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The article seeks to assist managers in low‐margin markets to grow profitability by applying principles of profit leverage.

The paper identifies a series of principles for targeting market segments and growing profits.

Gross margins are usually taken for granted by managers, but are actually key indicators of the types of marketing strategies – what the author calls “gross profit strategies” – that managers should use to leverage the growth of gross profit. Two general classes of gross profit strategies are identified – volume‐driven, and price/bundling gross profit strategies. The latter is particularly applicable to managers in low‐margin markets. The paper also discusses four subsidiary gross profit strategies and illustrates with examples of real‐world firms and situations.

The paper defines market‐driven costing and stresses the importance of measuring “true” gross margins, by measuring costs based on the cost to serve the customer, including opportunity costs. Finally, the paper explicates the relationship between true gross margins and managers' perceptions of their competitive ability to compete in the marketplace.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether stock selection strategies based on four fundamental quality indicators can generate superior returns compared to overall market.

The sample of stocks comprises the constituents of BSE-500 index, which is a broad based index consisting of highly liquid stocks from all 20 major industries of the Indian economy. Portfolios are constructed on the basis of quality indicator rankings of companies and the returns of these portfolios are compared with the overall market. Excess returns on quality based portfolios are also determined using OLS regressions of quality portfolio returns on market, size, value and momentum factor returns.

The results suggest that two of the four quality strategies, namely Grantham Quality indicator and Gross Profitability have generated superior returns after controlling for market returns as well as common anomalies such as size, value and momentum. Combining value strategies with quality strategies do not yield any significant gains relative to quality only strategies.

For investors looking to invest in the Indian stock market for a long term, this study provides evidence on the performance of some fundamental indicators that can help predict long run stock performance. The findings suggest that investors can distinguish between high-performing and low-performing stocks based on stock quality indicators.

This is the first such study to look into the performance of quality investing in the Indian stock market. As most quality investing studies have been focussed on developed economies, this paper provides out-of-sample evidence for quality investing in the context of an emerging market.

Well-designed and implemented working capital management (WCM) will encourage positive returns for a business and establish the firm’s value, while ineffective management will undoubtedly lead to failure of the enterprise. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In business, fixed capital and working capital are the two main forms of capital used. The current assets used in the business as working capital for day-to-day operations include raw materials, work in progress, finished goods, bills receivable, cash and bank balance. This paper analyses the relationship between WCM and profitability in Vietnamese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) after integration into the global economy.

The results suggest that SME owner-managers can increase their firm’s profitability by reducing the number of days of accounts receivable, accounts inventories and accounts payable to an optimal minimum. In addition, a robustness check of this study indicates that high profitability will be achieved, with an optimal level of working capital investment in accounts inventories, accounts receivable and accounts payable.

No work of this sort has been applied to Vietnamese circumstances. It is also rare in SE Asia more generally.

This paper examines the performance of smallholder rice farms established using improved planting technologies – broadcasting, dibbling and transplanting – under different production systems – rain-fed and irrigation – in Ghana.

Using recent cross-sectional data of 200 smallholder rice farmers from the upper east region of Ghana, this study employed multinomial logit model and descriptive and inferential statistics for the analysis.

The results revealed that rice production under irrigation system contributes significantly to increasing farm productivity and profitability. Rice farmers who adopted dibbling and transplanting technologies under both irrigation and rain-fed production system obtained higher productivity and profitability than those who used broadcasting technology. Adoption of improved rice planting technologies by smallholder farmers is significantly influenced by education, farm size, improved rice varieties, sales outlets, hired labour and percentage of paddy sold.

The sample size is relatively small, even though findings are still very important in terms of policy formulation for improved smallholder farm performance in a developing country like Ghana.

This study calls for collaborative efforts by government, donor agencies and NGOs to establish irrigation facilities and/or expand existing ones, increase sensitization and dissemination of improved planting technologies, as well as intensify the input subsidy programme in Ghana.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on farmers' choice of rice planting technologies under irrigation and rain-fed production systems, and how these technologies impact on smallholder farm performance in Ghana.

The study analyzed the profitability of tomato farmers and determinants of farmers' choice of marketing outlets (wholesaler or retailer) in Ghana.

A two-stage sampling technique was used to collect data from 100 tomato farmers in Ghana. Analytical tools which include descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis (GM), profitability ratios and binary logit model were employed.

Profitability analysis indicates that farmers who supply to wholesalers have gross margin of Gh¢7.86 (US$1.67) per 25 kg crate, while farmers who supply to retailers recorded a major loss of Gh¢5.36 (US$1.14) per 25 kg crate. The result suggests that farmers selling to wholesalers are better off than farmers supplying to retailers. The binary logit regression analysis reveals a positive relationship between farmers' choice of marketing outlet (wholesaling) and age of respondents, quantity of tomato sold and cost of labor for production. A negative relationship also existed between farmers' choice of marketing outlet and weighted average selling price and household size.

The results call for policy efforts to provide an enabling environment for more extension education and establishment of farmer associations to make marketing information for price development among farmers available.

The choice of marketing outlet greatly influences profitability of tomato production. This study examines the performance of the various tomato marketing outlets in Ghana.

This paper examines the financial ratios that may have a significant effect on the efficiency in Malaysian listed companies. Nine financial ratios measure seven variables which are firm visibility, tangibility, working capital, leverage, liquidity, productivity and profitability.

Data are collected from 108 public listed companies in Malaysia. The data extracted from companies' annual reports for three years 2012–2014. STATA software analysis is used to examine these relationships.

