Exploring market orientation, product innovation and competitive advantage to enhance the performance of SMEs under uncertain evens

The purpose of this study is to build an empirical research model and prove the influence of market orientation on product innovation and competitive advantage. The study also proves the intervening role of product innovation and competitive advantage on increasing market performance. In addition, market uncertainty is also tested in moderation in strengthening the relationship between product innovation and competitive advantage in market performance. The study tests 178 samples of Batik SME players in Surakarta. A purposive sampling was used as this research’s sampling method. The result of this study proves empirically that market orientation positively, significantly influences product innovation and competitive advantage. The test of mediation role between product innovation and competitive advantage in market performance also shows positive and significant results. The result of the test on moderation role between Market uncertainty in the relationship between product innovation and competitive advantage on market performance also shows positive and significant influence on market performance.

Bridging the gap in real estate enterprise: the impact of mentoring on entrepreneurial intentions of real estate students in Nigeria

PurposeThis study investigates the impact of mentoring on real estate students' entrepreneurial intentions with a focus on Nigeria, an emerging African economy. Specifically, the study assessed the influence of mentoring on the entrepreneurial intentions and career preferences of real estate students and analysed the influence of having a real estate mentor on the respondents' perception of the motivators and inhibitors to their entrepreneurial intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a descriptive research approach using closed-ended questionnaires. The study population comprise final year real estate students selected from three federal universities offering Real Estate in southwest Nigeria. Total enumeration was adopted for the study. From a total population of 231 students, a response rate of 69.26%, representing 160 questionnaire were retrieved and found suitable for the analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were employed for data analysis.FindingsThe result shows that the factor structure of the motivators for students who have real estate mentors clustered into four constructs; in order of influence are personal fulfilment/satisfaction, flexibility/financial motives, mentoring/economic influences and personal preferences/prestige and status. Meanwhile, economic/independence, personal preference/fulfilment, financial motives/self-perception and mentoring were the factor clusters influencing intention for real estate enterprise by students who have no real estate mentor. Predominant debacles across both categories of respondents relate to the lack of support and market uncertainty.Practical implicationsThere is a growing body of knowledge exploring the linkages between mentoring and the development of entrepreneurial intentions. However, scant empirical investigations have examined the impact of mentoring on real estate students, especially from the perspectives of emerging markets which are usually characterised by low economic opportunities and where issues of graduate unemployment appear endemic and yet to be appropriately resolved.Originality/valueThis study explores the implications of mentoring on the entrepreneurial intentions of real estate students' from the perspective of an emerging market.

Job and Organisational Level Aspects of Work in Slovenia

Marginalised groups of workers in Slovenia are traditionally most affected by labour market uncertainty, but increasingly middle-class and upper-class workers are experiencing the same. Furthermore, new work forms have given rise to ethical, psychological and legal dilemmas. In this paper, we examine the concept of decent work and focus on job-related and organisational aspects of work in Slovenia. In the empirical part of the paper we therefore focus on working time, work organisation and co-operation within teams, work-life balance, health and stress, and overall satisfaction with working conditions. Our results evidence that new work forms increase insecurity and consequently diminish worker well-being; and this is most experienced by younger, agency and self-employed workers in Slovenia. This suggests that the development of multilevel and multifaceted measures which take into account socio-psychological and legislative factors to address labour market segmentation is necessary, especially when addressing the needs of those forced to work atypically.

Rethinking Supply Chain Strategy to Face Global Challenges Imposed by COVID-19

COVID-19 has been perceived as a new menace to undertake business relations in the marketplace. Consequently, supply chains have been required to reevaluate how to manage their key functions to cope with harsh business environment under this pandemic outbreak scenario. Therefore, supply chain strategies have taken an essential role in achieving resilience, flexibility, responsiveness and sustainable operations. As a result, the introduction of new digital technologies has contributed to enhance organizational performance and to face COVID-19 challenges in global markets. The purpose of this chapter is to provide insights of current literature on supply chain operations by identifying strategic practices within this pandemic health outbreak crisis. The chapter introduces an overview of the supply chain key functional areas. Then, the discussion concentrates on describing a series of observations and empirical research developed by academics and experts on the topic. After that, supply chain strategic practices are analyzed, followed by a description of digital technology as a critical tool to achieve operational excellence and to compete in tougher market conditions. Finally, a conceptual model is proposed to ensure effective supply chain functioning and value creation across the entire firm’s operations. Conclusion are drawn to summarize the contribution of this chapter and to highlight the importance of rethinking new practices for achieving higher performance results. Future research suggestions are presented to advance the discussion and research in embracing new supply chain models under market uncertainty in terms of demand, supply and operations.

