International Journal of Business and Economic Development

          Papua New Guinea (PNG), a resource rich country, despite many years of positive GDP growth and development efforts, is ranked 157 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index.  Over 80% of the population live in rural areas and have seen very little improvement in living standards since independence in 1975.  This paper proposes an alternative, to the usual ‘top down’ approach, to rural development in PNG, one that engages villagers in improving their own wellbeing, with faith-based organisations and non-governmental organisations as partners in development. The performance of indicators of wellbeing, such as health, access to water and sanitation, education and income generation, between 2000 and 2015, is first reviewed, at national, regional, and village levels, to highlight the rural – urban disparity in access to services. A ‘bottom-up’ approach to raising rural wellbeing, by creating social value, with private sector involvement, in remote villages and engaging in social entrepreneurship is then outlined. Seed funding would be necessary for this approach to be applied successfully.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24052/IJBED/V06NU02/ART-01

          The study examined the effects of retained earnings on market value of listed firms after controlling for earnings per share, dividend pay-out and financial leverage in the context of the Nigerian stock market. The sample data was extracted from 75 non-financial firms listed on the Nigeria stock Market during the period 2003 to 2014. The unbalanced panel data (cross-sectional and time series) used to examine the relationship was obtained from the annual financial statements of the various firms. Two basic approaches descriptive and multiple regression models were used to determine the relationship between the underlying variables. The results indicated a positive and significant relationship between retained earnings, earnings per share, dividend pay-out and value of firms while market value is positively but non-significant associated with financial leverage. The study reduces the dearth of previous research on dividend policy in emerging markets regarding the empirical relationship between retained earnings and market value of firms.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24052/IJBED/V06NU02/ART-02

          “One Belt – One Road” – the Chinese initiative to create the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) was first announced by the Chairman of the People Republic of China Xi Jinping during his official visit to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013.
           The main goal of “One Belt – One Road” initiative lies in the exploration, formation, and promotion of a new model for international cooperation and development through strengthening of current regional bilateral and multilateral mechanism and structures of collaboration with the participation of China based on maintenance and development of the spirit Ancient Silk Road.
           Central Asia for many centuries was a dynamic center linking regional and international communities via the historic Silk Road. Nowadays Central Asia is tremendously important for China for several reasons. Firstly, Central Asia is the gate for China to the West. All land routes which going from China to Europe or South Asia passing through Central Asian countries. Secondly, three of Central Asian countries share a border with China. There are traditional -cultural links between peoples on both sides of the border. Lastly, Central Asian countries are rich in natural resources especially in hydrocarbon reserves which is more important for the lifeline of the Chinese economy. Connectivity and trade with Central Asia are considered necessary for development and stability of Chinese foreign policy.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24052/IJBED/V06NU02/ART-03

          Healthcare in Nigeria is paid for on a cash and carry basis while out-of-pocket expenses dominate in households’ payment for health care services as a result of user charges that were introduced in the early 1980s. This coupled with the persistent poverty level in Nigeria raises the question of consumers’ ability and willingness to pay these user charges. Accordingly, using primary data, this study examined the possible effect of these user charges on the demand for Public Health Care Services in Nigeria, especially how it affects the poor and low-income earners. The analysis showed that increasing user fees substantially reduced the use of government health facility especially by the poor and the low-income earners. Also, the poor are more likely to trade-off their utilization of public sector health care services for self-treatment or traditional healers, thus significantly lowering their utilization of any modern medical care. Thus, it was recommended, among others, that government should introduce price discrimination into user fees, to be set at marginal cost. This would help avoid the adverse distribution effects of user-fees, especially, on the lower income group.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24052/IJBED/V06NU02/ART-04

          Over the years it has become fashionable to argue that a vibrant bond market would be vastly superior to the present bank-led model of debt finance for industries and businesses in emerging economies. While it works well in most developed economies, in countries like India, despite all efforts of the central bank and the financial markets regulators or regulatory authorities, business firms still depend largely on the banking system for their debt capital funds. This study is an attempt to enquire into whether it is the measurable parameters such as cost of funds or the buoyancy in the economy that affects the firms’ decisions or not. If not, it would follow that other qualitative or behavioral (or non-measurable) factors may be responsible for the lack of firms’ appetite for issuing bonds.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24052/IJBED/V06NU02/ART-05

          Firms’ strategic flexibility and agility in internationalization (INT) is influenced by context.  However, there are few studies concerning INT conducted in and about emerging economies (EEs).  There exists a dearth of literature on INT connected to strategic management (SM).  Such gaps motivate this research to alleviate needs to further explore entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of owners and managers, their motives for foreign market entry, and effects of the innovation (IVN) and networking (NWG) with firms’ INT.  It incorporates how strategic project management (SPM) flexibility can enable firms in EEs to be more agile in EO, influencing how they develop INT activities of exporting (EXP) and sales-subsidiary establishment (SSE), to minimize hindrances and improve performance.  This is a vital attractive area of research to pursue forthe importance of INT and advantages in and for EEs is increasing, and exploration reveals EO elements and enabling factors enhancing INT outcomes. The qualitative approach reviews literature in EO, INT and SPM, and presents a conceptual model with propositions, complemented by enhanced framework.  Organization learning theory (OLT) perspective is utilized to better understand EO of firms in and from EEs, leading to effective INT outcomes.
          Findings and implications are that coordination assists EO, goal and role clarification, for SPM crucial to synergy, promotes agility, effective SM and outcomes, minimizing difficulties as IVN, NWG and learning (LNG) support drivers and mechanisms improving INT performance (Kodama, 2005; Belassi, Kondra and Tukel, 2007; Tomomitsu, Carvalho and Moraes, 2017).  This paper contributes to theory and practice further developing EO-SPM-INT relationships, and focusing on SPM and IVN interactions, firms can better coordinate for more effective INT.  Researchers and practitioners can benefit from the novel means to improve processes and critical managerial and success factors best integrating SO, SI and results beneficial in EEs’ INT.

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.24052/IJBED/V06NU02/ART-06