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The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to measuring container port competitiveness, a key but neglected element of channel management in a complex and dynamic logistics environment underpinned by commercial confidence and trust in European supply chains fed with goods from container ports in Northeast Asia.

This study applies a fuzzy methodology to measure port competitiveness based on the expert judgements of logisticians. It applies a trapezoidal fuzzy number to measure their perceptions. The method accepts a linguistic expression of their judgements of five of the world's top six container ports in terms of container through‐puts, including Hong Kong, Busan, Shanghai, Kaohsuing, Shenzhen. Qindao ranked 16th and Tokyo ranked 20th were also analyzed.

Hong Kong achieved the highest score on port service but on hinterland conditions Shanghai scored highest and Busan the lowest. Hong Kong topped the ratings on the availability factor and the convenience factor, but scored the lowest on logistics cost.

This research reports the factors which influence container port competitiveness in Northeast Asia and provides a structure for measuring them. The approach offers a unique insight for stakeholders and logisticians seeking to develop more effective channel management strategies.

From one angle, abortion law appears to confirm the regime politics account of the Supreme Court; after all, the Reagan/Bush coalition succeeded in significantly curtailing the constitutional protection of abortion rights. From another angle, however, it is puzzling that the Reagan/Bush Court repeatedly refused to overturn Roe v. Wade. We argue that time and again electoral considerations led Republican elites to back away from a forceful assertion of their agenda for constitutional change. As a result, the justices generally acted within the range of possibilities acceptable to the governing regime but still typically had multiple doctrinal options from which to choose.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of industry structure and macroeconomic indicators on return on equity (ROE) of listed financial services firms.

Herfindahl–Hirschman Index concentration scales were used to categorise industries into competitive, moderate and concentrated segments, while Arbitrage Pricing Model principles were used to capture the effect of macroeconomic fundamentals on ROE. Generalised method of moments estimator was used to model random effects which were supported by the Hausman test.

Findings suggest that the influence of macroeconomic fundamentals on ROE deteriorates as one moves from competitive to concentrated industries. ROE is volatile in concentrated markets and less volatile in competitive markets. Concentrated markets generally enjoy monopoly profits. Gross domestic product and interest rates have a positive impact on ROE, while inflation, unemployment and exchange rates have a negative effect.

This study highlights the need to apply appropriate business strategies and policies depending on the structure of the industry. Competitive advantage strategies may assist in sustaining profits of firms in competitive markets. Regulators need to be proactive and stress test the impact of a policy on industry performance before implementation because competitive and concentrated markets react differently to external shocks. Risk tolerant investors may invest in volatile markets such as Russia and South Africa, while risk-averse investors may prefer to invest in less volatile markets such as India and China.

Measuring corporate performance is difficult. No single measure can fully describe how well a firm is doing in the diverse aspects of its operations. As a result, analysts are forced to choose between synthesizing the dozens of ratios that describe a company or relying on simple aggregate measures to summarize overall performance. Return on equity (ROE) is one of the most popular of the latter indices. For example, ROE is used widely by investors in appraising common stock purchases, and by corporate planners in evaluating corporate performance.

We assessed attempts by federal and state agencies to utilize a Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS) approach to address endangered species and natural resource protection issues in two watersheds in Washington State involving listed species of salmon, steelhead and bull trout. In the wake of the listing of these species, NOAA Fisheries and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) joined to implement a multi-party collaboration to enforcement termed Resource-Oriented Enforcement (ROE). We sought to determine if federal and state resource agencies can collaborate effectively and if collaborative approaches can achieve short- and long-term resource protection goals. A citizen mail survey (n=800+ in each location) and extensive personal interviews with key actors were conducted to assemble evidence on the degree of success achieved in implementing ROE. Observed results suggest that collaboration can

The collapse of Italian economy has coincided with the global financial crisis to which derivatives are suspected to be responsible of its propagation. For this reason, this study aims to examine whether the use of derivatives affects the profitability of Italian banks during both the global financial crisis period and the recession period of Italian economy. To reach this goal an appropriate econometric procedure namely the dynamic Generalized Method of Moments system is applied using data from 22 Italian banks over the long period 2005–2017. A series of bank-specific indicators are used to explain the effect of overall derivatives and each derivative instrument separately on Italian banks’ profitability. The results of regressions panels indicate that in general derivatives as well as measured in the whole or splitting up in instruments specifically in forwards, options, and, in particular, swaps affect positively the profitability of Italian banks. The main conclusion is that – despite the episode of economic recession in Italy – Italian banks boost their profitability by using derivatives.

