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The purpose of this paper is to understand the influence of technology change in the banking sector by employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) and also to determine the change in total factor productivity (TFP) and its components, namely technical change and technical efficiency change.

The DEA method has been used to assess the efficiency of the entire banking sector and the bank groups. The purpose has been to investigate TFP change and its components' (obtained using Malmquist index) influence on the growth in the banking sector as well as in the four bank groups. In doing so, for each bank group the levels of technical efficiency, technical efficiency change, efficiency change and TFP change have been estimated. Further investigation has been done to determine if significant differences in these exist between the different bank groups in terms of size, time period and ownership. The determinants of productivity have been assessed.

The TFP growth over the entire period (1995‐2006) was driven by technical change as compared to efficiency change, showing that technology and innovation had a greater impact than efficiency change, or the catch‐up effect. The fixed effects estimates of the determinants of TFP change and its components show that size, ownership and time period exert significant effect on technical change.

The results of the analysis presented in this paper suggest that policies that result in efficiency change are likely to have little impact on the future prospects of the banking sector relative to policies that foster the adoption of the latest technologies. This has exactly been the focus of Reserve Bank of India and though some banks may consider it as an imposition of technology, the result of this requirement appears to be positive as is apparent from this paper's analysis.

The value of this paper comes from the empirical testing that in the Indian banking sector growth in the more recent period came from technology change or frontier shifts as compared to efficiency change. Also, growth is larger due to frontier shifts than due to efficiency change. This endorses Lucas' findings regarding the focus on the positive impacts of deregulation and competition in the Indian banking sector.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on a supply chain (SC) simulation of all its management processes by means of a multi‐agent system (MAS).

Nowadays, the company must develop its activity in an environment characterized by: globalization, hard competitiveness, the necessity of flexibility and of answering dynamically to a changing demand. Thus, a distributed, autonomous approach, strong enough to face changes is necessary, which is what MASs contribute to. An agent can represent each of the components that form the SC. Then the resulting agent system will own similar characteristics to the ones in the studied SC: autonomy, social abilities, reactivity, pro‐activity.

When analysing the demand for each SC member (from manufacturer to final consumer), one can observe that while consumer demand is a relatively stable feature, the upper link in the chain (the manufacturer), presents a very pronounced variability. This is known as the “bullwhip effect” or “forrester effect” and is mainly due to the fact that the SC members' strategies are not considered as a whole but as a sum of individual strategies. In the proposed system, each agent will be communicated with other “agents” who will be the only responsible for making forecasts based on information provided to it by all components of the chain. The ultimate goal is for each SC echelon to satisfy its own objectives, while at the same time meet the local and external constraints.

In this work a standard SC is proposed (one manufacturer – one distributor – one wholesaler – one retailer) although it could easily be modified to incorporate a bigger number of members in each echelon within the SC.

The paper shows the benefits of using artificial intelligence in the SC management.

The paper seeks to investigate the relationship between stock volatility and returns in the Nairobi Stock Exchange, Kenya. It uses daily returns data over the period January 2006 to April 2009.

Empirical analysis is based on quantitative analysis with emphasis on descriptive statistics, and advanced econometrics models which are well suited to capture the time‐varying volatility. The models utilised in this study fall into the family of generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models.

The main findings of the paper are as follows: the equities returns are symmetric but leptokurtic and thus not normally distributed; volatility of returns is highly persistent; the leverage effects are not significant; and the impact of news on volatility is not significantly asymmetric.

The findings of this paper will aid policy makers, policy analysts, investors, and academics to gain in‐depth understanding of dynamics of the equities returns in Kenya particularly, with regard to leverage and impact of news.

The paper was conducted at a time when the volatility of the equity market returns in the global stock markets in general and Kenya in particular was high on account of the global financial crisis and the aftermath of the post‐election violence in Kenya. Given that excess volatility in the stock market undermines the reliability of stock market prices as a signal to the true value of the firm, the findings of this paper will provide useful insights in the assessment of portfolio allocation and investment decisions in Kenya.

Outlines and discusses some of the pertinent issues of management and organization facing less developed countries (LDCs). Based on a review of the most recent literature, illuminates the central place of culture in reflecting and explaining organizational behaviour. Examines the controversies surrounding management and marketing, human resource management and those relating to the adoption of new technology by LDCs. Outlines contemporary responses to these challenges. Concludes with a series of observations and suggestions which may show some light for future research on the management and organizational behaviour of LDCs.

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices are used by large foreign multinational companies to improve their performance. The purpose of this paper is to establish the direct or indirect relationship between SHRM practices and firm performance.

SHRM practices are conceptualized as independent variables measured through a bundle of distinct practices. Organizational performance as a dependent variable is measured using constructs of image, interpersonal relations, and product quality. The model is tested with data from 50 large foreign multinational companies operating in Kenya.

Results of this paper show that the SHRM practices that best predict firm performance are training and development and compensation systems. The relationship between the use of SHRM practices and firm performance does not hold across the five bundles of what are considered as “high performance work practices”. This paper also assumes that the relationship between SHRM practices and firm performance is indirect through motivation.

Cross‐sectional data from 50 large manufacturing companies in Kenya are used, and it would be interesting to test this model for more industries and countries.

