The Global financial markets have witnessed great traumas due to several events such as the 2000 US stock market crash, the attack of September I Ph 2001, the Afghani war December 2001, and recently the Iraqi war February 2003, the repercussions of which are being felt till today. These events caused immense turbulence in the stability of the stock market and a collapse of investor confidence. One product of accounting evolution is the use of ratios for analyzing financial statements. Originally developed as short-term credit analysis devices, ratios can be traced as far back as the late ...

Child labor is an economic and social phenomenon that is still present in our civilized world. Dealing with the problem has put international corporations in a tight position, where taking advantage of working children seemed as a cost saving technique to compete in the business world. The following paper demonstrates the status of working children in the different Lebanese business sectors, and mainly aims at proving that working children represent more of a cost that an asset for corporations. The paper also aims for showing that the phenomenon is damaging for both working children and for ...

This study examines the relationship between capital structure and financial performance in the UK market by using FTSE 350 companies. The hypothesis tested is whether there is a significant relationship between capital structure and companies' performance. The null hypothesis (Ho) stated that there is no relationship between capital structure and firms' performance. The methodological approach taken was a sample of 129 companies from FTSE 350 compromising top UK companies. These companies were analyzed to find a relationship between the capital structure and financial performance. Data relating ...

By 2005, ITec had 51 employees and was on track to make 2$ million in sales for the year with a firm projected forecast for the coming years. ITec margin were on average, 30 percent of sales. The company was well established in Lebanon and had some customers in the Gulf region. ITec main business was ERP Implementation, business consultancy, process reengineering and project management. This type of business is Human capital intensive; resources and experience were the main assets. The company's yearlong development effort has been extremely successful and growth was more than expected. By the ...

This study explores techniques used by Lebanese financial managers to evaluate capital budgeting projects. This study investigates whether Lebanese managers use sophisticated and efficient capital budgeting techniques when making their decision to either accept or reject projects. The main hypothesis states that Lebanese managers are using sophisticated and efficient capital budgeting techniques. Data was collected through a questionnaire distributed to 45 Lebanese firms. Only 30 firms were taken into consideration since the other questionnaires were not completed. A frequency analysis was ...

We are living in a world full of relentless change due to the vast effects of globalization. Thus, it is essential to think ahead and be part of this ongoing transformation. This initiative falls within the BLOM bank's vision to be everybody's bank for life and spread services far and wide where it is needed around the globe. Despite the difficult economic and political situation looming over Lebanon since 2005 and beyond the general banking risk that BLOM Bank is exposed to, the bank's strategy is still to grow and increase its earning power through expansion, increase in assets, and maximization ...

When investors access to financial institutions' services, they usually look for a financial partner who will ensure their belongings' safety, respect their privacy and deserve their trust. Unfortunately, in light of the recent financial market collapse, proofs have been found that many of these institutions were worthy of their clients' trust.The blunt reason behind that fact has been their lack of ethics. Due to the abscence of financial advisors' honesty, integrity and transparency, many investors, at the international scale, saw their properties being wiped out, without understanding the ...

Global competition and increasing customer awareness have made the quality as the key indicator for customer requirements and satisfaction as well as a success factor to achieve competitive advantage. Under these circumstances, companies try to become quality leadership companies and start to implement certain quality management approaches. Consequently, this research analyzes the production processes of a Lebanese company- SecurSofiware- operating in the information technology industry and facing deficiencies in its software production management. The objective of this research is to ...