Dhaka University Journal of Business Studies

Effect of Information Disclosure on Corporate Performance: Evidence from Companies in Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Industry Sectors of Dhaka Stock Exchange

2022-05-17T08:44:16+00:00

In this study we examined if level of corporate disclosure (mandatory, voluntary, and combined) has any impact on firms’ performance (measured in terms of ROA, ROE and stock return) in case of Bangladeshi listed firms. The data from 15 listed companies of pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors is used covering study period of 10 years (2009-2018). The dataset is analysed using both descriptive statistics and random effect model following the models used by similar studies in other countries. Beside indices of disclosure, some other control variables like sales growth, age of firm, size of firm, leverage ratio, total asset turnover and industrial category of the firm (pharmaceuticals or chemicals) are used in three different models as proxy for returns. The results indicate that firms with higher level of mandatory or combine disclosure have higher ROE or ROA.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 1-24

Online Class: Stress, Anxiety, Optimism and Wellbeing

2022-05-17T08:44:17+00:00

COVID-19 induced online class is a new experience for students in many countries like Bangladesh. This rapid shift from the conventional classroom learning environment has effects on many facets of life like psychological stress and wellbeing. In this emerging context, this study investigates the relationship between perceived academic stress of online classes, future anxiety, and psychological wellbeing with a mediation effect of optimism-one of the dimensions of psychological capital (PsyCap). In a cross-sectional design, this study collected data from 348 business students at the time of attending online classes due to social isolation in effect due to COVID-19. Using the structural equation modeling technique in the SmartPLS3.7 version, this study found that psychological wellbeing was negatively associated with online class stress and future anxiety, while positively related with optimism. The indirect effect of optimism showed that it mediated the negative impact of future anxiety-wellbeing relationships but not the online class stress-wellbeing relationship. Thus, optimism as a mechanism of PsyCap can be useful to lessen the general state of psychological wellbeing of the students during the pandemic. However, it will not be an active avenue to deal with negative causality between online class stress and wellbeing. Academic institutions need to explore effective mechanisms for curbing online class stress of the students that in turn will promote their wellbeing.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 25-45

Identifying The Factors Affecting Adoption of Mobile Payment System by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Bangladesh

2022-05-17T08:44:19+00:00

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a priority sector in developing countries like Bangladesh. 90% of the employed people are involved in small businesses of Bangladesh, which contribute to 25% of GDP. Like the other sector, this industry may take advantage of cost savings and efficient financial management by adopting mobile payment systems. This study is designed to identify and analyze the factors influencing mobile payment systems adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises. Data has been collected from 200 SMEs through stratified sampling technique and analyzed using modified UTAUT model and PLS-SEM technique. It is found that effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, cost, and voluntariness of use have a statistically significant effect on behavioral intention in adopting a mobile payment system.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 47-73

Empirical Study on Macroeconomic and Firm Specific Variables’ Effect on Profitability of Non-life Insurance Industry in Bangladesh

2022-05-17T08:44:20+00:00

This study tries to show the causation among non-life insurance firms’ profitability measured with ROE, ROA, EPS and firm-specific variables such as underwriting risk, reinsurance dependence, solvency margin, leverage, liquidity risk, growth of premium, length of the company, tangibility of firm’s assets in addition to macroeconomic variables such as GDP growth, inflation and improvement of stock marketplace of the insurance business of Bangladesh. This study also focuses on seven insurance companies amid 2011-2020 considering the econometric models followed numerous diagnostic checks along with the Model specification bias test, test of heteroskedasticity, cross-sectional dependence check, followed by autocorrelation test and unit root test at the validity of the models decided on for this examine. The study found that out of all independent economic factors, only the stock market development is significantly and positively affecting the profitability measured with EPS (Earnings per share). The insurance-specific variables such as leverage and size are significantly positively and negatively affecting the profitability measured both with ROE and ROA of insurance companies, respectively. They are significantly positively affected by both liquidity and tangibility of assets too. In addition, Solvency margin and premium growth are found to have significant negative impact on return on assets which contradicts the authors’ expectations. Moreover, underwriting risk is found to have a significant positive impact on EPS and ROE under the GLS and Fixed-effect method respectively. The one-step system GMM approach reveals that only the one-year lagged ratio of ROE is statistically significant among the three lag values used in the GMM approach and ROE is also significantly positively affected by underwriting risk and GDP growth. In contrast, leverage and size are found to have a significant inverse relationship respectively, with ROE in this approach, showing that tangibility of assets and leverage has a significant negative and positive impact on earnings per share. The chi-square values of the three above models are jointly statistically significant in explaining the variation in the respective dependent variable. In addition, it is noteworthy that no significant impact is found on return on assets from any of the three Macroeconomic factors considered for the study. Also, no significant relationship is found between the three measures of profitability and reinsurance dependence along with the inflation in the economy. However, other than the EPS, all the variables are jointly statistically significant in explaining 79.56% and 83.42% variation in ROE and ROA respectively under the Pooled OLS method.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 75-96

