Insights into Economics and Management Vol. 11

In this chapter, we describe a political economic framework of an economy following transition to private ownership. The transition, characterized by massive privatization, is accompanied by a change in the legal system, which is influenced by the elite who may be described as either corrupt or non-corrupt. The ability of the corrupt elite to influence the ruling party may lead to weak legal institutions, which cause underinvestment, corruption, and capturing of lucrative industries by corrupt investors. By introducing heterogeneity among industries, we show that the corrupt investors corrupt the more lucrative industries, and in corrupt economies corrupt investors may separate themselves from the non-corrupt investors. Furthermore, we identified two methods used by the corrupt investors to siphon profit – output stealing and profit stealing – and illustrate that corrupt investors may substitute between the two methods to alleviate the constraints created by stronger institutions. To this end, strengthening the institutions only in one dimension may, at the end of the day, cause output, as well as investment, to decline.

Heritage tourism involves services to tourists with the occasion to understand, and pleasure from uniqueness of natural and heritage features. Heritage tourism is a new and modern phenomenon relating to cultural tourism but its origin is mapped out back to the ancient periods of human existence. Cultural legacy, environment, accessibility and facilities are important features of heritage tourism places. Significant difference is prevailing among demographics of domestic tourists and features of heritage tourism places. Cultural legacy, traditional values, nature and environment and facilities have significant impact on revisit intention of domestic tourists. In order to improve revisit intention of domestic tourists, heritage tourism places should arrange cultural programs and they must give traditional hospitality. Additionally, places should maintain well and they must have recreational activities.

Unemployment is a highly documented socio economic problem in South Africa. This problem is even worse amongst the youth of the country. As most young people go through tertiary institutions hoping to secure a source of income, they are met with the harsh realities of high youth unemployment upon the completion of their degrees. This leaves graduates with two choices: Create a business or stay unemployed and hope for an employment opportunity. This socio economic problem is not only present in South Africa as many developing countries are also experiencing it. This has led academics to inquire about what possible factors are discouraging the youth from starting their own business as a solution to the high unemployment rates. Even though entrepreneurship has been globally purported as the springboard in facilitating economic participation among youth, they face many stumbling blocks during their entrepreneurial journey.

It was therefore the aim of the current study to uncover the factors that discourage youth entrepreneurial intentions at a university in South Africa. The study employed a quantitative research approach and data were collected using structured questionnaires from 247 participants and analysed using Factor analysis. After analysis, the results shows that, lack of business management skills, risk and economic difficulties, financial challenges, lack of a support system, uncertain future and difficulty in finding partners, bureaucracy and crime as well as lack of relevant information were the factors discouraging prospective young entrepreneurs in this university from engaging in entrepreneurial activities.

E-Banking has become an important factor in the future development of banking industry. Electronic banking or online banking is a service provide by many banks that allow handling of all types of banking business, primarily over the internet by using the information technology and communication. In many developed countries E- banking plays a very vital role due to the fact that it’s the cheapest way of providing banking services. Beside this it also facilitated swift movement of funds domestically and across borders. It is a border less entity permitting anytime, anywhere and anyhow banking to its customers. E-Banking is one of the most successful on-line businesses, which save the time and money of customers and companies. It is easily accessible anywhere to a PC, PDA, mobile device, with an internet connection. It also enables the customer to conduct financial transactions on the website of the institution, such as virtual bank, retail bank, a credit union etc. Despite of many benefits of E-Banking, there are some factors which affect its usage. This research paper will introduce you to e-banking, giving the meaning, functions, types, advantages and issues. In short e-banking is anytime and anywhere banking.

The liberalisation of the Malaysian banking industry has attracted a number of foreign banks to open branches in the country, putting the local banking industry under competition. Foreign banks such as Standard Chartered, HSBC, OCBC, and Bangkok Bank have been here for decades, surviving and remaining successful despite numerous restrictions. Newer banks such as Al-Rajhi Bank and Kuwait Finance House have also joined in this increasingly competitive landscape. This study focused on factors influencing customer loyalty in foreign banks at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Customer loyalty has been shown in previous research to play an important role in deciding a bank's competitive advantage. This study examined the level of customer loyalty towards foreign banks in Malaysia and investigated whether factors such as perceived value and trust influenced loyalty. The information was gathered from 239 foreign bank customers in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, who completed a self-administered survey questionnaire. Customer loyalty is above average, with a mean of 4.86 (on a seven-point Likert scale), and both perceived value and confidence have positive and important effects on customer loyalty, according to the findings. Implications of the study are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

