European Academic Journal

Blockchain for the supply chain

2022-10-13T07:18:24+00:00

The aim of this paper is to go further into ways as to how blockchain maximise and transform the way the current textile supply chain is operated. This paper chose to focus on the textile industry and fashion brands as it is one of the biggest economic contributor to economical and societal negative externalities. By implementing blockchain, transparency, costs and wages for workers at the start of the supply chain can be improved. It can not only bring awareness to companies as to how their way of sourcing raw material is unsustaible but also enable workers to speak out on the way that they are being treated along the supply chain.

FACTORS AFFECTING MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT DECISIONS MAKING IN KENYA. A CASE STUDY OF CBA CAPITAL IN KENYA

2022-10-13T07:14:59+00:00

The study investigated the factors affecting individual investment decisions in Mutual funds in Kenya. Four factors i.e. Affordability, Information, Prospects, and Herding were used as independent variables while Investment decision was the dependent variable. The study aimed in determining the effect of affordability on investment decisions, assess the effect of information on investment decisions in mutual funds, and evaluate the effect of herding on investment decisions in mutual funds. The study was significant in helping fund managers to observe general views of factors affecting mutual funds and also benefit economic policymakers who seek to boost investment in different sectors. The research design that was used is a descriptive research and the target population was the customers and employees of CBA of mutual funds who are approximately 1000. The sample size was 100 respondents. Data were collected by the use of a questionnaire. Data were analyzed descriptively using SPSS version 23.0. The findings of the study revealed that affordability, information, prospects, and herding behavior influences mutual fund investment decision. The findings of the study also revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between the factors under study (affordability, information, prospects, and herding) and the level of mutual fund investment decision. The study suggests recommendations that prices of cross-listed stocks need to be affordable so as to allow investors to trade on them. Information on the industrial performance of mutual funds as well as information on dividends per share needs to be clear and available so that investors can make an informed decision while doing their investments.

THE EFFECTS OF INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEMS ON THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF THIRD TIER LICENCED COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA

2022-09-23T02:56:40+00:00

The review concerned with the internal control system of third-tier banks has responsibility for all the employees who use the internal control system to search for mistakes so as to protect the asset and detect errors and fraud. The overall economic profile of the internal audit function is highly significant, especially in recent years, and some of these factors are involved, what is professional and some are academic. With the growing use of information technology, Third tier banks have worked to take advantage of data processing electrically, so that information technology has become part of the bank’s environment and if any information technology continues to affect the operations of different banks and process their data, internal control systems must keep pace with these developments. Third Tier banks contain a set of policies and procedures that are designed to provide management with adequate assurance of the goals to envisage essentials for the bank system. The internal control is carried out by management to determine the efficiency of the internal control, and to determine the possibility of modifying it. The results of the regression model show that there is a positive relationship between internal controls and the financial performance of tier three commercial banks. Holding other factors constant, financial performance is measured by the efficiency and effective implementation of internal controls. The study recommended that: Control environment has a positive significant relationship with financial performance and the tier three commercial banks should therefore ensure a suitable environment to secure their operational activities.

Addressing Critical Funding Needs of Private Tertiary Education Institutions and Students in Kenya

2023-08-13T14:46:13+00:00

This thesis contributes to the research in innovative finance in the education sector by assessing the critical funding needs of private tertiary education institutions and students in Kenya and proposing potential investment structures to address these challenges. The study utilizes a qualitative research approach, including structured interviews, document analysis, and thematic analysis to gain insights into the challenges faced by private tertiary institutions, students, and financial institutions.

The proposed innovative financing facility leverages blended finance and a collective investment vehicle to mitigate risks, increase capital and support critical infrastructure. The findings provide valuable insights into the potential of innovative finance to unlock the potential of the education sector in Kenya and beyond. The main limitation of the research is its qualitative nature, which limits the generalizability of the findings and introduces subjectivity in the analysis. Nonetheless, the thesis creates opportunities for additional research in the field and showcases the need for empirical case studies to identify best practices and share successes and challenges across different stakeholders.

The Ugly Face of International Law in Practice

2023-02-11T15:43:21+00:00

A purely theoretical understanding of International Law may preclude one from seeing the manner in which its practice is being abused. This paper examines the dark side of international legal practice, viz, when the practitioners have attempted to present the probative value of their claims by relying on false witness testimonies and documents. Further, it argues that the absence of a prescribed code of conduct complete with sanctions on counsels who do not honour it, have a negative impact on the procedural integrity and legitimacy of international courts. It examines the cases in which this has occurred and the consequences arising therefrom. Finally, this paper assesses the various approaches taken by the International Courts in relation to the presentation of fraudulent evidence by practitioners and offers suggestions on how better this could be handled.

