scholarly journals Recovery and exit of zombie firms in Portugal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Carreira ◽  
Paulino Teixeira ◽  
Ernesto Nieto-Carrillo
Keyword(s):  
Labour Productivity ◽  
English Summary ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Resource Misallocation ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Percent Recovery ◽  
Restructuring Strategy ◽  
Probability Of Transition ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThe resources sunk in zombie firms have risen over the last two decades, hampering productivity growth in developed economies. In this paper, we examine the recovery and exit of zombie firms among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), as well as the determinants of these transitions. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the determinants of the probability of a zombie recovering or exiting in a European context. The study also contributes to the discussion of the definition of zombie firms. Based on a panel of Portuguese manufacturing and services firms covering the 2004–2017 period, we do find a widespread presence of zombies. As expected, they are relatively less productive than non-zombies, while the probability of transition into recovery and exit is relatively low, which we interpret as evidence in favour of the presence of high barriers to firm mobility. In turn, the regression results show that downsizing and restructuring, as well as debt restructuring, are crucial in enhancing recovery of zombie firms. These are non-trivial results from the perspective of managers and policy makers. We performed several exercises using alternative definitions of zombie firms and estimation techniques and found that our findings are robust.Plain English Summary A 1% decline in the share of highly indebted and unprofitable firms (i.e. zombies) is estimated to increase the average labour productivity by 3.1 percent. Recovery of zombies in particular can be enhanced by downsizing and restructuring. Based on a very large panel of Portuguese small- and medium-sized manufacturing and services firms, covering the 2004–2017 period, we do find a widespread presence of zombie firms. Moreover, the chance of these firms to recover or exit is relatively low, an evidence of the presence of high barriers to firm mobility and resource misallocation. Our results have important managerial and policy implications: (1) a coordinated and holistic restructuring strategy (technological, operational and debt-related) is crucial to increase the likelihood of recovery of weak companies; (2) governments should formulate an adequate institutional framework in order to strengthen the selection of zombie firms, namely by designing more reallocation-friendly insolvency regimes and discouraging creditors to refinance unviable firms.

KEBIJAKAN POLITIK KERUKUNAN ANTARAGAMA DI INDONESIA ERA REFORMASI

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-424
Author(s):  
Jamaluddin Jamaluddin
Keyword(s):  
Transition Period ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
New Order ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Accommodation Space ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Cultural Reality

Indonesian reformation era begins with the fall of President Suharto. Political transition and democratic transition impact in the religious life. Therefore, understandably, when the politic transition is not yet fully reflects the idealized conditions. In addition to the old paradigm that is still attached to the brain of policy makers, various policies to mirror the complexity of stuttering ruler to answer the challenges of religious life. This challenge cannot be separated from the hegemonic legacy of the past, including the politicization of SARA. Hegemony that took place during the New Order period, adversely affected the subsequent transition period. It seems among other things, with airings various conflicts nuances SARA previously muted, forced repressive. SARA issues arise as a result of the narrowing of the accommodation space of the nation state during the New Order regime. The New Order regime has reduced the definition of nation-states is only part of a group of people loyal to the government to deny the diversity of socio-cultural reality in it. To handle the inheritance, every regime in the reform era responds with a pattern and a different approach. It must be realized, that the post-reform era, Indonesia has had four changes of government. The leaders of every regime in the reform era have a different background and thus also have a vision that is different in treating the problem of racial intolerance, particularly against religious aspect. This treatment causes the accomplishment difference each different regimes of dealing with the diversity of race, religion and class that has become the hallmark of Indonesian society.

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Microfinance - A Case of Rural Bangladesh

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Saida Parvin
Keyword(s):  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Case Study Method ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Donor Agencies ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Women’s empowerment has been at the centre of research focus for many decades. Extant literature examined the process, outcome and various challenges. Some claimed substantial success, while others contradicted with evidence of failure. But the success remains a matter of debate due to lack of empirical evidence of actual empowerment of women around the world. The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a case study method. The study critically evaluates 20 cases carefully sampled to include representatives from the entire country of Bangladesh. The study demonstrates popular beliefs about microfinance often misguide even the borrowers and they start living in a fabricated feeling of empowerment, facing real challenges to achieve true empowerment in their lives. The impact of this finding is twofold; firstly there is a theoretical contribution, where the definition of women’s empowerment is proposed to be revisited considering findings from these cases. And lastly, the policy makers at governmental and non-governmental organisations, and multinational donor agencies need to revise their assessment tools for funding.

