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About the Contributors

Hasan Dinçer is an assistant professor of finance at Beykent University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, , . Dr. Dinçer has BAs in Financial Markets and Investment Management at . He received PhD in Finance and Banking with his thesis entitled “The Effect of Changes on the Competitive Strategies of New Service Development in the Banking Sector.” He has work experience in the finance sector as portfolio specialist, and his major academic studies focus on financial instruments, performance evaluation, and economics. He is the executive editor of International Journal of Finance and Banking Studies (IJFBS) and a founding member of the Society for the Study of Business and Finance (SSBF).

Ümit Hacıoğlu is an assistant professor of Finance at Beykent University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Hacıoğlu has BAs in Business Administration and Inter- national Relations (2002). He received PhD in Finance and Banking with his thesis entitled “Effects of Conflict on Equity Performance.” Finance and banking, strategic management, and international political economy are the main pillars of his interdisciplinary studies. He is the executive editor of International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (IJRBS) and a founding member of the Society for the Study of Business and Finance (SSBF).

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Ulas Akkucuk is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Methods at Bogazici University Depart- ment of Management, Istanbul-Turkey. Dr. Akkucuk has a BS in Industrial Engineering from (1997), an MBA from Bogazici University (2000), and a PhD in Management Science and Information Systems from Rutgers University (2004). His research interests lie in the methodological development of multivariate techniques such as Clustering and Multidimensional Scaling and novel applications into fields including global competitiveness, CRM, and technology management. He has taught Statistics, CRM & Data Mining, and Global Marketing Research courses, among others, at both graduate and undergraduate levels. He is in the editorial board of International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (IJRBS) and has been an ad hoc reviewer for journals such as Journal of Multivariate Analysis and Bogazici Journal. He is a member of the Classification Society and Turkish Quality Foundation (KALDER). About the Contributors

Kemale Aslanova is a lecturer of Justice Program at Beykent University, Vocational School of Higher Education, in Istanbul, Turkey. She is also a PhD student in Private Law at Marmara University (Istanbul, Turkey). She received LL.M. in Private Law from Istanbul Kultur University, in 2009. Aslanova has BAs in Law at , in 2007. She is a specialist in the field of Obligation Law and Civil Law and has published works in these fields.

Benjamin Chijioke Asogwa is a Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. Dr. Asogwa has B.Agric in Agricultural Economics and Extension (First Class Hons) and M.Sc in Agricultural Econom- ics. He obtained his PhD degree in Agricultural Economics. He is the author of several articles published in reputed international journals and international conference proceedings. His special research interest include: production economics, agricultural marketing, farm management, agribusiness, agricultural policy, and development economics. He is currently the College Examination Officer, College of Agri- cultural Economics and Extension, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria.

Peter Iornum Ater holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in Agricultural Economics. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics at University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. Dr. Ater received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria and Doctoral degree in Agricultural Economics from Univer- sity of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. His research interests are in the areas of production economics, project monitoring and evaluation, farm management and agribusiness. Dr. Ater’s primary responsibility is teaching and research. He has therefore taught undergraduate and postgraduate students and carried out several researches, an activity he enjoys very much. Dr. Ater has taught Production Economics and other related subjects in some other disciplines. Dr. Ater has published many research papers and books in both local and international research outlets. He has authored several articles published in reputed local and international journals and conference proceedings. He has also consulted for a number of local and international organizations, UNDP inclusive. Dr Ater was the Director of Project Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Benue State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (BNARDA) for several years. Currently, he is the Head of Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. He loves listening to Christian music, reading current affairs, watching football, etc. He is happily married with children.

Amanda Blanco, M.S., is a recent graduate of the Personal and Financial Planning graduate cer- tificate program in the Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, within the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida. Her Masters thesis focused on “Racial Differences in Appropriate Mortgage Type Choice.” Blanco presented research on cultural differences in risk tolerance measurement at an international conference. She has received several awards includ- ing the 2010 American Council on Consumer Interests’ Young Professional conference award. Blanco has served in many leadership positions including student department representative for the Graduate Student Council at the University of Florida and Volunteer Coordinator for Gator Credit Spending and Help, or Gator C.A.S.H., a peer-to-peer financial mentoring program.

460 About the Contributors

Nursel Bolat graduated from Radio-Television and Cinema Department of . She completed her MA at Kocaeli University Social Sciences Institute. She worked as an assistant director at STV channel and worked as a lecturer at Kocaeli University. She has been working as a lecturer at since 2010. She published her book Medyada Milliyetçilik ve Şiddet “Medyada Milliyetçilik ve Ötekinin Yaratılması: Mc Carthy Döneminde Amerikan Milliyetçiliğinin Hollywood’a Yansıması ve Türkiye’yi Etkileme Süreci.” Her article, “Visual Discourse of the Clove: An Analysis on the Ottoman Tile Decoration Art,” appeared in International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, and she has presented her works of “Gelişim Süreci İçinde: Televizyonun Çocuklar Üzerindeki Etkileri,” “Mitoloji ve Sinema: Türk Sinemasında Kadın Oyuncu Rol Maskeleri,” “Mizah ve İkna: Televizyon Reklamlarında İkna Aracı Olarak Mizah” both in national and international workshops.

