Search results

The purpose of this paper is to define the local integration rate and how it is calculated to assess its relevance as a national performance indicator for the Moroccan automotive industry.

The research methodology first followed a systematic review approach through the analysis of published research articles and academic works. This study then followed a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with various actors in the Moroccan automotive industry. Finally, the findings of this work were reinforced by a case study to analyze the supply chain of a locally produced vehicle.

The results indicate that the local integration rate as calculated today overestimates the performance of the automotive industry and does not systematically guarantee a significant creation of value added.

Due to the confidentiality of the data in terms of turnover, payroll and purchase prices as well as the large number of suppliers in the different supply chains of the car manufacturer, the case study focused on only one of the six existing ecosystems.

On the basis of research work on the Moroccan automotive industry as well as interviews with various actors, the local integration rate is unanimously considered as a viable performance indicator. This study has not only led us to the method of calculating this rate by the Ministry of Industry but also demonstrated its limitations while proposing a new method of calculation to increase the value added.

This paper analyzes the direct effect of financial development and the mediating impact of financial development through foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign aid and trade on economic growth for all Asian countries.

A fixed-effect model with Driscoll–Kraay panel corrected estimators was employed to find the direct and mediating impact of financial developments on growth for all 47 Asian economies from 1980 to 2020. The bootstrapped panel-quantile regression (BPQR) model is used to check how this effect varies for different income groups of countries.

The results demonstrated that financial development positively impacts countries' economic growth. The interaction effect of financial development with FDI, foreign aid and foreign trade negatively impacts economic growth. The BPQR results showed that FDI and foreign aid help in the growth of lower quantile economies; however, the impact is negative for middle- and upper-income countries. Trade impacts growth positively for all the quantiles of economies.

The results suggest that the Asian economies must continue to provide thrust on the financial development of their own countries to achieve better growth. It also implied that the dependence on external finance is good for low-income countries and not advisable for middle- and upper-income countries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to provide empirical evidence on analyzing both the direct and interaction effect of financial development on economic growth by considering all the Asian economies.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0587

Most emerging economies have made conscious efforts through policy initiatives to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). However, a significant obstacle to FDI inflow has been the prevalence of corruption in the host country. This study, therefore, aims to examine whether there is an optimum corruption value that results in threshold effects of corruption on FDI.

To achieve this objective, this study used Hansen’s (1999) panel threshold regression (PTR) model by using a panel data of 30 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2000 to 2021.

This study finds that the nexus between corruption and FDI has a single threshold effect, with a 5.37% optimum corruption threshold value. At this threshold value, corruption affects FDI negatively. Any corruption value that is below the threshold value also elicits a negative corruption–FDI relationship. Despite having a negative relationship when the corruption value is above the optimum corruption threshold, it is not statistically significant.

The implication of the results is that it is deleterious to use corrupt practices to draw FDI to SSA nations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first in the corruption–FDI nexus literature to use Hansen’s PTR model to estimate an optimal corruption threshold. The authors recommend that policymakers in the selected SSA countries reconsider the use of corruption to attract FDI because there is an optimal corruption threshold that could impact FDI in the host country.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the effect of nano-Al₂O₃ particle addition on the nucleation/growth kinetics, microhardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of Co–P–xAl₂O₃ nanocomposite plating.

The kinetics and properties of Co–P–xAl₂O₃ nanocomposite plating prepared by electroplating were investigated by electrochemical measurements, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Vickers microhardness measurement, SRV5 friction and wear tester and atomic force microscopy.

A 12 g/L nano-Al₂O₃ addition in the plating solution can transform the nucleation/growth kinetics of the plating from the 3D progressive model to the 3D instantaneous model. The microhardness of the plating increased with the increase of nano-Al₂O₃ content in plating. The wear resistance of the plating did not adhere strictly to Archard’s law. An even and denser corrosion product film was generated due to the finer grains, with a high corrosion resistance.

The effect of different nano-Al₂O₃ addition on the nucleation/growth kinetics and properties of Co–P–xAl₂O₃ nanocomposite plating was investigated, and an anticorrosion mechanism of Co–P–xAl₂O₃ nanocomposite plating was proposed.

The case study offers interesting learning possibilities and offers the following learning opportunities to the learner. assess and conduct a macro- and micro-environmental analysis, comprehend the nature of the competitive landscape and how it changes when one looks at a digital-only versus an omnichannel marketplace, examine the product mix and policy of the firm and evaluate how it delivers customer value and analyse the pros and cons of growth strategies available to a firm and arrive at a viable and actionable future business and product strategy.

The short case study presents the story of a young start-up called Country Delight. The firm began operations in 2011 and was the brainchild of Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal. The direct-to-consumer firm addressed urban consumers’ non-articulated, latent need to get “fresh and uncontaminated” milk to their doorstep. Country Delight delivered farmer-to-consumer fresh cow and buffalo milk and milk products based on a well-designed and efficient value chain where the supply chain was either wholly owned or quality monitored by the firm. The firm began operations in India’s National Capital Region and was spread across 15 metro cities. Slowly, over the years, Gade and Kaushal added more product categories.Country Delight had a subscriber base of around 500,000, and the ambitious duo wanted to double their subscriber base and reach one million subscribers by financial year 2025. The firm was looking at various paths to achieve this number. Should Country Delight expand into new geographies? Or look at adding to the existing product portfolio? Diversification into agritourism, like the Pune-based vineyard – Sula, also looked attractive to build consumer engagement. Would taking the consumer to the farmers from whom they sourced the milk and vegetables contribute additional revenue to Country Delight and their farmer-suppliers? As the firm got ready to raise another round of funding, it needed a well-articulated growth strategy that was exciting and profitable for all stakeholders.