What Makes a City Bikeable? A Study of Intercity and Intracity Patterns of Bicycle Ridership using Mobike Big Data Records

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Ying Long ◽  
Jianting Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Average Distance ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Rating System ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Usage Frequency ◽  
Share Data ◽  
The City

This paper examines how mass ridership data can help describe cities from the bikers' perspective. We explore the possibility of using the data to reveal general bikeability patterns in 202 major Chinese cities. This process is conducted by constructing a bikeability rating system, the Mobike Riding Index (MRI), to measure bikeability in terms of usage frequency and the built environment. We first investigated mass ridership data and relevant supporting data; we then established the MRI framework and calculated MRI scores accordingly. This study finds that people tend to ride shared bikes at speeds close to 10 km/h for an average distance of 2 km roughly three times a day. The MRI results show that at the street level, the weekday and weekend MRI distributions are analogous, with an average score of 49.8 (range 0–100). At the township level, high-scoring townships are those close to the city centre; at the city level, the MRI is unevenly distributed, with high-MRI cities along the southern coastline or in the middle inland area. These patterns have policy implications for urban planners and policy-makers. This is the first and largest-scale study to incorporate mobile bike-share data into bikeability measurements, thus laying the groundwork for further research.

scholarly journals Small firms and the COVID-19 insolvency gap

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Oliver Dörr ◽  
Georg Licht ◽  
Simona Murmann
Keyword(s):  
Financial Distress ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
English Summary ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Large Wave ◽  
Using Data

AbstractCOVID-19 placed a special role on fiscal policy in rescuing companies short of liquidity from insolvency. In the first months of the crisis, SMEs as the backbone of Germany’s economy benefited from large and mainly indiscriminate aid measures. Avoiding business failures in a whatever-it-takes fashion contrasts, however, with the cleansing mechanism of economic crises: a mechanism which forces unviable firms out of the market, thereby reallocating resources efficiently. By focusing on firms’ pre-crisis financial standing, we estimate the extent to which the policy response induced an insolvency gap and analyze whether the gap is characterized by firms which were already struggling before the pandemic. With the policy measures being focused on smaller firms, we also examine whether this insolvency gap differs with respect to firm size. Our results show that the COVID-19 policy response in Germany has triggered a backlog of insolvencies that is particularly pronounced among financially weak, small firms, having potential long-term implications on entrepreneurship and economic recovery.Plain English Summary This study analyzes the extent to which the strong policy support to companies in the early phase of the COVID-19 crisis has prevented a large wave of corporate insolvencies. Using data of about 1.5 million German companies, it is shown that it was mainly smaller firms that experienced strong financial distress and would have gone bankrupt without policy assistance. In times of crises, insolvencies usually allow for a reallocation of employees and capital to more efficient firms. However, the analysis reveals that this ‘cleansing effect’ is hampered in the current crisis as the largely indiscriminate granting of liquidity subsidies and the temporary suspension of the duty to file for insolvency have caused an insolvency gap that is driven by firms which were already in a weak financial position before the crisis. Overall, the insolvency gap is estimated to affect around 25,000 companies, a substantial number compared to the around 16,300 actual insolvencies in 2020. In the ongoing crisis, policy makers should prefer instruments favoring entrepreneurs who respond innovatively to the pandemic instead of prolonging the survival of near-insolvent firms.

