Thumbnail Image

Thesis

Browse

Reset filters
Subject: Agricultural Business Management × End date: 2022 ×
Reset filters

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 9 of 70
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemRestricted
    Adoption and Relevance of Social Media in Agribusiness: A Study of Punjab
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Amanjit Kaur; Ramandeep Singh
    The present study has been undertaken to study the perception, attitude and adoption of social media by selected agripreneurs and understand the relevance of social media adopted by different agribusiness stakeholders in Punjab. Further, an attempt has been made to understand the entrepreneurial and agribusiness challenges and prospects of social media. The primary data were collected with the help of four structured and non-disguised questionnaires specifically designed for agripreneurs and other agribusiness stakeholders. To fulfill the first objective of the study, the primary data were collected from 200 agripreneurs, who got their training from the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in the last five years. The results demonstrated their positive perception and attitude towards using social media for their agribusiness activities. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter were revealed as effective social media platforms for posting agribusiness updates among agripreneurs. To study the relevance of social media tools for agribusiness stakeholders, the primary data were collected from randomly selected 150 agribusiness stakeholders including representatives of Self-help groups (SHGs), Farmer-producer organizations (FPOs), cottage based food organizations, subsidiary occupational units, agribusiness experts, bank managers, directors of regulatory and development agencies in Punjab. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram were mostly used social media platforms, and the use of these platforms was significantly influenced by differences in the demographic characteristics of agribusiness stakeholders. Both agripreneurs and agribusiness stakeholders faced certain key challenges such as inadequate use of available resources, lack of adequate knowledge and security issues along with using social media for the growth and development of agribusinesses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of Consumer and Retailer acceptance of mobile marketing in India
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2021) Kamalpreet Kaur; Kathuria, Lalit Mohan
    The present study was undertaken to examine the attitude of consumers towards mobile marketing; to study the willingness of consumers regarding acceptance of mobile marketing; to study the perceptions of retailers towards mobile marketing; to analyze the perceptions of consumers towards web atmospherics; and to explore the mobile website atmospherics and mobile marketing communication strategies of selected companies. For achieving first, second and fourth objective, primary data were collected through a survey of 600 respondents selected from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, and National Capital Region (Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida). For achieving third objective, a survey of 100 retailers was undertaken from the selected cities. For achieving fifth objective, a content analysis was performed on websites of 100 B2C companies. Findings revealed that female consumers perceived service quality as more important determinant of mobile marketing than male consumers. Also, female consumers had a positive attitude towards mobile marketing; whereas irritation towards mobile marketing was higher in male consumers as compared to female consumers. Further, personal innovativeness, service quality, irritation, information and perceived usefulness were important drivers of consumer attitude towards mobile marketing. Results also highlighted attitude, perceived behavioral control and subjective norm as important drivers of intention to accept mobile marketing. Findings indicated that „compatibility‟, „location based marketing‟, „perceived customer expectations‟ and „perceived ease of use‟ were found to be significant factors towards adoption of mobile marketing among retailers. Also, findings highlighted that female consumers perceived enjoyment and website links more useful during purchase of apparel from mobile website/ mobile app than male consumers. Further, the study revealed that informativeness, navigational cues, effectiveness of information content, and e-service quality significantly influenced attitude towards mobile website, whereas informativeness, navigational cues, enjoyment, response time, and trust significantly influenced consumers‟ emotions (pleasure, arousal, and dominance). Further, a positive and significant relationship was found between emotions (pleasure, arousal, dominance) and consumer‟s purchase intention; and attitude towards website was positively related to consumer‟s purchase intention and satisfaction. Findings revealed that most of the companies provided information like product/service, company history, investor relations, and stakeholder‟s information, CSR policy, privacy policy, location, social media platforms etc.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of Calendar Anomalies in Indian Stock and Commodity Markets
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Chhabra, Damini; Gupta, Mohit
