Thesis (MTech (Entrepreneurship))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020 / Often effectively excluded by formal financial systems, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries have found in Mobile Money services an efficient and cost effective means of availing themselves of financial services without holding bank accounts. In order to provide meaningful recommendations to the stakeholders of the banking sector of Cameroon, small and medium-sized enterprises, Mobile Money service providers, and relevant state organs, this study was conducted to investigate the influence of Mobile Money services on the financial performance of SMEs in two markets in Douala in Cameroon. A mixed methods research design was employed to conduct the study. The quantitative data was collected through the administration of a survey questionnaire and the qualitative data from one-on-one in-depth interviews. By means of snowball sampling, a sample of 285 SMEs was obtained to respond to the survey questionnaire, while the researcher used purposive sampling to select the owners or managing directors of twelve of the respondents to participate in the interviews. Version 25 of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software was used to analyse the quantitative data, while the qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis. Correlation and regression analyses yielded that independent variables pertaining to the adoption of Mobile Money services by the respondents to the questionnaire predicted of the order of 73 percent of variance with respect to increased sales turnover. Most of the twelve interviewees perceived that their business operations had improved significantly after they had begun making and receiving payments in the form of Mobile Money transactions. The participants in the study used Mobile Money mainly to receive money, send money, and buy airtime and a significant majority perceived that Mobile Money services were more cost effective than those of banks. Convenience, safety, and accessibility were the attributes of Mobile Money which the participants cited as having provided their principal motivations for electing to register as users of Mobile Money services. It could be concluded that Mobile Money services exerted a significant positive influence on the financial performance of the SMEs of the participants in the study. On the basis of the conclusions which were drawn from the findings, recommendations were made to the owners of SMEs in Douala, the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy, and Handicrafts and Mobile Money service providers. The findings of the study underscore the role of Mobile Money services as an effective means of increasing financial inclusion and financial performance and could be useful to academics, owners and managers of SMEs, financial institutions in Cameroon and elsewhere, and also relevant policy makers.

The purpose:  This research principal target is to investigate the correlation between the financial profitability (EBIT) of 101 most profitable companies (2018) in the United States; and their leadership demographics. Research question:  To what extent does diversity correlate with the financial performance of the most profitable companies in the United States? Methodology This study was based on a quantitative research approach Cross-sectional was used as a study design to be able to investigate the relationship between the variables at 1 point in the time.                                                                    Regressions analysis was used as the method of analysis, to be able to explain to what extend the variable are correlated with each other and to be able to perform hypothesis tests.  Result: Results from this study emphasize that there is no credible evidence that profitability in 2018 is somehow affected by the concentration of women and minorities in the management board. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study has not found a concrete connection between diversity concentration in the management level and profitability.

La presente investigación analiza el capital intelectual (CI) como determinante de la rentabilidad financiera de los bancos. Para lo cual, se analizó 43 empresas del sector bancario de Perú, Chile y Colombia durante 2014 hasta 2018 en un panel de datos balanceados. La metodología utilizada tiene en cuenta la relación estática y dinámica, entre el CI y el rendimiento financiero. Para evaluar la relación estática se aplica regresiones de datos de panel como pooled OLS y efectos fijos (FE). Mientras que para evaluar la relación dinámica se aplica el modelo GMM para resolver problemas de endogeneidad. Los hallazgos obtenidos demuestran que un aumento en las inversiones de CI conduce a una mayor rentabilidad financiera de la empresa. Los componentes del CI (como el capital estructural y capital humano) también indican un impacto positivo con respecto a las medidas de rentabilidad, respaldando así la teoría de dependencia de recursos (RD) y del aprendizaje organizacional (OL). Dado que hay pocas investigaciones realizadas para países en desarrollo, la originalidad está en evaluar el impacto que se tiene en la rentabilidad financiera a través del CI, para economías emergentes como la de Perú, Chile y Colombia. / The present investigation analyses the intellectual capital (CI) as a determinant of the financial profitability of the banks. For which, 43 companies in the banking sector of Peru, Chile and Colombia were analysed during 2014 until 2018 in a balanced data panel. The methodology used takes into account the static and dynamic relationship between the IC and financial performance. To evaluate the static relationship, panel data regressions such as pooled OLS and fixed effects (FE) are applied. While to evaluate the dynamic relationship the GMM model is applied to solve endogeneity problems. The findings obtained show that an increase in CI investments leads to greater financial profitability of the company. The components of the IC (such as structural capital and human capital) also indicate a positive impact with respect to profitability measures, thus supporting the theory of resource dependence (RD) and organizational learning (OL). Since there is little research done for developing countries, the originality is to evaluate the impact on financial profitability through the IC, for emerging economies such as Peru, Chile and Colombia. / Trabajo de investigación

Environmental management plays one of the key roles in the current corporate world due to its benefits on brand identity, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction The relationship between environmental management and financial performance has been the focus of many studies in the recent 20 years, however, a steady conclusion is missing on this topic. The impact of environmental management on financial performance in Swedish SMEs in the energy sector has been investigated in this quantitative study. By performing Generalized Least Squares modeling using panel data with 328 observations from Swedish SMEs in the energy sector, the study suggested that environmental management practices do affect a firm’s financial performance. The study emphasis that the green innovation is one of the most important criteria which keeps ahead of its peers in the sector. Another key component in green practices is obtaining ISO14001 certification to promote continual quality. The study also proves that the ratio between male and female executives has no impact on the environmental management of a firm.

