Socio-demographic drivers of the risk-taking propensity of micro farmers

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 569-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jindrich Spicka
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Financial Instruments ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Purpose Risk attitude is an elementary attribute of entrepreneurial behaviour. Determinants of risk-taking propensity have been widely investigated in the group of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs so far. There is a lack of evidence on determinants of risk-taking propensity in the farming business, which is considered as risky business because of the ongoing climate change and epidemic outbreaks. Alternatively, the risk of lower European Union budget raised the question, how to implement publicly supported financial instruments for micro and small farmers which have lower credit rating. The purpose of this study is to find socio-demographic determinants of the risk-taking propensity of the Czech micro farms, controlling for the type of farming. Design/methodology/approach The survey of 747 micro farmers was processed through ordinal logistic regression. The study is based on the subjective self-assessment of the risk-taking behaviour which is frequently used to measure risk-taking attitude. The results are representative from the type of farming point of view. Findings The model provided clear evidence that age, household size, living with the partner/wife/husband and level of education have a significant relationship with risk-taking propensity. The most risk-tolerant farmers are young with less formal education and living in small households. The risk-taking propensity varies by the type of farming. Specialized crop farms have significantly higher risk-taking propensity than farms with a substantial share of livestock production. Alternatively, gender, feeling about household income and religion are not significantly related to the risk-taking propensity of the Czech micro farms. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of the study is the number of explanatory variables and the use of self-assessment of risk-taking attitude. The risk attitude can be explained by other variables which require in-depth qualitative research, such as past risk experience, the structure of decision problems, market orientation and operation under subsistence conditions. Practical implications The significant determinants of risk-taking attitude of micro farmers are important for banks, the Czech Support and Guarantee Fund for Farmers and Forestry and for policymakers who design the rules for post-2020 common agricultural policy. The study is original and valuable for the Central and Eastern European countries’ implementation of financial instruments as new rules for investment support are being prepared and research on the risk-taking attitude of the most vulnerable segment of farmers has not been conducted. Originality/value The originality of this study is from the perspective of agricultural sector as well as from the micro farms point of view. The results have commercial and political implications. Younger farmers, singles and lower-educated farmers have significantly higher risk-taking propensity and can be potentially risky clients for banks. Such farmers represent the financial gap in the credit market, and their viable development projects could be subject for implementation of financial instruments co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development in the forthcoming programming period past 2020.

scholarly journals Anti-racist actions and accountability: not more empty promises

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 775-786
Author(s):  
C. Malik Boykin ◽  
N. Derek Brown ◽  
James T. Carter ◽  
Kristin Dukes ◽  
Dorainne J. Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Black People ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Police Brutality ◽  
Physiological Effects ◽  
Joint Effort ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Motivation ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe current piece summarizes five critical points about racism from the point of view of Black scholars and allies: (1) Black people are experiencing exhaustion from and physiological effects of racism, (2) racism extends far beyond police brutality and into most societal structures, (3) despite being the targets of racism, Black people are often blamed for their oppression and retaliated against for their response to it, (4) everyone must improve their awareness and knowledge (through both formal education and individual motivation) to fight racism and (5) anti-racist policies and accountability are key to enact structural reformation.FindingsThe first three of these points detail the depths of the problem from the perspectives of the authors and the final two lay out a call to action.Practical implicationsThis viewpoint is the joint effort of 14 authors who provided a unified perspective.Originality/valueThis was one of the most original experiences the authors have had – working with 13 former/current students on joint perspectives about police brutality and racism more generally. The authors thank for the opportunity.

The performance and corporate risk-taking of firms: evidence from Malaysian agricultural firms

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanis Hazwani Ahmad ◽  
Adilah Azhari
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Random Effect ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Corporate Risk

PurposeThis study explores the effects of the performance and corporate risk-taking behaviour of agricultural firms. Despite its importance in mitigating climate change, the agricultural sector also faces global competition, market liberalisation, rapid technological advances and the starter of stricter quality and safety procedures, all of which require firms to take greater risks.Design/methodology/approachThis study explores this relationship by applying generalised least square (GLS), random effect methodologies (REM) and generalised method of moments (GMM).FindingsThe findings report a favourable relationship between firm performance and corporate risk-taking using a sample of firms from an emerging market.Research limitations/implicationsThe effects of these results for management practice and recommendations for further research were examined.Originality/valueWhile this empirical study used a sample focused on a single industry, most previous studies focused on multiple industries. The originality of this study is its analysis of how firm performance affects corporate risk-taking in the Malaysian agriculture sector.

