Issue #2 (cont. 2) (Volume 14 2017)

This study aims to create a prediction model that would forecast the bankruptcy of government funded start-up firms (GFSUs). Also, the financial development patterns of GFSUs are outlined. The dataset consists of 417 Estonian GFSUs, of which 75 have bankrupted before becoming five years old and 312 have survived for five years. Six financial ratios have been calculated for one (t+1) and two (t+2) years after firms have become active. Weighted logistic regression analysis is applied to create the bankruptcy prediction models and consecutive factor and cluster analyses are applied to outline the financial patterns. Bankruptcy prediction models obtain average classification accuracies, namely 63.8% for t+1 and 67.8% for t+2. The bankrupt firms are distinguished with a higher accuracy than the survived firms, with liquidity and equity ratios being the useful predictors of bankruptcy. Five financial patterns are detected for GFSUs, but bankrupt GFSUs do not follow any distinct patterns that would be characteristic only to them.

Insurance is known in the literature as a contribution to economic growth. In our cross-country analysis, we found out that insurance density also appears to subdue macro volatility. In other words, an overall expansion of insurance coverage in an economy cushions aggregate risks. This empirical inference remains robust to controlling for other covariates known to co-move with economic activities. Given that the contribution of insurance to economic growth is more impactful in developing countries than in industrialized economies, not only this result is appealing to economic intuition, but also extends the claims in the existing researches.

This report analyzes return prediction in small capitalization companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange over the period from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2015. Well-established fundamental company characteristics and additional small capitalization specific characteristics were regressed against the returns of 104 small capitalization companies. The results show contrary predictability than what is seen in prior studies, which focused on larger companies. The results highlight the difference in the nature of returns earned by small caps and provide insight into unique predictive characteristics that can be used by investors and analysts of small capitalization companies.

The aim of this paper is to examine the growing popularity of debt financing in European based subjects. The development of issued volume was examined on the sample of 9,293 public debt offerings denominated in EUR issued between 30th November 2007 and 30th November 2016 and the impact of declining market interest rates on primary bond market was explored. More than 7.666 trillion EUR of debt were analyzed and the results indicate that despite low interest rates, the volume of issued bonds does not increase over time. Decline of interest rates only compensates slow economic growth as well as increasing global market and political risks.

Working capital management plays a pivotal role in enhancing the operational efficiency of firms and their ultimate profitability. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the trends in working capital management and its impact on the financial performance of listed manufacturing firms on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE). A panel data methodology was used with different regression estimators to analyze this relationship based on an unbalanced panel of 69 manufacturing firms listed during the period 2007–2016.
The findings revealed that the average collection period and the average payment period are negative and statistically significant for profitability, implying that firms which efficiently manage their accounts receivable and those that pay their creditors on time perform better than those that do not. Additionally, a positive statistically significant relationship between the number of days in inventory and profitability was supported suggesting that firms which stock-up and maintain their inventory levels suffer less from stock-outs and avoid challenges of securing financing when needed. This increases their operational efficiency and ensures profitability in the long run. It could not be ascertained whether a shorter or longer cash conversion cycle enhances firm profitability, since findings to support this premise were weak. However, it was observed that manufacturing firms are on average, carrying lot of debt in their capital structures.
The present study contributes to existing literature by presenting one of the very recent findings on this topic while simultaneously testing the validity of recent local and international methodologies, in order to inform policy change.

Capital market functions as a mediator between parties who have excess funds that is, investors and those who need the funds that is, emitents. Decision to sell and buy shares of a financial asset is very strategic decision for investors because it is associated with the chances of return to be earned in the future. The objective of this paper is to investigate the investor’s psychology on buying and selling common stock in the stock exchange in emerging market. The specific purpose of this research is to provide the simultaneous empirical evidence about the perception of risk, psychology aspects towards the confidence and performance. The sample consists of 100 individual investors in Palembang, South Sumatera, Indonesia. The data were collected during March-May 2016 using questionnaire. Research findings show that perception of risk and psychology significantly affect confidence. Furthermore, confidence has a significantly positive impact on performance. This research has not been explained entirely towards the investor’s psychological behavior aspects, so the additional variable may be needed as the full reflection of investor’s psychology. The further research may use experimental study, starts from buying stocks, and factors that can be considered in selling stock.

