Ephraim Matanda

This book caters to a diverse audience, including students and lecturers in higher education, and professionals in banking, real estate, financial asset management, and provident fund organizations. Fund management is the comprehensive oversight of an entity's financial resources and cash flow, ensuring the strategic deployment of assets for maximum efficiency and profitability. This discipline covers both tangible and intangible assets. In banking, a key function is aligning deposit maturity schedules with loan demands, requiring a deep understanding of liabilities and assets to optimize credit extension. Fund managers are crucial for ensuring liquidity, enabling financial institutions to offer credit and drive economic growth. They must meticulously analyse cost and risk to capitalize on cash flow opportunities. Their role is vital for national development, contributing to poverty eradication and reducing economic reliance on borrowed capital. Expertise in portfolio exposures and investment diversification is therefore essential. While often associated with financial investment management for clients, fund management is broader, encompassing financial, infrastructure, business, and public sectors. It can be classified by client type (business, corporate, personal) or investment type. Some funds are managed by hedge fund specialists using complex instruments. Fund management is a far-reaching financial discipline, tracking funds across all economic sectors.

This book is on research methods and statistics for cross-cutting research. Framed from a multi-disciplinary perspective, the book presents and grapples with research methods and approaches used in research across disciplines.