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1 – 10 of over 100000
Article
Publication date: 12 October 2012

Juan Carlos Díaz‐Casero, D. Ángel Manuel Díaz‐Aunión, Mari Cruz Sánchez‐Escobedo, Alicia Coduras and Ricardo Hernández‐Mogollón

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically whether economic freedom affects entrepreneurial activity in three groups of countries, classified according to economic…

2836

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically whether economic freedom affects entrepreneurial activity in three groups of countries, classified according to economic development.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on the index of entrepreneurial activity cover the period between 2002 and 2009, and are taken from the annual GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) reports and from the Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation from 1995 to 2009. The same analysis is carried out, grouping the countries by development level, following the classification included in the Global Competitiveness Report 2009‐2010. A Ridge regression analysis is performed to measure the model's goodness‐of‐fit and to determine equations that can be used for future predictions.

Findings

The results obtained in the correlation analysis show that economic freedom is closely related to entrepreneurial activity. The results suggest that TEA rates, opportunity‐TEA rates and necessity‐TEA rates decrease when there is an increase in economic freedom in a country, as just two of the areas analyzed – i.e. “government size” and “fiscal freedom” – appear to foster the emergence of new entrepreneurs. When countries are grouped by level of economic development, the results for countries belonging to the “Innovation‐Driven Economies” group show that the opportunity‐TEA rates increase as the economic freedom index grows.

Originality/value

The study indicates that entrepreneurship by opportunity increases in the group of Innovation‐Driven Economies with smaller “government size” and more “fiscal freedom”.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 50 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2006

Czafrann Ali, T. Bettina Cornwell, Doan Nguyen and Leonard Coote

Despite the now well developed use of sponsorship linked marketing, there have been few methodological advances in the measurement of sponsorship constructs and outcomes. This…

Abstract

Despite the now well developed use of sponsorship linked marketing, there have been few methodological advances in the measurement of sponsorship constructs and outcomes. This paper offers a preliminary development of an activity index for use in the sponsorship marketing context. The activity index seeks to capture the consumer's extended experience with sport (rugby) and considers the relationship of this overall experience to sponsorship-related outcomes of interest. Initial development of the index, based on a convenience sample of 108 people visiting a sports centre, shows promise.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Robert Kozielski, Grzegorz Mazurek, Anna Miotk and Artur Maciorowski

It seems that the Internet boom, which started at the end of the 1990s and finished with the spectacular collapse of the so-called dotcoms, is probably over. We are currently…

Abstract

It seems that the Internet boom, which started at the end of the 1990s and finished with the spectacular collapse of the so-called dotcoms, is probably over. We are currently enjoying a period of fast and stable growth. This is manifested by the growing number of both Internet users and companies which – to an ever-increasing extent – use the Internet as a form of communication (both internal and external), promotion, sales etc. Expenditures on Internet advertising are growing continuously and now constitute more than 25% of all advertising expenditure. A natural consequence of this development is the need for the standardisation and organisation of the world of the Internet. These activities will result in a greater awareness of the benefits which this medium provides, increasing the possibilities of its use, and – most importantly – the opportunity to evaluate the return on investments made on the Internet. Nowadays, it is clear that many companies are striving to increase the quality of their activities on the Internet or to improve the effectiveness of such activities. As a consequence, the number of companies that look for indices which would enable the making of more precise and effective decisions in the scope of online operations is growing.