Engagement proposal for Youth for Europe initiative

2023-08-13T13:52:11+00:00

The topics related to youth development have a significant impact on the direction of the European policy-making, given the importance of youth interaction with society and active citizenship in shaping a sustainable future on the national and international scales. While majority of the studies, current initiatives and policies in the field of youth development and communication are focused on expanding the number of opportunities for youth to engage in various activities, this thesis takes a different approach by examining and proposing targeted communication tools to ensure sufficient awareness of youth of such opportunities. This research helps to design an effective communication framework for the European Commission’s Youth for Europe project to target youth on a per-country basis, as opposed to the generalised approach. The scope of this thesis includes six selected countries – Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Spain – and focuses on increasing the engagement of young women, as the target group, in the areas of youth education, volunteering, exchange or employment. The purpose of this research is to define the priority focus area out of the four selected areas and develop a recommendation on the national communication channels, leveraging cultural and gender-specific factors. Consequently, three research questions were stated for this thesis, with the first one aiming to identify a priority engagement area for each country, the second one centring on the choice of important cultural and communication factors, and the third one focusing on the actual recommendations of communication channels for the six selected countries.

The research is divided into three key steps in accordance with the research questions. The first step involves the analysis of the quantitative data for participation of young women in education, volunteering, exchange and employment, and the qualitative data on youth policies implemented in the relevant areas in each selected country. The second step evaluates important cultural factors using the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory (1980) and the cultural framework of Edward Hall (1976) (CFI, 2022) (Würtz, 2005). Furthermore, it examines the quantitative data for female youth engagement on social media, their digital skills and preferences for alternative communication channels. The third steps provides the final output of the research in a form of the recommended communication channels for each country, supported by qualitative data on the benefits and shortcomings of each channel.

This thesis contains several key findings, as per the three research questions. Upon completing the first step, youth volunteering was identified as a priority focus area for Finland and Luxembourg; youth employment was defined as a priority focus area for France, Italy and Spain, and youth education was selected as a priority focus area for Slovakia. In terms of the cultural factors, Finland, France and Luxembourg were determined to exhibit low-context and information-oriented cultures with preferences for efficient communication, while Italy, Slovakia and Spain were determined to exhibit high-context and relationship-oriented cultures with a high importance of personalisation and human interaction. As for the communication modes, young women in all countries actively use social media and prefer mobile-friendly interaction. Whereas young females in Finland, France and Spain have a relatively high level of digital skills, Italy, Luxembourg and Slovakia appear to have more young women with lower levels of digital skills, indicating the need for non-digital communication tools.

In accordance with the third research question, this thesis concludes with a recommended combination of digital and non-digital communication channels for Youth for Europe that is specific to each selected country, given the identified cultural factors and preferred ways of communication. In terms of the digital communication channels, the use of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, emails and newsletters, blog, Youth for Europe website, a mobile application and promotion via government websites is recommended for all six countries, but varies in terms of the implementation timeline. In contrast, the use of Snapchat is recommended only for Finland, France, Luxembourg and Slovakia; the use of TikTok is recommended only for Finland, Italy and Spain and the use of Twitter is recommended only for France, Italy and Spain. In addition, implementing digital newspapers is recommended for Slovakia and Spain; using a podcast is recommended for Italy, Luxembourg and Slovakia, and 19

promoting through influencers is recommended for Italy and Spain. In terms of the non-digital communication channels, the use of partner networks, including partners within the relevant focus area, universities and other educational institutions and events and fairs is recommended for all six countries, but varies in terms of the implementation timeline. Furthermore, the use of leaflets is recommended for France, Italy and Spain; the use of radio is recommended for Luxembourg, and the use of television is recommended for Finland, France, Italy and Spain. Promotion through the representative office is only recommended for Italy, given its location, and the use of youth ambassadors is only recommended for Slovakia.

The findings of this research represent an important step towards the recognition of the importance of cultural factors and different communication styles of young women, as well as other target groups within youth. This thesis contributes to the existing studies in the field, addressing the current research gap, and encourages policy-makers to design targeted communication frameworks to ensure that young people have equal awareness of new opportunities developed for them. In terms of the future research in the field, it is recommended to evaluate content considerations, in addition to communication channels per se, the significance of promotion in native languages, preferences of youth based on qualitative surveys and the impact of factors other than gender, such as socioeconomic background and ethnicity.

