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In the 21st century, housing has various functions such as investment, sign of status in social structure, auxiliary asset to financial assurance apart from meeting people’s need of shelter. Criteria which determine individuals’ choice of housing differ in parallel with the functions of housing. In this study, effects of spatial and cultural changes on housing perception witnessed in urban structure together with the process of globalization are mentioned; concept and functions of housing are evaluated. In this sense, it is aimed to determine the elements which influence housing choices of individuals in Bursa. Perspective of individuals living in Bursa towards the concept of housing and criteria they have considered or will consider in selecting residences are studied with face-to-face survey method. Determination of criteria about housing to be purchased by individuals helps city managers and planers in taking and implementing decision in the process of forming urban areas physically in parallel with the requirements of individuals, but in a way that supports city plans.

Keywords:Globalization processes, meaning of housing, housing preferences, Bursa

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Functional food term defines the foods that provide further benefits to human physiology and metabolic functions in addition to their nutritional function. Consequently, they have health promoting and disease preventing effects. The objective of this study is to have an insight into the Turkish consumers’ perceptions by revealing their awareness, acceptance and attitudes toward functional foods. The data is collected through a survey from the academic staff working in the universities of Izmir city. The findings show that the most widely used functional foods are, respectively, mineral water, diet cereal biscuit and cereal flake. The health related reasons that make consumers use functional foods are, respectively, functional foods increase healty gut bacteria, functional foods help to lose weight and functional foods help child development. There is a difference between consumers who have heard about “functional food term” before and who have not heard it before, in terms of the “reward” dimension of Functional Food Related Attitudes scale. Contributions to the literature and practice are discussed. Besides, the limitations and the suggestions for future research are presented.

Keywords:Functional Foods, Food Marketing, Healty Food, Nutrition, Novel Food

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Because of the heavy competition between businesses and uncertainty in market conditions, attainment of complete and certain information flow becomes harder. Especially, in evaluations with linguistic varibles, because of the uncertainty in speaking language, there exists some fuzinesses. In fuzzy environments like this, decision making with fuzzy numbers is rather important. The aim of this study is, to put forward drawbacks of extended analysis technique, which is developed for solving multi criteria decision making problems with Fuzzy
Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and evaluation of the applicability of FAHP for supplier selection. In fuzzy environments, operations with imprecise data are so important in terms of decision making. FAHP is a decision making tool that supports evaluation of quantitative and qualitative criteria simultaneously. In this study, a bread factory’s flour supplier selection process is evaluated by FAHP and extended analysis and total integral techniques are compared. As a result of the comparison, total integral technique has more appropriate conclusions.

Keywords:Fuzzy Sets, Triangular Fuzzy Numbers, Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision Making, FAHP, Supplier Selection In Fuzzy Environment.

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This study aims to explain competitiveness of OECD countries through developing institutional and mixed models. In these models, the data of 2007 are used to avoid the global crisis effects of 2008. As a result of predictions, instituional models developed with the indicators formed to show the institutional, political and socio-cultural structures of the countries by some organizations are found functional in explaining competetiveness of OECD. It is found that factors thought to have been defining the national competitiveness depending on institutional models explain WEF measures of OECD’s competitiveness along 47 % – 56 %, IMD meausures of OECDS’s competitiveness along 74% -84 %. Mixed models developed by including theoretical variables into instituional models are found explaining OECD’s competitivess around 63%-90%.

Keywords:Competitiveness, OECD, multiple regression, institutional models, mixed models

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The aim of this study is to determine to what extent the accounting education, that has a long history in our country, covered the expectations of students in the faculty of economics and administrative sciences who are the today’s accountant candidates and to evaluate the results achieved. For this purpose, firstly required quality of accounting education was focused in this study than the progress of the accounting profession and accounting education within the historical process as well as its current status were primarily attempted to be put forward. Then, a survey was conducted in the faculty of economics and administrative sciences at Uludag University that is the one of the biggest universities in Turkey, in order to determine expectations of the accountant candidates from the accounting education and to see to what extent these expectations have already been met by higher education institutions. As a result of this survey, accounting education at the higher education institutions was found out to be inefficient due to responses received from the students. Also, valuable opinions and suggestions in terms of what should be altered within the accounting education system/curriculums, in order to increase accounting education quality by this way meet the needs and expectations of students, were obtained.

