Dhaka University Journal of Business Studies

Editor's Note

Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam

----

Review of Best-Worst Scaling Method: A New Method over other Scales in Marketing Research

Shehely Parvin

The traditional approach is to quantify key factors in marketing research through
the use of universal rating scales. However, the use of rating scales does not always lead to
good findings because of various response style biases such as social desirability bias,
acquiescence bias, and extreme response bias. The Best-Worst scaling approach may be a
method to overcome these problems by asking respondents to make trade-offs among the
variables being assessed. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the theoretical and
statistical underpinnings of BWS and a step-by-step managerially usable method which
requires not much of training, statistical skills, or special software. The paper also reviews
on the limitation of this technique and applications of the approach.

A Structural Equations Model on Mobile Banking Factors Influencing Socio-economic Development in Bangladesh

Md. Jahir Uddin Palas

Mobile banking has now become the most effective tool of financial inclusion
worldwide as it offers a significant impact over the social and economic development of its
users. Within a very short span of time, mobile banking depicted a tremendous growth in
Bangladesh. This innovative payment mechanism has been adopted by users from every walk
of life. This study analyzes the impact of some selected qualitative variables i.e. knowledge,
usage and experience relating to mobile banking, on the customers’ socio-economic
development. The mediating effects of ICT literacy and attitude towards technology adoption
were also analyzed. The data were collected through self-reported questionnaires from 357
sample respondents. The study findings conclude that almost all of the specified qualitative
variables of mobile banking have direct effects on a customer’s socio-economic development
and mediating variables have some effects on such direct relationships.

Employee Performance Appraisal System: A Study on Square Pharmaceuticals Limited

Sabnam Jahan

Performance appraisal system is one the most vital functions of human resource
management (HRM). Modern organizations can survive in the competitive environment of
today, only if they can make the best use of their human capital as their most important asset.
Performance appraisal is considered as one of the important tasks of a HR manager due to
its implications for the identification of employee capacity as well as taking appropriate
reward decision. This paper aims at identifying the acceptance level of performance
appraisals practices used in Square Pharmaceuticals Limited (SPL) among the employees. A
well-structured questionnaire was used to collect the primary data. Basic statistical tools
were used to analyze the data. The study has found that the majority of the employees are
satisfied with the organization’s existing performance appraisal practices. But they
demanded for a more systematic and informative performance appraisal system.

Performance Analysis of Financial Soundness and Determinants of Profitability of Pharmaceutical Industry in Bangladesh

Mrs. Jannatunnesa

The pharmaceutical industry, registering an amazing double-digit growth rate in
sales over the last decade, has emerged as one of the largest sectors in the economy of
Bangladesh. The financial performance of this sector is, in recent times, receiving much
attention among the stakeholders. This research, attempted to analyze the financial
consistency of pharmaceutical companies and evaluate the profitability determinants of this
sector. In this effort, the study aimed at measuring the financial soundness of pharmaceutical
industry by using Altman's Z-score model. It also examined the determinants of profitability
of the industry by testing a number of hypotheses using statistical techniques. Based on the
outcomes, the study explained the industry's contribution and recommended policies for the
stakeholders. Finally, the study concluded with discussing the possible avenues for further
research in this sector.

The Usage Pattern of Mobile Phone among University Students: A Study on Dhaka City

Mouri Mehtaj

The mobile phone is an intrinsic part of civilized society. This study investigates the
usage pattern of mobile phone among university students of Dhaka City. Four indicators
were used to examine the students' behavior towards mobile phone. These are: total daily
usage of mobile phone, daily usage for personal communication, daily usage for academic
purpose and daily usage for recreational activities. Data were collected by self-report
questionnaire from 328 participants and analyzed by SPSS 16. This study attempted to
unearth the attitude of the university students toward mobile phone use in a developing
country like Bangladesh. The findings indicate that female students are frequent users of
mobile phone in terms of personal communication and daily usage compare to male students.
But in academic and recreational activities, both genders showed less interest in using their
mobile phones.

