Impediments on the way to entrepreneurship. Some new evidence from the EU's post-socialist world

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios K. Batsakis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on traditionally important determinants (demographics, peoples’ perceptions, and environmental characteristics) of entrepreneurial engagement in the post-socialist region of the European Union (EU). Design/methodology/approach – A rich data set obtained from the Flash Eurobarometer Survey on Entrepreneurship 2007 is used, while a binomial probit regression model is employed. Findings – Gender, mother's occupation, unemployment, and economic growth are reported as significant determinants of entrepreneurship. The econometric results also suggest that lack of financial resources, individual's risk aversion, a large number of start-up procedures, and increased tax rates are all positively, rather than negatively related to entrepreneurial engagement. Research limitations/implications – It is suggested that the recent structural changes that have occurred in the examined region, as well as the transition process under which the examined countries operate have influenced the attitude of individuals towards entrepreneurial engagement. Originality/value – The study provides useful information in relation to the attitude of a post-socialist society towards structural issues which have possibly impeded its engagement to entrepreneurship. Both the geographic area (post-socialist European countries) and the time the data were collected (i.e. three years after the examined countries’ accession to the EU) can be perceived as factors of great interest for both policy makers and entrepreneurs.

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1815-1834
Author(s):  
Natalie Elms ◽  
Gavin Nicholson

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore why different directors feel different levels of accountability toward board tasks.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs a reflexive three wave data and analysis process culminating in a rich data set of 49 interviews with Australian directors and 15 h of boardroom observations.FindingsDifferences in role identification lead directors to perceive their accountability differently resulting in wide variation in levels of firm specific knowledge, eventually affecting their breadth of contribution to board tasks.Research limitations/implicationsResearchers should question the application of traditional governance theory (such as agency theory) if it fails to account for individual differences in intrinsic self-interest.Practical implicationsSelecting board members for their functional knowledge alone may not always produce optimal outcomes for the board and firm. Board induction processes and ongoing director training are important tools to inform and remind directors of their role and accountabilities on a board.Originality/valueThis paper establishes that the strength of directors' identification with either the director role or expert role affects what they feel accountable for, the development of firm specific knowledge and long-term efficacy as a director.


SAGE Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401882307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shekar Bose ◽  
Amina Marhoon Rashid Al Naabi ◽  
Houcine Boughanmi ◽  
Jaynab Begum Yousuf

The decline of Oman’s fish exports to the European Union (EU) since mid-2000s has caused legitimate concerns among policy makers and exporters. However, the potential reasons for the decline have not been fully elucidated. To ascertain the underlying causes of such decline, this article empirically examines the relative significance of potential economic and policy-related factors such as border rejections influenced by health and safety measures, supply and demand capacities, domestic ban, domestic structural changes, and exchange rate fluctuations on Oman’s fish exports to the EU. The results obtained from the dynamic unbalanced panel data model for the period 2000-2013 indicate that fish exports to the EU markets have been influenced by the domestic ban on export, domestic structural changes, and exchange rate fluctuations rather than by border rejections. These findings provide important signal to policy makers of the respective countries in designing adaptive policy approach to address such influences.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 771-788
Author(s):  
Ritwik Banerjee

Purpose – Unsustainable levels of debt in some European economies are causing enormous strain in the Euro area. Successful debt consolidation in high-debt economies is the single most important objective for the European policy makers. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses a dynamic general equilibrium closed economy model to compute the dynamic Laffer curves for Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain for different class of taxes. The general equilibrium effects of the interaction of labor tax, consumption tax and capital tax is demonstrated. Findings – Location of each economy on its Laffer curve suggests that there exists a scope for considerable revenue generation by raising consumption and labor tax rates but no such possibilities exist for capital tax rate. Thus revenue generation with certain tax rates as instruments, holds key to successful and sustained debt reduction. Originality/value – This to the best of knowledge is one of the first papers which looks closely at the tax revenue – tax rate panel for the major deeply indebted European economies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-56
Author(s):  
Hoa Thi Nguyen ◽  
Dung Thi Nguyet Nguyen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of mutual funds’ performance at both a country level and a fund level in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach The different types of funds with more than three-year operation are selected to remove outliers of the stock market boom from 2015 to 2018. The data set includes 54 mutual funds operating during the period from 2008 until November 2018. Findings The research finds that there is a positive relationship between macroeconomics and mutual funds’ performance. Furthermore, country-level governance such as regulation effectiveness, political stability, economic growth and financial development has a positive correlation with mutual funds’ performance. However, the impact of fund-level factors is diverse with the no significant impact of board size on mutual fund’s performance, while passive funds perform better than active funds in Vietnam. Practical implications The research results suggest that investors should pay attention to the types of funds and operating expense when making an investment decision in mutual funds. There are some recommendations for both government policy-makers and the mutual fund industry that are likely to facilitate the development of this field in Vietnam. Originality/value The research contributes to the understanding of what are the factors that should be considered when investing in mutual funds.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Zhao ◽  
Tsvi Vinig

