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A Forecasting Case for TeleTech Customer Care Management Phils., Inc

Stephen Earl S. Chow / Read Full Journal

Keywords:

Forecasting; TeleTech;

Abstract

This study seeks to produce forecasts that would help TeleTech Customer Care Management Phils., Inc.-Makati manage its human resources well for the year 2014. Specifically, to address the problem of determining the inbound calls the company would need to handle for the year 2014 by use of a suitable quantitative model in Statistical Forecasting. In doing so, the company would be able to produce sound forecasts of the distribution of calls per hour, per day, and per week on a monthly basis for the year 2014 and provide empirical basis for allocating its human resource to handle the daily inbound calls of the company; providing for an efficient operational performance.

Implementing the forecast model, it can be observed that the total number of inbound calls the company is receiving on an annual basis is gradually decreasing from year 1 to year 5, with only a very small discrepancy of increase in year 3. This particular pattern of declining number of calls allows for the model of least squares method to be used with the resulting year 6 forecast figure to be 12,225,384 calls; an expected lower figure from year 5 of 12,504,447 calls (actual) ? a 2.23% decrease. The average gap or variance for years 1 to 5 is 0.000158 or a percentage error of only 0.016%; a very acceptable margin for the forecast computation on year 6 (2014), to be highly reliable and significant.

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A Time Series Study on Marvel from 2000 - 2009: Marvel's Movies Impact Relative to Stock Price

Junius Yu / Read Full Journal

Abstract

Marvel studios have provided an interesting study for many business students particularly generating more than $1.5 billion box office receipts for the movie 'Avengers' last 2012. Disney bought Marvel for $4.24 billion and the question arises from the valuation of the company relative to the acquisition price. The study focuses on Marvel Entertainment's impact from movie releases relative to stock price. A time series analysis was used in gathering Marvel's daily stock price changes from 2000 - 2009. This was also used in parallel to 20 movies released by Marvel within that time period. The behavior of the market was examined using the GARCH (Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity) model and the EWMA (Exponentially Weighted Moving Average). A linear regression was used in testing the hypothesis on whether gross sales of movies and movie release (development, pre-production, production, post-production and release) have any significant to changes in stock price. GARCH (1,1) was used to measure the outliers for the signaling effect relative to huge changes on the time series data. The data results provided no empirical evidences due to relatively large pvalues; however the spike of increase in changes were identified due to the release of Spider- Man 2 in 2004 and Iron Man in 2008. The conclusion of the study reflected on the impact Marvel has on mainstream Hollywood perhaps not on the valuation, but the future business earnings it may generate in the next decade.

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An Evaluation of Financial Literacy of Micro and Small Enterprise Owners in Iligan City: Knowledge and Skills

Sheevun Di O. Guliman / Read Full Journal

Keywords:

Financial literacy; MSMEs; Iligan;

Abstract

The primary purpose of the study is to evaluate the financial literacy of Micro and Small Enterprise owners in Iligan City which focuses on financial knowledge and skills. Also, this study aims to identify the factors that could affect the quality and level of financial knowledge, skills and financial literacy as a whole. A total of 100 respondents with heterogeneous types of business were asked to answer 38 questions that were divided into three parts. Results showed that college education is the only significant factor and is positively related to financial knowledge while years in operation negatively affect the financial skills of the entrepreneurs. Moreover, this research showed that college education increases the likelihood of having a higher level of financial literacy relative to high school education. Based on the mean percentage ratings of financial knowledge, this study found out that most of the owners of these enterprises have low levels of financial knowledge in taxation, time value of money, financial institutions and investment securities. Also, the financial skills of the respondents displayed low mean percentage ratings in savings and record keeping yet planning and budgeting skills posted a fair mean percentage rating. Thus, results showed that in general, these entrepreneurs have low levels of total financial literacy based on the measurements used. Furthermore, the correlation between financial knowledge and skills is positive yet very low. The findings have practical relevance to MSMEs and policy makers to be able to determine the interventions necessary to help the MSME sector. It is recommended that future studies be made to substantiate the results of this study considering other municipalities and cities in the Philippines.

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Capital Structure and Profitability of Selected Universal Banks in the Philippines

Edralin Lim / Read Full Journal

Keywords:

capital structure; profitability; universal banks;

Abstract

The banking industry has a significant part in the economy of either a developing or a fully developed country. Banking systems promote a country?s growth. In turn, this growth can be attained by turning savings into sound investment. This is why the researcher wants to examine the relationship between capital structure and profitability of the banking industry, specifically the universal banks.

The researcher based his sample on eleven universal banks in the Philippines from 2006 to 2013. The study used correlation analysis to determine the relationship between capital structure and profitability. To assess the bank?s profitability, return on equity was used. On the other hand, debt to equity ratio and debt to asset ratio were used to measure capital structure.

The study showed that debt to equity ratio and debt to asset ratio have a significant positive relationship with return on equity. Evidently, higher leverage profoundly leads to higher profitability ? which is encompassed by the concept of moderate view. Moreover, as tax savings are taken advantage by banks, the concept of static trade-off was actually validated. Hence, increasing the net income. Furthermore, it connoted that profitable banks depend severely on debt rather than equity to finance their assets. Overall, the study confirmed that the decisions on how banks manage their resources and capital structure will always be significantly related to profitability.

