The behavioural gap between entrepreneurial SME’s and high growth: evidence from Canada

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) describes a firm’s attitude towards entrepreneurial activity; however, it does not measure the specific behaviors likely to contribute to high growth. This research applies the resource-based and dynamic capabilities views to propose a mediation model between EO and high growth. The theoretical framework is drawn from the strategic management and entrepreneurship literature. Competing models are tested against a sample of Canadian SMEs to validate the proposed explanation for the presence of high-growth firms among the population. The study finds that the relationship between EO and high growth is perfectly mediated by innovation performance, a behavioral measure of innovation. This research contributes to firm growth theory while providing further insight into the drivers of high growth useful to policy makers endeavoring to stimulate, and overcome barriers to, entrepreneurship and innovation. Determining the factors associated with firm growth can have implications for management as well as policy. If a firm’s goal is to grow it must be able to focus its limited resources using a strategy appropriate for growth.

     

The Fed’s TRAP

The article examines if US monetary policy implicitly responds to asset price booms. Using real-time data and a GMM framework we estimate a Taylor-type rule with an asset variable that captures phases of booms and busts in the real estate market. We identify quasi real-time booms and busts using an asset cycle dating procedure. Our analysis yields two main findings. Firstly, the Fed does implicitly respond to asset price booms in the real estate market. Secondly, these responses are typically pro-cyclic and their intensity changes over time.     

The Union-Buster’s Toolkit

Anti-union campaigns conducted by specialists are widely employed and generally successful. Although they have been described in some detail, there has been little analysis as to how they are able to persuade workers to vote against their interests. This study proposes a model of the anti-union campaign in which different personality types gravitate into one of three camps: union supporters, union opponents, and swing voters. Anti-union messages evoke different reactions from each and are intended to drive a wedge between swing voters and union supporters. This model suggests several ways unions could make their campaigns more effective by taking personality differences into account.     

The impact of team characteristics on the supervisor’s attitude towards telework: a mixed-method study

Abstract

This study examines the impact of team characteristics on the supervisor’s attitude towards telework through a mixed-method approach. First, in the quantitative part, we test hypotheses drawing on disruption and dependency theory, using data of 205 supervisors from four Belgian organizations. The data confirm the hypothesized negative correlation between task interdependence and supervisors’ supportive attitude towards telework, as well as the moderating role of supervisor’s dependency on his or her team on this relation. We found no impact of team heterogeneity and lack of team effort and low performance. Second, we use qualitative data collected through 39 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with supervisors to gain a better understanding of supervisors’ reasoning behind their attitude towards telework. These data provide insight into how task interdependence, team heterogeneity and lack of team effort and low performance affect it. Our team-centred conceptualization of the antecedents of supervisors’ attitude towards telework enables to highlight the key role of structural aspects in shaping supervisors’ attitudes towards telework. This is particularly important for policy, as organizations are better placed to remediate aspects at the team level that contribute to supervisors’ negative attitude towards telework, rather than those at the inter-individual one.     

The impact of Chicago’s small high school initiative

This project examines the effects of the introduction of new small high schools on student performance in the Chicago Public School (CPS) district. Specifically, we investigate whether students attending small high schools have better graduation/enrollment rates and achievement than similar students who attend regular CPS high schools. We show that students who choose to attend a small school are more disadvantaged on average, including having prior test scores that are about 0.2 standard deviations lower than their elementary school classmates. To address the selection problem, we use an instrumental variables strategy and compare students who live in the same neighborhoods but differ in their residential proximity to a small school. In this approach, one student is more likely to sign up for a small school than another statistically identical student because the small school is located closer to the student’s house and therefore the “cost” of attending the school is lower. The distance-to-small-school variable has strong predictive power to identify who attends a small school. We find that small schools students are substantially more likely to persist in school and eventually graduate. Nonetheless, there is no positive impact on student achievement as measured by test scores.     

A note on generalized wald’s method

Let {v _n(θ)} be a sequence of statistics such that whenθ =θ ₀,v _n(θ ₀) N _p(0,Σ), whereΣ is of rankp andθ εR ^d. Suppose that underθ =θ ₀, {Σ _n} is a sequence of consistent estimators ofΣ. Wald (1943) shows thatv _n ^T (θ ₀)Σ _n ⁻¹ v _n(θ ₀) x ²(p). It often happens thatv _n(θ ₀) N _p(0,Σ) holds butΣ is singular. Moore (1977) states that under certain assumptionsv _n ^T (θ ₀)Σ _n ⁻ v _n(θ ₀) x ²(k), wherek = rank (Σ) andΣ _n ⁻ is a generalized inverse ofΣ _n. However, Moore’s result as stated is incorrect. It needs the additional assumption that rank (Σ _n) =k forn sufficiently large. In this article, we show that Moore’s result (as corrected) holds under somewhat different, but easier to verify, assumptions. Research partly supported by the U.S. Army Research Office through the Mathematical Sciences Institute at Cornell University.     

