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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the macroeconomic condition on investment-cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) of Indian firms and examine whether the effect of macroeconomic condition on ICFS depends on the size and group affiliation of the firm.

An empirical investigation is conducted using a dynamic panel data model or more specifically system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique.

Empirical findings postulate that the availability of cash flow influences the investment decisions which depicts that Indian manufacturing firms are internally as well as externally financially constrained. This study finds that good economic condition (period of high GDP growth rate) reduces the ICFS, although this effect is stronger for small-sized and standalone firms than the large-sized and business group affiliated firms. The authors find that macroeconomic condition has a positive and significant effect on investment decisions.

This study has considered only the non-financial sector. The future research could explore the effect of macroeconomic condition on ICFS might be affected by firm other characteristics such as firm age and firm capital structure.

The government should provide loan on the low rate to the small-sized firms and standalone firms because it is very difficult for these firms to finance their investment during the bad economic condition (period of low high GDP growth rate).

This study contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the impact of the macroeconomic condition on ICFS as well as investment decisions of the Indian manufacturing firms, which is an unexplored issue from an emerging market perspective. To the best of my knowledge, this is a first-ever study which explores the effect of macroeconomic condition on investment decisions with respect to business group affiliation and firm size.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of financial and technical education of chief executive officer (CEO) on investment–cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) of Indian manufacturing firms.

The study uses the dynamic panel data model and more specifically, the system-generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to investigate the effect of CEOs' education on ICFS of Indian manufacturing firms during the period 1998–1999 to 2016–2017.

The study shows that financial (technical) education of CEOs does (not) affect ICFS. The results explain that the role of the CEO's education in ICFS is highly significant during the crisis period. The robustness test depicts that the influence of financial education on ICFS is less (more) for group-affiliated and large-sized firms (stand-alone and small-sized firms). Further, the CEO's education is significantly associated with corporate investment decisions.

Due to the unavailability of the CEO's compensation data for the selected sample, future research could explore the impact of CEO's education with respect to CEO's compensation on ICFS.

First, the authors find that financially educated CEOs affect ICFS; therefore, firms should take care of CEO's education during recruitment of CEOs. Second, lending agencies should also consider the educational background of the CEO before approval of funding to make it safe. Third, investors should keep in mind the educational background of the CEO for the growth of their investment as it may be easier for financially educated CEOs to borrow from the market at the time of requirement.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence through analyzing the impact of a CEO's education on ICFS in the context of India. This study is very unique in itself as it uses the sample of manufacturing sectors of India, which are growing very fast and attracting global investors to create a global hub of manufacturing in India. This study also considers different types of education such as financial and technical education of CEOs in the context of a developing economy like India. This study made its findings robust across company characteristics and periods based on the financial crisis.

Under the Australian Fair Work Act 2009, employees can request flexible working arrangements (FWAs) from their employers. Provision of FWAs is costly to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They can, however, use FWAs to achieve competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to investigate strategic positions associated with FWA availability in SMEs. It also examines the effects of size and industry sector on FWA availability in SMEs.

With a sample of 1,541 cases comprising micro, small and medium firms from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Business Longitudinal Database, binary regression models were used to analyse the relationships between FWAs and the independent variables: strategic position, firm-size and industry of operation.

Flexible working hours, flexible leave arrangements and roster/shift selection were used by SMEs pursuing a strategy focussed on human resources. In contrast, a strategic focus on cost correlated negatively with paid parental leave and flexible rosters/shifts. SMEs pursuing innovation were unlikely to provide flexible leave while job sharing was less visible in SMEs focussing on quality. An industry effect was evident with working from home unlikely for firms in industry sectors where employees had to be present at work. Micro- and small-sized firms were less likely than medium firms to provide FWA to their employees.

SMEs with competitive positions based on human capital could use FWAs to attract the required skills. Employees in SMEs that compete on cost may benefit from FWAs in the form of temporary and casual positions.