Value assessment of antimicrobials and the implications for development, access, and funding of effective treatments: Australian stakeholder perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Nadine T. Hillock ◽  
Tracy L. Merlin ◽  
Jonathan Karnon ◽  
John Turnidge ◽  
Jaklin Eliott
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Healthcare Resource ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Value Assessment ◽  
Antimicrobial Drugs ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Stakeholder Perspective ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Potential Use

Abstract Background The frameworks used by Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agencies for value assessment of medicines aim to optimize healthcare resource allocation. However, they may not be effective at capturing the value of antimicrobial drugs. Objectives To analyze stakeholder perceptions regarding how antimicrobials are assessed for value for reimbursement purposes and how the Australian HTA framework accommodates the unique attributes of antimicrobials in cost-effectiveness evaluation. Methods Eighteen individuals representing the pharmaceutical industry or policy-makers were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and thematically analyzed. Results Key emergent themes were that reimbursement decision-making should consider the antibiotic spectrum when assessing value, risk of shortages, the impact of procurement processes on low-priced comparators, and the need for methodological transparency when antimicrobials are incorporated into the economic evaluation of other treatments. Conclusions Participants agreed that the current HTA framework for antimicrobial value assessment is inadequate to properly inform funding decisions, as the contemporary definition of cost-effectiveness fails to explicitly incorporate the risk of future resistance. Policy-makers were uncertain about how to incorporate future resistance into economic evaluations without a systematic method to capture costs avoided due to good stewardship. Lacking financial reward for the benefits of narrower-spectrum antimicrobials, companies will likely focus on developing broad-spectrum agents with wider potential use. The perceived risks of shortages have influenced the funding of generic antimicrobials in Australia, with policy-makers suggesting a willingness to pay more for assured supply. Although antibiotics often underpin the effectiveness of other medicines, it is unclear how this is incorporated into economic models.

scholarly journals Entrepreneurial intention: An analysis of the role of Student-Led Entrepreneurial Organizations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano Sansone ◽  
Elisa Ughetto ◽  
Paolo Landoni
Keyword(s):  
Entrepreneurial Intention ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Student Entrepreneurship ◽  
Entrepreneurial Organizations ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

AbstractAlthough a great deal of attention has been paid to entrepreneurship education, only a few studies have analysed the impact of extra-curricular entrepreneurial activities on students’ entrepreneurial intention. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the role played by Student-Led Entrepreneurial Organizations (SLEOs) in shaping the entrepreneurial intention of their members. The analysis is based on a survey that was conducted in 2016 by one of the largest SLEOs in the world: the Junior Enterprises Europe (JEE). The main result of the empirical analysis is that the more time students spent on JEE and the higher the number of events students attended, the greater their entrepreneurial intention was. It has been found that other important drivers also increase students’ entrepreneurial intention, that is, the Science and Technology field of study and the knowledge of more than two foreign languages. These results confirm that SLEOs are able to foster students’ entrepreneurial intention. The findings provide several theoretical, practical and public policy implications. SLEOs are encouraged to enhance their visibility and lobbying potential in order to be recognized more as drivers of student entrepreneurship. In addition, it is advisable for universities and policy makers to support SLEOs by fostering their interactions with other actors operating in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, who promote entrepreneurship and technology transfer activities. Lastly, this paper advises policy makers to assist SLEOs’ activities inside and outside the university context.

Tourism Productivity Theory and Measurement for Policy Implications: The Case of Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-266
Author(s):  
Tien Duc Pham
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Average Growth ◽  
Multifactor Productivity ◽  
Capital Productivity ◽  
Productivity Theory

Tourism productivity measures are quite diverse, not always compatible and usually based partly on labor productivity for hotels and restaurants. This article develops a holistic approach that integrates the principles of the growth accounting framework and tourism satellite account to measure multifactor productivity, labor productivity and capital productivity for the Australian tourism industry. This study shows that tourism has been identified as a reservoir for other industries through the ebbs and flows of labor demands. Compared with the rest of the economy, the average growth of labor productivity—that is, income per unit of labor—for tourism is stagnant, and has reached an unprecedented low, six times below the market sector average, mainly because of low multifactor productivity. The results are valuable for policy makers and the lobbying groups wanting to identify areas of need for policy changes to ensure the healthy long-term growth of tourism.

