New development: Importance of accounts receivable in Colombian state entities and their impact on the preparation of financial information

ABSTRACT

The article shows the importance of accounts receivable in the financial structure of state entities (purely government entities and state companies), and the challenge of standardizing accounting policies in order to prepare a national consolidated balance sheet. The focus is on Colombia. The research is qualitative, based on an analytical link between the nature of state entities, liquidity management and measurement in the preparation of financial information. Evidence is provided about the opportunities and limitations of the accounting regulation frameworks established for the public sector in Colombia. The author identifies future fields of research on public sector accounting and its role in accountability.     

A Comparative Analysis of Chinese-Nigerian Economic Reforms and Development Experiences

I. IntroductionThe economic reform process embarked on by the Chinese leaders in 1978 came at a time ofneed. In 1976, the political class that assumed the leadership saw the great need for economicreform and transformation. This vision was strengthened specifically by the assumption ofA Comparative Analysis of Chinese-Nigerian Economic115Reforms and Development Experiencespower by Deng Xiaoping. The formal diplomatic relations the P.R. China established withUnited States in 1979 furthe…     

Legitimacy building strategies in conditions of discretionary legal enforcement: A logic of social action approach

The present study explores strategies used to legitimize the transfer of organizational practices in a situation of institutional upheaval. We apply the logic of social action (Risse, 2000) to analyze the effectiveness of consequence-based action and communication-based action, in terms of higher coordination, lower conflict, and overall higher economic performance. Consequence-based legitimation is obtained by using a system of distributor incentives tied to performance of specific tasks, while communicative legitimation can be achieved by recommendations and warnings. Our setting is an export channel to European emerging economies. Our results indicate that in the absence of legitimacy, as manifested in discretionary legal enforcement, consequence-based legitimation is more effective than communicative legitimation in reducing conflict, increasing coordination, and ultimately in improving the performance of the export dyad.     

Core infrastructure and industrial performance in Africa: Do institutions matter?

The study investigates the role of institution in the nexus between core infrastructure and industrial performance in Africa. In this study, we select 25 African economies and data cover the period of 1996–2016. To conduct the panel analysis, we use variables such as manufacturing value added per capita to proxy industrial performance and employ the principal component analysis to generate core infrastructure index, as well as institution index. Using the fixed effect model, we find that core infrastructure has a positive but insignificant impact on industrial performance in the selected African countries. However, when we interact infrastructure with institution, results suggest that infrastructure has a positive and significant effect on industrial performance, alluding to the fact that institution is very important in making infrastructure to enhance industrial performance in Africa. Hence, African governments should formulate a sound industrial policy and standardise regulatory quality to boost industrial performance.     

How to select an export mode without bias

Managers of startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) tend to view subsidiaries as the preferred export mode. Yet this type of organization is associated with a high failure rate. Our in-depth interviews with more than 40 managers show that their bias in favor of foreign sales subsidiaries is rooted in unsubstantiated beliefs about control and the superiority of subsidiaries over other export modes. This article details the faulty reasoning that supports these prejudices and proposes a simple method for selecting more profitable and less risky international entry strategies.     

Drivers and barriers of corporate social responsibility in the tourism industry: The case of Malawi

ABSTRACT

In developing countries, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes help in uplifting local communities by complementing governments’ efforts in providing public services in areas such as education, health, environment and security. But in the tourism industry, CSR has also been closely linked to responsible tourism in which tourism operators’ focus on protecting resources that attract tourists for business sustainability. This paper examines the drivers and barriers of CSR adoption in the tourism industry in Malawi. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and thematically analysed. The study reveals that the major drivers of CSR in the tourism industry in Malawi are community expectations, management values and commitment, cost reduction, natural and cultural resource management, competitive advantage and company size. The barriers to CSR adoption include lack of resources, lack of clear CSR policy and government support, lack of coordination, mismanagement of CSR resources by communities and lack of awareness.     

Bundles of HRM practices and performance: empirical evidence from a Latin American context

This article examines the extent to which the configuration of HRM practices in bundles and the interactions among them have a significant impact on manufacturing outcomes. Using a unique data set from a survey of a representative sample of the whole Uruguayan manufacturing industry, several hypotheses related to interactions between ability–motivation–opportunity bundles of HRM practices are tested. Analysis of 150 manufacturing plants partially highlights the existence of hierarchy between bundles, being the bundle of motivation‐enhancing HRM practices the most important to explain the enhanced manufacturing outcomes. Based on this bundle of practices, synergistic interactions with both ability and opportunity bundles of HRM practices were observed to explain different performance measures.     

Identifying agroecological mixed farming strategies for local conditions in San Antonio de Los Baños,Cuba

Building on previous research at the experimental and national scales, this study was carried out at the local scale over a four-year period on three farms of reference: one specialized dairy farm ‘Vaquería 10’ (33.7 ha) and two mixed farms, ‘Remedio’ (9.4 ha) and ‘La Sarita’ (47 ha). All three farms are located in the San Antonio de Los Baños municipality, Havana, Cuba. This study illustrates the application of the Ecological Framework for the Assessment of Sustainability (ECOFAS). This methodology consists of a cyclical structure of six steps, aimed at guiding the process of implementing innovative mixed (crop–livestock) farming strategies. Local stakeholders (farmers, researchers, extension officers and representatives of the ministry of agriculture in the municipality) identified alternative strategies for agriculture in the region, based on the critical technological, environmental and socio-economic factors constraining the current performance of farming systems. The results show that implementation of ‘best practice’ mixed farming systems management strategies in the region potentially can lead to a strong positive impact on land productivity, food self-sufficiency as well as improve socio-economic performance.     

Development and Psychometric Analysis of an Instrument to Measure the Reasons that Oncological Patients give when Participating in a Psychological Intervention

This work presents the psychometric study of a questionnaire on participation in psychological therapy (QPPT). The study is applied to oncological patients and the questionnaire was designed to evaluate the reasons given by chronic patients when participating or not in programmes of psychological treatment. The questionnaire includes six rational areas which resulted from the confirmatory factorial analysis.The internal consistency of the scales was analysed through Cronbach’s Alpha, and their discriminatory capacity between criterion groups of oncological patients was tested by means of t-tests and discriminant analyses. The results support, to a reasonable extent, the reliability and validity of the QPPT as an instrument to evaluate the reasons of participation or refusal of psychological treatment in oncological patients.