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1 – 10 of 537Kasimu Sendawula, Shamirah Najjinda, Marion Nanyanzi, Saadat Nakyejwe Lubowa Kimuli and Ahmad Walugembe
The purpose of this study is to explore how the personal traits of the informal entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore how the personal traits of the informal entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a qualitative approach using a multicase design in which 28 informal entrepreneurs situated in Kampala district, Uganda, were engaged. An interview guide, recorders and note books were used in data collection.
Findings
The results indicate that the traits of informal and semiformal entrepreneurs are distinct. Informal entrepreneurs have been noted to be more courageous and resilient, while their semiformal counterparts have greater passion for their businesses. It is thus observed that the formalization prospects are higher for the semiformal entrepreneurs than for their informal counterparts. Entrepreneurs that would be willing to formalize their businesses are discouraged by distance, technology and the cost of involving middlemen. Whereas the resilient entrepreneurs are noted to work through these challenges, the passive ones in both the informal and semiformal categories will not formalize their businesses by giving such excuses.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the extant literature on informal entrepreneurship by providing initial empirical evidence on how the personal traits of the entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions specifically.
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Maria Pilar Jerez Gomez, Ana Bojica, Javier Martínez-del-Río and Reem Karaja
This study aims to shed light on how internships' features drive employability outcomes and answers the question of how internships that maximize the employability of interns can…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to shed light on how internships' features drive employability outcomes and answers the question of how internships that maximize the employability of interns can be designed. The study assumes that the duration of an internship, degree of formalization and the use of internship-specific motivational practices by companies are likely to influence interns' perceptions of employability.
Design/methodology/approach
A study among interns investigated the relationship between different internship features and interns' employability. Data on the duration of the internship, motivational practices specific to internships and the formalization of the internship process were collected from a large sample of 13,565 interns in 27 European countries from 15 to 35 years old.
Findings
The findings suggest that internship duration has a curvilinear effect on employability with increasing effects on employability at the beginning of the internship, followed by a decrease over time. In addition, the use of practices specifically designed to motivate interns also favors the interns' employability. Finally, formalization of the internship placement moderates the effect of motivational practices on employability.
Originality/value
By identifying key features of the internship experience – duration, formalization and motivational practices – the authors contribute to the theory related to the development of career resources and employability in young adults and show that these features significantly shape young adults' employability perceptions.
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This paper aims at assessing the impact of a number of behavioral interventions on the willingness of informal businesses, in the Egyptian informal sector, to join the formal…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at assessing the impact of a number of behavioral interventions on the willingness of informal businesses, in the Egyptian informal sector, to join the formal sector.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses an experimental methodology to examine the impact of behavioral interventions on the formalization of the Egyptian informal sector. Specifically, it conducts a survey experiment on a total of 240 informal businesses, operating in the Egyptian informal sector. The primary data collected from the survey experiment is then analyzed using a binary logistic regression to assess the impact of the behavioral primes on the probability of joining the formal market.
Findings
The empirical findings of the survey experiment indicate that the biggest obstacle facing informal businesses is finding a formal source of finance that could help them in penetrating the market. Providing informal businesses with information on funding opportunities offered by the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) significantly increased the probability of joining the formal sector to benefit from this opportunity.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to apply behavioral primes, in the form of informational cues, to the Egyptian case of informal business owners. Previous research on the use of behavioral nudges and primes has focused mainly on the western economies.
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This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the likelihood of formalizing informal sector activities in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, using World Bank enterprise…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the likelihood of formalizing informal sector activities in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, using World Bank enterprise survey data collected between the periods 2009 and 2018. Notwithstanding the great contribution of the informal economy in Africa, developing countries may stand to gain more if they make inroads in formalizing the informal sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Since the dependent variable is binary taking the value of one if the firm is willing to formalize and zero otherwise, the study will employ a discrete choice probit model.
Findings
Results inter alia show that firms that are more likely to formalize are young, owned by individuals with high levels of education and, have registered before. Governments should therefore target firms that are young and provide them with information about the benefits of registration, and if these firms are owned by experienced and educated individuals, the likelihood for them to register would be high.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses cross sectional data and therefore cannot capture time variant factors affecting the probability to register and also cannot correct effectively for endogeneity.