Performance outcome of entrepreneurial behavior of SMEs in a developing economy: the role of international mindset

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Agyapong ◽  
Patience Dakora Maaledidong ◽  
Henry Kofi Mensah
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeDespite the burgeoning stream of research on the relationship between entrepreneurial behavior (EB) and performance, the linkage between entrepreneurial behaviour, international mindset and performance is still underexplored. Therefore, this study investigates how the international mindset moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial behavior and performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study's model is tested on a sample of 257 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging economy – Ghana – using a three-stage least squares estimator.FindingsResults indicate that an international mindset primarily fosters entrepreneurial behavior in driving performance over and above the unique positive contributions of entrepreneurial behavior and international mindset. Specifically, the study finds that at high levels of international mindset, the positive effects of innovativeness and risk-taking elements of entrepreneurial behavior becomes strengthened. The international mindset's moderating role on the entrepreneurial behavior-performance linkage shows that the international mindset makes SMEs more innovative and open to risk, hence affecting performance positively.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates that, in the SME sector in the emerging economies, the relationship between the individual dimensions of entrepreneurial behavior and performance is contingent upon the role international mindset play in such a relationship. Further, this study explores how international mindset interacts uniquely with the EB (innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness) to predict performance.

scholarly journals Business advisory services and risk among start-ups and young companies: a gender perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kremel ◽  
Darush Yazdanfar
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Gender Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Advisory Services ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Start Ups

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the demand for business advisory services by owners of start-ups and young companies by taking a gender perspective. The study also examines whether risk-taking is more characteristic of masculine than feminine behaviour in this context. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review examines business advisory services and risk aversion from a gender perspective. The empirical data are derived from interviews with owners of more than 2,700 start-ups and young companies in Sweden. A number of key variables compare how the company owners (women and men) view business advisory services as a way to overcome risk and to gain access to information in networks. Several statistical tests are used to analyse these data. Findings – Women owners of start-ups and young companies use more and different business advisory services than men owners. There are differences among the men owners and women owners with regard to the amount of start-up capital, company size and industry sector. Given the risks associated with start-up, business advisory services are important to women in helping them reduce their risk in the start-up and early stages of their companies. Research limitations/implications – Companies in Sweden’s largest city, Stockholm, were not included in the sample. Financial data were not used as variables. Practical implications – Policymakers should address women owners’ greater demand for business advisory services in their companies’ early stages. Originality/value – This study’s originality is its gender perspective on the demand for business advisory services by start-ups and young companies and its challenge to previous findings about entrepreneurial behaviour and risk-taking.

Life-creating education: new educational meanings in modern world

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Lyz ◽  
Anna Opryshko
Keyword(s):  
Education System ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to show the impossibility of teaching an individual to live and realize their potential in a modern dynamic environment by being within an artificial education system and explore the idea of life-creating education. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on the models of future education and community. Education is viewed from the position of a student’s ability to self-realize in the modern world. This paper relies on the analyses of basic characteristics of formal education, the challenges to it from the point of view of contemporaneous society and the main routes to improve education. Findings An artificial education system with its translation of a stable experience model is obsolete. Formal education does not provide an individual with the necessary life experience. Learners’ interest and involvement into cognitive activity; joint creative activity and production of personal knowledge; self-determination; and personal fulfilment are the main features of life-creating education. It involves the whole society into learning, modifies teachers’ functions and requires developing flexible management tools. Originality/value This original work shows basic principles of life-creating education and maps the way forward. The represented results will be useful for developing new models of education improvement.

scholarly journals The predictive power of farmers’ risk attitude measures elicited by experimental methods

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. e0110
Author(s):  
José A. Gómez-Limón ◽  
M. Dolores Guerrero-Baena ◽  
Sandra M. Sánchez-Cañizares
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Statistical Correlation ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Attitude Measures

Aim of study: Farmers’ behavior is shaped by their individual attitudes towards risk. Consequently, an understanding of the heterogeneous risk attitudes among farmers is key to predicting their decision-making. Therefore, there is a need for reliable methods to assess individuals’ risk attitudes. The main objective of this paper was to contribute to the existing literature about the external validity of risk attitude measures obtained with diverse experimental methods.Area of study: Irrigated agriculture in a Mediterranean climate region.Material and methods: Two different experimental methods widely applied in the agricultural sector were used to elicit farmers’ risk attitudes in a sample of irrigators in southern Spain: the Eckel and Grossman lottery-choice task and a self-assessment general risk question. We evaluated the explanatory power of both measures for the farming risk borne by farmers, using an approach based on dispersion measures of farming returns.Main results: Results revealed stability across these elicitation methods, but the study yielded no evidence of statistical correlation with the farming risk actually borne by farmers, suggesting that it may not be advisable to use these methods for directly predicting farmers’ decision-making in modeling exercises.Research highlights: The most relevant innovation of this paper was the validation approach followed, based on measures assessing the overall level of farming risk borne by individual producers, and the complementary analyses controlling for key variables that could affect farmer risk-taking.

Corporate risk-taking after changes in credit rating

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hardjo Koerniadi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Firm Risk ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Event Risk ◽  
Effect Regression ◽  
Investment Grade ◽  
Corporate Risk ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate corporate risk-taking following changes in firms' credit ratings (CR) and the mechanisms the firms use in implementing the risk-taking.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs fixed-effect regression models to examine risk-taking behaviour after firms experience changes in CR after their ratings are downgraded to the lower edge of the investment grade rating (i.e. BBB-) and after their CRs are downgraded below the investment rating.FindingsThe paper finds that, whilst in general, changes in CR are negatively associated with post-event risk-taking, firms downgraded to BBB- do not increase their risk-taking. Only when firms are rated below this grade, firms significantly increase their risk-taking, suggesting that the association between downgrades in CR and firm risk-taking following the event is not linear. Further analysis suggests that these downgraded firms do not increase research and development (R&D) expenses or capital expenditures but employ long-term debt as their risk-taking mechanism.Practical implicationsThe findings of the paper have practical implications for investors considering investing in downgraded-rating firms to shareholders of such firms and especially to those overseeing the firms' risk-taking policies.Originality/valueThe study fills the gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence on corporate risk-taking after changes in CR and also contributes to the optimal debt-maturity choice literature.

