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This study aims to identify the propensity for clients (legal and natural persons) to adopt peer-to-peer (P2P) short-term insurance policies as opposed to traditional and/or centralized short-term.

In this paper data was collected through a survey of 102 sampled short-term insurance clients using convenience sampling. The TAM2 questionnaire was adapted to evaluate the intention to adopt a P2P insurance policy.

The findings of this study shed light on the factors influencing the adoption and (dis)continuation of short-term insurance products, both traditional and digital, among South African consumers. The results demonstrate that perceived usefulness, ease of use, trust, risk perception and subjective norm play crucial roles in individuals' intention to use or (dis)continue the use of these insurance products.

The study's findings provide actionable insights for practitioners in the short-term insurance sector, with a focus on marketers and e-commerce professionals. These insights emphasize the need to prioritize user-friendly design and trust-building measures in the development of P2P insurance systems. Additionally, practitioners should consider harnessing the power of social influence and carefully balancing innovative features with familiarity in their marketing efforts. These strategies are poised to enhance the adoption and competitive positioning of P2P insurance solutions amidst the evolving landscape of digital transformation.

This study makes a substantial contribution by employing the technology acceptance model (TAM) in a novel and unconventional manner. It not only explicates the intricate dynamics governing the adoption and discontinuation of short-term insurance products, encompassing both conventional and digital alternatives, within the South African consumer milieu but also extends its purview to infer the reasons behind the limited widespread adoption of the digital counterpart, despite its superior value proposition compared to the traditional offering. The findings elucidate the critical determinants shaping individuals' decisions in this dynamic market segment. This research enhances the global discourse on insurance adoption with a unique South African perspective and furnishes insurers and marketers with empirically grounded insights to optimize their strategies and cultivate substantive connections with their target demographic.

This study aims to deepen the understanding of insurers’ role within the return-to-work (RTW) process by uncovering and categorizing the multiple roles assumed by the insurer based on the claimant’s perceptions and identifying the underlying mechanisms that explain the relationship between perceived insurer roles and occupational rehabilitation outcomes.

The author used a qualitative approach with theory-guided content analysis to examine 24 semi-structured interviews with occupational rehabilitation claimants who had undergone occupational rehabilitation within the earnings-related pension insurance system in Finland.

The author uncovered three perceived insurer roles in relation to other stakeholders in the rehabilitation network: financier, coordinator and leader. These roles have different perceived responsibilities and influences on rehabilitation outcomes. Additionally, the author found four perceived insurer roles in relation to the claimants, which varied according to their democracy and activity levels: ally, facilitator, enforcer or enemy. Based on this study, the author recommends that insurers adopt democratic and participatory actor roles (ally and facilitator) to promote the RTW process in occupational rehabilitation.

This inaugural study applied role theory to insurers within the RTW process, developing a new framework of insurer profiles. This study reveals the dynamic nature of insurers and enhances the understanding of the connections between perceived insurer roles and rehabilitation outcomes.

In this article, the authors draw-upon an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and propose a research model involving performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), facilitating conditions (FC) and competitive pressure (CP) as potential salient factors explaining the adoption of digitalization in European SMEs. The authors also postulate that there may be cross-cultural differences, thereby leading us to include the country as a moderator in the model.

The authors validate this model with a cross-cultural sample involving 188 owner-managers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and through the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques as well as multi-group analysis.

The results using the study’s global dataset indicate that PE, FC and CP significantly affect owner-managers intentions toward digitalization in SMEs. The authors’ application of the multi-group analysis also suggests that although the two countries differ in digitalization adoption intention, the differences are statistically insignificant. In the conclusion, the authors highlight several implications these findings have for theory and practice.

The authors recommend that the providers of emerging digital technologies should improve on the performance features of those technologies and ensure they are relevant to the SMEs. By doing so, the adoption of digitalization will grow, because owner-managers of SMEs will have the confidence that adopting such technologies will improve their operations. Second, SMEs are required to provide adequate organizational and technical infrastructure to support digitalization adoption.

Aside from being among the few attempts to extend the explanatory power of UTAUT with PE, EE, FC and CP in investigating digitalization adoption in SMEs context, this study also validates its model with rigorous methodological approach as well as three datasets (global, Czech Republic and Slovakia) thereby strengthening the validity of the results.

The purpose of this study is to extend theoretical understanding on social enterprises’ growth orientation. Inspiration is drawn from the fundamentals of prospect theory and threat-rigidity theory, as the role of external threats as a source of growth orientation is largely absent from the social enterprise growth literature. According to previous studies, social enterprises grow mainly because of their social mission and social opportunities.