The importance of food to life qualifies it to be one of the Sustainable Development Goals. As important as it is, farmers in the Oke-Ogun region of Oyo state had experienced series of nomadic herders’ attacks. This serves as a threat to food security in the region that is known to be the “food basket” of the state. In preventing and managing the conflicts between the nomadic herders and farmers, it is imperative to examine: The source of food in the region; level/nature of attacks; steps taken to prevent or/and control the conflicts; and effect of nomadic herders’ attack on farmers and food security. This study adopted the frustration-aggression theory to explain the cause of conflicts between the two parties. Primary and secondary data were adopted; primary data were sourced through the use of questionnaire, oral interview and observation; secondary data were sourced from journals, textbooks, newspapers and online organizational publications; and the sampling technique adopted was multi-staged random sampling. Findings revealed that most (75.43%) of the food in this region was self-produced; access/size to farmland determines the volume food production; and large number of farmers (78.0%) can no longer farm away from the main towns and backyard of their villages because of the fear of being attacked. The chapter was concluded by recommending that animal tracks should be included in the rural land uses; zoning of the different rural land uses; advocacy planning is also recommended; and barriers such as fencing with bamboo/other trees or digging of ditches round the farms should be encouraged.

Urban flooding is an increasingly important issue. It has become a regular phenomenon in many towns and cities in the world over the past years. Flooding in urban areas in Ho Chi Minh City poses serious challenges not only by affecting large numbers of people and properties in urban areas but also directly hindering the economic growth of the city. Despite the huge technical effort to improve the city's drainage system, which is necessitated by phenomenal growth of the city and the challenges of climate change and land subsidence, it is impossible to put and end to flooding. The human factor appears an important element in the flooding problem and the efforts of flood reduction. In this study the emphasis was laid on the issue of inappropriate garbage disposal which leads to obstruction of drainage systems. As a part of a well-planned strategy an interactive survey was conducted in about 820 households in flooding areas. The survey focused on awareness and behavior of public garbage disposal of households living in flooded areas. People have an understanding of the causes of flooding, and have a sense of environmental protection, they can contribute to reducing flooding. In addition to technological solutions, community awareness, solutions for management and sanctioning are necessary.

This paper explores the relationship between capacity utilisation and international market competition using firm-level data from Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam, looking for the possibility of efficient firms self-selecting rather than learning-by-exporting to join foreign markets. Capacity utilization has emerged as a rationale for these short-lived productivity improvements. The impact of international market competition on capacity utilisation follows a curvilinear relationship with a decreasing marginal point as a restriction for further expansion, according to both linear and quadratic models estimated on an unbalanced variance of exporting and non-exporting firms. The higher capacity utilisation rate in the non-exporting group not only reflects a strong domestic business orientation of firms in general, but also suggests that exporter SMEs in these countries have selected the learning-by-exporting entry mode. The influence of firm and industry physiognomies on a firm's capacity utilisation is further explored in the paper, which finds that wage productivity, competition, firm size, and legal structure all have linearly positive and capacity-based effects. The findings consistently emphasise the importance of capacities, competitiveness, and institutional performance in promoting SMEs' development.

