Business Indicators Research Articles

To be (family) or not to be (family): the familiness effect over brand authenticity posts on social media and consumer engagement relationship

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the impact of brand authenticity dimensions (i.e. aesthetic, symbolism, heritage, originality, quality commitment and virtue) on consumer engagement in the context of social media. This study answers to the need of scholars to understand consumer behaviour towards family and non-family firms’ brand authenticity constructs and for practitioners to find the correct levers to increase consumer engagement.Design/methodology/approachTop 10 European family firms with a retrievable Facebook (FB) page from the Global Family Business Index have been selected. Then, the study analysed family firms’ social media consumer engagement versus their non-family business direct competitors on a sample of 21.664 FB posts over a four-year period, leveraging multi-group analysis.FindingsThe results outline that three out of six brand authenticity dimensions posted on FB are statistically arousing more interactions respect to non-authenticity-related contents when posted by family firms. However, there are no statistically significant findings when brand authenticity content is posted by the non-family competitors.Practical implicationsThis research is helpful for practitioners and entrepreneurs who might want to strengthen their social media brand strategies. With this regard, the study provides insights on which elements of brand authenticity are perceived by consumers as more engaging and which levers to use when communicating the familiness of the company.Originality/valueTo the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest studies crosscutting the family business and brand authenticity literature streams to conduct an empirical analysis based on official FB data with a data set of over 20,000 observations. Moreover, this study assesses that not every dimension of the brand authenticity construct is relevant in the context of social media and that its effectiveness depends on the firms’ familiness.

Factors Driving Venture Capital Investments in India

This study aims to investigate what factors determine venture capital investments in India. The study selects the most relevant variables categorised as the Ease of Doing Business Index (EODBI), institutional indicators and macroeconomic variables. The EODBI has been introduced for the first time in the venture capital literature, intending to capture the business environment of India. Three regression models with three different dependent variables report the ambiguous results for domestic venture capital funds (DVCF), foreign venture capital investments and total venture capital investments. The individual measure EODB, representing the overall rating of doing business in India, is not favourable for domestic funds but favours foreign investors. Enforcing contracts and trading across borders respond positively to DVCF, while registered property moves differently. Resolving insolvency positively affects all three types of investments, benefiting young investors and young entrepreneurs by exploiting venture capital. This study can be refined in several ways in terms of future research, but the biggest challenge will be collecting enough data to derive meaningful results.

Ease of Doing Business: Performance Comparison of G20 Countries Using Gray MCDM

The ubiquity of data, and in particular in MCDM situations, makes it challenging for the Decision Makers (DM) to figure out a way of making proper use of data. This paper presents a three-stage decision framework for DMs to consider the performance range of alternatives holistically. The framework consists of (i) data preparation, (ii) two distance-based Gray Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM-G) methods using gray interval data to rank the alternatives and (iii) a decision analysis template. For comparison, gray Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) and gray Multi-Attributive Border Approximation area Comparison (MABAC) methods that rely on arithmetic and geometric mean respectively are used to generate the ranks. The mean-based ranking methods produce stable and efficient ranks in comparison to extremum-based comparison methods, due to their innate nature. The correlation of ranks is analyzed to conclude that the stability of ranks is better when gray interval data is considered. As an example, this paper considers performance range of the 10 criteria used in computing Ease of Doing Business (EDB) index as the gray interval. The sample performance of the G20 countries during the period 2004 to 2020 was used to illustrate the calculations. Further, a general analytic template based on the rank deviation on account of differences in upper and lower bounds of performance helped in classifying the economies as stable leaders, predictable middle and volatile followers. The paper contributes a suitable MCDM and analysis approach when the DM is presented with a gray interval as the alternatives’ performance.