The qualitative research is conducted by analysing thematic interviews from seven, growth-oriented social enterprises operating in Finland.

The study provides novel insights on social enterprises’ growth orientation by drawing attention to the plurality of growth motivations and showing the importance of perceived threats as the origin of their growth pursuits. Goals of growth are defined mainly in terms of organisational and financial performance of the firm.

Social enterprise managers and boards are encouraged to cooperate in analysing the significance of external threats and opportunities for their business and to concentrate on defining measurable social goals to ensure balanced growth.

The study demonstrates that the behavioural theories offer a beneficial departure point for studying social venture growth. By clarifying the role of the perceptions of the firm’s internal actors and showing that growth is sometimes seen as a response to external threats, the study increases theoretical understanding on social enterprises’ growth orientation.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the influence of corruption distance (CD) on foreign direct investment (FDI) with the characteristics of the value function from the Prospect Theory (PT) such as loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity.

Data are derived from Transparency International and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and tested on the countries China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain and the UK and are analysed with a natural log (LN) regression model.

The findings indicate a negative asymmetric relationship for China, Germany, Korea, Spain and Russia. This means that negative performance on CD will not have greater impact on FDI outflows than positive performance on CD in the same country. Loss aversion, as well as diminishing sensitivity, as suggested by the PT, cannot be supported with the empirical results.

Its originality lies in contributing and extending knowledge on CD on FDI in several ways. First, it analyses the data of emerging and industrialized countries, namely, Russia, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain and the UK. Second, a potential asymmetric impact is explained by the characteristics of the hypothetical value function of the PT. Third, it seeks empirical evidence by applying an econometric model developed to analyse the variables CD and FDI.

The purpose of this study is to examine how five different multi-level governance (MLG) models affect place branding (PB) performance in Saudi Arabia.

In hierarchical administrative systems, central governments exert control on PB, influencing its effectiveness. While PB as such is widely studied, the effect of MLG on PB performance in centralized administrative systems remains understudied. The study is approached as a multiple case study of nine cities.

The study reveals that different MLG models indeed affect PB performance differently. Direct access to central leadership and resources boosts branding performance, while privatization promotes flexibility with similarly positive effects. Study findings, furthermore, show that some cities are considered too big to fail. Cities such as Riyadh and Neom are of prime importance and receive plenty of resources and leadership attention, while others are considered peripheral, are under-resourced and branding performance suffers accordingly. Emerging differences in PB performance associated with different MLG models are thus likely to deepen the gap between urban economic winners and losers.

This paper introduces five MLG models based on the actors involved in PB, their interactions and their access to resources. For each model, this paper assesses other factors which may influence the effectiveness of PB as well, such as access to the national leadership and staff capacity. This research thereby adds to the literature by identifying specific factors within MLG models influencing PB performance in hierarchical administrative systems.

This study aims to identify the countries’ innovation factors that are determinant for them to achieve higher levels of development. In addition, the research identified which of these factors should be prioritized so the countries can move up in the rank of the most competitive.

The study used the indicators of innovation and the stage of development of 137 countries proposed by the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum and techniques of multivariate data analysis.

The results indicated that all the factors tested are determinant to lead the countries throughout their stages of development. The research highlights that the factors “Quality of scientific research institutions” and “Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent applications” should be equally prioritized for the countries’ development.

The results suggested that the factors Capacity for Innovation, Quality of Scientific Research Institutions, Company Spending on Research and Development (R&D), University–Industry Collaboration in R&D, Government Procurement of Advanced Technology Products, Availability of Scientists and Engineers and PCT Patent Applications are decisive for positioning countries in terms of their stage of development and should be part of their public policy and enterprises’ strategic planning.

The findings show that countries should prioritize the factors Quality of Scientific Research Institutions and PCT Patent Applications, as these factors, when acting together, predict the evolution to higher stages of development.

In large parts of the world, income inequality has been rising in recent decades. Other regions have experienced declining trends in income inequality. This raises the question of which mechanisms underlie contrasting observed trends in income inequality around the globe. To address this research question in an empirical analysis at the aggregate level, we examine a global sample of 73 countries between 1981 and 2010, studying a broad set of drivers to investigate their interaction and influence on income inequality. Within this broad approach, we are interested in the heterogeneity of income inequality determinants across world regions and along the income distribution. Our findings indicate the existence of a small set of systematic drivers across the global sample of countries. Declining labour income shares and increasing imports from high-income countries significantly contribute to increasing income inequality, while taxation and imports from low-income countries exert countervailing effects. Our study reveals the region-specific impacts of technological change, financial globalisation, domestic financial deepening and public social spending. Most importantly, we do not find systematic evidence of education’s equalising effect across high- and low-income countries. Our results are largely robust to changing the underlying sources of income Ginis, but looking at different segments of income distribution reveals heterogeneous effects.

