Search results

The purpose of this paper is to quantify several measures to examine the determinants of profitability for the listed Indian banks. The authors include both public sector (PSUs) and private sector’s banks in the study. The authors have taken all the banks that are registered on the Bombay stock exchange (BSE) in the sample. This paper also intends to identify the association between the net profit margin (PM) and return on assets (ROA) with the several other independent variables of the Indian banking sector including private banks and public banks over the past six years starting from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2017. Therefore, a sample of 39 listed banking companies and total 195 balanced observations are selected for the analysis purpose.

The authors have used profitability as a dependent variable represented by net PM, ROA and several financial ratios as independent variables. Financial statement and income statement of all listed banks were obtained from BSE and particular company’s website. Panel data regression has been analyzed with both the descriptive research techniques, i.e., fixed effects and random effects. The authors also verified both panel techniques with Hausman’s specification test, which is a widely used procedure for selecting a panel effect. The authors applied PP – Fisher χ², PP – Choi Z-statistics and Hadri to testing whether the data set is free from unit root problem and data set is a stationary series.

Results imply that interest expended interest earned (IEIE) and credit deposit ratio (CRDR) reduced the profitability of private banks in India. IEIE, CRDR and quick ratio (QR) reduced the profitability of public banks in India, while cash deposit ratio (CDR) and Advances to Loan Funds (ALF) increased the effectiveness of public banks. Under the total banks IEIE, CRDR reduced the profitability, on the other side, CDR, ALF and Total Debt to Owners Fund (TDOF) increased the profitability of total banks in India. Under the dependency of ROA, CRDR and TDOF reduced the return of private banks in India, while CDR, ALF and QR enhanced the profitability of private banks.

No variables found significant under public banks while taking ROA as a dependent variable. Under the overall banking data, CRDR reduced the profitability. On the other side, capital adequacy ratio and ALF increased the profitability of total banks in India. The findings of this study will support policy creators, financial executives and investors in constructing investment decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to separate households into several types based on their features, and then to further investigate determinants of household fish consumption in China by figuring out consumption preference divergences between types of households under the effects of economic and socio-demographics factors.

This paper first applies Multiple Correspondence Analysis to separate the modalities of variables and households according to their features, with health knowledge and time constraint of a spouse highlighted. Then, the transcribed principal information of both variables and households has been added into Marshallian demand function with fish price, income, child effect, and health status for identification of factors on household fish demand. The robust fixed effect and robust random effect GLS regression has been conducted.

The paper provides empirical insights about what and how factors affect household fish consumption. It suggests that, for all households, pork is still a main substitution of fish, fish consumption regarding to each household should be constant, and fish consumption differs a lot between provinces. For households with higher dietary knowledge, the authors found that increase of income, the existence of adolescent would cause an increase in fish consumption, while illness of household member makes a decrease in fish consumption. For households with working women who have higher opportunity cost of time pursue much more convenience, then consume less fish at home than their counterparts.

The increasing variety in consumer’s dietary need makes the understanding of which becoming much more difficult than before. This paper uses three-wave panel data with households spread over nine provinces in China, but the results still has its limitation since china is the one with vast in territory and residents. In the future, the difference between urban and rural area in fish consumption need further research.

The paper reveals the common determinants of fish consumption in China, and makes a further clear answer by a further discussion on different household types. The results have rather high implications for making targeted policy or precisely forecasting a future fish demand in China, which will rather be helpful for fishery industry development in China.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study the divergence of determinants or the impact degree of different factors on fish consumption in China by household types. An increasing trend of food away from home has significant effect on how to count household size in food consumption studies, and the identification of persday in this study shows its advantages in dealing with this issue, which makes a contribution on resolve the overestimation of household size issue.

Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Since the post‐Stalin thaw of the mid‐1950s, economic reform has been a constant theme in academic discussion and policy implementation in the countries of Eastern Europe. In Poland, major reform programmes accompanied the five‐year plans beginning in 1956, 1966, and 1969. The current economic crisis in that country has elicited yet another set of reform proposals.

This study aims to identify clusters amongst the county housing markets in Poland, taking into account the criteria of size and quality of the housing stock, as well as price level. In addition, this work is intended to detect the socio-economic factors driving the cluster formation.

To group the studied housing markets into homogeneous clusters, this analysis uses a proprietary algorithm based on taxonomic and k-means++ methods. In turn, the generalised ordered logit (gologit) model was used to explore factors influencing the cluster formation.

The results obtained revealed that Polish county housing markets can be classified into three or four homogeneous clusters in terms of the size and quality of the housing stock and price level. Furthermore, the results of the estimation of the gologit models indicated that population density, number of business entities and the level of crime mainly determine the membership of a given housing market in a given cluster.

