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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of intellectual capital (IC) and its components (human, structural, relational and innovation capitals) on financial performance (FP) at different life cycle stages.

The study uses the data from Chinese manufacturing listed companies during 2014–2018. The modified value added intellectual coefficient (MVAIC) model is employed as the measurement of IC efficiency. Finally, multiple regression analysis is used to test the research hypotheses.

This study shows that the impact of IC on FP is different across life cycle stages. Specifically, at the birth stage, human capital (HC), structural capital (SC) and innovation capital (INC) have a positive impact on FP. At the growth and mature stages, all IC components contribute to FP improvement. HC and SC play an important role at the revival stage, while only HC positively affects FP at the decline stage.

The findings may help corporate managers to make optimal strategies to improve FP by effective utilization of IC resources in the complex and competitive business environment. Meanwhile, companies can invest in the core elements of IC at different stages of development, so as to maximize the contribution of IC to company value.

This is among the few studies to explore the impact of IC on FP of manufacturing listed companies in the Chinese context from the perspective of life cycle. It also makes novel contributions in measuring IC by the MVAIC model with the inclusion of relational capital and INC that are largely neglected in previous research.

The aim of this study is to provide a holistic analysis of all possible maritime business logistics processes related to import and export shipments in a fuzzy environment through a case study of a maritime logistics company based on the as-is and to-be models within business process management (BPM).

The analyses considered the following perspectives: (i) in the stage of the process identification, the definition of the problem was carried out; (ii) in the stage of the process discovery, ocean department was divided into ocean export/import operation departments; ocean export/import operation were divided into freight collect/prepaid operation processes; ocean export/import logistics activity groups were broken down into sub-activities for freight collect/prepaid operation; the logistics activity groups and their sub-activities were defined; each sub-activity as either operation or documentation process group was classified; the durations of sub-activities were evaluated by decision-makers (DMs) as fuzzy sets (FSs); the monthly total jobs activities were estimated by DMs as FSs; the applied to monthly jobs activities of total shipments were estimated by DMs as FSs; the durations of each sub-activities were aggregated; the duration of the logistics activity groups and the sub-activities for per job were calculated; the cumulative workload of logistics activity groups and sub-activities were calculated; the duration of sub-activities for per job as operation or documentation departments were calculated, (iii) in the stage of the process analysis, cumulative ocean export/import workload as operation or documentation for freight collect/prepaid were calculated; duration of activity groups and sub-activities for per job as operation or documentation were calculated; cumulative workload activity groups and sub-activities as operation or documentation were calculated, (iv) in the stage of the process redesign, cumulative workload, process cycle time as operation and documentation group and required labor force were calculated; the process cycle time of the theoretical, the as-is model and the to-be model were calculated: (i) the theoretical minimum process cycle time without resource were calculated by the critical path method (CPM), (ii) the process cycle time of the as-is model perspective with the 1 person resource constraint and (iii) the process cycle time of the to-be model perspective with the 2-person resource constraint were calculated by the resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) method.

The methodology for analyzing the ocean department operation process was successfully implemented in a real-life case study. It is observed that the results of the to-be model can be applicable for the company. The BPM-proposed methodology is applicable for the maritime logistics industry in the present study; however, it can be applied to other companies in maritime logistics as well as other industries.

This study contributes to research using BPM methodology in maritime logistics. This is the first study the logistics process analyses were carried out in terms of including all operation processes for a company. All processes were analyzed by using BPM methodology in maritime logistics. This study demonstrated the application of the BPM as-is and to-be models to maritime logistics. The as-is and the to-be models of the BPM methodology were applied in maritime logistics.

This methodology applied in this study can enable organizations operating in the time-urgent maritime logistics sector to manage their logistics processes more efficiently, increase customer satisfaction, reduce the risks of customer loss due to poor operational performance and increase profits in the long term. Through the use of these methodologies utilizing FSs, the CPM and the RCPSP methods, this study is expected to make contributions to the BPM literature and provide original insights into the field. Furthermore, this study will undertake a comprehensive analysis of maritime logistics with respect to BPM to deliver noteworthy contributions to the maritime logistics literature and provide original perspectives into the field.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a dating system for the Italian residential real estate market from 1927 to 2019 and investigate its interaction with credit and business cycles.

