Types of technological scanning in manufacturing SMEs: an empirical analysis of patterns and determinants

As the component of environmental scanning that is concerned with science and technology, products, production processes, hardware and information systems, the concept of technological scanning, especially in small business, has received little empirical attention in the past. This paper aims to better define the different technological scanning practices of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) and identify the main factors that determine these differences. This is done without relation to organizational effectiveness as technological scanning is but one of many potential influences on business performance. Using data obtained from a mail survey on the scanning practices of 324 SMEs, the study hopes to increase our understanding of how various entrepreneurs confront various environments in practice. The research model used is based on the notion that, to define different technological scanning practices in small business, four aspects must be considered: strategic orientation (objectives pursued); types of information sought (on technologies and their costs, human resources necessary, etc.); sources used (customers, fairs, specialized publications, suppliers, research centres, etc.); and scanning management practices (methods used, staff involved, level of formalization, and integration of activities). These aspects are contingent upon four factors: the managers' profile; their perception of the environment; their firm's characteristics; and their information network. A cluster analysis reveals that the sampled firms can be grouped into four separate categories, according to the intensity of their technological scanning activities and the type of strategy used. In the first category, where scanning is most developed, the SMEs emphasize cost reduction and control, followed by improvements in competitiveness; they seek mainly financial and human resource information, and use their own internal resources to obtain it. A second category, where scanning is least developed, puts the emphasis on increasing production capacity and flexibility; these SMEs seek very diverse information from many sources. Of the two intermediate groups, one aims to diversify and increase the quality of products and services; marketing information is obtained through customers, suppliers and subcontractors. The other, whose scanning is better organized, favours increasing production capacity through innovation and market information with the help of governmental and financial institutions. This research concludes that there is no ‘one best way’ to environmental scanning in manufacturing SMEs, and that it all depends upon the organization, its objectives and its environmental pressures.     

Intergenerational Altruism and the Environment

We construct an overlapping generations model of pollution externality in which individuals are altruistically linked to their offspring as in Barro (1974). It is shown that steady-state consumption may be a decreasing function of the intergenerational degree of altruism. Despite individuals' altruism, the competitive equilibrium is not optimal. We thus study the social optimum and show that it can be decentralized.
JEL classification: D 62; D 64; D 91     

Understanding the residents’ social impact perceptions of an African Cultural Festival: the case of Macufe

ABSTRACT

The Macufe is one of the Africa’s largest cultural festivals, and takes place annually in Bloemfontein, South Africa. This 10-day event attracts approximately 140,000 attendees, meaning that the residents have to share facilities and services with tourists. The effects of such interactions can be both positive and negative. Community members are stakeholders in any tourism ventures that take place in their area, meaning that their goodwill is of utmost importance. Therefore, the social impacts of this event should be well managed to foster community support. For this reason, a quantitative study was done to determine residents’ social impact perceptions towards the event. A total of 425 questionnaires were completed by willing residents who lived in proximity to festival activities. From an exploratory factor analysis, four factors were extracted, namely community enhancement, community degradation, tourism growth and increased public spending and interaction. It was found that the event does not generate significant levels of positive social impacts, and that the negative social impacts are viewed almost equal to the positive social impacts. This was one of the first social impact perception studies done on an African arts festival, which contributes to the sustainable management of such crucial events.     

Testable implications of transferable utility

Although the Transferable Utility (TU) assumption is widely used in micro theory, little is known about its testable consequences, and in particular how one can, from the observation of a group's demand, test whether the TU assumption is satisfied within this group. We derive a set of necessary and sufficient conditions on demand that characterize the TU context. The conditions are of two types. First, TU requires the group to behave as a single decision maker. Secondly, within the unitary setting, the representative utility generated by a TU framework must be of the Generalized Quasi-Linear (GQL) form. We derive testable properties of the demand function that fully characterize GQL utilities. These additional restrictions only involve specific prices - namely, those of the goods that are publicly consumed within the group.     

UNITARY VERSUS COLLECTIVE MODELS OF THE HOUSEHOLD: IS IT TIME TO SHIFT THE BURDEN OF PROOF?

Most development objectives focus on the well-being of individuals.Policies are targeted to increase the percentage of individualswho avoid poverty, who can read, who are free from hunger andillness, or who can find gainful employment. Individual welfare,however, is based in large part on a complex set of interactionsamong family members. Until recently most policy analyses implicitly viewed the householdas having only one set of preferences. This assumption has beena powerful tool for understanding household behaviour, suchas the distribution of tasks and goods. But a growing body ofevidence suggests that this view is an expedience that comesat considerable, and possibly avoidable, cost. The article arguesthat more effective policy instruments will emerge from analyzingthe processes by which households balance the diverse interestsof their members.      

