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Book part
Publication date: 20 October 2017

Eleftherios Aggelopoulos

Purpose: The present study investigates how the performance of Greek bank branching varies when the external environment causes dramatic changes that are reflected in recession…

Abstract

Purpose: The present study investigates how the performance of Greek bank branching varies when the external environment causes dramatic changes that are reflected in recession and capital control effects.

Design/Methodology: A unique dataset of accounting Profit and Loss statements of retail branches of a systemic Greek commercial bank, closely supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB), is utilized. A profit bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is selected to measure the bank branch efficiency. The derived efficiency estimates are analyzed through a second-stage panel data regression analysis against a set of efficiency drivers related to branch profitability, diversification of income, branch size, and branch activity.

Findings: The results indicate that recession negatively affects branch efficiency in the short and long run. The occurrence of recession significantly intensifies the efficiency premium of branch profitability, reduces the efficiency premium of diversification of income (i.e., a negative efficiency effect is recorded during the early recession period), while mitigating the generally negative efficiency effect of branch size. The analysis of efficiency effects from the deep recession period that encompasses capital controls reveals the importance of diversification of income for the improvement of profit efficiency at bank branch level.

Originality/Value: This is the first branch banking study that explores branch efficiency alteration and the dynamic of branch efficiency drivers when the economy suddenly enters recession and afterwards when conditions are becoming extremely difficult and consequently capital controls are imposed on the economy.

Book part
Publication date: 7 October 2010

Feng Yang, Yanfang Yuan, Liang Liang and Zhimin Huang

The study on output allocative efficiency considering the emission trading is meaningful to allocate emission quota in order to promote production efficiency of industry. This…

Abstract

The study on output allocative efficiency considering the emission trading is meaningful to allocate emission quota in order to promote production efficiency of industry. This chapter studies the output allocation problem with constraints to profit and pollution goals, and proposes three types of output allocative efficiency measures, including the comprehensive output allocative efficiency, the profit-oriented output allocative efficiency based on pollution constraint, and the pollution-oriented output allocative efficiency based on profit constraint, which aim to maximize the total profit and (or) minimize the total pollution. The proposed measures are used to evaluate the output allocative efficiencies of 32 paper mills along the Huai River in China, and different parameters are tested with sensitivity analysis to examine the changes of optimal output combination. This chapter helps the enterprise to optimize the decision of production and helps the government to formulate a reasonable plan of pollution control and treatment.

Details

Applications in Multicriteria Decision Making, Data Envelopment Analysis, and Finance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-470-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 July 2004

Ornella Wanda Maietta and Vania Sena

This paper analyses the mechanisms through which profit-sharing schemes may induce debt constrained firms to improve technical efficiency over time to guarantee positive profits…

Abstract

This paper analyses the mechanisms through which profit-sharing schemes may induce debt constrained firms to improve technical efficiency over time to guarantee positive profits. This hypothesis is first formalised in a partial equilibrium framework and then is tested on a sample of Italian traditional and cooperative firms. Technical efficiency change indexes are computed by DEA. These are regressed on a measure of finance constraints to analyse their impact on firms’ efficiency growth. The results support the hypothesis that a restriction in the availability of financial resources can affect positively the growth in efficiency in firms with profit-sharing schemes.

Details

Employee Participation, Firm Performance and Survival
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-114-9

Book part
Publication date: 4 December 2012

Emmanuel Mensah, Joshua Abor, A.Q.Q. Aboagye and Charles K.D. Adjasi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between banking sector efficiency and economic growth in Africa.Methodology/approach – The paper used the…

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between banking sector efficiency and economic growth in Africa.

Methodology/approach – The paper used the stochastic frontier approach stating the banking sector cost function as a Fourier flexible to estimate bank efficiency. We then used the Arellano–Bond GMM estimator to investigate the relationship between banking sector efficiency and economic growth. Annual data for banking sector financial statements were used in estimating efficiency scores.

Findings – The study found banking sector efficiency in the sample to be 69%. We also found a positive relationship between banking sector efficiency and economic growth, confirming the critical role banks play in the economy.