Analysis of Herding Behavior in Developing Countries

When faced with market uncertainty and high volatility in financial markets, the potential for herding behavior in the stock market is likely to increase. This will cause instability in the financial market and also the economy of a country. The purpose of this study is to analyze herding behavior in the stock markets of developing countries including China, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan and Thailand. This type of research is quantitative research and the population in this study is stocks listed on the Stock Exchanges of all developing countries with a time period from January 2016 to December 2020. The sampling method used is purposive sampling. The data used are monthly stock index data, VIX, world oil prices and the fed funds rate. Data analysis was performed through panel data regression, which is a combination of cross section and time series using the Eviews program. The results showed that there was no herding behavior in developing countries. The result of this research is that the fed fund rate has a significant effect on herding behavior in developing countries, especially in Indonesia. Keywords: Herding, Market Volatility, Oil Price, Fed Fund Rate.

Universal coordinates and methods of reformatting an ambiguous humanitarian paradigm

In the conditions of market uncertainty, the coronavirus pandemic, the absence of an officially articulated national idea, national interests and ideology in Kazakhstan, the problem of the lack of logically justified and coordinated coordinates of systemic thinking, an unambiguous paradigm of humanitarian thinking (analytical, pedagogical, managerial, economic, etc.) is becoming more and more clearly realized as the most important conditions for personal, civil and professional self-determination. The purpose is to substantiate the general logical coordinates and methods of reformatting the ambiguous humanitarian paradigm used in the activity. The study used various methods: the ontological principle of genetically meaningful logic, the method of transformation of concrete images of objects based on their abstract essence, the method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete, the speculative language of schematic images of thought and the language of methodological theory of activity. Logically justified universal abstract-concrete coordinates of universal motion are given. In relation to life and the world of activity, they can be concretized by coordinates: "standard of living – efficiency of activity", or "efficiency of activity – time", or "results – costs", or "quality – quantity", etc. The use of motion vectors in the logic of descent from the concrete to the abstract (NCA), ascent from the abstract to the concrete (AAC), as well as in their combination – logic CAC gives certainty to thinking. As an example, the scheme of the qualitative difference between educational (pre-professional) activities from professional ones using these methods and paired dialectical categories is given. The scheme and description of the functional model of the system object, considered as a rubicon of the transformation of educational activity into professional activity, are given. To reformat the indefinite, ambiguous paradigms of the humanities used in the activity into functional-logical, visible, constructive and unambiguous, it is recommended to use abstract-concrete coordinates, the methods given, the language of schematic images and the paradigm of the methodological theory of activity. As an example, the concept of a typical unit of activity development is given. A visible unambiguous paradigm is a necessary, but not sufficient prerequisite for adequate personal, civil and professional self-determination of a person in situations of high uncertainty. A sufficient prerequisite is the acquisition by subjects of appropriate reflexive-thinking abilities for self-determination, self-organization, self-regulation, etc.

How Do Bankruptcies in the Shale Sector Induce Operators to Focus on Value Creation?

Between January 2015 and early 2021, about 76 of the approximately 2,160 small-to-medium independent companies in the tight oil sector filed for Chapter 11 protection. These filings mostly occurred in 2016 and 2019. These companies were negatively impacted by the low oil prices in these years owing to their lack of financial discipline and poor financial risk assessments. As a result, they declared bankruptcy. News outlets tend to amplify bankruptcy filing announcements in the oil and gas sector. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that these bankruptcy declarations do not imply that the shale oil and gas sector collapsed. The ailing operators in 2019 were responsible for about 8.5% of total tight oil production in the United States. This volume did not disappear from the market because of the Chapter 11 provisions. Instead, the ailing operators either became more efficient and financially disciplined or transferred their assets to more efficient operators. Over 33 independent companies have ultimately emerged from bankruptcy. These companies successfully reached debt restructuring resolutions with their investors, transferred equity ownership to investors or sold or leased their assets to other operators. Companies that failed to adapt exited the oil market through either liquidation or acquisitions by other companies. Going forward, more consolidations are expected in the shale industry, especially among medium-to-large independent producers that accrued large debts in previous years. These producers will either enter bankruptcy owing to financial headwinds and market uncertainty or be acquired by larger companies. This analysis shows that bankruptcies in the tight oil sector may be viewed positively or negatively depending on the situation and perspective. Bankruptcies do incur different types of costs and losses to many parties. However, consolidation that improves the efficiency of resource allocation can be viewed as a positive sign for the economy. Operators, equity owners, debtors-in-possession and the oil and gas industry can therefore view bankruptcies within the industry differently.

