Cash plays essential role in modern business and economy and it is the life blood of all businesses. Therefore, cash management is the art of managing a company’s short-term resources for its ongoing activities, mobilizing funds and optimizing liquidity. Inefficient cash management may lead the company to bankruptcy. In this paper, we highlight different perspectives in which we can control the corporate cash including Cash Conversion Cycle, Cash Holding and Creditworthiness. The term Cash Conversion Cycle can be considered as a length of time between purchase of raw-materials and collection of cash from debtors. Cash holding is one of the most important financial decisions that the manager of the concerned organization has to make for the organizations. In this paper, we try to interlink among different items to control cash so that bankruptcy could be prevented and profitability would be improved by investigating on five companies from Consumer Durable sector.

The aim of this paper is to study the dynamics of the real exchange rate deviations of G7 countries by capturing nonlinearity and long memory features. In this context, we used fractionally integrated STAR (FISTAR) models proposed by Van Dijk et al. (2002) [Van Dijk, D., Franses, P.H., Paap, R., (2002), A nonlinear long-memory model with an application to US unemployment, Journal of Econometrics, 110, 135-165.] for a case with an exponential transition function. Indeed, this study can take into account procedures characterized by several dynamic regimes and persistence phenomena. Empirically, the elements of both fractional long memory and threshold non-linearity are present for the real exchange rates of the G-7 countries against the US, notably in the EU countries.

Data mining is the technique to find hidden patterns from a very large volume of historical data. Association rule is a type of data mining that correlates one set of items or events with another set of items or events. Another data mining strategy is clustering technique. This technique is used to create partitions so that all members of each set are similar according to a specified set of metrics. Both the association rule mining and clustering helps in more effective individual and group decision making for optimal inventory control. Owing to the above facts, association rules are mined from each cluster to find frequent items and then loss profit is calculated for each frequent item. Initially, the clustering algorithm is used to partition the transactional database into different clusters. Apriori, a classic data mining algorithm is utilized for mining association rules from each cluster to find frequent items. Later the loss profit is calculated for each frequent item. The obtained loss profit is used to rank frequent items in each cluster. Thus, the ranking of frequent items in each cluster using the proposed approach greatly facilitate optimal inventory control. An example is illustrated to validate the results.

The Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME) model explains mobile learning features as a process in terms of mobile technologies, human learning capacities, and social interaction. It describes various issues of information overload, knowledge navigation, and cooperation in learning. The framework gives insight for development of future mobile devices as well as learning materials, and an appropriate design of learning and teaching strategies for the purpose of mobile education. The proposed study of this paper implements the FRAME model in Iranian banking industry. The study has been implemented among a sample of 160 regular employees who worked for Bank Maskan in province of Alborz, Iran. To validate the questionnaire, we use content validity ratio (CVR) and verify the questionnaire using Cronbach alphas. Using t-student test, the study has determined that the firm was ready to adopt mobile learning in terms of device, social and learner aspects. In our survey, learner aspect was number one priority followed by device and social aspects.

Exchange rates always affect the prices of the imports and export of products and services in which countries are trading with other parts of the world. Therefore, exchange rate calculation is one of the essential issues for making appropriate policies. This research investigates the determinants of trade, i.e. import, export, industrial growth, consumption level and oil prices fluctuation, which bring changes in exchange rate and their influence eventually on balance of payments. Data of defined variables was collected on yearly basis for China and USA for thirty one years. By applying cointegration, it is estimated that there existed a long run relationship in both countries. USA and China had significant and correct signs on the short run dynamic and some of the factors did not. Exchange rate did not granger cause balance of payment and balance of payment did not granger cause exchange rate. In conclusion, we found that determinants of balance of trade could affect the exchange rates, also, these rates had considerable effect (positive or negative) on balance of payments. In this twofold study, we found relationship of exchange rate with selected determinants of trade, and also examined their bilateral effect, and then made contrast of both countries.

Population growth and rapid urbanization growth in recent decades have not only led to unbalanced physical expansion of cities, but also contributed to growth and development of cities. The city of Sari in Iran, like many other cities is not immune from these changes. The city population has increased by 16 times over the last fifty years. Therefore, the increasing population growth has created uncontrolled physical expansion in the city. In order to prevent these inefficiencies of urban problems, the present study was accomplished to determine the factors influencing the process of expanding the city of Sari and to find out some solutions to fix and prevent this process. The method used in this study, descriptive–analytical method, to data analysis and Heldern and Shannon entropy model were used. The results show that: 82% of the physical growth of the city during the period 1977-2005 was related to the population growth and the remaining 18 percent, was associated with the horizontal growth. The city sprawl, the metropolitan area of the city had denser structure and the surrounding areas had a more dispersed structure. Also the effects of synthetic and natural factors restricting the city of Sari physical development made the city exorbitance horizontal and linearly developed. According to the findings that could help prevent the horizontal development of the city, it could be said that we could make the city vertically developed rather than horizontal expansion, improvement and renovation of old texture of implementation and more use of the land, filling the empty spaces.

This research aims to study factors influencing the adoption of internet shopping by Iranian consumers by integrating task technology fit (TTF) model and the unified theory of acceptance and usage of technology (UTAUT). The statistical population includes consumers in capital city of Iran, Tehran, who have had at least one experience of internet shopping. The data were collected through questionnaire. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed and 392 usable questionnaires were returned. SPSS statistical software was used for data analysis .The results show that except for effort expectation, there was a significant and positive relationship between other variables (task technology fit, performance expectation, social impact and facilitating conditions) and internet shopping. In addition, the findings also indicated a significant effect of task features and technology features on task technology fit.

Herbal Products industry has experienced significant growth in product demand. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors effecting the actual buying of Herbal Product. This study also examines the moderation effect of perceived risk on the relationship between product safety and intention. Mall intercept survey was used to collect data from six various states in Malaysia. The data is analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling. The path coefficient results supported the direct influence of intention on actual buying. Similarly, the findings reveal that perceived risk moderate the relationship between product safety and buying intention.

This paper analyzes the factors of FDI inflows in ASEAN countries over the period 1991 to 2009. The results indicate that the market size, trade openness, quality infrastructure, human capital, labor productivity are the main factors that have positive impacts on FDI inflows. Additionally, exchange rate policy, real interest rate, political risk and corruption also affect FDI inflows. Surprisingly, the cheap labor does not help to attract FDI to the region, because foreign investors are particularly interested in labor productivity. This study also shows that the Asian financial crisis in 1997 affected the amount of FDI inflows, but not on the nature of FDI inflows in the region.

This paper examines the association between voluntary disclosure, earnings announcement lag and the cost of debt in Hong Kong. The research sample consists of 20 listed companies in the Hong Kong Stock exchange over the period spanning from 2008 to 2011. A disclosure checklist is used to measure the extent of voluntary disclosure in companies ‘annual reports. Earnings announcement lag is proxied by the difference between the end of fiscal year and the publication date of financial statements. Results of this study confirm that voluntary disclosure and earnings announcements lag reduce the cost of debt in Hong Kong. These findings suggest that voluntary disclosures play an essential role in reducing cost of debt in Hong Kong context, and managers tend to disclose in early manner to reduce the information asymmetry between their firm and creditors. These findings may have policy implications for managers since they demonstrate that the extent of voluntary and timely disclosures affect the cost of debt.