Relationship between Real GDP and Labour & Capital by Applying the Cobb-Douglas Production Function: A Comparative Analysis among Selected Asian Countries

Tahmina Khatun, Sadia Afroze

The paper makes an attempt to explore the relationship between real
GDP (the dependent variable) and labour and capital (the independent variables)
in case of Bangladesh, India, China, Malaysia and Thailand using the Cobb-
Douglas production function and to make a comparison among Bangladesh and the
selected countries. The study uses a time-series data covering the period of 1990-
2014. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) is used to estimate the model. To test for
autocorrelation, Newey-West test has been applied to obtain reliable parameter
estimates. The results show that there is a strong positive and significant
relationship between labour and capital and real GDP in case of all countries
selected. The value of R2 ranges between 0.930 to 0.988, indicating that most of the
variations in real GDP in all these countries are explained by labour and capital
alone. The results are statistically significant at 1% and 5% level of significance.
The study also shows that there are increasing returns to scale in the production
process in case of all the selected countries. It has been found that a 100% increase
in labour will increase real GDP by 301% and a 100% increase in capital will
increase real GDP by 40%. The contribution of both labour and capital is the
highest in case of China followed by Bangladesh. The contribution of capital is
lowest in case of Thailand (10%) and Malaysia (15%) because they both
emphasized investing in human capital by giving importance to education, health
and training of their labour force. The study concludes that investing in the huge
labour force especially the female labour force in case of Bangladesh and India and
proper use of capital by trained labour and management are essential to sustain the
increasing growth process in these countries.

Indicators Influencing the Consumer Preferences in Buying from Street Vendors: A Study on Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Prosanjit Saha, Biplab Roy

Existence of the street vendors in a developing country is a common phenomenon
and in recent years the activities of street vendors and their contribution through the informal
economy have become a contemporary issue. The study area, Cox’s Bazar, is considered as
the tourist capital of Bangladesh and street vendors play on that opportunity grabbing
massive attention of the consumers or more precisely tourists. Most of the street vendors in
Cox’s Bazar are seen alongside the edge of different important points of sea beaches. This
paper aims at stipulating the factors that motivate consumers buying from street vendors. A
structured questionnaire using likert scale was used to survey around 200 respondents and
through the factor analysis 6 important factors were identified. The study reveals that the
consumers prefer to buy the souvenir items to keep a memento from a destination, the value
for money, the diversity of products, showmanship of the vendors, nature of the products and
the flexibility in purchasing when buying from the vendors in Cox’s Bazar. Based on the
findings, the street vendors can construct a strong competitive advantage and a high level of
consumer satisfaction that can eventually improve their (vendors) wellbeing and the
economy as a whole.

Economic Reasons behind Adulteration Issues in Fish Supply Chain in Bangladesh

Fatema-Tuz- Zohra, Md. Moslah Uddin

Food safety is one of the main concerns in any food supply chain. Since the last
decade adulteration has become widespread in fish supply chain in Bangladesh. Use of
formalin, toxic industrial dye and use of animal waste have been identified in several
government inspections. The study reviewed relevant literature in order to summarize the
knowledge of previous research regarding this issue. A suitable methodology was developed
and justified in order to collect qualitative data through the interviews of relevant sector
experts, fish traders and fish farmers. Through the results from the analysis of qualitative
data, a problem tree analysis was conducted in order to identify the underlying reasons
behind the food adulteration issue in fish supply chain in southern region of Bangladesh. The
study found that the main three factors behind the adulteration issue are high post harvest
loss, lack of government monitoring, and high profit motives.

