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This paper aims to empirically examine the factors driving the acquisition of patents and foreign technologies in 2,198 firms spanning multiple industries in Visegrád countries.

To fulfil the research objectives, the authors used the binary logistic regression models for the empirical specifications to analyse the various hypotheses to ascertain the factors contributing to patents, foreign technologies and international quality certificate acquisitions in Visegrád countries.

The results show that technological innovations, in-house and external research and development, intense competition from the informal sector and external knowledge search positively influence firms to acquire patents, foreign technologies and international quality certificates. The study further showed that certain firm characteristics, such as size, having a board of directors, female top managers and top managers’ experience, positively influenced firms’ ability to obtain patents, foreign technologies and international quality certificates.

The authors provide new insights into understanding the factors contributing to international technological linkages in the context of transitional countries such as the Visegrád four group. The authors have shown that international technology linkages through foreign technology licences and international quality certifications are vital for innovations in transition economies.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to understand the different risks associated with a business, focusing on price risk and the importance of price risk management in business; understand and evaluate the products available for hedging price risk through exchange-traded derivatives in the Indian scenario; and understand and evaluate the different strategies for price risk management through exchange-traded derivatives in the Indian scenario.

The case study pertains to a small business, M/s Sethi Jewellers. The enterprise is being run by Shri Charan Jeet Sethi and his son Tejinder Sethi. The business is located in Jain Bazar, Jammu, UT, in Northern India. The business was started in 1972 by Charan Jeet’s father. They deal in a wide range of jewelry products and are well-established jewelers known for selling quality ornaments. Tejinder (MBA in marketing) was instrumental in revamping his business recently. Under his leadership, the business has experienced rapid transformation. The business has grown from a one-room shop fully managed by Tejinder’s grandfather to a multistory showroom with several artisans, sales staff and security persons. Through his e-store, Tejinder has a bulk order from a client where the client requires him to accept the order with a small token at the current price and deliver the final product three months from now. Tejinder is in a dilemma about accepting or rejecting the large order. Second, if he accepts, should he buy the entire gold now or wait to buy it later at a lower price? He is also considering hedging the price risk through exchange-traded derivatives. However, he is not entirely sure, as he has a few apprehensions regarding the same, and he is also not fully aware of the process and the instruments he has to use for hedging the price risk on the exchange.

The case study is aimed to cater to undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students in the field of finance. This case study can be used for students interested in commodity derivatives, risk management and market microstructure.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance.

Africa is becoming the fastest-growing continent despite significant challenges to accessing finance and the use of technology. This paper aims to examine the direct effect of mobile money adoption on firm performance and its moderation effect by examining how it moderates the effect of access to finance on firm performance.

Quantitative data were obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were done to test the hypotheses.

The main findings show a negative significant relationship between mobile money adoption and firm performance, while access to finance had a positive relationship. The moderation effect though positive was not significant. Research examining the effect of mobile money adoption in Africa on firm performance is limited, and existing studies have focused on the determinants of mobile money usage. By examining the direct and contingency effect on other determinants of firm performance, this research makes both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, this research shows that not all strategic resources are valuable in improving firm performance. Practically, this research provides insights into how technology could be embedded into business processes for firms to benefit from such technology.

This research has complemented by the extant literature by assessing the role of mobile money adoption in moderating the influence of access to finance on firm performance.

Do financial services needs depend on the firm size? To highlight the impact of different categories of financial services on firm performance, we establish a correspondence between financial services and firms' performance classified according to their size, controlling with the determinants of firm performance and the obstacles that hinder the development of each category of firm.

We have mobilized microeconomic data on 78,629 firms stratified by size and covering 135 countries, extracted from the Enterprise Surveys database. A two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis with instrumental variable modeling is used.

