Effects of Internal Service Quality on Work Engagement: A Case Study of Hotel Soaltee Crowne Plaza

This study examined the Service Quality (SERVQUAL) model with the Internal Service Quality (ISQ) dimensions such as tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy that impact on employee work engagement. This research work was conducted in Hotel Soaltee Crowne Plaza (SCP), one of the 5-star deluxe hotels of Nepal. The study has adopted an inferential research design to meet the study objectives regarding the impact of independent variables on work engagement of SCP Hotel. A structured questionnaire was distributed to 126 sample respondents out of a total of 503 employees of SCP hotel. The study reveals a significant relationship of work engagement with empathy and not with rest of the independent variables. Based on the findings it is recommended that employees should be taken good care of, and employers should be well aware of the employees’ emotional level since empathy has shown a highly significant relationship with work engagement. Study results have scope of future reference whereby implementing SERVQUAL dimensions for employee work engagement and reduction in employee turnover and improved.

An Analysis of the Perceptions of Regulatory Authorities about the Causes of Non-Performing Loans

The purpose of this study is to identify the causes of non-performing loans (NPAs) from regulators’ perspective and ways to minimise it. The primary data through two interviews from two regulators are taken as a method of data collection. The major findings of the study are that pressure to remain profitable by banks, personal problems; lack of best banking practice, professionalism, earthquake, conflict period, economic cycle may be the reasons behind high non-performing loan in Nepal. Regulators perceived that prudent credit assessment and decision; counselling of customer problem and development of prudent credit culture may help to reduce non-performing loans in Nepal.

Dissecting COVID-19 Pandenomics: A New Management Discourse

With the novel coronavirus outbreak adversely affecting economies all over the world and putting the humankind in probably the most difficult time in modern history, an imperative need to understand, analyse and dissect the very economics of pandemic—or the ‘Pandenomics’ of COVID-19— has been felt. In our human lives and politico-economic spheres, much has either changed or metamorphosed after the virus outbreak, as the world moves towards the end of 2020. The world has made transition from physical to virtual and digital. Globalisation has witnessed deceleration in its pace, if not reversal. We managers should well analyse and dissect the COVID pandenomics to draw its telling lessons for managing economies and organisations in both short and long terms. We can successfully convert the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (or, VUCA-1), into Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility, or VUCA-2 for which the management leaders should possess and develop the essential competency to ‘lead through influence.’

Impact of COVID-19 on Nepalese Small and Medium Enterprises

This study seeks to explore the impact of COVID-19 on Nepalese SMEs. This study is based on 41 respondents from Nepalese SMEs, conducted in the first two weeks of August 2020. The questionnaires are developed in 4-point Likert scale on five major areas: current business challenges, firm’s respond to COVID-19, social response, SMEs’ perception on post COVID-19 and government’s response to COVID-19. The questionnaires are pretested for content validity and found internal consistency of instruments. The study used mean, standard deviation, and match t-test. The Nepalese SMEs give importance to social response, followed by firm’s response to COVID-19 and current business challenges. However, Nepalese SMEs are unsatisfied with the government’s response to COVID-19 and the role of government is inevitable in safeguarding SMEs.

Factors Influencing Investment in Mutual Fund Schemes of Nepal

The history of mutual funds in Nepal began with the introduction of “NCM Mutual Fund 2050” in 1993. The Mutual Fund Regulation, 2010 has played an important role in development of Mutual funds as momentous progress can be observed after its implementation. The mutual fund sector has raised Rs. 17.49 billion through public offering and this figure is projected to reach Rs. 19.79 billion by the end of FY 2019/20. Considering the momentous growth in the mutual fund industry this study attempts to analyse the investment pattern of Nepalese mutual fund Investors based on various parameters. This study also attempts to identify the critical factors influencing investment in mutual fund schemes of Nepal. The results indicate that the investors are moderately averse to mutual fund schemes. The results further show that the investors chose mutual fund schemes, being relied on key performance indicators of Mutual funds and their perception towards several aspects of mutual fund schemes. Moreover, fund managers’ qualities and corporate governance factors are considered important though the results are not statistically significant.

