Search results

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence capital structure, profitability and stock returns and the relationship between capital structure, profitability and stock returns. The endogenous variables in this study are capital structure, profitability and stock returns, whereas the exogenous variables are firm size, growth opportunity, tangibility, liquidity, volatility and uniqueness.

The population used is a company that is listed on the compass index 100 period of August 2016. A total of 64 companies are sampled in this study. The unit of analysis is 448 data. The data analysis technique used is path analysis with the help of AMOS.

The results obtained show only profitability variables that affect stock returns. Variable capital structure, firm size, growth opportunity, tangibility and liquidity have no significant effect. Variables that influence capital structure are only influenced by growth opportunity, whereas other variables are not significant and variables that affect profitability are firm size, growth opportunity, uniqueness and volatility.

Path analysis is a model similar to the multiple regression analysis, factor analysis, canonical correlation analysis, discriminant analysis and more general multivariate analysis groups. This research discusses that capital structure is useful for increasing the value of the company in the sense that the more debt that is used, a tax deduction will be obtained because of interest costs. So that the company’s profits will increase and eventually will increase the value of the company. This opinion remains a controversy among financial experts. Until now, there is no agreement that can explain the capital structure in all conditions of the company. There are two important theories concerning capital structure, trade-off theory and pecking order theory.

The purpose of this paper is (1) to determine the factors that significantly influence the capital structure, (2) to determine the factors that significantly influence profitability, (3) to find the factors that significantly influence growth opportunities, (4) to find reciprocal influence between capital structure and profitability and (5) to find reciprocal influence between capital structure and growth opportunity.

The population of this research is a manufacturing company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period of 2010–2016. The number registered in the manufacturing sector is 144 companies. The sampling technique applied is purposive sampling. The fulfillment criteria are companies that have been approved before 2010. Another criterion is that the company is not delisting during the observation period. From that total of population, companies that meet the requirements are 117 companies. This observation was conducted for seven years since 2010–2016, so the center of the analysis of this research was a total of 819. The inferential statistics method used to analyze the research data is generalized structural component analysis (GSCA).

The results of this study indicate that (1) the factors that influence the capital structure include effective tax rate, financial flexibility, growth, uniqueness, asset Utilization, firm size and tangibility; (2) factors that affect profitability include liquidity, growth, firm age, uniqueness, tangibility, volatility, advertising and asset turnover; (3) growth opportunity have a negative and significant influence on capital structure. This means an increase in growth opportunity can be defined as an increase in depreciation that will not be used as collateral for managers to increase debt. This increase in debt will have an impact on reducing growth opportunities; (4) profitability and capital structure have a two-way causality relationship, which means they influence each other and (5) capital structure and growth opportunities have a negative reciprocal relationship.

The authenticity of the study is implied in the following explanation: The authors try to examine the reciprocal effect of capital structure on profitability and capital structure on growth opportunities and the factors that influence these two endogenous variables that have never been done by previous researchers. This research is motivated by research conducted by (Chathoth and Olsen, 2007; Jian-Shen Chen et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2010) using the structural equation model (SEM). However, this study uses GSCA as a method of research analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of corruption not as it concerns corruption generally but specifically in relation to corporations in Nigerian. It examines the corporate sector and how a good legal regime can be used to prevent frauds and promote a more efficient corporate governance structure in the country.

This paper adopts the doctrinal approach through a critical evaluation of concepts. Using existing literature in the subject area, it evaluates the prevalence of corruption in Nigeria’s corporate sector and the relationship between a sound legal system (through application of the rule of law) and the establishment of a good corporate governance regime.

This paper finds that there have been numerous corrupt practices involving corporations in Nigeria. Notwithstanding the prevalence of corporate corruption in this sector, there has been no serious interrogation of these anomalies, leading to stultification in the growth and development of this sector of the Nigerian economy.

Against the background that very little has been devoted to examining the causes of corporate corruption in developing economies (for instance, Nigeria) and what can be done to reduce its occurrence, this paper offers a fresh insight into the causes of corruption and the correlation between good corporate governance anchored on law and the development of a corporate sector. It extends the body of knowledge in this area by offering suggestions that can help reduce the occurrence of corruption in the Nigeria’s corporate sector.

This study examined the state of digital records management in Nigerian university libraries. It investigated the extent university libraries have captured/created, utilized, planned, organized and developed the skills of librarians, etc. for effective management of electronic records.

