Part I: AN INTRODUCTION TO INQUIRY. 1. Human Inquiry and Science. 2. Paradigms, Theory, and Research. 3. The Ethics and Politics of Social Research. Part II: THE STRUCTURING OF INQUIRY: QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE. 4. Research Design. 5. Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement. 6. Indexes, Scales, and Typologies. 7. The Logic of Sampling. Part III: MODES OF OBSERVATION: QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE. 8. Experiments. 9. Survey Research. 10. Qualitative Field Research. 11. Unobtrusive Research. 12. Evaluation Research. Part IV: ANALYSIS OF DATA:QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE . 13. Qualitative Data Analysis. 14. Quantitative Data Analysis. 15. Reading and Writing Social Research. Appendix A. Using the Library. Appendix B. Random Numbers. Appendix C. Distribution of Chi Square. Appendix D. Normal Curve Areas. Appendix E. Estimated Sampling Error.

社会研究方法基础 = The Basics of Social Research

Principles of Corporate Finance - 4/E

This paper assesses the role of knowledge economy (KE) in African business in 53 countries for the period 1996–2010. The four KE components of the World Bank are employed, notably: education, innovation, economic incentives and institutional regime, and information and communication technology. The business indicators are classified into starting, doing, and ending business. Principal component analysis and panel instrumental variable fixed effect approaches are employed as empirical strategies. The findings which are broadly consistent with intuition and the predictions of economic theory suggest that KE policies will substantially boost the starting and doing of business in Africa. This is relevant in fighting unemployment and improving African competitiveness in global value chains. Policy implications for the relevance of each specific KE dimension in African business are discussed with particular emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings of the study. The investigation is original in its contribution at the same time to the scarce literature on African KE and the growing challenges of improving the business climate of the continent by means of KE.

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The Role of Knowledge Economy in African Business

In this article I study the statistical properties of a bias-corrected realized variance measure when high-frequency asset prices are contaminated with market microstructure noise. The analysis is based on a pure jump process for asset prices and explicitly distinguishes among different sampling schemes, including calendar time, business time, and transaction time sampling. Two main findings emerge from the theoretical and empirical analysis. First, based on the mean-squared error (MSE) criterion, a bias correction to realized variance (RV) allows for the more efficient use of higher frequency data than the conventional RV estimator. Second, sampling in business time or transaction time is generally superior to the common practice of calendar time sampling in that it leads to a further reduction in MSE. Using IBM transaction data, I estimate a 2.5-minute optimal sampling frequency for RV in calendar time, which drops to about 12 seconds when a first-order bias correction is applied. This results in a more than 65% reduction in MSE. If, in addition, prices are sampled in transaction time, a further reduction of about 20% can be achieved. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Properties of Bias Corrected Realized Variance Under Alternative Sampling Schemes

This is an investigation into the impact of financial literacy on new venture survival. A model is proposed in whichincreased adoption of financial tools (e.g. financial statements and financial ratios) leads to increased frequency offinancial statement generation which in turn increases the likelihood of loan repayment and decreases theprobability of venture failure. A structural model was then tested using data from 509 young entrepreneurs inCanada who had received start up loans through their participation in a program by the Canadian Youth BusinessFoundation. This research found that increases in financial literacy led to more frequent production of financialstatements. This research found that entrepreneurs who produced financial statements more frequently had ahigher probability of loan repayment and a lower probability to close their venture involuntarily.

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The Impact of Financial Literacy on New Venture Survival

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of financial literacy and impact on youth entrepreneurship in South Africa.Design/methodology/approach – The paper used both desk research and questionnaire complemented by interview to assess the level of financial literacy among youth entrepreneurs in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province, South Africa.Findings – The paper reveals that financial literacy among youth entrepreneurs in the Vhembe District appears to be above average and contributes meaningfully to their entrepreneurship skills.Research limitations/implications – Further research is needed to verify in specific and practical terms, the level and impact of financial literacy on youth entrepreneurs in the Vhembe District.Practical implications – Education and training at both high school and tertiary levels with emphasis on financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills may have significant implications for small‐, micro‐, and medium‐sized enterprise development and growth for th...