Analysis of Offset Emission Permit Pricing Factors in the Korean Carbon Market

This study aims to empirically analyze the long-run and short-run equilibrium relationship between the price of Korea Offset Unit (KOC) listed and traded on the Korean Exchange since May 2016, and the variables affecting it, such as Korea Allowance Unit (KAU) price, oil, electricity, economic survey prospect index of the general manufacturing business, heating index and cooling index. In general, research on emission permit prices is conducted on the demand side and the supply side. This study analyzes the relationship in the demand side, and weekly time series data for about 6 years from the end of May 2016 were used with the ARDL model. As a result of the empirical analysis, KOC showed a positive correlation between KAU and oil price, and showed a negative correlation with the prospect of Business Survey Index in the long run. In the short term, KAU, oil price, and electricity price showed a positive correlation, and the prospect of Business Survey Index showed a negative correlation.

FOREIGN EXPERIENCE OF FORMING A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT MODEL IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE INNOVATIVE ECONOMY

Business is the driving force of economic development under the conditions of an innovative economy. Problems of innovative development are becoming more common in science and practice since innovation is a source of economic growth and a way to gain competitive advantages.
 The purpose of the article is to analyze the foreign experience of the foundations of the formation of a business management model in the conditions of an innovative economy. The article examines foreign experience in the formation of a business development management model. The growth of investments in the development of human capital and the spread of innovative research and development due to financing by the private sector is highlighted as the main feature of innovative business. Ukraine's place in international rankings was analyzed: the Global Innovation Index, the European Innovation Scoreboard and the Bloomberg Innovation Index.
 The share of innovatively active industrial enterprises of Ukraine is given. Factors influencing business development management are listed. The ease of Doing Business Index was analyzed. Projected, functional, strategic and innovative approaches to the formation and implementation of the management model are characterized. Data are provided that in the countries of the European Union, almost 50% of business is built using an innovative model. Factors affecting the business development management model are considered. Based on the analysis of foreign experience, the directions of accommodative application of foreign experience in the formation and implementation of business development management models in the formation of Ukraine's innovative economy have been substantiated.

Consistency Principle: Theory and Empirical Evidence

he article verifies one of the principles of the general theory of social development, which is called the principle of consistency. According to this principle, the economic growth rate positively depends not only upon the level of technological development, institutions, and culture, but also upon the degree of consistency between these factors. This hypothesis was tested by constructing econometric models on a sample of 154 countries. The output variable is the rate of GDP growth, and the explanatory factors are technology, institutions, and culture. To quantify the latter, the corresponding proxy variables were used: labor productivity, the Doing Business index, and the Corruption Perceptions Index. The constructed models are fixed-effect models, and the coefficients of the explanatory variables are determined by adjusting the variance-covariance matrices. Empirical evidence has confirmed the validity of the principle of consistency for the group of “rich” countries with upper middle income, and have not been confirmed for the group of “poor” countries with lower middle income. The obtained result was interpreted in terms of the concept of a narrow corridor called Acemoglu–Robinson, the concept of structural competition and the theory of self-organization. It is shown that the consistency principle acts as a necessary condition for the appearance of the Red Queen effect in the Acemoglu–Robinson concept.

Stability of profits and earnings management in the transport sector of Visegrad countries

Research background: Business profit and its stable development are key performance indicators. Many enterprises performed earnings manipulation, either upward or downward, according to the current business and macroeconomic situation, as well as time. These activities may interrupt the stationarity of time series. This article focuses on the transport enterprises, and the assessment of bonds in their earnings. Purpose of the article: The target of the article was to identify the occurrence of non-stationary and its unit root in the EBITDA of transport enterprises for each country in V4 during the period of 2010?2019. Methods: The stationarity and unit roots in time series were tested by the Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt, and Shin tests and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller based on the samples of 470 Slovak, 405 Czech, 774 Polish, and 1,056 Hungarian. The behavior of earnings manipulation (the first cause of non-stationarity) was indicated by the Modified Jones model. Additional causes for non-stationarity were confirmed by the regression analysis, including factors such as the GDP, unemployment rate, average monthly gross wage, and the Ease of doing business index. Findings & value added: The non-stationarity in the time series of EBITDA was disclosed for each country in the V4 region. Earnings management was discovered to be the cause of this erratic development. Thus, the value-added for the authorities and auditors is to show the association between non-stationary and creative accounting. In addition, purposeful downward manipulation in the transport sector occurs, not upward, which is typical in general. The methodology used in the study may be applied cross-sectorally in emerging countries. The labelling of specific macroeconomic variables depending on the country offers enterprises the opportunity to focus on factors with a crucial influence on their existence and activities.