Purpose In the existing literature on crowdfunding project performance, previous studies have given little attention to the impact of investors’ hedonic value and utilitarian value on project results. In a crowdfunding setting, utilitarian value is somehow hard to satisfy due to information asymmetry and adverse selection problem. Therefore, the projects with more hedonic value can be more attractive for potential investors. Lucky draw is a method to increase consumer hedonic value, and it can influence investors’ behavior as a result. The authors hypothesize that projects with hedonic treatment (lucky draw) may have higher probability to win their campaign than others. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A unique self-extracted two-year Chinese crowdfunding platform real data set has been applied as the analysis sample. The authors first employ propensity score matching methods to control for the endogeneity of hedonic treatment adoption (lucky draw). The authors then run OLS regression and probit regression in order to test the hypotheses. Findings The analysis suggests a significant positive relationship not only between project lottery adoption and project results but also between project lottery adoption and project popularity. Originality/value The results suggest that an often ignored factor – hedonic treatment (lucky draw) – can play an important role in crowdfunding project performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gitana Dudzevičiūtė ◽  
Agnė Šimelytė ◽  
Aušra Liučvaitienė

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide more reliable estimates of the relationship between government spending and economic growth in the European Union (EU) during the period of 1995-2015. Design/methodology/approach The methodology consisted of several different stages. In the first stage for an assessment of dynamics of government spending and economic growth indicators over two decades, descriptive statistics analysis was employed. Correlation analysis helped to identify the relationships between government expenditures (GEs) and economic growth. In the third stage, for modeling the relationship and the estimation of causality between GE and economic growth, Granger causality testing was applied. Findings The research indicated that eight EU countries have a significant relationship between government spending and economic growth. Research limitations/implications This study has been bounded by general GE and economic growth only. The breakdowns of general GE on the basis of the activities they support have not been considered in this paper, which is the main limitation of the research. Despite the limitation, it might be maintained that the research highlights key relationships in the EU countries. Originality/value These insights might be useful for policy makers. In countries with unidirectional causality running from GE to economic growth, the government can employ expenditure as a factor for growth. The governments should ensure that resources are properly managed and efficiently allocated to accelerate economic growth in the countries with unidirectional causality from GDP to GE.


1996 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hallerberg

The twenty-five German states from 1871 to 1914 present a useful data set for examining how increasing economic integration affects tax policy. After German unification the national government collapsed six currencies into one and liberalized preexisting restrictions on capital and labor mobility. In contrast, the empire did not directly interfere in the making of state tax policy; while states transferred certain indirect taxes to the central government, they maintained their own autonomous tax and political systems through World War I. This paper examines the extent to which tax competition forced the individual state tax systems to converge from 1871 to 1914. In spite of a diversity of political systems, tax competition did require states to harmonize their rates on mobile factors like capital and high income labor, but it did not affect tax rates on immobile factors. In states where the political system guaranteed agricultural dominance, taxes on land were reduced, while in states with more open systems, tax rates remained higher. One unexpected result is that tax rates on capital and income converged upward instead of downward. The most dominant state, Prussia, served as the lowest-common-denominator state, but pressure from the national government, especially to increase expenditures, forced all states to raise their tax rates. These results suggest possible ways for the European Union to avoid a forced downward convergence of member state tax rates on capital and mobile labor.


