Search results

Examines the factors motivating international student choice of the host country. It describes a “push‐pull” model motivating the student’s desire to seek overseas education and influencing the decision process in selection of a final study destination. Drawing on the findings from research studies undertaken in Indonesia, Taiwan, China and India, the paper examines the factors influencing host country selection and additional research that examines the factors influencing choice of final host institution. Based on these findings the paper argues that economic and social forces within the home country serve to “push” students abroad. However, the decision as to which host country they will select is dependent on a variety of “pull” factors. After drawing together the findings, the paper then examines the implications for governments and education institutions seeking to recruit international students.

Decentralization has profound implications for many health systems. This study investigates the effect of health system decentralization in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries on public health security capacity and health service satisfaction.

Multiple linear regression analyses were employed for variables related to the level of health security capacity and satisfaction with the healthcare system while controlling for all socio-demographic variables from the European Social Survey, including over 44,000 respondents from 25 OECD countries. The Health Systems in Transition series of countries were used for assessing the decentralization level.

The result of multiple linear regression analyses showed that the level of decentralization in health systems was significantly associated with higher health security capacity (ß-coefficient 3.722, 95% confidence interval (CI) [3.536 3.908]; p=<0.001) and health service satisfaction (ß-coefficient 1.463, 95% CI [1.389 1.536]; p=<0.001) in the study. Countries with a higher level of decentralization in health policy tasks and areas were significantly likely to have higher health services satisfaction, whereas this satisfaction had a significant negative relation with the lower level of decentralization status of secondary/tertiary care services in OECD countries (ß-coefficient −5.250, 95% CI [−5.757–4.743]; p = 0.001).

This study contributes to a better understanding of the extent to which decentralization of health services affects public health safety capacity and satisfaction with health services, whereas the level of decentralization in OECD countries varies considerably. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of public health security and satisfaction with health care delivery in assessing the effects of decentralization in health services.

This chapter provides an overview of the results from a cross-nationally comparative project analysing gender differences and inequalities at labour market entry. Women’s relative gains in educational attainment and the expansion of the service sector suggest that gender inequalities in occupational returns are diminishing or even reversing. In assessing gender differences at labour market entry, we look at a phase of the life course when women’s family roles are still of minor importance. Conceptually, we distinguish between horizontal segregation and inequalities in vertical outcomes. The project was based on 13 in-depth case studies contributed by a network of scholars analysing countries with different institutional, socio-economic and cultural settings. The findings demonstrate that occupational gender segregation is still relatively marked among recent cohorts, though it is slightly decreasing over time in several countries. In terms of vertical inequalities, the case studies consistently revealed that while women enter more prestigious jobs than men in most countries, there is a female disadvantage in economic returns among recent labour market entrants. In addition, we found mixed evidence on the variations of gender equality at labour market entry across countries with different institutional characteristics.

This chapter shows how to construct and test case-based macro models. The chapter makes use of national data to examine influences on quality-of-life of national cultures as complex wholes and entrepreneurship activities in Brazil, Russia, India, China, Germany, and the United States (the six focal nations) plus Denmark (a small-size, economically developed, nation). The study tests McClelland’s (1961) and more recent scholars’ proposition that some cultural configurations nurture entrepreneur startups, while other cultures are biased toward thwarting startups. The study applies complexity theory to develop and empirically test a general theory of cultures’, entrepreneurship’s, and innovation’s impact on quality-of-life across nations. Because culture represents a complex whole of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior, the study applies a set-theoretic approach to theory development and testing of alternative cultural configurations. Each of 28 economical developed and developing nations is scored for the level of the national cultures for each of six focal countries. The study selected for the study enables multi-way comparisons of culture-entrepreneurship-innovation-QOL among large- and small-sized developing and developed nations. The findings graphically present the complex national cultural configuration (x-axis) with entrepreneur nurture/thwart (y-axis) of the 28 nations compared to the six focal nations. The findings also include recognizing national cultures (e.g., Switzerland, the United States) nurturing entrepreneurial behavior versus other national cultures (e.g., Brazil and India) thwarting entrepreneurial behavior. The study concludes with a call to recognize the implicit shift in culturally implicit thinking and behavior necessary for advancing national platforms designed to successfully nurture entrepreneurship. Entrepreneur strategy implications include the observation that actions nurturing firm start-ups by nations low in entrepreneurship will unlikely to be successful without reducing such nations’ high levels of corruption.

