Volume 11 (2015)

A new-look Skyline Business Journal (SBJ) is a befitting dedication to the Silver Jubilee edition! A lot of discussion and deliberation took place to finally settle for the smart new look of the journal which is now in your hands. Skyline University College has, this year, completed 25 years of its academic presence in the UAE with a distinction of being one of the first private universities in the country. The journal too, like the University College, has gone through its own moments of peaks and troughs in a journey of over ten years when it was first conceived. We are thankful to all those who have contributed to bring the journal to this level especially the distinguished editorial board members, reviewers and advisors.

The transformation of the journal into its present avatar is not just cosmetic but a whole lot in substance. The contents of this issue and those that follow now onwards, will be testimonials of the changed and charged approach that the journal has adopted to realize its goal of excellence in its scholastic pursuit. SBJ from the very beginning had the objective of further enriching the existing body of management knowledge and providing a platform to scholars to suggest meaningful solutions to business problems. We, with this issue, have now moved to yet another level of such pursuit and hope to keep the march evocative, enlightened and efficacious.

This issue of SBJ contains ten research papers ranging from ‘Challenges of Pharmaceutical Business in Bangladesh’ to cases of ‘Credit Risk of Indian Public Sector Banks’. Being a high priority sector in Bangladesh the study on its pharmaceutical industry is very apt and timely. As a result of empirical research eight suggestions have been offered including one urging the government for good governance towards procurement and price control. In a separate study the working conditions of the leather industry that employs over sixty five thousand workers in Kolkata has been explored. The study recommends capacity building and social security as major requirements that must be addressed soon. In another interesting paper the authors have made an endeavor to scrutinize price discovery relationship for four agricultural commodities with specific reference to pulses and cereals. The study applies the ‘Ganger Causality Test’ that uses f-test to understand the cause and effect affiliation between two time series. In yet another study ‘Frankel Monetary Model’ of exchange rate is used to examine long run behavior of Pakistan Rupee per unit of US Dollar over a specific time period. A very interesting paper on ‘creative tourism’ in Slovakia and the Czech Republic has attempted to define the term and analyze its supply side as a source of competitiveness. It is an important paper also because, the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993 changed the dynamics of tourism in the region and the drivers of this region’s tourism have since been its natural and cultural resources and private investment.

The recommendations and suggestions offered in the research papers that are included in SBJ have always had a practical approach. Reviewing the various submissions to the journal gives a clear indication that SBJ has acquired a prominent place amongst scholars from the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and the South Asian Subcontinent. As such a niche has been carved, which needs to grow its influence further, starting geographically with the adjoining areas and the editorial team is focused on this. We look forward to inputs from our patrons and urge all of you to contribute with your valuable feedback and comment on the new-look and newer features that you would like to be included.


Dr. Amitabh Upadhya
Editor-in-Chief