This study highlights the effects of transformation of the inherited political system, with the reference to the way political parties and state institutions function as well as determine the negative impact of the transformation of the political system into the area of economy. In evaluating the causes of the crisis, those characteristics unique to Croatia must be seen in comparison to the majority of other post-communist countries.   This is mainly related to the peculiarities of an inherited socialist system, and the circumstances in which the process of political and economic transformation of the Croatian society was begunThe process of multiple transformation of the socio-political system based on a peculiar paradigm of self-management of social ownership was carried out as the newly constituted state struggled to retain its independence and territorial integrity.  According to the author, these factors are the key to understanding Croatia's current economic and social crisis, which is caused by the current value system. This system, built in the early 1990s, is a direct result of the war and a poorly managed transition. The applied value structure caused a gradual disintegration of civilization and became an impediment to further democratisation. Instead of advancing democracy toward the rule of law and justice, a “distorted” set of principles opened the way for the emergence of institutional corruption.  According to the author, the inconsistencies that occurred during the period of political transition from a one-party regime to a democracy founded on democratic pluralism and the rule of law are the root of the issue. During the last decade of the twentieth century, the outcome of this democratic transition was the establishment of a political structure dominated by the dominance of one powerful political party and a weak opposition. Another issue raised by the author is the organisational model of the majority of newly formed political parties, which is characterised by a rigid hierarchical structure, with a powerful leader in charge of a small elitist circle of people who developed this political programme. It is concluded that implemented political transformation of the society was politocracy—an established model of the rule of political parties that functions in today’s conditions. Also,the phase of economic transformation has allowed the rise of plutocracy, which has paved the way for the practise of ruling in favour of the citizen, to the detriment of the common good, in near collaboration with politocracy.  According to the author, the most important necessity for Croatia to emerge from its economic crisis is a shift in its system of values,, and the prerequisite for this is the implementation of structural reforms in all fields of society—above all, the reform of the political system.

The researchers has conducted this study in order to analyze the preparedness of the e-waste management by the Bahrain Public Commission. The Bahrain Public Commission is a government organization which overlooks the protection of marine and environment in the Kingdom of Bahrain. All over Bahrain different colored boxes are kept for glass waste, paper waste and electronics waste. The same procedure is applied in the companies. The problem encountered is that not many people follow the waste management effectively. This may be due to lack of awareness which lead on recommendations for awareness program among the general public, hold training programs or awareness campaigns across the country. Waste Management in Developed Countries - Brought basically by their more developed industries and more advanced technology, developed nations have more efficient and standard liquid waste management plans. The E-waste management system in the Kingdom of Bahrain is in its early stage of development it needs many steps toward the EMS in the developed countries and a strong bases for legislation enforcements. It was recommended that the region may develop an e-waste management system, a national framework for the management of e-waste, like awareness, education and involve the whole community, starting pilot plans on sorting and collection of electronic wastes, including take back plans and plans for repair recycling and refurbishment, provision of a strong regulatory environment.

In FY 2014-15, the buffalo population was 1.46 million indicating 3 per cent of the total ruminants (small & large) produced in the country, but its’ socioeconomic importance is remarkable. So, the present study was attempted to identify the socioeconomic profile of the buffalo keeping farmers as well as to estimate the profitability from buffalo farming. To achieve the objectives 10 (ten) districts namely: Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Moulvibazar, Bhola, Patuakhali, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Chattogram, Tangail and Sirajganj were selected purposively on the basis of buffalo population density and project implementation areas and 01 (one) Upazila was taken from each district. A total of 500 (50 from each district) buffalo farmers were interviewed following simple random sampling technique. Data were collected during the month of January 2016 to April 2016 and analyzed using STATA software tools. In this study, ‘Logit model’ was adopted using binary dependent variable. Study revealed that the highest per cent of farmers were in age group 31-45 years and engaged in agriculture sector as primary occupation. The highest number of farmers had primary level education and had above 15 years of experience of rearing buffalo. Average farm size was calculated 1.05 hectare; average family size was 6.17 persons per family. Per lactation total cost was estimated BDT 24,507, lactation period was 255 days and average milk production per day was 2 liters. The highest return from milk production was BDT 27,189 and the BCR was 1.31(undiscounted). It was found that about 64 per cent farmers had access to artificial insemination (AI) and seventy per cent farmers vaccinated their buffaloes where 66 per cent FMD, 24 per cent BQ and 20 per cent HS. Ninety-eight per cent farmers feed colostrum to the new born buffalo calves and almost 90 per cent farmers had done D-warming practices. Buffalo population was found highest in Ramgoti and lowest in Haluaghat and on average per farm buffalo number was 18.91. The highest (33%) family income was derived from buffalo rearing followed by service, business, farming and livestock (except buffalo). Measurement of benefit cost ratio (BCR) from buffalo rearing was estimated greater than unity indicated that buffalo rearing is a profitable enterprise. The value of coefficient of Binary Logistic Regression Model showed that most of the prediction was justified and statistically significant and buffalo development program was helpful and necessity for the buffalo farmers.