Reactions of the Spanish capital market to qualified audit reports

Since mandatory auditing of financial statements was first established in Spain, very few studies have been conducted to test the information content of audit reports in the Spanish capital market. The aim of this study is, then, to test empirically whether there is a relationship between audit qualifications and stock prices in the context of the Spanish market. We have used the event study methodology for this purpose. Our findings show that qualified audit reports do not have information value for investors.     

The corporate image of auditors in a developing audit market within the EU: the case of Spain

This paper examines the images of audit firms in Spain. Spain offers a valuable research context in that it is a relatively new audit market and one where the top company audits are not totally dominated by the large multinational audit firms, allowing for a comparison of the images of such firms against those associated with smaller, national audit firms. The findings of this survey are pertinent given the current level of debate internationally over the role, regulation and quality of auditing services and concerns over the potential impact of recent corporate scandals on auditor reputation.

Our study shows that the images of audit firms in Spain have differed on a number of dimensions, mostly concerned with the pricing of audit services and the spread of audit clients. Significantly, no differences were obtained in relation to the perceived competence or ethical standing of the large multinational and Spanish, national audit firms. The study also shows the areas of the audit firm's corporate image where the actual image of the firm differs significantly from that desired by the management of their clients.     

An Analysis of the Convergence of the Composition of Public Expenditures in European Union Countries

The literature on fiscal policies is paying increasing attention to the impact of the composition of public expenditures on long‐term economic growth. Public policy endogenous growth models recommend to change the composition of public expenditures to items considered productive expenditures. In this sense, European institutions are encouraging the rise in the share of productive outlays like public investments, R&D, and active labor market policies, among others. The article analyzes whether these recommendations are followed by European Union countries and whether a convergence to a new pattern of public finances with a higher share of those items considered productive expenditures by European institutions is arising.     

New firm creation and innovation: industrial patterns and inter-sectoral linkages

This article analyzes the linkages between entrepreneurship and innovation behaviour at an industrial level. The research question refers to the extent that the industrial pattern of generation/absorption of knowledge affects the industrial ability to create new firms. An embodied knowledge approach has been applied, by combining the input–output framework with innovation and new firm creation data. As a result, four industrial patterns of innovation/new firm creation have been identified, taking into account the firm size and the model of generation and absorption of knowledge.     

Entrepreneurial intentions in the context of a collectivist economy: a comparison between Cuba and Spain

Entrepreneurship research has matured and now spans multiple entrepreneurial contexts, including developing countries, emerging and transitional economies. However, collectivist economies have largely been ignored, partly due to difficulties in conducting research and partly due to the widespread assumption that they remain on the outskirts of entrepreneurial activity. In this paper, from the entrepreneurial event model perspective, we analyse entrepreneurial intention and its antecedents in Cuba, probably the best example of a collectivist economy that exists nowadays. Cuba is compared to Spain, a country that shares historical and cultural features but one which has a developed market economy. Findings indicate that desirability and feasibility constitute the main antecedents of entrepreneurial intention in Cuba, as other studies in market economy countries reflect. However, the influence of desirability on entrepreneurial intention is lower in Cuba compared to Spain, where the values of desirability and feasibility are significantly greater. These results seem to indicate that due to Cuba’s level of development, political regime and collectivist culture, entrepreneurship arises mainly out of necessity and the emergence of a strong entrepreneurial culture is stifled. This reflects a similar situation to the result obtained in previous studies in developing countries.

     

Business creation by immigrant entrepreneurs in the valencian community. The influence of education

The authors analyse the level of education and the attitude to education of immigrant entrepreneurs in relation to enterprise activity, the reasons for setting up businesses and the creation process. The main objective of this article is to discover the most important characteristics of immigrant entrepreneurs in the Valencian Community. In particular, it attempts to explain the influence of education on the setting up of businesses. To do so, 326 questionnaires have been analysed to undertake a study of the various immigrant communities in the Valencian Community that identify said factors. The hypothesis we put forward in this article is an attempt at relating the attitude to education of immigrant entrepreneurs, and its relation to business activity, the motivation for setting up businesses and the process for said business creation. As the most outstanding result, this article shows that the level of education of an entrepreneur is the factor on which the majority of business activity will depend. There is no factor of this personal dimension that relates to most aspects of motivation and business process. The study focuses on a particular geographical area. Consequently, the study helps to understand business activity by non-national entrepreneurs in a globalized economy and adds value to public policies for fostering business.     

