Entrepreneur: do social capital and culture matter?

This paper analyzes the effect of the individual perceptions of social capital and culture in entrepreneurial aspirations before and after the economic crisis in Western Europe. Following the approach of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211, 1991), we advance the analysis of the effect of the perception of subjective norms in the entrepreneurial intentions. We studied the Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) of twelve countries in 2006 and 2010. The results reveal that the perception of having social networks is significant for the TEA, and it increases after the economic crisis. However, the cultural factors do not have a significant impact, except the one related with the perception of social equality. The results obtained through the double perspective of this analysis (individual’s social capital vs cultural factor of individualistic perspective) offers a certain dilemma when we try to understand the entrepreneurial intntion through the individual’s perception of subjective norms, following the Ajzen’s model. The more individualist is a person, the lower the weight of its social capital. However, the more a person has access to social networks, the greater his entrepreneurial intention will be. This result opens future lines of research focused on understanding the value of the individual’s social capital for different countries and groups of entrepreneurs.

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Understanding the Change–Cynicism Cycle: The Role of HR

Employee change cynicism is an unintended consequence of organizational change, which can undermine the effectiveness of change initiatives. Based on social information processing theory, we examine the impact of two human resource roles (administrative expert and strategic change agent) on the relationship between the quantity of organizational change and employee change cynicism. Using multilevel data from 1,831 employees in 70 organizations, we find employees who are exposed to more organizational change report higher levels of change cynicism. However, the strength of the organizational change–cynicism relationship is affected by the role of HR in the employees’ organizations. When HR undertakes an administrative expert role, change is more likely to generate change cynicism. When HR undertakes a strategic change agent role, change is less likely to generate change cynicism. Our results suggest that organizations need to think carefully about the role of HR during organizational change and encourage HR to adopt a strategic change agent role. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Harmonizing public sector accounting in Europe: thinking out of the box

A broad debate about the harmonization of public sector accounting standards in Europe is underway. The authors provide arguments in favour of harmonization, but they also acknowledge the existing pluralism and diversity by taking stock of the state of play in 14 European countries. The paper makes a proposal for a way forward for policy-makers and standard-setters, in which the benefits of harmonization can be obtained without obliging EU member countries to necessarily abandon their current public sector accounting systems.     

Examples of unit tax superiority for a price-discriminating monopolist

This paper compares the welfare effects of per-unit and ad valorem taxes in four pervasive price discrimination schemes: quantity discounts, two-part tariffs, bundling, and package size price discrimination. The paper shows by example that per-unit taxes may welfare dominate ad valorem tariffs in a market with a monopoly that maximizes profits by engaging in second-degree price discrimination.     

Frontier markets’ efficiency: mutual information and detrended fluctuation analyses

This study tests weak form efficiency in frontier markets. Mutual information and detrended fluctuation analyses are performed to assess global correlation and long range dependence in the stock markets of twenty three countries. The results indicate that Slovenia is the only case where there is evidence compatible with weak form efficiency. The relatively less inefficient markets are mainly located in Europe and America, and the relatively more inefficient mainly in the Middle East. This information is useful for investors, but also for the assessed countries’ regulators as they indicate that relevant impediments are preventing the exploitation of potential profitable opportunities.

     

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Strategic Opportunity for Small Firms during Economic Crises

The aim of this study is to analyze if there is a direct causal relationship between small firms’ orientation toward corporate social responsibility and their competitive success, mediated by innovation and performance. A structural equation model has been applied to a sample of 758 small Spanish firms. The results indicate that, in times of economic crisis, socially responsible strategies are a determining factor in firms’ competitiveness. Pragmatic advice for practitioners derives from research results, considering that social responsibility represents an opportunity for small firms in the complex and turbulent time. The findings encourage small firms to manage operations responsibly as a guarantee of market success.     

The role of customer management capabilities in public–private partnerships

Commercial organisations are increasingly asked to perform tasks traditionally associated with governmental bodies, such as law enforcement. The rationale for these public–private partnerships is that there are synergies between traditional business skills and those required to achieve certain societal goals. However, there is a lack of research into whether this is, indeed, the case. This paper addresses this gap by investigating one particular type of public–private partnership: anti-money laundering (AML). The study explores the potential synergies between customer relationship management (CRM) and those required for AML. A quantitative survey-based approach is used to identify the overlaps and connections between these two areas of competence. The findings reveal tensions between financial institutions’ dual roles as both commercial organisations and players in the battle against money laundering. The consequences for these firms are explored, and the wider implications for other organisations supplying non-commercial services to government are considered.     

The role of small bettors in price formation in betting exchanges

ABSTRACT

The presence of small bettors in betting exchanges generates mispricing, which can lead to exploitation by informed traders or result in permanent price deviations. This paper shows that mispricing from this source is also dependent upon variables of established relevance such as tournament round, the level of attention to the event, the volume of the betting, and bet type, further confirming these findings by means of cumulative accuracy profile (CAP) curves. It also offers evidence of the relevant role played by the type of device used to place the bet, whereby higher mispricing is observed in live bets placed via a mobile device, which appears to be associated with impulsive betting. This last finding could have practical implications for the regulation of the use of mobile devices to access gambling platforms.     

Perceived credit constraints in the European Union

The promotion and support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is an essential component of policies designed to help improve Europe’s economic performance. A crucial issue is whether SMEs face difficulty obtaining bank loans. Using pre-crisis survey data from 2005 and 2006 for nearly 3,500 SMEs (firms with fewer than 250 employees) in the European Union (EU), we investigate the determinants of perceived bank loan accessibility at the firm level and at the country level. Based on hierarchical (multi-level) binomial logit regressions, our findings show that the youngest and smallest SMEs have the worst perception of access to bank loans. The SMEs in nations with concentrated banking sectors are more positive about loan accessibility. In addition, a high fraction of foreign-owned banks is associated with improved perception of loan accessibility in the EU 15 but not in the EU 10.     

The heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance estimator in accounting

The main purpose of this paper is to compare the White (1980) heteroskedasticity-consistent (HC) covariance matrix estimator with alternative estimators. Many regression packages compute the White (1980) heteroskedasticity-consistent (HC) covariance matrix estimator. The common procedure in Accounting and Finance research to deal with the heteroskedasticity problem is based on this estimator, despite its worse finite-samples properties when compared with other consistent estimators. In this paper we compare several HC covariance matrix estimators based on a sample of 3706 European listed companies from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We conclude that HC standard errors increase when finite-samples more appropriate estimators are considered and in the most part of countries the Ohlson (1995) model coefficients estimates became statistically insignificant. This can be explained by the high leverage points in the design matrix. To the best of our knowledge it is the first time that these alternative estimators are compared with the one of White (1980) in accounting research.