Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate roles of financial literacy, financial behavior, and financial capability as mediating factors between financial education and financial satisfaction.

Data are from the 2012 National Financial Capability Study, a large national data set with detailed information on financial satisfaction, education, literacy, behavior, capability, and related variables. Mediation analyses are used to answer research questions.

Financial education may affect financial satisfaction, a subjective measure of financial well-being, through financial literacy, financial behavior, and financial capability variables. Results show that subjective financial literacy, desirable financial behavior and a financial capability index (a sum of Z-scores of objective financial literacy, subjective financial literacy, desirable financial behavior, and perceived financial capability) are strong mediators between financial education and financial satisfaction.

The study has used cross sectional data that can only document associations between financial education and satisfaction and the mediators between them. Future research could use relevant longitudinal data to verify multiple benefits of financial education.

The findings have implications for financial service professionals to take advantages of multiple benefits of financial education in content acquisition, confidence in knowledge and ability, and action taking when they communicate with their clients.

Policy makers on consumer financial education may use the information to advocate and promote effective education programs to improve consumer financial well-being.

This study is the first of this kind to examine the association between financial education and financial satisfaction and several financial capability variables as mediating factors.

Financial inclusion can be proxied by banking status. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential effects of financial capability on the financial fragility of US adults with various banking statuses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study utilized the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) dataset to investigate the relationship between financial capability and financial fragility among consumers with different banking statuses. The analysis controlled for employment shocks, health shocks and other consumer characteristics. Banking statuses included fully banked, under-banked (utilizing both banking and alternative financial services) and unbanked individuals. Logistic regression analyses were conducted on both the entire sample and subsamples based on banking statuses.

The results showed that financial capability was negatively associated with financial fragility. The magnitude of the potential negative effect of financial capability was the greatest among the fully banked group, followed by the underbanked and unbanked groups. Respondents who were underbanked or unbanked were more likely to experience financial fragility than those who were fully banked. Additionally, respondents who were laid off or furloughed during the pandemic were more likely to experience financial fragility than those without employment shocks. The effect size of financial capability factors was greater than that of COVID-19 shock factors. These results suggest that higher levels of both financial capability and financial inclusion may be effective in reducing the risk of financial fragility.

This study represents one of the first attempts to examine the potential effects of financial capability on financial fragility among consumers with various banking statuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study offers new evidence to determine whether COVID-19 shocks, as measured by health and employment status, are associated with financial fragility. Additionally, the effect size of financial capability factors is greater than that of COVID-19 shock factors. The results from the 2021 NFCS dataset provide valuable insights for banking professionals and public policymakers on how to enhance consumer financial wellbeing.

The relationship between debt and happiness is an emerging research topic with significant implications for both theory and practice in economics and business. In China, where the consumer credit market is at an early stage of development, the topic remains under-investigated and the evidence on the debt–well-being link is scarce. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between debt holding and happiness and the moderating role of income in it.

Data used in the study were from three waves (2013, 2015 and 2017) of the China Household Finance Survey. Fixed-effect regressions on panel data were used for data analyses.

The results show that any type of debt holding is negatively associated with happiness. Among seven specific types of debts, four types show negative associations with happiness, which in the order from higher to lower associations, are medical, education, other and housing debt. In addition, negative associations between debt holding and happiness vary among income groups. The results suggest that any debt holding potentially decreases happiness for low- and middle-income consumers only. In addition, holdings of three specific types of debts (medical, education and housing debt) may decrease happiness for both low- and middle-income consumers, and holding two types of debts (business and other debt) may decrease happiness for middle-income consumers only.

Data used in this study originate from one country only. It limits the generalizability of findings to other countries with different institutional backgrounds and different socio-economic characteristics of populations. The results have implications for researchers who study consumer debt behavior and business practitioners who do businesses with Chinese companies and consumers.

China is an emerging economy that is at the early stage of credit market development. The results of this study provide helpful information and insights for business practitioners to explore credit markets and serve credit product clients with various income levels in China.

The results of this study are informative for public policies. When introducing credit market-related policies, policymakers should pay attention to people's happiness and to differential welfare effects of holdings of different types of debts and among consumers with various levels of incomes.

Unique contributions of this study include using data from the most recently available waves of the China Household Finance Survey (2013, 2015 and 2017) to study the associations between debt holding and happiness. In addition, the findings of this study enrich the literature of debt and happiness by adding evidence from China, the largest emerging economy in the world, which is helpful for future theory building and business practice on the relationship between debt holding and happiness.

The value chain is an essential management tool for the elaboration of strategic organizational planning. However, there are few published works providing methods for the development of value chains. This research aims to present a model to develop the value chain for the public sector.

Action research was used with case study in the evaluation step.

This research presents a model for value chain development along seven steps, covering data collection planning to the formalization of final product acceptance. The model suggests executing these seven steps in three iteration levels: operational, tactical and strategic. Through case studies, six practical insights were also highlighted in this work.

Given the absence of related work, one of the limitations is the lack of comparison with other methods of value chain development in the public sector.

There are practical guides to value chain development in the public sector; however, to the best of authors’ knowledge, such guides have not been developed using research methods. In the literature, no works provide details on how value chain can be developed in the public sector. In addition, the constraints of face-to-face contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic led the research team to conduct remotely the model's development and evaluation in the case studies. The model presents elements that enable value chain development without face-to-face contact between the execution team and public institution's stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the interactions and their cause/effect consequences of three aspects present inside organizational realities, namely, organizational social capital (OSC), worker resilience and innovation derived from the workers.

A cross-sectional study for analyzing the subjects was chosen. As a quantitative research approach, after the theoretical review, two possibilities were hypothesized for how they act as a system. In order to verify the hypotheses, the authors chose the structural equation model, a suitable instrument for this analysis, as a mathematical tool.

The results show that OSC is a mediator between resilience and innovation in the organizational dynamics. This suggests that workers’ resilience need OSC, acting as the mediator, to improve their level of innovation capacity.

The study gives information at a specific point in time. Follow-up studies are needed to understand the phenomena’s transformation, and no distinction was made between exploratory and exploitative innovation. More empirical studies should be carried out to enhance its understanding.

These findings can help organizations deal better with these resources to reach their goals because the first, as stated in the purpose, is the amalgamated goodwill necessary for individuals to work together; the second is workers’ capacity to bounce back; and the last is the creativity inherent in people. All of which are significant for an enterprise thrive in its market.

The cited dynamic has few studies, and this work provides evidence about its existence and magnitude, shedding light on a critical factors’ relationship net, especially for enterprises based on the creativity of their workers.