Results of this paper have shown that the SHRM practices that best predict firm performance are training and development and compensation systems.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first large‐scale empirical paper of the influence of SHRM practices on firm performance, using data from large foreign manufacturing companies operating in Kenya.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that incorporates the effect of rejection cost on optimal maintenance planning decisions. Such a model will help in further modelling the interrelationships between preventive maintenance and quality control policy.

In this paper a model is developed for obtaining optimal preventive maintenance interval based on block replacement policy to incorporate the effect of rejection cost. An illustrative example is presented to compare economic performance of the proposed model (M2) and the conventional model (M1). Model M1 stands for optimal preventive maintenance interval without considering the rejection cost and model M2 stands for optimal preventive maintenance interval considering the rejection cost. The comparison is done for different production rates, costs of rejection and cost of lost production. The impact of control chart parameters on preventive maintenance decision is also studied.

In this paper it is found that model M2 gives better results as compared to model M1. The improvements are more significant at higher production rate, lower cost of lost production and higher rejection cost. The impact of control chart parameters on preventive maintenance planning decision becomes significant as the cost of rejection increases.

Conventionally only the down time cost and the cost of repair/replacement are considered for optimal maintenance interval determination. However in the case of machine tools, failure may not always bring the system immediately under complete breakdown but may lead to the functioning of system with degraded performance like process shift from in‐control state to out‐of‐control state. It results into poor quality and thus may lead to higher rejection cost. The cost of rejections may be significantly high in some production systems and, if not incorporated properly during maintenance planning decision may adversely affect the effectiveness of the maintenance planning. Hence the approach presented in this paper gives a better way of maintenance planning. Though the work presented here is illustrated through a simple example considering a single component operating as a part of machine, the approach can be extended to multi‐component system.

The outcome is of significant value as it opens up a new perspective into the development of integrated model for maintenance planning and quality control decisions for reducing the operating costs associated with the manufacturing processes.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate an instrument/scale to assess the performance of Indian software professionals (SPs).

Data were collected from 441 software and senior software engineers from eight Indian software firms. The team leaders assessed the performance of software and senior software engineers on 16 items. The software engineers self‐reported their experience, need for achievement, and need for social power. The financial performance (FP) of the software firms where the software engineers were working was procured from secondary sources.

The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of scores on 16 items of the instrument suggest six dimensions of performance. They are work‐efficiency, personal resourcefulness, inter‐ and intra‐personal sensitivity, productivity orientation, timeliness, and business intelligence. The dimensions have reliability and high convergent validity. SPs having more years of experience, higher need for achievement, and higher need for social power are high performers. The (low) high performing SPs are from firms that have (lower) higher FP.

Human resource managers can evaluate the performance of SPs holistically on six dimensions for training, reward administration, job rotation, and promotion decisions.

This paper develops a behavioural instrument to assess the performance of Indian SPs.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of financial literacy and impact on youth entrepreneurship in South Africa.

The paper used both desk research and questionnaire complemented by interview to assess the level of financial literacy among youth entrepreneurs in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province, South Africa.

The paper reveals that financial literacy among youth entrepreneurs in the Vhembe District appears to be above average and contributes meaningfully to their entrepreneurship skills.

Further research is needed to verify in specific and practical terms, the level and impact of financial literacy on youth entrepreneurs in the Vhembe District.

Education and training at both high school and tertiary levels with emphasis on financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills may have significant implications for small‐, micro‐, and medium‐sized enterprise development and growth for the youth entrepreneur in general in South Africa.

The paper is the first to examine the level of financial literacy among youth entrepreneurs in the Vhembe District. The paper therefore sets an important benchmark for further research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamics of capital structure in the context of Indian manufacturing companies in a partial‐adjustment framework during the period 1993‐1994 to 2007‐2008.

This paper specifies a partial‐adjustment model and uses the generalized method of moments technique to determine the variables which affect the target capital structure and to find out the factors affecting the adjustment speed to target capital structure.

Firm‐specific variables like size, tangibility, profitability and market‐to‐book ratio were found to be the most important variables which determine the target capital structure across the book and market leverage and the factors like size of the company, growth opportunity and the distance between the target and observed leverage determine the speed of adjustment to target leverage for the Indian manufacturing companies.

The behavioural variables like managers' confidence and attitude towards raising the external finance have not been incorporated in the model to determine the target capital structure due to the data constraint.

This paper has implications for corporate managers in India, for example, to consider the various adjustment costs while altering the financing decisions of the company with other variables like flexibility of the manager, direct cost of debt and equity.

This paper is first of its kind to study both the determination of target capital structure and the speed of adjustment to target capital structure in the context of Indian companies.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the gender buying patterns of German tourists travelling on coach tours while visiting South Africa.

The paper is based on quantitative research methodologies and descriptive statistics were used to determine the gender buying behaviours of the German tourists in organised coach tours.

In this paper, the research questions are answered and provide the necessary insight into the buying behaviour of the tourists.

Further research is needed to determine the different types of foreign tourists buying needs. The implication will be that not only German tourists must be researched but also other foreign tourists visiting South Africa.

The informal craft market owner will know the tourists' preferences and by producing the crafts that are unique, the informal craft owner will be able to sustain not only themselves but also impact positively on the immediate communities as more jobs can be created.

This research is timely and much needed as it is the start of the building blocks for further research in informal craft markets and will help with the development of informal craft markets. By determining the buying needs of tourists that visit South Africa in organised coach tours, the craft owners will be able to produce the correct crafts that are sought by foreign tourists.