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The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of sales, as a proxy for size, in moderating the impact of institutional incongruence between formal and informal institutions on the formalization of microenterprises in middle-income countries in Latin America.

The paper uses a probit regression model to examine business formalization as a binary outcome of formal and informal institutions. Data was collected through interviews and surveys across 52 municipalities in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile. The study used a stratified sampling approach and was conducted between November 2022 and January 2023.

The results offer three key insights into the formalization of microenterprises in middle-income countries. First, we show that formal institutions do not significantly influence formalization decisions among microentrepreneurs in middle-income countries, challenging the traditional belief that formal institutions alone significantly influence formalization in these contexts. Second, we show that informal institutions are significant predictors of informality, especially among smaller microenterprises. Third, we highlight that the smaller the business, the stronger the negative effect of informal institutions on formalization, and thus, the institutional incongruence between formal and informal institutions decreases for larger businesses.

This paper contributes to management literature by shedding light on the drivers of formalization in middle-income countries, a departure from most formalization studies wherein the focus is primarily on low-income economies. The findings suggest that policymakers in middle-income countries should focus on enabling microenterprise growth through sales, rather than targeting specific demographic groups or relying solely on formal institutional enforcement to promote formalization.

El objetivo de este estudio es investigar el papel de las ventas, utilizadas como un indicador de tamaño, en la mediación del impacto de la incongruencia institucional entre instituciones formales e informales en la formalización de microempresas en países de ingresos medios en América Latina.

Utilizamos un modelo de regresión Probit para examinar la formalización empresarial como un resultado binario de instituciones formales e informales. Los datos se recopilaron a través de 110 entrevistas y encuestas en 52 municipios de la Región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile. El estudio empleó un enfoque de muestreo estratificado y se llevó a cabo entre noviembre de 2022 y enero de 2023.

Nuestros resultados ofrecen tres ideas clave sobre la formalización de microempresas en países de ingresos medios. Primero, demostramos que las instituciones formales no influyen significativamente en las decisiones de formalización entre las microempresas en países de ingresos medios; esto desafía la creencia tradicional de que las instituciones formales por sí solas influyen significativamente en la formalización en estos contextos. Segundo, nuestro estudio muestra que las instituciones informales son predictores significativos de la informalidad, especialmente entre las microempresas más pequeñas. Tercero, nuestro estudio destaca que el efecto negativo de las instituciones informales sobre la formalización es más fuerte para negocios de menor tamaño; por lo tanto, la incongruencia institucional entre instituciones formales e informales disminuye para negocios de mayor tamaño.

Este artículo contribuye a la literatura iluminando sobre los impulsores de la formalización en países de ingresos medios, a diferencia de la mayoría de los estudios de formalización en la región latinoamericana que se centran principalmente en países de bajos ingresos. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que los responsables de políticas en países de ingresos medios deberían centrarse en impulsar el crecimiento de las microempresas a través de las ventas, en lugar de enfocarse en grupos demográficos específicos o depender únicamente del cumplimiento institucional formal para promover la formalización.

O objetivo deste estudo é investigar o papel das vendas, usadas como um indicador de tamanho, na mediação do impacto da incongruência institucional entre instituições formais e informais na formalização de microempresas em países de renda média na América Latina.

Utilizamos um modelo de regressão Probit para examinar a formalização empresarial como um resultado binário de instituições formais e informais. Os dados foram coletados por meio de 110 entrevistas e pesquisas em 52 municípios da Região Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile. O estudo empregou uma abordagem de amostragem estratificada e foi realizado entre novembro de 2022 e janeiro de 2023.

Nossos resultados oferecem três ideias-chave sobre a formalização de microempresas em países de renda média. Primeiro, demonstramos que as instituições formais não influenciam significativamente as decisões de formalização entre as microempresas em países de renda média; isso desafia a crença tradicional de que as instituições formais, por si só, influenciam significativamente a formalização nesses contextos. Segundo, nosso estudo mostra que as instituições informais são preditores significativos da informalidade, especialmente entre as microempresas menores. Terceiro, nosso estudo destaca que o efeito negativo das instituições informais sobre a formalização é mais forte para negócios de menor porte; portanto, a incongruência institucional entre instituições formais e informais diminui para negócios de maior porte.