As of 2022, the scope of the engagement and interest of debt capital providers in ESG reporting is mainly untapped. However, a vast amount of literature has produced conflicting findings about the importance of debt capital (leverage) as a factor in sustainability reporting (SR). This is the first meta-analysis reconciling the mixed results of 85 single country studies containing 131 effect sizes across 24,482 firms conducted over past three decades (1999–2022) investigating the influence of leverage on SR. The study emphasizes the significance of contextualizing research by identifying the macro-environmental elements modifying debt's impact on SR, through the use of the institutional theory. Eleven country variables were tested on the collected dataset, spread across 36 countries.

Meta-analysis technique for aggregation of existing extant empirical work. Continuous and categorical variable-based moderator analysis to demystify the influence of country characteristics affecting the leverage–SR relationship.

Results show positive significant impact of debt capital providers on SR. Country's level of development, GDP, extent of capital constraints in a country, financial sector development within a nation, country governance factors and corruption levels, country's culture, number of sustainability reporting instruments operational in a country and geographical location proved to be significant moderators.

The study details relevant meaningful research gaps, worthy of uptake by researchers to produce targeted research.

Governments must increasingly go beyond their mandated disclosure role and acknowledge the important institutional factors that have contributed to the expansion of ESG reporting through the creation of nation-specific tools, incentive structures and disclosure-encouraging regulations. To secure a steady flow of funding and prevent negative effects on company value and cost of capital in the midst of prolonged global economic upheaval, businesses must address the information requirements of lenders. The limited total effect size emphasizes the necessity for debt providers to step up their ESG activism and exercise their maximum power and potential in stimulating extensive SR firm-level practices.

The present study is the first meta-analysis reconciling the mixed results of 85 single-country studies containing 131 effect sizes across 24,482 firms conducted over the past three decades (1999–2022) investigating the influence of leverage on SR and demystifying the macro-environmental factors affecting the leverage–SR association.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the most relevant literature related to the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in the public sector in developed and developing countries, identifying the constraints and stimuli they represent in the implementation of the public accounting reform. It also presents future research proposals on the factors identified.

The methodology is based on a systematic review of the literature described by Moher et al. (2009). The final sample includes 90 academic papers published from 2000 to 2022.

The main findings indicate that there are differences between constraints and stimuli in the implementation of accounting standards between developed and developing countries. In terms of constraints, the main factor in developed countries is the lack of training, whereas in developing countries it is the limitation on financial resources. In addition, the results demonstrate that in developed countries the factors that most encourage the implementation of accounting standards are modernization and improvement of accounting, while in developing countries, encouragement comes mainly from external and internal pressure.

This study helps countries and institutions to learn from experience and better prepare for the accounting reforms of public administration that they will undertake. Managers of public organizations may be willing to make decisions in the adoption of IPSAS if they take into account the factors established herein.

This study helps countries and institutions to learn from the experience, better prepare for the public administration accounting reforms that they will undertake and add greater transparency in the accountability of public accounts to citizens.

In addition to previous studies, this study addresses a number of factors perceived by those involved in the implementation of IPSAS in developed and developing countries and provides a robust research agenda to pursue during the coming years, as there are several important unexplored questions that invite further research.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of variance decomposition studies of firm performance and the theoretical foundations that served as the antecedents and promptings for this stream of research. Known collectively as “variance decomposition literature,” these studies use variance decomposition techniques to partition firm performance into various classes of effects in a bid to unveil the relative importance of factors responsible for firm performance variance.

A review of papers published in SCOPUS and institute for scientific information indexed journals was conducted.

The study found that firm, industry, corporate, business group and country effects are the major effects included in most extant studies. However, of all effects, firm effects remain the dominant and most important impact on firm performance. The effects that affect firm performance are also interdependent.

Consequently, the decisions of managers in firms are still the most important element in helping the firm to navigate industry and contextual factors, especially during periods of recession.