Practical implications
Governments should therefore target firms that are young and provide them with as much information as possible about the benefits of registration, and if these firms are owned by experienced and educated individuals, the likelihood to convince them to register would be high. They should also reduce the cost of registration so as to improve net benefits in line with the rational exit view.
Social implications
Formalizing informal activities will help improve the performance of these firms, reduce vulnerable employment as well as crime, poverty and inequality. Providing decent operating and working conditions to informal players will reduce social and political unrest.
Originality/value
The African continent is home to many informal firms accounting for roughly 55% of economic activity with 90% of workers eking out a living in a sector that does not respect worker rights, provide decent working conditions and where changes in growth have done little to reduce its size. Regulatory reforms have also been implemented resulting in the number of start-up registration procedures falling from 11 in 2003 to seven in 2019. The uniqueness of Sub Saharan Africa in terms of entrepreneurial culture, political, institutional and economic conditions as well as lack of consensus in the extant empirical literature make this study pertinent.
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With the rapid transition of education from the traditional, classroom- or campus-based to the online format, there grows a need for not only taking advantage of online technology…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rapid transition of education from the traditional, classroom- or campus-based to the online format, there grows a need for not only taking advantage of online technology but also assessing actual and potential effects it can make on the learners, learning, education, and society. One of the risks inherent in online learning is its growing formalization both in the organization of the learning and in its process, which may gravely affect students’ learning, health, cognition, behavior and quality of the learning outcomes. It can also produce serious implications for the society. This article investigates the origins of formalization, its forms and stages, and discusses asynchronous, precision, and automated learning formats from this perspective. Among many issues, the impact of formalization on the learner's development and socialization is considered. The author offers a pragmatic solution for deformalization of online learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative analysis of contemporary research literature, educational trends and practices.
Findings
It was found that formalism permeates online education in many ways. It is present in asynchronous, precise and automated learning and may produce significant impact on students, their learning, and society.
Research limitations/implications
This is a qualitative research based on the analysis of current research literature and teaching practices.
Practical implications
While formalism in education is an unavoidable evil, its impact must be diminished. Critical analysis and practical recommendations offered may help improve online teaching and learning.
Social implications
Formalism affects both students' socialization in the online learning environment, and patterns of socialization in the society. It also impacts students’ cognition and behaviors. So, counteracting formalism may benefit the society's well-being.
Originality/value
The authors could not find any publications on this topic. So this is an original material which may contribute to improving online teaching and learning.
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In this study, we applied the strategy-as-practice (SAP) framework to analyse strategic communication practices. SAP implies approaching strategy as something that organisational…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, we applied the strategy-as-practice (SAP) framework to analyse strategic communication practices. SAP implies approaching strategy as something that organisational members do and is useful for understanding the tensions between emergence and formalisation and between planning and improvisation that characterise the everyday communication work of communication practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an ethnographic study of a record company and on qualitative interviews with various actors from the music industry.
Findings
Tensions exist between the emergence of inputs from active consumers that require flexibility and attempts to strategically formalise and continuously adapt plans and encourage consumers to act in anticipated ways. The findings revealed five strategic communication practices—meetings, working in the office, gathering and analysing consumer engagement and related data, collaboration and storytelling—that practitioners used to conduct strategic communication and navigate the tensions.
Originality/value
The study contributes to understanding the role of strategic communication practices in contemporary organisations and how practitioners manage the tensions within them. The study shows that an SAP approach can account for improvisation and emergence, as well as planning and formalisation. It also shows how SAP resonates with emergent and agile strategic communication frameworks.
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Tobias Johansson-Berg and Gabriella Wennblom
The authors study how enabling perceptions (flexibility, reparability and internal and global transparency) of a budgetary control system are formed, and whether enabling…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors study how enabling perceptions (flexibility, reparability and internal and global transparency) of a budgetary control system are formed, and whether enabling perceptions empower lower-level managers and make them form less negative attitudes about red tape in the organization. This study research is warranted because of the lack of knowledge on how perceptual variation in flexibility, repairability and transparency of a control system within an organization, where managers experiencing the same control system design, can be explained.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data with answers from 211 managers from a large local government organization in Sweden is analyzed with structural equation modeling.
