Search results

The purpose of this work is to explore what determines a country’s entrepreneurial environment attractiveness, by understanding how countries compare regarding their business environment and entrepreneurial opportunities and whether such aspects have changed over time.

Through a longitudinal country-level cluster analysis of business environments (years 2001 and 2016), this study captures changes in classification of both emerging and developed market economies throughout an attractiveness spectrum, from least to most attractive environments.

Interesting findings involve the difference in trajectories of emerging economies, such as India compared to the stagnation of Brazil, Argentina and South Korea in the 15-year period. The paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the attractiveness of the entrepreneurial environment beyond the simple notion of most and least economically developed countries by providing a framework for dynamic cross-country analysis of entrepreneurial environmental attractiveness that can be further explored, tested and expanded.

Main limitations relate to the non-exhaustive sample of countries and variables. Contributions are both academic and managerial: helping to fill important research gaps in international entrepreneurship, namely, environmental conditions, cross-country comparisons (Coombs et al., 2009) and the understanding of elements of the investment climate (Stern, 2002); and assisting managers, entrepreneurs and policymakers understand what defines a country’s entrepreneurial environment attractiveness to better evaluate potential locations for investment.

The originality of the paper lies in using cluster analysis in a longitudinal study of country attractiveness, as well as in advancing the debate of country attractiveness, by adding a temporal dimension (from factors that are less structural to more conjunctural) and a comparative dimension in a new cross-country comparison framework of analysis.

Outsourcing is in a new era: an era of value-adding services, innovation and transformation. An era that shifts competition to skills and expertise where the main focus of key players in the industry is on the strategic impact of outsourcing services. As the outsourcing landscape is changing, so competition between countries for outsourcing work is reconstructing. It is no longer competition for low costs, but a search for superior skills, both technical and managerial, that provides the strategic guidance and operational excellence needed in the twenty-first century. While the professional and academic literature has extensively studied the comparative advantage of low-cost locations such as India, we know very little about the attractiveness of Western countries, such as the UK, for outsourcing services. To contribute to this end, the purpose of this paper is to examine the UK attractiveness in light of three key trends in the outsourcing industry: the maturity of the outsourcing industry drives more client firms to seek impact on business and strategic performance from their vendors; client firms and vendors deploy complex sourcing models that increase the importance of sourcing managerial capabilities, such as relationship management, vis-à-vis technical and delivery capabilities; locations with promising entry points to lucrative markets are becoming attractive for outsourcing investments as part of the firm's growth strategy.

The empirical base of this study is based on a comparative analysis of eight European destinations (UK, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic and Poland) to conclude that the UK, as a talent-base, value-adding country that also offers advanced sourcing capabilities, has positioned its economy to attract investments from both outsourcing vendors and client firms. While the authors acknowledge the relative high-cost base of the UK economy, they assert that the high service standards, access to skills, entry point to mainland Europe and the USA, government support and supportive infrastructure are superior value propositions offered by the UK in the context of outsourcing services.

The findings of this study highlight the contribution of Western economies to outsourcing and their fairly strong comparative position to specific line of services such as contact centers, research and development and specific business process outsourcing services.

The main limitation of this study is the use of a country attractiveness framework which has been mainly used for low-cost countries. The authors therefore acknowledge the need to develop a country attractiveness framework which is suitable for Western countries.

This study offers decision makers an extensive tool to assess their outsourcing investments by considering both low-cost and Western countries based on the value expected from each investment.

This is the first study on the attractiveness of a Western country, such as the UK, which the authors defined as a talent-based, value-adding and advanced sourcing (TAVAAS) country. Through the examination of its comparative attractiveness the authors highlight the potential of the UK and many other Western countries such as USA, Germany or Canada to attract outsourcing investments.

The deterministic role of various macroeconomic fundamentals on the attractiveness of countries to inflow of FDI is well documented in literature. The role of market size, infrastructural development, inflation and exchange rates differential have been supported as determinants of FDI direction. However, no documented study has benefited from diverse measures of institutional adequacy as presented in this study. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper adopts various econometric approaches that include descriptive statistics, fixed effects models, LM test of independence, feasible generalised least squares regression and SUR estimations.

This study unveils the specific impacts and explanatory power of each of the variables along country lines, and the author compares the results of some emerging markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America to some selected countries in Africa. Using data set from various sources over a period of 44 years in a seemingly unrelated regression environment, this study suggests that poor technological capability, inadequate political system, weak productivity gains are major deterrents to the attractiveness of African countries to inflow of FDI.

The major limitation of this study revolves around availability of usable data, which compels the researcher to limit the focus and the span of time series.

The study suggests the need to improve institutional quality in emerging economies, especially countries in Africa in order to enhance their attractiveness to FDI inflow. More importantly, the study found that low capital productivity gains hinder the attractiveness of African emerging markets to FDI inflow.

To alleviate poverty, attraction of FDI is considered important, and the improvement of institutional functionality in that regard is found to be important. The need to augment technological improvement is considered very important and critical.