2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann de Mey ◽  
Frankwin van Winsen ◽  
Erwin Wauters ◽  
Mark Vancauteren ◽  
Ludwig Lauwers ◽  
...  

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present empirical evidence of risk balancing behavior by European farmers. More specifically, the authors investigate strategic adjustments in the level of financial risk (FR) in response to changes in the level of business risk (BR). Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a correlation relationship analysis and run several linear fixed effects regression models using the European Union (EU)-15 FADN panel data set for the period 1995-2008. Findings – Overall, the paper finds EU evidence of risk balancing. The correlation relationship analysis suggests that just over half of the farm observations are risk balancers whereas the other (smaller) half are not. The coefficient in our fixed effects regression suggests that a 1 percent increase in BR reduces FR by 0.043 percent and has a standard error so low that the existence of non-risk balancers is doubtful. The results reject evidence of strong-form risk balancing – inverse trade-offs between FR and BR keeping total risk (TR) constant – but cannot reject weak-form risk balancing – inverse trade-offs between FR and BR with some observed changes in TR. Furthermore, the extent of risk balancing behavior is found to differ between different European countries and across farm typologies. Practical implications – This study provides European policy makers a first insight into risk balancing behavior of EU farmers. When risk balancing occurs, BR-reducing agricultural policies induce strategic upwards leverage adjustments that unintentionally reestablish or even increase total farm-level risk. Originality/value – Making use of the large and unique FADN database, to the best of the authors knowledge, this study is the first that provides European (EU-15) evidence on risk balancing behavior, is conducted at an unprecedented large scale, and presents the first risk balancing evidence across countries and farming systems.


2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imke Hering ◽  
Oliver Musshoff

Purpose In order to improve the assessment of current lending policies for a microfinance institution (MFI) in Azerbaijan, the purpose of this paper is to analyse how lending conditions are adjusted based on knowledge gains during the loan relationship, with particular attention to delays in previous loans. Moreover, the paper examines what a lender can pre-determine from its own collected repayment records of clients. In addition, the repayment performances and lending policies between agricultural and non-agricultural clients are differentiated. Design/methodology/approach The analyses are based on a rich data set of an Azerbaijani MFI. For determining the influence of previous delays on the volume rationing in the following loan, the authors apply a generalized linear model. Subsequently, the probability of recidivism is analysed by means of a logit model. Findings The results confirm a positive relationship between delays in previous loans and repayment problems in present loans, which is increased by the severity of the previous delay. With respect to consequences, it is shown that the borrower with previous delays faces an increase in loan volume rationing in the subsequent loan. Moreover, the authors find that the consequences of previous delays do not differ significantly between farmers and other clients. Originality/value Until now, the consequences of repayment delinquencies in microfinance lending relationships have hardly been investigated. This study enhances the understanding of lending policies in microfinance by focussing on relationship aspects and by simultaneously differentiating between farming and non-farming clients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
Lixin Cui ◽  
Yibao Liang ◽  
Yiling Li

PurposeService innovation is a key source of competence for service enterprises. Along with the emergence of crowdsourcing platforms, consumers are frequently involved in the process of service innovation. In this paper, the authors describe the crowdsourcing ideation website—MyStarbucksIdea.com—and find the motivations of customer-involved service innovation.Design/methodology/approachUsing a rich data set obtained from the website MyStarbucksIdea.com, a dynamic structural model is proposed to illuminate the learning process of consumers.FindingsThe results indicate that initially individuals tend to underestimate the costs of the firm for implementing their ideas but overestimate the value of their ideas. By observing peer votes and feedbacks, individuals gradually learn about the true value of ideas, as well as the cost structure of the firm. Overall, the authors find that the cumulative feedback rate and the average potential of ideas will first increase and then decline.Originality/valueFirst, the previous researches concerning the crowdsourcing show that the creative implementation rate is low and the number of creative ideas decreases, and few scholars have studied the causes behind the problems. Second, the data used in this paper are true and valid, and it is difficult to obtain now. These data can provide strong empirical support for the model proposed in this paper. Third, it is relatively novel to combine the customer learning mechanism and heterogeneity theory to explain the phenomenon of reduced creativity and low implementation rate in crowdsourcing platform, and the research results can provide a reasonable reference for the construction of this industry.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document