MAKE MOST OF THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK, JOIN ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Risk management and financial performances in organizations had been of mounting importance when it comes to the research arena during the past few decades and still heavily discussed globally nowadays. The tendency is to take an allrisk encompassing overview of risk management instead of considering risk management from a narrowbased overview. This allrisk encompassing approach to risk management is usually mentioned as Corporate Risk Management. A noticeable dearth of research is there in the studies that have been done on the relationship between corporate risk management and financial performance in organizations. There are so many shreds of evidence for the statement that organizations will enhance their performance by using the corporate risk management concept. The main objective instigated during this study is that the proper match between corporate risk management and, therefore, the firm factors: namely, industry competition, firm size, firm complexity, and monitoring by the board of directors and the relationship among corporate risk management and firm performance. This study identifies the impact of corporate risk management on financial performances of Banks, Diversified Financials, Insurance, Energy, and Retailing sectors in the Colombo Stock Exchange, which include 86 companies, were considered as the population and supported a sample of 60 firms. The research began with a search for companies that indicated they were utilizing the corporate risk management concept in their annual reports covering their fiscal year 2018. The findings indicate that firms should consider the implementation of a corporate risk management system following structural variables affecting the firm. These findings will be interesting to the policymakers, future researchers, and any third party who are keen on corporate risk and financial performance of Banks, Diversified Financials, Insurance, Energy, and Retailing sectors in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: contingency theory, corporate risk management index, firm performance, Management control systems, Sri Lanka

Widespread corporate scandals and the collapse of major corporations due to failure by executives to adhere to good corporate governance practices have resulted in issues of corporate governance becoming the centre of attention in organisations across the globe. This study sought to evaluate the extent of corporate governance practices in farmer companies of the Lower Usuthu Irrigation Smallholder Project (LUSIP) in Eswatini. The study was prompted by the often perceived corporate governance struggles in farmer companies which ultimately have adverse effects on their operations. The extent to which the farmer companies are trying to implement good corporate governance practices is not known. A descriptive survey design based on a quantitative approach was employed for the study. This was a census study in which questionnaires were distributed to 65 farmer companies in the LUSIP phase one around the Siphofaneni area. A corporate governance index was constructed to compare corporate governance practices with recommended or best practices. The study found that most of the corporate governance attributes evaluated were well implemented though managers and directors lack sufficient education and experience required for proper management of the companies. The study concluded that generally, recommended or best practices were well employed in farmer companies. However, their corporate governance problems seem to lie in the lack of enforcement of practices written down on paper. Recommendations made include development of a corporate governance code for farmer companies of SMEs in general.

JEL G34

Keywords: Corporate governance, farmer companies, index, Eswatini, shareholding

The study was conducted to examine the impact of One-Stop-Shop Investment Centre in facilitating foreign direct investment inflow into Nigeria using descriptive analysis, trend analysis and other econometrics tests such as ADF unit root test, Johansen cointegration, Vector Error Correction and Pairwsise Granger Causality test. The result shows positive relationship between D1 representing the impact of OSIC in facilitating FDI and FDI inflow into Nigeria within the period of study. The results shows precisely that any efficient and effective operations of OSIC would result to 2.2% increase in the inflow of FDI in Nigeria. This result was also statistically significant at 1% level. The causality test showed unidirectional causality between DI and FDI in Nigeria during the period of analysis. This implies that DI representing the OSIC has significantly facilitated the inflow of FDI into Nigeria. The result was statistically significant at 1% level. The government is urged to strengthen and expand the capacity of OSIC via expansion in budgetary provision and employment of additional hands so as to improve on the little progress made so far in facilitating the inflow of FDI in Nigeria and finally, the government should as a matter of priority tackle once and for all the lingering security challenges prevalent in Nigeria be it Boko Haram, bandits, and insurgents. Security of lives and property remains critical to the continued inflow of FDI into Nigeria.

Keyword: Impact, One Stop Shop Centre, FDI, Inflow, Nigeria

JEL Classification Code: C5, C58 & D53

Investments in art, a category of alternative investments, are invariably of great interest to investors, and the value of the art market is growing every year. However, there are a number of barriers limiting the development of this market. The emergence of a new investment model “ tokenization of works of art is a chance for their partial overcoming. The existence of the model is possible due to the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts for the process of issuing digital tokens. The digital token confirms ownership of the fractional part of the work of art that can be traded on the cryptocurrency market. This translates into the prospect of wider access of potential investors to this type of assets and significantly increases the investment liquidity. The purpose of the article is to identify and evaluate a new investment model on the art market  tokenization of works of art. The article is an attempt to answer the questions: (i) what benefits result from the use of the new investment model for art market participants, (ii) what conditions must be met for the model to become an available form of investing capital.

JEL: G15, G20, O16.

Keywords: blockchain, tokenization, works of art, alternative investments, digital tokens.

The word being global was meant a whole lot till now to a large extent until the outbreak of COVID-19. Although deglobalizationconcept was heaped on geopolitical reasons with the Trump government but COVID-19 has triggered the process. COVID-19 has affected the economic growth of thousands of firms who rely on doing their business cross borders. It brought turbulence to all those firms whose operations are scattered over various countries. Effects on global economy, disturbed geopolitical relations and global supply chain messed up were some of the eruptions that came along with the pandemic. The present paper brings an insight into how the disease COVID19 has provoked the process of deglobalization and revived the nationalization issue all over the world. The study presents an overview of the effect of COVID19 on geopolitical relations, nationalization of human resources and global demand and supply chains. It is concluded that until the pandemic recedes, the global businesses are to suffer from tribulations. The study also sheds light on some of the innovations that came into existence because of the pandemic.

Keywords: De globalization, COVID19, globalization, nationalization, turbulence, provoked

Finally, to investigate the relationship between agriculture and manufacturing production output, to allow policymakers to understand the linkage that allows the direction of investment and policy implementation, where consequences from the research indicate a bidirectional relationship between agriculture and production enterprise output, which suggests back and forward linkages inside the enteroutput interface. This way linkage implies that authorities’ funding in the agricultural sector similarly boosts manufacturing output and vice versa. Increasing output from the producing industry will invariably reason a boom in agricultural productiveness. Where, a bidirectional definite relationship between agriculture and manufacturing industry output is a concern to the condition that different explanatory variables are held steady. To repair stability in the longrun behavior of explanatory variables, there’s a want for macroeconomic stability. With strategic investment and aid to the manufacturing sector, the essential inputs to enhance agriculture could be acquired at minimum cost, and agricultural productiveness growing to offer essential enter for manufacturing industry output. In the same vein, there is a need for authorities’ coverage to encourage agriculture extension services, to teach rural farmers the advantages of taking part with business farmers and local financial institutions for the acquisition of farming equipment, tools, and seedlings to improve productiveness. Having obtained these tools, strategies, and points of perspectives that operate as methodological frameworks for the analysis of agriculture growth, and with a better knowledge of the multidimensional elements of the idea, the aim of this research is to compare three methods to trace performance in agriculture growth via value chains: Agriculture growth assessment (AGA), environmental agriculture growth assessment (EAGA) and environmentally extended inputoutputagriculture growth analysis (EEIOAGA).

Keywords: Agriculture growth assessment (AGA), environmental agriculture growth assessment (EAGA), and environmentally extended inputoutput agriculture growth analysis (EEIOAGA) as a value chain.