Three Essays on the U.S. Treasury Market

<p>My thesis consists of three essays on market microstructure. Focusing on the U.S. Treasury market, I investigate several interesting research questions by using twelve years of BrokerTec order books of 2-, 5-, and 10-year on-the-run U.S. Treasury notes from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2015, and five years of BrokerTec order books of 3-, 7- and 30-year on-the-run U.S. Treasury securities from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. In the U.S. Treasury market, BrokerTec is one of the two dominant electronic communication networks (ECNs). According to my calculations by using BrokerTec order books from 2011 to 2015, the average daily trading volume of BrokerTec on-the-run U.S. Treasury securities is about 134.9 billion U.S. dollars, which accounts for about 26% of that of the total U.S. Treasury primary dealer activity. To help a wider audience better understand the importance of the research questions in the following three chapters, Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the U.S. Treasury market. In Chapter 2, I investigate the impact of scheduled macroeconomic news announcements on the U.S. Treasury market efficiency. To control the microstructure noise, I employ a robust method to construct market inefficiency measures. I find that the U.S. Treasury market becomes less efficient starting from five minutes before news arrivals. The finding is robust for different sample periods, macroeconomic news announcements, and market inefficiency measures. Investor heterogeneity could explain the decreased market efficiency before scheduled news announcements. In Chapter 3, I investigate the impact of workup trading protocols on the U.S. Treasury market quality. Each transaction on the lit pool opens a workup window, during which the BrokerTec trading platform continues to receive order submissions and modifications, but only matches workup orders that have the same prices. Each workup transaction starts a new counting down of the workup clock. A workup window naturally closes either after the workup times out or when a limit order is submitted at a better price. I find that the workup trading activities decrease the market quality, in aspects of market efficiency and market liquidity. In Chapter 4, I empirically examine the role of heterogeneity in traders’ beliefs and public information shocks on traders’ order submission decisions around news announcements in the U.S. Treasury market. I find that during both the pre-announcement period and the post-announcement period, the traders tend to submit more market orders and aggressive limit orders when the market uncertainty is high. I also find that the belief heterogeneity influences investors’ trading behavior and order submission strategies around news announcements. The role of the belief heterogeneity on order aggressiveness depends on the type of news, and the magnitude of the information shocks. The impact of market uncertainty and belief heterogeneity influences traders’ submission of both of the market orders and aggressive limit orders. In Chapter 5, I provide a summary on the research findings in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. I also discuss the contributions of this thesis to the literature.</p>

Three Essays on the U.S. Treasury Market

<p>My thesis consists of three essays on market microstructure. Focusing on the U.S. Treasury market, I investigate several interesting research questions by using twelve years of BrokerTec order books of 2-, 5-, and 10-year on-the-run U.S. Treasury notes from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2015, and five years of BrokerTec order books of 3-, 7- and 30-year on-the-run U.S. Treasury securities from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. In the U.S. Treasury market, BrokerTec is one of the two dominant electronic communication networks (ECNs). According to my calculations by using BrokerTec order books from 2011 to 2015, the average daily trading volume of BrokerTec on-the-run U.S. Treasury securities is about 134.9 billion U.S. dollars, which accounts for about 26% of that of the total U.S. Treasury primary dealer activity. To help a wider audience better understand the importance of the research questions in the following three chapters, Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the U.S. Treasury market. In Chapter 2, I investigate the impact of scheduled macroeconomic news announcements on the U.S. Treasury market efficiency. To control the microstructure noise, I employ a robust method to construct market inefficiency measures. I find that the U.S. Treasury market becomes less efficient starting from five minutes before news arrivals. The finding is robust for different sample periods, macroeconomic news announcements, and market inefficiency measures. Investor heterogeneity could explain the decreased market efficiency before scheduled news announcements. In Chapter 3, I investigate the impact of workup trading protocols on the U.S. Treasury market quality. Each transaction on the lit pool opens a workup window, during which the BrokerTec trading platform continues to receive order submissions and modifications, but only matches workup orders that have the same prices. Each workup transaction starts a new counting down of the workup clock. A workup window naturally closes either after the workup times out or when a limit order is submitted at a better price. I find that the workup trading activities decrease the market quality, in aspects of market efficiency and market liquidity. In Chapter 4, I empirically examine the role of heterogeneity in traders’ beliefs and public information shocks on traders’ order submission decisions around news announcements in the U.S. Treasury market. I find that during both the pre-announcement period and the post-announcement period, the traders tend to submit more market orders and aggressive limit orders when the market uncertainty is high. I also find that the belief heterogeneity influences investors’ trading behavior and order submission strategies around news announcements. The role of the belief heterogeneity on order aggressiveness depends on the type of news, and the magnitude of the information shocks. The impact of market uncertainty and belief heterogeneity influences traders’ submission of both of the market orders and aggressive limit orders. In Chapter 5, I provide a summary on the research findings in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. I also discuss the contributions of this thesis to the literature.</p>