To detect the local turning point of the Italian residential real estate market, the authors apply the honeycomb cycle developed by Janssen et al. (1994) based on the joint analysis of house prices and the number of transactions. To this end, the authors use a unique historical reconstruction of house price levels by Baffigi and Piselli (2019) in addition to data on transactions.

This study confirms the validity of the honeycomb model for the last four decades of the Italian housing market. In addition, the results show that the severe downsizing of the housing market is largely associated with business and credit contraction, certainly contributing to exacerbating the severity of the recession. Finally, preliminary evidence suggests that whenever a price bubble occurs, it is coincident with the start of phase 2 of the honeycomb cycle.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the honeycomb approach has been tested over such a long historical period and compared to the cyclic features of financial and real aggregates. In addition, even if the honeycomb cycle is not a model for detecting booms and busts in the housing market, the preliminary evidence might suggest a role for volume/transactions in detecting housing market bubbles.

To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined credit cycle synchronizations in the context of emerging economies. Studying the credit cycles synchronization across BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries is crucial given the magnitude of trade and financial integration among member counties. The enormity of the trade and financial linkages among BRICS countries and growth spillovers from emerging economies to advanced and low-income countries provide the rationale and motivation to study the synchronization of credit cycles across BRICS.

The study investigates the credit cycles coherence across BRICS economies from 1996Q2 to 2020Q4. The synchronization analysis is done using the noval wavelet approach. The analysis examines not only the coherence but also the extent of credit cycle synchronization that varies across frequencies and over time among different pairs of nations.

The authors find heterogeneity in the credit cycles' synchronization among the member nations. China and India are very much in sync with the other BRICS countries. China's high-frequency credit cycle mostly leads the other countries' credit cycles before the global financial crisis and shows a mix of lead/lag relationships post-financial crisis. Interestingly, most of the time, India's low-frequency credit cycles lead the member countries' credit cycles, and Brazil's low frequency credit cycle lag behind the other BRICS countries' credit cycles, except for Russia. The results are crucial from the macroprudential policymaker's perspective.

The empirical design is applicable to a similar set of countries and may not directly fit each emerging economy.

The findings will help understand the marked deepening of trade, technology, investment and financial interdependence across the world. BRICS acronym requires no introduction, but such analysis may help understand the interaction at the monetary policy level.

This is the first study that highlights the need to understand the credit variable interactions for BRICS nations.

Creating a mindset for research, including the development of professional research skills and critical thinking, is of the utmost importance in preparing students for the business world. To help faculty with this mindset, we discuss novel approaches for incorporating professional research and interactions into the undergraduate classroom, although the recommendations can apply to the entire curriculum. We describe three scenarios where our recommendations might apply – research/financial, tax, and accounting information system courses. Using a professional accounting research course and a financial course as examples, we start out broadly discussing a practitioner-coauthored professional case study approach that is applicable to any course, at any level. We then present a capstone undergraduate tax research course followed by an introduction of a specific project in an accounting information systems course. We include suggested syllabi, projects, and assessment rubrics throughout the discussion.

This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value (FV) with the moderating role of the organizational life cycle (OLC).

To fill the missing link of the CSR–FV relationship in the life cycle of the firms, this study divided the firm life cycle into five stages and tested the impact of FV on CSR in each phase. This study uses the ordinary least squares, generalized method of moments method with the dynamic panel data model of 225 Vietnamese listed companies for the period from 2014 to 2018.

This study’s findings confirm the positive effect of CSR on FV. Besides, in most of the stages of the firm life cycle, FV positively affects CSR practices, and this effect is highest in the growth stage. In the decline phase, the relationship between FV and CSR is complex depending on the resources and ability of companies. This study’s results are trusted through many robustness tests.

This research does not include all financial, insurance and investment firms to measure the CSR–FV relationship with OLC as moderating role. Further research might conduct in the larger sample or using data in cross countries enhance the evidence for the given relationship.

This research contributes empirical evidence to the scientific literature on CSR, FV and OLC, which would be tremendously helpful for policymakers and business owners to enhance company efficiency.

