Search results

This chapter does three things. First, it estimates regional gross domestic product (GDP) for three different geographical levels in Switzerland (97 micro regions, 16 labor market basins, and 3 large regions). Second, it analyzes the evolution of regional inequality relying on a heuristic model inspired by Williamson (1965), which features an initial growth impulse in one or several core regions and subsequent diffusion. Third, it uses index number theory to decompose regional inequality into three different effects: sectoral structure, productivity, and comparative advantage.

The results can be summarized as follows: As a consequence of the existence of multiple core regions, Swiss regional inequality has been comparatively low at higher geographical levels. Spatial diffusion of economic growth occurred across different parts of the country and within different labor market regions. This resulted in a bell-shaped evolution of regional inequality at the micro regional level and convergence at higher geographical levels. In early and in late stages of the development process, productivity differentials were the main drivers of inequality, whereas economic structure was determinant between 1888 and 1941. The poorest regions suffered from comparative disadvantage, that is, they were specialized in the vary sector (agriculture), where their relative productivity was comparatively lowest.

Heritage assets (HAs) are important goods or properties that define a country’s culture, history, and identity. Public sector entities are the primary custodians of a nation’s heritage properties; however, many local museums and historic houses are managed by private not-for-profit (NFP) organisations that essentially act to conserve these heritage places.

Through a documentary analysis, this chapter aims to investigate the points of convergence and the differences between accounting policies for governmental heritage and private NFP organisations.

The study demonstrates that even private NFP entities present the same characteristics as public sector ones in the accounting of heritage goods and that there are certain accounting standards being equally applicable; therefore, the accounting policies for governmental heritage are in accordance with the accounting policies for NFP organisations such as museums, art galleries, charities, churches, for their heritage goods.

This chapter examines the impacts of scheduled announcements of 14 widely followed macroeconomic news on the corporate bond market from July 2002 to June 2017 and documents several new findings. First, good (bad) macroeconomic news tends to have a negative (positive) effect on IG bond returns and a positive (negative) effect on high-yield (HY) bond returns. Second, nonfarm payroll (NFP) appears to be the “King of announcements” for the corporate bond market. Third, while information about revisions of prior releases is incorporated into bond prices on announcement days, future revisions fail to be priced in. Fourth, the news information is thoroughly and quickly reflected in bond prices on the announcement day. Finally, corporate bond volatility increases on announcement days, whereas the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) policy has little effect on conditional volatility.

Some US counties are more likely to generate entrepreneurial opportunities than others. This paper aims to determine the linkages between US counties with disproportionately high shares of entrepreneurs and specific attributes of the entrepreneurial support system.

Non-farm proprietorship (NFP) has been used as a proxy for entrepreneurship and self-employment. NFP employment data were collected from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis by county. Data on all independent variables were obtained from the US Census and Bureau of Economic Analysis by county and subject to stepwise linear regression analysis.

Results revealed a strong positive relationship between the percent of NFP employment by county and the percent real estate, rental and leasing employment and construction employment as well as percent Hispanic and median age.

In attempting to encourage NFP employment, policymakers should be more aware of the key predictors that shape county-wide entrepreneurial ecosystems to enhance competitive advantage. Better understanding of the needs and experiences of different types of entrepreneurs and ecosystems can enhance overall quality of life and economic opportunity levels in a community.

The explicit spatial context of this paper has sometimes been overlooked in the traditional entrepreneurship literature, as such, this paper helps fill that gap. The findings provide a disaggregated analysis that can help better understand the key predictors that can drive the local choices of entrepreneurs and help local policymakers to build more competitive communities.

Management Accounting (MA) practice is one strand in the complex weave that makes up the social fabric. Social patterns of interaction and societal presuppositions that impel people to act in certain ways are all factors that potentially impinge on the role and nature of MA. Some researchers recognise that normative pressures, as they are associated with social obligations and appropriate social conduct in human behaviours, are significant as far as MA practices are concerned. Thus, MA practices should be understood along with the effects of organisational, vis‐à‐vis management’s, strategic orientation (as a part of normative pressures) in organisations. This empirical study investigates the effect of organisational strategic orientation on performance, especially Non‐financial Performance (NFP) measurement in different types and kinds of financial institutions in Finland, Sweden and Japan. The study reveals that organisational strategic orientation highly influences NFP measurement in financial institutions, though the effects of this factor are different in different financial institutions. After providing the empirical result, some research directions are given for further research.

This paper focuses on not‐for‐profit (NFP) general management competencies and examines the predominant desired knowledge skills and abilities as a key component of general management responsiveness capability in empirically validated strategic success hypothesis. The strategic success hypothesis postulates that the performance of an organization will be optimized when the strategic aggressiveness and the responsiveness capability of general management is aligned with the respective environment.

The research utilizes a content analysis approach whereby the contents of job postings for the top positions in NFP organizations from different sources were analyzed and summarized. The analysis involved the collection of a comprehensive list of the top‐level general management position or job advertisements posted in both print and electronic media. Some of the sources include the Non‐Profit Times, job postings by agencies, and electronic job posting boards.

One of the key findings was that the NFP sector utilizes the top‐level general management to address the fiscal management dynamics. Fundraising experiences and skills are emphasized and were listed as the key responsibility of the top‐level general management. There was also some emphasis on not‐for‐profit organization management skills and experiences along with communication, governance, interpersonal skills, budgets and fiscal management. The other finding was that in addition to the above sector related desired competencies, generic experience, skills and position responsibilities were emphasized.

