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This paper aims to analyse the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and UTAUT2 constructs used in research on information and communication technology (ICT) adoption and use among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in non-organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries. It also investigates the areas of ICT adoption along the value chain in studies using these constructs.

Systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, where 910 studies were retrieved manually in five academic databases. Forty-eight studies were finalised after four filtration levels.

Majority of the studies were published within the past six years, and 85.42% were studies in the form of journal papers. UTAUT constructs more researched compared to UTAUT2 constructs. More than half of the studies investigated ICT application in value chain boundaries, while 16 studies were organisation-wide studies.

With developments in MSMEs’ technology, the UTAUT2 model must be expanded to internal company operations including finance and infrastructure maintenance. To boost competitiveness and productivity, non-OECD authorities should focus on the cost and user-centric characteristics of MSMEs’ technology adoption.

Although SLRs on UTAUT and UTAUT2 constructs have been attempted previously, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by focusing analysis on the application of those constructs on MSMEs in non-OECD countries and also by situating ICT adoption along the value chain of enterprises.

Although high-quality comparative data from international assessments are now more widely available, to what extent is that data being used to trigger, inform, and direct educational change in non-Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries? The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework to guide a case analysis of Trinidad and Tobago's system response to international assessment data.

This is a single-nation explanatory case study using data from policy documents and elite interviews. Findings are generated through inductive thematic analysis.

The four emerging themes were: first, weaknesses in the national evaluation system; second, policy-making practices not attuned to data; third, lack of collaboration and stakeholder involvement; and fourth, challenges in accessing and using data. Findings suggested that data rarely acted alone to trigger system change. Critical to initiating and sustaining effective data use for system reform were policy-making contexts and mental maps of system leaders, which in this context acted as barriers. Respondents believed that greater strategic leadership from politicians and technocrats could ensure data-informed systemic change.

The study focuses upon data use and data-driven decision making for whole system reform within a single country context. However, it advances theory that might be applied to other non-OECD cases.

The findings contribute to the refinement of a conceptual model explaining data-driven system reform applicable to non-OECD contexts. The role of system leaders when using international assessment data is clarified.

This paper aims to develop a cross-country analysis of the similarities and differences in the debt maturity structure of listed SMEs from the point of view of corporate governance (CG) attributes in two different economic environments: an OECD (Spain) country and a non-OECD (Argentina) country.

Using data from listed SMEs in the Argentinian SME segment (pooled data from 2012 to 2015) and 31 listed SMEs in the Spanish Mercado Alternativo Bursátil for growing firms (MAB_GE)(2014), bivariate and multivariate analyses are performed.

Spanish firms with a higher ownership concentration and a large controlling shareholder have higher short-term liabilities (STL) ratios. Participation of women on the board has a negative relation with the STL ratio only for Spain. The participation of corporations in ownership and a Big4 auditor have a negative relation with the STL ratio for both countries.

These results will help SME managers understand the effects of the application of good governance policies. The study also gives regulators a guideline to develop standards to assist in efficient borrowing in terms of seeking funding in alternative capital markets.

First, the results provide evidence about the financial impact on the STL ratio of CG attributes in listed SME. Second, as far as the authors know, this is the first paper to analyse the CG attributes of listed SMEs in an OECD country and a non-OECD country. Third, the paper presents CG data derived from an ad hoc basis elaborated from different websites and databases.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and assess the trends of bilateral services trade in the world segmented by trade for final consumption and intermediate usage across several service sectors. The differential trends, if any, are studied while examining the role of free trade agreements which have a chapter on services trade as well as the role of services trade restrictions. The study unravels differences across service sectors in this respect.

The author uses an augmented gravity model to address the above using OECD- World Trade Organization (WTO) TiVA data for bilateral trade in intermediates and final products (October 2015 release) and World Bank Services Trade Restrictions Index (STRI). The poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimation technique is used in light of the structure of the data. Trade creating and diverting effects are identified controlling for time and country-time specific effects. The following sectors are specifically looked at: total business sector services, computer and related services, financial intermediation, post and telecommunication, transport and storage, R&D and other business services, hotels and restaurants, construction, and wholesale and retail trade.

First, services free trade agreements (FTAs) have had a trade creating impact with no trade diverting impact for services trade in aggregate with stronger effects on services traded for intermediate usage. Second, financial intermediation and post and telecommunication have been left unaffected by services FTAs. While no trade diversion is concluded for any sector, R&D and other business services, transport and storage and wholesale retail trade show maximum trade creation effects in response to FTAs. Third, trade restrictions of mainly OECD countries are responsible for lowering exports for most sectors. Finally, in terms of policy implications, at a general level, the author does not find a significant difference in the author’s results for services traded for intermediate usage or final consumption except for a stronger effect of FTAs on intermediate services trade. Hence, the policies to foster services trade on both counts are concluded to be the same and deal with behind-the-border policies of domestic industrial policy reforms like national treatment of foreign firms, licensing requirements, FDI policies, etc.

Statistics for services trade are limited. The data are only available for the years 1995, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Additionally, the conclusions on services trade restrictions are based on statistics for 2011 alone, since this is the only year for which the statistics are available. A complete time series for the entire sample period would increase robustness of the study with a better time variant version of the trade restrictiveness variable. Finally, in the construction of the OECD-WTO-TiVA database of a world IO table, there may have been approximations in constructing statistics for services traded for intermediate usage and final consumption. The results remain sensitive to the same but this is the best possible statistics available for the purposes.