Charles Buonba is an MPhil Economics student at the Department of Economics, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. His areas of specialization are health economics and development economics. Charles is currently writing his MPhil thesis in the area of health economics. Charles was a teaching assistant at the Department in 2011. He is expected to complete his Masters programme in June 2013.

İsmail Erkan Çelik is an assistant professor of Finance at Beykent University. He received PhD in Finance and Banking with his thesis entitled “The Role of Investment Banks in Development.” He is the editor of International Journal of Finance and Banking Studies (IJFBS) and International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science.

Dilaysu Çınar is lecturer at Beykent University, teaching international marketing, total quality man- agement, and introduction to business at Vocational Studies. She has an MBA degree and completed her thesis entitled “Technical Analysis Methods for Stock Market: An Application on ISE.”

Zeynep Copur, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at , Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ankara, Turkey. Her BS is in Family and Consumer Sciences, and she received PhD in Family and Consumer Sciences with her thesis entitled “The Study of the Effect of Family Values on the Financial Practices.” Her research and teaching specialties include family resource management, family economics, consumer economics, fam- ily financial management, family relations, and family issues. Copur serves on the editorial boards for the Hacettepe University Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Journal of Family Issues. As a visiting scholar at the University of Florida, she had been actively working on several research projects with Dr. Michael S. Gutter, includes a co-authored publication on the financial management practices of college students and relationship between financial education, financial socialization and financial behaviors.

Ramesh Chandra Das has done Masters degree in Economics at Calcutta University. He has obtained the M. Phil degree from the same university. He has also obtained Ph.D award from the University of Calcutta on the aspects of allocation of commercial bank credit in Indian states. He is presently teach- ing economics at Katwa College, West Bengal, India, for about fourteen years and designated Associate Professor in the department. He has carried out several research projects in the field of banking. He has made several publications in different areas of environmental economics and the economics of banking

461 About the Contributors

and finance, governance, etc., including a book on Microeconomics. He has been one of the honorable members in the international editorial board of the Society for the Study in Banking and Finance (SSB- FNET) and acting as editor-in-chief of Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Manage- ment published by Asian Research consortium, India.

Engin Demirel is an Assistant Professor of Finance in the Faculty of Economics and Administra- tive Sciences at . He received his Masters degree (MA) in the field of Accounting and Finance in 2005 from Trakya University and Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Accounting and Finance in 2009 from Marmara University. He teaches finance courses at graduate and undergraduate levels. His research interests include financial markets and institutions, international finance and investor behaviour. Demirel has published four books, a book chapter and articles in national and international journals.

Soumyananda Dinda is currently an associate professor at the Department of Economics, Sidho Kanho Birsha University, West Bengal, India. Dr. Dinda served as faculty at CIMP, MSE, Bath Uni- versity, UK, and SRF College, Beldanga, Murshidabad. He served as guest lecturer in the Department of Economics, Presidency College, Kolkata, and also in the Department of Economics, University of Calcutta. He worked as economic affair officer at the UNESCAP, Bangkok. He was a research fellow at Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute. He has published several papers on Ecological Economics; Economics and Human Biology; Journal of Socio-Economics, South Asia Economic Jour- nal, Asian Journal of Research in Social Science & Humanities and International Journal of Global Environmental Issues. Dr. Dinda published one book, Environment and Development Trajectory: A Freshlook on Theory and Empirics (2009, Nova Science Inc., New York). He served as Guest Editor for IJGEnvIs Special Issue on EKC and Sustainable Development.

Hasan Eken was born to Mahmut and Latife Eken in Silopi, located in the Southeast of Turkey, in 1965. He received his BA in Economics from , M.Phil. in Finance from the Uni- versity of Exeter in 1992, and his Ph.D. in Banking from Marmara University in 1999. Having started his career as a banker, Dr. Eken worked for several Turkish banks during the period 1992-2003. While serving as a member of the board of a large private Turkish commercial bank, he joined academia in late 2003 as terminating his professional banking career. He is the author and co-author of several academic books and articles written in Turkish and English and he is also the author of two novels and a story book. Specialized in the area of asset/liability management in commercial banks, currently he works for Istanbul Commerce University as a professor of banking and finance. He is married with one child.

