Review of HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself
- Author: Shiva Kumar Srinivasan
Markets, Mobility & Service Quality
This issue connects financial markets, mobile technology and service-quality assessment. Contributions include a review of HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself; Granger-causality evidence that trading volume leads stock price changes in the Nigerian banking sector — contrary to developed-market findings; an assessment of mobile-phone privacy, harassment and security concerns among micro-entrepreneurs in Dhaka; a SERVQUAL gap analysis of Indian Railways services in Trivandrum and Ernakulam districts; the challenges of economic stress on Chinese entrepreneurs and their families in Laos; and a simple Excel-based method for generating statistical distribution tables.
This study assessed the relationship between stock returns and trading volume, using daily data of some Nigerian Banking Sector Stocks. It further checked for both the contemporaneous and causal relationship between stock return and trading volume utilizing data covering ten (10) companies from the Banking Sector. Six hundred and nineteen to seven hundred and six (619-706) observations for a period of thirty – six months (36) from 1st March, 2004 to 28th February, 2007, were empirically tested with the Granger-Causality tests. This determined if the Wall Street adage which says, “It takes volume to make prices” was true in the Nigerian Banking Sector. Using the daily data, we first found a negative relation between and absolute value of price changes (return) and price changes itself in the Nigerian Banking Stocks. However, the results from the Granger-Causality test failed to find strong evidence on stock price changes leading volume. This was contrary to evidence reported by study on developed markets but consistent with previous result from the Latin American Market which is an emerging market like that of Nigeria. In fact, in all the ten banks studied, volume seems to lead stock price changes. Thus, we concluded that these set of emerging markets with different institutions and information flows than the developed markets, do not present similar stock/return-volume relationship to the preponderance of studies employed U.S data. The implication of these results was that differences in institutions and information flows in the set of emerging markets are important enough to affect the valuation process of equity securities and warrant further analysis.
Read more about Stock Returns and Trading Volume Relationship of the Nigerian Banking Sector: An Empirical AssessmentThe forecasted number of mobile phone users will be around 70 million at the end of 2011. This statement makes everybody remind the quick emergence of cell phone and shows the strong and fastest growth in mobile phone industry which also reminds the importance of mobile phone retailers. No doubt, that mobile phone services are an important contributor to the cash-strapped nation's economy. When this industry is booming out, the safety and security issue related to the use of mobile phone has come up with a great concern. The development of mobile technology has positioned privacy and security into risk to its users.) This risk hampers the daily economic activities thus the economic growth and development. This study concerns about how personal, social and economic safety and security, health and privacy issues can be hampered by the misuse of mobile phone (threat, harassment). This study also concerns whether crime committing has become more organized with the help of mobile technology. And whether there should be a clear law to protect general people from harassment through mobile phone. Lastly this study comes up with the decision that whether the misuse of mobile phone (threat, harassment), hampers economic activities which have an adverse affect on economic development. The target population for his study is the micro entrepreneurs in Dhaka who inseparably depend on mobile phone for their business communication as well as the users of mobile phone are the target population of this study. The sample size is one hundred and four (104) micro entrepreneurs and users in Dhaka. The sample size is one hundred and four micro entrepreneurs and users in Dhaka. The structured questionnaire based on Likert scale has been used to ask the respondents to indicate their agreement or disagreement on a five point scale ranging from strongly agrees. The study comes up with the findings that misuse of mobile phone (threat, harassment), hampers economic activity thus have an adverse affect on economic development.
Read more about Privacy and Security Issues of Mobile Phone-The Case of Dhaka City, BangladeshIndian Railways is the largest rail network in Asia and world’s second largest under a single management. This study aims to identify the perception and expectation level of the passengers towards the service provider in Trivandrum and Ernakulum districts and to identify relative importance of service quality dimensions rated by the passengers. Descriptive research was adopted and the Multistage Area sampling was constructed by taking a series of simple random samples in various stages. A structured questionnaire developed by the researcher and primary data is collected through interview scheduling method. The overall opinion towards service provider in Ernakulum and Trivandrum districts are satisfied by the passengers. By applying the gap analysis, it shows that lowest service gap is occurred in “assurance” and “reliability” dimension and little bigger service gap is occurred in the “tangibility” dimension. The empirical investigation study is able to accomplish research objectives, by thoroughly analyzed and identified competitive position of railways strengths and weaknesses among the passengers.
Read more about Service Gap Analysis of Indian Railways in Trivandrum and Ernakulam DistrictsChinese are increasing in number in Laos as new inter-governmental agreements permit labour migration for infrastructure development. Entrepreneurs have been accompanying migrants and establishing their own businesses, alongside the long-standing businesses established over the years by ethnic Chinese in the country. Many industrial sectors are involved. Problems that Chinese entrepreneurs might face include language issues and discrimination, as well as lack of business infrastructure and support services. Additionally, Lao consumers are primarily motivated by price alone and have little interest in exploring new brands or products. While these business management related issues are clear, what is not clear is the impact that conducting business on such a basis has on additional family members, who are also commonly employed within the business. Key informants were Chinese entrepreneurs and their family members in the capital city of Vientiane and they were interviewed personally with a view to understanding what stresses there may be on family members doing business in an environment which is not entirely friendly or welcoming, especially under conditions of global economic crisis. Competition is intensifying as increasing numbers of Thai and Vietnamese entrepreneurs are seeking to establish a foothold in the Lao market. Many Chinese entrepreneurs have, as a result of these changing conditions, been forced to offer better deals for customers, thereby restricting profits. This has had a follow-through effect on family members.
Read more about Challenges of Economic Stress on Chinese Entrepreneurs and Their Families in LaosA simple and easy method is employed to construct complete statistical tables like Student’s t- distribution, F distribution, Chi-square distribution and Cumulative standard normal distribution in Excel software which are used in all fields of research. Also, we generate other statistical tables like Cumulative binomial distribution, Cumulative Poisson distribution, Fisher transformation and Fisher inverse transformation. The proposed method depends only on the Excel software; it does not depend on the traditional statistical tables.
Read more about A Simple Method for Generation of Statistical Tables by the Help of Excel Software