Factors Influencing Investment Decisions in Gold

The paper aims to evaluate the various factors influencing investment decisions in gold. Six influential factors such as price of gold, secured investment, liquidity need, social status, advertisement and influences and demand of gold were used and their relation with investment decision in gold was tested. The study is based on descriptive research design and uses the primary data obtained by a structured questionnaire for quantitative analysis. Convenient sampling method was used and sample size of 160 respondents was taken from Kathmandu valley. The study uses descriptive statistics, t-test, and correlation to show the important influential variable and relation with investment decision. Among all the influential variables, liquidity need and social status shows the highest mean value which indicates strong agreement towards reason for investing in gold whereas advertisement and influences has lowest agreement. However, when it comes to relationship of different factors with investment decision on gold then, secured investment has the highest correlation value with the investment decision in gold. Moreover, the results showed that there is positive significant relationship between all the contextual variables and investment decision.

The Stock Market’s Reaction to Unanticipated Catastrophic Event

Several factors influence the stock market; they trigger market over-or under-reactions. The paper aims to identify the effect of a major catastrophic event on stock returns. For this, daily data of stock market indices was used with a total of 210 observations and the effect of catastrophic event, Nepal Earthquake 2015, was tested using the method of event analysis for different event windows. The catastrophic event did not affect stock returns significantly and was resilient to earthquake-induced shocks. The event window (+2, +10) shows the higher and positive abnormal returns which depicts that the market has recovered from the shock in as many as three days. The study shows that stock market in Nepal is semi-strongly inefficient.

Impact of Heuristics on Investment Decisions: The Moderating Role of Locus of Control

This paper aims to assess the impact of heuristics on the investment decision by analysing the effect of four heuristic biases, i.e., representativeness, availability, anchoring and adjustment, and overconfidence bias on rationality of Nepalese investor's investment decision-making and also examines the moderating effect of the internal locus of control in between. The study used 391 respondents based on a convenient sampling procedure, and structured questionnaire survey. The study result indicates that there is a significant relationship between irrationality in investment decision-making and all four heuristic biases. In addition, the study also concludes that locus of control has significant moderating effect in the relationship between investment decisions and three heuristic biases, i.e., availability, representative and anchoring bias. However, the study documents no moderation effect in case of relationship with overconfidence bias.

Comparative Knowledge Gained from Online and Face-to-Face Learning Modes in Management Courses in Nepal

The paper aimed at examining the perceived difference between knowledge gained from online and face-to-face learning modes as a result of the intensities (viz., high and low) of comparative interaction level and ease of attending the classes, in the context of management courses in Nepal. Based on the survey (complete enumeration) of all management students (n=224) attending the online classes at Nepal Open University from 5th to 25th Jan., 2020, the study applied descriptive statistics and factorial ANOVA using the General Linear Model in analysing data to pursue the research objectives. Nepalese management students’ experience with their present online classes in terms of the knowledge gained was found to be equivalent to their previous experience with the face-to-face mode. It also discovered that intensities of the comparative interaction level and comparative ease of attending classes had a significant impact on comparative knowledge gained. The findings should offer instrumental inputs to design effective higher education policies blending the online and face-to-face learning modes.

Dynamics of Time Varying Volatility in Stock Returns: Evidence from Nepal Stock Exchange

This study examines the properties of time varying volatility of daily stock returns in Nepal over the period 2011-2020 using 2059 observations on daily returns of NEPSE index series. The study examines various symmetric and asymmetric GARCH family models using several specifications of error distribution. The results of symmetric GARCH (1,1) and GARCH-M (1, 1) models indicate that there is volatility persistence in daily returns on composite NEPSE index series over the sampled period. However, the estimated results for GARCH-M (1, 1) models show that the stock returns in Nepal offer no significant risk premium to hedge against risk associated with investment in stocks. The study also demonstrates that asymmetric TGARCH (1, 1) and EGARCH (1, 1) models fail to capture the leverage effects on the volatility. Finally, study results show that GARCH (1, 1) with student’s t error distribution model is the best fitted one to capture the volatility persistence of daily returns on NEPSE index series over the sampled period. The findings from this study offers an additional insight in understanding the volatility pattern of daily stock returns in Nepal for the most recent period that helps investors in forming a sound strategy to address the risk pattern of investing in stock market of Nepal.