As practical contribution, policy-makers in Italy should throw out the assumption of the implication of derivatives in the fragility of the banking system. On the contrary, they should pave the way easily for Italian banks’ managers to deal with derivatives and look out for the real problems of the recent collapse of the Italian economy.

Successful farm business managers must understand the determinants of profitability and have an overall long‐term or strategic management focus. The objective of this research was to explore the use of an e‐learning tool to help producers understand the impacts of different production, pricing, cost control, and investment decisions on their farm’s financial performance. This objective was accomplished by developing and testing a computer‐based training and application tool to facilitate determination of the financial health of farm businesses using the DuPont profitability analysis model. The results of the two experiments indicate that the computer software was effective for teaching techniques of profitability analysis contained within the DuPont model.

This study examines the effect of working capital management on profitability of listed manufacturing firms in Ghana.

The study employs a quantitative research approach within the causal research design using a balance panel of 20 manufacturing listed firms from 2015 to 2019.

The study reveals that inventory management, account receivables, account payables, cash conversion cycle, current asset, current ratio and firm size have positive effects on return on assets (ROA) and return on return on equity(ROE) whilst leverage affects them negatively.

The study only covers 20 manufacturing firms generally due to data unavailability. However, the outcome has useful information for manufacturing firms.

The study brings to light effective ways of improving the profitability of manufacturing firms through policies.

The findings are beneficial to manufacturing firms and countries for the purpose of improving performance of firms and welfare of the people through direct and indirect chain effects of increasing investments, remunerations and scales of production.

This study adds insights into the existing literature on working capital management namely methodology, effects of components on profitability of manufacturing firms and socioeconomic implications- evidence from Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelationship between macroeconomic factors, firm characteristics and financial performance of quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigates the effect of interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate and the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, while the firm characteristics were size, leverage and liquidity. The dependent variable financial performance is measured as return on assets (ROA).

The study used the ex post facto research design. The population comprised all quoted manufacturing firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The sample was restricted to companies in the consumer goods sector, selected using non-probability sampling method. The study used multiple linear regression as the method of validating the hypotheses.

The study finds no significant effect for interest rate and exchange rate, but a significant effect for inflation rate and GDP growth rate on ROA. Second, the firm characteristics showed that firm size, leverage and liquidity were significant.

The study has implications for regulators and policy makers in formulating policy decisions. In addition, managers may better understand the interplay between macroeconomic factors, firm characteristics and profitability of firms.

Few studies have addressed the interplay of macroeconomic factors and firm characteristics in determining the profitability of manufacturing firms in the country and developing countries in general.

The existing literature has focused heavily on investigating the effect of corporate social performance (CSP) on financial performance (FP) but has not paid sufficient attention to an inverse causation of the relationship. Moreover, while some of the literature argues that FP positively affects CSP, based on the slack resources theory, others have found negative effects of FP on CSP, supporting the managerial opportunism perspective. Thus, this paper aims to address the impact of FP on CSP. Further, this study examines the moderating role of franchising to better understand the relationship.

This study uses and expands the models derived from the CSP literature to confirm the effects of FP on CSP with the moderating role of franchising within the restaurant industry. Using two-way fixed effects models, it effectively addresses important problems embedded in the panel data.

The findings show a positive effect of FP on CSP, which is inconsistent with Park and Lee’s (2009) findings and supports the slack resources theory. Further, the interesting results show that the impact of FP on CSP diminishes as a firm franchises more, supporting the double-sided moral hazard framework of the agency theory.

This paper fills the lacuna in both the existing literature on the relationship between CSP and FP and the franchising. This study contributes to enhancing restaurant practitioners’ understanding of the double-sided moral hazard of agency theory unique to franchising context.