Este artigo contribui para a literatura iluminando os impulsionadores da formalização em países de renda média, ao contrário da maioria dos estudos de formalização na região latino-americana, que se concentram principalmente em países de baixa renda. Nossos achados sugerem que os responsáveis pelas políticas em países de renda média deveriam focar em impulsionar o crescimento das microempresas por meio das vendas, em vez de se concentrar em grupos demográficos específicos ou depender exclusivamente do cumprimento institucional formal para promover a formalização.

While cost allocation decisions attract considerable attention in the management accounting literature, many studies are contradicting and inconclusive. They often seek to develop product or service weights in order to make operating decisions with the sole objective of maximizing the firm’s profitability. But before developing these weights, the studies must first rank these products – which is a complex endeavor that is often driven by many hierarchical financial and nonfinancial goals and objectives. Ranking is also difficult due to using such complex concepts as time, uncertainty, cost, and interdependencies between accounting systems and manufacturing systems and among the products of the product mix. These concepts are inherently fuzzy and coextensively applied often with a confluence of variables operating simultaneously.

This paper applies an advanced mathematical model to account for a hospital cost allocation decisions in treating spinal cord injuries (SCI). The model combines the powers of fuzzy set theory (Zadeh, 1965) and the analytic hierarchy process (Saaty, 1978). The precise ratings required in the conventional analytic hierarchy process but practically hard to obtain are replaced by naturally semantic variables by using the fuzzy set concept. de Korvin and Kleyle’s (1999) fuzzy-analytic-hierarchical process (FAHP) then develop these ambiguous variables. FAHP can help to optimize decisions involving ambiguous variables and the web of prioritized strategies and goals of cost leadership, product differentiation, financial objectives of earnings, cash flows, and market share and nonfinancial goals such as tradition and owners’ convictions and philosophies.

We use data from seven Michigan SCI facilities in applying the FAHP model to rank and otherwise develop more optimal strategies and goals and compare our results to the decisions of hospital management.

Contemporary entrepreneurial education (EE) has global reach and impact, with a growing number of entrepreneurship courses, specializations, and degrees in all parts of the world. There is no longer a question of the significance and demand for EE in the higher education system. At the same time, the interest in scientific knowledge and proven experience of “what works” has accelerated, resulting in a rapid growth in the number of scholars and research-based publications conversing vividly about the field. This chapter elaborates on the historical evolution of EE as a scholarly field. First, an overview of important milestones and major events that shaped the field is provided. Second, by focusing on the development over the last three decades, the authors present an overview of the advances that have occurred within the field in terms of practice, social, and research-based aspects. The historical review shows how EE began in, but gradually separated from entrepreneurship as a field, which can be observed in the development of research outlets, meeting places, and teaching practice. Consequently, this historical review can serve as a point of departure for showing how the field has emerged and how knowledge has been developed and accumulated over time. The authors believe that this review can be helpful for scholars, particularly new entrants such as PhD students and other scholars entering the EE field, to learn from and contextualize their own research-based historical insight.

Different studies relate the presence of depression to lower cognitive performance and higher functional dependence in older people; however, this is not entirely clear. The purpose of this study is to validate the existence between the association of these conditions.

Cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in which the memory, metamemory and global functionality test performance of depressed and non-depressed participants was compared between two groups, one cognitively healthy and other with cognitive decline. The participants were 420 older adults, with an average age of 69 and five years of schooling.

The importance of describing cognitive performance in older adults with depression may provide evidence to support an adequate differential diagnosis and the design of an adequate future therapeutic plan. Identifying and preventing depression in the elderly can improve health and well-being in the elderly.

Depression is a prevalent and highly disabling disease. When it is suffered by an older person, it is associated with higher mortality, functional dependence, poor physical health, worse quality of life indicators and psychological well-being. In the elderly, the clinical diagnosis of depression is difficult, as it has a high comorbidity and is often confused with other health conditions prevalent during older adulthood.

This paper aims to investigate the direct and combined impacts of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and conservative orientation (CO) on perceived business performance (PBP) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under strategic-hybrid orientation (SHO) theory.

The data collected from the SABI NEO international database has 90 companies in 13 medium-to-high and high-tech activity sectors. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the research model.

Business strategies match a SHO that includes both orientations, i.e. EO and CO. Moreover, as expected, the authors found evidence that each orientation produces performance-related sign-opposite significant impacts. Finally, the hypothesis regarding the positive synergistic effect of both orientations (EO and CO) on PBP was also supported.

One stems from the study’s cross-sectional nature, requiring a longitudinal approach. Another one resides in the absence of further examinations concerning multigroup analysis. Another restraint is the limitedness of data, focused on firms with med/high-tech intensity. For last, while the use of results in the initial stages of theory development can be beneficial, it is important to note that such results cannot be simply extrapolated or generalized to other industrial sectors without careful consideration of the contextual factors at play.

