The Architecture of Core Competence

In this article, the author first surveys the explanations given by leading writers for corporate success and then goes on to sketch a definition of what he calls "meta-competence": the corporate capacity for building and sustaining core competence. Delving below the popular explanations for Wal-Mart's success, he then uses Wal-Mart to illustrate his argument.     

Dynamic openness and finance in Africa

This study assesses dynamics of openness and finance in Africa by integrating financial development dynamics of depth, activity and size in the assessment of how financial, trade, institutional, political and other openness policies (of second generation structural and institutional reforms) have affected financial development. The empirical evidence is based on Generalized Method of Moments with data from 28 African countries for the period 1996–2010. The following findings are established. (1) While the de jure (KAOPEN) indicator of financial openness improves financial depth, the de facto (FDI) measurement decreases it, with the effect of the latter measure positive on financial size. (2) Whereas trade openness improves financial depth, its effect on financial activity and size is negative. (3) Institutional openness has a positive effect on financial dynamics of depth and activity, while its effect on financial size is negative. (4) Political openness and economic freedom are detrimental to financial depth and activity. Justifications for these nexuses are discussed.     

From father to son and from father to daughter: educational mobility in Hungary and the Netherlands for the birth cohorts from 1925 to 1955

In this article we are concerned with the comparison of educational mobility in Hungary and the Netherlands. The analysis is based on representative samples of 1981/2 and applies for both father-son and father-daughter educational mobility specified for four age cohorts. Two different theoretical perspectives are adopted—the industrialisation thesis and the reproduction thesis—from which the expectations for the analysis are derived. These expectations are confronted with the empirical data: firstly by means of overall mobility table measures, secondly by means' of the Hope-type log-linear analysis. The analysis shows that—contrary to the expectations from the reproduction thesis—no significant differences in circulation mobility can be detected between the two countries. Most of the differing mobility patterns are to be found in the structural component of mobility. This component can be uniform [linear] or non-uniform: the direction of the very significant differences supports the industrialisation thesis in this respect. The article ends with a discussion of the visualised effects of educational reforms that were introduced in both countries and with some suggestions for the next research steps.     

High performance work practices in small firms: a resource-poverty and strategic decision-making perspective

High performance work practices (HPWPs) are human resource management practices aimed at stimulating employee and organisational performance. The application of HPWPs is not widespread in small organisations. We examine whether the implementation of coherent bundles of HPWPs (aimed at employee ability, employee motivation or at the opportunity to perform) depends on the scarcity of resources, as reflected in the size of the company, and on strategic decision-making in small firms related to the owner’s expertise and attitudes. In our research, a total of 211 employees from 45 small organisations were asked to rate the presence of HPWPs in their organisation. These averaged perceptions were linked to information provided by the owner–managers on the size of their firm and their own expertise and attitudes. The findings support that smaller but coherent bundles of HPWPs can be found in small organisations and that the implementation of these bundles depends on available resources, strategic decision-making and the combination of the two. These findings highlight the need to integrate the notions of resource poverty and strategic decision-making to understand the uptake of bundles of HPWPs within small firms.     

A Markov-switching COGARCH approach to cryptocurrency portfolio selection and optimization

Financial Markets and Portfolio Management - Blockchain is a new technology slowly integrating our economy with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and many more applications. Bitcoin and other...     

Portfolio creation using artificial neural networks and classification probabilities: a Canadian study

Financial Markets and Portfolio Management - This study aims to verify whether using artificial neural networks (ANNs) to establish classification probabilities generates portfolios with higher...     

Risk,Uncertainty and Exchange Rate Behavior in South Africa

This study investigates the role of market sentiment and foreign policy uncertainty in explaining rand price fluctuations using monthly data from 1995M2 to 2017M8. Empirical results from the pair copula analysis indicate no dependence between foreign policy uncertainties and rand returns when market sentiment is controlled for. Furthermore, change in market sentiment seems to drive fluctuations in rand exchange rate suggesting that exchange rate behavior is indeed unpredictable as market sentiment captures both risk and uncertainty. These results are robust across pre- and post-recent financial crisis periods; hence confirming the ability of pair copula to model extreme events.