Bootstrapping is a practitioner-based term adopted in entrepreneurship to describe the techniques employed in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to minimise the need for external funding by securing resources at little or no cost and applying strategies to effectively use resources. Working capital management (WCM) is a term used in financial management to define a set of practices used to manage business resources, including cash management. This paper explores the overlap and divergence between these two disciplinary distinct concepts.

A dual methodology is employed. First, the usage of the two terms in prior literature is analysed and synthesised. Second, the study uses factor analysis to explore how bootstrapping practices described by owners of 167 established MSMEs relate to the components of WCM in financial management.

The factor analysis identifies two main bootstrapping practices employed by MSMEs: (1) delaying payments and owner-related bootstrapping and (2) customer-related bootstrapping. Delaying payments is an integral practice in trade payables management and customer-related bootstrapping includes practices that are integral to trade receivables management. Therefore, links between bootstrapping practices and WCM practices are firmly established.

The study is not without limitations. Based on cross-sectional evidence for established firms in Ireland only, future studies could explore cross-country longitudinal panel data to fully examine life cycle and sectoral effects, as well as other external shocks (for example, COVID-19) on bootstrapping and WCM practices. This study does not explain why some factors (for example, joint utilisation and inventory management) are present in some bootstrapping studies and not in others; further case study research might help explain this. Finally, changes in the business environment facing start-ups and established enterprise, including increased digitalisation, online trading, self-employment, remote hub working and sustainability, offer new avenues for bootstrapping research.

This is the first study to comprehensively explore the conceptual and empirical links between bootstrapping and WCM. This study will enable researchers and practitioners in these two distinct disciplines to learn from each other. Accounting researchers and practitioners can broaden their understanding of how WCM “works” in MSME settings. Similarly, entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners can deepen their understanding of how bootstrapping can be adopted by businesses to manage resources effectively.

This exploratory study aims to explore the operational and financial constraints faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper highlights the role of supply chain finance (SCF) in the uncertain business environment caused by the pandemic.

The study adopts an inductive approach and conducts convergent interviews with 32 SME owners and bank officials who are associated with SME-related financial transactions. The analysis of the interview data has been done through a grounded theory approach.

The findings portray four key themes representing the operational and financial constraints faced by SMEs during the pandemic. Further, the study identifies four drivers of SCF adoption among SMEs, including capital constraints, high inventory turnover cycle time, high order fulfilment cycle time and long debtors’ collection period.

The study provides various insights to the managers and owners of SMEs to deal with the economic crisis and eliminate the financial pressure created by the pandemic. The study enlightens the policymakers about the struggles of the SMEs during the economic turmoil created by the pandemic and guides them to introduce the relevant policies to resolve their problems.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to identify the factors driving the SMEs to adopt SCF due to the economic chaos created by the pandemic. Also, the study theoretically contributes to the literature by developing a theoretical framework for SCF adoption based on grounded theory.

For close to two decades, the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) has been preparing to launch a second monetary union within the ECOWAS region. This study aims to determine the impact such a unionised monetary regime will have on financial stability as represented by the nonperforming loan ratios of Ghana in a counterfactual framework.

This study models nonperforming loan ratios as dependent on the monetary policy rate and the business cycle. The study then used historical data to estimate the parameters of the nonperforming loan ratio response function using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The estimated parameters are further used to estimate the impact of several counterfactual unionised monetary policy rates on the nonperforming loan ratios and its volatility of Ghana. As robustness check, the Least Absolute Shrinkage Selection Operator (LASSO) regression is also used to estimate the nonperforming loan ratios response function and to predict nonperforming loans under the counterfactual unionised monetary policy rates.

The results of the counterfactual study reveals that the apparent cost of monetary unification is much less than supposed with a monetary union likely to dampen volatility in non-performing loans in Ghana. As such, the WAMZ members should increase the pace towards monetary unification.

The paper contributes to the existing literature by explicitly modelling nonperforming loan ratios as dependent on monetary policy and the business cycle. The study also settles the debate on the financial stability cost of a monetary union due to the nonalignment of business cycles and economic structures.