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Recent work in the economics of innovation in developing countries increasingly considers the formality of business as a determining factor of economic development. However, current knowledge on how formality determines both innovation and business performance remains mixed. This article examines this relationship by analyzing, on the one hand, the role of formality on innovation and, on the other hand, the moderating effect of formality on the relationship between innovation and the performance of business in francophone Sub-Saharan Africa.

Based on a sample of 1,369 Cameroonian and Senegalese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Crepon Duguet et Maraise (CDM) technique was used to reduce the endogeneity bias inherent in this type of analysis.

The results show that formal companies have a better capacity for innovation. In addition, formality positively moderates the relationship between innovation and the performance of businesses in the case of product and commercial innovations. On the other hand, it negatively moderates the relationship between innovation and the performance for process and organizational innovations.

These results show that the advantages of formalization widely relayed by national public institutions and international organizations can present a risk for business if the expected gains are not accompanied by innovations.

This paper contributes to research by taking into account the heterogeneity of firms because it is one of the first to study formality as a moderator in the relationship between innovation and firm performance in Sub-Saharan African economies.

This paper aims to examine the factors associated with a household business entrepreneur’s decisions to formalise the firm at a multidimensions level.

The data set is a panel of 2,336 SMEs and household businesses from Vietnamese SME surveys during the 2005–2015 period.

This study elucidates how firm-level resources, entrepreneur characteristics and costs of doing business influence an entrepreneur’s decision to enter, the speed and the degree of formality.

This study provides insight into the origins of an entrepreneur’s decisions to the multidimensions of business formality through the lenses of the resource-based view, entrepreneurship and institution theories.

Global strategic marketing planning has become increasingly important with the advent of worldwide competition and the growing rapidity of change in the international marketplace. In this article, research and commentaries from the strategic management and international marketing planning literatures are brought together in a model examining what factors influence global strategic marketing planning formality, and whether competitive and organizational benefits accrue from the process. Responses from 90 multinational corporations were subjected to a LISREL analysis. Corporate culture, supply chain elements, foreign regulations and competition were identified as key determinants of planning formality. Considerable non‐financial benefits also accrue as planning formality increases.

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of formality indicators in chat reference interchanges within the context of politeness theory, with its corollaries of face‐threat and social relationship development.

This discourse analysis identifies the syntactic and content indicators and patterns of formality levels in a purposive sample of 402 chat transcripts (covering 6,572 minutes) from one academic year at a large, US, public university.

Syntactic formality markers include regular use of contractions, slang, sentence fragments, and non‐standard punctuation as well as limited use of acronyms and abbreviations with rare use of emoticons. Content‐based markers included apologies, self‐disclosure, and expressions of extreme need. Use patterns are related to the level of responsibility assumed by the librarian as well as the interview stages.

A limited data source and potential coder bias are the two limitations of this study. The research implications point to the need for chat reference librarians to assume greater control of formality nuances in order to encourage a more effective search for the user.

The fundamentals of politeness theory, particularly in terms of formality indicators, should be incorporated into staff training and behavioral standards for reference librarians. While future research is needed to determine the most effective means of employing this theoretical construct, this study implies that a self‐reflective, culturally sensitive use of the nuances of formality can enhance the user's experience.

This study is the first to systematically examine formality indicators in the context of politeness theory. The use of two coders, a full academic year's worth of data, and a substantial sample provide great depth.

The formalization of a company is a process that requires compliance with standards established by government institutions. In developing countries, many businesses start this process, but do not finish it, with different levels of formality. The objective of this research is to analyze how the perception of entrepreneurs about bureaucratic procedures and the sector determine the level of formality regarding an established company that has taken the first step to formality.

The National Survey of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) is used with a sample of 4,619 Peruvian MSEs with more than three years of operation within the manufacturing and services sector. The data are analyzed with the ordered logistic regression technique.

The results show that the more favorable the perception of entrepreneurs about the ease of bureaucratic procedures, the higher the level of business formality; and companies in the manufacturing sector are less formal than those in the services sector. In addition, the perceptions of entrepreneurs positively moderate the level of formality in the case of companies in the manufacturing sector.

Levels of formality in established companies are analyzed, defined by the compliance degree with the requirements to be a formal company. The literature on business informality in emerging countries is expanded, particularly in Latin America, incorporating the analysis of the formalization process.

La formalización de una empresa es un proceso que exige el cumplimiento de normas establecidas por las instituciones de gobierno. En países en desarrollo, muchas empresas empiezan este proceso, pero no lo terminan, existiendo diferentes niveles de formalidad. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar cómo la percepción de los empresarios sobre los trámites burocráticos y el sector determina el nivel de formalidad de una empresa establecida que ha dado el primer paso hacia la formalidad.

Se utiliza la Encuesta Nacional de la Micro y Pequeña Empresa con una muestra de 4.619 micro y pequeñas empresas peruanas de los sectores de manufactura y servicios con más de tres años de operación. Los datos son analizados con la técnica de regresión logística ordenada.

Los resultados muestran que cuanto más favorable es la percepción de los empresarios sobre la facilidad de los trámites burocráticos mayor es el nivel de formalidad empresarial, y las empresas del sector manufactura son menos formales que las del sector servicios. Además, las percepciones de los empresarios moderan positivamente en el nivel de formalidad para el caso de las empresas del sector manufactura.

Se analizan niveles de formalidad en empresas establecidas, definidas por el grado de cumplimiento de las exigencias para ser una empresa formal. Se amplía la literatura sobre informalidad empresarial en países emergentes, particularmente en América Latina, incorporando el análisis del proceso de formalización.