Findings
The extent to which the budget system is perceived as having enabling qualities (being flexible, reparable and transparent) is explained by the safeness of the individual manager's psychological climate. This climate is characterized by trust and fairness perceptions in upper management. In turn, enabling perceptions positively affect a sense of psychological empowerment and reduces attitudes toward red tape in the organization.
Originality/value
The authors contribute by identifying an important factor explaining individual-level variability in enabling perceptions of control systems within organizations. Compared to previous research that has taken an interest in the organizational-level climate, the authors theorize about and investigate (parts of) the individual-level psychological climate as an explanation of within-system variability.
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The aim of this study is to empirically examine the impact of several environmental, organisational and managerial characteristics on entrepreneurial orientation (EO).
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to empirically examine the impact of several environmental, organisational and managerial characteristics on entrepreneurial orientation (EO).
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on resource-based view theory to construct a quantitative research method. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire and analysed by SmartPLS 3 (partial least squares structural equation modelling) software. The sample comprised 185 managers at domestic Israeli companies within various industries.
Findings
The data analysis shows that market turbulence, technological turbulence and risk-taking tendency have a positive impact on EO, while centralisation has a negative effect on EO, and formalisation does not affect it at all.
Originality/value
This study emphasises the importance of environmental, organisational and managerial characteristics as capabilities within an organisation and has practical implications for managers with regard to achieving a competitive advantage by promoting their EO.
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Diogo Cotta and Fabrizio Salvador
The purpose of this paper was to explore individual- and firm-level antecedents of the ability of a manufacturing firm's personnel to collaborate and integrate knowledge for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to explore individual- and firm-level antecedents of the ability of a manufacturing firm's personnel to collaborate and integrate knowledge for organizational resilience practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply hierarchical regression analysis to study a sample of 192 European industrial equipment manufacturers. Data for each firm are collected from surveys of two key informants in each firm, as well as from public sources.
Findings
Firms' personnel’s ability to integrate information and knowledge for organizational resilience practices was positively related with the extent of the head of manufacturing's network of personal contacts inside the firm. This effect was stronger in firms with more formalized job descriptions and clearly defined roles. The head of manufacturing's orientation to teamwork and cooperation impacted this ability only in firms that did not financially incentivize cooperation. The authors also found that cooperation incentives and role formalization directly relate to firms' personnel’s ability to integrate information and knowledge for organizational resilience practices.
Originality/value
The study proposes to study organizational resilience practices through a transactive memory systems lens. The study is also the first to link characteristics of individual managers to firm-level resilience practices by examining the antecedents of firms' ability to integrate information and knowledge to recover from operational disruptions. Furthermore, the study serves to enhance the knowledge of resilience practices by examining the role of firm-level antecedents and their interplay with characteristics of individual managers.
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The purpose of this paper is to first develop indicators for how total inequality, measured through the ANalysis Of GIni (ANOGI) framework, is mapped onto each group – i.e…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to first develop indicators for how total inequality, measured through the ANalysis Of GIni (ANOGI) framework, is mapped onto each group – i.e. indicators for each group's share of total inequality. Second, to develop indicators for the sensitivity of total inequality and its structure to changes in the composition of the population. Specifically, to develop indicators for how the Gini index and its ANOGI components react to (1) changes in the population-share of each group, (2) migration between groups, (3) changes in group incomes and (4) income transfers between groups.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the expressions for these indicators are derived analytically. Following this, the indicators are applied to labour-market data from Brazil, contrasting the results to others available in the literature.
Findings
The indicators described above are presented and their characteristics discussed. Empirically, it is illustrated how labour formalisation in Brazil was an inequality-reducing process between 2002 and 2011, contrary to previous incorrect measurements of the phenomenon based on income-source decompositions for Latin American countries.
Originality/value
Indicators for how total inequality reacts to changes in group sizes and income were unavailable for the ANOGI framework, which this article provides. The empirical illustration shows how this leads to a reassessment of important inequality dynamics, using the example of labour formalisation in Brazil. Contrary to the existing literature, it is shown how this was a progressive development, with key implications for social and labour-market policy. This framework can be used to assess the impact of diverse processes in the ANOGI methodology.
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