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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。

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study on teachers' perspective about school principals' role during the pandemic in the context of Greece. In particular, information is provided on school principals' communication and leadership aspects in tackling the pandemic crisis as well as the obstacles observed in this particular setting.

Data were collected through the focus group interview tool and included 19 teachers from primary and secondary education in Greece. Due to the circumstances of the pandemic crisis, the interview process was held using the Zoom software environment. The data collection tools included a common semi-structured interview protocol developed specifically for this study based on the current theoretical sources of school principals' role in tackling the pandemic crisis.

The findings of this study indicated the important aspects of trust, collaboration, and positive climate, together with school principals' external dimension that included the outreach of the local community, parents, private organizations, etc. during the pandemic crisis. Finally, obstacles connected to the students' lack of technological equipment were also observed and addressed by school principals.

The findings of this study could not be generalized since the study proceeded with convenience sampling. Furthermore, the data were collected while the world was in lockdown during the second pandemic wave.

This piece of research adds to the empirical aspect of school principals' role during the pandemic crisis from a different perspective and reports that researching school principals' role in tackling crises has grown considerably.

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the intelligent career framework in a public sector setting in a country with a clientelistic culture to inform human resource management strategies.

Based on a qualitative methodology and an interpretivist paradigm, 33 in-depth interviews were conducted with Greek civil servants before the COVID-19 pandemic. The interview recordings were subsequently transcribed and coded via a blend of inductive and deductive approaches.

Outcomes of the study indicate that in a public sector setting in a country with a clientelistic culture, the three dimensions of knowing-whom, knowing-how and knowing-why are less balanced than those reported by findings from private sector settings in countries with an individualistic culture. Instead, knowing-whom is a critical dimension and a necessary condition for career development that affects knowing-how and knowing-why.

The theoretical contribution comes from providing evidence of the dark side of careers and how imbalances between the three dimensions of the intelligent career framework reduce work satisfaction, hinder career success and affect organisational performance. The practical contribution offers recommendations for human resource management practices in the public sector, including training, mentoring, transparency in performance evaluations and fostering trust.

This article aims at the sociological inquiry seeking to identify meanings ascribed to the term of vulnerability by official spokespersons, to explore a novel public health policy with reference to vulnerable populations and to trace its enactment with particular attention to vulnerable populations in Greece; finally a case of contest among the state and the civil society over refugees' rights will be located against public health politics and biopolitics in the context of the pandemic Covid-19.

The interpretivist perspective towards analysis of textual data is adopted. Discourse analysis and content analysis are applied to analyze four sets of data.

The main findings show: (1) ambiguity over the terminology, (2) insufficient policy design and policy enactment towards the protection of vulnerable populations' health, (3) an illuminative case of contest among civil society and the state against infringement of refugees' human rights which may interpreted in terms of a tradition of solidarity.

The Foucauldian notion of biopolitics provides the grounds to understanding how market prevails over life at the expense of those in greater need, and how the state, serving homo economicus, intensifies instead of alleviating health vulnerabilities.

This study aims to investigate the dynamic interconnectedness of economic policy uncertainty (EPU), fiscal policy uncertainty (FPU) and monetary policy uncertainty (MPU) in four nations, the USA, Japan, Greece and South Korea, between 1998 and 2021.

To comprehend the cross-category/cross-country evolution of uncertainty connectedness, the authors use the conditional connectedness approach. By using an inclusive network, this strategy lessens the bias caused by omitted variables. The TVP-VAR method is advantageous as it eliminates outliers that may potentially skew the results and reduces the bias caused by picking arbitrary rolling windows.

Based on the findings, aggregate EPU is a net transmitter of policy uncertainties across all countries when conditional-country connectedness is used. MPU receives significantly more spillovers than FPU does across all countries, even though both are primarily recipients of uncertainties. The USA appears to be a transmitter of categorical spillovers before COVID-19, while Greece appears to be a net receiver of all category spillovers in terms of category-specific connectedness. The existence of extreme global events is also seen to cause an increase in category-specific and country-specific connectedness. Additionally, the authors report that conditional country-specific connectedness is greater than conditional category-specific connectedness.

This study expands existing literature in several ways. Firstly, the authors use a novel conditional connectedness approach, which has not been used to untangle cross-category/cross-country policy uncertainty connectedness. Secondly, they use the TVP-VAR approach which does not depend on rolling windows to understand dynamic connectedness. Thirdly, they use an expanded number of countries in their analysis, a departure from existing studies that have in most cases used two countries to understand categorical EPU connectedness.

The goal of this paper is twofold: to assess the influence of specific corporate and market features on automobiles and parts sector's profitability in Euro area and to identify this particular sector's optimum debt level.

For the paper's purposes, the authors applied a panel data analysis on an annual basis for the period 2005–2017.

There is a strong statistical significance of debt ratio, growth domestic product per capita growth, E.C.'s economic sentiment index (ESI), the European Central Bank key interest rate and the Euro area crisis on sector's profitability, while weak statistical significance appears to emerge for the firm's size. Moreover, the authors find average 14.4% profitability for the entire sector of the Euro area, without significant fluctuations among firms and/or during the examined time period. Another interesting finding of this study is that results are consistent with the theory of Modigliani Miller that financial leverage at a “low” level is beneficial for the firm, but beyond a turning point, it becomes counterproductive. This turning point for the automobiles and parts sector in Euro area has been computed at 47.3%.

