponentially when compared to physical assets indicating that intangibles are growing in importance in their contribution to economic growth. The evidence in support of this phenomenon can be found in the increasing gap between market and book valuation of firms. The present study attempts to measure the intellectual capital (IC) of publicly listed firms in India and empirically examine the relationship among IC, financial performance and market valuation of these firms. Value creation efficiency of the firms listed on CNX Nifty over the period ranging from 2004–2005 to 2013–2014 has been estimated using Pulic’s Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC). It was observed that firms operating in sectors such as financial services, mining and energy had the highest VAIC scores. Further, there was a positive association between VAIC and all the measures of financial performance—profitability, productivity and market valuations. Efficiency of physical capital employed had a significant positive relation with profitability, market valuation as well as productivity. Human capital efficiency was found to have a strong positive association with profitability, while structural capital efficiency did not have any significant impact on any of the measures of financial performance.

Information granules for medical infonomics

The paper highlights the medical diagnostic model using infonomics principles and granular computing. The paper proposes a framework using information valuation terms like: utility, refresh rate and granular elasticity of information with fuzzy rule-based system for developing medical information granules utilised for creation of knowledge base.

The Causal Dynamics in Indian Agriculture Commodity Prices and Macro-Economic Variables in the Presence of a Structural Break

Agriculture commodity prices have been quite volatile in India. The proposed study explores the effect of structural change on the flow of information between the spot and futures market of agriculture commodities and select macro-economic factors. The volatility in agriculture commodity prices is studied with respect to three dominant macro-economic factors—movement in crude price which serves as an input to agriculture sector, movement in INR/USD exchange rate and movement in Sensex which is considered as a barometer of investment in India. The study uses non-linear cointegration and causality test to understand the direction of causality in volatility of commodities and impact of macro-economic factors. The study observed the agriculture commodities spot and futures prices to be co-integrated with crude, forex and Sensex for majority of the break periods. We find robust evidence that futures market played a leading role in the price discovery function and information processing. Breaks in agriculture commodity prices are attributed to fundamentals of demand and supply in the market and global financial turmoil of 2007. We observed mixed results of influence of the exchange rate, Sensex and crude on agriculture prices in different sub-periods.

Application of Evolutionary Algorithm in Supply Chain Management for Internet Marketing

The paper highlights the issue of development of a framework for internet based supply chain management system using the concept of Evolutionary Algorithm. Authors have developed objective function of supply chain and optimize it using EMO (Evolutionary Multi Objective Optimization). The paper discusses how a mobile company “XEMO” selling its mobile phones online was able to optimize between the demand and supply using EMO.

The Validation of Organizational Role Stress (ORS) Scale: A Study of Educators

The aim of this research paper is to confirm the validation of the organizational role stress scale, which was developed by Pareek. The instrument is validated for the sample of 391 faculty members in private higher education institutions in Rajasthan. SPSS 22.0 has been used for analysis. Further, Spearman-Brown coefficient and Guttman split-half coefficient have been used to ensure the reliability of the instrument.

Price discovery and dynamics of Indian equity exchange traded funds

The present study investigates the role of equity exchange traded funds (ETFs) in price discovery by studying a sample of nine equity ETFs following CNX Nifty and S&P BSE Sensex. The study reports an analysis based on the daily closing prices of ETFs and indices from the inception date of each ETF till December 2014. To examine the price discovery process, Johansens cointegration test, vector error correction model (VECM), impulse response function and variance decomposition test are employed. The results depicts that both the ETF price series and index price series are non-stationary at levels but are stationary at first difference. Johansen cointegration test results reveal the existence of long term relationship for all ETFs except Most Shares M50. There is ample evidence to suggest that unidirectional causality between ETF prices and index prices. The results of VECM depicts that index prices lead the ETF prices and the presence of error-correction term restores the equilibrium in the long-run. The impulse response function results indicate that ETFs responds to index price variation and shock decay period ranges between two to three periods. The results underscores the role of ETFs in price discovery process and in India ETFs still behave as passive instruments for hedging purpose.

Investors’ Psychology: An Empirical Analysis

Investors are always assumed to be rational creatures. Prior to investing their hard earned money, investors analyze the market plausibly by using various approaches like technical, fundamental, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT), etc. Nevertheless, some investor wins the game, while others lose it. This volatile behavior of markets has challenged the hypothesis of efficient markets which motivates us to understand the driving forces behind it. It is the major concern for academicians, investors and portfolio managers to understand the reasons causing irrationality in the markets. Academicians brought out few behavioral biases into existence which are required to be studied. The present paper is an attempt to have an insight about key factors influencing the behavior of retail investors with respect to demographics in relation to their investment and their decision making process.

Supply Chain Risk Evaluation: Understanding the Technical Risks from the Perspectives of Dubai Logistics Supply Chain Companies

This article evaluates the technical risks faced by Dubai based large and medium size logistics supply chain companies (LSCC). Middle East is attempting to turn itself into a multimodal trans-shipment hub for transport, as manufactured goods production has moved from West to East. Thus Dubai port has become the hub, as great freight volumes now transit this region, which has created demand for additional warehousing facilities. As supply chains have lengthened, logistics executives are increasingly responsible for anticipating and eliminating a greater number of risks. The stakes are high: in the past five years, nearly three-fourths of companies experienced significant disruptions. Also the topic is very important in current context; however, there does not seem to be much work done in this area in Dubai, a place which is dominated by the LSCC. The findings are based on risk identification and risk analysis through exploratory and empirical survey using a sample size of 50 questionnaires, 7 in-depth interviews and a focus group meeting with senior supply chain executives. The study provides insights into the applicability of technical risks faced by logistics supply chain, Dubai, with respect to severity, degree, speed, amount of forewarning associated and duration of each risk. Findings from this research will prove useful to management researchers and practitioners.