This serves to confirm that the article entitled “The Machination of Foreign Direct Investment Flow to Emerging Markets – A focus on Africa” is my own original work, envisaged to contribute to the debate about the role of macroeconomic fundamentals, especially capital productivity gains as determinants of a country’s attractiveness to inflow of foreign capital in academic literature. All the sources used and consulted have been fully acknowledged by a way of complete referencing. The author hereby agrees to the terms and conditions as stipulated by the publisher and the editorial board of this prestigious journal.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new method that allows corporate strategists to scan for profitable growth opportunities by extending the firm's product offering to new (foreign) markets.

The methodology consists of developing and applying a new conceptual framework – MATCH – which assesses the potential value creation in relation to the business model adaptations that need to be made to enter a new market.

The paper shows that traditional methods of calculating the attractiveness of new markets may be misleading if not all elements of the business model are aligned with the contextual conditions (institutional, economic, social.) prevailing in the new market.

The method is illustrated for entering new foreign markets but lends itself to wider applications in the area of product diversification.

Without asking for extensive data collection, the method yields practical insights about the attractiveness of entering new markets and business model adaptations that need to be made.

The MATCH framework is an original and practical approach that builds upon and extends essential insights originating from the related diversification literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of cultural distance, governance quality, and market attractiveness on attachment of agents with a university.

A single university was chosen as a case study and secondary data were collected. The focus of this paper is on education agents who market higher education institution (HEI) in international market and recruit international students.

Multiple regression was performed and the finding indicated that governance quality and market attractiveness are significantly related with a number of agents attached to the marketing department of the university. However, cultural distance showed no significant relationship with agent attachment.

The availability of data was most challenging in gathering data for this study because the culture of a country may change across time and the sample was based on only one case study, a minimal amount of information was obtained.

This study addresses the external factors that needed to be considered in selecting new agents.

This study contributes to the international marketing literature by a focus on HEI and focus on agency approach.

This study aims to apply the modified Walker-Unger model to show the degree of attractiveness of a country for Mexican-based money launderers to send their illicit funds for the 2000–2015 time period.

The modified Walker-Unger model is used to conduct the analysis, as it combines several independent variables related to an illicit financial activity. These allow the researcher to investigate the attractiveness of a market to money launderers and the possible economic effects of money laundering. In total, 13 categories of indicators were used, namely, gross national product per capita; banking secrecy; government attitude; society for worldwide interbank financial telecommunication membership; financial deposits; conflict; corruption; Egmont group membership; language; trade; culture, colonial background; and physical distance.

Model results suggest the preferred destinations for Mexican-based money launderers from 2000 to 2015 were Bermuda (i.e. from 2000–2004), Canada (i.e. in 2005 and 2006) and Monaco (i.e. from 2007–2015).

Timing and availability of reliable data after 2015.

Aids in continuing to empirically validate the Walker-Unger model. There is little literature on models that quantify money laundering activity.

May aid policymakers in targeting anti-money laundering policy to more relevant countries.

The first empirical investigation that looks to quantify money launderer activity in Mexico. Contributes to the limited literature of quantitative investigations on money laundering.

Although economists and academics have studied money laundering for several decades, there continues to be gaps in the research due to a lack of reliable data on money laundering activity, and a lack of detailed sources and methods of collection in government-based reporting. The purpose of this study is to apply the Walker-Unger gravity model and examine US-based money launderer preference for the 2000-2020 time frame. This paper then compares those results with previous applications of the model and identifies trends, which may serve as the foundations of a money launderer preference theory. The results of the investigation ranked countries by preference of US-based money launderers and determined that there was consistency in country destination preference even during recessionary periods.

The Walker–Unger gravity model as applied by Roman et al. (2021) is used to conduct the investigation, to maintain consistency in the application of the Walker–Unger model and further the objective of validating the attractiveness simulation. The model tests the predictive capability of the independent variables to establish the degree of attractiveness each country represents for the funds of US-based money launderers. A score is generated by the model, which is then used to analyze and interpret its significance in relation to all sampled countries.

Model results reveal the countries with the highest attractiveness for US-based money launderers during 2000–2020 were Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Norway, Monaco, Puerto Rico, Switzerland and the USA. Model results show that over the two decades the proportion of money flow scores changed but not to a degree that would alter the country preference of US-based money launderers. US-based money launderers tended to use the same countries for their illicit financial activities, regardless of the state of the legitimate economy.

One of the limitations of the model is that it does not show the effect of money laundering on legitimate economic activity.

The model results will give insight into the preferred destination of US-based money launderers and therefore frame one component of money laundering activities in the USA for the examined time period.

A secondary objective of this study is to evaluate if any changes to US-based money launderer preferences occurred during the three most recent periods of economic downturn in the USA.