The unprecedented economic crisis in Greece deeply affected entrepreneurship, which was traditionally characterised by low levels of innovation and competitiveness, the dominant presence of micro-sized enterprises and the weak signs of prosperity in large firms. This paper, in acknowledgement of the necessary transformations that production incurred due to the crisis, attempts to detect the characteristics of large manufacturing firms that contributed to their greater resilience during the unstable period of 2011–2016 by analysing the determinants of the higher profitability of firms. The analysis shows that firms that improved their productivity and sales levels and in parallel are flexible, in the sense that they have limited amounts of both assets and liabilities and thus a small risk, are those that presented higher profits during the period under study. Initial conditions, sectoral characteristics and the broader national environment do not seem to have a strong contributive role in firms' profitability.

The analysis follows a dynamic system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation based on a panel data set of 125 Greek large firms over the time span 2011–2016.

The analysis shows that firms that improve their productivity and sales levels and in parallel are flexible, in the sense that they have a limited amount of both assets and liabilities and thus a small risk, are those that present higher profits during the period under study. Initial conditions, sectoral characteristics and the broader national environment do not seem to have a strong contributive role in firms' profitability.

The present paper attempts to explain the performance of the most dynamic large manufacturing firms in Greece by investigating the role of some of the most important determinants of firm profitability (according to data availability), acknowledging, however, some analysis' limitations as the absence of some other parameters like the export activity or the incorporation of any innovative features in the firms

The novelty of this paper lies in two points. First, the subject of the analysis is the large firms in Greece, which have not received much attention as Greek entrepreneurship was traditionally based on the light, labour- or resource-intensive production and the main bulk of the literature was not on that topic. Second, during the deep and protracted crisis that Greece has experienced, several production transformations have taken place that remain partly undiscovered. The present paper attempts to analyse the characteristics of large firms that drove their profitability and improved their resilience during the crucial time period 2011–16.

在希臘出現的史無前例的經濟危機深深地影響了該國的創業能力，而希臘的創業能力有其傳統特徵：低水平的創新與競爭力、微型企業佔主導地位和大企業呈現微弱的繁榮跡象。本文在承認這經濟危機導致生產必須轉型的前提下，研究那些於2011年至2016年這不穩定期間營運的大型製造公司，透過分析它們能取得更高利潤的決定因素，以探求是哪些公司特徵使其有更強的抵禦和復原能力。分析顯示，那些改善了生產率和銷售水平的公司，亦同時是靈活變通的公司 （所謂靈活變通，是指公司無論在資產抑或負債方面的數量上都是有限的，因此，它們只需冒小風險），就是那些在本研究涵蓋期間展示獲取更高利潤的公司。初始條件、行業的特徵和更廣泛的國家環境，就公司的盈利能力而言，似乎沒有扮演重要的促進角色。

分析用了廣義動差估計(GMM)這動態系統，基於涵蓋125間希臘大公司、橫跨2011年至2016年期間的面板數據。

分析顯示，那些改善生產率和銷售水平的公司，亦同時是靈活變通的公司 （所謂靈活變通，是指公司無論在資產抑或負債方面的數量上都是有限的，因此，它們只需冒小風險），就是那些在本研究涵蓋期間展示獲取更高利潤的公司。初始條件、行業的特徵和更廣泛的國家環境，就公司的盈利能力而言，似乎沒有扮演重要的促進角色。

本文擬透過探討一些決定公司盈利能力最重要的因素 （根據數據的可獲性），來闡釋在希臘那些最有動力的大型製造公司的績效，但亦同時承認分析有局限之處，那就是，分析沒有涵蓋一些其它決定因素：出口活動和那些公司有否納入任何創新功能。

本文有兩個創新之處：首先，本研究分析的對象是在希臘的大企業，而這個研究對象和課題未曾得到頗多的關注，這是因為希臘的創業能力一向基於勞動密集型或資源密集型的輕工業生產，而過去大部分文獻都不涉及這個課題。另外，當希臘經歷這個巨大且持久的危機時，國內有些仍未普遍察覺的生產轉型出現了。本文擬分析推動大企業於2011年至2016年間這關鍵時刻取得利潤，及改善其抵禦和復原能力的公司特徵。