This chapter is dedicated to the phenomenon of the increasing role of the Internet in business, including the scale of its use by Polish and international companies. We present the most commonly used measures of marketing activities on the Internet and in social media. This group includes the indices which make it possible to determine whether a company actually needs a website. Other measures allow for the improvement in the effectiveness of the activity on the Internet, whereas others specify the costs of activities on the Internet and often serve as the basis for settlements between a company and advertising agencies or companies specialising in website design. It is worth emphasising that the Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned (PESO) model, worked out by Don Bartholomew,1 is the basis for creation and description of indices concerning social media. This model has gained certain popularity in the social media industry. It does not, however, specify how individual indices should be named and calculated. It maps already existing indices and adapts them to specific levels of marketing communication measurement. All the measures indicated by the author of the model have been grouped into five major areas: exposure, engagement, brand awareness, action and recommendations. This model– similarly to all models of performance measurement – inspired by the sales funnel concept, adjusts certain standard indices and proposals of measurements for specific levels. Additionally, the measures are divided into four types, depending on who the owner of the content is: Paid (P) – refers to all forms of paid content; Owned (O) – all websites and web properties controlled by a company or brand; Earned (E) – the contents about a given brand created spontaneously by Internet users; and Shared (S) – the contents shared by Internet users.

Details

Mastering Market Analytics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-835-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 April 2015

John Mann and David Shideler

As an economic development strategy, entrepreneurship policies should target innovative activities – those which Schumpeter described as leading to new goods, production methods…

Abstract

Purpose

As an economic development strategy, entrepreneurship policies should target innovative activities – those which Schumpeter described as leading to new goods, production methods, markets, input sources, or new industries. However, popular entrepreneurship proxies, such as firm births (<500 employees) and sole proprietorships, capture multiple types of entrepreneurship which may have conflicting qualities. To address the need for more accurate measures of Schumpeterian activity, indices are constructed to specifically measure the relative amount of Schumpeterian activity among US states. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Four composite indices of Schumpeterian activity are constructed using different methods to combine variables related to innovative activity into single indicator, since there is uncertainty about the weighting of dimensions: principal component analysis (PCA), factor analysis (FA), data envelopment analysis and equal weights. Robustness checks were used to compare state rankings across indices. These indices were also compared to common entrepreneurship proxies and real GDP to demonstrate and justify their measurement of Schumpeterian activity.

Findings

The results show that the Schumpeterian Activity Indices (SAIs) similarly rank states and measure phenomena different from the common proxies of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, these indices better predict GDP than the common proxies. Lastly, state rankings based upon the SAIs support previous research suggesting that innovation and agglomeration economies are interrelated.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates a methodology for constructing a measure of innovative activity, which is necessary to develop and evaluate entrepreneurship policy for economic development.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, vol. 4 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2045-2101

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 November 2021

Francesca Bernini, Paola Ferretti and Antonella Angelini

This paper aims to focus on the relation between digital transformation and banks’ reputation, as examined through the information disclosed by the five largest Italian banking…

3660

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on the relation between digital transformation and banks’ reputation, as examined through the information disclosed by the five largest Italian banking groups’ efforts to extend and enhance their digital resources. Considering digitalization as a key strategy for managing reputation, which, in turn, can leverage financial and value performance management, the paper investigates whether and how digital activities might affect banks’ reputation. Therefore, this paper proposes the relationship between digitalization and reputation as a lever for performance management and for increasing efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use content analysis to generate a digital disclosure index, categorizing activities human, structural and relational. For banks’ reputations, the proxies are a measure of corporate reputation and a reputational risk index. Methodologically the study used multiple case studies, considered as particularly suitable to gain an in-depth understanding of the topic in the case of the five banks. A collection of secondary data and semi-structured interviews are included.

Findings

Overall, the digitalization-reputation link shows that banks’ reputation is variously affected, not only by exposure to risk (including reputational risk) but also by strategic issues such as digitalization and the effectiveness of the corresponding communication. Consequently, banks should view digitalization as a key driver to be considered not in a stand-alone perspective, but in a combined approach.

Research limitations/implications

Continued research should include the Covid-19 implications. Additionally, it would be important to compare a larger number of banks, with different characteristics, also including variables indicating the corporate governance mechanisms.

Practical implications

The analysis contributes to fostering scholars’ and practitioners’ management of the digital transformation challenge that is a current key-factor, capable of increasing banks’ value. It considers not only the drivers directly affecting monetary value but also the institutions’ social and relational value, as well as their reputation.

