How Do Franchise Ownership Structure and Strategic Investment Emphasis Influence Stock Returns and Risks?

Franchisors seek to maximize firm value by managing investments both in tangible and intangible assets and in the mix of company and franchised outlets, yet little is known about how investors respond to shifts in these strategic decisions. Our goal is to assess the impact of these decisions on shareholder value within franchise systems through panel-data models. Specifically, we provide evidence on how investors in publicly traded franchises evaluate both the ownership structure and the strategic investment emphasis between intangible assets (e.g., brand) and tangible assets (e.g., plant and property). We find that an increase in the proportion of franchised units is negatively associated both with stock returns and idiosyncratic risk. In contrast, an increase in the emphasis on strategic investments in intangible assets is positively associated both with stock returns and idiosyncratic risk. Moreover, strategic investment emphasis moderates the strength of the effect of franchise ownership structure when firms franchise internationally. Overall, this research provides a novel empirical examination of franchising economics and has managerial implications for franchised channel structure.     

How does working capital management affect the profitability of Spanish SMEs?

This paper analyzes the relation between working capital management and profitability for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by controlling for unobservable heterogeneity and possible endogeneity. Unlike previous studies, we examine a non-linear relation between these two variables. Our results show that there is a non-monotonic (concave) relationship between working capital level and firm profitability, which indicates that SMEs have an optimal working capital level that maximizes their profitability. In addition, a robustness check of our results confirms that firms?? profitability decreases as they move away from their optimal level.     

How classical and entrepreneurial brand management increases the performance of internationalising SMEs?

Research is limited on how accumulated international experience and decision-making style propel internationalising SMEs toward brand orientation. Our study builds a model of the process on classical and entrepreneurial brand management principles plus the firm's applied experience and decision-making logics. An online survey of 235 internationalising SMEs found that adopted decision-making logic mediated the relationship between cumulative international experience and international brand orientation. We conclude that managers and planners must select the most appropriate approach to international brand management permitted by available international firm-specific experience if they are to achieve strong international brand orientation and superior financial performance.     

A Study of Why Anomic Employees Harm Co-workers: Do Uncompassionate Feelings Matter?

Although anomic feelings have been found to lead employees to unethical performance, little is known about why this relationship is possible. The aim of this study is to test a compassion-based explanation of why anomic employees harm co-workers by displaying interpersonal deviance. The prediction is made that once sociological anomie (from the Greek, an-: absence, and -nomos: law) enters organizations in the form of employees’ private feelings of anomie—i.e., “anomia”—, this anomia will individually move staff to be uncompassionate in the workplace. Three uncompassionate feelings toward co-workers are then hypothesized to mediate the relationship between anomia and interpersonal deviance: (i) negative judgments about others, (ii) over-identification, and (iii) isolation. Data were collected from 280 employees at ten hotels in the Canary Islands (Spain). The results indicated that (a) anomia was significantly and positively linked to uncompassionate feelings and interpersonal deviance, (b) but only negative judgments about others mediated the anomia effects on interpersonal deviance. Findings suggest to managers that by spreading ethical standards that discourage negative judgments about others in the workplace, they can neutralize the mechanisms leading anomia to interpersonal deviance.     

How Ethical are U.S. Business Executives? A Study of Perceptions

Not much has been written about how the ethics of U.S. business executives are perceived by the American public, yet the perception of integrity is important to both businesses and their investors. This study examines the U.S. public’s perceptions of the ethics of American business executives using Gallup Poll data for the past thirty years. Organizations with unethical executives have trouble attracting investors, customers, and new managerial talent. They suffer lawsuits, market share deterioration, and often prison time for the once-revered leaders. This study also looked at the U.S.’s relative standing on the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Edelman Trust Barometer. Confidence in the ethics of the U.S. business executive remains fairly low on the Gallup Poll surveys and the U.S. has declined on the CPI and Edelman Trust Barometer.     

How Well Do Owner–Managers Forecast Potential Future Bankruptcy? Assessing Fear of Failure Using Employment Insurance for SMEs

The literature so far has not addressed how owner–managers deal with the risks associated with potential future bankruptcy. We propose here a new way to assess the fear of failure experienced by SME owner–managers and examine whether these risks are being anticipated accurately, by focusing on the benefits to be gained from French unemployment insurance. We compare the valuation of the benefits of the unemployment insurance scheme for the two populations of insured and uninsured owner–managers after matching. We rely on matching procedures and a five‐step protocol. Our results show that owner–managers' awareness of possible future problems increases when becoming insured and after experiencing a failure, suggesting some business failure myopia in this population. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Do SMEs with Single and Multiple Owners Finance Their Operations Differently? Empirical Evidence from China

We study the impact of firm‐level characteristics on the capital structures of private small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the differences between the capital structures adopted by SMEs with single and multiple owners in China. Our findings highlight the limited use of asset‐based financing by Chinese SMEs. We also find that the propensity of SMEs with single‐owners to use external debt was significantly less than those with multiple owners. Furthermore, our findings suggest that single‐owned firms are subject to a more constrained pecking order than those with multiple owners. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mamut：Case Study on How Foreign SMEs Penetrate into the Chinese Market

