Leverage Factors Research Articles

The Determinants of Environmental Information Disclosure in Vietnam Listed Companies

Environmental pollution and climate change in Vietnam are now becoming a major concern. This situation is increasing the pressure on the companies to improve their social responsibility in production and business activities and disclose the environmental information to meet the requirements of stakeholders. This study investigates the internal and external factors of the company that affects the environmental information disclosure of listed companies on the Vietnam stock market as business sector, firm size, corporate manager perceptions, profitability, financial leverage, community pressure, pressures from stakeholders, government pressure influencing environmental information disclosure. Analytical data collected through the survey of 120 listed companies on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE). By testing Cronbach's Alpha, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and logistic regression analysis, the results of the study show that the level of environmental information disclosure of listed companies on the stock market in Vietnam depends heavily on government regulations, followed by the pressure from stakeholders, community pressure, views of business managers, companies size, business sector, and particularly profitability and financial leverage factors that have a negative relationship with environmental information disclosure.

STI policy and R&D governance for the attainment of SDGs: envisioning the Indonesia’s future

This paper is a system analysis of STI policy and R&D governance for the attainment of SDGs. The objective was to articulate a holistic model of STI policies and R&D governance for meeting the SDGs’ agenda 2030’s. It was analysed by using the model of STI policy and R&D governance to attain SDGs. The model dealt with: i) STI policy direction by the function of STI policy council, which sets STI policy directions and resources allocation for national goals, ii) the instrument of STI policy by the function of integrating body for R&D governance, which executes the coordinated and synergized national R&D program and projects involving across sectoral ministries/institutions. The model implementation would contribute to: i) STI-based economy in the long run, where STI-based industrialization should be pursued by the application of industrial policy to promote innovative industries driven by R&D in strategic area focus; and ii) meeting the SDGs’ targets through STI, where STI policy, organizational coordination and R&D governance for economic prosperity should shift towards transformative innovation policy, which is inspired by social ecology and environmental protection. The leverage factor for effective STI policy and productive R&D governance in Indonesia is the availability of highly qualified researchers.

Employability of the disabled people: a Brazilian case in the light of the theory of social learning for sustainability

This study aimed to identify how several social actors – government, universities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and firms – are socially learning to engage in promoting the recruitment, retention and advancement of people with disabilities, in Brazil. This is a case study in a NGO and the unit of analysis was the social project entitled 'Employment of people with disabilities – overcoming and autonomy'. The results show that, in Brazil, the recruitment, retention and advancement of people with disabilities is a complex situation. The various social actors are still socially learning to deal with it, since it involves daily living with restrictive, cooperative and leverage factors. Therefore, discuss the ontological, epistemological and practical implications for all involved social actors. In addition, a detailed process of social learning for sustainability, anchored in circularity, is shown in various stages, which is suggested to apply to several dimensions: environmental, social, economic, political, cultural, spiritual, geographical etc.

The Commercial Bank Leverage Factor in U.S. Asset Prices

I present novel results on a commercial bank leverage factor that drives U.S. asset prices with important implications for both the time-series and the cross-section of returns. To motivate these findings, I modify the recovery rate of assets in a disaster model to include aggregate credit growth as an additional macroeconomic risk factor. It turns out there is a positive relationship between the postulated resilience of an asset and the stage of aggregate credit recovery. The intuition is behavioral in nature: credit expansions (contractions) breed investor overoptimism (pessimism), asset resilience increases (decreases) and the risk-premium decreases (increases). Additional implications in the cross-section are generated by the interaction of the credit cycle with the stock-specific recovery rate. The commercial bank leverage factor has a larger effect on small-, less profitable-, and value-stocks. A simple buy-and-hold strategy of the market index at short- and medium-horizons illustrates how investors can earn significantly higher excess returns and Sharpe ratios in recoveries and early stages of an expansion as opposed to credit booms.