The results show each of tangibility and liquidity have negative relationships with efficiency ratio. In against of that, profitability, working capital and productively positively link to efficiency. Leverage which is measured by two ratios – Debt ratio and Debt equity ratio – shows mix results. Debt ratio shows a positive but not significant relationship with efficiency ratio and Debt equity ratio shows a negative significant relationship with efficiency ratio.

The results benefit companies, investors, economists and governments regulators in Malaysia-to understand the efficiency determinants, so help to make the right decision to enhance the efficiency level in companies which leads to enhance the amount of investments which in turn, enhance the country's economy in general.

This study differs than previous studies number of aspects: first the study covers a three years' period between 2012 and 2014, this period presents the movement of Malaysian current into depreciation with more than 45 percent of its value. Second, in the Malaysia context, this study examines new variables such as firm visibility, tangibility, and productivity. Third, the results of this study will help managers, shareholders, investors, regulators and other parties to make right decisions that will enhance the level of firm efficiency which enhances the investments and the economy of Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to explore trading strategies that exploit investors’ anchoring bias.

This paper forms portfolios based on nearness ratio and other anomaly variables under one- and two-way sorts. The portfolio return series are then regressed on Fama and French three factors to extract abnormal returns.

First is to use anchoring as a technical signal. A strategy that trades against anchoring buys stocks with prices near their 52-week high and sells stocks with prices far below their 52-week high. Based on deciles, the strategy generates a significant value-weighted monthly α of 1.13 percent, after accounting for the market, size, and value factors. Further, the strategy is profitable among both large and small stocks; the trading profit is higher among younger firms and more volatile stocks, but is similar between subsamples formed on number of analysts, level of institutional ownership, and number of institutional owners. The strategy is more profitable following periods of high investor sentiment. Second is to combine anchoring with known anomalies. For a broad set of 26 anomalies, a trading strategy that combines anchoring with the anomalies increases the value-weighted monthly α from an average of 0.61 percent to an average of 1.38 percent. While part of the profits can be attributed to momentum, momentum itself does not explain all the profits.

This paper presents empirical evidence that anchoring bias explains the profitability of a broad set of anomalies and describes practical trading strategies that exploit the anchoring bias.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of the informational environment on the relevance of accounting information in companies traded in stock exchanges of emerging markets.

For this purpose, the authors calculated indicators based on figures derived from the financial statements and variables that sought to capture the influence of the economic and institutional environment. The sample consisted of publicly traded companies from 20 countries classified as emerging by Standard & Poors. Macroeconomic information was obtained through the International Country Risk Guide database. The analysis period ranged from 2004 to 2013, excluding missing data, variables considered as outliers, besides the exclusion of data from companies that presented negative equity.

It was observed that the financial variables presented signs consistent with the literature, except for the price-to-book variable and the asset change variable. The inclusion of variables related to the accounting informational environment offered evidence that the more opaque the accounting environment in the country, the lesser the ability of the profits to portray the variations of stock returns. The variable that captured the adoption of international standards was consistent with expectations, i.e. the adoption of international standards would increase the quality of accounting information, showing a positive signal. Moreover, the variable aggressiveness of the earnings was statistically significant and negative, consistent with the literature.

The variables earnings smoothing and aversion to losses did not show the expected behaviour though, highlighting the possible limitations of these proxies used to capture the opacity of the earnings.

When institutional moderators were included, it was observed that the adoption of the IFRS standards positively affected the relationship, which is more relevant when the accounting figures were under its aegis. Recently, countless nations’ transition to international accounting standards has been justified by the need to use high-quality reporting standards. The research sought to contribute to strengthen this dimension, presenting evidence that the dummy variable included to capture the adoption of international standards had a positive effect on the relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirical evidence on factors that influence performance of state owned enterprises (SOEs). With a focus on power utilities, the paper investigates how such several factors interact with each other to influence ultimate performance.

Data on the SOEs constituting the sample is predominantly obtained from the audited annual financial statements and other publicized reports of entities for a 20-year period spanning from 1994 to 2013. The audited annual financial statements provide quantitative data whilst the rest of qualitative information is available from narratives in the annual reports. The study takes liquidity, board strength, extent of stakeholder presentation on board and government’s involvement in pricing as proxy variables for resource-based agency, stakeholder and public choice theories, respectively. Using performance as the dependent variable, the study variables are modeled in a regression model.

The paper finds that good SOE performance could be explained in terms of the agency and resource-based theories, where the authors found strong boards and good liquidity profiles to be positively related to good performance. A wider stakeholder representation on SOE boards correlates negatively with performance. Similarly, the higher the level of government involvement in the tariff setting process the weaker the performance results. Based on the results, the paper concludes that SOEs performance is underpinned by a plethora of organizational issues: agency, public policy, stakeholder and resource-based issues. These issues must therefore inform the appointment of SOE management and also their performance contracts.

The study suggests that SOE governance structures should be centered around four main unifying themes; agency, stakeholders, resources and shareholder engagement. From an agency perspective, board appointments should first be based on merit and stakeholder representation comes in as a subset. Resources availability should be paired with objective imperatives and engagement with political leadership should be limited to matters of policy through a regulatory and legal framework.

This study provides some practical insights from both an administration and policy perspective. First, it reveals the importance of and a linkage between both adequate resources and strong boards, but also the need to find the right balance in managing stakeholder interests SOEs face. The study does not necessarily support the popular view of completely eliminating government interference in SOE affairs, but rather advances optimal political influence through regulatory and legal frameworks without giving up ownership rights.