Developing a Comprehensive Balanced Scorecard for the Banking Sector in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study

Md. Babar, Mahmuda Akter

This study is aimed to develop a comprehensive set of performance measurement
variables or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from Balanced Scorecard (BSC) perspective
serving as a benchmark or basis for performance measurement and management system in
the banking industry in Bangladesh. The study also analyzed the perspective of the Balanced
Scorecard (BSC) that has significant impact on the performance of banks. Here, stratified
random sampling technique has been used to select the 26 banks as the samples of the study.
The respondents of this study are the top managers and responsible senior officers of each
sample bank. Data have been collected through self-administered questionnaires. A fivepoint
Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always) has been used to assess the extent to
which a bank uses the performance measurement variables. From the factor analysis, fifteen
factors are extracted explaining a total of 73.84% of the total variance. The regression
analysis reveals that the performance of banks is significantly and positively associated with
the learning and growth measures usage of Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Finally, the
researchers believe that the contribution of this study is very much relevant, significant and
pragmatic for the banking sector in Bangladesh.

An Overview of the Capital Budgeting Techniques Practiced by the Companies of Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited

Mohammad Rezaul Islam, Asma Akter Shelly

This study explores the capital budgeting techniques used by Bangladeshi
companies in evaluating capital investment projects. For this study data were collected from
the listed companies of Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited (DSE). The findings of the study
reveal that the Net Present Value (NPV) is most preferred technique for evaluating
investment projects in terms of profitability while sensitivity analysis is used as a technique
for assessing risk of the project. It is also documented that managers generally use more than
one technique for evaluating investment projects. However, they emphasize more on the
result of Net Present Value (NPV) to select the right one from the conflicting results. In this
study the return on investment (ROI) and net profit margin are also observed as the other
determinants of evaluating capital investment projects.

Assessing the Relationship among Emotional Intelligence, Creativity and Empowering Leadership: An Empirical Study

Swadip Bhattacharjee, Md. Sahidur Rahman

The study is conducted to unveil the relationship among emotional intelligence of
supervisors, creativity, and empowering leadership competencies perceived by the
subordinates. Emotional intelligence was measured by the Emotional Quotient Index (Rahim
et al., 2002) while creativity was measured by the Creativity Scale (Zhou & George, 2001).
Additionally, empowering leadership was measured by Ahearne, Mathieu, and Rapps’ (2005)
scale. The data for the study were collected from 142 subordinates (who rated their
supervisors’ emotional intelligence, creativity, and empowering leadership capability)
working at different organizations in Chittagong with the help of a structured printed survey
instrument. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate
correlation, and regression analysis. The results demonstrated a positive correlation between
emotional intelligence and creativity (r=0.73). Strong relationship was also found between
emotional intelligence and empowering leadership (r=0.75). An important implication of the
study is that modern organizations should focus on improving emotional intelligence
competencies of those managers who feel encouraged to transfer responsibilities and to
support employees to be creative. The limitations and further research directions are also
discussed.

Measuring the Differences in Cost of Production: A Study on Boro Rice Farming in Bangladesh

Shaikh Moksadur Rahman, Syeedul Al-Amin

Rice farming is a critical issue in sustainable agriculture development in
Bangladesh. It is well recognized that production cost has been a major constraint in the
profitable farming practices by all types of farmers. The paper reports on an empirical study
of the rice farmers’ production phenomenon emphasizing on cost based on farm operation.
The data stem from a survey of 95 farmers in Jessore District, Bangladesh. To investigate the
significant difference of the inputs quantity, their prices and amount spent for necessary
production elements, one-way ANOVA method was adopted. The results indicate that the
nature of inputs and quantity of them are almost same for all types of farmers but the cost of
production is gradually significantly lower for the large category of farmers because farming
practices depend on the socio-economic status and purchasing nature of inputs used for
cultivation. The small farmers usually use either borrowed money for cultivation or credit for
purchasing inputs which leads to increase the cost of production while large farmers deploy
their own funds and mainly purchase the inputs by cash which lead to reduction in the cost of
production. It argues that for reducing the cost of production increased attention by both the
government and non-government organizations are necessary.