The profitability of simple technical trading rules remains an interesting topic and has been thoroughly explored in the literature. In this paper, the authors investigate the profitability of two popular moving average (MA) rules in the Bursa Malaysia before, during and after the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009. Using variable length MA (VMA) and fixed length MA (FMA) technical rules, the authors explore if there were differences in their performance during the different market phases, and if swing traders can gain by trading on the basis of these strategies. When practical trading constraints are considered, the authors find that MA rules performed differently during the three market phases. Over time, the forecasting powers of these rules have diluted and they have performed poorly in the most recent subsample. The findings suggest that the Malaysian stock market is gradually becoming more efficient. This outcome can be attributed to the technological advancements and widespread use of exchange traded funds.

Previous researchers have found conflicting results between CSI and firm financial performance. This paper moves this debate further by examining the extent to which corporate social investment (CSI) relates with corporate financial performance (CFP) from a developing country perspective. The main aim of the paper was to determine the relationship between CSI, stock price, sales turnover and return on equity (ROE) amongst the socially responsible investing (SRI) companies in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. CSI data on the SRI companies were collected from companies’ integrated reports from 2011 to 2015. Therefore, a cross-sectional panel data arrangement was applied and the analysis was conducted using the ordinary least square (OLS). Tested at an alpha level of 0.05, the regression result produced a probability level of P < 0.01 for share price and sales turnover; and P = 10 for return on equity. Therefore, the findings revealed a strong positive and significant linkage between the SRI companies’ social investment, share price and sales turnover and no significant linkage with return on equity. These findings are consistent with previous literature findings reviewed in the paper on similar research conducted in developed countries, which showed positive and negative relationships. Findings from the literature indicate that various factors may account for conflicting results, which includes inter alia, time coverage, size of data, location, market sustainability awareness and culture. The paper contributes by revealing that whilst CSI may trigger improvement in stock price and sales turnover of SRI companies, the sales turnover might not necessarily result in boost in profit level that could engender enough return on equity within a short period time. The conflicting results from the literature is indicative of the inclusiveness in research between CSI and firm performance. Hence, the paper recommends further research to examine the relationship within a longer period of time using new sample of companies and other methods of analysis.

Efficient market hypothesis (EMH) states that financial markets are “informationally efficient”, implying that current prices fully reflect all available information. The present study aims at testing the weak form of market efficiency of the individual stocks listed on the Bahrain Bourse for the period 2011 to 2015. Weak form of EMH is tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness of fit test, run test and autocorrelation test. The K-S test result concludes that in general the stock price movement does not follow random walk. The results of the runs test reveals that share prices of seven companies do not follow random walk. Autocorrelation tests reveal that share prices exhibit low to moderate correlation varying from negative to positive values. As the study shows mixed results, it is difficult to conclude the weak form of efficiency of Bahrain Bourse.

Modern economic conditions are characterized by dynamism and complexity, in¬creased competitive confrontation at product markets, rapid changes of the market environment that leads to intensification of the search for advanced approaches to human resource management. Employees, their qualifications and experience are one of the most important factors, without which any prospects of economic growth are neutralized.
The purpose of this paper is to substantiate the essence of human resources as a category of accounting, which is a prerequisite for formation of theoretical and methodological basis of their representation in the context of value-based business management implementation policy.
The article substantiates the essence of human resources as the total number of employees at the company, who are carriers of human assets accumulated in themselves and inseparable from themselves, such as physical abilities, education, experience and professional knowledge that, in conjunction with using the elements of accounting method, creates the basis for presentation of human assets as the company’s right to use them as a part of intangible assets.
Implementation of suggested approach to understand accounting nature of human resources, based on recognition of company’s right to use human assets carried by employees, creates a prerequisite for displaying information about them in the system of accounts and reports of the company that meets the needs of value-based management.