Procedia Economics and Finance最新文献

In tandem with globalization and rapid changes in technology, the role of SMEs in enhancing economy development and employment becomes more crucial despite resource constraints. The emergence of a knowledge economy requires SMEs to be embedded with intellectual capital, namely human capital, structural capital and relational capital in order to compete in the resilient business environment. Given the unique characteristics of SMEs, prior studies revealed that human capital has the strongest influence on SMEs’ performance than the other sub-elements of intellectual capital. The changes in the business environment force firms to alter their strategies in achieving their stated goals. Hence, to align between the changes in the environment and the firm's structures, systems and processes, the role of human capital must be properly identified and distinguished according to the needs in different life cycle stages. The contributions of human capital in the early stages are found to be more significant than later stages. Therefore, the aims of this conceptual paper are twofold. The paper will highlight the contribution of human capital in business performance, followed by the role of human capital in the different life cycle stages of SMEs.

In the context of European economic recovery, undeclared work has become a true challenge for the labour market policies, mainly because it affects tax revenue, social security and labour standards. Without better understanding of the main determinants of undeclared work, little can be done to prevent it. Having these in mind and based on the Eurobarometer survey, the paper aims to find the main factors that trigger undeclared work. Our findings suggest that after the economic crisis, the trust in national authorities has dropped and generated more undeclared payments, especially for the case of small and medium firms.

What is the households’ saving behavior during different stages of economic cycle? What is the reaction of households’ to the external shocks? Which factors motivate households’ to save in foreign currency rather than in national currency? Are households’ saving decisions rational and based on fundamentals economic indicators or, in contrary, irrational and resulted by ‘herding’ behavior? While these research questions are important for various reasons they are investigated in this empirical study. The objective of this study – to identify the economic and psychological factors influencing the households’ saving behavior. The research methods: the systemic, logical and comparative analysis of the scientific literature and panel regression. The results of this empirical study show that the households’ saving behavior is more irrational especially during economic downturn and financial crisis periods. These empirical findings can be explained by low degree of financial literacy, ineffective communication strategy of the central banks and governments during financial turmoil and economic downturn periods, etc.

The Baltic Sea Region became an EU testing ground for international cooperation. This article presents the origin and the typologies of this cooperation. Macroregional, territorial and cross-border cooperation was discussed. The main aim of this article was to analyse the key determinants of the development of cross-border cooperation in the BSR, an EU macroregion. Based on literature studies, the BSR was delimited, proposing a definition of this area that is the most beneficial from economic point of view. Having performed an analysis of documents and economic data, it was proven that macroregional cooperation supports territorial cooperation in the BSR in a significant way. For this purpose, the financing devices of territorial cooperation, i.e. cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation programmes, were analysed. It was proven that the priorities of these programmes comply with the priorities of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Furthermore, an attempt was made to analyse the organisational resources of cross-border cooperation, with particular focus on Euroregions and European groupings of territorial cooperation. A diagnosis of the state was made based on secondary and primary data obtained from interviews. It was shown that the organisational structure is not fully efficient, which is a barrier to the development of cross-border cooperation

The preferences among employees are varied due to the changes in the 21st century's working environment. It is thus important to determine the factors that employees seek in an organization and their intention behavior to quit from their job in order to improve the issues of high attrition that happens in an organization. This research aims to determine the relationship between Employer Branding and Turnover Intention among employees in Malaysia's SME-ICT Industry. A cross sectional study and quantitative research methods were used in the study. Questionnaires were administered to employees in the SME-ICT firms in Selangor and 250 respondents cooperated in this study. Practically, this study adopts the concept employer branding and translates it into the SME environment, in an attempt to improve the organization's performance regarding employee's management. By using Smart Partial Least Square (PLS), the result translates the significant relationship between the development value in employer branding and turnover intention.

Major developments in the last three decades have set the scene for the rise of novel problems on global scale. The unprecedented level of interdependence and interconnectedness between countries, firms and institutions has paved the way for the emergence of, both, novel practices that increase the quality of life and intriguingly complicated issues of global governance. The relationship between global actors are so intertwined that striving for predictability is barely feasible. In spite of the enhanced capabilities gained through involvement in the economic and financial value creation process, there are perils ahead for better global governance. Major issues pose global actors in terms of credibility, building and ensuring sustainability, erosion of capacity to fulfill promises and increasing fragility of financial markets as well as issues regarding depleting energy resources, environment and security. G-20 emerged as a remedial governance structure in the wake of the 2008 financial turmoil making sure that the prominent dynamic emerging countries are seated around the table. The expansion of G-8 into G-20 including the new global powerhouses has many positive implications. However, ongoing debates regarding this structure oscillate between hope and contestation. This conceptual paper intends to draw a general framework regarding the representative capability of G-20 members and discuss the hybrid quality of this so called steering committee given the era of turbulence that the world is heading towards.

The current study was carried out with the aim of evaluating the effects of relationship marketing on communication with Ilam gas Refining Company Industrial equipment suppliers. The present study is a descriptive and correlational one. The study population included 150 experts and managers involved in the purchase and supply of components used in Ilam gas Refining Company. Using simple random sampling method, a sample of 108 was selected according to Cochran formula. In this study data collection was done through questionnaire and data analysis was done through SPSS and AMOS software and path analysis model. The results showed that there was a positive significant relationship between the four aspects of relationship marketing (empathy, trust, Bonding, and Reciprocity) and ongoing communication with suppliers, but there is no significant relationship between aspects of communication and shared values with Industrial equipment suppliers.

Taxonomy as primarily empirical approach to the classification has become an important part of science in development of the diverse socio-economic processes. Furthermore, the topic of developing countries is currently a discussed topic at the international level. It is closely related to tourism as one of the sources of their potential growth. This paper aims to develop the taxonomy of the least developed countries based on the tourism economic impact analysis. We use the cluster analysis as a quantitative method for constructing taxonomies and analyze the countries based on the several different measures. As a result, taxonomy is developed based upon the outcomes of the cluster analysis.

This paper applies MPI approach to measure technical change and productivity growth in 40 Indian sugar companies for the period 2004-05 to 2013-14. The empirical findings show that on an average, Indian sugar companies have registered a negative TFP growth rate of 0.7 percent per annum, though it varies considerably across years, indicating to the existence of sugar cycle. Decomposition of TFP growth into technical change and technical efficiency change reveals that the negative growth is only due to technological regress. The study suggests that apart from bringing the technical change, rationalization of sugarcane price policy is need of the hour.