The paper focuses on issues of profitability, capital structure and optimal debt ratio of an important sector of the economy, the automotive sector. As regards the Euro area automotive sector, it is a dynamic sector with a significant multiplier effect for the European economy as it is strongly correlated with other industrial sectors as chemicals, steel, textiles, information technology and so forth, having an outstanding multiplier effect on the economy.

The development of China's foreign exchange market and the reform of Chinese yuan (hereinafter “CNY”) exchange rate are closely linked with each other. Their respective journey through the past 70 years can both be divided into three historical periods; as follows: China's foreign exchange market underwent a difficult exploration period, a formation and development period and an innovative development period; in the meanwhile, the formation mechanism of CNY exchange rate also witnessed three periods marked successively by a single exchange rate system with administrative pricing, an explorative formation mechanism of CNY exchange rate and a reformed, marketized CNY exchange rate mechanism.

In the present world, the development of almost every country is closely linked to the international community, which is the result of the heterogeneity in system, market, humanity and history, in addition to the differences in natural resource endowments and the diversity in technology, administration, information, experience and diplomacy. International economic exchanges require foreign exchange, which gives rise to the existence and development of the foreign exchange market.

The 70-year history of China's foreign exchange market has proven the need to continue safeguarding national sovereignty and interests of the people, stick to the general direction of serving economic development, adhere to the strategy of steadily and orderly promoting the construction of the foreign exchange market, keep on making innovation in monetary policy operation and unbendingly stay away from any systemic financial risks.

During the 70-year history of the new China, as an indispensable economic resource in China's economic development, the foreign exchange mechanism bolstered each stage of economic development and was always an important manifestation of China's economic sovereignty. It is argued that during the 30-year planned economy that preceded reform and opening-up, China pursued a closed-door policy with few international economic exchanges. The subtext of such argument is that China did not have (or hardly had much of) a foreign exchange mechanism during this period, which is clearly in conflict with historical evidence. In fact, although China did not have an open foreign exchange market before the reform and opening-up, it had a clear foreign exchange management system and exchange rate system.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand how family firms manage a crisis by applying a processual and longitudinal perspective. The objective is to find out how crisis management is approached by family firms in Sweden, Scotland and Germany, using entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as an analytical lens. Further, this paper investigates the role of the owning family in creating and solving a crisis in family firms.

This study follows a processual and longitudinal case study approach. Cases are drawn from Germany, Scotland and Sweden. Data collection is based on a combination of interviews with archival data such as annual reports and press clippings.

The results show that all studied firms had high levels of autonomy combined with high risk-taking. It is noteworthy, that these dimensions also help to overcome the crisis. Risk-taking and proactiveness can be useful for addressing the crisis. Under certain circumstances, even innovativeness can help to develop new offers. Autonomy is considered central in family firms and only extraordinary circumstances can be owning families make willing to compromise on it. The EO-dimensions are not all relevant at all times. Rather, family firms will emphasize the dimensions during the consecutive stages differently.

This study compares case companies from Germany, Scotland and Sweden and how EO contributes to their crisis management by taking a longitudinal and processual perspective. Its originality lies in the in-depth studies of companies from three countries.

This paper aims to verify the presence of a management model that confirms or not the one size fits all hypothesis expressed in terms of risk-return. This study will test the existence of stickiness phenomena and discuss the relevance of business model analysis integration with the risk assessment process.

The sample consists of 60 credit institutions operating in Europe for 20 years of observations. This study proposes a classification of banks’ business models (BMs) based on an agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm analyzing their performance according to risk and return dimensions. To confirm BM stickiness, the authors verify the tendency and frequency with which a bank migrates to other BMs after exogenous events.

The results show that it is impossible to define a single model that responds to the one size fits all logic, and there is a tendency to adapt the BM to exogenous factors. In this context, there is a propensity for smaller- and medium-sized institutions to change their BM more frequently than larger institutions.

Quantitative metrics seem to be only able to represent partially the intrinsic dynamics of BMs, and to include these metrics, it is necessary to resort to a holistic view of the BM.

This paper provides evidence that BMs’ stickiness indicated in the literature seems to weaken in conjunction with extraordinary events that can undermine institutions’ margins.

The study assess the selection ability and market timing skills of mutual fund and unit trust managers in Ghana.

The study uses an improved survivorship bias-free dataset of yearly after-fee returns of all mutual funds and unit trusts operating in Ghana from January 2011 to December 2019, cumulating in nine years of quantitative fund data. The authors assess Mutual funds and Unit trusts that ever existed, “alive” or “dead,” over the sample period in the study. The authors construct factor loadings to enable the application of multifactor models in the analysis. The authors apply the unconditional versions of the Jensen alpha, Fama-French three-factor, and Carhart four-factor models to determine the selection ability and market timing skills of 32 mutual funds and 17 unit trusts. The authors deploy HAC-consistent robust standard errors to the OLS estimations to subdue the effect of heterogeneity and autocorrelation.

The results indicate that, on average, mutual funds and unit trust managers possess market timing skills but no selection ability. When the results are decomposed into fund types, fixed-income and balanced mutual fund managers possess selection ability and market timing skills.

To the authors' best knowledge, this study is the earliest to examine the selection ability and market timing skills of both mutual fund and unit trust managers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is also the earliest to construct factor loadings for the Ghana stock market.