    The present study was undertaken to test the presence of calendar anomalies in returns, trading volume and volatility in returns of stocks, stock indices, commodities and commodity indices; impact of market microstructure events on calendar anomalies and evaluation of trading strategy designed on basis of presence of calendar anomalies in stocks and commodities. The study analyzed secondary data collected from 2008 to 2018 and 15 anomalies were investigated. With respect to returns in most of the stock market indices, calendar anomalies namely month of the year effect, turn of the month effect, turn of the tax year effect and day after future option expiry effect were found to be present. In most of the commodity market indices, calendar anomalies namely week of the month effect, month of the year effect and semi-month effect were found to be present. In most of the commodities, calendar anomalies namely month of the year effect and day after future option expiry effect were found to be present. With respect to volume major calendar anomalies namely month of the year effect, quarter of the year effect, day of future option expiry effect, turn of the year effect, week of the month effect and turn of the month effect were found to be present. With respect to volatility major calendar anomalies namely day of the week effect, weekend effect, month of the year effect, January effect, week of the month effect and quarter of the year effect, were found to be present. Significant results have been found in calendar anomalies namely day of the week effect, week of the month effect, month of the year effect and quarter of the year effect in selected stock market indices as a result of selected microstructure events. Profitability following turn of the month effect and day after future option expiry effect were observed to be significant in few of the selected stocks and commodities.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of Herding Behaviour in Indian Financial Market
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2021) Dewan, Palak; Dharni, Khushdeep
    Herding in financial markets has been typically described as a behavioural tendency for an investor to follow the actions of others. Herding affects the risk and return models, stock prices, determines asset prices and exacerbates the volatility and liquidity in financial market. The present study was undertaken to explore the herding behaviour in Indian stock and commodity markets, Indian equity mutual funds and among individual investors. For satisfying the objective of the study three major stock and commodity exchanges of India: National Stock Exchange, Multi-Commodity Exchange and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange were selected. Further, the major indices were selected from each exchange making the total sample of twelve indices. Secondary data for daily closing prices of respective stocks and commodities of selected indices were recorded for the period of ten years ranging from 1st January, 2008 to 31st December, 2017. For determining herding in mutual funds, top 29 large cap equity mutual funds and 28 small and mid cap equity mutual funds were selected. The monthly trade data and attributes of fund/fund manager were recorded from the monthly factsheets of these mutual funds for the period of six years ranging from 1st January, 2013 to 31st December, 2018. For exploring the herding behaviour among individual investors primary data was collected from 411 respondents using pre structured non-disguised questionnaire. Results based on secondary data indicate presence of herding beahviour in both Indian stock and commodity markets based on state space methodology. Further, the results reveal presence of herding in Indian equity mutual funds. The intensity of mutual fund herding is significantly higher in bullish market as compared to bearish market. Mutual fund herding has significant correlation with fund portfolio turnover. Results based on the primary data reveal that herding bias among individual investors differ significantly on the basis of income, investment experience, amount of investment and proportion of assets in other than risk free deposits. Herding has significant positive correlation with anchoring bias and significant negative correlation with overconfidence bias.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of volatility in Indian stock and commodity markets
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2021) Nisha Rani; Gupta, Mohit
    The aim of present study is to assess the nature of volatility, relationship between return and volatility, impact of selected macroeconomic variables on volatility, identification of suitable model for forecasting volatility and perception of market participants regarding volatility in Indian stock and commodity market. The study analyzed both primary and secondary data. In most of the stock market indices significant day of the week effect was found on Tuesday and in case of commodity market indices day of the week effect was found to be different in all the selected indices. Further, significant month of the year effect was found for both stock and commodity market indices. The relationship between return and volatility was assessed through GARCH in Mean model and it was found to be significant only in case of Nifty Smallcap 50. The impact of various macroeconomic variables in explaining the volatility of stock and commodity market indices was studied. It was found that FII net flows, DII net flows are significant determinants for stock market indices and GDP, CPI and yield on 10 year government bonds were found to be significant determinant of volatility for commodity market indices. The suitable model for forecasting volatility was identified. It was found that GARCH (1, 1) is the most suitable symmetric model and EGARCH model is the most suitable asymmetric model in case of stock market indices and commodity market indices. The perception of different market participants regarding volatility has been found to be varied and significantly different from one group to another.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of statistical arbitrage opportunities in Indian securities market