Practical implications – Banking sector efficiency score of 69% implies banks in Africa could save up to 31% of their total cost if they were to operate efficiently. Policy direction should therefore focus on policies and incentives that will improve the efficiency of the banking sector and hence economic growth. The study brings to the fore the importance of the qualitative aspect of the banking sector in allocating financial resources in the real economy. Focus in the real economy should not be only on the size of the banking system but also on the quality with which resources are allocated.

Originality/value of paper – This study is among the first dedicated solely to African countries. It does set the pace for future research in the area and also confirms in Africa the Schumpeterian hypothesis that the banking sector is key in allocating resources in the real economy.

Book part
Publication date: 23 February 2016

Matthew Clair

Given the increasing use of social media and other digital technologies, critical theorists argue that social life has become increasingly structured by neoliberal market logics…

Abstract

Purpose

Given the increasing use of social media and other digital technologies, critical theorists argue that social life has become increasingly structured by neoliberal market logics. Little research has empirically tested these claims.

Methodology/approach

This study is the first to examine whether the use of digital technologies in the avant-garde literary field is accompanied by neoliberal logics. Developing a cultural logics approach to neoliberalism, which allows for the identification of the independent logics of entrepreneurship, market-faith, profit-maximization, efficiency, and individualism, I draw on archival data and interviews with editors and writers to explore the relationship between digital technologies and neoliberalism.

Findings

Editors and writers legitimate some neoliberal logics and reject others. Entrepreneurship and efficiency are strongly legitimated. Profit-maximization is generally rejected. Market-faith and individualism are legitimated differently by editors and writers who occupy different positions within the field, drawing attention to the importance of field position, organizational affiliation, and career exhaustion in the use of digital technologies in the avant-garde literary world. Many of these findings are surprising given the historically non-economic orientation of the field.

Research implications

Future research should explore neoliberal logics in other aspects of literary production and in other social domains.

Originality/value

This study provides a novel approach to the study of neoliberal logics as well as their relationship to digital technologies. Such an approach complements recent agendas in economic sociology and contributes to debates about the relationship between new technologies and capitalism.

Details

Communication and Information Technologies Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-785-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 12 November 2010

Olli Kuivalainen, Sanna Sundqvist and John W. Cadogan

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to study how dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (competitive aggressiveness, proactiveness and risk taking) affect international…

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to study how dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (competitive aggressiveness, proactiveness and risk taking) affect international performance in competitive and technology-intensive international environments.

Methodology/approach – To address the research questions, structural equation modelling is applied to Finnish survey data (N=271).

Findings – Our findings reveal that the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation are differentially related to international performance, and that their effect is contingent on moderating variables.

Research limitations – One limitation is the use of cross-sectional data as it limits the possibility of drawing strong conclusions from the development of the relationships between the different constructs. Also the fact that the study was conducted in a single-country setting is a limitation.

Practical implications – Results indicate that entrepreneurial behaviour is of importance for international business managers. However, results imply that prior to striving for proactive behaviour, competitive aggressiveness and venturesome risk taking managers should study their international market environments carefully and truly understand the nature of these turbulent markets, as in many occasions strong emphasis on entrepreneurial behaviour did not contribute positively to the international performance indicators, such as increasing sales and profits.

Originality/value of the chapter – Present study extends the works of Zahra and Garvis (2000), Lumpkin and Dess (2001) and Wiklund and Shepherd (2005), for example, by (a) applying entrepreneurial orientation on international business, (b) examining the effects of different dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation on a firm's international performance and (c) extending the research of the role of moderating effects on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance.

Details

Reshaping the Boundaries of the Firm in an Era of Global Interdependence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-088-0

Book part
Publication date: 24 March 2021

Katherine K. Chen and Victor Tan Chen

This volume explores an expansive array of organizational imaginaries, or understandings of organizational possibilities, with a focus on how collectivist-democratic organizations…