In contrast to previous studies, this is the first to examine the existence of homogeneous clusters amongst the county housing markets in Poland, taking into account the criteria of size and quality of the housing stock, as well as price level simultaneously. Moreover, this work is the first to identify the driving forces behind the formation of clusters amongst the surveyed housing markets.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of uncertainty quantification methods supported by evidence-based comparison studies. Uncertainties are widely encountered in engineering practice, arising from such diverse sources as heterogeneity of materials, variability in measurement, lack of data and ambiguity in knowledge. Academia and industries have long been researching for uncertainty quantification (UQ) methods to quantitatively account for the effects of various input uncertainties on the system response. Despite the rich literature of relevant research, UQ is not an easy subject for novice researchers/practitioners, where many different methods and techniques coexist with inconsistent input/output requirements and analysis schemes.

This confusing status significantly hampers the research progress and practical application of UQ methods in engineering. In the context of engineering analysis, the research efforts of UQ are most focused in two largely separate research fields: structural reliability analysis (SRA) and stochastic finite element method (SFEM). This paper provides a state-of-the-art review of SRA and SFEM, covering both technology and application aspects. Moreover, unlike standard survey papers that focus primarily on description and explanation, a thorough and rigorous comparative study is performed to test all UQ methods reviewed in the paper on a common set of reprehensive examples.

Over 20 uncertainty quantification methods in the fields of structural reliability analysis and stochastic finite element methods are reviewed and rigorously tested on carefully designed numerical examples. They include FORM/SORM, importance sampling, subset simulation, response surface method, surrogate methods, polynomial chaos expansion, perturbation method, stochastic collocation method, etc. The review and comparison tests comment and conclude not only on accuracy and efficiency of each method but also their applicability in different types of uncertainty propagation problems.

The research fields of structural reliability analysis and stochastic finite element methods have largely been developed separately, although both tackle uncertainty quantification in engineering problems. For the first time, all major uncertainty quantification methods in both fields are reviewed and rigorously tested on a common set of examples. Critical opinions and concluding remarks are drawn from the rigorous comparative study, providing objective evidence-based information for further research and practical applications.

The term ‘strategy’ is one of the most frequently used terms in business, and its application in marketing is particularly common. Company strategy, market strategy, marketing strategy, sales strategy, promotion strategy, distribution strategy, low pricing strategy – it would take a long time to list all of them. Although this term is so commonly in use, its definition is not as straightforward and it can be interpreted in different ways. In comparison with tactical decisions, strategy is much more significant for an organisation as it brings long-lasting consequences. It is implemented by higher level managers on a regular basis, and it is based on external, often subjective information, so decisions – especially at the time they are made – are difficult to evaluate.

Taking into consideration the fact that strategy refers to a long-term rather than a short-term period, strategic decisions serve as the basis for undertaking operational activities. However, marketing refers to the market and the competition. It is possible to claim that marketing strategy is trying to find an answer to the question to which path an organisation should follow in order to achieve its goals and objectives. If, for example, a company has a goal to generate a profit of PLN 1 million by selling 100,000 pieces of a product, the market strategy should answer at least the following two questions:

1. Who will be our target group, for example, who will purchase the 100,000 pieces of the product?

2. Why is it us from whom a potential buyer should purchase the product?

Who will be our target group, for example, who will purchase the 100,000 pieces of the product?

Why is it us from whom a potential buyer should purchase the product?

The target market will be defined if a reply to the first question is provided. The second question identifies the foundations of competitive advantage. These two issues, that is, target market and competitive advantage are the strategic marketing issues. You cannot change your target group unexpectedly while competitive advantage is the basis for changing decisions regarding prices, promotions and sales.

This chapter describes the measures of marketing activities which refer to strategic aspects and testify a company’s market position – the measures of the performance of target groups and competitive advantage. Readers’ attention should be also focused on the indices that are less popular in Poland and, therefore, may be underestimated. It seems that some of them, for example, the index of marketing resources allocation and the marketing risk index, provide a lot of valuable information and, at the same time, make it possible to show the value of marketing investments. Their wider use in the near future is only a matter of time.

The purpose of this paper is to present the benefits offered by rapid prototyping (RP) models for wind‐tunnel testing as part of fourth‐year aerospace engineering student projects. Ways of overcoming some of the difficulties associated with the 3D printing technology are also discussed.

Polymer‐based RP was used to fabricate two‐aircraft models, which included stiffening metallic inserts. Testing in a subsonic‐wind tunnel was carried out and the results compared to analytic performance predictions.

Low‐cost rapid prototypes of wind‐tunnel models yielded satisfactory aerodynamic performance. The savings in acquisition cost and time allowed incorporating actual testing in the aircraft design process within the framework of a tight academic budget and schedule.

Conducting real‐wind‐tunnel testing contributes significantly to the educational experience of students; however, it had rarely been carried out when metal model fabrication was the only option. In contrast, RP facilitates an enhanced and more realistic learning experience by offering a quick and affordable means of model manufacturing.

Simple methods of reinforcing polymer‐based models were incorporated, thus presenting an inexpensive way to test and evaluate preliminary aircraft designs, in both academia and industry.