The widely perceived and primarily important achievement in a company's life cycle is the Initial... more The widely perceived and primarily important achievement in a company's life cycle is the Initial public offering otherwise known as IPO. This landmark achievement sanctions a company to gain entry to financial markets for supplemental capital compulsory to fund future magnification; while concurrently providing a venue for disposal of shares by investors. The study aimed at investigating the documented association of initial public offer pricing and stock returns. Empirical evidence suggests that IPOs have adverse eccentric returns over holding duration after the IPO issue date. From the empirical findings, it was noted that at the initial stage of trading, the pricing of Initial public offers at their fundamental value is unlikely to happen but ultimately the real value is mirrored in the IPOs pricing. The empirical review on the topic concludes that even though the assessment of the IPO is an important subject, only constricted extant research has addressed it. Findings revealed that within the context of developing countries with a number of theories being advanced to echo that IPO under pricing is an equilibrium phenomenon in an efficient capital market. Currently there is scarce literature proof to hypothesize to IPO pricing resolution is the central clarifying reason for long-run performance of stock returns. The present empirical studies on the link between IPO pricing and stock returns still present conflicting results, hence calls for more studies to be conducted on the topic in order to bring harmony to the work. Furthermore, most of the studies conducted on the topic have been on a global perspective and few empirical works exist in the developing economies. This is despite the importance of the topic to these economies. The paper recommends that as future scholars try to establish the effect of IPO pricing on stock returns, there should be an inclusion of an intervening variable as well as moderating variable. Further, there is a recommendation that apart from the intervening variables of firm characteristics reviewed in this paper, other variables could be used so as to compare the results. Furthermore, other moderating variables not reviewed in this paper can also be used.
Commercial banks in Kenya are facing stiff competition necessitating the design of competitive st... more Commercial banks in Kenya are facing stiff competition necessitating the design of competitive strategies to guarantee their performance. These commercial banks have to consider how to enter a market and then build and protect its competitive position. Banks begin to realize that no bank can offer all products and be the best or leading bank for all customers. Banks should therefore not only come up with strategies to counter the competition but also measure the effects of the combined strategies that they employed. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of competitive strategies adopted by Commercial Banks in response to demand for banking services in Kenya and employed a descriptive research design. The study's population comprised of the employees of equity bank based at the head office in Nairobi. Structured questionnaires were administered to 44 respondents selected using stratified sampling technique. Data was analysed in form of frequencies and percentages and presented in form of tables and graphs. The study found that equity bank uses different competitive strategies among them the combination strategy, cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, and focus strategy. The main source of competition for equity bank is external. The study also found that equity bank possesses various strengths that make it survive in the market or compete favourably against other firms. The research established that equity bank is exposed to opportunities that would enable it to compete favourably against other banks in future. The study found that equity bank makes organizational changes that make it to remain competitive in the banking industry in Kenya. The bank is faced by many challenges in the implementation of the competitive strategies. The study found that there was a positive correlation between competitive strategy effectiveness; and innovation, customer focus, bench marking and differentiation which were found to be statistically significant. The researcher recommends that the commercial banks improve their information system, come up with effective pricing strategies, and adopt advanced technology. The government should come up with relevant policies regarding competition in the industry, and create an enabling environment for investment and market competition. The researcher recommends further research in the area of the factors affecting the effectiveness of competitive strategies in dealing with falling demand of banking services. The research also recommends further study on the effect of competition on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya.
The widely perceived and primarily important achievement in a company's life cycle is the Initial... more The widely perceived and primarily important achievement in a company's life cycle is the Initial public offering otherwise known as IPO. This landmark achievement sanctions a company to gain entry to financial markets for supplemental capital compulsory to fund future magnification; while concurrently providing a venue for disposal of shares by investors. The study aimed at investigating the documented association of initial public offer pricing and stock returns. Empirical evidence suggests that IPOs have adverse eccentric returns over holding duration after the IPO issue date. From the empirical findings, it was noted that at the initial stage of trading, the pricing of Initial public offers at their fundamental value is unlikely to happen but ultimately the real value is mirrored in the IPOs pricing. The empirical review on the topic concludes that even though the assessment of the IPO is an important subject, only constricted extant research has addressed it. Findings revealed that within the context of developing countries with a number of theories being advanced to echo that IPO under pricing is an equilibrium phenomenon in an efficient capital market. Currently there is scarce literature proof to hypothesize to IPO pricing resolution is the central clarifying reason for long-run performance of stock returns. The present empirical studies on the link between IPO pricing and stock returns still present conflicting results, hence calls for more studies to be conducted on the topic in order to bring harmony to the work. Furthermore, most of the studies conducted on the topic have been on a global perspective and few empirical works exist in the developing economies. This is despite the importance of the topic to these economies. The paper recommends that as future scholars try to establish the effect of IPO pricing on stock returns, there should be an inclusion of an intervening variable as well as moderating variable. Further, there is a recommendation that apart from the intervening variables of firm characteristics reviewed in this paper, other variables could be used so as to compare the results. Furthermore, other moderating variables not reviewed in this paper can also be used.
Commercial banks in Kenya are facing stiff competition necessitating the design of competitive st... more Commercial banks in Kenya are facing stiff competition necessitating the design of competitive strategies to guarantee their performance. These commercial banks have to consider how to enter a market and then build and protect its competitive position. Banks begin to realize that no bank can offer all products and be the best or leading bank for all customers. Banks should therefore not only come up with strategies to counter the competition but also measure the effects of the combined strategies that they employed. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of competitive strategies adopted by Commercial Banks in response to demand for banking services in Kenya and employed a descriptive research design. The study's population comprised of the employees of equity bank based at the head office in Nairobi. Structured questionnaires were administered to 44 respondents selected using stratified sampling technique. Data was analysed in form of frequencies and percentages and presented in form of tables and graphs. The study found that equity bank uses different competitive strategies among them the combination strategy, cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, and focus strategy. The main source of competition for equity bank is external. The study also found that equity bank possesses various strengths that make it survive in the market or compete favourably against other firms. The research established that equity bank is exposed to opportunities that would enable it to compete favourably against other banks in future. The study found that equity bank makes organizational changes that make it to remain competitive in the banking industry in Kenya. The bank is faced by many challenges in the implementation of the competitive strategies. The study found that there was a positive correlation between competitive strategy effectiveness; and innovation, customer focus, bench marking and differentiation which were found to be statistically significant. The researcher recommends that the commercial banks improve their information system, come up with effective pricing strategies, and adopt advanced technology. The government should come up with relevant policies regarding competition in the industry, and create an enabling environment for investment and market competition. The researcher recommends further research in the area of the factors affecting the effectiveness of competitive strategies in dealing with falling demand of banking services. The research also recommends further study on the effect of competition on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya.
Uploads
Papers by george kungu