Geographical and cognitive proximity effects on innovation performance in SMEs: a way through knowledge acquisition

This study explores the relative influence of geographical and cognitive proximity to explain innovation performance. This paper deepens the controversy between the significance of both types of proximity, contributing to a better understand their interconnections. The study further analyzes to what extent knowledge acquisition provides a congruent explanation of the effectiveness of innovation in proximity contexts. The paper has tested a structural model based on a sample of 224 Spanish footwear firms. Footwear industry is a mature and traditional industry with a significant presence of the territorial agglomeration of firms all over Spain. Findings suggest both a direct and indirect effect of cognitive proximity on innovation performance. However, an excess of geographical proximity produces spatial lock-in, thus limiting the access to new knowledge and lowering innovations. By contrast, proximity in terms of goals and culture leads firms belonging to a territorial cluster to achieve knowledge acquisition resulting in relevant innovation. Findings suggest that although transferable valuable knowledge exists in clustered contexts firms should adopt a proactive behavior to have access common knowledge and in order to generate effective innovations.     

Announced layoffs: Their effect on corporate financial performance

Conventional wisdom holds that when a firm gets into trouble due to lagging sales and rising costs, cutting the size of the organization to reduce fat and waste is a normal and effective response. In this study, evidence was found to suggest that just the opposite might be true. The financial performance of Fortune 100 companies was tracked over a five-year period—two years prior to the announced layoff, the year of the layoff announcement, and two years following it. Contrary to expectations, the results indicate that financial performance worsened, rather than improved, following announced layoffs. Strategic and human resource implications for the management of corporate downsizing are provided.     

浅谈中小企业财务会计内部控制机制的建立

中小企业财务会计内部控制体系是企业管理重要的环节。文中提出了建立中小企业财务会计内部控制的原则、内涵、外部监督和人员素质等问题。以完善财务会计的内部控制体系,促进中小企业快速发展。     

Nonlinearity in the effects of financial development and financial structure on unemployment

The positive role of the financial sector in promoting economic growth has been well established among academics and practitioners since the early 1990s. However, more recently, there has been increasing evidence pointing to a vanishing, and even negative, effect of financial sectors at high levels of financial depth, particularly since the global financial crisis of 2007?2009. Too much finance could hurt growth. The paper shifts the focus towards labor market outcomes by examining whether too much finance also hurts unemployment. Using a dynamic simultaneous model via system GMM estimation and a panel of 97 OECD and non-OECD countries for the period 1991–2015, we find that the answer depends on the type of finance and the extent of a country’s labor market flexibility. Specifically, (i) too much financial development hurts unemployment for countries with more rigid labor markets; (ii) too bank-centered or too little market-oriented financial systems worsen unemployment, particularly for countries with more flexible labor markets; and (iii) too much credit to private enterprises deteriorates unemployment in countries with more rigid labor markets, whereas too little credit to households worsens unemployment in countries with more flexible labor markets. Evidence also shows that these unemployment consequences possibly run through investment and entrepreneurship channels.     

The effect of foreign ownership on SMEs performance: An efficiency analysis perspective

This paper uses both Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Free Disposal Hull (FDH) models in order to determine different performance levels in a sample of 353 foreign equities operating in the Greek manufacturing sector. Particularly, convex and non-convex models are used alongside with bootstrap techniques in order to determine the effect of foreign ownership on SMEs’ performance. The study illustrates how the recent developments in efficiency analysis and statistical inference can be applied when evaluating performance issues. The analysis among the foreign equities indicates that the levels of foreign ownership have a positive effect on SMEs’ performance.     

Supply chain management maturity and performance in SMEs

Supply chain maturity models attempt to disseminate best practices in supply chain management (SCM). One basic idea behind these models is that increased maturity will lead to improved supply chain performance, which in turn will lead to improved financial performance. There is, however, little empirical evidence about the relationship between supply chain (SC) maturity and financial performance, specifically in SMEs. The results of this study indicate that there is a strong relationship between SCM maturity and SC performance in SMEs, as well as some relationships between SCM maturity and financial performance. One conclusion is that if firms use maturity indicators in the Supply Chain Operations Reference areas to improve their processes, they will most likely achieve positive effects on supply chain performance and probably also on financial performance.     

浅谈中小企业财务管理运行现状与对策

财务管理是基于企业再生产过程中客观存在的财务活动和关系而产生的,是组织企业资金活动、处理企业同各方面的财务关系的一项经济管理工作,是企业管理的重要组成部分。财务管理的内容主要有筹资管理、投资管理和分配管理三个方面。     

Exploring environmental,social, and governance disclosure effects on the S&P 500 financial performance

Much of the literature measuring the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores and firm performance treats the score as a measure of sustainability performance. In this study, we treat a firm's ESG score as a demonstration of strategic choice in the level of transparency that results in increased firm performance as measured by Tobin's Q and return on assets. Performance differences are a result of choice moderated by the size of the firm as measured by employees and sales. We analyze 467 firms in the S&P 500 from 2009 to 2015. Applying legitimacy and stakeholder theory, we find that there is significant difference between groups with respect to disclosure and performance. The results of quartile analysis by sales, capitalization, and Tobin's Q are relevant to understand the influence that the ESG score has on financial performance. ESG influences on Tobin's Q are greatest for large firms as measured by sales, as opposed to the ESG affects on Tobin's Q and return on asset for smallest firms as measured by market capitalization.     

