Use of Business Continuity Management to Mitigate Operational Risk: The Case of the Al-Thuwairat Construction Company, Saudi Arabia (Published)
Construction companies face a number of operational risks in their projects, ranging from the risks of changing weather conditions, to the problem of insufficiently skilled staff (Cohen & Palmer, 2004). It is essential to ensure that all of these risks are effectively identified and controlled by the risk management division. This dissertation conducts a case study of a construction company in Saudi Arabia, the Al Thuwairat Construction Company, which aims to evaluate the extent to which the company’s model of business continuity management is effective at managing operational risk. The research has been carried out based on a mixture of secondary research, a survey conducted with the company’s employees, and semi structured interviewees with people working in the company’s risk management division, in order to explore this research issue. The findings of the research suggest that, although the company’s operational risk management is effective given that it controls many of the risks with the use of legal contracts, it engages in the systematic identification of risks at the beginning of projects, and it also uses the expertise of a range of personnel who are skilled in risk identification and measurement, there are also many weaknesses. These include the fact that there is no systematic methodology for assessing the effectiveness of risk management, and that there is a lack of communication between the risk management division and the rest of the organization. A series of practical recommendations are made in the dissertation to increase the effectiveness of risk management within this company and in companies in the construction industry in general.
Keywords: Al-Thuwairat, Business, Continuity .Management, Risk
FACTORS DETERMINING FIRMS’ STRATEGY OF INTERNATIONALIZATION: A CASE STUDY ON POLAND (Published)
The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of an internationalization strategy and its impact on success and business performance. To achieve this objective, data were collected through surveys using a structured questionnaire administered to 385 Polish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are involved in launching and developing their products in international markets. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modeling technique was used to test the research model. The results of the study confirm that internationalization strategies of Polish SMEs are influenced by six factors that are: managerial expertise, dynamic capabilities, risk aversion, alliance capabilities, foreign market orientation and markets knowledge
Keywords: Alliance, Business, Internationalization, Management, Performance, Risk, Strategy, Success
The effect of Risk and Stock Market Volatility on stock return: a study of listed Pharmaceutical Companies in Pakistan (KSE). (Review Completed - Accepted)
This study explores the relationship between risk and return; the quantitative analysis has been carried out on all the Pharmaceutical companies listed on KSE. The research has been conducted on the basis of secondary data. The daily data has been used for analysis of last 10 years. Dependent variable is return, independent variables are market volatility which is measured by beta and the other is risk which is measured by Standard deviation. More than one thousand observations have been taken and analyzed. Results show that there is positive relationship between return and market volatility which means when volatility is higher than the return will also be higher. When Market risk premium is positive then company’s stock return will also be positive and when market risk premium is negative then return of company’s stock will also be lower. Results also show that there is positive relationship between risk and excess return
Keywords: Market Volatility, Pharmaceutical Companies (KSE), Risk, Stock Return
A Comparative Study on Performance Evaluation of Pakistani Mutual Funds (Published)
This paper evaluate and compare the performance of different categories of Pakistani mutual funds, during seven year from 2004 to 2011.Mutual funds’ performance were analyzed using various evaluation techniques; Sharpe, Treyno, Jensen’s alpha, Sortino, Information/Appraisal ratio, Fama overall performance and performance attribution analysis. The findings suggest that performance of the mutual funds measured with first five methods, does not satisfy investors’ expectations based on the risk and return, mutual funds significantly under-perform the market. Those mutual funds analyzed with the last two methods, are not offering complete diversification thus managers fell short of matching expectations consistent with the actual risk level of portfolio, they have also not made active decision involving both in allocation of assets and in selection of individual security. This study facilitates the managers and investors in taking effective investment decisions by measuring the performance of funds they can allocate resources more efficiently in future.
Keywords: Investor, Mutual funds, Pakistan, Performance, Return, Risk