Contemporary Research in Business, Management and Economics Vol. 9

Nowadays, switching to automation software opens many opportunities and enhances the workflow for all accountants and financial personnel. This research work discusses various benefits banks can gain from adopting automation as well as robotic process automation in banking, finance and investment banking. It thereafter studies the hierarchical interwoven linkages amongst these factors through the VAXO technique of Interpretive Structural Modeling Methodology [ISM].

Background: Marketers face the evolution of online brand positioning marketing strategy due to changes in search engine algorithm that affects the reaching out of brands to potential internet users. Brand owners realise that to be relevant in the modern market, they need to transition and focus more on the online market. However, many brand owners have ignored the power of search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy for attracting the online market, which is highly competitive and faces rapid changes. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) brings creativity and improves a website's visibility that enable online entrepreneurs to increase users’ traffic. Various studies have analysed factors that can enhance the persistence of using the SEO strategy, however gaps remain regarding the relationship of this strategy with online brand positioning. The main aim of this study is to identify the persistency of using the SEO strategy including the niche point of differentiation, valuable content, targeted keyword and scalable link building, as the determinants that enhance the success of online brand positioning.

Methods: This study applies quantitative design using an online survey to gather information from the online business entrepreneurs. The survey questionnaire was arranged to focus on the use of SEO as a new way to strategise online business.

Results: Based on the results of this study, most online entrepreneurs have somewhat realised the effects of using the SEO strategy to enhance the effectiveness of online brand positioning. Online entrepreneurs must acknowledge the importance of dependency on the SEO strategy to launch brand campaigns, so that the target audience can choose their brand despite the competition.

Conclusion: This research provides insights into the importance of SEO strategy in online business positioning. It is hoped that online entrepreneurs will consider the SEO strategy in the positioning of their brand in the marketplace.

Implication: This research focused on SEO as a new strategy to enhance brand positioning for online businesses. Future research may expand into another dimension of business such as customer satisfaction and business performance.

This study investigated the relationship between project governance and sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects in Kenya Context. The literature indicates that the sustainability of initiatives is contingent upon the efficient governance of said programs and the wide range of stakeholders involved. Research has shown that project governance results have both major and insignificant effects on sustainability; however, these studies lack empirical support in the Kenyan context. In light of this, the study examined the connection between project governance and youth empowerment project sustainability in the Kenyan setting. The study adopted both descriptive and explanatory research designs. Descriptive research design enables the researcher to apprehend a population’s possible behaviour, characteristics, values and test hypotheses. From a survey of 196 respondents who were project managers and youth leaders involved in Youth Empowerment Projects, data were collected and thereafter analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings from the analysis revealed that the composite construct of project governance significantly predicted sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects in Kenyan context (R = .863, R² =.745, p = 0.000). In addition, each of the variables that made up the composite construct of project governance had significant effect on sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects (stakeholder management: \(\beta\) = .173, t = 2.313, p = 0.022; governance structure: \(\beta\) = .659, t = 8.159, p = 0.000; project team diversity: \(\beta\) = .298, t = 3.728, p = 0.000). The descriptive analysis of variable of this study indicated that the aggregate mean and standard deviation scores for each of the variable of interest show that the respondents were in agreement with the practices relating to the construct of project governance. As a result of these factors greatly enhancing the sustainability of the established projects, the study concludes and advises stakeholders in Youth Empowerment Projects, such as Kenyan county governments and non-governmental organizations, to implement efficient project governance structures. These structures should include stakeholder management mechanisms, appropriately established governance structures, and strategies to improve project quality.

The present study highlights about financial literacy of working women respondents and their preferred source of investments in financial products. Financial literacy is a prominent aspect of Individual growth and the economic development of a country. It is a strong pillar of the wellbeing of society and develops the standard of living of people. The growth and development of a location or people are all determined by their financial circumstances. Finance plays an important part in measuring people's living standards and evaluating a country's economic growth. As a result, people should be aware of the numerous sources of financial investment and their importance.  In this study, financial literacy is mentioned as knowledge of various investment sources of finance like bank savings, post office savings, Investment in mutual funds, capital market and gold. Hence, the study collected information through questionnaires from different categories of working women respondents. The data was collected from respondents with the questions entailing their knowledge of various sources of financial investment and its avenues. To test the hypothesis, the research study employed One-way ANOVA and basic descriptive statistics. According to the study, the majority of women are competent with loans, savings, and borrowing, but they lack expertise in handling investment-related concerns, calculating interest rates, having minimal exposure to long-term investments, and showing little interest in routinely keeping track of their spending.  The study also revealed that the attitude of women towards savings and borrowing o is statistically more significant than other factors. The study also found that in a family, women's income has a significant and impact on the knowledge of women concerning savings–borrowings and financial investment. Though the respondents are illiterate, but they had less exposure on financial investment. It shows that most of the women required to take financial training from the organisation with their family, friends, and other welfare associations.