Preservice mathematics teachers’ concept images of polynomials

The purpose of this study is to determine the experience of mathematics preservice teachers’ concept images of polynomials and how these concept images are related to the formal definition of the concept of polynomial. Data were gathered by a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and fieldnotes. They were analyzed using existential-phenomenology. The results show that the experiences of preservice math teachers related to the concept of polynomial can be summarized under three categories namely accordance with formal definition, conflict with formal definition, and inverse operation of equation.     

Crime prediction by data-driven Green’s function method

We develop an algorithm that forecasts cascading events, by employing a Green’s function scheme on the basis of the self-exciting point process model. This method is applied to open data of 10 types of crimes happened in Chicago. It shows a good prediction accuracy superior to or comparable to the standard methods which are the expectation–maximization method and prospective hotspot maps method. We find a cascade influence of the crimes that has a long-time, logarithmic tail; this result is consistent with an earlier study on burglaries. This long-tail feature cannot be reproduced by the other standard methods. In addition, a merit of the Green’s function method is the low computational cost in the case of high density of events and/or large amount of the training data.     

The Delphi method in forecasting financial markets— An experimental study

Experts were used as Delphi panellists and asked to present forecasts on financial market variables in a controlled experiment. We found that the respondents with the least accurate or least conventional views were particularly likely to modify their answers. Most of these modifications were in the right direction but too small, probably because of belief-perseverance bias. This paper also presents two post-survey adjustment methods for Delphi method based forecasts. First, we present a potential method to correct for the belief perseverance bias. The results seem promising. Secondly, we test a conditional forecasting process, which unexpectedly proves unsuccessful.     

Bridging Africa’s income inequality gap: How relevant is China’s outward FDI to Africa?

This study examines whether: (i) the remarkable inflow of Chinese FDI to Africa matters for bridging the continent’s marked income inequality gap, (ii) Africa’s institutional fabric is effective in propelling Chinese FDI towards the equalisation of incomes in Africa and (iii) there exist relevant thresholds required for the various governance dynamics to cause Chinese FDI to equalise incomes in Africa. Our results, which are based on the dynamic GMM estimator and macrodata for 48 African countries, reveal the following. First, although Chinese FDI contributes to fairer income distribution in Africa, the effect is weak. Second, although Africa’s institutional fabric matters for propelling Chinese FDI towards the equalisation of incomes across the continent, governance mechanisms for ensuring political stability, low corruption, and voice and accountability are critical. Finally, the critical masses required for these three key governance dynamics to cause Chinese FDI and other income inequality-reducing modules to reduce income inequality are 0.8, 0.5 and 0.1, respectively. These critical masses are thresholds at which governance is necessary but no longer sufficient to complement Chinese FDI to mitigate income inequality. Hence, at the attendant thresholds, complementary policies are worthwhile. Policy recommendations are provided in the conclusion.     

The productivity and performance of Australia’s major banks since deregulation

The aim of this study is to present some measures of the performance of banks operating in Australia since the deregulation of the Australian financial system in early 1980s; including the periods of financial market instability (the early 1990s and mid to late 2000s). In undertaking this measurement two approaches will be used. The first simply applies standard financial indicators. The second approach applies data envelopment analysis (DEA), to determine Malmquist indices of the levels of and the changes in the efficiency and productivity of Australian banks. The empirical results demonstrate the effect of deregulation and periodic financial crisis’s on the performance of individual banks, and the major part of the Australian banking sector. Overall the productivity performance of the Australian banks tended to improve considerably in those periods of strongest economic growth (i.e. the mid 1980s and 2000s).     

The effect of NYSE listing on a firm’s media visibility

The most frequently cited reason by corporate managers for switching their firm’s trading location from Nasdaq to the NYSE is to improve visibility. This study examines whether these perceptions about listing are real or illusory and whether firm size affects media visibility. Based on a large sample of firms that listed on the NYSE compared with a matched sample of firms remaining on Nasdaq, the results show that NYSE listing does not lead to gains in media visibility during the period immediately after listing. Over a longer period, small- and medium-sized firms experience significant gains in media visibility compared with large firms. Additional tests show that increased media coverage is attributable much more to the rapid earnings growth before listing than to listing. Therefore, managers erroneously attribute the visibility gains to NYSE listing.     

