Business Analyst Journal

Investors all over the world have been in search of a model that can help them in estimating the parity between risk and return relationship which paved the way for the models like CAPM, Conditional CAPM, multi factor CAPM model with different firm specific factors, Arbitrage Pricing Theory and various other modified versions of the same. The traditional theories however have been time and again criticised for being too simple and ignoring an important aspect which is very much evident in the emerging stock markets that is the Behavioural factor. The study tested applicability of APT in the Indian context using monthly data for the period January 2000 to December 2018. Factor analysis and Fama-Macbeth regression technique has been used to find out applicability of APT in the Indian context. Results were found to be partially suited towards the applicability of the APT in estimating the risk return parity of the 500 stocks listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Economists for long have been fixated with the concept of a self-interested rational economic agent. Decision making by them however is not done in isolation from the society and societal culture plays a key role there. This article provides with a review of the existing work that relates culture to macroeconomic issues like growth and development.

Work Life Balance (WLB) is a concept that is important in all spheres of life whether it is political, economic or social as it has been associated with individuals, families and institutions. Work life balance is not only about families and childcare nor it is about working less, it’s about working smart, giving whatever, you need for both work and home without jeopardizing one for the other and it's necessary for everyone whatever stage one is in life. Hence, there is a need to take into consideration various aspects of family and job and to ascertain to what extent the factors related to work and family help in the attainment of a good life. The building blocks of any society or country are teachers and the teaching profession. The present research paper aims to construct a theoretical framework with regard to WLB of people in the teaching area. The paper aims to identify the variables affecting the WLB of an individual and the variables which define the impact of WLB on individuals in teaching with regard to their life, family and organization with the support of existing literature. Identification of such variables and developing hypotheses thereupon would provide a better insight to understand the problems and expectations of teachers. The working environment and job requirements have become so complex now-a-days in colleges of higher education that the pressure on the teachers juggling with career growth to meet academic standards, has made it difficult for them to achieve work life balance. Measuring the factors affecting the work life balance of teachers in higher education with the help of theoretical framework has certain policy implications for those, who are constantly involved in developing strategies to combat the adverse work life balance situations.

The growth in Indian and Chinese economies has been attributed to major reforms in the modus operandi of the capital market of the two economies. The stock market performance of the two leading economies of Asia has been a topic of discussion globally especially after 2008. In the present research, the researcher has compared the performance and stock market volatility of Indian and Chinese Pharmaceutical Indices Returns during 2004 to 2017 i.e. thirteen years. Pharmaceutical Sector forms one of the major industries of any economy and contributes to the GDP of that economy as well. Present study uses advance econometric tools like ADF Test to study stationarity, Statistical tools to compare performance and Garch (1, 1) model to study the volatility pattern of the Pharmaceutical sector indices of the two economies. The results were calculated on E-Views 8 software.

The study attempts to analyze the shareholders’ value using Economic Value Added (EVA) and Market Value Added (MVA) performance measures on the selected Information Technology (IT) companies in India. It provides the ranking and classification of the selected IT companies in India based on MVA and EVA measures. A sample of 119 Information Technology companies in India has been selected using the Capitaline Database for the year 2007-08 to 2016-17. The study found that in totality, all the selected Information Technology companies were value creators (EVA+) except a few companies which were neither value creator nor value destroyer (EVA=0). Accordingly, almost 45% (i.e., EVA+ and MVA+) of the companies are value creators as well as wealth creators, while 55% of the IT companies (EVA+ and MVA-) are performing well. Still, the market is not optimistic about these companies. The IT giants like Wipro Ltd., HCL Technologies Ltd., Tech Mahindra Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and 3i Infotech Ltd., BPO have emerged as the best-performing companies in India. The in-depth analysis based on EVA and MVA of the selected companies will provide insights into the Information and Technology sector to help the investors in their decision to invest in this sector.

Marketing as it said to be one of the competent and most important factors for the growth of any entity, be it a brand, a product, a person etc. The same applies to the political world that we deal with at present .The ever increasing competition amongst the political parties have left them with no option but to promote them in a way in which they can justify themselves to be the best amongst all. There has been an increased application of marketing techniques by the political parties these days which popularly has evolved and has become to be known as Political marketing. Over the years the implicit ties between marketing and political process have become inevitable and more prominent. Major changes have taken place in the political marketplace in the past three to four decades in terms of influx of social and mass media as information dissemination tools .There has been rapid escalation of campaign costs with respect political marketing. Both business marketers and political marketers have started using media outlets to inform, remind, and alter the attitudes and behaviours of potential clients and voters (respectively), and they both try to employ similar tools when structuring campaigns, such as market research and statistical analysis. In this particular study we will throw some light on the increasing role of marketing as a communication medium for politics and political parties. Despite the presence of 24-hour news stations and 24X7 online news coverage, the general public most of the times remains under-informed on political issues and news which is supposed to be covered using political marketing and hence day by day this concept is gaining momentum as it helps in understanding the voter behavior. The purpose of this paper is to understand and show the applicability of marketing as an important weapon in the area of political marketing in general.