Constant leverage certificates: dynamics, performance, and risk-return characteristics

This paper analyzes a relatively new investment product named as constant leverage certificate (CLC), which is designed to provide a multiple of the return of its underlying asset on a daily basis. Based on the literature on leveraged ETFs, which have a similar design, it is well-known that such a strategy does not reproduce the corresponding multiple of the underlying in the long run. But due to the typically much larger leverage factors of CLCs compared to leveraged ETFs, it is questionable whether many of the results found for leveraged ETFs can be applied to these certificates as well. Against this background, I study the drivers of the long-term deviation of the product return from the leveraged return of the underlying, test a generalized version of the theoretical long-term return model originally developed for leveraged ETFs with a simulation study, and analyze the return distribution based on the theoretical model and empirical data. In contrast to prior literature, my results indicate that the effect of compounding is much more pronounced than the noncompounding deviation also for short-term investment periods. The theoretical model, however, is relatively accurate despite much larger leverage factors.

Shadow banks, leverage risks, and asset prices

Trust companies generate leverage cycle dynamics by intermediating less regulated credit to the financial markets in China. We find that the leverage factor constructed from trust companies can explain the time-series and cross-sectional asset returns. The leverage factor derived from securities companies does not possess the same explanatory power, despite these companies being legitimate financing sources of leveraged investment. Our results provide new evidence that the financial innovations created by shadow banks significantly amplify leverage in less sophisticated financial markets. This not only affects financial fragility, but also determines asset prices.

An Empirical Study on the Financial Competitiveness Evaluation System of Stock Exchange Listed SMEs of Gujarat, India

The purpose of this study is to identify the financial factors that enhance the financial competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gujarat, India. The principal component analysis has been applied to extract the financial factors from financial performance ratios of a sample size of 38 stock exchange SMEs, based in Gujarat, India. The ranking has been given to the SMEs based upon their factor score and comprehensive score. The results show that profitability, management efficiency, liquidity and leverage factors are the major factors affecting the financial competitiveness of SMEs. The study covers only one state of the country, and the findings from different states may differ and need to get verified. Despite the highest contribution of SMEs in the GDP of India, there exist very few Indian studies on SME competitiveness. This study contributes to filling this gap.

Sustainability of garlic cultivation at Tegal Regency, Central Java Province, Indonesia

Indonesia is an agricultural country that produces any agricultural product. Garlic is one of the horticulture products that are currently cultivated vastly. According to the national garlic development plan by the Ministry of the Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia, the way to obtain self-sufficiency in garlic is developing seed centers and import arrangements. The objective of this research is to analyze the sustainability of garlic farming and to determine the leverages factors for garlic development. The study was conducted in Tegal, which is one of the central of Garlic Development in Central Java Province. The methodology used is analysis using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). There are 43 attributes of 5 dimensions involved in the study, which are ecology, economic, social, infrastructure, and legal-institutional aspect. The result of the research showed that Garlic cultivation has a status as sustainable, with a sustainability index value of 66.44. The leverage factors that affect garlic development are pesticide use, waste management, planting plan, consumption level, productivity, labor efficiency scheme, land management, community empowerment, agriculture extension, storage technology, access to technology, marketing institution, and implementation of land conversion regulations.

Reliable factors of Capital structure: Stability selection approach

In the extant literature, researchers introduced many variables as potential determinants of capital structure, highlighting the importance of identifying reliable factors as an essential step before constructing a theoretical framework to explain a firm’s capital structure choice. We combine stability selection as a general approach to improve the performance of a variable selection technique with state-of-art variable selection, the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), to identify a sparse and stable set of capital structure determinants. Our findings show that industry leverage and profitability are two of the most stable factors of market and book-based leverage of Iranian firms with high-selection probabilities. Compared with evidence from developed markets, we identified liquidity as a new stable factor of market-based and book-based leverage in a point-of-probability view. Moreover, in contrast to prior studies, we found no evidence to prove the stability of firm size for book- and market-based leverage. Also, the stability of assets tangibility as another core factor of capital structure in the literature is not robust to different definitions of leverage. Prediction accuracy measures show that stable-LASSO-selected variables have better in-sample and out-of-sample performance than core factors of capital structure. Further analysis indicates that when we measure capital structure based on long-term debt ratios, assets tangibility can be viewed as one of the most stable factors of capital structure.