This case study presents the dilemma entrepreneurs face as they look at the next phase of growth. Thus, this case study serves as a learning opportunity for a graduate-level course in management and as a sounding board for those who aspire to enter the start-up space. Though this case study has the potential to illustrate basic concepts such as value chain and macro- and micro-environment analysis, the protagonist’s dilemma and the problem statement make it apt for integrated discussions that are critical in advanced electives in marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Exploratory search activities are ubiquitous in various information systems. Much potentially useful or even serendipitous information is discovered during the exploratory search process. Given its irreplaceable role in information systems, exploratory search has attracted growing attention from the information system community. Since few studies have methodically reviewed current publications, researchers and practitioners are unable to take full advantage of existing achievements, which, in turn, limits their progress in this field. Through a literature review, this study aims to recapitulate important research topics of exploratory search in information systems, providing a research landscape of exploratory search.

Automatic and manual searches were performed on seven reputable databases to collect relevant literature published between January 2005 and July 2023. The literature pool contains 146 primary studies on exploratory search in information system research.

This study recapitulated five important topics of exploratory search, namely, conceptual frameworks, theoretical frameworks, influencing factors, design features and evaluation metrics. Moreover, this review revealed research gaps in current studies and proposed a knowledge framework and a research agenda for future studies.

This study has important implications for beginners to quickly get a snapshot of exploratory search studies, for researchers to re-align current research or discover new interesting issues, and for practitioners to design information systems that support exploratory search.

This study investigates Rokkan's research programme in the light of the differences between case- and variables-based methodologies. Three phases of the research process are distinguished. Studying the way Rokkan actually proceeded in the research within his Europe project, we find that he follows the protocols of case-methodologies such as grounded theory. In the second phase of the research process, however, he constructs variables-based models as tools for his macro-historical comparisons. To get to variables from the sensitizing concepts coded in the first phase, Rokkan defines his variables as close to cases as possible: variables as nominal level typologies, types as variable values. He thus faces two interrelated dilemmas. First, a philosophy of science dissonance: he legitimates his research only with reference to a variable-methodology, while his research is thoroughly case based. Second, a paradox of double coding: using variable-based models in the second phase, the status of the knowledge available in the first phase memos is degraded. Rokkan cannot decide between the two main solutions to these dilemmas: The first solution is to discard his heterogeneous data, instead working only with homogeneous data that opens up to more consistently variables-oriented research. The second solution is to replace the notion of variables/variable values with typology/types, thereby returning to cases, pursuing comparative case reconstructions in the third phase of research. The study concludes in favour of the second solution.

The primary objective of this research is to provide evidence that there are two distinct layers of investor sentiments that can affect asset valuation models. The first is general market-wide sentiments, while the second is biased approaches toward specific assets.

To achieve the goal, the authors conducted a multi-step analysis of stock returns and constructed complex sentiment indices that reflect the optimism or pessimism of stock market participants. The authors used panel regression with fixed effects and a sample of the US stock market to improve the explanatory power of the three-factor models.

The analysis showed that both market-level and stock-level sentiments have significant contributions, although they are not equal. The impact of stock-level sentiments is more profound than market-level sentiments, suggesting that neglecting the stock-level sentiment proxies in asset valuation models may lead to severe deficiencies.

In contrast to previous studies, the authors propose that investor sentiments should be measured using a multi-level factor approach rather than a single-factor approach. The authors identified two distinct levels of investor sentiment: general market-wide sentiments and individual stock-specific sentiments.

This study aims to investigate a startup accelerator’s decisions toward exerting effort in an information acquisition process and selecting an information disclosure strategy. In particular, the authors are interested in examining which factors may cause the accelerator to report more or less accurate information, which will subsequently affect the investment decision and the outcome of the ventures. This study examines the impact of the equity share taken by the accelerator on the effort level being exerted in the information acquisition process, as well as the accelerator’s decision on the information disclosure regime.

The authors use mathematical models built upon well-established theoretical and practical concepts to analyze the research problems and derive the findings.

The authors show that when the accelerator takes a sufficiently large equity share from the entrepreneur in exchange for admitting the entrepreneur’s venture into the acceleration program, the accelerator is motivated to exert a significant level of effort to observe an accurate signal for the quality of the venture, and then disclose the information about the venture’s quality consistently with the observed signal (informative disclosure regime). On the other hand, if the accelerator takes a small equity share, it is optimal for her to exert no effort in the information acquisition process and simply adopt the basic disclosure regime, where the accelerator reports the quality of the venture based solely on the ex ante expected payoff of the venture, regardless of the observed signal.

The results indicate that an equity sharing scheme, which awards a sufficient amount of equity to the accelerator, can be an effective tool to help obtain accurate information about the quality of a startup venture and make a well-informed investment decision.

This research illustrates that the ownership stake of the accelerator can potentially indicate the accuracy of the information about the venture provided by the accelerator to outside investors. That is, when the stake held by the accelerator is large, the investors can conjecture that the information about the venture reported by the accelerator may be highly accurate and reliable. In contrast, if the accelerator holds a small stake, then it is likely that the information provided by the accelerator may not add any value to the publicly available information. These insights can guide investors (e.g. angle investors, venture capitalists, etc.) in making well-informed startup investment decisions.