This study examines the influence of contextual factors (e.g. age and ownership type) on HRM formality (including the underlying functions of recruitment, selection, training and development, performance appraisal and compensation) in SMEs.

Data were collected through a quantitative survey of 300 owners/managers of services, manufacturing and trade SMEs in Pakistan.

Firm age, association with a larger parent entity, existence of a strategic business plan and the presence of a human resource information system (HRIS) are positively related with higher HRM formality. Firm size, family ownership and exporting characteristics had no association with formality.

This study suggests a highly influential role for contextual factors in shaping HRM practices in Pakistani SMEs. Since the lack of a strategic approach towards human resource development is directly linked to the inferior performance of SMEs in Pakistan, this study provides an understanding of the contextual institutional setting that shapes the nature of HRM practices. The findings inform both SME owners/managers and policy makers.

Institutional influences on HRM systems have attracted attention but organisational factors are less often studied. Studies mostly relate to Western contexts and lack perspectives from SMEs. The findings of this empirical investigation highlight the importance of context specific research given the different nature of institutional settings.

The paper aims to address the issue of generalizability by examining process formality across the global regions of North America, Europe and Asia. A common prescription in the new product development (NPD) discipline is to employ a formal process. Because generalizability of this prescription has not been fully investigated across global regions, the present manuscript addresses the issue of generalizability by examining process formality across the global regions of North America, Europe and Asia.

Recently made available to researchers, data of the Product Development and Management Association’s 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS) were analyzed. The uniqueness of the 2012 CPAS data set is its global composition with sizable samples from North America, Europe and Asia. Chi-square tests and multivariate analysis of variance were applied.

Results support use of a formal process, as companies with a formal NPD process perceived higher performance than companies with no standard process. Process formality appears to differ across regions and be influenced by innovation strategy. European firms tended to not use a formal process when pursuing radical innovation, and these firms perceived higher performance. North American firms tended to not use a formal process when pursing incremental innovation, but these firms perceived lower performance.

Having some NPD process is generally better than not having any process at all. Process differences across regions appear to exist when pursuing radical innovation or incremental innovation.

This is one of few studies comparing global regions to examine generalizability of a best practice prescription, namely, the extent to which a formal process should be implemented.

The policy approach in Pakistan with regard to combating the informal economy has remained quite myopic and skewed in its reliance on measures informed by the rational economic-actor theory as opposed to the social-actor approach. Thus, this study attempts to evaluate and synthesise the two alternative policy approaches and formulate a more theoretically integrative understanding of the subject.

The authors gather data from 600 micro-entrepreneurs operating in the retail and wholesale sector of Lahore, Pakistan, which is then analysed using an ordered logit regression technique.

In contrast to more developed countries, the finding here is that higher perceived penalties have a highly significant and positive impact on the level of formality of Pakistani micro-entrepreneurs. The perceived risk of detection, meanwhile, has only a moderately significant impact on the micro-entrepreneurs level of formality. Likewise, the level of vertical and horizontal trust has a positive but moderately significant impact on the level of formality. Nonetheless, both the vertical and horizontal trust exhibit a very significant moderating effect on the relationship between the use of penalties and the level of formality, that is, the higher the level of trust that the micro-entrepreneurs have in the state and other businesses, the lower is the effectiveness of punitive measures.

Deterrence is an effective way to enhance the level of formality in the case of the Pakistani context. Nonetheless, the authors imply that without building trust, this overreliance on punitive and detective measures can actually be counter-productive. A combined and congruent (not sequential) use of voluntary compliance measures is thus warranted.

It is a unique attempt to evaluate and synthesise the global policy theorisations in a non-mainstream and antagonistic climate, such as Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, this study aims to understand whether and how sales employee clothing style would influence consumers' perceptions of store image through their expectations of service quality. Second, this study hopes to uncover how fashion orientation would influence the aforementioned relationship.

A 3 (formality of employee clothing: formal vs moderate vs casual) × 2 (level of fashion orientation: low vs high) between‐subject experiment design was conducted. Data were collected from 105 university students in a laboratory setting.

Results indicated that formality of employee clothing (i.e. formal business, moderate, or casual attire) served as a cue in the retail environment for consumers to make inferences about the service quality expected to be provided by the sales employee. Furthermore, formality of employee clothing both directly and indirectly influenced consumers' perceptions of store image.

This study adds to existing literature by uncovering the moderating role of fashion orientation in consumers' service quality expectations and confirms the function of service quality as an antecedent to store image.

Retailers should pay attention to the design of their salespeople's clothing because different clothing styles draw forth different evaluations from customers about the service quality provided in retail stores.

This study investigates the role of clothing formality in influencing consumers' service quality expectations.

The paper utilises formality-informality modelling to examine occupational change, using commercial service charge management as its case study.

This is a conceptual paper that develops a typology for applying formalisation to occupational change and then utilises historiography to generate a narrative on the evolution of service charge management.

Formality is seen as a method of improving transparency and performance as a “modern” response to a range complaints about professional performance. Whilst real improvement failed to develop, a “snowball” of continued formalisation remained the perceived solution, leading to centralisation of measures of professional performance.

The work is a conceptual paper that develops a historiography on the development of service charge administrative practice. Whilst it relies on objective data and secondary literature, the narrative that is developed is subjective and interpretive.

The conceptual nature of the work offers potential insights into occupational organisation. It suggests that formalising procedures in itself does not improve performance.