Originality/value

This paper extends prior research on the digitalization-reputation relation by investigating digital transformation through disclosure of activities in this area within the Italian banking sector. It allows to leverage the key-factors that can contribute to increasing banks’ value, considering not only the drivers directly affecting monetary value but also the institutions’ social and relational value, as well as their reputation.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 1 May 2019

Gunnar Lucko and Yi Su

Construction projects operate within a risky environment. It materialises as delays, which must be prevented or mitigated to avoid becoming amplified into late completion. But…

Abstract

Purpose

Construction projects operate within a risky environment. It materialises as delays, which must be prevented or mitigated to avoid becoming amplified into late completion. But previous research has largely ignored how structural complexity of the underlying network schedules shapes their resilience.

Design/Methodology/Approach

This research hypothesizes that schedule structure plays a vital role in its ability to absorb or propagate delays. The impact of activity-level local risk factors is represented via activity duration distributions, i.e. probability density functions. The impact of project-level global risk factors is more challenging because they arise via interactions between multiple activities.

Findings

Modelling resilience to local and global risk factors can employ a matrix approach. Simulation shows that delay amplification depends on local structure, not global complexity.

Research Limitations/Implications

Criticality had merely relied upon a single deterministic analysis of a network schedule to categorize activities as having zero or nonzero float from fixed relative duration a dependency structure. Repeated probabilistic analysis with sampled durations gives criticality indices of activities. This research limits itself to network schedules with point-wise relations between activities.

Practical Implications

Managers can use this knowledge to develop schedules that protect their expected project duration with a suitable structural complexity.

Originality/Value

Contributions to the body of knowledge are as follows: It converts the dependency structure into a reachability matrix and adds a correlation matrix to capture how the predecessor performance may impact its successors. It correlates criticality of activities with structural complexity indices. And it ranks activities objectively by their cruciality, i.e. potential delay propagation.

Details

10th Nordic Conference on Construction Economics and Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-051-1

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 June 2019

Patricia Picazo, Sergio Moreno-Gil and Dogan Gursoy

Examination of the image projected through photographs used in marketing materials can enable managers to identify opportunities for creating differentiated positioning in the…

Abstract

Purpose

Examination of the image projected through photographs used in marketing materials can enable managers to identify opportunities for creating differentiated positioning in the marketplace. However, the impact of image projected through photographs has not received much attention in academic literature. This paper aims to establish a methodology using dynamic indices that allow a systematic comparative evaluation of the image projected through photographs used in marketing materials of lodging properties located in competing destinations. It also provides an empirical examination of the type of image projected through photographs of lodging properties in those destinations.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis was conducted using a content analysis methodology. A total of 17,187 photographs of 5,820 lodging properties located in 15 different tourism destinations over a period of eight years were examined.

Findings

Results revealed that the proposed methodology based on dynamic comparative indices is appropriate for determining the projected image of lodging properties. The dynamic indices, which categorise photographs in three main categories: subject (people), activities (actions carried out) and contextualisation (location), allowed a systematic evaluation of the image projected of lodging properties in competing destinations. Results of the empirical analysis indicated important differences in the image projected through photographs among lodging properties located in 15 destinations.

Practical implications

This study provides the industry and destination marketing organisations (DMOs) with a useful and simple tool for comparatively evaluating the image projected by tourism accommodations. The methodology proposed enables managers to identify the current image and the changes in the image of their lodging properties, their destinations and those of their main competitors over the years, thus providing opportunities for development of more effective differentiation and positioning strategies in their respective target markets.

Originality/value

The proposed tool provides a methodology that can be used to categorise and evaluate the image represented on the photographs used in marketing materials to ensure the projection of the intended image. Furthermore, the proposed methodological tool enables managers to monitor the image projected through photographs used in competitors’ marketing materials and identify changes in their image projected over time.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 31 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2020

Sruti Mundra and Motilal Bicchal

The purpose of this study is to assess alternative financial stress indicators for India in terms of tracing crisis events, mapping with the business cycle and the macroeconomic…

1531

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess alternative financial stress indicators for India in terms of tracing crisis events, mapping with the business cycle and the macroeconomic effect of stress indices.