From the review, research gaps were identified and suggestions for future research provided. There is still much to learn from variance decomposition literature in an age of new business models, unprecedented start-up firms and from developing and emerging market countries.

Many future research proposals of Lean Manufacturing (LM) are presented in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to determine these future research proposals of LM which are country-related and classify them.

A systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed journal articles in LM was conducted. A total of 145 articles published in 34 journals during 2010–2020 were collected from four major management science publishers namely, Emerald Online, Elsevier/Science Direct, Springer Link and Taylor and Francis. The country-related future research proposals of LM identified in the literature were classified according to, firstly, the continent of the country of reference, and secondly, some form of natural affinity of these proposals creating meaningful themes. The quality tool “affinity diagram” was applied to classify the country-related future research proposals of LM.

The country-related future research proposals of LM, which are increasing in the literature over time, refer mostly to studies to be conducted in several continents/countries and to multinational studies. Conducting studies specifically in Asia, Europe, South and North America, Africa and Australia–New Zealand is also suggested. The plethora of the country-related future research proposals of LM were classified, based on the affinity of their content, into 18 meaningful themes. These themes were also classified based on their affinity into two broad categories, namely “themes concerning the LM approach itself” and “themes concerning factors outside the LM approach”.

The restricted number of the databases searched and the subjectivity of classifying the large number of the country-related future research proposals into themes are the main limitations of the present SLR. Based on these limitations, future literature review studies can be carried out.

Useful proposals are provided to researchers of several countries for conducting original and country-specific research studies which can enrich the knowledge of the implementation of LM under the specific circumstances of a country for the benefit of practitioners.

This study goes beyond previous literature review studies on LM by focusing exclusively on the LM future research agenda which is country related. The analytical presentation of the country-related future research proposals as well as the formulation of clusters of these proposals make the present SLR study substantially different from those carried out worldwide so far.

This study examines the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries during the period 1980 to 2017. The study also examines whether the causality between these two macroeconomic variables depends on the countries' stage of development as proxied by their per capita income.

The study uses a panel cointegration test and panel Granger-causality model to examine the link between exports and growth. The study also incorporates external debt as an intermittent variable in a bivariate setting between exports and economic growth, thereby creating a dynamic multivariate panel Granger-causality model.

Although the study found the existence of a long-run relationship between exports and economic growth, the study failed to find any export-led growth response in both low-income and middle-income countries. Instead, the study found evidence of a bidirectional causality and a neutrality response in middle-income and low-income countries, respectively. The study, therefore, concludes that the benefits of an export-led growth hypothesis may have been oversold, and that the strategy may not be desirable to some low-income developing countries.

These findings have important policy implications as they indicate that the causality between exports and economic growth in SSA countries varies with the countries' stage of development. Consistent with the contemporary literature, the study cautions low-income SSA countries against over-relying on an export-led growth strategy to achieve a sustained growth path as no causality between exports and economic growth has been found to exist in those countries. Instead, such countries should consider pursuing new growth strategies by building the domestic demand side of their economies alongside their export promotion strategies in order to expand the real sector of their economies. For middle-income countries, the study recommends that both export promotion strategies and pro-growth policies should be intensified as economic growth and exports have been found to reinforce each other in those countries.

Unlike the previous studies, the current study disaggregated the full sample of SSA countries into two subsets – one comprising of low-income countries and the other consisting of middle-income countries. In addition, the study uses a multivariate Granger-causality model in order to address the emission-of-variable bias. To our knowledge, this may be the first study of its kind in recent years to examine in detail the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in SSA countries using an ECM-based multivariate panel Granger-causality model.