Financial literacy and youth entrepreneurship in South Africa

The absence of robust internal control mechanisms has been cited as one of the contributing factors to most business failures ‘internal control’ is a process effected by an entity’s board of directors, management, and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in effectiveness and efficiency of operations, reliability of financial reporting, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. A major problem that companies face is that these objectives may not be met due to a miscellany of factorsThe purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of internal controls in SMEs in South Africa. Specifically, the study focuses on SMEs in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province. We use questionnaire to collect data pertaining to the five essential and interrelated components of internal control: control environment, risk assessment, information and communication, monitoring and control activities. The SPSS Statistical software was used to analyze the data. Chi-square statistical procedure was emloyed to establish the relationship between levels of internal controls among businesses by size of business and type of business in the Vhembe District.The main findings of the study are : (i) that internal control practices among small business sector enterprises in the Vhembe District is low, with only 45 percent of firms surveyed having adequate internal controls systems in place; (ii) that the size of business in the sector studied determines the posssession of insurance cover (a major component of internal control).The policy implication of these findings is that there is need to encourage and support smll businesses to grow and expand in size in order to effectively employ internal control measures, the lack of which is firmly established as a major cause of busiess failures around the world.

https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/download/779/814

Internal control in small and microenterprises in the vhembe district, limpopo province, south africa

Peter Drucker (1986), in “Management: Tasks, responsibilities, and practices” states that business enterprises and public-service institutions, are organs of society which do not exist for their own sake, but to fulfil a specific social purpose and to satisfy need of society, community, or individual. To achieve the above objectives, managers of these institutions must plan, control and make decisions about the resources entrusted to their care. A key element of efficient organizational decision making is to use reliable information, both operational and managerial accounting data for analysis and decision support. This can be achieved by using activity-based costing (ABC) method. The underlying premise of ABC is that resources are consumed by activities to produce outputs or products and services (US General Services Administration, 2006). It focuses on the allocation of indirect costs to products and services, which was traditionally done on arbitrary basis. ABC is useful in two situations: areas with large and growing indirect and support costs (Krumwiede, 1998a; Becker, Bergener and Räckers, 2010), and areas with a large variety in products, customers and processes (Cooper, 1988a, 1988b; Groot, 1999). The unique characteristic of public sector organizations as overhead-intensive service entities, therefore, is amenable to the use of ABC methodology (Becker, Bergener, and Räckers, 2009). Buttross and Schmelzle (2003) re-emphasize ABC adoption in the public sector and suggest that it can provide information on the cost of providing government services for strategic decisions. Despite its popularity in the literature, relatively little is known about the adoption of ABC, especially in South Africa’s public sector. The purpose of this study was to review the literature about the use of the ABC methodology to overcome shortcomings in traditional approaches to allocating costs to products and services in the public sector so as to promote effective financial management and concomitantly, efficient service delivery in the South Africa’s public sector.

Activity based costing (ABC) in the public sector: benefits and challenges

Working capital plays a vital role in shareholders’ wealth creation, yet there is a dearth of empirical studies on the relationship between working capital management and firm value in the South African economic environment. This study attempts to fill this gap by using Richards and Laughlin’s (1980) Cash Conversion Cycle theory to investigate the impact of working capital management efficiency and its separate components on firm value of South African firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Panel data regression methodology was used to analyze accounting data obtained from I-Net Bridge/BFA McGregor for 75 firms for the 10 year period, 2003 to 2012, to determine the nexus between WCM and profitability (proxied by return on assets). The key findings of the study are as follows: 1) there exists a significant positive relationship between firm value and both inventory conversion period and receivables conversion period; 2) the relationship between the cash conversion cycle and firm value is positive but insignificant; 3) there is a significant positive relationship between accounts payable deferral period (PDP) and profitability; 4) firm size and firm value are significantly positively related, and 5) there is a significant negative relationship between leverage and firm value.

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Working capital management and shareholders' wealth creation: evidence from non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

This study employ the wavelets multiple correlation and wavelets cross-correlations techniques to investigate the co-movement and interdependence structure across seven African stock markets using daily and weekly data from 2011 to 2017. The results suggest there are linkages among stock markets and this is stronger at lower frequencies (long-terms). Also, the Ghanaian stock market has a potential to lead or lag other markets at lower frequencies where there is higher degree of integration. Thus, African stock markets offer little opportunities for diversification at lower frequencies than at higher frequencies (short-terms and medium-terms).

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Emmanuel K. Oseifuah

Papers

Financial literacy and youth entrepreneurship in South Africa

Internal control in small and microenterprises in the vhembe district, limpopo province, south africa

Activity based costing (ABC) in the public sector: benefits and challenges

Working capital management and shareholders' wealth creation: evidence from non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Integration of Major African Stock Markets: Evidence from Multi-Scale Wavelets Correlation