The impact of e-marketing orientation on performance in Asian SMEs: a B2B perspective

ABSTRACT

Business-to-business (B2B) organisations are increasingly utilising electronic devices in their business operations in order to succeed in increasingly competitive markets. This trend is prevalent in the growing Asian markets, especially in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector. While prior research has focused on this issue in the context of large business-to-customer (B2C) organisations in Asia, there have hardly been any studies that have shed light on the B2B sector in the SME setting. This study aims to critically explore B2B e-marketing critical success factors (B2B-eM-CSFs) for SMEs operating in the Asian B2B marketplace. A key finding is the development of a theoretical framework for SMEs, emerging from the analysis of 406 companies from various industrial sectors. The study shows that interaction with the B2B-eM-CSFs is an important dimension and has a positive and significant impact on e-business efficiency and marketing improvements for Asian SMEs.     

The influence of intelligent manufacturing on financial performance and innovation performance: the case of China

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence is increasingly used in advanced manufacturing systems to realise intelligent manufacturing. However, there is still a lack of empirical research on the impact of intelligent manufacturing on enterprise performances, especially for China. The author adopts the enterprise panel data of intelligent manufacturing implemented by China’s manufacturing industry in 2014 to 2019, and uses propensity score matching with difference in differences (PSM-DID) method to investigate the impact of intelligent manufacturing on financial performance and innovation performance. The research yields two main conclusions. First, the implementation of intelligent manufacturing has a significant role in promoting the financial performance and innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises. Second, technology-intensive industries improve the quantity of innovation by implementing intelligent manufacturing, thus promoting the improvement of short-term financial performance, but the improvement of innovation quality has a negative impact on short-term financial performance. In labour-intensive industries, the relationship between financial performance and innovation performance is not obvious.     

Employee stock ownership and financial performance in European countries: The moderating effects of uncertainty avoidance and social trust

This study investigates how the effect of employee stock ownership on financial performance may hinge on the diverse cultural and societal contexts of European countries. Based on agency and national culture theories, we hypothesize that the positive relationship between employee stock ownership and return on assets (ROA) is stronger in those nations with lower uncertainty avoidance and higher social trust. Using a multisource, time‐lagged, large‐scale dataset of 1,741 firms from 21 countries in Europe, our multilevel, random coefficient modeling analysis found evidence for these hypotheses, suggesting that uncertainty avoidance and social trust serve as important contextual cues in predicting the linkage between employee stock ownership and financial performance. Our supplemental analysis with distinction between the managerial and nonmanagerial employee stock ownership further indicates managerial employee stock ownership has a direct positive effect on ROA. Although nonmanagerial employee stock ownership had a nonsignificant association with ROA, the relationship was positive and significant when uncertainty avoidance was low and social trust was high. This research contributes to the existing literature by illuminating some of the contextual influences altering the effectiveness of employee stock ownership. Our findings also offer practical suggestions for effectively using employee stock ownership.     

The effects of financial openness and financial efficiency on Chinese macroeconomic volatilities

This paper builds an open-economy DSGE model to study the effects of financial openness and financial efficiency on the macroeconomic volatilities and estimate the model with the Bayesian method and Chinese quarterly data from 2001Q1 to 2017Q4. We further test the validity of model predictions with panel analyses of Chinese provincial data from 1987 to 2016 and various robustness tests. The results show that: first, further financial openness will lead to an increase in output volatility but U-shaped changes in consumption and investment volatilities. Second, financial efficiency improvement helps to reduce the macroeconomic volatilities but has a diminishing marginal benefit. Third, our estimates of China's degree of financial openness and financial efficiency are both at the medium level close to the thresholds. It implies that further financial openness will dramatically increase the macroeconomic volatilities but whether financial efficiency improvement can mitigate instability is uncertain.     

Network ties and entrepreneurial orientation: Innovative performance of SMEs in a developing country

This study investigates the role of intra-cluster ties, extra-cluster ties, and entrepreneurial orientation in shaping firms’ innovative performance. We conduct our analysis on a primary data set of 120 small and medium enterprises located in the Cibaduyut footwear-manufacturing cluster, Indonesia. We explore the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition through intra-cluster ties and extra-cluster ties on innovative performance. We find that extra-cluster ties mediate the relationship between proactiveness and innovative performance. Also, a combination of high extra-cluster ties and risk taking exert a positive impact on innovative performance. Surprisingly, we find that risk taking negatively moderates the influence of intra-cluster ties on innovative performance. Over-reliance on within-cluster knowledge sharing may result in the diffusion of redundant knowledge rather than making new knowledge available to the firm. Overall, our findings point to the synergistic effects of entrepreneurial orientation and extra-cluster ties on innovative performance.     