The model results will give insight into the preferred destination of US-based money launderers and therefore frame one component of money laundering activities in the USA for the examined time period. A secondary objective of this study is to evaluate if any changes to US-based money launderer preferences occurred during the three most recent periods of economic downturn in the USA. The periods chosen are the 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2007/08 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to propose a comprehensive greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) attractiveness index using exploratory factor analysis and automated machine learning (AML). We offer offer a robust empirical measurement of location-choice factors identified in the FDI literature through a novel method and provide a tool for assessing the countries' investment potential.

Based on five conceptual key sub-domains of FDI, We collected quantitative indicators in several databases with annual data ranging from 2006 to 2019. This study first run a factor analysis to identify the most important features. It then uses AML to assess the relative importance of each resultant factor and generate a calibrated index. AML computational algorithms minimize predictive errors, explore patterns in the data and make predictions in an empirically robust way.

Openness conditions and economic growth are the most relevant factors to attract FDI identified in the study. Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malta and Ireland are the top five countries with the highest overall greenfield attractiveness index. This study also presents specific indices for the three sectors: energy, financial services, information and communication technology (ICT) and electronics.

Existent indexes present deficiencies in conceptualization and measurement, lacking theoretical foundation, arbitrary selection of factors and use of limited linear models. This study’s index is developed in a robust three-stage process. The use of AML configures an advantage compared to traditional linear and additive models, as it selects the best model considering the predictive capacity of many models simultaneously.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the country-level drivers of managers' and executives' mobility. Both sub-groups play a fundamental role in entrepreneurship, innovation and ultimately on wealth creation in destination countries. The objective is to capture how the impact of economic, cultural and institutional factors differ for these sub-groups’ vis-a-vis the broad highly skilled group's mobility.

The paper investigates the country-level drivers of managers' and executives' bilateral migration from 190 countries to 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. It builds a model on four macro-contextual attractiveness factors of destination countries: economic conditions, cultural affinity, institutions and quality of life. The authors use fixed-effects regressions and carry several model specifications comparing the impact of different attractiveness factors on the migration of lower skilled, highly skilled, managers and executives.

The authors find that economic incentives do not motivate managers' or executives' mobility. The quality of life is more significant in driving executives' mobility than economic measures are. Cultural affinity, institutions and quality of life are more important for managers. Ethnic relations are significant for the overall highly skilled sample.

These results have implications for global companies interested in recruiting managers and executives and their recruitment strategies. International businesses attempting to maximize their access to international managers, for instance, can develop recruitment packages that capitalize on the particularities of the quality of life of the potential destination country. Such packages can contribute to streamlining the process and focusing on candidates' needs to increase the likelihood of relocation. The study’s results, in addition, have policy implications in terms of the “branding” of countries whose aim is to attract managers and other highly skilled talent. Officials can build an effective country-branding strategy on the existence of ethnic networks, effective institutions and quality of life to attract a particular segment of the talent pool. For instance, they can develop a strategy to attract executives by focusing on a specific cultural characteristic and elements of the quality of life such as the effectiveness of their country's healthcare and education systems.

The paper also points out to the issues that policymakers must resolve in the absence of an education system that guarantees the talent pool that the economy needs. For those countries that rely on foreign talent (such as Switzerland, Singapore and the USA), it is paramount to promote safety, quality of life and institutional development, in order to guarantee a sufficient inflow of talent.

Most global studies focus on the complete migrant stock or on highly skilled workers in particular. The authors disaggregate the sample further to capture the drivers of managers' and executives' migration. The authors find that latter sub-groups respond to different country-level attractiveness factors compared to the broader highly skilled sample. In doing so, the authors contextualize the study of mobility through a positively global lens and incorporate the impact of some of the factors generally overlooked.

This study examines the new venue of moving illegal wealth from Pakistan under the umbrella of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The study first discussed the features of CPEC in short and how it may bring stability and a new phase of development in the region and also in Pakistan. The review of related literature has suggested that previous studies are more focused on the advantages of CPEC and are almost neglecting the cons of the said project. Later, the research puts light on the problem of money laundering from Pakistan through CPEC and related trade transactions; Walker’s Gravity model has been used to calculate the attractiveness of money laundering. It has highlighted that China’s attractiveness for moving illegal wealth from Pakistan is increased in recent years; the risk of an increase in the amount of money laundered is also analyzed through the Fan Chart technique. Attributes which are making China more attractive for Pakistani wrongdoers are also discussed. The study aims to conclude that if the problem of money laundering will be addressed properly, the CPEC will play a vital role in bringing stability in Pakistan.

This study uses a descriptive and quantitative approach. This study uses the Walker’s Gravity Model updated by Unger et al. (2006) to measure money laundering in Pakistan. A newly developed technique for forecasting that is Fan Chart has been used to predict the trend of China’s attractiveness for money laundering as a preferred destination from Pakistan.

The study finds out that China is already increasing its ranking as a favorite destination for money laundering from Pakistan. Fan Chart analysis suggests that the attractiveness score will be increased.

The study helps in highlighting the problem of increase in money laundering from Pakistan through China under the umbrella of CPEC.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study found on the topic of the problem of money laundering linked with CPEC, and this is the first effort to point out the problem.