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The purpose of this study is to examine whether European production firms, that reshore parts of their manufacturing processes back to the originating country of the firm, perform financially differently than prior to the reshoring process. The performances of the firms are quantified by the financial indicators of return on equity, return on assets, and net profit margin. It also examines if these three performance indicators are affected differently depending on the scale of the reshoring operation relative to the total size of the firm. To effectively analyse the aforementioned, the study performs a paired-sample T-test for the three metrics, comparing the pre and post reshoring. Three OLS-regressions are also conducted to gain further insights into how a reshoring process has affected the performance indicators of a company. Based on a sample of 34 European companies that have performed a reshoring, the results of the conducted tests show no significant difference in performances for the sampled companies’ ex-ante or ex-post a reshoring of manufacturing activity. This suggests that firms that are planning to make a reshoring move cannot expect a certain outcome of that decision, either positive or negative, in terms of this paper's chosen variables.

As banks have an extensive impact on the market economy while the continuous and ambiguous work for sustainability is more topical than ever before, our study analyses if corporate social responsibility has a positive, negative or no impact at all on the Financial Performance of banks. In particular, the banks of choice are JP Morgan Chase & Co, SEB and UBS. The dependent variables used to measure Financial Performance in this thesis were ROE and ROAA from the year 2002 to 2019. The independent variables were the pillars for the ESG Score, in particular, Environment, Governance and Social, with the control variable Total Assets. As a result, multiple regression analysis shows no significant results for the independent variables of interest. Thus, our study concludes that corporate social responsibility has no impact on the financial performances for the three banks.

In my PhD thesis I investigate the relationship between corporates' financial and environmental performances. The concept of quantitative environmental performance measures was introduced to enable to compare and analyse environmental impacts of different socio­economic units e.g. companies, countries, regions. In my dissertation, I use environmental performance measures to examine their effect on the financial performance of different companies. In the first chapter, I apply a meta­analysis to examine the results of the previous studies which investigate the impact of firms' environmental performance on their financial performance. The outcomes propose that it is important to account for the omitted variable bias such as unobserved firm heterogeneity. The results suggest that it takes time for the environmental regulation to materialize into the financial performance, too. In the subsequent two chapters I study Czech firms over 2004­2008. First I study the intertemporal effects of corporates' environmental performance on financial ...

The purpose of this study was to identify whether firms that implement and develop core competencies perform significantly better than firms that do not. A model of core competency implementation and development in restaurant firms was developed and tested in three casual dining restaurant firms. The amount of co-alignment in the core competency process was compared to financial performance. Results indicated that firms that had a greater amount of alignment performed better. The highest performance was evidenced in the firm that not only had internal alignment but that appeared to have competencies that are also critical to success in the restaurant industry. / Ph. D.

Purpose The high yield debt market has evolved into a $1 trillion market over the last 25 years. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the riskadjusted performance of individual mutual funds that investors use to invest in this asset class. Design/methodology/approach Conditional excess returns are calculated for individual high yield bond mutual funds. Performance persistence over time is measured and size, asset growth, asset duration, the expense ratio, turnover, and manager tenure are used to determine if differences across funds can be explained. Findings Overall, high yield bond funds significantly underperform the CSFB high yield index by 1.6 percent on an annualized basis which is 0.5 percent more than the average expense ratio. Individually, funds do exhibit performance persistence and top ranked funds in one period outperform bottom ranked funds over the proceeding period by an average of 2.7 percent annually. However, except for the expense ratio, commonly used explanatory variables do not appear useful for explaining riskadjusted excess return differences across funds leaving 86 percent of the variation unexplained. Research limitations/implications This paper examines only noload mutual funds that have at least ten years of return data. Historical data for the explanatory variables used to explain alpha differences are limited which constrains any longterm definitive conclusions. Practical implications For investors wishing to invest in this asset class, it appears that past performance does indicate future success, and investors should concentrate on the top performing funds with the lowest expense ratios. Originality/value This paper usefully reaffirms previous evidence on the persistence of high yield bond mutual funds, but casts doubt on the viability of using standard variables other than the expense ratio to explain riskadjusted returns across funds.