Our empirical results show that a firm's financing behavior differs according to its size. For micro and small firms, the availability of internal financing has a positive impact on their performance. For medium-size firms, the use of debt stimulates firm performance. For large firms, the positive effect of debt diminishes as the level of debt increases, which leads this category of firms to increase their capital. We complemented our study by exploring the issue of whether barriers to firm performance differ by size. Our results bring a support to the idea that medium-size firms suffer more than micro, small, and large firms. The size of this category of firms does not allow them to operate in the informal sector as micro and small firms do, and does not allow them to influence political authorities to operate in their favor as large firms do.

Previous studies have focused on investigating the effects of access to finance and/or financing constraints on firm's performance, neglecting the issue of identifying which financial services have the most impact on firm performance depending on firms' size. This study fills the gap in the literature in two main ways. First, we identify the financial services that have the most impact on firm performance using firm-level data covering 78,629 firms by size (micro, small, medium, and large). Second, we investigate the different barriers to firm performance by size.

The purpose of this study is to determine the nature of financial inclusion for individuals with various types of disabilities.

Data from 2015, 2017 and 2019 FDIC Survey of Household Use of Banking and Financial Services was pooled, and binary logistic regressions were used to investigate differences in barriers to financial inclusion (e.g. unbanked) between people with different types of disabilities (e.g. cognitive) and those without such disabilities.

Using five separate barrier measures, the authors found specific disability types face different barriers to financial inclusion. For example, respondents with cognitive, ambulatory or two or more disabilities were more likely to use nonbank transaction products and alternative financial services. And, those with vision or cognitive disabilities were more likely to be denied or receive reduced credit. When examining aggregate barriers to financial inclusion (total number of barriers faced) respondents with cognitive, ambulatory, hearing or two or more disabilities experienced the lowest degree of financial inclusion in the authors’ dataset.

Causal inference cannot be made due to the cross-sectional nature of the data. The data only covers the US population, and the measurement of disability type could include those with short-term impairments. Further, there may be an omitted variable bias.

Best practices to maximize financial inclusion for those with different disability types should address accessibility issues, bank staff education, financial literacy education and poverty issues. Additional government policies and oversight are also needed to protect and enhance the overall financial inclusion of people with disabilities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the relationship between various barriers to financial inclusion and aggregate barriers to financial inclusion by disability type. Specific disability types are found to face different barriers to financial inclusion.

The data for the case study were collected as part of a consulting project. In an interview (orientation meeting), the management of the company outlined the key data on the company and the problem, which were used to describe the case study. The account balances of the revolving credit facility were provided as an Excel file and analyzed and processed in the follow-up. The names of the company and individuals in the case were changed to protect the identities and privacy of the involved parties.

This case represents a real practical problem, in which James was asked to take over a mandate as interim manager for a family business in a severe crisis. The crisis situation also manifested itself in the company’s severely strained liquidity situation. One of the first important measures was to enable smooth solvency or to expand the liquidity scope. An analysis of the bank balances over a longer period of time showed that the liquidity situation had already been tight for several months, but the previous management had done nothing to remedy this situation. James asked himself how he should proceed to solve this problem.

This case study is suitable for lectures that focus on corporate finance or financial restructuring. It should build on basic knowledge related to financing instruments and working capital. The case study can, therefore, be used for undergraduate students (Bachelor level) in a higher semester or as an introduction for Master’s students.

An instructor can use this case in courses related to finance or financial restructuring. Target groups are undergraduate students (Bachelor level) in a higher semester or as an introduction for Master’s students. Students should have prior knowledge of financing instruments and working capital management. The case shows a frequently occurring and therefore important standard case, which can be solved on the basis of the outlined procedure. After completion of the case studies, students should have a deeper understanding of basic financial principles and be able to propose how financial restructuring could be conducted in case of lack of liquidity and limits in headroom.

Several empirical studies indicate that the existence of a large informal sector is a major obstacle to firms’ choices of innovation strategies. This paper aims to address this issue and investigates the effect of the informal sector on the innovation of formal firms in Greece.

