Reading Attitudes of Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Students with Bengali Medium Background at the Bangladeshi Private Universities in Dhaka City

The study basically aims at uncovering the reading attitudes of the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) students of the Bangladeshi English medium private universities. It has been observed that the private university students, coming from Bengali-medium colleges, read very little in English and consequently they hardly grow up as better readers. The study has used both quantitative and qualitative methods. For collecting quantitative data, a structured questionnaire was administered among the sampling respondents, 120 BBA students from six private universities located in Dhaka city, selected using simple random sampling procedure. On the contrary, for gathering qualitative data, the researcher depended on a number of classroom observations, focus group discussions (FGDs) that took place among 20 different BBA students divided into two groups, and teacher interviews (10 teachers). It is revealed from the study that the students have mixed attitudes towards reading. In some cases, they have been found enthusiastic readers who read due to their passion for reading or for having pleasure out of reading. However, in many cases, they have affirmed that they become anxious and bored of extensive reading. Besides, they mainly read for passing the examinations or obtaining good grades. Finally, it has been unearthed that both teachers and reading materials play vital roles in developing learners’ reading attitudes.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 91-110

Debit Card Adoption Attributes and Customer Satisfaction: A Study on Dutch-Bangla Band Ltd.

Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd (DBBL) is one of the most innovative and technologically advanced banks. It stands as a leader in the country's banking sector. Recently it was found that a large number of customers were using debit card for various purposes like convenient, speedy money transaction, easy maintenance etc. To assess which factors were related to debit card adoption, a questionnaire was developed. The survey was conducted among 239 customers from three different branches of Sylhet city. The study showed the significantly influencing debit card adoption factors, which were transaction transparency, shopping through Point-of-Sell (POS) utility bill payment, easiest way to maintain relationship with bank community and so on.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 129-140

Influence of Corporate Attributes on Magnitude of Disclosure by Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh

The study reports the results of an empirical investigation of the magnitude of disclosure by listed Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) in Bangladesh and the attributes influencing it. For the purpose of the study, samples were taken following the purposive sampling approach covering about 21 percent of the population. A researcher developed unweighted disclosure checklist containing 247 information items divided into ten groups, were utilized. Applying the Dichotomous scoring procedure, the study found an average disclosure of 75.76 percent with a constant growth during the study period. Significant differences were found while comparing the disclosure level among the years and among the sample banks under study. Out of the eight variables, the regression model used in the study found Log total assets, Return on Equity (ROE), and EPS as three influential contributors to disclosure; while other five variables were found to have insignificant influence on disclosure of PCBs in Bangladesh.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 111-118

Myanmar as an Investment Destination: A Regional Evaluation

Once considered a pariah state because of its military regime, Myanmar has been taking giant strides towards becoming one of the most promising countries for investing in business ventures. At a time when the global economic scenario is reeling from Britain’s exit from the European Union, foreign investment in Myanmar continues to attain unprecedented growth. Lifting of international sanctions, a promising economic outlook with a GDP growth rate averaging close to 8% and a sizeable labor force have attracted overseas investment in diverse sectors like energy, manufacturing, power generation, and construction. The country still faces formidable challenges in developing basic infrastructure, ensuring fiscal stability and curbing sectarian conflict. For the nascent democratic government, formulating and implementing effective policies are uphill tasks in a system fraught with bureaucratic inefficiencies, systemic corruption, and interference from the still-powerful military. Myanmar has ample opportunities to overcome internal roadblocks by utilizing its huge market with a predominantly young population, its expansive pool of low-cost labor and the heightened influx of international commercial ventures after the political transition of the mid-2010s. Investments in Myanmar’s promising telecommunications sector, in ready-made garment manufacturing and in the tourism industry are projected to give substantial dividends over the next few decades.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 11-39

Prioritising Dhaka’s Urban Transport System

not availableJournal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 141-144

Communication Satisfaction: A Study on Junior Executives working in Private Sector of Bangladesh

