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This paper aims to examine the relationship between aspects of a country’s institutional environment and entrepreneurial investors’ overall rate of return.

Specifically, monetary stability and property rights are tested against both entrepreneurs’ and angel investors’ expected financial returns and payback periods, respectively. Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey including years 2004 through 2006 and encompassing 50 countries are aggregated and examined using random coefficient multilevel modeling.

We find that strong property rights encourage both angel investors and entrepreneurs to invest in new ventures with longer payback periods and encourage angel investors to invest in ventures with lower expected financial returns.

This suggests that one key to increasing entrepreneurial investment in a country is to guarantee strong property rights. Therefore, both entrepreneurs seeking funding and countries seeking entrepreneurs should incorporate property rights issues into their decision-making.

This finding moves the “attracting entrepreneurs” conversation beyond the typical tax-abatement, infrastructure building, business cluster recommendations prevalent in academic and professional literature and points to one of the more fundamental reasons entrepreneurial “cultures” develop some places, but not others.

Ghana is one of the countries instituting several measures toward attracting more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows. This is because, FDI is largely viewed as essential to socioeconomic development. However, while population health can influence FDI inflows, it has received very little attention. This study, therefore, investigates empirically, as to focusing on population health could be a useful tool in Ghana’s attempt to attract more FDI inflows.

The study uses time series data on Ghana from 1980 to 2018 to achieve its objective. Life expectancy, death rate, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and incidence of malaria are used as proxies for population health, while the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and the Instrumental Variable Two-Stage Least Square (IV2SLS) regressions are employed as empirical estimation techniques.

Using the OLS regression, except the incidence of malaria, the study finds all the other population health indicators to significantly influence FDI inflows. However, after controlling for endogeneity using the IV2SLS regression, all population health indicators are found to be significant as regards their effects on FDI inflows.

Paying attention to population health could be an effective strategy that can be employed by policymakers in the quest to get more FDI inflows into Ghana.

This study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first study solely devoted to Ghana, which doing so helps in devising country-specific policies with regard to the effect of population health on FDI inflows. Further, this study becomes the first to use death rate, infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate in examining the effect of population health on FDI inflows. Thus, since there are various causes of deaths, using indicators that capture deaths from all factors helps in giving a much broader picture with regard to the FDI population health nexus. Also, this study is the first to use up to five different population health indicators in examining the effect of population health on FDI inflows, which aids in revealing whether FDI is sensitive to the population health indicator used.

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze if a bilateral trade between two countries leads to a foreign direct investment (FDI) using a time series data spanning over the period 2000–2017.

The Engle-Granger method of co-integration analysis is applied to the data to estimate if China’s export to Ethiopia led to an inflow of FDI from China to Ethiopia over the long run.

The results indicated that bilateral trade (import from China) is a major determinant of Chinese FDI inflow to Ethiopia over the study period.

A number of studies have been conducted on the determinants of FDI in Ethiopia using time series data at different points of time. However, none of them tried to analyze what attracts FDI from an individual country. Accordingly, this study has concentrated on FDI from China and its relation with bilateral trade between China and Ethiopia as China is the number one FDI source and trade partner of Ethiopia.

This paper aims to identify the barriers that are linked to the institutional, external and social environmental factors in the emerging economies of South-East Asia (SEA). Through a comparative analysis of China, India and Pakistan, this study attempts to understand the constraints that might inhibit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this region from becoming more successful.

This study proposes an empirical research framework to identify the constraints to determinants of SMEs’ growth (the CDSG model) in an important geographic and industrial cluster of SEA countries including China, India and Pakistan. Six propositions are tested, using data from 1,443 SMEs obtained from Enterprise Survey Data Repository database from the World Bank. Ordinary least-squares estimation is applied for statistical analyses and testing of the research propositions.

The results show the differential effects of the proposed CDSG model in China, India and Pakistan. Access to external finance is found to be irrelevant to the growth of SMEs in China, while it has a positive influence in India and Pakistan. Furthermore, in terms of the innovation process, partial mediation is traced. Using the tax rate factor, negative mediation is found between CDSG variables and SMEs’ growth. Both mediators play different roles in firm growth activities, while the level of significance of some variables is found to be more relevant to a specific region rather than to all.

The prudent management of the proposed CDSG variables could revolutionize the constraints facing SME growth, making them into success factors. This could invigorate the growth of SMEs’ in SEA countries. The paper concludes with practical implications for policymakers and investors.