The purpose of this paper is to test the difference among foreign and domestic cosmetics firms in terms of types of strategic innovations they chose in the Chinese market, and the difference between domestic large-sized cosmetics firms and cosmetics small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) about types of strategic innovation they choose in the Chinese market.

The independent-sample t-test was used to compare foreign and domestic cosmetics firms and domestic SMEs and large-sized cosmetics firms.

Foreign and domestic cosmetics firms should not choose the same type of strategic innovations, and it also showed that Chinese domestic large-sized firms and SMEs should not choose the same types of strategic innovations.

China is the exclusive place of focus. Only 19 types of strategic innovations were analyzed. There may be other variables that have not been addressed in the study.

Though other large-sized companies achieved considerable profitability or growth by using some types of strategic innovations, the same types may not contribute to the same profitability or growth for SMEs. Although foreign cosmetics companies had great growth and profitability in the Chinese market, domestic large-sized companies should not blindly follow them as their needs and situations are different.

From this t-test analysis, it is clear that foreign cosmetics firms and domestic cosmetics firms chose different types of strategic innovation in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, domestic large-sized cosmetics firms and SMEs chose different types of strategic innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if capital structure decisions of small- and medium-sized Portuguese firms are in accordance with the predictions of dynamic trade-off theory, more precisely, the speed of adjustment of short-term debt (STD) and long-term debt (LTD) towards the respective target debt ratios.

Based on two samples of Portuguese firms, 1,377 small-sized firms and 811 medium-sized firms, dynamic estimators were used for the treatment of data obtained from the Amadeus database for the period 2007-2011.

The results indicate that small- and medium-sized firms adjust their STD and LTD ratios towards the respective target ratios. Small- and medium-sized firms present a high-speed adjustment towards the target STD ratio, suggesting that both types of firm face costs of deviating from the target capital structure, which are, probably, greater than the costs of adjustment associated with STD. However, considering the distance from the target ratio as a determinant of the adjustment speed, the results show the predominance of the negative effect of the costs of adjustment on capital structure adjustment speeds.

The results obtained for the speed of adjustment of STD and LTD, in a recession context, show that for small firms and medium-sized firms, mainly for the former, the costs of external market transactions are prohibitively high, slowing the speed of adjustment towards the target capital structure.

This study aims to investigate the market timing strategy in different market conditions (i.e. up, down, normal and in-financial-crisis situation) in the emerging market of Pakistan over the period 1995 to 2015. Furthermore, this study tests the validity of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and Fama and French model.

This study considers monthly stock returns of 167 firms and constructs six different portfolios on the basis of different size and book to market ratio. The Treynor and Mazuy model is used to capture the market timing strategy.

The results indicate evidence of the market timing in normal market conditions. However, there is less supportive evidence of market timing in up-market, down-market and in-financial-crisis situations. This study also confirms the validity of the capital asset pricing model and Fama and French three-factor model with strong support of value premium and size premium in the stock market.

The findings of this study are helpful to companies in estimating the cost of issuing equity more accurately. The investors can use market timing to make their investment in a more better and profitable manner.

Unlike other previous studies, this study considers an extended period to test the validity of the capital asset pricing model and Fama and French model. In addition, this study is novel in testing the marketing timing of the firms in the context of emerging economy of Pakistan.

Most research on networks of exporting SMEs has been conducted in developed economies. The present paper aims to apply this concept to a developing economy arguing that there is a combination of internal firm factors (human and physical capital, social and management team networks) that will lead to higher (past) performance in terms of firm size given different contextual factors (such as institutions and supply chain complexity).

Ten SME case studies are analysed in the non‐traditional agricultural export (NTAE) sector in Ghana.

The findings suggest that performance is highest for those SMEs where the CEO has received tertiary level education and has export experience for over five years, which export directly (no use of traders), make extensive use of Ghana's export institutions, use export contracts and are members of SME associations.

Policy makers in Sub Saharan governments in general and Ghanaian government officials in particular can use these findings to focus their policy on these types of SMEs.

