MANUSCRIPT TITLE: CSR Practices and CSR Reporting in Indian Banking Sector

AUTHORS: Nishi Sharma*

ABSTRACT: In recent years Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has witnessed an astounding ascendancy and resurgence at the global level. The concept of CSR recognizes an organisation's commitment to operate in a socially responsible manner. It takes into consideration the social and environmental implications of corporate financial decisions. Growing complexity of business, increasing concern for sustainable development, need for stewardship of natural resources and call for enhanced transparency have not only magnified the resonance of Corporate Social Responsibility but also heightened the inclination towards integration of CSR principles in the corporate activities. In this regards, actions taken by corporate houses and regulatory authorities operating in developed nations are quite satisfactory. However in developing nations the scenario of CSR activities is not so rosy. Particularly in financial sector there is an absence of stringent provisions regarding compliance and reporting of CSR activities. This has further instigated organisations to remain silent to the issue till any mandatory provision is being enacted. In addition to this the academic publication on this fiery issue also reflects the Western centric nature of research work. In fact there is an availability of very limited research work in the context of implementation of CSR practices in context to developing nations. In this reference the present paper attempts to analyse CSR practices and CSR reporting in India with special reference to banking sector.

KEYWORDS: CSR practices; CSR reporting; Banking Sector; Financial Performance

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MANUSCRIPT TITLE: Economic Development and Marketing - Case of Kosovo

AUTHORS: Hykmete N. Bajrami*

ABSTRACT: Kosovo of today is an import based consumption economy. Its weak export makes it dependent on foreign assistance and remittances. The structure of the economy, with trade as a dominating undertaking, sustenance based agriculture and very limited production facilities, is a very fragile ground for economic development. This paper analyses dynamics of economic development in Kosovo in post conflict time, its constraints and perception of marketing. Theory and practice from developed countries show that firms that want to increase sales, produce what is needed and wanted from costumers, basically what other firms cannot offer. Evidence from Kosovo shows that firms do neglect marketing by being mainly sales oriented; they do produce what they think is good for the costumers and then use lots of resources to convince them that this is what they need. Paper tries to prove that this approach will not take those firms far and they need to change their way of doing business. The research done with 200 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kosovo shows there are rather few firms that understand marketing and through it fight competition and achieve to create long term relationships with their customers. We recommend all SMEs to change their way of doing business, start applying marketing, taking care of their costumers and creating long term relationship with them, this for sure will lead to success.

KEYWORDS: Economic development, marketing, customer care, sales oriented, market oriented, costumer relationship

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MANUSCRIPT TITLE: INSTITUTIONAL SHAREHOLDERS DIFFERENCES AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE

AUTHORS: Iskandar REBAI*

ABSTRACT: This study has examined the association between institutional ownership and firms' performance. It has investigated this relationship for a sample of 123 US firms. It has examined also the effect of institutional ownership on performance of firms having different information environment (S&P 500 versus non S&P 500). Results have shown that the involvement of pension funds in the firms' capitals improve the corporate performance. However, investment funds and banks have no significant effects on firms' performance. Moreover, the hypothesis of the relevance of the environment information in the explanation of the institutional investors' behavior has been confirmed.

KEYWORDS: Institutional investors, managerial discretion, firms' performance

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MANUSCRIPT TITLE: Improving Portfolio Optimization by DCC and DECO GARCH: Evidence from Istanbul Stock Exchange

AUTHORS: Tolgahan YILMAZ*

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the performance of global minimum variance (GMV) portfolios constructed by DCC and DECO-GARCH are compared to that of GMV portfolios constructed by sample covariance and constant correlation methods in terms of reduced volatility. Also, the performance of GMV portfolios are tested against that of equally weighted and cap weighted portfolios. Portfolios are constructed from the stocks listed in Istanbul Stock Exchange 30 index (hereafter, ISE-30). The results show that GMV portfolios constructed by DCC-GARCH outperformed the other portfolios. In addition, the performance of GMV portfolios estimated by DCC and DECO-GARCH methods are improved by extending calibration period from three years to four years and lowering rolling window term from one week to one day, while the performances of other GMV portfolios decrease. It shows the effect of time varying variance and dynamic correlations on portfolio optimization at Turkish stock market.

KEYWORDS: DCC-GARCH, DECO-GARCH, GMV portfolio, Sample Covariance, Constant Correlation

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MANUSCRIPT TITLE: Walmart Business Model Study

AUTHORS: Yuansheng LI*

ABSTRACT: This report explores the features and the role of business model of Walmart in creating and capturing value. A successful business model always links to its strategy, internal and external environment, technologies, management and value chain. The first part of this report introduces Walmart's mission, strategy and its history. The second part analyses Walmart's business model using Nine Building Blocks. The third part critically discusses the validity of the Walmart's business model. According to the analysis of the business model, the fourth and fifth parts address the low cost strategy and how Walmart innovates the business model to achieve its mission. This report concludes that the Walmart's business model is a successful one, but also needs to continuously innovate and develop the research on limitations.

KEYWORDS: Walmart Business Model, Effective Model, Walmart, Business

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MANUSCRIPT TITLE: From Discrete to Continuous: Modeling Volatility of the Istanbul Stock Exchange Market with GARCH and COGARCH

AUTHORS: YAVUZ YILDIRIM*, Prof. Dr. GAZANFER UNAL

ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper is to model the volatility of Istanbul Stock Exchange market, ISE100 Index by ARMA and GARCH models and then take a step further into the analysis from discrete modeling to continuous modeling. Through applying unit root and stationary tests on the log return of the index, we found that log return of ISE100 data is stationary. Best candidate model chosen was found to be AR(1)~GARCH(1,1) by AIC and BIC criteria. Then using the parameters from the discrete model, COGARCH(1,1) was applied as a continuous model.

KEYWORDS: Continuous modeling; GARCH; COGARCH; ISE100

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MANUSCRIPT TITLE: Continuous Modeling of Foreign Exchange Rate of USD versus TRY

AUTHORS: Yakup Ari*, Gazanfer Unal

ABSTRACT: This study aims to construct continuous-time autoregressive (CAR) model and continuous-time GARCH (COGARCH) model from discrete time data of foreign exchange rate of United States Dollar (USD) versus Turkish Lira (TRY). These processes are solutions to stochastic differential equation L�vy-driven processes. We have shown that CAR(1) and COGARCH(1,1) processes are proper models to represent foreign exchange rate of USD and TRY for different periods of time February 2002- June 2013.

KEYWORDS: Continuous modeling; Continuous AR; COGARCH;USD/TRY

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