This SMEs’ theoretical framework is the first to use innovation and tax rate mediators to highlight the determinants of business growth in three SEA regional economies (China, India and Pakistan).

Injections of foreign direct investment (FDI) are often followed by injections of foreign culture which may not be well received among the local population. If this is the case, culture may impede any positive externalities from FDI. On the other hand, if the people of the host country embrace injections of FDI, this may lead to boosts in not only short-run factors of production but also longer-term technological spillovers. We measure what role cultural make-up of a country plays on the effect of FDI on growth in GDP.

Using values system data from the World Values Survey (WVS), and socioeconomic data from the World Bank, we estimate and plot the marginal effect of FDI on growth as a function of a country's values system for a panel of 73 countries over a span of three decades.

We find that the marginal effect of FDI on growth in GDP differs across varying degrees of cultural values, even after adjusting for level of development. In other words, our analysis indicates that a country's cultural norms do indeed affect foreign investment's impact on economic growth.

To date there is no research that systematically assesses the effect that cultural make-up has on the marginal effect of FDI on growth. We go beyond the use of isolated cultural variables by using data on cultural dimensions that account for most of the observed cultural differences between countries. We believe our findings will work as a launchpad for more novel ways to capture country heterogeneity in growth research.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2019-0549.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the success factors for supply chain in Indian small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and establish a causal relationship among them. In the present scenario, the SMEs are under huge pressure to achieve the supply chain competitive advantage and to improve operation and logistic effectiveness and, at the same time, remain tractable to the demand uncertainty and volatility in the market. To enhance the performance of supply chain in SMEs, the managers need to identify the internal as well as the external factors that affect the supply chain performance of SMEs in India. They need to understand the causal relationship of these factors.

There may be a number of factors that are critical for achieving acceptable supply chain performance, and these factors have been identified by principal component analysis (PCA). In all, 29 factors have been identified by using PCA and the dominating 29 factors are categorized into 6 constructs, and finally, the structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology using the AMOS 4.0 program has been adopted as the primary methodology for this paper to assess the causal relationship among six constructs.

In this paper, the authors analyzed the structural relations among information technology (IT), logistic effectiveness, operational effectiveness, customer relationship, supplier relationship and SCM competitive advantage. Results indicate that IT holds the key to achieve the SCM competitive advantage in SCM practices of SMEs in India.

The proposed models for enabling factors are tested in firms with a limited numbers of factors in highly competitive environment. More factors may be incorporated, which will help for a clear understanding and establishing the causal relationship among the various enabling factors.

Although managers of Indian SMEs are aware of various enabling factors, a systematic approach is required for identifying enabling factors, and as these factors may have complex interrelation between them for analyzing supply chain performance in SMEs, it is essential that such an approach is in place. The paper presented here will help the SMEs managers in identifying the areas in which they need to focus their attention to improve SCM practices. A structural equation modelling is developed to show the complex relationship between the factors that affect the performance. In addition to that, the proposed structural equation model acts as a good guideline to improve the performance of the supply chain in India.

The paper provides a structural equation model to develop a map of the causal relationships and magnitude among identified enabling factors.

Given Wikipedia’s size and importance to the world’s information infrastructure, it can be forgotten that there exists under the same Wikimedia Foundation umbrella, a number of other volunteer wikis producing information on a variety of topics and subjects. Little research has been conducted on these offshoots. In this article I examine one of the earliest of these efforts, Wikivoyage, a free wiki-based travel guidebook.

I examine the content of Wikivoyage’s articles on the temples of Angkor, Siem Reap (the tourist gateway to the temples), the introductory page for the country of Cambodia as a whole and a sample of regional Cambodian entries. Textual and discourse analysis is the foundation of this work.

The findings suggest that although Wikivoyage is not currently an exemplar of alternative tourism discourses, it certainly has potential. But that potential can only be realized if those interested in contributing to the site alternative perspectives and discourses take up the task in a sensitive manner and in accordance with the developing editing culture.

