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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of exogenous factors in the strategic performance of construction companies. A conceptual model is proposed where strategic performance is influenced by a two‐dimensional construct composed of market conditions and strategic alliances.

A questionnaire survey was administered to 73 construction companies. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test the hypothesis that strategic performance is impacted by exogenous factors. The individual constructs used in the study passed the internal reliability test, all factor loadings were statistically significant at α=0.05, all goodness of fit indices consistently indicated a good fit, and the hypothesized path coefficient was large and significant at α=0.05.

The hypothesis was supported by the data and analysis. Indeed, macro‐economic, political, legal, socio‐cultural conditions and the level of competition and demand are expected to impact differentiation strategies, and market/project/partner selection strategies. The quality of the relationships with government agencies and clients is expected to influence client/project/market selection strategies, while the quality of the relationships with labor unions may affect the ability to differentiate by using innovative construction methods, materials and equipment.

It is likely that endogenous factors such as company resources, capabilities and project management competencies also impact strategic performance. But the study is confined only to the exogenous factors of market conditions and strategic alliances.

The findings of the study benefit construction company executives in that they make the executives more cognizant of the market environment and they draw the executives' attention to the importance of alliances with other parties. While market conditions are beyond the control of construction executives, relationships with other parties are somewhat within their sphere of influence.

Only a few studies have ever investigated non‐financial measures to assess the effectiveness of company strategies. Also, exogenous factors which are unavoidable in a project environment were also rarely discussed in the construction management literature. The originality of this study is that it uses non‐financial measures to assess the effects of exogenous factors on strategic performance.

The paper aims to revisit the topic of relative performance evaluation (RPE) of top management using a large panel of community banks.

The empirical tests for RPE utilized a two‐stage approach in a unique dataset of community banks executive turnover over a ten‐year period. This allowed the authors to better estimate the benchmark performance relative to which bank executives should be evaluated under RPE. Moreover, bank regulatory evaluations allowed the authors to control for the impact of poor governance.

The paper shows that penalizing executives for poor performance arising from economic downturns is not necessarily inconsistent with the theory. The empirical results indicate that weak downturn‐linked performance is strongly related to increased executive turnover. Furthermore, this relationship is more pronounced in better‐governed banks, which are more likely to engage in value‐enhancing disciplinary actions.

The analysis suggests that executive dismissals during adverse economic conditions are not necessarily a result of bad luck; rather, the analysis implies that bad times are informative about management quality.

The main practical implication is that both relative and absolute performance should be incorporated in the incentive structure of bank executives.

The paper shows that the assumptions used in prior RPE studies may not be applicable to top executives which could explain the inconsistency between the theory and the empirical evidence. Further, the finding that better governed firms are more likely to penalize management for bad exogenously driven performance is unique and strengthens the case that disciplinary actions amid adverse economic times may not be due to bad luck.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding the factors which affect the social interaction in the case of Facebook. Many authors point out the great potential of these networks for social interaction and as conduits of information. However, studies show that the topology of the network is disconnected, consisting of small sub-networks that make Facebook unsuitable for disseminating information. This situation has created the need to introduce exogenous factors, aimed at boosting and providing cohesion to the network structure. In this context, the authors test the following question: how exogenous and endogenous factors contribute to encouraging social interaction on Facebook.

For the analysis of social interaction on Facebook, a population consisting of all the followers of the walls of ten corporate social networks was used. From the total 269,424 users analyzed, a stratified sample of 132 followers was obtained and networks were built for each of them. The authors then proceeded to search for each follower’s friends and friends of friends to build the social network up to the fourth level, obtaining a total of 132 subnets with 1,628,074 links between them. To determine the impact of both exogenous and endogenous factors in the interaction of the network the authors performed a causal analysis.

The results obtained from this study provide empirical evidence on the adequacy of companies’ dynamization measures used and how exogenous and endogenous factors influence the social interaction on Facebook. Thus, the results show that exogenous factors, such as the activity of the community manager and the digital marketing investment in the network, do not have a significant effect on the interaction. On the other hand, endogenous factors, such as network density and clustering, have a positive effect on the trigger of social interaction between the followers. Therefore, companies must consider the importance of the structural factors that characterize network followers, such as density or clustering coefficient, to be able to interpret and optimize them to obtain higher levels of social interaction.

This is one of a few papers that examine interactions in social network sites (SNS), particularly in corporate network sites in Facebook. The results expose the importance for organizations to have reliable information on the patterns of interaction to properly manage the resources allocated for this purpose in SNS.