The Effect of Company Performance on Dividend Policy in Manufacturing Companies

Companies in managing their finances are always faced with three important issues that are interrelated. The three problems are investment decisions, funding decisions and dividend policy decisions. This study will be focusing on dividend policy decision. Not all companies distribute dividend even when they have high profit/liquidity level or because they need money to pay interest. This study investigates and aim to analyze the effect of company performance to dividend policy in manufacturing companies. Company performance used as variables are: profitability, leverage, and liquidity. The author will analyze the direct effect from profitability, leverage, and liquidity with company dividend policy. After that by using liquidity as moderating variable, the author will analyze wether high liquidity level can strengthen company decision to distribute dividends.
 The sample for this study are 77 manufacturing industry companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2010-2016 which distributed dividends. Research data is taken from annual financial report data published by the sample companies. The data in this study were processed with the help of SEM smartPLS 3.0 model. This study explains the impact of profitability, leverage, and liquidity factors on dividend policy and wether liquidity can be used to strengthen or weaken the relationship between profitability to dividend policy and leverage to dividend policy.

Sustainability of technological dimension in dairy agribusiness

This study aims to analyze sustainability index and status of technological dimension in dairy agribusiness in Batu City. Research methods applied were analysis Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis, termed Rapuse, and Descriptive analysis. Study result was expressed in sustainability index and status. Moreover, to examine attributes sensitively affected sustainability index and status also the effect of error, analysis of Leverage and Monte Carlo was performed, followed with descriptive analysis. Data were obtained from key respondent and field observation. Four villages from three sub-districts in Batu City were purposively selected as research site, namely Village of Pesanggrahan, Tlekung, Oro-oro Ombo and Gunungsari. Sustainability analysis resulted in technological dimension of 60.40 or moderately sustainable condition and three leverage factors of AI breeding, adlibitum water application, and chopper use. Other factors in technological dimension should be taken care immediately since they sensitively have an effect on the increasing sustainability index and status with small error at confidence level of 95%. Factors included biogas installation, provision of dry concentrate, fresh milk handling, and cage cleanliness should be improved to increase sustainability index of technological dimension through role and support improvement of stakeholder consisted of milk cooperation, IPS, government institution related, and cattle farmers.

The Impact of IFRS Adoption on Earnings Management-Results from Canada

The purpose of this paper is to find out the impact of the adoption of IFRS on the practice of earnings management. It provides empirical results using panel data from 2000 to 2018 of the 19,869 firm-year observations of available data from 791 Canadian firms based on the Modified Jones model. The result of our study supports that there is the existence of earnings management practice. The overall result was negative but not significant suggesting adopting IFRS has no direct influence on earnings management used among publicly listed firms. In addition, this paper examined the influence of firm factors (independent variables) of leverage, return on assets, and enrings growth, the interaction variables of IFRS adoption on earnings management. Obtained results in this paper indicate the interaction variable of IFRS adoption is positively related with earnings management, but not significant, suggesting that adopting IFRS has no direct influence on earnings management used among publicly listed firms.

