Propensity to firm creation: empirical research using structural equations

The identification of the entrepreneurs’ characteristics and the knowledge of the entrepreneurial profile of university students have been assuming a growing importance in the development of educational programs directed towards the entrepreneurship and start-up processes. This study aims to identify the factors that most contribute for the intention to start up a business. The research also tries to identify the profile of a potential entrepreneur student concerning several characteristics: personal attributes, family, demographic variables and motivations. Research findings include the idea that entrepreneurship education is the most relevant factor in what concerns the propensity to business creation. On the other side, personal characteristics have an important role in shaping motivation to start-up a business and perceived hurdles have a negative impact in the intention to start-up. The results may be relevant when developing an adequate educational program directed to the entrepreneurship education and start-up processes.     

Influence of institutional environment on entrepreneurial intention: a comparative study of two countries university students

Institutional environment influences the perceptions of desirability and feasibility, society’s social and cultural environment, such as beliefs, values and attitudes, conditions behaviour and decisions made by individuals. This research evaluates the influence of institutional environment on entrepreneurial intention using a comparative analysis of different attitudes among university students in two countries: Portugal and Spain. In particular, this study aims to examine the perceptions of desirability, feasibility and intention toward the creation of one’s own business and how that variables influence the entrepreneurial intention as compared these two different institutional contexts. Results revealed difference among attitudes toward entrepreneurship in both countries. With respect to the perception of feasibility, the majority of students in Extremadura (Spain) consider that it is easier to create a business in nowadays than it was several decades ago. However, from the students of Beira Interior (Portugal) consider that it is more difficult. Furthermore, in Extremadura, the entrepreneurial intention is higher than in Beira Interior.     

An Italian forerunner of modern cost allocation concepts: Lorenzo De Minico and the logic of the 'flows of services'

This article provides an analysis of the thoughts of an Italian academic who lived in the first half of the twentieth century, Lorenzo De Minico, in particular it regards his approach to the allocation of common costs. De Minico's main concern was with the conventional, subjective allocation methods proposed by Italian practitioners and academics of his time. He valiantly searched for a methodological approach based on using causality as the basis for linking costs to cost objects. The most interesting finding of De Minico was the concept of 'flows of services' and his commitment to offering a convincing answer to the problem of general or common cost apportionment that went beyond 'traditional' criteria. De Minico's 'flows of services' referred to the outputs of resources consumed in indirect services. These indirect costs can be considered easily 'directly attributable' only if it is possible to measure the connected 'flows of services'. The article shows that the concept developed by De Minico in early twentieth century of Italy confirms the idea that some theoretical frameworks for a causal allocation of common costs were in existence many decades before information technology made such systems a practical proposition.     

Labour demand in the EU and returns to scale: A production function approach

The paper tests the hypothesis that small member states of the European Union (EU) experience economies of scale constraints. This study adopts a production function approach, utilising data from the 27 differently sized EU member countries. The results confirm the hypothesis and indicate that larger EU member countries incur lower costs per unit of output produced when compared to the smaller ones. This finding has important implications for small EU member states, including that smaller countries have to overcome their economies of scale constraint in order to attain and maintain international competitiveness. This disadvantage is particularly relevant for small states, because these states tend to be highly dependent on international trade, in which case international competitiveness is a major issue.     

Legitimating the standard-setter of public sector accounting reforms

ABSTRACT

This paper shows how the Brazilian Treasury has developed strategies to build legitimacy in a civil law context where the legislature left a vacuum regarding the accrual accounting standard-setting mandate. While the accounting ‘rule-enforcers’ neglected to require compliance with the rules, the ‘rule-makers’ co-operated with each other to build normativity for accounting rules and eventually attempted to develop new forms of enforcement, which the ‘rule-appliers’ lobbied against.     

Dimensions of service quality and satisfaction in healthcare: a patient’s satisfaction index

The assessment of patients’ satisfaction levels, and the knowledge of what factors influence satisfaction are very important for healthcare managers as it influences healthcare results and healthcare institutions financial results. The objective of this research is to analyse patients’ satisfaction levels in a set of four Portuguese primary Healthcare Centres, through the estimation of a satisfaction index, which simultaneously explains which dimensions of healthcare quality influence that satisfaction the most. For that, a conceptual model of patients’ satisfaction in primary healthcare was tested using data from a sample of 414 patients. Partial Least Squares path modelling (PLS) was the technique chosen to evaluate the proposed model. The results show that patients’ satisfaction is 60.887 in a scale from 1 to 100, revealing only a medium level of satisfaction. It is also possible to conclude that the most important positive effects on satisfaction are the ones linked to the patient/doctor relationship, the quality of facilities and the interaction with administrative staff, by this order.     

From rules to collaborative practice: When regulatory mechanisms drive collective co-production

The paper develops an analysis of latent spaces of co-production enacted by the government. Based on a survey and interviews, the authors identified the elements of co-production logics which emerged from the interactions of members of Brazilian municipal health councils. Collective co-production emerges when members adhere to a set of norms and values which are favourable to co-operation. The paper explains how councils’ regulatory mechanisms can drive the understanding of their members in relation to co-production and its benefits.