Abstract

This volume explores an expansive array of organizational imaginaries, or understandings of organizational possibilities, with a focus on how collectivist-democratic organizations offer alternatives to conventional for-profit managerial enterprises. These include worker and consumer cooperatives and other enterprises that, to varying degrees, (1) emphasize social values over profit; (2) are owned not by shareholders but by workers, consumers, or other stakeholders; (3) employ democratic forms of managing their operations; and (4) have social ties to the organization based on moral and emotional commitments. The contributors to this volume examine how these enterprises generate solidarity among members, network with other organizations and communities, contend with market pressures, and enhance their larger organizational ecosystems. In this introductory paper, the authors put forward an inclusive organizational typology whose continuums account for four key sources of variation – values, ownership, management, and social relations – and argue that enterprises fall between these two poles of the collectivist-democratic organization and the for-profit managerial enterprise. Drawing from this volume’s empirical studies, the authors situate these market actors within fields of competition and contestation shaped not just by state action and legal frameworks, but also by the presence or absence of social movements, labor unions, and meta-organizations. This typology challenges conventional conceptualizations of for-profit managerial enterprises as ideals or norms, reconnects past models of organizing among marginalized communities with contemporary and future possibilities, and offers activists and entrepreneurs a sense of the wide range of possibilities for building enterprises that differ from dominant models.

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Organizational Imaginaries: Tempering Capitalism and Tending to Communities through Cooperatives and Collectivist Democracy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-989-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 25 August 2014

Hajer Zarrouk

The financial crisis at the end of the past decade resulted in downturns in stock markets and the collapse of many large banks around the world. It encouraged economists worldwide…

Abstract

Purpose

The financial crisis at the end of the past decade resulted in downturns in stock markets and the collapse of many large banks around the world. It encouraged economists worldwide to consider alternative financial solutions. Attention has been focused on Islamic finance as an alternative model. This study examines the performance of Islamic banks in 10 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries over the period of 2005–2010.

Methodology/Approach

It is an intertemporal analysis where it compares the profitability, liquidity, risk and solvency, and efficiency of 43 Islamic banks before and after the financial crisis.

Findings

The results show that the financial crisis negatively affected the performance of Islamic banks. The profitability and liquidity of Islamic banks in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries decreased drastically after the crisis. Islamic banks in non-GCC countries were efficient and more profitable compared to GCC countries. However, they took excessive risk during and after the financial crisis. The chapter concludes that Islamic financial institutions are not immune from the effects of the global recession.

Originality/Value

The financial crisis has led to a greater recognition of the importance of liquidity risks. Reinforcing regulations and setting up a strong liquidity management framework are needed to improve the Islamic financial industry.

Details

The Developing Role of Islamic Banking and Finance: From Local to Global Perspectives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-817-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 April 2022

W. Chad Carlos and Shon R. Hiatt

This paper examines how cultural holes that exist at the intersection of institutional fields influence the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Through an exploration

Abstract

This paper examines how cultural holes that exist at the intersection of institutional fields influence the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Through an exploration of physician-founded ambulatory surgery centers in the United States, we examine how the presence of cultural holes presented doctors with alternative beliefs, values, and practices to overcome the cultural constraints around entrepreneurship within the medical profession. In doing so, this study extends cultural entrepreneurship research by bringing cultural holes to the forefront, empirically showing how they facilitate entrepreneurial action and proposing other contexts where cultural holes may affect entrepreneurial actions and outcomes.

Details

Advances in Cultural Entrepreneurship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-207-2

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 22 September 2009

Peter G. Klein and Lasse B. Lien

Ronald Coase's landmark 1937 article, “The Nature of the Firm,” framed the study of organizational economics for decades. Coase asked three fundamental questions: Why do firms…

Abstract

Ronald Coase's landmark 1937 article, “The Nature of the Firm,” framed the study of organizational economics for decades. Coase asked three fundamental questions: Why do firms exist? What determines their boundaries? How should firms be organized internally? To answer the first question, Coase famously appealed to “the costs of using the price mechanism,” what we now call transaction costs or contracting costs, a concept that blossomed in the 1970s and 1980s into an elaborate theory of why firms exist (Alchian & Demsetz, 1972; Williamson, 1975, 1979, 1985; Klein, Crawford, & Alchian, 1978; Grossman & Hart, 1986). The second question has generated a huge literature in industrial economics, strategy, corporate finance, and organization theory. “Why,” as Coase (1937, pp. 393–394) put it, “does the entrepreneur not organize one less transaction or one more?” In Williamson's (1996, p. 150) words, “Why can't a large firm do everything that a collection of small firms can do and more?” As Coase recognized in 1937, the transaction-cost advantages of internal organization are not unlimited, and firms have a finite “optimum” size and shape. Describing these limits in detail has proved challenging, however.1

Details

Economic Institutions of Strategy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-487-0

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