Whereas most research on networks of exporting SMEs has been conducted in developed economies, this paper seeks to apply this concept to a developing economy. Policy makers and officials in government can use the findings to focus their policy on the types of SMEs where performance is highest.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) from developing economies has increased sharply since the beginning of the 2000s. While most investment flows correspond to firms from large economies, small developing economies have also witnessed the increase of outward investment flows from their domestic companies. The literature on outward FDI (OFDI) from developing economies has focused mainly on large emerging countries, such as China and India. In the case of small developing economies, for which there is scant empirical evidence, firms willing to invest abroad face a different business environment with several barriers such as a small domestic market to achieve economies of scale and a limited supply of specialised resources. In this setting, the purpose of this paper is to examine firm-level strategies and the home-country effects in a small developing economy.

A research case study is conducted through a representative sample of Costa-Rican firms investing abroad. Costa Rica makes a strong case since it stands out among small developing economies investing abroad in terms of both the number of operations and the amount of OFDI.

The main findings are: outward investment is not only for large and mature firms, as medium and small-sized firms are actively investing abroad; most firms pursue a market-seeking strategy; the benefits for the firm and the home country are stronger when companies follow a clear outward investment strategy; and there is a positive relationship between international trade and OFDI.

This paper provides novel empirical evidence to better understand an emerging trend in OFDI: in an increasingly integrated world economy, even SMEs from small developing economies are compelled to internationalise their operations in order to compete successfully.

Technology has profoundly transformed the international business environment, particularly regarding the flow of information and the way in which knowledge is acquired and shared. Yet, the extent of this transformation is still underappreciated. The purpose of this paper is to examine how small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner/founders acquire and utilize knowledge for internationalization via internet-enabled platforms.

The empirical analysis draws on multiple case study methodology to examine 13 Australian SME owner/founders and the knowledge they acquire from utilization of internet-enabled platforms.

The analysis reveals four differing types of internet-enabled experiences: “technical internet-enabled experiences,” “operational internet-enabled experiences,” “functional internet-enabled experiences,” and “immersive internet-enabled experiences.” The findings indicate that internet-enabled experiences can generate both explicit and tacit forms of knowledge for the pre, early and later phases of internationalization.

The findings provide a structured approach by allowing SMEs to “plot” themselves against the classification of internet-enabled experiences to denote their level of technological involvement, and for discerning the types of knowledge that can be acquired. The findings are particularly helpful for owner/founders, highlighting that internet-enabled platforms are affecting the ways in which knowledge can be acquired and applied to international businesses processes.

The findings extend the conventional notion of knowledge acquisition for international business by highlighting how information and knowledge can be acquired via internet-enabled platforms. The findings lay the necessary groundwork for building an evidence base and theoretically extending the concept of knowledge acquisition via internet-enabled platforms.

The purpose of this paper is to study the status of studies on capital structure determinants in the past 40 years. This paper highlights the major gaps in the literature on determinants of capital structure and also aims to raise specific questions for future research.

The prominence of research is assessed by studying the year of publication and region, level of economic development, firm size, data collection methods, data analysis techniques and theoretical models of capital structure from the selected papers. The review is based on 167 papers published from 1972 to 2013 in various peer-reviewed journals. The relationship of determinants of capital structure is analyzed with the help of meta-analysis.

Major findings show an increase of interest in research on determinants of capital structure of the firms located in emerging markets. However, it is observed that these regions are still under-examined which provides more scope for research both empirical and survey-based studies. Majority of research studies are conducted on large-sized firms by using secondary data and regression-based models for the analysis, whereas studies on small-sized firms are very meager. As majority of the research papers are written only at the organizational level, the impact of leverage on various industries is yet to be examined. The review highlights the major determinants of capital structure and their relationship with leverage. It also reveals the dominance of pecking order theory in explaining capital structure of firms theoretically as well as statistically.

The paper covers a considerable period of time (1972-2013). Among very few review papers on capital structure research, to the best of authors’ knowledge; this is the first review to identify what is missing in the literature on the determinants of capital structure while offering recommendations for future studies. It also synthesize the findings of empirical studies on determinants of capital structure statistically.