LEGAL, MORAL AND ETHICAL SIDE OF THE OFFENSE, DISCREDITING HONOR EMPLOYEE THE PENAL SYSTEM

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-218
Author(s):  
OKSANA KOCHKINA ◽  
◽  
OLGA MARCHUK ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Penal System ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Executive System ◽  
Correction System

The article examines the legal and moral and ethical aspects of a misdemeanor that discredits the honor of an employee of the criminal Executive system. The considered reason for dismissal has the main feature associated with the integration of legal and moral norms, which often raises a lot of questions about the attribution of a particular offense to this basis. Using the analysis of normative legal acts, the authors attempt to identify the signs that contribute to the separation of the studied grounds for dismissal from all their diversity. The classification of offenses that discredit the honor of an employee of the criminal Executive system is presented, which allows to systematize and organize the knowledge obtained about the considered grounds for dismissal. The analysis of a misdemeanor that defames the honor of an employee of the penal system from a moral and ethical position gives an understanding, first of all, that it does not have a clear regulation from the point of view of the law, but the consequences of committing such a misdemeanor are clearly legal. The concepts of “honor” and “dignity” are considered as ethical categories and are analyzed as personal qualities that are manifested in an employee of the penal correction system during the period of service. These categories in the behavior of a person or employee are manifested both externally (assessment from the outside) and internally (self-assessment). The article describes the value orientation of an employee of the criminal Executive system to ethical standards in professional activity, which is an integral part of the moral and ethical side of a misdemeanor that discredits the honor of an employee.

scholarly journals The Learning to Learn Competence in Early Childhood Preservice Teachers: An Outdoor and e/m-Learning Experience in the Museum

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Daniel Abril-López ◽  
Hortensia Morón-Monge ◽  
María del Carmen Morón-Monge ◽  
María Dolores López Carrillo
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Learning To Learn ◽  
Outdoor Experience ◽  
Outdoor Experiences

This study was developed with Early Childhood Preservice Teachers within the framework of the Teaching and Learning of Social Sciences over three academic years (2017–2018, 2018–2019, and 2019–2020) at the University of Alcalá. The main objective was to improve the learning to learn competence during teacher training from an outdoor experience at the Museum of Guadalajara (Spain), using e/m-learning tools (Blackboard Learn, Google Forms, QR codes, and websites) and the inquiry-based learning approach. To ascertain the level of acquisition of this competence in those teachers who were being trained, their self-perception—before and after—of the outdoor experience was assessed through a system of categories adapted from the European Commission. The results show a certain improvement in this competence in Early Childhood Preservice Teachers. Additionally, this outdoor experience shows the insufficient educational adaptation of the museum to the early childhood education stage from a social sciences point of view. Finally, we highlight the importance of carrying out outdoor experiences from an inquiry-based education approach. These outdoor experiences should be carried out in places like museums to encourage contextualized and experiential learning of the youngest in formal education.

Values and career behaviours of entrepreneurs and employees

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1607-1625
Author(s):  
Anita Gaile ◽  
Ilona Baumane-Vitolina ◽  
Erika Sumilo ◽  
Daina Skiltere ◽  
Ricardo Martin Flores
Keyword(s):  
Career Success ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Career Adaptability ◽  
Individual Values ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour ◽  
Culture Development ◽  
Individual Value

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the differences in the values and behaviours of employees and entrepreneurs and to develop guidelines for employers to foster entrepreneurial thinking in their organisations. Design/methodology/approach To determine individual behaviours, the authors used the career adaptability scale developed by Savickas and Porfelli (2012), complemented with the statements regarding relationships in the workplace and reward, designed by Gattiker and Larwood (1986). The individual values were evaluated by Schwartz’s individual value framework. The career success of individuals was defined by income level and job satisfaction. Data from a sample of 473 respondents were analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings This paper reveals that there are differences in the behaviours and the values of employees and entrepreneurs. Employees are more concerned with relationships at the workplace, rewards and confidence, whereas entrepreneurs focus solely on relationships. Self-direction value has a direct positive impact. Universalism, conformism, achievement, stimulation and safety have indirect positive effects on career success for employees. There is no specific individual value driving career success for entrepreneurs. Originality/value This paper follows the recent trends in organisational culture development whereby organisations seek to incorporate the entrepreneurial mindset at all levels of the organisation. Until now, there has been scarce empirical evidence on the differences between entrepreneurial and employee values. This research provides evidence that the value gap between these two distinct groups is considerable enough to question the ability of the average employee to adopt the entrepreneurial behaviour required by modern organisations.

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