Obstacles in attracting increased portfolio investment into southern Africa

Measured in terms of foreign participation in its domestic financial markets, the major part of southern Africa has to date been largely isolated from international financial markets and the process of financial globalisation. With the exception of South Africa and, to a lesser extent, Mauritius, the region receives negligible amounts of foreign portfolio investment. For the majority of countries, the main types of foreign capital inflows consist of development assistance and foreign direct investment. Foreign portfolio investment, which has hitherto remained largely untapped, may become important in future, especially in view of the dwindling international development assistance to the region. However, portfolio investment is volatile and can be relatively easily withdrawn, posing some financial risk to an economy that has to be managed. This article identifies and assesses possible obstacles to foreign portfolio investment in the region, which could be addressed over time in order to improve the region's competitiveness for foreign investment.     

Is there a link between BRIC foreign direct investment and SADC export performance?

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries have agreed to strengthen their economic ties, thus paving the way for enhanced trade and investment performance. South Africa's strategic value in BRICS is that it is a gateway to the opportunity-rich Southern African Development Community (SADC). By using South Africa as a production hub for exports to the surrounding region, foreign investors would have ready access to neighbouring markets. This article addresses the question of whether, and in what ways, foreign direct investment (FDI) from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries to the SADC influences the SADC's export performance. A series of empirical analyses revealed a positive causation between BRIC FDI and SADC exports, offering a clear incentive for the SADC to rejuvenate its trade and investment policies and structures, and strengthen its ties with BRIC countries in the interests of attracting more FDI and building a strong and sustainable export sector.     

The Origins and Meanings of Names Describing Investment Practices that Integrate a Consideration of ESG Issues in the Academic Literature

The aim of this study was to reflect on the origins and meanings of names describing investment practices that integrate a consideration of environmental, social and corporate governance issues in the academic literature. A review of 190 academic papers spanning the period from 1975 to mid-2009 was conducted. This exploratory study evaluated the associations and disassociations of the primary name assigned to this genre of investment with variables grouped into five domains, namely Primary Ethical Position, Investment Strategy, Publication Date, Regions Covered and Periodical Type. The study indicated that papers coded as expressing a deontological ethical position were more frequently associated with the name Ethical Investment, whereas those with an ambiguous ethical position were less frequently associated with Ethical Investment. Three investment strategies (positive screening, best-in-class and cause-based investing) were unusually associated with the primary name Responsible Investment. A strong preference for the name Ethical Investment was noted in the United Kingdom, and contrasted starkly with an apparent aversion for this name in the United States. The name Ethical Investment is significantly more frequently used in journals dealing with ethics, business ethics and philosophy than in finance, economic and investment journals. Finally, the study yielded some weak hints that the name Responsible Investment might perhaps be linked to an egoist ethical position. On the basis of this, and because these have already been substantively linked through the Principles for Responsible Investment in the popular discourse, we follow the heuristic tradition set by Sparkes (Business Ethics Eur Rev 10:194–201, 2001), and propose that Responsible Investment be defined as ‘Investment practices that integrate a consideration of ESG issues with the primary purpose of delivering higher-risk-adjusted financial returns’.     

Enhancing Industrial Cluster Formation Through the Realistic Export Opportunities of the TRADE‐DSM

This paper explores the natural synergies between industrial cluster formation and the identification of realistic export opportunities (REOs), using the TRADE‐DSM 1 for a resource‐dependent region, the North West Province of South Africa. The structural path analysis and power of pull methods were applied to a provincial social accounting matrix to identify the top industrial clusters. Ten industrial clusters were identified and matched to the results of the TRADE‐DSM. Six of the industrial clusters analysed had REOs. These results provide a basis for focused export market development and for the formalisation of the cluster initiative as a strategy for sustained economic and export growth.     

Local disaggregation of negative demand and excess demand functions

The literature on the characterization of aggregate excess and market demand has generated three types of results: global, local, or ‘at a point’. In this note, we study the relationship between the last two approaches. We prove that within the class of functions satisfying standard conditions and whose Jacobian matrix is negative semi-definite, only n/2+1$n/2+1$ agents are needed for the ‘at’ decomposition. We ask whether, within the same class, the ‘around’ decomposition also requires only n/2+1$n/2+1$ agents.