This study examines key adaptations that occurred in the Zimbabwean Results-Based Financing (RBF) programme between 2010 and 2017, locating the endogenous and exogenous factors that required adaptive response and the processes from which changes were made.

The study is based on a desk review and thematic analysis of 64 policy and academic literatures supplemented with 28 multi-stakeholder interviews.

The programme experienced substantive adaption between 2010 and 2017, demonstrating a significant level of responsiveness towards increasing efficiency as well as to respond to unforeseen factors that undermined RBF mechanisms. The programme was adaptive due to its phased design, which allowed revision competencies and responsive adaptation, which provide useful insights for other low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) settings where graduated scale-up might better meet contextualised needs. However, exogenous factors were often not systematically examined or reported in RBF evaluations, demonstrating that adaptation could have been better anticipated, planned, reported and communicated, especially if RBF is to be a more effective health system reform tool.

RBF is an increasingly popular health system reform tool in LMICs. However, there are questions about how exogenous factors affect RBF performance and acknowledgement that unforeseen endogenous programme design and implementation factors also greatly affect the performance of RBF. As a result, a better understanding of how RBF operates and adapts to programme level (endogenous) and exogenous (external) factors in LMICs is necessary.

The authors combine options logic with transaction cost economics to explain why firms maintain, divest or buy out their international joint ventures (IJVs). It is suggested that a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk makes a firm more likely to acquire an IJV but less likely to divest an IJV. The study also investigates how IJV age moderates the effects of a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk.

The study employs competing risks analyses to examine the drivers of different termination outcomes using a dataset consisting of 459 IJVs in the People's Republic of China, of which 110 were either acquired or divested by their foreign parent.

The study finds that changes in environmental risk and partner-related risk affect how firms terminate their IJVs in the People's Republic of China. Specifically, the authors find that the effect of exogenous and endogenous risk are more pronounced for the acquisition of IJVs than for the divestment of IJVs.

The study contributes to international marketing research by complementing options logic with transaction cost economics to provide a theoretical explanation of the different ways in which IJVs in the People's Republic of China are terminated.

IJVs continue to be an important yet often unstable method to serve international markets. Our findings increase managers' awareness of the effect that two important sources of risk may have on the termination of IJVs in the People's Republic of China.

The study provides novel insights into the effect that changes in exogenous and endogenous risk have on a firm's choice of termination mode drawing on novel data on the different ways in which foreign firms have terminated their IJVs in the Peoples' Republic of China.

The purpose of this paper is to show that market dynamics can significantly influence the lifecycle and value of a supply chain finance (SCF) arrangement.

Based on a review of scientific and trade literature, the authors construct a model of market dynamics for reverse factoring, a specific type of SCF arrangement. The authors assume that firms’ participation in a reverse factoring arrangement is determined by the direct benefits they can derive from it. The authors analyse the model by means of simulation in system dynamics.

The authors identify the following market factors as key for direct benefits: competition, interest rates, receivables volumes, and firms’ working capital goals. The authors find that reverse factoring can yield direct benefits for all supply chain participants, but that these benefits are highly sensitive to market conditions.

The model is stylized, but this study shows the need for further research on the dynamic aspects of SCF arrangements.

The authors show that supply chain actors should carefully consider the expected evolution of market factors when deciding on participation in a reverse factoring arrangement.

Existing research on SCF arrangements almost exclusively considers a static context, where market factors take fixed, known values. The authors provide the first study that links the direct benefits of SCF arrangements to dynamic, interacting market factors. The authors utilize system dynamics, a methodology well-suited to the analysis of such settings, to show that a comprehensive assessment of SCF arrangements cannot neglect the evolutionary perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, explore, rank the relative importance and determine the prevalent allocation response trends of the major construction risk factors considered by general contractors operating in the State of Qatar.

A structured questionnaire survey comprising 37 potential risk factors was distributed to a statistically representative sample of contractors. The influence ranks of the factors explored were determined using the “Relative Importance Index (RII)” technique, whereas the prevalent trend of contractors’ attitudes toward risk allocation of each factor investigated was quantified and expressed as a percentage, based on the number of respondents who selected a specific option, in relation to the total number of respondents.

The results obtained indicate that risks related to the “client” group are perceived as most critical, followed by the “consultant”, “contractor” and “exogenous” group-related factors, respectively. The outcomes further show that the “transfer” option is the contractors’ prevalent response to “client” and “consultant”-related risks, while the “retention” decision is the principal pattern linked to “contractor” and “exogenous” group-related risk factors.

The dominant respondents’ perception that the crucial construction risks are related to clients and consultants suggests that these two parties have an essential role in controlling the negative ramifications of the associated factors.

