A survey of value-at-risk and its role in the banking industry

This paper discusses the various aspects of Value-at-Risk (VaR) and the VaR-based risk management process as it pertains to the banking industry. Since its inception in the 1990’s, VaR has become the industry standard by which market risk is both measured and managed by financial institutions today. However, there has been much debate regarding VaR’s validity and the extent of its role within the banking industry. Yet, now that it is an integral part of the regulatory framework, establishing VaR’s legitimacy is more important than ever. Therefore, this paper examines the recent literature on VaR’s use as a market risk management tool within the banking environment in an attempt to clarify some of the more contentious issues which have been raised by researchers. The discussion begins by highlighting the underlying theory on which VaR is based, specific aspects which have proven controversial and its use from a regulatory perspective. The focus then turns to what little literature exists on the subject of VaR and asset returns in an attempt to provide some direction for future research.

Gender mainstreaming in Islamic primary schools in South Sulawesi, Indonesia : a textbook analysis

Gender mainstreaming is a strategy employed to achieve gender equality and equity by considering the experiences, aspirations, needs and problems of women and men in the process of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating all policies and programs of various sectors of social development (Ministry of Women's Empowerment Republic of Indonesia 2000). The government has undertaken activities including working with publishers in 2004 to address gender bias in textbooks. Various studies informed the analytic framework for this study of gender role depictions in Islamic primary school textbooks in South Sulawesi. Islamic primary schools in South Sulawesi were chosen for two reasons. The first reason was personal interest. The second reason was that a textbook analysis has not been completed since the implementation of the textbook writing program and it would be appropriate to conduct such a study in a province where gender mainstreaming is likely to challenge local ethnic culture and orthodox Islamic teaching. South Sulawesi provides such a context.

Entrepreneurship, e-finance and mobile banking

This paper focuses on the role of entrepreneurship and e-finance in determining a person's intention to adopt mobile banking. The approach utilised in this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that includes a number of propositions that are developed and justified by the literature. The main findings of this paper are that people's entrepreneurial inclination and learning tendency will determine how they respond to marketing and knowledge about mobile banking. The practical implications are that financial institutions involved in e-finance can focus their marketing efforts at increasing people's exposure to mobile banking.

Banking on ICT : how the Tuvalu financial services industry benefits from investment in ICT

Financial service industries in every country have made substantial investments in information and communication technologies (ICTs). What have been the benefits from this investment? This research extends the decades of research into the relationship between ICT investment and organisational performance in several ways. First the study uses the resource-based value framework to propose an ICT Investment Model to comprehensively describe the relationship between ICT investment and organisational performance. Second, the research identifies nine specific benefits the Tuvalu financial services industry (TFSI) has received from ICT investment. Third, the study does so with a qualitative research methodology in a specific industry in a developing country (most studies in this area are quantitative and have a national or multi-industry perspective in an economically developed country). Key benefits from ICT investment in the TFSI include improvements in collaboration, efficiency, data monitoring and communication.

Facilitating learning by going online : modernising Islamic teaching and learning in Indonesia

This chapter examines the impact of eLearning and Web 2.0 social media in a socially conservative environment in Indonesia that has nevertheless proven surprisingly adroit at change management. Web 2.0 social media has proven enormously popular in Indonesia but traditional Islamic schools (which are known in Java as pesantren but elsewhere in the Muslim world as madrasah) the focus of this study is often unable to access Web 2.0 or the Internet in general. Progressive non-national government organizations (NGOs) seek to remedy this situation by providing satellite broadband links to remote schools and this chapter examines one particular project. Despite the impoverished and conservative nature of their community, the leaders of this school have led their students in a surprisingly enthusiastic reception of eLearning technology, recognizing its great capacity to produce and enhance social networks and provide new opportunities for learning. Particular attention in this case study is given to factors relating to social capital, attitudes, and patterns of behavior in leadership and change management. A case study approach was chosen to enable a richer and more finely-grained analysis of the issues. The case study is based on semi-structured interviews and observations conducted over several years. This research shows that whilst the adoption and uptake of eLearning with emerging technologies is strongly shaped by cultural and social factors, it plays out in very different ways than might first have been expected.

The changing nature of Islamic mission: The cases of Tablighi Jama’at and the Gülen movement

David Tittensor, argues for the role of faith in development to be reconsidered in relation to the issue of bias in the provision of aid. In doing so, he draws on the works of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum that seek to expand conventional understandings of aid to include wellbeing, and cites the cases of both Tablighi Jamaat and the Gülen Movement – from India and Turkey respectively – and how their religious interventions are at times precisely what Muslims are looking for.