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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of structural economic vulnerability of developing countries on their public indebtedness.

The authors perform the analysis by the use of fixed effects technique where the standard errors are corrected by the Driscoll-Kraay (1998) method. The panel covers 96 developing countries over the period 1980-2008.

The results suggest evidence of a “U-shaped” relationship between the structural vulnerability and the total public debt in developing countries. More particularly in low-income countries (LICs), the structural vulnerability appears to be a strong determinant of the build-up of the total public debt.

It would be interesting to extend the research to small Island developing states. Indeed, the authors do not include this group of countries because of lack of data, especially on the variable “quality of governance” for almost all countries of this group. Accordingly, the research should be extended to such countries as well as these data are available.

The implications of the study is that international institutions, including those of the Bretton Woods should take into account the structural vulnerability of developing countries when designing development policies, especially the ones related to debt sustainability in developing countries and particularly LICs.

The fact of the international institutions to take into account the structural vulnerability in the design of international development policy, especially those related to debt issues will have major implications on the macroeconomic policy design by these developing countries as well as on poverty reduction.

The added value of this paper is to use recent data on structural vulnerability to analyse the effect of the latter on public indebtdeness of developing countries.

Forecasting inflation is a major concern for economists and businessmen. Most researchers have relied upon statistical techniques with their stringent data assumptions and low accuracy rates to predict changes in inflation, but only a few have investigated how neural networks can improve forecasts. Here, we show the results of Consumer Price Index (CPI) forecasts from an artificial neural network using leading economic indicator data in the USA. Results show that the neural network predicts the level of the CPI with a high degree of accuracy.

There is abundant evidence that innovative work practices (IWPs) of various kinds, such as teams, quality control circles, no-layoff policies, job rotation, and employee ownership, have spread rapidly in developed market economies during the past thirty years or so. Between 1983 and 1993, Freeman, Kleiner, and Cheri (2000) report survey evidence that the number of nonmonetary incentive programs offered by firms increased by 500% in the United States. Similar trends appear to be at work in other countries including the United Kingdom, Japan (e.g., Kato, 2000), Denmark (e.g., Datta Gupta, & Eriksson, 2004), and Finland (e.g., Kalmi & Kauhanen, 2008). Whereas the corresponding evidence for transition economies is much slimmer, the available evidence is also suggestive that such practices are limited though spreading.¹ Unsurprisingly, both theoretical and an empirical literature have appeared to examine the impact of IWPs on both business performance and employee outcomes. As different scholars from diverse fields in the broad area of industrial relations have applied varying approaches to explore several research questions, those literatures have grown rapidly. At the same time, while it is clear that analytical work of the kind is becoming commonplace for advanced economies, work that focuses on developing and transition economies is very slim. As it is important to determine whether findings for firms in advanced market economies carry over to other economies, the first contribution of this chapter is to extend the geographical coverage of the empirical literature. This we do by assembling and analyzing new survey data set for a large Croatian manufacturing firm with our chapter perhaps representing one of the first such investigations for a former communist economy.

Ownership concentration (OC) is an essential element of corporate governance (CG) for a firm's performance. The purpose of the study is to investigate the connectivity of OC (particularly considering promoters' holdings) with the firm's financial distress (FD) of non-financial firms (NFF) listed in India.

The panel data regression analysis (applying quantile regression for the 25th quantile, 50th quantile, and 75th quantile) is employed to inspect the connection between OC (promoters' holdings) and the firm's FD (computed using Altman Z-scores). The data for a cross-section of 78 listed firms (non-financial) in India, considering the time frame of five years (2015–16 to 2019–20), are cumulated for the study. The leverage (leverage ratio), competition (Lerner index), valuation (mcap), sales, and profitability (net profit margin) variables are incorporated as control variables.

The study's findings reveal that OC (promoters' holdings) positively relates to the firm's FD because OC negatively associates with Zscore (as Zscore is inverse to FD). Additionally, the non-linear association also indicates positive connectivity of OC and Zscore (a U shape association), alternatively showing a negative non-linear connection of OC (promoters' holdings) with the firm's FD (inverse U shape association). This result implies that initially, promoters' holdings enhance the firm's FD, and after a maximum threshold, promoters' holdings start reducing FD in non-financial listed firms in India. The findings also show an interesting aspect of OC at different quantiles. The results indicate that a higher OC is powerful when distress is both high and low to achieve stability. Conversely, less OC among promoters is required to achieve such stability when the distress is medium (50th quantile).