Descriptive survey design was adopted. The area of the study was Nigeria. The population of the study was 231 academic librarians and senior technical and administrative staff drawn from 12 federal university libraries. Data were collected and analyzed using questionnaire, checklist and version 20 of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Information obtained through oral interviews was analyzed qualitatively and incorporated in the discussions. The analytical framework was the Readiness Assessment Guide developed by the International Records Management Trust/World Bank in 2004. The criterion of judgment was that any item or statement of the research instruments that obtains a mean value of 2.50+ was rated high, and low if less than 2.50.

The results revealed that ICT facilities were available in Nigerian federal university libraries but the manner and extent of utilization, planning, organizing, re-skilling the staff, budgetary provisions and adoption of international best practices, etc. for e-records was low. Adequate funding, steady power supply, full internet services and adoption of global best practices for e-records management were some of the recommendations.

This study has established that the status of ICT facilities and current digital records management in Nigerian university libraries have not been properly managed and therefore are likely to become vulnerable or inaccessible for future transactions.

The gap in the literature about the dart of empirical studies on the status of e-RM in Nigerian university libraries has been bridged.

My response to the thoughtful and insightful critical discussions of my book, The End of Progress, offered by Reha Kadakal, George Steinmetz, Karen Ng, and Kevin Olson, restates its motivation and rationale to defend my interpretive claims regarding Adorno, Foucault, Habermas, Honneth, and Forst by applying standards drawn from the first two theorists that are consonant with postcolonial critical theory to the perspectives, claims, and theoretical contributions of the latter three theorists. Habermas, Honneth, and Forst presume a historical present that has shaped the second, third, and fourth generations of the Frankfurt School they represent – a present that appears to be characterized by relative social and political stability – a stability that only applies in the context of Europe and the United States. Elsewhere, anti-colonial struggles, proxy wars, and even genocides were related to the persistent legacies of European colonialism and consequences of American imperialism. Yet, critical theory must expand its angle of vision and acknowledge how its own critical perspective is situated within the postcolonial present. The essays of Kadakal and Ng express concerns about my metanormative contextualism and the question of whether Adorno’s work can be deployed to support it. Steinmetz challenges my “process of elimination” argument for metanormative contextualism and asks why I assume that constructivism, reconstructivism, and problematizing genealogy exhaust the available options for grounding normativity. Olson calls for a methodological decolonization to complement the epistemic decolonization I recommend. Critical theory should produce critical theories of actually existing societies, rather than being preoccupied with meta-theory or disputes over clashing paradigms.

This paper aims to determine the effect of black garlic (BG) on visceral fat, oxidative stress and insulin resistance (IR) compared with metformin and vitamin E in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rats.

A randomized post-test only design with control group was used in this study. Rats were given high-fat fructose diet enriched with 1.25% cholesterol and 0.5% cholic acid for eight weeks to induce NALFD condition. The administration of BG dose of 450 mg/200 gBW, 900 mg/200 gBW and 1350 mg/200 gBW with a comparative control of 45 mg/200 gBW of metformin and vitamin E of 9 IU/200 gBW were given for four weeks via oral gavage to reduce visceral fat, oxidative stress and improve IR. Statistical analyses were performed to examine differences between groups with one-way analysis of variance and nonparametrics test.

Rats given with three different doses of BG for four weeks did not reduce body weight from 244 ± 4.4 to 284 ± 4.6 g, 242 ± 2.5 to 272 ± 3.1 g and 240 ± 2.4 to 270 ± 3.6 g, respectively, but significantly reduced visceral fat (p =0.001) on BG groups with 3.7 ± 1.3, 2.7 ± 0.7 and 1.8 ± 0.6 g, respectively. BG improved oxidative stress (p =0.001) with malondialdehyde level 5.1 ± 0.2, 3.0 ± 0.06 and 2.3 ± 0.06 ng/mL, respectively, but did not better than vitamin E group 1 ± 0.03 ng/mL. Significant (p =0.001) improvement on insulin resistance with homeostatic model assessment IR in BG groups were 5.3 ± 0.1, 4.4 ± 0.1 and 4 ± 0.1, respectively, but not as good as metformin group 3.7 ± 0.1.

Based on the experiment, there are several limitations including small sample size, performed on animal models in a relatively short time, did not examine organosulfurs compound (OSC) content of BG specifically and OSC affects metabolism in NAFLD remains unclear and will require further investigation.

BG is a functional food made from heated fresh garlic owing to the Maillard reaction and the organosulfur compounds as antioxidants. The higher the dose of BG, the greater the improvement in visceral fat, oxidative stress and IR in model NAFLD rats.