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2021) Aggarwal, Geetu; Aggarwal, Navdeep
    Statistical arbitrage is a trading strategy that employs time series methods to identify relative mispricing between securities based on expected values of these assets. This study is undertaken to study statistical arbitrage opportunities present in Indian securities market through pairs trading, one of the most popular techniques of statistical arbitrage. Specifically, the study focuses on the profitability of pairs trading to common investors and attribution of returns to different risk factors. The study is conducted across three asset classes and under different scenarios of the underlying assets involved, viz., stock futures market, stock spot market, stock spot-future market, commodity futures market, currency futures market, currency spot market and currency spot-future statistical arbitrage. Daily prices of securities traded and listed on their respective exchanges over 2011–2017 are used on rolling basis to compute the performance of pairs trading based on the selection of pairs of securities through minimizing the sum of squared deviation (distance method) and cointegration tests (cointegration method). Pairs trading strategy is executed in two stages: the pairs formation period and the pairs trading period. The strategy is executed by taking long position in one security and short position in other security of the identified security pairs. To examine the risk of pairs trading and the drivers of returns, the portfolio returns are risk-adjusted using Fama and French (1993) three factor asset pricing model. The study reveals that pairs trading in stock futures is significantly profitable with average annualized profitability of up to 34% including transaction costs. At the same time, statistical arbitrage opportunities present in stock spot market and stock spot-future scenario are not profitable. On the other hand, pairs trading in commodities is significantly profitable, with average annualised profitability of up to 59 percent, including transaction costs. While currency spot and currency future market do present statistical arbitrage opportunities, they are not profitable enough to cover the underlying risk. Meanwhile, the currency spot-future statistical arbitrage generates annualized return of 10.52% in a near riskless arbitrage scenario. The evidence of pairs trading profits supports the view that these profits reflect compensation to arbitrageurs for enforcing the law of one price in similarly related markets to ensure market efficiency. Indian financial markets are maturing and are attracting sizable retail and institutional investments. Advanced applications like the one presented in this study are of significance for the investors and investment consultants so that they can benefit from such trading strategies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Service Quality Assessment of Commercial Banks in Punjab
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2020) Gupta, Rupali; Babita Kumar
    The present study was undertaken with the objective of identifying the gap between perception and expectation of rural and urban customers of public and private sector banks towards the retail banking services. Further, the study anticipated to understand the problems faced by customers, their awareness and perception towards complaint redressal system and bankers‟ perception and behaviour towards complaint redressal system of commercial banks. For the purpose of study, three most populated districts (Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar) were chosen out of three socio cultural divisions (Majha, Malwa and Doaba) of Punjab. From each district three banks of public sector (SBI, PNB and Punjab and Sind Bank) and private sector (HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank) each were chosen which had maximum number of branches in urban and rural areas. From each bank, one branch operating in rural and one in urban area was chosen randomly after preparing a list of these branches (dbie.rbi.org.in). Hence, in all 36 branches were contacted. Further, 20 customers were chosen from each branch on convenience cum judgmental sampling and 2-3 officers/managers/ground level officers on simple random basis. Thus, in all 720 customers and 72 bankers were surveyed. Primary data was collected from customers and bankers through two separate questionnaires prepared on the basis of SERVQUAL, satisfaction, attitude and complaint redressal system. Findings highlighted that the quality of retail banking services as perceived by the customers is better in private sector banks, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and lower customer complaints than public sector banks. Banks operating in rural areas were found to be performing better than banks operating in urban areas. Hence, the rural customers were more satisfied and facing fewer problems than urban customers. It was observed that satisfaction of customers towards the quality of banks services is the most important parameter followed by service quality of banks for determining customer attitude. Very few customers were aware about complaint redressal system. Also, there was a gap found between problems faced by the customers and complaints received by the bankers. The reason for this was that customers of banks did not fully complain about the problems faced by them to bankers as they were not aware and the bankers did not take adequate measures to educate the customers‟.