Territorial capital as a company intangible

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariachiara Barzotto ◽  
Giancarlo Corò ◽  
Mario Volpe
Keyword(s):  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Capital Growth ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
A Company

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to explore to what extent being located in a territory is value-relevant for a company. Second, to understand if a company is aware of, and how it can sustain, the territorial tangible and intangible assets present in the economic area in which it is located. Design/methodology/approach – The study presents an empirical multiple case-study, investigating ten mid-/large-sized Italian companies in manufacturing sectors. Findings – The results indicate that the sampled manufacturing companies are intertwined with the environment in which they are embedded, both in their home country and in host ones. The domestic territorial capital has provided, and still provides, enterprises with workers endowed with the necessary technical skills that they can have great difficulty in finding in other places. In turn, companies support territorial capital generation through their activities. Research limitations/implications – To increase the generalisability of the results, future research should expand the sample and examine firms based in different countries and sectors. Practical implications – Implications for policy makers: developing effective initiatives to support and guide a sustainable territorial capital growth. Implications for managers and investors: improving managerial and investors’ decisions by disclosing a complete picture of the enterprise, also outside the firm boundaries. Originality/value – The study contributes to intangibles/intellectual capital literature by shedding light on the importance of including territorial capital in a company’s report to improve the definition of the firm’s value. Accounting of the territorial capital would increase the awareness of the socio-economic environment value in which companies are located and its use.

From an emic perspective: Exploring consent in forced marriage law

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Sowey
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Marriage Law ◽  
Forced Marriage ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Emic Perspective ◽  
The Uk

Forced marriage was criminalised in Australia in March 2013, putting the issue on the agenda of policy-makers and social service providers. Increasingly, however, it is being recognised that criminal laws alone cannot address the practice; protective and preventative strategies are also needed. This paper argues that strategies to address forced marriage will be most effective if they are informed by contextualised and emic understandings of the phenomenon, that is, by the perspectives of individuals, families and communities who are directly affected by forced marriage. Primary research is required to obtain such perspectives. Research into forced marriage in Australia is still in its infancy, and primary research is almost non-existent. This paper, then, looks to primary research from the UK and other comparable Western multicultural nations, offering a critique of this body of literature before drawing out what is revealed about why marriages are forced, how marriages are forced, and what people in forced marriage situations want. The implications of criminal prosecution are then considered in light of this emic understanding. The legal definition of forced marriage hinges on the concept of consent: it is consent that distinguishes an arranged marriage from a forced one. In the UK, the notion of consent has been robustly problematised. However this is not the case in Australia at present, and this paper critiques the value of the concept of consent given the social contexts of forced marriage described above. The implications of this critique for the application of Australia’s forced marriage law are then considered. Finally, from a place of contextualised and emic understanding of forced marriage, this paper considers how protective and preventative strategies might be enhanced.

“Small town” entrepreneurial ecosystems

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip T. Roundy
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems ◽  
Economic Landscape

Purpose Entrepreneurial ecosystems are receiving growing attention from scholars, practitioners and policy-makers in both developed and developing countries. Studies of this phenomenon have focused almost exclusively on ecosystems in large, urbanized regions and metropolitan areas, located primarily in developed economies. However, the prevalence of small cities across the globe and the increasing acknowledgment that entrepreneurship in small towns is a key determinant of their economic development and rejuvenation suggests that entrepreneurial ecosystems research would benefit from a broader lens of inquiry. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework for studying entrepreneurial ecosystems in small towns. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper introduces the concept of small town entrepreneurial ecosystems (STEEs), draws from a wide-ranging set of disciplines to delineate the ways in which small town ecosystems are similar to and different than their larger counterparts and theorizes about several strategies STEEs use to overcome their limitations. Findings It is theorized that entrepreneurship in small cities is best conceptualized as the outcome of an ecosystem, which means that although small towns may not have some of the same key components as entrepreneurial ecosystems in large urban centers, other elements of the ecosystem may be able to bolster these deficiencies. It also suggests that those attempting to create or develop small town ecosystems may need to be entrepreneurial in the way they attract, view and utilize resources. Finally, it is theorized that small cities may be able to engage in several strategies to overcome their limitations and create vibrant entrepreneurial communities. Originality/value The theory developed produces implications for scholars focused on entrepreneurial ecosystems, economic development and emerging economies and suggests practical implications for policy-makers and development organizations seeking to improve the economic landscape of small cities.

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