Using the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey data, the impact of informal competition on formal firms’ innovation in Greece is investigated by testing whether formal firms use innovation as a tool to protect and sustain their competitive advantage vis-à-vis informal firms and whether overall and informal competition has an inverted-U relationship with the innovation of formal firms. The effects of bribing and other variables drawn from the empirical literature are also controlled for.

The findings fill a gap in the literature regarding the effects of the informal sector on formal economic activity in Greece, by indicating that the informal sector puts pressure on formal firms to innovate, in order to differentiate their product or service and enhance their productivity and by offering learnings to help policymakers to promote innovation in Greece.

The originality of this study is that it investigates the impact of informal competition on formal firms’ innovation in Greece, a developed economy with a large informal sector. It does so by focusing on the effects that formal firms’ informal practices have on their competitors’ innovation activities, and the role of informal competition in creating and sustaining a competitive advantage in Greece.

This study aims to gain insight into the motivations behind the decision to use high-cost payday loans by households who possess mainstream credit and to determine whether this behavior has changed over time.

Using data from Statistics Canada’s Surveys of Financial Security, probit models are used to examine the sociodemographic and financial indicators associated with payday loan use.

The analysis uncovers the sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan-user households with access to lower-cost short-term loans. The findings indicate that the likelihood of payday loan use has risen over time. Additional analysis reveals that indicators of financial instability are positively associated with payday loan use among this group.

This research highlights the dichotomy of payday loan users and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.

This research highlights the distinguishing sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan user households and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.

This is the first study, to our knowledge, to focus analysis on payday loan use of those with access to lower-cost short-term credit alternatives in Canada and to include measures of financial instability in the analysis. This research is timely given the current economic environment of high interest rates and high levels of household debt.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential link between Sweden’s high reliance on equity capital financing among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its recognition as the most innovative economy in Europe according to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). This paper examines the idea that the high levels of trust within Swedish society can explain why private equity financing is more prevalent among Swedish SMEs.

To test these ideas, the authors use data from the Survey on Access to Finance for Enterprises to measure the private equity reliance of firms. The authors also use the EIS to measure the innovation capacity of nations and various aspects of SMEs’ innovation activities. Finally, societal levels of trust are measured through the World Value Survey.

First, the authors find that European countries with a higher proportion of SMEs relying on equity financing tend to be ranked as more innovative by the EIS. Second, the authors find that the correlation between a nation’s share of SMEs relying on equity financing and their level of innovation activities is marginally stronger for product innovations than for business process innovations. Third, the authors find that countries with higher levels of trust tend to have higher equity capital reliance among SMEs.

This study builds upon previous research on equity capital and SMEs’ innovation activity while introducing new insights into the relationship between societal trust and equity financing.

Covid-19 sparked new interest in consumer financial resilience (CFR) amongst regulatory authorities, financial institutions, policymakers and the academia. No financial and health crisis has been worse than Covid-19, erasing the growth momentum of nations at all development stages. This study measures consumers' current financial resilience and future expectations within India's emerging market and its likely response to policy measures.

CFR is investigated using individual household data on economic state, employment, income and savings from the Reserve Bank of India's consumer confidence survey. The empirical approach is based on the temporal time-series data with mixed frequency regression. Consumers' current and future expectation indices appear as the regressand, whereas credit-deposit ratio, credit outstanding, number of bank accounts and digital transactions act as main regressors.

The response of consumers' current situation is 3.50 times higher than that of their future expectations. This implies that a rise in the credit-deposit ratio and credit line positively affects CFR. In contrast, a higher number of bank accounts, a proxy for financial inclusion, adversely affect consumer's well-being possibly owing to the government's failure to provide financial support through banking networks. Digital payments (value) positively affect consumers' current situation and future expectations.

The results of this study inform policy formulation for enhancing financial resilience. Consumer sentiment index acts as a proxy for CFR.

Financial resilience is a concern for policymakers. This study is one of the first studies linking CFR with financial inclusion, credit creation and digital financial capability.