Challenges and Opportunities of Cultural Tourism Development: Bangladesh Perspective

2022-05-17T08:44:21+00:00

Many tourists have changed their tastes and they now avoid mass visited attractions and destinations. They now like to travel to natural attractions and destinations. Human beings are one of the natural attractions. Tourists basically want to know the unknown people and their customs and traditions, explore different cultures of different areas or nations, and experience those firsthand. They want to experience other people’s lives and behaviour, and enjoy their ways of interaction with others. Thus both tourists and local people come to know each other’s cultures. Cultural tourism has occupied an important position among many tourists and in the tourism system of many destination countries. Many destination countries are successfully presenting their cultures to attract cultural tourists to their destinations to observe their cultures. Bangladesh, geographically and historically, takes the pride of its rich, unique and lively culture. Development of cultural tourism in Bangladesh will add a new dimension to our existing tourism system. This will ultimately help attract more visitors in Bangladesh and spread a better image of the country’s tourism in the global tourist market. As such, to develop tourism, particularly cultural tourism, Bangladesh should pay due emphasis to present the cultural factors in its tourism activities and attract more tourists in the country.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 97-112

Contributions of Green Human Resousce Managent Practices to Employee Work Performance

2022-05-17T08:44:23+00:00

The goal of this paper is to investigate the influences of green Human Resousce Managent practices on employee work performance. In order to improve the utilization of resources, performance-oriented components are indispensable. In this sense, the study focuses on five components of green HRM practices i.e., green job design, green HR planning, green recruitment and selection, green training and development, and green compensation that have contributory effect on employee work performance. A total of 384 respondents were selected and data has been collected through structured questionnaire from the samples who are the permanent employees of two largest telecommunication service companies in Bangladesh. For data input SPSS version-20 and for analysis structural equation modeling software Smart-PLS (version- 3) have been utilized. Results show that all five components of green HRM activities have significant positive impact on employee work performance. Thus, this research contributes to broadening the profound insights of green HRM practices to explore the ecological execution of companies by employee performance.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 113-137

Tannery Industry and Its Sustainability in Bangladesh

2022-05-17T08:44:25+00:00

Understanding corporate sustainability is an important area of research for social and environmental researchers. Many businesses now face the challenge of sustainability with the increase of rapid awareness by the relevant stakeholders and growing concerns over the social and environmental issues. The notion of sustainability within the context of tannery industry is perceived to be more serious in terms of social and environmental perspectives. Tannery industry of Bangladesh is such a significant sector that deserves more attention from the researchers to explore the sustainability issues, however there is no such research in the context of Bangladesh to explore this issue. In this paper, we have attempted to measure the sustainability of the tannery industry by utilizing a Sustainability Information Disclosure Index (SIDI) and then we have tried to understand the disclosure quality of the tannery industry of Bangladesh. Our result shows that overall sustainability disclosure scenario of the companies in tannery industry is very disappointing (average SIDI only 25.04% during the year 2009 to 2018). Reporting on economic, environmental and social impacts are three important aspects of sustainability reporting. In this study, economic, environmental and social issues related disclosures have been found only 34.68%, 8.83% and 31.6% respectively. No disclosure has been found about ETP (Effluent Treatment Plants), water and solid waste disposal, greenhouse gas emission, pollution control equipment and policy ensuring efficiency in the use of energy and environment-friendly technologies which are very crucial for tannery industry.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 139-160