As one of the largest producers of bakery goods in Poland, the Mamut Bakery and Pastry Coopertaive Plants (Mamut) has been active in the Chinese market since 2005. United China Consultants Ltd.(UCC) signed a contract with Mamut in 2006 to become its marketing adviser and help introduce its products into China. 1.The Problems and Barriers Mamut Faced in 2005     

How Can We Act Morally in a Merger Process? A Stimulation Based on Implicit Contracts

The intention of the article is to offer stakeholders affected by mergers a criterion from which moral arguments may be generated for the organization of each individual case. The criterion: "Any operation causing legitimate interests to suffer vital infringement should be avoided in a merger process." A vital infringement of these interests is assumed when the merger undermines unique positive opportunities or considerable impairment in the future, impossible to overcome for the person affected without an unacceptable level of difficulty. Therefore, we mainly concentrate on implicit contracts – which should be based on the principle pacta sunt servanda as well. These contracts are mandatory to run an economy that produces increasingly more knowledge-based goods.     

SMEs:How to Survive in the Credit Crunch?

New faces of old problem On the one hand,with the implementation of a moder- ately tight monetary policy,the rapid growth of credit has been checked.But the difficulty for SMEs to obtain credit from commercial banks has been increasingly large.The     

Why and How Does Social Responsibility Differ Among SMEs? A Social Capital Systemic Approach

Research suggests that organizational justice (procedural, distributive, and interactional justice) has important impacts on work-related attitudes and behaviors, such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In this article, we explore the extent to which individualism moderates the relationship between organizational justice and OCB (organizational obedience, participation, and loyalty) among citizens in Kyrgyzstan. We make additional contributions to the literature because we know very little about these constructs in this former Soviet Union country, Kyrgyzstan, an under-researched and under-represented region of the world. Results of our data collected from 402 managers and employees in Kyrgyzstan offer the following new discoveries. All three justice constructs are related to OCB. Individualism moderates only the distributive and interactive justice to OCB relationships. We develop an intricate theory with provocative implications: Procedural justice produces obedience. For “individualists,” interactional justice inspires loyalty and, interestingly, distributive justice “can only buy” participation, but “can’t buy” loyalty. Therefore, for individualists, interactional justice outweighs distributive justice for organizational loyalty. Based on Kyrgyz citizens’ justice, OCB, and individualism, our theory reveals novel insights regarding culture, money attitude, and intrinsic motivation and provides critical and practical implications to the field of business ethics.     

Two Decades of Sustainability Management Tools for SMEs: How Far Have We Come?

Many scholars have emphasized the importance of sustainability management in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Although various publications discuss different approaches and potential barriers of implementation, a review of the existing research on sustainability management tools for SMEs is nonetheless missing. Based on a systematic review of the academic literature, this paper discusses reasons why SMEs should implement sustainability management tools. A further analysis reveals that most such tools are perceived to have little to no implementation in SMEs. The main implementation barriers and facilitating criteria are discussed. In addition, implications for future research, SME management, and public policy are drawn.     

Do Ethical Values Work? A Quantitative Study of the Impact of Fair Trade Coffee on Consumer Behavior

This study investigates the large French fair trade (FT) market and the importance of FT coffee within it, in an attempt to identify some general features of FT consumers. On the basis of 7,587 transactions, the authors also determine the impact of FT characteristics on customer behavior. The main result is somewhat surprising: FT coffee purchases seem to involve a temporary commitment as FT coffee consumers appear less loyal than traditional coffee consumers. The authors derive some business and academic implications.     

Do Entrepreneurial SMEs Perform Better Because They are More Responsible?

Many scholars have investigated the direct impact of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on performance, but this direct association seems both spurious and ambiguous because many parameters may have an indirect influence on this relationship. The present study thus considers sustainable practices—environmental practices, social practices in the workplace (SPW), and social practices in the community (SPC)—as three probable mediators in the relationship between EO and performance, which is considered in terms of its financial and non-financial dimensions. We seek to show to what extent small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) sustainable practices are useful assets, which are supported by EO, to improve performance. Using a structural equation modeling approach, data collected from 406 French SMEs were tested against the model. Our findings reveal that EO has a positive impact on the implementation of sustainable practices and that SPW partially mediate the link between EO and performance. Taken together, these findings suggest that EO plays a role in indirectly promoting performance by enhancing certain human resource management practices.     

Earnings Quality in Private SMEs: Do CEO Demographics Matter?

This study investigates the impact of CEO demographics on earnings quality for private SMEs. Using a 2012 sample of 30,476 French firms, we first find strong empirical support for a gender effect: female‐run firms engage in less earnings management than do male‐run firms. This result is consistent with female CEOs being more risk averse than their male counterparts are when making financial decisions. Second, CEO age is negatively correlated with the magnitude of discretionary accruals, and the relationship between gender and earnings quality is stronger for older CEOs. Overall, our findings suggest that CEO demographics affect the quality of accounting information.