An Economic Thought over the Quality of Higher Education, Employment Generation and NIRF Ranking in India

Generally, countries are ranked according to their Gross Domestic Products (GDPs), Human Resource Developments, competitiveness index, poverty level, Per Capital Income, Industrial Development Index, Ease of Doing Business Index, etc. India is the sixth-largest economy based on its $3 trillion GDP in nominal terms. Ranks will help countries realize/understand the status of their current positions. Accordingly, corrective measures could be adopted to reach a higher rank in the coming years to rectify those problems. Similar is the case with comparing/ranking universities and institutions within the national level to overcome the drawbacks identified by the ranking agencies. Generally, it is in practice to see that Ranking is prepared by comparing units with similar characteristics in all aspects or only among homogeneous groups. Then only the validity of the Ranking will be very high or acceptable to all to a large extent. If the Ranking is done among the inequalities, it is of no use for such Ranking and is highly unacceptable. For example, the Olympic game is conducted separately for ordinary boys and girls and the Para Olympic Games for physically challenged boys and girls. This is the standard scientific practice generally adopted anywhere.

Distance of doing business and outward foreign direct investment: An empirical study of China

AbstractDifferences between the business environment in the home country and the host country are an important factor when enterprises consider their location choice with regard to outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). However, this is ignored by much existing literature. Based on the trade‐off framework of international firms between exporting and participation in OFDI under the condition of heterogeneous enterprises, this paper constructs a theoretical model of the impact of distance of doing business (DDB) on OFDI. We take China's OFDI as an example and use the World Bank Group's Ease of Doing Business Index to construct the DDB indicator, as well as test the impact of the DDB on China's OFDI by combining the macro‐location panel data of China's OFDI between 2004 and 2017. The results showed that increasing DDB significantly reduces the scale of China's OFDI. The effect is robust. The mechanism is that DDB significantly decreases the success rate of OFDI and increases the cost of OFDI, thereby decreasing the scale of OFDI. Further analysis then finds that official acts, such as building partnerships, and folk acts, such as increasing cultural identity, can significantly reduce the negative effect of DDB on OFDI.

The impact of Economic Freedom and Democracy on Income Inequality: Empirical Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries

Throughout our study entitled the impact of economic freedom and democracy on Income Inequality: empirical evidence from Sub-Saharan African countries. We have demonstrated that the economic freedom which is defined as the elementary right of all humans to have control on his or her own labor and property and an important impact on the economic growth. Individuals have the freedom to work, to produce, to consume and to save or invest the way they want in an economically free society. We use the measure of Fraser Institute's economic freedom from the world summary index (EF). A composite of five major sub-indices: Access to sound money index (SM), Freedom to trade internationally index (FT), Government size index (GV), legal structure and security of property rights index (PR), and regulation of credit, labor and business index (RG). The results show that the Freedom to trade internationally index (FT), the Government size index (GV), the regulation of credit, labor and business index (RG) have negative impact on the income inequality. Concerning the Governance, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, and Regulatory Quality is negatively related to Income Inequality. Nevertheless, the Control of Corruption and the coefficient of Political Stability and Absence of Violence have a positive impact on Income Inequality. The stability promotes the income inequality and through the protest and demonstration by the least privileged leads the government to reconsider the system of ruling. Our control variables such as economic growth and population throughout the four estimations they show none significance with the Income Inequality. So basically the economic growth doesn’t affect the income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. As Africa financial institutions, the Banks have a clear mandate to support the Regional Communities, to strengthen strategies and to lower the income inequalities across countries and within countries. The inclusive growth plans and agenda of the Banks and their new Long Term Strategy will position the Bank as a leading institution to promote activities that foster economic growth in an inclusive

How Important Is the Business Environment for The Performance of Enterprises? Case Study of Selected European Countries