The present study primarily focuses on determinants Influencing Tribal Youth Engagement in Agricultural Livelihood Pursuits in Dindori District, Madhya Pradesh, India. Rural areas are the economic backbone of most developing countries and contribute to their overall economic growth through the creation of jobs and the supply of food and raw materials to other growing sectors of the economy. While the modes of living of various populations in tribal areas vary, all groups of people in these places rely either entirely or partially—directly or indirectly—on agriculture for their subsistence. Some social groupings are still very far apart from pastoralism and agriculture, making it impossible for them to reach the stage of agriculture. The Baigas, a people group in Central India, are now compelled to engage in established agriculture. Before they practiced shifting cultivation, they had various modes of livelihood. They still enjoy their traditional mode of livelihood, i.e. hunting and food gathering in the deep forest. They are also fond of fishing. Many tribal youths are faced with difficulty of maintaining livelihoods and consequently, poverty remains exist among them. The importance of income-generating activities to tribal livelihood cannot be over-emphasized. This paper examines the factors influencing the involvement of tribal youth in agricultural income generating livelihood activities in Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh, India. Purposive multistage random sampling was used to collect data from 250 respondents, the majority of respondents had medium mass media exposure with medium urban contact for income-generating activities. There was a significant relationship between involvement in agricultural income-generating activities and the socio-personal-economic, psychological and communicational attributes of the respondents. The study concludes that the main factors affecting livelihood patterns among tribal youth in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh are; marital status, family type, social participation, land holding, family income, rural life preference, urban contact, mass media exposure and reasons for educational and vocational training. It is advised that the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) consider all agricultural income-generating activities that tribal youths participate in, as well as the factors mentioned above that impact their involvement when designing and organizing programs targeted at improving the livelihoods of these youths.

Since the establishment of the American Research and Development Corporation in 1946, the venture capital industry has rapidly developed. In 1985, the establishment of the China New Technology Venture Capital Corporation marked the beginning of the venture capital industry in China. In this paper, we empirically examine the impact of venture capital investment on the dividend policy of the invested companies using a sample of listed companies from China’s ChiNext market during the period 2014 to 2019. In China’s capital market, it is puzzling to see that companies listed on the main stock exchange usually pay no or low-level dividends, while on the contrary, stocks listed on the Growth and Emerging Market (GEM) have shown a clear pattern of paying more dividends than their peers from other markets or exchanges, i.e., they usually issue normalized dividends and pay a higher-level dividend. Our empirical results show that different types of VC investments have different impacts on the dividend policies of the invested companies. To be specific, we found independent venture capital companies (IVCs) promote the company’s dividend payment and increase the level of dividend payments while corporate venture capital (CVC) inhibits the company’s dividend payment. The joint participation of multiple types of venture capital investment (syndication) also increases the company’s dividend distribution. Our main contributions are two-fold. First, we provide a comprehensive analysis in the field of VC and dividend policy; second, we differentiate VC from the perspective of investment objectives and examine its different impacts on the dividend policies of the invested companies.

This research holds paramount importance in advancing our utilization of artificial intelligence to predict economic factors, notably within the dynamic domain of the stock market. The primary objectives focus on determining the optimal performance among the seven machine learning models employed. Stock investment prices are never still; they are always changing. It is important to stay informed on the upward or downward trends of the market to make future investments. To accustom the machine learning (ML) predictor to the multitude of possibilities that could categorize stock patterns, 7 different ML models were trained on 1250 pieces of open stock market data dating to the last 5 years by assigning weight values to all the models based on their accuracy. The neural network ends up predicting the stock price with its given data at a mediocre level at best, with MSE averages of 29.93 and 26.85 respectively. Its highest weight, tesla, ends up with only 0.013% of the total weightage. Results showed that two of the ML models, specifically the Linear Regression and the Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) Regressor models consistently outperformed the other 5 models, both ending up with the highest weight values of around 0.5 when predicting for Amazon, Apple, and Tesla. Therefore, the RANSAC and Linear Regression models are the best models to rely on when predicting open stock market prices using ML. Future endeavors must continue this trajectory by expanding model capacities, incorporating richer data sources, and embracing AI-driven advancements to propel stock market predictability into new realms.

