The purpose of this study is to examine the role of knowledge management practices in enhancing performance of universities, specifically in the context of Pakistan. A convenient sample of 450 employees from the universities all over the Pakistan was taken for the study. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify the elements of knowledge management and linear regression analysis was performed to test the hypotheses presented in the study. This study measures the moderating role of technology in the knowledge management framework. Furthermore, it relied on R & D, employee commitment and industry linkages to construct universities’ performance. The results revealed that knowledge management process and knowledge management infrastructure (HR and culture) are significant predictors of the performance of universities. It was also found that technology moderates the relationship of knowledge management dimensions and universities’ performance. The study highlighted that with proper attention towards knowledge management infrastructure, knowledge management processes and technology, universities can outperform their competitors.

This paper shows that the Taguchi method of optimization can be easily used in optimizing the visual display unit (VDU) parameters for maximizing the readability on the laptop. Researchers use five factors, each at three levels which are font size, font style, line spacing, viewing distance and screen inclination angle with reading time in seconds (for reading about 300 words) as the response variable. Other parameters like text/background color combination (black/white), table height, illumination etc. were kept constant. Experiments were conducted by varying different parameters on the basis of L27 orthogonal array design. Results show that there is a 15.3% decrease in mean reading time when working at optimal condition. Results also show that factor A is the most important factor which is font size followed by factor C (line spacing), factor E (screen inclination angle), factor D (viewing distance) and factor B (the font style) which is the least important factor.

Efficiency plays essential role for improving the performance of banking industry. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to study the effect of efficiency on abnormal return. The proposed study collects the necessary information from official statements as well as historical data over the period 2009-2013 reported on Tehran Stock Exchange to examine the relationship between efficiency and abnormal return. Using regression analysis, the study has determined a meaningful, positive but weak relationship between abnormal return and efficiency. However, the study does not find any meaningful relationship between bank size and abnormal return.

In a brief review of the literature on stocks’ pricing, the study shows that information vis-à-vis noise serves critical roles in the equilibrium process. It is dynamic in nature and there are different infiltrating aspects from the standard finance to behavioral finance points of views. The aspects of market efficiency, fundamental risk, noise traders’ risk, and implementation costs make the stock markets noisy and thereby, limit the arbitrage opportunity of informed traders. Investors’ psychological bases viz., belief and preferences contribute more in the equilibrium process. Beliefs include representativeness, conservativeness, and anchoring, availability biases, optimism and wishful thinking, overconfidence, and herd behavior tendency on the part of the investors. On the preferences, investors are influenced by disposition effect, prospects based on reference points, mental accounting, ambiguity aversion, and self control.The study explores the empirical literature also and reviews the six puzzles in the standard finance. Finally, the work identifies a few research gaps to be addressed in the literature.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to measure the effect of managerial ability on earning quality on selected firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2007-2013. The proposed study uses data envelopment analysis to measure the relative efficiency of selected firms where Sales is considered as output and Cost of goods (COGS), Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (SG & A), Net Property Plant and Equipment (PPE), Net operating Leases (OpsLease), Research & Development (R & D), Purchased Good will (Goodwill) and Other intangible assets (OtherIntan) are considered as inputs. Earning quality in this survey consists of three parts of quality of accruals, earnings and earnings forecast persistence. The results of our survey have indicated that managerial ability influences positively on earning quality.

One of the most important factors on attracting foreign investors to invest on Tehran Stock Exchange is to have transparent accounting rules and regulations. When there are some consistency between national accounting standards and international accounting standards, we may, at least, expect foreign investors to have better understanding on financial statements. In 2006, there were some changes on Iranian national accounting standards in an attempt to make them closer to international accounting standards. In this study, we select the information of 153 firms five years before and after this regulation and study the effect of convergence from national accounting standards to international accounting standards on foreign direct investment. Using some statistical tests, the study has determined that there was no meaningful relationship between foreign direct investment before and after change on accounting standards. In addition, there was no difference on the information quality before and after change on accounting standards. However, there was some meaningful relationship between the information quality and foreign direct investment.

The objective of this study was to examine the drivers of consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertisement. It also sought the relationship between consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertisement and their willingness to accept mobile advertising. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the measurement model while structural equation was conducted to assess the goodness-fit of the overall model. The findings indicate that entertainment, credibility and personalization had positive effects on consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising. Furthermore, the results show that, consumers’ attitude determines their willingness to accept mobile advertising.

The present study investigates the effects of participation of managers in budgeting on their management performance in the Tehran regional electricity company. Variables of this study are participation in budgeting, performance of managers, adequacy of funding and resource allocation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational trust. The type of research is survey. The study population consists of all middle level managers of Tehran Regional Electricity Company who according to the approved organizational chart were 34 in 2012. The research tool is a questionnaire. Analysis of data collected is accomplished by using the SPSS and smartPLS. The results show a significant correlation between the variables of managers & apos; participation in budgeting and organizational trust, adequacy of funding and resource allocation and job satisfaction, organizational trust of managers on organizational commitment, organizational commitment and competence in the absorption of funding and optimal resource allocation and finally the competence in funding and optimal resource allocation of managers as well as job satisfaction and management performance.

This paper presents an empirical investigation on implementation of activity based cost (ABC) method in hotel industry. The study determines four possible factors of organizational, environmental, individual and technological, which could influence on ABC implementation. The study selects a sample of 205 employees who worked for Laleh International Hotel in Iran. Using one-way t-student test, the study has determined that all variables were effective on ABC implementation while individual factor was the most important one. In addition, correlation test has determined that all variables had meaningful correlations with each other. Further investigation indicates that gender did not play essential role for ABC implementation while experienced employee tended to be more effective for the success of ABC implementation.

Deep learning facilitates development of generic skills pertinent to prepare graduates for employment. Accounting education with syllabuses burdened with accounting standards to be memorized and regurgitated in examinations does little to promote deep learning. This study conducted a questionnaire survey to examine the extent to which accounting undergraduates at a public university in Malaysia adopt deep learning. This study demonstrates that deep learning is not readily attainable. Surface learning, which promotes rote memorization, constitutes a stepping stone towards deep learning. Having a preference or thirst for meanings is also pertinent to motivate undergraduates to move from rote memorization to seek meanings and thus deep learning. Female undergraduates have been found to be more inclined to adopt deep learning. Much is still to be learned on how best to promote deep learning as learning is a life-long process where everyday life experiences, both on and off-campus, facilitate learning and development.