NAFLD is a liver disorder caused by excessive fat and energy intake, the treatment strategies among others through diet modification.

In model NAFLD rats, BG administration improved NALFD markers but did not better rather than the metformin and vitamin E result.

This trio of cases is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate classes or for postgraduate programs in non-profit management, leadership and community development, international development, global studies, women’s and gender studies and social entrepreneurship. It allows the instructors and students to engage with classical leadership tenets and emerging social entrepreneurship literature. Upon completion of the case study discussion and assignments, students will be able to: identify diverse obstacles that African women face in starting social enterprises; understand the ways that African women leaders build a social dimension to their enterprise; and identify characteristics of women’s leadership and critique the value of women’s leadership for establishing sustainable social enterprises.

The case stories of the three African social enterprises portray how female leaders have fostered sustainable organisations through prioritising social, over economic and governance investments. Martha Letsoalo, a former domestic worker, founded the Heartfelt Project in South Africa, which now employs fifteen women, ships products all around the world and enriches the community of Makapanstad with its workshop, training and education centre. Victoria Nalongo Namusisi, daughter of a fisherman in rural Uganda, founded Bright Kids Uganda, a thriving care facility, school and community centre that educates vulnerable children, empowers victims of gender-based violence and distributes micro-loans to female entrepreneurs. Gertrude, abandoned in Lusaka, Zambia, founded Chikumbuso, a home of resilience and remembrance to educate children and offer women employment in a cooperative business. Each case documents the founding years of the social enterprise and outlines some of the shared women’s leadership approaches. The case dilemma focuses on why and how women start social enterprises in socially and economically difficult contexts.

This trio of cases is appropriate for undergraduate or graduate-level programs in non-profit management, leadership and community development, international development, global studies and social entrepreneurship.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

We have conducted a study of academic faculty use of databases for research, their need for evaluative guides to databases, and the appropriateness of currently‐available guides. Although the response rate was low (19%), the follow‐up survey suggested only a minimal non‐response bias. Our findings suggest that academic faculty are typically unaware of the range of databases available and few recognize the need for databases in research. Of those faculty who do use databases, most delegate the searching to a librarian or an assistant, rather than performing the searches themselves. We identified thirty‐nine database guides; these tend to be descriptive rather than evaluative.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to make the case for the value of fostering collaborative sensemaking in responding to literature. Drawing on examples of classroom interactions in 6th-, 8th-, 11th- and 12th-grade classrooms, it proposes methods for teachers to foster collaborative sensemaking.

Drawing on theories of “participatory sensemaking” (Fuchs and De Jaegher, 2009), transactional literary response (Rosenblatt, 1994) and “comprehension-as-sensemaking” pedagogy (Aukerman, 2013), this paper conceptualizes collaborative sensemaking to illustrate how teachers foster making sense of texts through sharing responses based on lived-world experiences, understanding the use of literary techniques and understanding events in students’ own lives.

Given that this is not an empirical study, there are no findings. The discussion of students’ sensemaking practices in responding to classroom texts, suggests the importance of teachers creating open-ended response events in which students collaboratively support each other in making sense of characters’ actions and events, as opposed to having to conform to teachers’ predetermined agendas.

Analysis of the classroom discussions suggests the importance of building students’ trust in the process of sensemaking itself, fostering adoption of alternative perspectives as central to sensemaking and using activities for students’ translating or rewriting events in texts to co-create texts with authors.

This paper explores the importance of teachers engaging students in open-ended, sensemaking response events based on attending to “in-between,” dialogic meanings through sharing emotions, alternative perspectives and related experiences to enhance students’ engagement in responding to literature.

This paper aims to determine the eating habits and physical activity in students of the Rafael Núñez University.

Descriptive cross-sectional study, based on the application of a survey on eating habits and physical activity. Furthermore, height, weight, hip circumference and abdominal circumference were also recorded.

Total, 170 students were included, 29 (17.1%) males and 141 (82.9%) females, with a mean age of 20.0 ± 5.2 years. Among the students, 22 (12.9%) were underweight, 95 (55.9%) were normal weight, 40 (23.5%) were overweight and 13 (7.7%) with obesity. Regarding eating habits, the majority preferred to consume three daily meals: breakfast 140 (82.3%), lunch 170 (100%) and dinner 96 (56.5%). Regarding fruits intake, 18 (15.9%) males reported consuming them seven days a week, and 54 (31.2 %) females reported consuming them occasionally. In physical activity, most of the population (n = 103, 60.6%) exercises with a frequency of one to three days/week.

The authors’ work is original and has not been sent to another magazine.