This paper examines the value-relevance of corporate governance disclosures by investigating the association between Chinese corporate governance disclosures and financial distress risk, and firm financial and market performance. We use distress prediction models based on financial ratios, stock return volatility, or other firm characteristics including the Corporate Governance in Finance (CGF) Index developed for Chinese firms. We find that the CGF Index is significantly negatively associated with financial distress risk measured by the Zmijewski-score, O-score, and Z-score. We also find that accounting and market performance measures are significantly positively related to the CGF Index. Our analysis of Chinese listed firms reveals that the great variation among firms in their internal governance mechanism in corporate finance has significant economic consequences. CGF measures significantly affect financial distress risk and firm financial and market performance. Finally, for the short-window cumulative abnormal returns (CAR), we find that, around the release of the CGF Index, the CAR of firms with lower scores is significantly negative, while that of firms with higher CGF Index scores is not significant. Our results provide further support for the important role of corporate governance effectiveness in the financial reporting process in emerging markets. Future research should further investigate the effects of CGF disclosures on the earnings quality of Chinese firms.

This work analyses the equilibrium dynamics of a growth model with public finance where two different allocations of public resources are considered, namely "institutional" spending and “traditional” core productive spending. Both components of government expenditure are complementary with private production. The model we propose simultaneously determines the optimal proportion of consumption, capital accumulation, taxation and composition of the two different public expenditures which maximize a representative household's lifetime utility in a centralized economy. The model supplies a closed-form solution. Moreover, with one restriction on the parameters (a = s) we fully determine the solution path for all variables included in the analysis and establish the conditions for balanced growth.

Digital technologies end up penalizing socially disadvantaged people, giving rise to digital subclasses, which have weak digital literacy skills. Digital exclusion can exacerbate existing inequalities in society or introduce new inequalities. It is observed that the relationships and impacts of poverty and exclusion on forms of digital disadvantage appear more evident and continue to be studied by many parties, the long-term cultural, social and economic benefits still remain to be understood and measured, since if, on the one hand, new technologies can provide interesting ways for civic engagement, On the other hand, they can also widen pockets of existing poverty by amplifying hardship and access for those who already do not have access to them. The problem of digital poverty, being complex and involving inequalities of different kinds, cannot be traced back to the identification of technical solutions, but is a social problem that requires joint efforts by the local, national and international community to be addressed. Digital inclusion can succeed in bridging the gap between different socio-economic groups and improving overall economic growth when it creates virtuous relationships with access to education, healthcare and civic engagement, which are key factors in promoting socio-economic development.

In this chapter, the role of monetary policy in addressing inflation and deflation from a sustainability perspective will be examined. The effectiveness of traditional interest rate adjustments in the current economic climate, influenced by geopolitical factors and speculation will be examined. In this chapter, the historical context of monetary policy, particularly the strategies employed by Volcker's FED in the 1980s, is examined and contrasted with contemporary challenges. The findings suggest that while interest rate hikes can curb speculation, they may not effectively control inflation driven by international cost pressures. A re-evaluation of monetary strategies to align with sustainable economic practices may be required.

A difficult moment for broader monetary policy, hit by the accusation of having caused the looming global recession with the rise in rates. But is it really like that? That is, would a more accommodative monetary policy have saved the economy for everyone? Probably a poorly posed question, because it is difficult to agree with those who want to blame the policies of the main banks for an economy that is not actually getting worse. Meanwhile, it should be emphasized that inflation due to international prices cannot be cured by manipulating interest rates. Nonetheless, major central banks made (on average) ten consecutive small jumps as inflation reared its head, resurrected by rising international prices. How can we now explain the interest rate shock to the real economy if the rates themselves have almost no effect on international price-driven inflation? What is perhaps meant is that with the proposed interest rate cut, we could avoid the reduction in prices due to the announced recession? But this hypothesis also does not seem to hold because the expected recession is not in sight and the stability of interest rates does not harm the economy. However, if central banks around the world insist on this unaccommodated tone, they must have their own reasons. Meanwhile, we can say that there was and still is a good reason, but it is only partly linked to the inflation of international prices. Indeed, the decision to repeatedly raise interest rates, which hovered around zero, was sacrosanct. It ended cheap credit, which in turn encouraged speculation in the prices of oil and rare metals. The pace of rising rates as stock market pressure eases is obviously less clear. The answer seems to be that central banks did not change their model after the victory over inflation achieved by Volcker's FED, which raised rates above the inflation rate in the early 1980s. With the exceptional result of bringing inflation back under control and a record economic situation in the USA. But those were different times and another standard of inflation, linked to errors in the direction of the economy and not to the expected effects of speculation as in today's context.