The liquidity risk–financial performance nexus: Evidence from hybrid financial institutions

This paper uses a sample of 532 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 73 countries to investigate the effect of liquidity risk on the financial performance of MFIs and also enquires whether this effect changes in the presence of credit risk. It observes that liquidity risk exhibits a robust negative and statistically significant effect on the financial performance of MFIs. However, in the presence of credit risk, this negative effect transmutes into a positive effect. The paper also observes that in the presence of liquidity risk, credit risk impacts the financial performance of MFIs positively.     

浅析中小企业如何运用信息化策略应对金融危机

当前,金融风暴愈演愈烈,虚拟经济危机对实体经济的冲击日渐严重,许多企业大遭其难。中小企业人力资源有限、资本积累少、技术力量薄弱,应对危机的能力相对欠缺,因此面临着更大的生存压力。对于中小企业而言,通过信息化提升企业的管理效率和创新能力,绝对是应对危机的良策之一。文章阐述了金融危机对中小企业的影响,分析了当前中小企业信息化的机遇与困难,并就中小企业如何运用信息化策略应对金融危机进行了探讨。     

Outsourcing and financial performance: A negative curvilinear effect

This study asks how a firm's degree of outsourcing across all activities influences financial performance. We argue there is an optimal degree of outsourcing, where firms outsource some activities yet integrate others, and that deviations lower performance in a negatively curvilinear fashion. We find empirical support, using 1995 and 1998 data on a sample of manufacturing businesses in the Netherlands, and show that the steepness of the curve increases under conditions of high uncertainty. We show the magnitude of the uncertainty effect on performance outcomes through a post hoc scenario analysis. Thus we provide a specific, theoretically and empirically grounded prediction of how outsourcing affects performance with implications for theory and practice.     

Influence of subcontracting on innovation and economic performance of SMEs in Indian automobile industry

Trans-national corporations (TNCs) expanding their production bases to developing countries having better conditions of manufacturing and domestic markets provide increasing opportunities for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to have subcontracting relationships with these TNCs. Even though some theoretical and a few empirical studies throw light on the nature of assistance provided by TNCs to local SMEs through subcontracting relationships, none of the studies so far quantitatively analysed the role of this assistance on the innovative performance of SMEs leading to better economic performance. This paper probes the extent and diversity of assistance received by SMEs from a TNC through subcontracting and its influence on technological innovations and economic performance of SMEs, in the Indian automobile industry. Indian SMEs were able to receive mainly product related and purchase process assistance, thereby implying that subcontracting is largely confined to purchase–supply relationships. However, assistance received through subcontracting is beneficial as it promoted technological innovations of SMEs: the higher the degree of assistance, the higher the level of innovations carried out by these SMEs, which, in turn facilitated their economic performance. Thus, this paper substantiates in the Indian context that subcontracting relationship with a TNC can be an important source of technological innovations and enhanced economic performance for SMEs.     

Carbon disclosure and financial performance: UK environmental policy

The outcome of carbon disclosure, the importance of which has grown remarkably in recent years to become a strategic decision‐making issue for organisations in today's competitive environment, is a subject of lively debate but remains under‐researched in the environmental accounting literature. This study is motivated by this research gap and the growing interest in assessing the financial consequences of corporate involvement in climate change beyond regulatory compliance, as evidenced by firms' voluntary participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project. Using the resource‐based view of the firm as a theoretical framework and linking it to carbon disclosure through Carbon Disclosure Project, we conceptualise and empirically investigate the impact of adopting proactive carbon management policies and communicating them to stakeholders, focusing on the financial performance of the top FTSE350 companies between 2007 and 2015. By developing a comprehensive financial performance index and controlling for several firm characteristics, we find strong evidence that voluntary carbon disclosure is positively associated with firm financial performance. The findings in this paper provide new insights and policy implications for managers, financial stakeholders, and regulators.     

HR flexibility: Precursors and the contingent impact on firm financial performance

Using data from 170 for‐profit U.S. firms with 100 or more employees from 27 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry subsectors, we investigated firm‐level precursors of HR flexibility and industry‐level boundary conditions of the HR flexibility—firm financial performance relationship. The findings denote that a contingency illumination is warranted in which consideration should be given to firm‐level factors such as flexibility business strategy and high‐performance work systems, which may play a key role in engendering HR flexibility, and external factors such as industry dynamism and growth, which may serve as boundary conditions that influence the relevance and impact of HR flexibility. This study is an important extension of extant HR flexibility research and adds clarity regarding the roles and relevance of HR flexibility and the circumstances in which HR flexibility and/or its focal factors may augment (or diminish) firm competitiveness and performance.     

An empirical study of high performance HRM practices in Chinese SMEs

This paper explores the performance effects of human resource management (HRM) practices in 74 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Four high performance HRM practices are identified: performance-based pay, participatory decision-making, free market selection, and performance evaluation. Regression analysis results support the conventional idea that the adoption of HRM practices generates better HRM outcomes and, in turn, better HRM outcomes contribute positively to firm performance. However, not all HRM practices, and their effects, led to improved SME performance. Among the Chinese SMEs investigated, a high level of employee commitment was identified as being the key HRM outcome for enhancing performance.