While conceding that Wikivoyage is currently unlikely to monopolize the guidebook market anytime soon, it is still important to study this social phenomenon both for its own intrinsic interest and to assess its potential for a more enlightened and transformative tourism.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2020-0104

The chapter studies the problems of formation of regional mechanisms of modernization and development of infrastructure of regions and the country, which are determined by complexity of attracting private capital in financing of infrastructure, which is limited by a long return period and the level of profitability of projects. The mechanism of public–private partnership is offered, which allows leveling high risks of implementation of infrastructural projects under guidance of the state. Also, the methodology of foresight control is studied, which is the last stage of modernization and development of infrastructure of regions and the country, as innovational tools of forecasting the future, which is aimed at leveling the risks, allows determining and neutralizing the danger of nontarget usage of invested financial resources, and seeing the threats to internal environment and external environment.

Many countries have started to use post-tensioned (PT) concrete because of its sustainability and low cost. However, it is not quite popular in Sri Lanka as the required knowhow and technology are not available within the country. By introducing PT concrete to the country, unwanted costs and time overruns could be eliminated from the construction projects. This paper, therefore, aims to identify the suitability and acceptability of PT concreting for/in Sri Lanka.

An extensive literature review was first carried out to gather knowledge on PT concreting. The four case studies that followed it included eight semi-structured interviews and a document review. Ten expert interviews were conducted finally to strengthen the findings of the literature review and case studies. Cross-case analysis and NVivo 11 content analysis software were used to analyze the data gathered.

Findings reveal that PT concreting saves cost and time of construction and that it can have a control over the resources required for construction, which makes it environment-friendly. PT concreting allows thinner concrete sections, extended spans, stiffer walls that resist lateral loads and stiffer foundations that resist the effects of shrinking and swelling soils.

It is found that PT concreting is more suitable for the construction industry in Sri Lanka than traditional concreting.

Although previous research has examined the role of franchising for the economic development of countries, no empirical study to date has investigated the importance of franchising for social, infrastructural, and institutional development. The authors address this research gap by applying research results from the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and highlight that franchising has a positive impact on economic, social, institutional and infrastructural development.

This study uses a fixed-effects model on a panel dataset for 2006–2015 from 49 countries to test the hypothesis that franchising positively influences various dimensions of country development such as economic social institutional and infrastructural development.

The findings highlight that franchising has a positive impact on the economic, social, infrastructural, and institutional development of a country. Specifically, the results show that the earlier and the more franchising systems enter a country, the stronger the positive impact of franchising on the country's economic, social, institutional, and infrastructural development.

This study has several limitations that provide directions for further research. First, the empirical investigation is limited by the characteristics of the data, which are composed of information from 49 countries (covering a period of 10 years). Because franchising is not recognized as a form of entrepreneurial governance in many emerging and developing countries, the available information is mainly provided by the franchise associations in the various countries. Hence, there is a need to collect additional data in each country and to include additional countries. Second, although the authors included developed and developing countries in the analysis, the authors could not differentiate between developed and developing countries when testing the hypotheses, because the database was not sufficiently complete. Third, future studies should analyze the causality issue between franchising and development more closely. The role of franchising in development may be changing depending on different unobserved country factors, economic sector characteristics, or development stages.

What are the practical implications of this study for the role of franchising in the development of emerging and developing economies? Because public policy in emerging and developing countries suffers from a lack of financial resources to improve the social, infrastructural and institutional environment, entrepreneurs, such as franchisors who expand into these countries, play an important role for these countries' development. In addition to their entrepreneurial role of exploring and exploiting profit opportunities, they are social, institutional, and political entrepreneurs who may positively influence country development (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011; Shepard and Patzelt, 2011). Specifically, the findings highlight that countries with an older franchise sector (more years of franchise experience) may realize first-mover advantages and hence larger positive spillover effects on their economic, social, institutional and infrastructural development than countries with a younger franchise sector. Hence, governments of emerging and developing countries have the opportunity and responsibility to reduce potential market entry barriers and provide additional incentives for franchise systems in order to trigger these positive spillover effects. The authors expect that the spillover effects from the franchise sector on the economic, institutional, social and infrastructural development of a country are stronger in emerging and developing countries than in developed countries.

Previous research has focused on the impact of franchising on the economic development of a country, such as its growth of gross domestic product (GDP), employment, business skills, innovation and technology transfer. This study extends the existing literature by going beyond the impact of franchising on economic development: the results show that franchising as an entrepreneurial activity offers opportunities for economic, social, institutional, and infrastructural development, all of which are particularly important for emerging and developing economies. The findings of this study contribute to the international franchise and development economics literature by offering a better understanding of the impact of franchising on country development.