The paper firstly compares the current usage pattern of mobile phone services of urban and rural subscribers and their desired pattern of mobile phone services in future. Secondly, it compares the level of activities that are being adopted by the mobile phone service providers in rural and urban areas and the subscribers’ desired level of activities to be adopted by their mobile phone service providers in future in rural and urban areas. The primary study was based on 800 respondents from the four states of India viz. Gujarat, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal that covered the rural and urban mobile phone subscribers. A non-parametric technique Mann-Whitney U test was applied to examine the significant differences between the means of urban and rural mobile phone subscribers with respect to their mobile phone services. The results revealed that apart from work related and gaming services, significant differences emerged between the rural and urban subscribers with respect to mobile phone services usage viz. social calls, text messages, mobile internet, agriculture/commodity prices updates, application downloads, payment through mobile phone services, weather updates and social chatting. The significant differences also emerged between the two groups with respect to their desired level of usage pattern of mobile services except text messages and mobile internet. The usage for social calling, gaming, agriculture/commodity prices updates and weather updates was found to be higher in rural areas than their urban counterparts. Moreover, the results showed that the desired level of usage pattern of mobile phone services in rural areas were found to be higher in all mobile phone services than that of their urban counterparts. The study also showed that statistical significant differences emerged between the two groups with respect to current and desired level of activities carried out by their services providers. Except for pamphlets distribution in regional language, the service providers were found to be active more in rural areas than urban areas. Urban subscribers’ desired distribution of pamphlets in regional language to be higher than rural areas and in other activities, rural subscribers desired more activities than in urban areas. The study makes an empirically rigorous contribution to a relatively under researched aspect of comparing the means of urban and rural subscribers with respect to their current usage pattern, desired usage pattern, current activities carried out by service providers and desired activities of mobile phone service providers. The author recommends that private players and government agencies should take into their consideration the results of the study for diffusion of mobile phone services for reducing the gap between urban and rural tele-density in India.

Purpose: Dividend has significant relevance from the perspective of managers, shareholders and potential investors. In this regard the present paper seeks to demystify various financial factors affecting the dividend decision of Indian companies and presents crucial implications. Methodology: The paper has applied OLS panel regression using two models to establish consistency and reliability. In this study, we have examined top 100 companies based on market capitalization during the year 2007 to 2018. Findings: The paper documented evidence pertaining to three most imperative financial variables which positively and significantly affect dividend policy of Indian companies is dividend history, current earnings and investment opportunities. It will have significant implications for managers, shareholders and academician. Implications: Dividend decisions are the one of the critical decisions of the financial management and have serious implications for managers, shareholder and academicians. The paper will provide implications for the predication of firm’s behaviour during financial crisis caused by COVID 19 and give useful insights to investors in their decision making during that period. From the perspective of investors looking for investment in stock with dividend yield, should invest in those companies having higher profitability, pattern of past dividend and opportunities of investment.

The present study attempts to re-examine the concept of well-being at work in the contemporary scenario. The nature of work and workplace are changing rapidly, increased competition, work pressure, 24X7 work culture, etc. has made it important to re-examine the current literature on well-being at work to address the growing issues of stress, anxiety, and work-life imbalances. An exploratory study was also undertaken with the aim to understand the perspectives that prevail amongst the working professionals concerning the concept of well-being at work. Based on literature and results of the exploratory study, the paper attempts to re-define the concept of well-being at work by collectively examining all of its dimensions, viz. psychological, physical, financial, social, career and spiritual well-being, to make it more holistic. In the extant literature the dimension of spiritual well-being has been studied separately, and never been integrated with the other dimensions of well-being. The present paper proposes a more holistic framework on well-being at work which considers all the dimensions collectively in the work context.

Analysing the newly proposed concept of Work-Life Natural Fusion (WLNF), that brings in light the explanations from Bharat’s Ancient Scripture ‘The Bhagwad Gita’ and to evaluate the way to analyse the inter-relationship among office role, personal role and social role. Work-Life Natural Fusion can be explained as the simultaneous management of Work and Life demands while one is still at work. While a thorough review of literature to broadly understand the existing concepts and discussions with experts indicates the superiority of Work-Life Natural Fusion over the classical concept of Work-Life Balance; the researchers propose that WLNF could be analysed with the help of suitable quantitative and qualitative tools to standardize its measurement and exploring the need of the implementation of the concept. After taking into consideration the four quadrants in one's life- Work, family, Friends and Self, and a few other factors, a set of questions has been prepared to understand the saatvikta (Dharmic and good thoughts and actions), holistic perspective of employees etc. WLNF seems to be a relevant concept and could be researched further to establish if it is superior to work life balance. Adopting the concept with Bhagwad Gita is the natural guide identifying one’s calling, making greatest contribution to society on their part through their work. Can provide better alternative to Work-Life balance and make people more productive and happier. The paper proposes a novel approach to achieve effectiveness in all spheres of life. The paper also adopts a synthesis of ancient and contemporary ideas to enrich the quality of work.