Design/methodology/approach

The study constructs the composite indicator of systemic stress of Hollo, Kremer and Lo Duca (2012) for India using two different methods for computing time-varying cross-correlation matrix, namely, exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) and dynamic conditional correlation-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (DCC-GARCH). The derived indices are evaluated with widely used, equal variance and principal component weighting indices in terms of tracing stress events, mapping with the business cycles and the macroeconomic effect. For this purpose, the study identifies various episodes of financial stress and uses the business cycle dates in the sample covering from January 2001 to October 2018.

Findings

The results suggest that stress indices based on EWMA and DCC-GARCH accurately identify the well-known stress periods and capture the recession dates and show an adverse effect on economic activity. Primarily, the DCC-GARCH-based stress index emerges as a better indicator of stress because it efficiently locates all the major-minor events, traces the build-up of stress and reverts to the normal level during stable times.

Practical implications

The DCC-GARCH-based stress index is a very useful indicator for policymakers in regularly monitoring India’s financial conditions and providing timely identification of systemic stress to avoid adverse repercussion effects of the financial crisis.

Originality/value

The 2007–2008 financial crisis and subsequent recurrent instability in the financial markets highlighted the requirement for an appropriate financial stress indicator for a timely assessment of the system-wide financial stress. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that incorporates the systemic nature of financial stress in the construction of stress indices for India and provides a holistic evaluation of the financial stress from an emerging country’s perspective.

Details

Journal of Financial Economic Policy, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-6385

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2001

I. Nel and W. de K Kruger

The purpose of this research is to determine whether the trading of equity index futures contracts on the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) results in an increase in the…

5736

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine whether the trading of equity index futures contracts on the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) results in an increase in the volatility of the underlying spot indices. Since equity index futures contracts were first listed in the USA in 1975, various studies have been undertaken to determine whether the volatility of shares in the underlying indices increases as a result of the trading of such futures contracts. These studies have lead to the development of two schools of thought: [a] Trading activity in equity index futures contracts leads to an increase in the volatility of index shares. [b] Trading activity in equity index futures contracts does not lead to an increase in the volatility of the index shares and could in fact lead to greater stability in equity markets. Although some evidence of higher volatility in expiration periods was found, volatility in the expiration periods was not consistently higher than in the corresponding pre‐expiration period.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1022-2529

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 April 2021

Joe T. Felan, Joe R. Bell, Sadiksha Upadhyay and Vess L. Johnson

The purpose of this study is to examine entrepreneurial activity in the USA and whether it supports a “pull” or a “push” theory of startup creation. The “push” theory argues that…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine entrepreneurial activity in the USA and whether it supports a “pull” or a “push” theory of startup creation. The “push” theory argues that individuals are pushed into entrepreneurship by negative external forces, such as job dissatisfaction, difficulty finding employment, insufficient salary or inflexible work schedule. The “pull” theory contends that individuals are attracted into entrepreneurial activities seeking independence, self-fulfillment, wealth and other desirable outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper incorporates three well-established measures when looking at impact factors; unemployment rates, gross domestic product (GDP) and household income. The current study is unique in that it introduces the Kauffman Startup Activity Index (KSAI) as the measure of entrepreneurial activity when examining impact factors.

Findings

The results of this study support the “pull” theory (or the entrepreneurial effect) of startup activity and further supports the idea that entrepreneurs look for opportunities in the marketplace, rather than being “forced” into self-employment.

Research limitations/implications

Research is limited to having US data at the national level. Follow-up research could include parsing the data out to the state and local levels.

Social implications

The results of this study suggest to the economic development community that incentives during times of economic growth could further incent entrepreneurial activity.

Originality/value

The tact used by the authors is unique in that it relied upon three historical variables – unemployment rates, US GDP and household income – and introduced a new variable, the KSAI, rather than the previously relied upon national startup activity data or startup activity.

Details

Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1471-5201

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 100000