This is the first study which looks at services trade segmented by trade for final consumption and intermediate usage taking advantage of the available data for a number of service sectors. The role of restrictions is also studied for the first time segmented by trade in intermediates and final consumption. The stronger effects of FTAs on intermediate services trade as well as financial intermediation and post and telecommunication services being insulated from effects of FTAs are important findings, especially since services are mainly thought to be traded for final consumption. Similar trends of results for services traded for intermediate usage and final consumption and restrictions affecting exports from exporter countries and imports by importer countries highlight the importance of behind-the-border domestic policies in facilitating or inhibiting services trade on both counts and more importantly for intermediate usage which, in turn, would improve goods tradability.

This paper examines the changes suggested by maritime stakeholders to achieve gender equality in seafaring, a male-dominated profession.

Adopting a four-stage career cycle framework, this paper analyzes changes proposed by 423 industry stakeholders to promote gender equality in seafaring. These proposed changes were posted on the Day of Seafarers 2019 virtual wall set up by the International Maritime Organization, which served as a forum for industry stakeholders from all over the world to voice their opinions and suggestions.

The data analysis shows that the suggested changes reflect many challenges and barriers women seafarers face. While stakeholders from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries are more likely to call for changes to remove barriers in the retention and development stage, gender equality in seafaring in non-OECD countries is still seriously hindered by barriers in the recruitment stage. The paper also reveals that comparatively male stakeholders are less likely to appreciate the problems women seafarers face.

This paper takes a comparative approach, comparing the changes proposed by seafarers and other industry stakeholders from different parts of the world. This approach provides a nuanced understanding of issues related to gender equality in seafaring by showing that stakeholders from different backgrounds have different priorities.

This paper aims to assess the effects of different levels of education, namely, primary, secondary and tertiary, on global terrorism, measured by incidence of global terrorism.

Based on annual panel data covering 120 countries from 1990 to 2017, zero-inflated negative binomial regression (NBR) model is applied to estimate relationship between education and terrorism.

The findings reveal that higher attainment of education at primary and secondary level lowers terrorism worldwide. The findings strongly hold across the most affected regions of the world including Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. Drawing a comparison between the OECD and non-OECD countries, the results are substantially supported throughout.

This study highlights the significance of education, at least up to secondary level, as an effective measure to reduce the extent of terrorist activities worldwide. Apart from this, more focus on education is recommended across the most affected regions (Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa), specifically and the world, generally. Furthermore, as this study focuses at macro level, the future research may focus on factors enforcing individuals to resort to terrorism at individual and group level.

Unlike previous studies, this study contributes to existing literature through investigating the impact of terrorism at different levels of education.

We examine a large sample of some 100 economies worldwide to study the impact of financial sector size expansion on labor market performance. Simple linear dynamic panel data models inspired by the well-developed finance-growth literature suggest that (on average) a larger financial sector is beneficial for the labor market as it reduces unemployment rates. However, estimating country- and period-specific benchmark levels of financial sector size, we document that the relative contribution of finance vanishes with excessive levels of finance, and excessive levels of credit may actually be detrimental to employment. These non-linearities in the finance-unemployment nexus are more pronounced within developed economies. Overall, our study sheds new light on the ongoing controversy about the impact of the financial sector on societal well-being and highlights the importance of monitoring the expansion of the financial sector, in particular when it comes to credit markets.

Much of existing research has attempted to explain Asian Growth Paradox through formal institution – role of the government or rule of law. Therefore, this paper attempts to empirically explain the paradox with informal institution including interaction between informal and formal institutions. Two interrelated research questions summarize this research. First, how can we capture the relationship between informal and formal institutions? Then, how is that relationship different for Asian Paradox states vs non-paradox states?

To capture the relationship between informal and formal institutions, we use Helmke and Levitsky (2004)'s framework to categorize the interaction as complementing, competing, substituting and accommodating. We perform cross-sectional regression analysis for more than 130 countries.

We find that the developed, developing and the Asian Paradox states display different patterns of interaction between informal and formal institutions. However, we also find that the interaction effect has a limited value explaining growth for most of these countries, suggesting that Helmke and Levitsky (2004)'s framework has limitations. Finally, we challenge the notion of Asian Paradox states, as countries outside of Asia also qualify as the Paradox states.

Not much empirical effort has examined how different relationships between informal and formal institutions can explain growth internationally across countries. We show that different institutional patterns explain growth across the Paradox states and non-Paradox states.

The purpose of this paper is to examine insurance regulation theories, regulatory agency structures and measures.

This study investigates significance of regulatory agency structure, key regulatory measures, political stability and cultural dimension in insurance markets of 56 developed and developing countries for 2005‐2009.

It was found that insurance consumption is lower in countries with an authority exclusively for insurance regulation but life insurance consumption is higher when the agency is part of government or when another agency is jointly responsible for insurance regulation. Market entry regulation leads to lower consumption whereas market exit regulation has the opposite effect. Solvency regulation and required use of standard forms for insurer financials lead to greater consumption of insurance. A positive impact on the nonlife market is observed for accounting regulation and regulator's intervention power.

Price control regulation may lower consumption of insurance whereas tariff rating brings about a rise in the consumption. Regulation of insurance intermediaries or corporate governance may lower insurance consumption whereas the requirement that insurers employ an actuary or actuaries gives rise to the consumption.

The author found no difference between OECD and non‐OECD countries. However, corruption‐freeness and inflation impact insurance consumption. Using OECD country data only, a negative impact was found of the single agency structure and tariff regulation in the life insurance market and a positive impact of regulation by two or more agencies in the life insurance market and of price control regulation in the nonlife insurance market. Corruption‐freeness positively affects the loss ratio in the life insurance market and the combined ratio in the nonlife insurance market.