The study was an attempt to explore the level of communication satisfaction perceived by junior executives working in private sector in Bangladesh. Data were collected using the “Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire” developed by Downs and Hazen’s (1977). The Questionnaire consisted of 40 items divided into eight dimensions: Communication Climate, Supervisory Communication, Organizational Integration, Media Quality, Co-worker Communication, Organizational Perspective, Personal Feedback, and Relationship with Subordinates. Data were analyzed with Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk and Mann-Whitney U tests and by using other suitable statistical tools. The study reported very low level of communication satisfaction perceived by the junior executives. It also found a significant difference in levels of communication satisfaction between male and female executive in terms of “Communication Climate”, “Personal Feedback” and “Subordinate Communication”. Finally, recommendations were made for developing and maintaining a better organizational communication to achieve the desired performance and to sustain competition in the long run.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 69-90

An Analytical Study of Determinants of Non-Performing Loans: Evidence from Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) of Bangladesh

The main focus of this study is to analyze the determinants of non-performing loan (NPL) in Non-Bank Financial Institution (NBFI) sector in Bangladesh. Both macroeconomic and firm-specific variables are tested to determine the impact on classified loan ratio. A panel data-set consisting of seven NBFI with a time-span of 12 years (2003-2014) is analyzed for this purpose. Among macroeconomic variables, GDP growth rate, inflation rate and broad money in GDP are used. To capture management ability, firm-specific variables like, loan growth, loan to asset ratio, return on asset and relative size of firm were included in the study. Results show that firm-specific factors were more significant for non-performing loan of the NBFIs. Among macroeconomic variables, money supply was found to have significant impactJournal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 55-67

Time for Paradigm Shift in Islamic Finance Industry and Economy: Concepts of Profit, Loss, Enterprise Performance-Measure

The growth of Islamic Finance (IF) is hindered by non-conducive environment globally despite acceptability, efficiency and effectiveness of its products and services. The elements of non-conduciveness are bedded in the accounting methodology, tax- deductibility of interest expenses on bank loans, over-helming use of credit by households, businesses and governments, excessive use of leverage in banks, yielding disproportionately higher ROE (Return on Equity), resulting in global debt trap and extreme inequality in income and wealth distribution. Islamic finance if used properly by reforming the existing financial architecture and regularity environment can provide a sustainable basis for higher economic growth by encouraging private enterprises in Muslim and other countries by reducing deceit and corruption and increasing social capital through building trust. This will make the world a better place for humanity and avoid the impending threats from environmental and manmade disasters. This paper is based on secondary sources of information collected from publications of papers, research monograph, books and author’s own works done at Manchester Business School (MBS), Manchester, UK, 1974-77.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 1-9

Impact of Money, Interest Rate and Inflation on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) of Bangladesh

In this study, the impact of money supply, interest rate and inflation on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) of Bangladesh is explored. These macroeconomic variables are said to have strong impact on capital market. The purpose of this study is to find out if it is true for Dhaka Stock Exchange. For this purpose, data were collected for a period of twelve years from January 2001 to December 2012, on 144 variables. Broad money supply (M2) has been taken as a measure of money supply, 91-days T-bill has been taken as a measure of short-term interest rate and CPI general inflation rate (Base: 1995=100) has been taken as a measure of inflation rate. Apart from that many rules and regulations were reviewed. As to the relationship of the market indices, month-end DGEN Index and its percentage change were used in this paper. A unit root test has been done to see the stationarity of the variables because stationary data are needed for the analysis. A pairwise correlation matrix shows that there was no multicolinearity problem. A simple OLS regression indicates a relationship with money growth, interest rate. But Granger causality test shows that there is only a slight relationship with short term interest rate, nothing else. Overall though a short-run relationship is found between interest rate and market index; the relationship is not very strong. It is proposed that a study estimating long run impact of the explanatory variables should be taken up to know the full effect.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.11(1-2) 2016; 41-54

Effect of Training on Employee Performance: An Empirical Study on Telecommunication Industry in Bangladesh

This research paper is an attempt to estimate the effect of training on employee performance in the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. This study is conducted mainly based on primary data which were collected from a questionnaire survey encompassing the opinion of 100 employees working currently at six telecommunication companies. A theoretical framework has been formulated to estimate a relationship between training and employee performance, in the presence of intervening variables. Variables examined in this study are: Training (Independent Variable); Job Knowledge, Skill, Positive Attitude (Intervening Variables) and Employee Performance (Dependent Variable). The study revealed that there are positive and statistically significant effects of training on employee performance. The study also discovered that investment on employee training in the telecommunication sector can augment employee performance by enhancing job knowledge, skill and creating positive attitude among employees.Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) Vol.10(2) 2015; 67-80