The findings suggest that increasing designers’ awareness of the significant effect of applying the constructability concept can considerably help reducing the risks concomitant of the construction operation. Policy makers may contribute, moreover, in alleviating the risk of incompetent technical staff and operatives’ employment by controlling the migration of inexperienced and unskilled construction workforce into the State.

Given the knowledge gap for the major construction risk factors considered by general contractors in Qatar, the results reported in this study can provide clients, industry practitioners and policy makers with guidance to effectively manage the significant risks determined, which can further assist in achieving a reasonable level of competitiveness and cost-effective operation.

Retailers' new product acceptance in base of pyramid (BoP) markets is crucial to marketers in this segment. This paper seeks to develop propositions for research on factors that affect retailers in new product introduction. The propositions also aim to make a distinction between urban and rural BoP markets.

The paper provides a broad description of India's BoP market (one of the world's largest BoP markets) to better understand context. It uses literature from developed country context to BoP markets to arrive at research propositions for further research.

The key research propositions derived relate to exogenous and endogenous factors. Exogenous factors relate to store trading area, competitive environment, shopper characteristics and product diversity. The endogenous factors include store atmosphere, assortment and shelf space allocation, price and promotion. The differences across rural and urban BoP markets are highlighted for each proposition.

Understanding differences between rural and urban BoP retailers can help make crucial new product introduction decisions. Considering endogenous and exogenous factors that influence retailer acceptance decisions will make product introduction decisions successful.

BoP literature has been replete with research on marketers and products but less on retailing. This paper addresses that gap. In addition, very few papers make the distinction between urban and rural BoP markets and mostly across countries but not within a country. This paper places the distinction within the country. Finally, explaining how various factors influencing retailing differ in urban and rural contexts and developing propositions is a major original contribution of this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to find how much the efficiency of winemaking has changed since the crisis of 2008 and what are the main determinants of winemaking performance in the recent decade.

This study applied a three-stage approach to explore productivity, efficiency and profitability changes. At the first stage of the empirical study, the Malmquist Total Factor Productivity indexes based on the data envelopment analysis are used to reveal tendencies of wineries’ productivity and the reasons for its changes. At the second stage, productivity indexes were used to find out the main exogenous and endogenous factors. At the final stage, the profitability change after the crisis in the context of the wine types and a size of wineries is explored.

The main trends and factors of winemaking performance after 2008 were defined. It was found that a crisis in winemaking in Ukraine has been going on for almost decade with the greatest failure in 2014 that led to the falling overall efficiency. This failure was caused mainly by the military and political factors regarding the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the changes in consumer behaviour with a tendency to reduce overall alcohol consumption, and the government regulation increased excise duties on wines. Despite the efficiency crisis in Ukrainian winemaking, the positive contribution of technological progress provides its productivity growth. The small- and medium-sized enterprises in winemaking have a high resistance to the crisis and fiscal pressure. Despite it losing a half of value-added and being unprofitable, the small wine business has managed to increase the labour and capital productivities and overtake big wine business on these indicators.

This study is limited to one country and the relatively small sample of the wineries. However, it can be a starting point for a series of research on the development of anti-crisis winemaking strategy.

The findings of the study can be helpful for the Ukrainian Government to prevent crisis continuation in the winemaking sector. This case may be instructive for other countries, faced with a protracted crisis of efficiency in winemaking.

This is the first study that examines the winemaking performance and its factors after the world financial crisis, based on the case of Ukraine.

This study aims to identify the sources of laundered money in Iran and the destinations to which it is transferred, independently verified by auditors. Based on such data, the study aims to develop a simple model of endogenous and exogenous factors facilitating money laundering in developing countries, which can inform domestic and international legislative and regulatory responses.

Questionnaires were sent to Iranian certified public accountants who worked for auditing firms in 2019 and who have encountered suspected money laundering during their work with clients.

The government and public officials are the primary sources of money laundering activity in Iran. The main destinations of laundered funds are investments abroad, gold, foreign currencies, real estate and purchases of luxury goods. Domestic legislation, while bearing similarities with that found in other jurisdictions such as the UK and the USA, is flawed in several ways, including an inability to determine beneficial ownership of funds and weak enforcement.

Because of international sanctions and the prevailing political situation, it is difficult to obtain data for money laundering and other financial crimes in Iran. The data obtained is of importance to international bodies in understanding the nature of money laundering in Iran, and how to negotiate in the future to address mutual concerns. Given the country’s perceived high association with money laundering, the data obtained is of value in identifying the specific characteristics of the problem.