The limitations of this study include: Using job postings as a proxy for actual preferences for certain competencies has certain disadvantages. For instance, the quality of job postings in terms of information included might be a reflection of the writing skills and depositions of the drafters. The size and the life cycle stage of the organization might impact the need for certain competencies. For example, a small start‐up agency might not be concerned with governance or ethics issues like a huge organization such as the United Way. The nature of the NFP's activity may also influence the type of competencies sought.

The most important feature of any organization is the quality of its human resources. The NFP sector is currently faced with many challenges which include fiscal, technological, human resources, governance and overall effectiveness. While leadership is recognized as a powerful resource in determining the direction and the future of the organization, leadership alone is not sufficient to address all the problems facing the sector. Firms do need effective managers, good strategic management systems, motivated staff, and adequate financial resources to drive success.

The study found that formal educational requirements were emphasized with over 77 percent of the job postings listing bachelor degree and above as criteria for selection. This indicates that there is need to develop curriculum at the higher education level aimed at addressing the specific needs of the NFP sector. About 23 percent of the job postings did not specifically state formal education as criteria for selection; it might have been an oversight because it is unlikely an organization would hire a CEO with no reasonable formal education.

The importance of the role of management accounting (MA) in measuring emerging non‐financial performance (NFP) is increasing, especially in the service sector. However, there are a number of studies concerning NFP measures, but comparatively little is known about non‐financial MA measures in services and almost nothing in banks/financial institutions (BFI). Taking into consideration the need for studying MA practices in measuring emerging NFP in the service industry, an attempt has been made in this paper to investigate the practice of MA in NFP measurement in Finnish BFI. Several factors have been identified, in the context of “New Institutional Sociology” theory that influence NFP measures, of which economic impact is the most influential, followed, subsequently by coercive, normative and mimetic pressures. Accordingly, the empirical findings of this research are evaluated, and consequently, it has been used to modify the theory for further research that fits with the dynamic nature of NFP in the financial industry.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how strategic planning is used as critical success factors (CSF’s) in not-for-profit (NFP) organizations. This was because many nonprofits had to innovate their operations owing to the global fiscal crises, the continuing international economic instability, natural disasters or the increasing man-made worldwide terrorism. Additionally, the objective is to identify what successful nonprofit organizations actually do to remain effective at the national association level of analysis.

A constructivist research design ideology is applied (in contrast to the customary positivist philosophy to collect quantitative). The literature is critically reviewed to identify NFP CSF’s and terms such as capacity building. NFP institutions are theoretically sampled using US-based retrospective data to identify practitioner CSF activities. Applying a constructivist research design ideology, the theoretical CSF’s from the literature review are compared to practitioner activities. Representatives of NFP organizations are invited to participate in a strategic planning exercise to identify the most important CSF’s from the literature and practice that would be needed in the future.

Seven of the nine United Nations NFP capacity building CSF’s are similar to NFP nine practitioner best practices. In comparison to the general literature, NFP practitioners applied leadership, strategic planning, innovation, documented procedures/training, human/technology resource management, financial management, accountability practices, ethical standards with professional communications policies, collaborative fundraising and marketing initiatives along with performance success evaluations.

The sample was drawn theoretically from 44 nonprofit state-centered institutions in the USA. Although statistically the results pertain strictly to US-based nonprofits, the principles should generalize to other countries as revealed by the similarity with United Nations innovation and strategic planning recommendations.

The authors applied a strategic planning exercise with the 44 participants at their recommendations to prioritize the CSF’s. The result was an innovative SWOT-TOWS diagram that summarized how the nine CSF’s were prioritized and grouped into the three categories of market performance, ethical responsibility and human resources.

The purpose of this project is to undertake continuous auditing and monitoring (CA/CM) implementations working with small-to-medium-sized (SME) not-for-profit (NFP) organizations of varying sizes, business purposes and levels of technical sophistication.

This paper discusses a project using a case study approach with an SME NFP entity.

The findings support the discussions in the literature regarding CA/CM adoption in organizations, particularly regarding its implementation benefits and challenges.

The project is not complete in that additional case studies could possibly offer additional applicability to the findings.

This case study illustrates the issues inherent with the process of adopting new technologies. It provides insights for others considering adoption of CA/CM tools or protocols.

The need for more reliable auditing has never been more urgent than it is today in the NFP environment, and this case study demonstrates how an NFP could address these critical needs of increased reporting accountability and internal controls.

The application of CA/CM is quite interesting and relevant in this modern real-time economy. This case study provides a new area of research in the field of CA/CM and, as such, contributes to the literature.

Some US counties are more likely to generate entrepreneurial opportunities. This paper aims to determine whether US micropolitan counties with disproportionately high nonfarm proprietorship (NFP) employment levels are systematically linked to specific attributes of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. A limited amount of research has been conducted on the geography of entrepreneurship in small to medium-sized micropolitan counties where rates of growth and change can be quite dramatic.

NFP employment data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is used as a dependent variable proxy for entrepreneurship. NFP data are widely used in the entrepreneurship literature. Data on all independent variables were obtained from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and BEA by county and subject to stepwise linear regression.

Results revealed a strong positive relationship between the percent of NFP employment by micropolitan county and percent construction employment, percent real estate, and rental and leasing employment, and the percent elderly. It is argued that the combination of predictors captures primarily a self-employment of opportunity (e.g., thriving land and real estate markets).

In attempting to encourage NFP employment, policymakers should be more alert to the key predictors that shape micropolitan entrepreneurial ecosystems when attempting to enhance competitive advantage in small- to medium-sized communities. Better understanding how micropolitan counties function relative to larger metropolitan places can help local policymakers more efficiently enhance the overall quality of life in smaller communities.

The focus on smaller micropolitan communities and the explicit spatial context of this paper has sometimes been overlooked in the traditional entrepreneurship literature and this research helps to fill that gap.