The business environment, its quality, and its development are important indicators of the global competitiveness of individual economies. The situation is enhanced in the European area, where the open community brings specific opportunities to expand and grow in new markets. However, it is not that easy to find the proper place to start a business, considering the financial performance and cost-effectiveness. Thus, the paper focuses on the comparative analysis of selected European countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, and France) in the context of their macroeconomic and inner-markets factors in the 8-year horizon (2013-2020). The quality of the business environment is evaluated using a multi-criteria decision-making method TOPSIS and global multi-level indices such as the Global Competitiveness Index, Corruption Perception Index, and Doing Business Index. Their mutual dependence is tested by correlation coefficients. To find the statistically significant differences among the countries, the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and ScheffÊ´s post hoc tests were used. The results reveal the subsets of countries with similar business environments, which may be beneficial in increasing the global competitiveness of enterprises.Implications for Central European audience: The comparative analysis is focused on the selected (mostly) Central European countries. This selection enables comparing the business environments with similar features and grouping them into subsets based on their economic, political, and social peculiarities. The analysis of variance proved that the business environments in Slovakia, Hungary, and Croatia are very similar, which may simplify the way of doing business in these countries. Thus, the implications of this study are crucial for better evaluation of the factors influencing the business environment, grouping attractiveness from the perspective of national enterprises, and understanding the indicators that increase the international competitiveness of enterprises.

FORECASTING VOLUMES OF FDI OF COUNTRIES BASED ON INDICATORS OF THEIR INVESTMENT ATTRACTIVENESS

Objective. The objective of the article is the analysis of the state and features of the development of special economic zones in the world.. Methods. The following methods and techniques of cognition are applied in the research process: theoretical generalization and comparison, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, grouping, correlation-regression analysis, clustering. Results. It is determined that among the wide list of indicators of investment attractiveness, the following indicators are most often used and are the most authoritative ones: Doing business Index, The Global Competitiveness Index, Global Innovation Index, Fragile States Index, Legatum Prosperity Index, Index of Economic Freedom, as well as credit ratings international rating agencies, including Moody's, Fitch, etc. Based on the analysis of the relationship between indicators of investment attractiveness and the actual volumes of FDI attraction of 101 countries of the world in 2015-2020, it is established that this relationship can be described as direct (Doing business Index, The Global Competitiveness Index, Global Innovation Index , Index of Economic Freedom) or the reverse (Fragile States index, Legatum Prosperity index); weak (Doing Business Index, Index of Economic Freedom, Fragile States Index) or moderate (Global Competitiveness Index, Legatum Prosperity (economy) Index).It is substantiated that despite the fact that the most representative indicators of investment attractiveness, according to the calculated values ​​of the correlation coefficients, are the Global Competitiveness Index and the Global Innovation Index, however, they do not have a significant impact on the actual volumes of FDI attraction of countries (the correlation coefficient varies within 0, 15-0.39), cannot be used as a dominant determinant for forecasting FDI volumes. It is substantiated that for forecasting the volume of FDI, it is advisable to use not one, but a set of indicators of investment attractiveness. It is established that the composite four-factor regression model based on individual regression equations of countries on indicators of investment attractiveness according to their cluster affiliation has the greatest predictive power.

