Strategic orientations of nascent entrepreneurs: antecedents of prediction and risk orientation

Small Business Economics - The green potential of the sharing economy to exploit underutilised or redundant resources has generated a considerable interest and expectations on the part of...     

Dynamic Cost Inefficiency of the European Union Meat Processing Firms

We apply dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate dynamic cost inefficiency for a sample of European Union (EU) large meat processing firms over the period 2005–2012 and decompose this into the contributions of technical and allocative inefficiency. The estimation of dynamic inefficiencies controls for adjustment costs associated with firms’ investments. We further contribute by measuring dynamic cost inefficiencies and their components with regard to own region group (managerial inefficiencies) and the gap between the pooled frontier and the region-specific frontier (programme inefficiencies). Results show that technical inefficiency tends to be the largest component of cost inefficiency when both conducting the analysis for the EU as a whole and estimating a region-specific frontier. Results suggest significant differences in cost, technical, and allocative inefficiencies between meat processing firms in eastern, western and southern EU countries. We also find that the gaps between the pooled and region-specific frontiers tend to be small to negligible, which suggests that the main source of pooled inefficiencies are shortcomings in managerial practices rather than differences in region-specific conditions.     

Measuring input-specific productivity change based on the principle of least action

In for-profit organizations, efficiency and productivity measurement with reference to the potential for input-specific reductions is particularly important and has been the focus of interest in the recent literature. Different approaches can be formulated to measure and decompose input-specific productivity change over time. In this paper, we highlight some problems within existing approaches and propose a new methodology based on the Principle of Least Action. In particular, this model is operationalized in the form of a non-radial Luenberger productivity indicator based on the determination of the least distance to the strongly efficient frontier of the considered production possibility sets, which are estimated by non-parametric techniques based upon Data Envelopment Analysis. In our approach, overall productivity change is the sum of input-specific productivity changes. Overall productivity change and input-specific changes are broken up into indicators of efficiency change and technical change. This decomposition enables the researcher to quantify the contributions of each production factor to productivity change and its components. In this way, the drivers of productivity development are revealed. For illustration purposes the new approach is applied to a recent dataset of Polish dairy processing firms.     

Innovativeness along the Business Cycle: The Case of Uruguay

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the dynamics of knowledge-capital accumulation along the different stages of the business cycle within the benchmark proposed by Crépon, Duguet, and Mairesse (1998 Crépon, B., Duguet, E. &; Mairesse, J. (1998). Research, innovation, and productivity: An econometric analysis at the firm level [Working Paper n° W6696]. Cambridge, MA: NBER. Retrieved from www.nber.org/papers/w6696[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) using a balanced panel of Uruguayan firms. Findings reveal that the intensity of innovation evolves procyclically, while the propensity of innovation and the degree of novelty embedded in innovations follow a countercyclical path. They also show that product innovations during economic recessions are only pursued by companies that are able to divert their sales to world markets; otherwise, they tend to innovate in processes. Results further suggest that productivity gains driven by knowledge-capital accumulation are magnified by systematically engaging in innovation activities.     

Optimal choice of order statistics under confidence region estimation in case of large samples

The problem of optimal estimation of location and scale parameters of distributions, by means of two-dimensional confidence regions based on L-statistics, is considered. The case, when the sample size tends to infinity, is analyzed.     

Unbundling of insurance contracts according to IFRSs – applicability and limitations

Insurance contracts are difficult to report on in financial statements because they often – or even regularly – contain both an insurance component and a so-called deposit component. Both IFRS 4 “Insurance Contracts” and the IASB's recent Discussion Paper entitled “Preliminary Views on Insurance Contracts” require an insurer to unbundle those components under certain conditions. In this regard, unbundling refers to accounting for the deposit component separately from the insurance component as if they were independent contracts. However, the Discussion Paper contains no guidelines on how the process of unbundling shall be carried out. It is the authors' aim to develop a solution for the separation problem which is innovative, theoretically correct and practically applicable. The principal innovation is the way of distinction between different types of deposit components. Dividing them into “implicit” and “explicit” deposit components delivers the theoretically correct results for unbundling of insurance contracts for accounting purposes. While unbundling can be carried out without major difficulties in the case of insurance contracts containing an explicit deposit component, it is only implementable in exceptional cases for insurance contracts containing an implicit deposit component.     

Constructing an entrepreneurial life: liminality and emotional reflexivity in identity work

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the identity work of a budding entrepreneur through a longitudinal case study based on his ongoing personal reflections as he tries to construct an entrepreneurial life. In particular, we investigate the role of emotional reflexivity and liminality, concepts that give us analytical purchase in exploring the complex dynamics of this identity work. The liminal condition of multiple identity positions enables our informant to experiment with and integrate several parallel identity narratives as he tries on socio-political constructions of ‘the entrepreneur’ for size; and it is the permanence of the liminal condition that makes emotional reflexivity necessary so he can handle the constant lack he experiences. The contribution of our work lies in exploring how the operation of the discourse of enterprise never closes on the centre of subjectivity that is imputed in that discourse, and how our subject, through emotional reflexivity, deals with this fundamental lack.