The effect of economic policy uncertainty on China’s housing market

This study examines the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and housing price at the macro-level in China as a developing country. The empirical evidence indicates that EPU has a leading effect on China’s housing market. In general, the housing market is prosperous when economic policy is stable and there is a positive relationship between housing price variation and EPU, which means housing market risk grows under unstable economic policies in this developing economy. Moreover, economic policy variation affects low-amplitude changes in housing prices. A variation of policy uncertainty enhances the risk premium of the housing market. By contrast, the level of EPU influences high-amplitude changes in housing prices, which reflects the trend of EPU dominating China's housing market.     

On parameter estimation of Heston’s stochastic volatility model: a polynomial filtering method

Decisions in Economics and Finance - In this paper, we investigate the problem of estimating the volatility from the underlying asset price for discrete-time observations. This topic has attracted...     

The audit expectation gap： A review of the contributing factors

The audit expectation gap is critical to the auditing profession because the greater the unfulfilled expectations from the public, the lower is the credibility, earning potential and prestige associated with the work of auditors. The aim of this paper is to uncover the causes of an audit expectation gap. It is revealed that the existence of an audit expectation gap is due to complicated nature of an audit function; conflicting role of auditors; retrospective evaluation of auditors＇ performance; time lag in responding to changing expectation; and self-regulation process of the auditing profession.     

Living in and living out: a qualitative study of incarcerated mothers’ narratives of their children’s living condition

The number of incarcerated mothers is increasing significantly. There are many risks and harmful consequences for the children of the incarcerated mothers. In Iran, there is not a systematic research and information on these children. Therefore, this study aims at utilizing a qualitative methodology, to investigate the living conditions of this group, based on their mothers’ narratives. The grounded theory approach of Strauss and Corbin 1998 was used to analyze the consequences of the incarceration of mothers on the living conditions of children. The participants of the study include 16 incarcerated mothers who were on leave. The data were gathered via in-depth and open-ended interviews. During the coding process six categories were extracted which describe the living condition of the children: behavioral, mental, and physical challenges; escape; experience of poverty and destructive economy of family; dilemma of caring; mother-child visitation; difficulties suicide and mother’s emotional challenges. Children of incarcerated mothers encountered challenges such as mental, behavioral and economic. Many of them escape from home and school. Mothers prefer informal caring of their children than formal. The mother-child visits include some difficulties such as long distance, transportation costs, and undesirable visiting atmosphere. Mothers pointed to their deep psychological problems and sometimes committing suicide due to the separation of their children.     

Incentive regulation and performance measurement of Taiwan’s incineration plants: an application of the four-stage DEA method

The aim of this paper is to provide a technical efficiency assessment of Taiwan’s incineration plants as the basis of incentive regulation schemes. We integrate the four-stage approach with Simar and Wilson’s (in J Econom 136:31–64, 2007) double bootstrapping to filter out the impacts of external variables in the efficiency measurement. Empirical results show that there is room for 15 % cost reductions and capacity, ownership, location and experience are all influential in improving the performance of these plants. We also demonstrate how the results can be applied to modify a yardstick incentive scheme.     

The temporal variation of cost-efficiency in Switzerland’s hospitals: an application of mixed models

This paper uses a mixed effects model to examine the temporal variation of cost efficiency in Switzerland’s general hospitals. The variations in total costs, the number of empty beds and the length of hospital stays are analyzed using financial data from a sample of 168 hospitals operating from 1998 to 2003, as well as hospitalization records disaggregated to Diagnosis Related Groups. Individual intercepts and random coefficients are used to account for the unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity and the differences in temporal patterns across hospitals and DRG categories. The analysis illustrates the usefulness of mixed models to account for unobserved factors such as quality, with a relatively weak assumption that their temporal variations, rather than their initial levels, be uncorrelated with efficiency changes. The results indicate that hospitals have adopted measures to curtail hospitalizations and reduce empty beds. The extent and effectiveness of these measures vary significantly across individual hospitals. However, there is no evidence in favor of a particular ownership type or subsidization regime. While the link between reduction rates of empty beds and gains in cost-efficiency is statistically significant, the expected association between shortening hospital stays and cost-efficiency cannot be clearly established in the data.

The conflict potential of the entrepreneur’s decision-making style in the entrepreneur-investor relationship

While prior research has indicated the importance of conflicts between investors and entrepreneurs, little is known about their causes. We use theory on entrepreneurial decision-making to examine the impact of a founding team’s causal versus effectual decision style on the level of perceived task conflict that founders experience with their venture capitalists. Based on a sample of 141 German ventures, we find that a founding team perceives fewer conflicts when following the causal principle of overcoming the unexpected and the effectual principle of affordable loss.