LGBT Rights in Bosnia: The Challenge of Nationalism in the Context of Europeanization

AbstractNationalism has been one of the domestic constraints to progress on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, especially in the Balkans that are dealing with multiple postwar transition realities. Ethno-nationalist challenges, often influenced by religion, have been significant in Bosnia-Herzegovina given weak state identity and democracy, competing institutionalized ethno-national identities, and slow Europeanization. Through the lenses of gendered nationalism, the societal security dilemma, and political homophobia, this article analyzes how the politics and discourse of LGBT rights during the past decade in Bosnia reveal tensions between competing and multiple identities and narratives—European, multiethnic, ethno-nationalist, and religious—using the violent response to the 2008 Queer Sarajevo Festival as a key illustration. However, in the past decade, LGBT rights have progressed and antigay backlash to LGBT visibility (in addition to stronger external leverage and other factors) has resulted in stronger activism and change. The public discourse and response to the announcement of Bosnia’s first Pride Parade represents another turning point in LGBT visibility that seems to reveal that ethno-nationalist challenges may be lessening as LGBT rights norms gain strength.

Model kebijakan strategis pengelolaan lingkungan kawasan industri (Studi Kasus Kawasan Industri Jababeka dan EJIP di Kabupaten Bekasi)

The model of key factors contributing to support sustainability of the environmental management in the industrial estate were studied. These factors were the result of the prior research of prospective analysis that classified as the leverage factors and the driving factors. These factors were studied by the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as the criteria and alternatives input to elaborate the priority in the model of environmental management. AHP matrices were analyzed by purposive expert in the depth interview procedure. The analysis result showed that the industrial estate manager is the most important as the firts actor in the model (63.7%), the second actor is the industrial company as the tenant of the first actor (25.8%), and third actor is the local government (10.5 %). The priority of the dimension of the model in a row were economic (38.1%), social (19.4%), institutional management (19.3%), ecology (13.8%) and technology (9.4%). For developing the model there were five driving factors that develop the alternatives of the policy for achieving the goal. The priority of the alternatives in a row were improving the quality of industrial wastewater (29.5%), improving wastewater quality of integrated wastewater treatment plant outlet of the estate manager facility (21.5%), obtaining the industrial water demand (19.1%), conducting 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) program of hazardous waste, and maintaining and supporting employed people in condusive work environment. By AHP result which resulting the priority of actors, dimensions, and alternatives, the model was developed effectively .

EVALUASI KEBERLANJUTAN PROGRAM PENGEMBANGAN KAPASITAS SDM PENGENDALIAN KARHUTLA DENGAN METODE RAPFIRE

Forest and land fires in Indonesia are mostly caused by human factors, therefore human resources are an important element that needs to be considered in the prevention and control of forest and land fires. One of the important efforts in anticipating the ongoing recurrence of forest and land fires in Indonesia is by preparing human resources who have the capacity to control the forest and land fires in the field. Several human resource capacity building programs to control forest and land fires have been developed in Indonesia, but are considered not to have played a significant role in controlling forest and land fires in Indonesia. This study aims to evaluate the sustainability of the human resources capacity development program that has been running so far, by building and implementing the Rapfire method through a multidimensional scaling approach. The results of the study show that the forestry human resource capacity development program with community participation tends to have a low level of sustainability, therefore it needs to receive development priorities. The study also found that the main leverage factors that influence the level of sustainability are in the input dimension, including the recruitment system, program management institutions, and budgeting systems. Leverage factors are important attributes that need to be considered and get policy priorities in order to maintain or improve the sustainability status of the human resources capacity development program for forest and land fires control in Indonesia

More Than Just Complaints: Generating Thick Engagement Through Thin Participatory Programs.

Thin participatory processes are designed for information exchange. But complaint processes, message boards, and hotlines sometimes facilitate thick, meaningful engagement. Can policy design leverage factors driving engagement to enable values-based responses to complex policy problems, while allowing information exchange to continue as-needed for most participants? Using place-based case studies from oil and gas drilling and community complaints in three regions of Colorado, I make propositions about how the drivers of collaboration are related to the practice of engagement within participatory programs. Based on the case studies, presence of coercive policy actors, inclusion of multiple governmental authorities, and transparency in participatory communication are likely to facilitate thickening. Meanwhile, measurement-based responses to participation are likely to propagate thin participation only. Accordingly, in designing thin processes, policy makers should recognize the nature of engagement will depend on the type of knowledge exchanged and the suite of institutions that might use or leverage the participatory action.