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Price forecasting, linkages and relevance: a study of national commodity and derivatives exchange of India
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Dhir, Gauri; Dharni, Khushdeep
    Present study has been undertaken to forecast the futures prices of selected agricultural commodities and to examine the linkage of Dhaanya with selected macro-economic indices and linkage of National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange with international commodity exchanges. Further, an attempt has been made to study the opinion of the stakeholders regarding agricultural commodity exchanges in India. To fulfill the first objective of this study, data mining tools have been used to forecast futures prices of sugar, soybean, chana (black) and castor seeds. Closing future prices of these commodities were collected from the website of the selected commodity exchange for the period of 9 years i.e. from January 2007 to June 2016. Secondly, linkage between Dhaanya and macro economic indices has been explored. These indices include WPI, IIP, CNX-NIFTY, M3, FPI of FAO and US Dollar. International linkages have also been identified by taking closing values of future prices of soybean, corn, sugar and soybean oil at national and international commodity exchanges. Further, to explore the relevance of agricultural commodity exchanges in India, primary data have been collected from stakeholders through three separate pre-structured questionnaires. Forecasting results indicate that data mining techniques such as ANN, SVM and Decision tree model can be used to forecast future prices of commodities in profitable manner. Long run relationship between Dhaanya and Index of industrial production (IIP) has been observed. International linkage results also indicate that there is presence of long run relationship between national and international commodity markets. Primary data results indicate that the farmers were having very low awareness regarding working of the commodity exchanges and were having negligible participation. There was a significant difference among the opinion of various stakeholders regarding the relevance of commodity exchanges in India.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemRestricted
    Performance and Usage of Data Mining Techniques for Predictive Modeling: A Study of selected Stock Markets
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Jasleen, .; Dharni, Khushdeep
    Data mining techniques can effectively deal with the nonlinearity of the stock market and allow search for hidden patterns, in large volumes of data. The present study is aimed at evaluating the performance of data mining techniques across the global stock indices and also to evaluate the performance of data mining techniques in the selected Indian stock market, i.e., National Stock Exchange. Further, an attempt has been made to explore the usage of data mining techniques among the investors and stakeholders. Secondary data based on daily values of stock indices of three developed markets (United States of America, United Kingdom and Japan) and four emerging markets (China, Brazil, India and South Africa) were collected i.e. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), FTSE 100, Nikkei 225, SSE 50, iBovespa, Nifty 50, JALSH for the period of 12 years ranging from 1st April, 2005 to 31st March, 2017. Further, secondary data related to technical and fundamental variables were collected for the constituents of CNX 500 of National Stock Exchange with time period ranging from 1st April, 1998 to 31st March, 2016. Further, primary data was collected from 167 retail investors and other stakeholders with the help of pre structured non-disguised questionnaire. Results based on the analysis of secondary data reveal that there was a significant difference in performance of data mining techniques in terms of Hit Ratio, Returns, Mean Absolute Error and Root Mean Square Error across different stock indices. ANN models based on data of all selected indices performed better in terms of Hit Ratio and annual returns as compared to SVM models based on data of all indices. Further, results reveal that both data mining techniques i.e. ANN and SVM have an ability to differentiate between high performance and low performance stocks. Performance of stocks improved with the usage of data mining techniques as compared to buy-and-hold strategy. Results based on primary data reveal that retail investors face various challenges in using prediction techniques for investment decision making. Generally, there is a lack of awareness and knowledge regarding prediction techniques among the investors.