This study humbly endeavours to contribute to the finality of SMEs’ more steady and prosperous existence concerning the consciousness of the need to improve labour stability and wage fairness, conditions such as requiring a continuous commitment.

In this study, the authors aimed to investigate the impact of SHO on SMEs’ PBP. To this end, the authors simultaneously used two different strategic orientations (SOs): EO, which is widely studied in the literature, and CO, which has been less researched. The authors also examined their synergistic effects on PBP. The authors’ approach is based on Venkatraman’s strategic orientation of business enterprises model and the comparative paradigm of SOs.

The aim of this paper is to empirically investigate how the business orientations of customer orientation (CO) (represented by responsiveness to customers) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (represented by proactiveness, innovativeness and risk‐taking) impact the growth of SMEs.

This study uses a quantitative empirical approach, using structural equation modeling with the software package AMOS to analyze the results of 660 surveyed SMEs from Austria.

This analysis reveals that EO is positively related to SME growth but CO shows a negative association with growth. Moreover, this analysis suggests that SMEs grow the most if they exhibit high EO and low CO.

This analysis shows that CO, interpreted as a purely responsive and reactive construct, cannot be considered a strategy that leads to sustainable SME growth. If an SME desires growth, EO is needed to fuel these growth aspirations. In spite of these findings however, this study shows that SMEs tend to respond to a scarcity of financial resources with more CO and less EO, which then leads to less or even negative growth.

Sustainable firm growth seems impossible without an EO. However, this does not mean that CO is not of any value for SMEs. Being non‐entrepreneurially oriented does not mean that a firm is automatically customer oriented. So, it is not only about implementing CO or EO since there is still the third option: implementing neither.

This paper contributes to the ongoing scholarly conversation on the value of different orientations to firms and takes the view that the conversation on CO and EO has mis‐specified business performance in seeking to understand their performance consequences. By looking at firm growth, relevant to the longer‐term performance of a firm, EO might drive growth because of its emphasis on innovation to renew the firm's growth trajectory whereas CO might stifle growth owing to its myopic focus. Thus, this study addresses calls in the business and entrepreneurship literatures to more fully understand how SMEs can capture value from their customer and entrepreneurial orientations.

This paper aims to study the effects of cross-border psychological determinants among students of two Iberian universities (Portugal and Spain) on entrepreneurial intentions.

Based on previous literature, the studies do not include any model that simultaneously uses self-efficacy, risk-taking propensity and proactive personality as psychological determinants of entrepreneurial intentions. Here, the authors try to fill this gap by developing an integrative psychological model about the formation of entrepreneurial intentions, including all these variables as the main preceding factors to entrepreneurial initiative and their influence on intentions for self-employment. Taking a sample of 293 university students from both countries, the authors empirically test regression models to analyse hold influence over the preference expressed in terms of becoming an entrepreneur.

The results show differences between two countries regarding to entrepreneurial intentions. In terms of the motivations present for launching a business, the higher they are the greater the preference over the option to work for third parties.

In addition, and in terms of the variable perceived ease of launching a company, the higher this rises, the lower the level of preference for working for third party entities. Furthermore, the greater the level of perception in terms of the social value of entrepreneurship, the greater the preference for becoming an entrepreneur.

Concerned with the pervasive unfriendly relationship between the Nigeria police and the public, and the need to improve upon this relationship, the present study was designed to examine the moderating roles of perceived organizational support and public recognition in the relationship between unethical attitudes and prosocial behaviour among a sample of Nigeria police officers.

Using a cross‐sectional survey design, data was collected from a total of 163 participants randomly drawn among officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force, Oyo State Command, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses reveal an inverse relationship between unethical attitudes and prosocial behaviour among police officers with high or average levels of perceived organizational support and public recognition, while among police officers with low perceived organizational support and public recognition there was a positive relationship between unethical attitudes and prosocial behaviour. The concepts of social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity were used to explain these findings.

Statements on causality with respect to the present findings must be made with caution because of the non‐experimental nature of the study. Furthermore, perceived organizational support and public recognition were used as global concepts; future studies could explore different facets of these constructs and see how they moderate the relationship between unethical attitudes and prosocial behaviour.

The results of the study suggest that the Nigerian police must be supported and accorded their due recognition if they must behave ethically and prosocially to the Nigerian public.