本研究旨在探討在1980年至2017年期間撒哈拉以南非洲國家的出口、與其經濟增長之間的因果關係，亦探討這兩個宏觀經濟變量之間的因果關係、會否取決於有關國家所處以人均收入來衡量的發展階段。

本研究雖然發現出口與經濟增長存有一個長期性關係，唯未能於低收入國家或中等收入國家、找到任何出口帶動的增長反應。研究反而找到證據，證實中等收入國家為一雙向性因果關係反應，而低收入國家則為一中立性反應。因此，研究的結論是：出口必能帶動經濟增長這假設被過度吹噓，而且，對部份低收入發展中國家而言，實施以出口帶動經濟增長的策略或許是沒有用的。

本研究的結果在政策方面有其重要意義。這是因為研究結果顯示、於撒哈拉以南非洲國家、出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係，會因有關國家所處的發展階段而有所變更。與當代文獻一樣，本研究提醒低收入的撒哈拉以南非洲國家，不要過度依賴以出口帶動增長的策略來謀求踏上持續增長之路，這是因為在這些國家，出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係仍未確立。他們反而應考慮推行新增長經濟策略，方法是在實施推動出口的策略的同時，也要建立其經濟的國內需求面，以擴大其經濟實業部門。就中等收入國家而言，本研究建議他們應增強推動出口的策略及強化促進增長的政策，這是因為在這些國家裏，經濟增長及出口已被證實會互為增強。

有別於過去的研究，本研究把撒哈拉以南非洲國家的整體樣本分解為兩個子集：一個包括低收入國家，另一個則包括中等收入國家。而且、研究使用了多變量面板格蘭傑因果關係模型、以處理遺漏變數偏差的問題。據我們了解，這大概是近年首個同類研究、以基於歐洲共同市場多變量面板格蘭傑因果關係模型、來詳細探討於撒哈拉以南非洲國家、出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係。

The objective of this study is to explore the accounting research network among institutions and countries globally and to contribute to the knowledge development in accounting discipline across regions with a novel and original approach.

This study has been conducted by manually collecting data from 10,863 papers published in 22 accounting journals indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) for the period 2000–2016. Analyses and visualizations of collaborative networks across institutions and regions were performed by using network analysis software packages, including Pajek, UCINET 6, NetDraw and VOSviewer.

The study finds that the most productive five universities are the University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Texas, University of California and University of Manchester worldwide. In accordance with the institution ranking, the five most productive countries in all periods are the USA, the UK, Australia, Spain and Canada. However, in addition to these countries, it is important to note that some European and Asian countries and New Zealand from Oceania are among the most productive countries which host prolific institutions. Furthermore, network indicators show that the UK is the most influential actor in centrality and brokerage within the research network. We should note that Australia is also among the most influential nations with its influential institutions. In all research metrics, the dominance of Anglophone countries (e.g. the USA, the UK and Australia) is observable on which language advantage might play a role since most internationally accredited journals publish scientific articles in English.

The study is bounded with several main limitations. First, due to collecting the data manually, there might be some inherent limitations. Second, the study is constrained by the time frame between 2000 and 2016. The study does not answer why and how questions in investigating research productivity and effectiveness in the network. Our study might inspire new studies to complement ours by considering these constraints.

Our findings indicated the prominent institution-wide and country-wide actors; thus, the results provide a global perspective on the collaboration network. Second, our findings guide job seekers, who are particularly research-oriented, to potential recruiters around the world both at the institution level and country level. Third, the results might play an important role in forming institution-based and country-based research policies. The USA, among others, is a particularly important actor in productivity, whereas the UK, among others, is a remarkable country in centrality and brokerage in the research network. By examining the policies of these two countries, other nations might shape their research strategies, promotion policies and support and reward schemes. Fourth, cross-institution and in particular cross-country collaborations are imperative in the diversity of accounting research as they blend culturally diverse researchers. Fifth, prominent institutions highlighted in this study might be adopted as role models by other institutions in the same country and benefit their expertise in productivity and cooperation by scrutinizing their approaches. Sixth, our findings and metrics might be adopted as benchmarks for institutions and nations for performance evaluation. Considering our 5-year period indicators, institutions can set targets for their improvement and for measuring the progress. We provide other important implications in the conclusion section of the study.

To the best knowledge of the authors, no study yet investigated the collaboration across academic institutions, regions, and countries in accounting discipline to this extent. Therefore, our research provides a significant contribution to the literature by seeking a comprehensive network analysis of authorship patterns from an institutional and geographical perspective. Doing so, we contribute to knowledge development in accounting discipline with institutional and geographical network analyses.