Keywords:Accounting Education, Professional Accountant Candidates, International Accounting Education Standards

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Repo transactions provide cash/securities management opportunities for financial intermediaries and investors. Repos are the most important financial instrument in Istanbul Stock Exchange in terms of transaction volume. Banker Crisis (1982) and Banking Crisis (1994), occured in Turkey, and also global financial crisis have showed that repo markets are of great importance in terms of systemic risk/financial crisis management. Methodology of the study is based on literature review, data and case study analysis. In this paper, we aim to define inefficiencies of Turkish repo markets to develop policy suggestions in the light of early liberal era experience of Turkey and also financial failure lessons. In this context, we conclude three suggestions for policy makers. First, regulatory/supervisory structure of repo transactions should be cooperatively re-designed by the relevant governmental authorities. Second, acceptable repo collateral list may involve new collateral categories such as equities, eurobond, letter of guaranty and warrants. And finally, OTC repo transactions should regulate from the perspective of risk management.

Keywords:Repo and Reverse Repo, 1982 Banking Crisis, OTC Transactions, Equity Repo, Collateral Management

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Abstract

In recent years, Turkish banking sector has a speed upward trend in employment capacity. But comparing with the developed countries banking sectors, the number of labor force in Turkish banking sector is far below from the level that it could be. Certainly, employment capacity is directly related with the size of the sector. But, in Turkish banking case, it is seen that, total number of the labor force is far more behind than even its potential level. The comparative data with the European Union and the United States show this fact obviously. Increasing of the asset size and employment capacity of Turkish banking sector to the level of developed countries could be achieved justly in the long term. However, it is possible to attain higher employment levels in the short-term by some government regulations and incentives. Providing incentives to increase the number of the bank branches that are the most important source of employment in the sector and implementing measures to raise employee qualifications will make an important contribution to the banking sector and the economy in Turkey.

Keywords:Employment, Labor Force, Intermediation Costs, Banking Sector, Government Incentives.

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Exchange value is one of the significant tools for investors in decision making. Since exchange values are volatile and they change within short periods, investors need an effective method to minimize the risk. This study compares the prediction performances of artificial neural networks, which is recently being used as an effective tool of prediction, and the monetary model, which is one of the methods to predict structural exchange rates. In this study exchange rates of Turkish Lira against US Dollar and Euro are predicted. In models, inflation levels for domestic and foreign countries, money supply, interest rates and economic indicators are used. The time period between 1986 and 2010 is covered for the USD and the time period between 1999 and 2010 is covered for the EU. Results of this study show that ANN, which is recently being used for the prediction problems, reached a high level prediction performance.

Keywords:Exchange rate forecasting, Monetary model, Artificial neural network, Euro, United States dolar

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This paper aims to empirically investigate holding periods, illiquidity and disposition effect in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). KSE 100 Index Companies daily data were collected for a period of five year i.e. 2003-2007. Daily returns, holding periods, illiquidity and volatility were calculated through this data. These variables were regressed in models used by Visaltanachoti et al. (2007) to calculate annual holding periods, illiquidity and disposition effect. The results have revealed that there exists disposition effect in KSE. Holding periods were found positively related to illiquidity and negatively associated with stock returns. Further, holding periods were long for illiquid stocks and short for less illiquid stocks. The study is significant in the sense that it’s perhaps the first study conducted in a developing country like Pakistan.

Keywords: Disposition effect, illiquidity, holding periods, Anomaly, KSE

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International marketers may be interested in stock market linkages for various reasons: the co-movements of equity prices appear to reflect not only market globalization but also the globalization of capital resources. The co-movements can affect the balancing strategies of country market portfolios as they indicate opportunities and risks. The strategic choice of alternative market presence, such as market entry via export marketing or a full ownership and marketing may need to match with the type of financial resources. The co-movements of and the linkages between the U.S. stock market and Asian stock markets have been studied extensively. However, little attention has been given to the co-movements of Asian stock markets and the lead/lag linkages between them. In this paper, we study this issue with the principal components analysis (PCA) and Granger-causality (G-C) statistical techniques. We find that the contemporaneous co-movements of Asian stock markets have become closer and portfolio diversification benefits with Asian stock markets have diminished over time during the January 1, 2001-January 1, 2011 period. We find that the Singapore, Indian, and Japanese stock markets are the most influential stock markets and the Philippine and South Korean stock markets are the least influential stock markets in Asia. The Japanese, Singapore, and New Zealand stock markets are the least affected stock markets and the Shanghai, Australian, and South Korean stock markets are the most affected stock markets by the movements in the other Asian stock markets.

Keywords: Asian stock markets, Co-movements of stock markets, Linkages between stock markets, Principal components analysis, Granger causality