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Determinants of Employee Performance in a Non-Bank Financial Institution

Hector M. Atienza / Read Full Journal

Abstract

The current trend in most companies has been on compensating its employees based on performance rather than seniority. This is based on the concept that this approach ensures the competitiveness and efficiency of a business entity. This is particularly relevant for businesses and industries involved emerging technologies and trends. On the other hand, it is recognized that, esp. in a company with organized labor (union), the primary consideration for employees is on seniority and security of tenure, with minimal regard to merit, especially in the determination of compensation. In this paper, we look at the cross sectional employee profile of a successful non-bank financial corporation that operates in a highly regulated industry (under the supervision of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)). Statistical analysis (descriptive and multivariate) is made using age, tenure, gender, assignment and skills level as determinants of performance. We hope to see how age (maturity), tenure (seniority), gender, and skill-level contribute or correlate to an employees? performance. In the end, we are able to come up with external attributes that would help management in its selection of employees based on established demographic profile.

It is recognized that this study has limitations as it merely focuses on the statistical data involving external attributes, which can be subjective. External factors, such as leadership and incentives schemes help motivate an employee to perform, which are beyond the scope of this study.

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Effect of Social Capital on Resource Exchange of a State University

Ma. Cresilda M. Caning / Read Full Journal

Keywords:

social capital; relational social capital dimension; research performance;

Abstract

This paper examined the effect of the relational aspect of social capital to the internal resource exchange of a state university. We predicted that the presence of the relational social capital dimension will have a positive effect on the university?s research exchange and productivity. We tested our hypotheses on 38 faculty researchers coming from 7 academic units of a state university using the Social Capital and Value Creation Model developed by Tsai and Ghoshal (1998). Our results indicated that the presence of the relational dimension of social capital which is manifested in the degree of trust the departments have of each other and the perceived trustworthiness of the academic departments can facilitate exchanges of information and knowledge among the different units to enhance their resource exchange and facilitate the pursuit of common organizational goals.

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I Hate You But I Liked You: The Pattern of Engagement Between an Electric Utility and its Facebook Fans (The Case of the Manila Electric Company)

Kathleen Kristy Dorico / Read Full Journal

Keywords:

Facebook Engagement; Electric Industry; Social Media; Customer Satisfaction;

Abstract

With consumers increasingly converging via the social media, marketers have made it an innovative tool in achieving some of their marketing objectives. Electric utilities across the globe have also recognized the impact of social media in service delivery and communication. This research undertaking hopes to create a deeper understanding of the actual pattern of Facebook customer engagement in the case of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and how this online customer engagement influences satisfaction (i.e. complaints handling, customer communication and corporate image) of a brand that elicits negative sentiments.

Employing a triangulation approach, the researcher integrated the results from the online survey, content analysis and focus group discussion for its final analysis. In terms of involvement, Meralco Facebook fans? primary objective of liking the page is to get up-to-date information. Although the presence of Meralco on Facebook was deemed risky, it was highly appreciated by the fans. Moreover, Meralco appeared more genuine with its concern for the customers.

On contents, service outage is shown to be the consistent concern across different industry context. The experience of Meralco with its Facebook fanpage showed that Facebook is a strong alternative channel during a natural disaster.

The over-all sentiment of posts by Meralco Facebook fans is neutral regardless of month or industry context. Facebook did not essentially become a venue for unreasonable, harsh and negative comments.

The statistical results of the online survey showed that females are more likely to share a post by Meralco than males. Also, there is a weak association of evaluation on complaints handling with age, sex and marital status; and a moderately negative association with income.

In general Meralco Facebook fans are satisfied with Meralco. In a scale of 1 to 5, complaints handling received 3.66 with some concerns on the promptness of the reply. On one hand, customer communication was rated 3.95 with appreciation to information given ahead of time; while on the other hand, corporate image at 3.82 with the perception that Meralco has become more open and transparent.

Although satisfaction is significantly different across varying strength of interaction, the direction of this difference is negative. An inversely weak association suggests that there is a slight potential for a strong interaction to determine less satisfaction. The propensity to share a Meralco post is different across varying strength of interaction. Statistical results show that fans with higher interaction with Meralco on Facebook have a strong inclination to share a post from Meralco.

?Liking? the Meralco Facebook fanpage is found to provide functional benefits to customers. The presence of Meralco on Facebook is valued for convenience and accessibility; and further considered a viable channel to build and grow existing customer relationshi

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Probing IFRS Prescription: The Effect of Fair Value Accounting on Firms' Equity

Alloysius Joshua Paril / Read Full Journal

Keywords:

fair value; Tobin's q; IFRS;

Abstract

The prescription of the IFRS to use fair value in an entity's financial statements has a number of benefits and disadvantages to it. Although the effect of using fair value in a number of accounts in the financial statements is already presumed to be done by a number of companies, it is of a particular need to see and study if the recommendation of the IFRS to use fair values in certain accounts will have an effect on the entity's financial statements, especially when in a number of cases, the use of fair value is only a choice by an entity and not necessarily a recommendation or requirement of the standards.

This study discusses the effect of fair value on an entity's shareholders' equity, particularly in Philippine publicly-listed firms. By investigating the operationalized Tobin's q five years before and five years after the IFRS were adopted by the country, evidence is provided that fair value, specifically Level 1 fair value, may not have an effect on the financial statements of these companies. This study challenges the assumption of many studies that IFRS has an effect on the financial statements of an entity. The results of this study found no evidence that fair value accounting is evident on the financial statements of the companies being studied.

The findings would be of use to see the particular effect of the IFRS on the stock market, and also provide insights to equity investors on improving their insights and valuation of the company they are investing in.