Another look at the Tail Area Influence Function

A new way of computing the Tail Area Influence Function (TAIF) exactly is proposed and a new finite sample robustness measure, based on the TAIF, is introduced. The main properties of this robustness measure are also studied, for both finite and asymptotic sample sizes. Next, a very accurate approximation to the finite sample power function of a test is obtained; this is based on the TAIF plus an iterative procedure. The results are valid when there are no nuisance parameters.     

Quasi ML estimation of the panel AR(1) model with arbitrary initial conditions

In this paper we show that the Quasi ML estimation method yields consistent Random and Fixed Effects estimators for the autoregression parameter ρ$\rho$ in the panel AR(1) model with arbitrary initial conditions and possibly time-series heteroskedasticity even when the error components are drawn from heterogeneous distributions. We investigate both analytically and by means of Monte Carlo simulations the properties of the QML estimators for ρ$\rho$. The RE(Q)MLE for ρ$\rho$ is asymptotically at least as robust to individual heterogeneity and, when the data are i.i.d. and normal, at least as efficient as the FE(Q)MLE for ρ$\rho$. Furthermore, the QML estimators for ρ$\rho$ only suffer from a ‘weak moment conditions’ problem when ρ$\rho$ is close to one if the cross-sectional average of the variances of the errors is (almost) constant over time, e.g. under time-series homoskedasticity. However, in this case the QML estimators for ρ$\rho$ are still consistent when ρ$\rho$ is local to or equal to one although they converge to a non-normal possibly asymmetric distribution at a rate that is lower than N^1/2$N^{1/2}$ but at least N^1/4$N^{1/4}$. Finally, we study the finite sample properties of two types of estimators for the standard errors of the QML estimators for ρ$\rho$, and the bounds of QML based confidence intervals for ρ$\rho$.     

How to innovate business models for a circular bio-economy?

Shifting from a linear to a circular bio-economy requires new business models. The objective was getting insights into the uncharted research field of business model innovation for a circular and sustainable bio-economy within the agrifood sector. Eight European cases valorising agricultural waste and by-products by closing loops or cascading were studied regarding their innovation drivers and elements, via interviews, on-site visits and secondary data. In this domain, the findings highlight that business model innovations are depending on the (i) macro-environmental institutional-legal conditions and market trends, (ii) driven by internal economic, environmental and/or social objectives, but especially strongly linked to (iii) other actors often from different sectors seeking synergies and (iv) value co-creation via combined organisational and technological innovations. Business models for a circular bio-economy thus depend on various action levels and need radical combined organisational and technological innovations for a most efficient usage of agricultural waste and by-products. This also means new business configurations instead of linear innovation strategies currently still being dominant due to economic viability.     

Standardization of Variables and Collinearity Diagnostic in Ridge Regression

Ridge estimation (RE) is an alternative method to ordinary least squares when there exists a collinearity problem in a linear regression model. The variance inflator factor (VIF) is applied to test if the problem exists in the original model and is also necessary after applying the ridge estimate to check if the chosen value for parameter k has mitigated the collinearity problem. This paper shows that the application of the original data when working with the ridge estimate leads to non‐monotone VIF values. García et al. (2014) showed some problems with the traditional VIF used in RE. We propose an augmented VIF, VIF_R(j,k), associated with RE, which is obtained by standardizing the data before augmenting the model. The VIF_R(j,k) will coincide with the VIF associated with the ordinary least squares estimator when k = 0. The augmented VIF has the very desirable properties of being continuous, monotone in the ridge parameter and higher than one.