Can Rural Development Be Measured? Design and Application of a Synthetic Index to Portuguese Municipalities

Starting the discussion about the framework 2021–2027, and regarding the increasing importance given to rural areas by the European Union, multifunctionality of agriculture and its positive externalities can be the leverage factor to a sustainable rural development. It is therefore crucial to identify the success issues in these territories where public investment can more effectively influence the private sector. Despite the existence of many indices of development, none of them is specifically designed for the evaluation of rural areas. This lack of rural development measures hampers the process of assessing the impact of public policies applied in a particular territory, or, in an ex-ante perspective, the identification of the areas where the use of public funds would be more effective. This work hence proposes the design of a Rural Development Index which would cover the defining characteristics of each region’s development. The index has been constructed based on four dimensions: population, social, economic and environmental, with each of them being composed of different indicators. The index is finally applied it to 15 municipalities in a Portuguese NUT III region (North Alentejo) using the most recent data available from the 2011 Portuguese Census. The use of the index has allowed a comparative analysis of values of each territorial unit in different years, producing some conclusions on the effectiveness of the implementation of public policies. It was also possible to identify the dimensions in which the public development policies can improve their results, and how these dimensions contribute to different development levels of the territories.

Shadow Banks, Leverage Risks and Asset Prices

Trust companies generate leverage cycle dynamics by intermediating less regulated credit to the financial markets in China. We find that the leverage factor constructed from trust companies can explain the time-series and cross-sectional asset returns. The leverage factor derived from securities companies does not possess the same explanatory power, despite these companies being legitimate financing sources of leveraged investment. Our results provide new evidence that the financial innovations created by shadow banks significantly amplify leverage in less sophisticated financial markets. This not only affects financial fragility, but also determines asset prices.

Strategy for the development of agroecologically sustainable cattle slaughterhouse

This paper aimed to formulate strategy for the development of agroecologically sustainable cattle slaughterhouse. This study is needed for the formulation document of the Regional’s Medium-Term Plan for the period of 2020-2024. The method used was a prospective analysis and multi-dimensional scaling. This prospective analysis was carried out to analyse the degree of strength and dependency relationships by giving a score of the level of direct or indirect influence between elements of leverage that have been generated from previous research. Prospective analysis results in the form of key factors that form the basis of change scenario that can be achieved in the future. The strategy for the development of agroecologically sustainable cattle slaughterhouse scenario was done by the leverage factors which then formulated as key indicator performance in order to improve system performance by looking at an increase in the sustainability index through the multi-dimensional scaling method.

Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: An Empirical Investigation of Food Sector of Pakistan

Dividend policy is considered to be one of the paramount important areas of corporate finance and its real consequences for all the companies and stakeholder. Dividend decision is get affected multiple factors like Leverage, Profitability, Business Risk, Liquidity, Growth Opportunities and other micro and Macro economies variables. On this premise, this study investigates factors affecting dividend policy of non-financial food firms listed in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) by analyzing panel data of 20 non-financial firms for the period of 2011 to 2016. The results from fixed effect model estimation revealed (E-views) that the variables profitability, liquidity and leverage are positively and significantly related to the dividend payout, whereas business risk and growth opportunity are negatively and significantly related to the dividend payout. Therefore, it can be argued that increasing the profitability, liquidity and leverage of the firm ultimately they also increase the dividend payment to shareholder. The study provides valuable information to the Board of Directors for formulating and reviewing the dividend policy, taking into account the factors that have been shown to have a significant impact on the dividend payout. In particular, if the Board of Directors considers increasing the dividend payment to shareholders, the factors of profitability, leverage, liquidity, growth opportunity and business risk must be carefully considered. Keywords: Dividend Payout, Profitability, Liquidity, Leverage, Fixed Effect Model DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-5-02 Publication date :March 31 st 2019