Digital Currency Beyond the Hype: CBDC

2022-07-27T10:50:21+00:00

This article is a general introduction to Digital Currencies with the focus on CBDCs. It will expore questions such as how digital currencies are generating vast amounts of social engagement and its potential impact on the traditional financial system. The article also include quantifed predictions made by the author.

THE EFFECTS OF INTERNAL CONTROLS ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA CASE STUDY: EQUITY BANK BOMET BRANCH

2023-01-16T07:14:16+00:00

In the recent past, a number of commercial banks in Kenya have stopped operating and others put into receivership. The main reason for this failure has been cited as poor financial performance and major frauds committed within the banks. Weakness in the internal control paves way for committing these frauds and thus negatively affects the financial performance of these commercial banks. This research was done to seek to identify the roles played by the internal controls in preventing these frauds and hence positively impacting the financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya and in this case Equity bank was the case study. The internal controls focused on the control environment, risk assessment, and monitoring activities. Secondary and primary data were both collected for the purpose of this research. A research questionnaire was issued to the respondents to collect their views and the information they know concerning the internal controls system. A descriptive research design will be used for the same process. A total of 48 respondents were targeted who were both employees of Equity bank Bomet branch. A sample of 30 individuals was taken as a sample across all levels of management. The study found that Equity Bank reviewed its internal controls on a need basis and the research found out that the staff of Equity bank is trained to implement accounting and financial management systems and safeguard the organizational assets. The study recommended that: the control environment has a positive relationship with the financial performance of the commercial bank

TEACHERS ATTITUDES ON THE USE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING READING SKILLS IN LIMURU-ZONE, KIAMBU COUNTY KENYA

2022-10-23T04:34:26+00:00

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) is a vital component of improving educational quality. Despite the numerous advantages of ICT in everyday life, both in and out of school, studies have revealed that integration is slow, especially at the ECDE level. Technology is advantageous when is used to improve reading skills. However, it is unclear to what extent this has been achieved in Limuru Zone in terms of reading skills. The study's objective was to determine teachers' attitudes toward the use of ICT in teaching English reading skills. The study targeted 15 head teachers, 28 teachers, and 1233 grade three pupils in Limuru zone public primary schools. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 5 schools, 5 head teachers, and 10 grade three teachers. A sample of 250 grade three pupils were also chosen from table of random numbers. Questionnaire was used for data collection for the selected teachers. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data collected. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. The data was presented using tables and graphs. The study revealed that majority of teachers have a positive attitude toward ICT use in teaching. Further, recommended that Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) should develop a capacity-building program to improve teacher ICT training, with a focus on integrating ICT into teaching and learning.

HDPE Beverage Closures

2023-08-13T14:23:24+00:00

As of today, caps are not recycled in a closed loop, because the European authority for food contact approvals (EFSA) did not give any positive opinion to any technology with the reasoning that not enough scientific data are available. With the most recent legal changes introducing the status of “novel technologies”, allowing recyclers to go for commercial production under specific conditions if proof of concept is given. However, the complexity is high starting with the large variation of colours that has been personally mapped within this study in supermarkets in different EU countries. Moreover, the challenge on chemical level in terms of decontamination and material properties is representing a crucial one. HDPE has a structure and physical properties, like the low melting point, that do not allow an efficient decontamination as it would be the case for PET, which is vastly recycled within the EU today. Nevertheless, the strong believe with a quite clean input material coming from a deposit return system can allow fulfilling food contact compliance and the beauty is that this input material is today already available after the sink-float separation of PET and HDPE in existing recycling installations. A big question mark we have still for the safety and performance of a cap that will be produced with a possible rHDPE grade. Based on assumptions how the material properties could change and how these would affect the cap performance, a matrix has been established expressing the complexity for this challenging application, proving that a case by case validation would be required to identify suitability of a rHDPE grade with a specific cap design. Economically, HDPE cap2cap recycling looks very promising even though the initial capex is high it pays off quite fast. We would assume that vertical integration in existing recycling facilities would be favoured due to lower investment and availability of existing input material, which is key in recycling. Considering the energy consumption for HDPE recycling a saving of around 86% savings CO2 was calculated. Based on the total volume going through today’s installed DRS would save emissions of 12.680 cars per year. In a utopian case, that DRS would be installed in all EU countries, a saving of emissions equivalent to 49.950 cars can be achieved. This would clearly contribute to a CO2 neutrality in future and making our planet greener.