Business Analyst Journal

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.

The present research paper comprehensively reviews the academic work on Corporate Governance and Sustainability Tourism Marketing and presents a précis of 60 research papers published in 29 reputed international journals, over a period of ten years, from 2007 to 2016. Tracing the concepts of corporate governance and sustainability, a detailed discussion of the importance and challenges in implementing sustainability marketing strategies in fast-paced tourism industry is illustrated with classification and pictographic models. A rigorous research in internationally reputed databases has been carried out to select research papers for reviewing them. Text books, international reports and research papers published in international journals only have been included for review. The literature for review spanned a period of ten years, from 2007 to 2016. The studies have been carried out in 23 countries and published in 29 International journals and include both empirical and conceptual papers. Findings suggest that there has been a general increase in the momentum of research in the area till 2015, with a sharp rise in 2008; Most researches have been authored by two or three authors; Majority of the studies have been carried out in the US and UK; A large number of research papers are Empirical and quantitative in nature; ‘International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management’; and ‘International Journal of Hospitality Management’ have published the highest number of researches. The paper concludes with highlighting developing trends; Directions for future research; and shortcomings of the present study.

This paper uncovers theoretical foundations of the factors influencing external debt and presents empirical model of the macroeconomic determinates of external debt in India for a period from 1990-91 to 2016-17. The OLS model reveal that gross fiscal deficit, net domestic savings, net domestic capital formation, exports, imports, real effective exchange rate, foreign exchange reserves, net terms of trade, consumer price index, debt service ratio, net foreign direct investment, gross domestic product and real interest rates (LIBOR) are the prominent macroeconomic variables and they explain 62 percent of the total systematic variations in India’s gross external debt.

Indian economy has witnessed a positive shift in the perception of the role played by Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from an era of concern and suspicion to the most important source of external finance for developing countries. Associated with bringing positive externalities and greatly augmenting domestic capital, FDI is sought by many countries. In the present scenario, employment creation is regarded as one of the important potential contributions made by FDI to the host economy. Thus, the study makes an attempt to analyze the impact of Foreign Direct Investment on employment in Indian Pharmaceutical Industry using recent firm level panel data for the time frame of fifteen years (2001-2015). Our analysis broadly concludes that increased FDI flows have led to higher levels of employment. It is also observed that export intensity and size positively affect the employment while capital intensity has a negative impact. A significant policy direction that emerges from the study is that in order to improve the employment, exports in the labor intensive industries should be encouraged.

This paper is an attempt to empirically examine the trends and Intricacies of ECB in India. It also tries to analyze the possible effects of new ECB policy announced on 16 January 2019. The study observes that ECB flows in last about three decades have been highly volatile, and the share of ECBs in the total external borrowing in India is rising fast. Though, government is progressively relaxing the ECB norms to boost the economy, there is need of careful management of ECBs by corporates as well as the government. While applying for ECB the corporates need to be cautious about the exchange rate risk and impact on balance sheet debt to use ECBs effectively; the government too should not be unmindful of the dangers of increasing reliance on such borrowings with external risks.

This paper examined perceived consumer effectiveness, and objectively worked upon investigating levels and segments of consumers as per construct. For the same, data from 300 respondents was collected and analyzed. Principal Component Analysis suggested that construct PCE was firmly measured by the statements. Descriptive statistics investigated a moderate level of perceived consumer effectiveness among Indian consumers. Further, Cluster Analysis suggested two segments designated as effective and ineffective in this paper. Effective segment has high PCE in comparison with ineffective segment, as analyzed by inferential statistics of z-test for difference between two means. Owing to findings, the requirement of a law for “protection by consumers” is implied, and further research directions are suggested.

In times of uncertainty, the risks related with participating in international operations have increased considerably. Additionally, such risks have moved towards becoming progressively hard to analyse and foresee for decision makers in the universal financial network. Country risk fundamentally showcases the risk state of an economy. In global business, the risks emerging from the national variations in monetary structures, arrangements, natural ecologies and social societies may change the outlook for success of a given venture or business. Analysing the country risk of foreign nations becomes crucial to investors for strategically planning their investments. Taking this complexity of country risk analysis, the current paper proposes an index for country risk, consisting of 12 nations under the Group of seven (G7) and BRICS nations. The CRI is compiled on the basis of seven risk dimensions namely: political, economic, social, technical, environmental, legal & financial and within these seven dimensions, 10 indicators are analysed to calculate the CRI for these 12 nations for even years from 2012 to 2018. All data used in this study is secondary and all sources have been acknowledged. Analysis is done in Microsoft Excel 2016. Ultimately, rankings are allotted to these economies, for both groups together and separately, to present a comprehensive analysis of country risk in these nations.

Purpose of this study is to deliberate upon the young consumer behaviour towards branded apparel in Delhi and NCR & to understand concept of branded apparel, to observe brand awareness for different apparel brands, to analyse factors responsible for brand recognition, discover significant factors which persuade a consumer to choose any brand among from available brands; to study factors creating brand association & to analyse how brand loyalty is beneficial to marketers. The study is descriptive in nature based on primary data for analyses of results. A structured questionnaire was formulated using likert scale, multiple grid, multiple choice questions administered to 400 young consumers (Age 15-34 Years) including both males and females varying from professional, businessman, student or job seekers using conveniencе sampling from differеnt placеs of Dеlhi and NCR. The results were analysed based on demographic profile (work status, age, gender, education and income) which was the subject under study for this paper. This vital information can help the companies in better understanding customer needs & deliver them the products. Today buying has become a delightful experience rather than mere satisfaction. Following the еntry of sevеral new brands, the brandеd segmеnt has grown at 25% annually. This represеnts a shift from unbrandеd to the brandеd segmеnt which is mainly due to factors like, rising income levels of Indians, changing demographics, improvements in standard of living and increasing brand consciousness especially for young consumers in Delhi and NCR. Thus, marketer’s should devise attractive consumer strategies to bring more loyalty towards their brands in young consumers to avoid brand shifting. Brand loyal consumers respond positively to a brand changes in terms of price, quality, competition, variety. This study is also useful for the researchers in understanding the entire branding process and how each stage in branding is important to ultimately ensure brand loyalty.