Competitiveness: Bangladesh’s Trade in Services

2022-05-17T08:44:26+00:00

This study explores trade performance, contributions and comparative advantage of different services of Bangladesh. The services trade performances are examined by exports and imports basket of services, their contribution to the nation’s total trade, gross domestic product (GDP), and employment generation from 2010 to 2019 using descriptive and trend analysis, while the comparative advantage of those services is measured by using the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) analysis. The findings show that other business services, transportation, and computer and information are the key exporting services, whereas transportation, travel, and other business services are major importing services of Bangladesh. Compared to agriculture and industry, the service sector contributes most to Bangladesh’s GDP and employment generation. However, the total trade of Bangladesh still significantly relies on manufacturing instead of services. Findings also confirm that currently, Bangladesh has comparative advantages only in construction and manufacturing services among the eleven services analyzed. Therefore, this study urges trade policy reforms to consider the importance of services in Bangladesh’s economic development and achieve sustainable competitiveness in potential services.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 161-182

Job Insecurity and Affective Commitment Dilemma in Private Higher Educational Institutions in Bangladesh: How Organizational Support Matters During COVID-19

2022-05-17T08:44:28+00:00

Despite a handful of research examining the linkage between job insecurity and affective commitment, the study focuses on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the educational sector of Bangladesh, especially in the private HEIs (higher educational institutions), which is scant. Job insecurity, a pervasive organizational stressor, is a significant component in workplace counterproductive behavior, which results in a myriad of negative organizational outcomes, including low affective commitment, decreased performance, and so on. Thereby, the study intends to examine the impact of job insecurity on the affective commitment of the faculty members at private HEIs of Bangladesh during COVID-19. Drawing on the organizational identification theory, this study also seeks to evaluate the moderating role of organizational support in the job security and affective commitment linkage where the notion of social exchange theory and betrayal framework are also considered. A crosssectional study is conducted, with data collected conveniently from 204 participants, where the PLS-SEM approach is used to examine the hypothesized relationships. The results reveal a significant negative association between job insecurity and affective commitment, with A significant intervening role of organizational support. More precisely, when respondents perceive a high level of organizational support, they maintain their affective commitment despite the feelings of insecurity. These findings not only shed light on the human resource policies of Bangladeshi HEIs, but also contribute to the existing social exchange and organizational identification theories, as well as the betrayal perspective.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 183-202

Antecedents of Switching Intention of Mobile Phone Subscribers via Mobile Number Portability Service

2022-05-17T08:44:29+00:00

This study investigates the switching intention of mobile subscribers in the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. Data were collected through an online survey with a structured questionnaire from the subscribers of different mobile operators in Bangladesh who have used the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service. The Binary Logistic Regression Analysis was performed to test the research hypotheses. Results show that among the nine predictors, two variables, including call rate and data cost, are positively correlated with the switching intention of cellphone users in Bangladesh and contribute approximately 41 times and 109 times, respectively. However, three predictors, including internet browsing speed, network strength, and user’s gender, do not significantly affect customers' switching intention. Finally, the limitations and managerial implications of the study, along with future research avenues, have been discussed.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 203-209

Predicting Job Skills in Demand: A Big Data Approach

2022-05-17T08:44:30+00:00

The number of unemployed graduates is increasing due to a mismatch in the job skills and skill shortage. The mismatch in job skills has increased further due to technological changes like digital transformation. In Bangladesh, many companies hire skilled people from abroad because of the lack of training among graduates. Therefore, the study aims to apply big data analysis to find and predict job skills in demand. The data was mainly collected from the largest job-posting website (i.e., bdjobs.com) in Bangladesh. Natural Language Processing (NLP) was used for linguistic analysis components (for pre-processing) and tagging named identity. The finding shows business development skills, data visualization, oral communication, Microsoft Excel and working under pressure have the most demand in the categories of business knowledge skills, analytical problem skills, interpersonal communication skills, computer literacy skills, and organizational skills respectively. The study shows that big data analysis and the use of the Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model can predict job skills in demand, which can help reduce the mismatch and gaps in job skills in demand. Overall, this study will contribute to reducing the number of unemployed graduates in Bangladesh.

Journal of Business Studies, Vol. XLII, No. 2, August 2021 Page 221-239