The scope of the study is limited to NFFs listed in India, which is one of the limitations of the present paper. Hence, this does not provide evidence for financial firms. Only one aspect of OC (promoters' holdings) is considered in the current study. However, OC can also be explored for FD in terms of institutional and retail investors. These limitations can be considered as the present study's future scope.

Most of the studies regarding OC have explored the broader aspect of OC. However, the current study has narrowed the OC to promoters' holdings. No other study exclusively examines the association of OC (as promoters' holdings) with the firm's FD. Promoters' holdings have a more significant role in a firm's CG practices because of direct involvement of promoters' holdings in business activities. Thus, the present study's findings have notable implications for managers, policymakers, and investors concerned with the financial health of firms.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of the drachma's replacement by the euro on the quality of accounting information published by Greek listed firms.

The authors examined how the adoption of the euro currency impacted on the timeliness of income recognition and the relevance of accounting information during the pre and post euro adoption periods using a sample of 176 listed firms over the period 1995‐2008.

Convincing evidence was found that the euro contributed to a decrease on the value relevance of accounting information, an increase in the conservatism of financial statements and finally a reduction in the earnings management behavior of managers.

By considering the impact of the common currency on the quality of accounting information, analysts are more able to provide accurate estimates on firms' future prospects, thus contributing to less information asymmetries among stock market participants.

The results could be proved useful to regulators since they indicate that financial accounting information prepared after the adoption of the euro currency has inferior value relevance. Therefore, if regulators want to develop an efficient financial market they need to address this effect by developing relative legislation that promotes the quality of accounting information.

The majority of studies on the issue of the euro have focused on matters of macroeconomic stability, corporate investments and valuation and market integration. No research until now has studied the impact of euro adoption on the quality of accounting information and how accounting quality is perceived by market participants during the pre and post‐euro adoption periods.

Tourist destinations are constantly changing products, evolving as per the controls exerted by the stakeholders. The study aims to map the pattern of tourism development and identify the strategies formed at the destination over a seven-decade period for a state as a unit of analysis.

The paper evaluates tourism development through the tourism area life cycle (TALC) model and uses Mintzberg's strategy analysis process to identify strategies. The study involves time series analysis, pattern matching and explanation-building techniques. The TALC is plotted for the number of tourist arrivals from 1947 to 2019, and strategies are mapped for each stage.

The TALC shows a cycle-recycle pattern of tourism development. The research revealed several strategies at different stages. Both the central and state governments and entrepreneurs, distinctively and in conjunction, have formed strategies. The pattern shows the period of piecemeal and global strategic changes contributing to tourism development.

The research unearths the strategies that drive the development curves of TALC, emphasising the integration of TALC with other theories. The research also assesses the strategy formed in the pre-tourism stage.

The research brings to light the use of TALC as a strategic road-mapping tool. In addition, the study emphasises the significance of global and piecemeal strategic periods and stakeholder's regulatory and operational roles.

The research uses a unique methodology that maps the strategies, periods of strategic changes and incremental strategies for each stage of TALC, along with identifying the stakeholders.

Leadership is an essential contributor to employee creative self-efficacy, and past research suggests a positive relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy. However, the relationship is complex and contingent upon moderating variables, and this research examines the moderating effect of role clarity by drawing on social exchange theory and social cognitive theory.

Data collected from a survey among 116 emergency room employees is used to test the research model using moderated ordinary least squares regression.

The results confirm a positive relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy and suggest a U-shaped relationship between role clarity and creative self-efficacy. Furthermore, role clarity positively moderates the relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy.

The sample used for this research mainly consisted of highly educated employees within a specific setting. Future research is needed to study if the relationships found in this research can be generalized to other organizational settings.

This research suggests that leaders can support employees' creative self-efficacy through servant leadership, particularly when coupled with high role clarity.

Rapidly changing work environments are characterized by decreased role clarity, so attention is needed to its moderating role on the relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy.

Only robot welding can give the quality and consistency of output demanded in welding the steel frame and aluminium alloy swing arm of the new range of Triumph motorcycles. Project engineer Ben Parry talks to Jack Hollingum.