Jacqueline Adaku Ezihe holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in Agricultural Economics. She is a Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. Ezihe received her B.Sc., M.Sc., and Doctoral degrees in Agricultural Economics from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria. Her research interests are in the areas of Resource and Environmental Economics, Project Analysis and Agrimarketing. Ezihe’s primary responsibility is teaching and research. She has taught undergraduate and postgraduate students and carried out several researches. Ezihe has published many research papers in both local and international research outlets. She has authored several articles published in reputed local and international journals and conference proceedings. She loves listening to Christian music, reading current affairs, watching football, etc. She is happily married with children.

462 About the Contributors

A. Osman Gürbüz is currently working as a professor of banking and finance at Istanbul Commerce University. He received his PhD in finance from Marmara University. He worked as a visiting scholar at Purdue University (USA) and International American University (Cyprus). He is specialized on firm valuation, corporate governance and investment analysis. He has several books and articles in finance. At the present, he is the director of Foreign Trade Institute.

Michael Gutter is an Assistant Professor and Financial Management State Specialist for the Dept. of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, in the Institute for Food and Agricultural at the University of Florida. His BS is in Family Financial Management and his PhD is in Family Resource Management from The Ohio State University with a specialization in Finance. Gutter has received several awards including the 1999 Texas Instruments Award for an Outstanding Paper, 2001 ACCI Dissertation Award, 2003 School of Human Ecology Excellence in Outreach Service Award, and the 2008 American Council on Consumer Interests Mid-Career Award. Gutter is the current Vice President of the Florida Jumpstart Coalition and serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Consumer Education, and the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning. The common theme that connects Gutter’s Research, Teaching and Outreach is helping households achieve financial security.

Ali Kablan has a degree in accounting and finance teaching department at in 2003. He completed his MA in Accounting and Financing at Istanbul University in 2003. He received PhD in Accounting and Financing with his thesis entitled as “Accounting System at Municipalities and an Ap- plication” at the same university in 2012. Finance, accounting, financial statements, hedge accounting, IFRS are the main pillars of his interdisciplinary studies.

Süleyman Kale was born in Malatya in 1968. He received his B.Sc. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Middle East Technical University in 1992. After a year of education at Banking School of Ziraat Bankası, he started his career at treasury of the bank. Then he was appointed at different domestic and international departments and subsidiaries. Since 2003, he has been serving as branch manager. In parallel to his banking career, he received his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Banking and Finance. His research interest includes data envelopment analysis and asset valuation. He is also interested in international finance and fixed income securities. He is married with two children, Öykü and Umut.

Isaac Koomson is an Mphil. Economics student at the Department of Economics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Mr. Koomson has a BA in Economics (Social Sciences) degree which he obtained in 2011. He was a Teaching Assistant in the University of Cape Coast in the 2011/2012 academic year. His areas of interest are microfinance, international finance, and development economics.

Emeka Nkoro is a lecturer and a PhD student in the Department of Economics, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He has B.Sc in Economics and Statistics (2003). He received M.Sc in Economics (2010) with his thesis titled, “Determinants of Demand for Money Function in Nigeria.” He Specializes in Monetary Economics and Econometrics.

463 About the Contributors

Mustafa Okur is an assistant professor of finance at Marmara University, School of Banking & Insur- ance, Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Okur has BAs in Business Administration and master in Economics (2002). He received PhD in Accounting and Finance with his thesis entitled as “The Investment Behavior of Institutional Investors in Stock Exchange Markets: Evidence from İstanbul Stock Exchange.” Finance, international finance, and investment are the main pillars of his interdisciplinary studies.

Özlem Olgu is an assistant professor of accounting and finance at Koç University, College of Administrative Sciences and Economics, Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Olgu is the author of Turkish Banking: Banking under Political Instability and Chronic High Inflation! (with Altunbaş and Kara) and European Banking: Enlargement, Structural Changes and Recent Developments. She has also published several book chapters and research articles on FDI, efficiency, productivity and banking sector. She is Fellow of British Academy and referee of various leading journals.

Nazife Orhan is an English lecturer at Beykent University, School of Foreign Languages, Istanbul, Turkey. Orhan has BAs in International Relations and English Language and Literature (2006). She fin- ished her MA in Business Administration with her thesis entitled “The Effects of Emotional Intelligence and Innovative Work Behaviors on Job Satisfaction in the Banking Sector” in 2012.

James Atta Peprah is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Economics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He holds MPhil in Economics and Bilingual MBA (Banking and Finance). His areas of research include development economics, financial market and institution in developing countries, microfinance, growth and development as well as small scale enterprise studies. James has a number of publications that focus on SMEs, microfinance, and poverty in Ghana. He is currently writing his PhD thesis on the topic, “Income and Non-Income Outcomes of Microfinance in Ghana.” He is also a mem- ber of the Ghana National Microfinance Forum. Professionally, James is a partly qualified accountant.

Ben Jabeur Sami was born on June 1, 1979, in Tunisia. He received his Masters degree in Econo- metrics in 2003. Then, he received his Master of Research in Management Sciences: Applied Statistics for Management in 2006 from the Higher Institute of Management of Sousse. He is independent speaker in French universities. He received his PhD in Finance with his thesis entitled “Status of Bankruptcy in Financial Theory: Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Validations in the French Context” from the University of South, Toulon-Var. He served as a member of the French Association of Finance (AFFI). Since September 2009, he was a teacher in the institute of management in the university of southern Brit- tany. He taught Portfolio Theory and Management, Organizational Approach of Management Control, and Financial Analysis. He has many professional experiences From 2011 to 2013 he was an Assistant Professor in IESEG Lille School of Management he teached Introduction to Econometrics, Introduc- tion to Data Analysis, and Introduction to Operational Research. He is interested in finance, quantitive methods applied for management, and datamining.

Hüseyin Selimler was born in Akhisar/Manisa in 1967. He received his BA in Public Finance from Marmara University in 1989 and his MA in Public Finance from Istanbul University in 1997 and his Ph.D. in Banking from Marmara University in 2006 with his thesis entitled “Liquidation of Non-Performing Loans in Turkish Banking Sector through Asset Management Companies: Selected Countries and Turkey

464 About the Contributors

Applications.” He started his career at Emlakbank’s Board of Inspectors and continued at Ziraat Bank. After serving, he was appointed as Regional Manager and was responsible for Marketing and Retail Banking Departments. He has been continuing his duty as Branch Manager at Ziraat Bank in Istanbul since 2010. He is co-author of several academic books and articles about bank accounting and banking. He has been giving courses at Kadir Has and Marmara Universities as lecturer. He is married to Özlem and has one son, Meriç Alpar.

Nurdan Oncel Taskiran has been working for Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Faculty of Communi- cation, Radio Cinema and Television Department since 2001. She has been an Associate Professor in Applied Communication Sciences since 2007 December. She has written two books, one of which is on media literacy researches in Turkey, and the other, which proposes some scriptwriting methodologies for television serials, is titled “Aliye: The New Image of Contemporary Female Minds.” Her researches are primarily on popular culture products and media literacy. She also has researches on Semiology as a means of communication and advertising communication and decoding visual arts via Iconography. She is interested in distance learning as well, as a way of communication related with semiotics, as a part of human perception and signification. She has a keen interest on animal communication. She has papers, articles, and translations published in national and international journals. She has been giving courses on graduate and post graduate levels at Kocaeli University.

Sibel Yılmaz Türkmen is a teaching assistant of Finance in the Faculty of Business Administration at Marmara University. She has been a part of the academic staff of Marmara University since 2000. She received her master’s degree (MA) and Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Accounting and Finance, in 2001 and 2006, respectively, both from Marmara University. She teaches finance courses at graduate and undergraduate levels and her research interests are in the areas of corporate finance, financial markets and institutions and international finance. She has published a book and book chapters and articles in national and international journals.

Aham Kelvin Uko is a PhD student in the Department of Economics, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He obtained his B.Sc in Banking and Finance, MBA in Banking and Finance and MBA in Mar- keting. He obtained M.Sc in Economics (2010). He specializes in Monetary Economics and Finance. He has also attended several Advanced Educational Courses at the Lagos Business School, Harvard Business School, USA, and Institute for Management Development (IMD). He was the former MD/CEO of United Bank For Africa (Sierra Leone) Ltd. He is currently the MD/CEO of Prudent Engineering Services Ltd.

Sani Madi Yakubu is a postgraduate student in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Univer- sity of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria.

Emrah Yilmaz is currently a PhD student in Business at Koc University. His research areas include portfolio optimization in financial services, cross selling of banking products, structural changes in banking sector and effects of FDIs in emerging countries. He has a MA degree in Economics from Koc University. He graduated from with a major of Economics and minor of mathematics. He has also worked as management consultant in various sectors before pursuing a career in academia.

465 About the Contributors

Recep Yilmaz is a lecturer in Vocational High School of Beykent University, Istanbul, Turkey. He is a graduate of PR and Publicity Department of Konya Selcuk University and got his MA degree from Journalism in Kocaeli University with his thesis titled “Illocutionary Impacts of the Newspapers in Construction of Social Reality” in 2008 and now has been studying for his doctoral thesis in Com- munication Sciences at Kocaeli University. His studies are primarily on communication philosophy, advertising communication, public journalism, visual culture, and discourse analysis methodologies. He has given courses on Decoding Advertisements, Advertising Language, Discourse Analysis, Media and Media Strategies, Scriptwriting for Advertising and Film Production, Public Relations, Scriptwriting for Public Relations, Photography and Basic Optics, Visual Graphic Design, and Visual Communication Applications. He aims to bring up fellows to be employed in communication related fields.

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