ASSESSMENT OF THE COMPETITIVENESS OF UKRAINE AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE POPULATION

International competition is a multifaceted market economic category that reflects the struggle of civilizations, regions, countries, global complexes and specialized industries, global and multinational companies, financial institutions and other actors in the global space for competitive advantage. The concept of international competitiveness is often used in the analysis of macroeconomic indicators of countries. It allows you to compare for the country and its trading partners, a number of significant economic characteristics that can help explain international trends in international trade. This concept includes, first of all, qualitative factors or factors that cannot be quantified. The high level of national competition determines the growing opportunities to attract investment to the country, technology transfer, expand market presence and sign new trade contracts for any country. Conversely, low ratings and feedback are indicators of underestimation by governments and the need to stimulate the improvement of the national environment. This can push companies to fight for markets. It is impossible to overcome the coverage of the problem without a detailed study of the concept of competitiveness and assessment of the main factors of the indicator. Competitiveness is one of the main indicators of state development. The problem of Ukraine’s low level of competitiveness is quite relevant. It is characterized by low living standards, socio-political atmosphere in the country, the state and level of development of the financial system and production efficiency. The article examines the current level of competitiveness of the country and the quality of life of the population, formed the essence of this concept and identified its main quantitative characteristics, analyzed the potential of Ukraine for the future. This study analyzes the main features of the Ukrainian economy and its place against the background of the international economy on the basis of the world competitiveness rating. The main indices are considered, namely: the Ease of doing business index, the index of economic freedom in the country (Index of Economic Freedom) and The Human Development Index and the Investment Privatization. However, ways to increase Ukraine’s competitive position in the international arena are proposed.

The impact of business conditions and commodity market on US stock returns: An asset pricing modelling experiment

<abstract> <p>In this paper, two comprehensive mathematical approaches: cubic piecewise polynomial function (CPPF) model and the Fourier Flexible Form (FFF) model are built into asset pricing models to explore the stock market risk, commodity market risk and overall business conditions in relation to US stock returns as a modelling experiment. A selection of knots and orders are applied on the models to determine the best fit coefficients, respectively, based on Akaike Information Criteria (AIC). The classic risk coefficient along with downside and upside counterparts are estimated in a non-linear time-weighted fashion and are subsequently adopted as risk factors to investigate the explanatory and predictive power to stock returns. It is found that time-weighted classic, downside and upside risk coefficients of all three domains provide significant explanatory power to current stock returns, while the predictive power appears to be weak. The findings fill the gap in literature, specifically on both investigating and pricing the time-weighted risk. This paper innovatively employs the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti (ADS) real business index to measure the business conditions in macroeconomics context. The methodology proposed in this paper embeds advanced mathematical approaches to provide robust regression estimation. The application of proposed models enriches the dimension in pricing risk in stock market and wider financial market.</p> </abstract>

Understanding a Big Elephant and its Small Chains: SWOT Analysis of Pakistan’s Economy

‘What we Foreign Direct Investors need is a level playing field.’ This was claimed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a multinational corporation (MNC) operating in Pakistan for more than 50 years, on two separate occasions during 2015-18. This idiom motivated the authors to understand business nuances associated with Pakistan’s economy not being captured by indices such as the ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’ (EDBI) and ‘Global Competitiveness Index’ (GCI) primarily because of their measurement in quantitative terms. By conducting a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the country’s business environment, with the help of in-depth interviews with the CEOs of 19 MNCs and three national corporations (NCs), this study tries to capture some of these nuances. The respondents, based on their availability, were drawn from ten different industries. Based on the analysis, it can be inferred that ‘enduring’, ‘flimsy’, ‘enormous’ and ‘manageable’ are the four words which may be used to define the strengths and weaknesses associated with the opportunities and threats to Pakistan as a market. 

The impact of firms’ international trade on domestic suppliers: The case of Japan

This study revisits the propagation of trade effects through inter-firm transactions with upstream domestic firms on five types of business indices. It uses Japanese buyer–seller relationship data constructed by applying more suitable criteria for sampling firms. The results show that upstream manufacturing firms lower the probability of closing by selling their products to downstream manufacturing firms which increase their exports or imports. Interestingly, few unfavorable outcomes of indirect trade shocks were observed. These findings suggest that the economic impact of firms’ international trade on upstream suppliers is more nuanced than just a substitute or complement between international and domestic trade.

Determinants of Conducting Business by Polish Enterprises in Senegal

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to analyse economic and legal conditions, educational cooperation, and attractiveness of Senegalese market for Polish entrepreneurs. The author tries to assess whether the potential that lies dormant in this African country is sufficiently used by Polish entrepreneurs. He identifies problems which may affect Polish expansion into this stable and rapidly growing market. Design/Methodology/Approach: Observational method complemented by an intuitive method with the use of arguments to general statements drawn from personal experience. Findings: The presented economic, legal, and political conditions do not confirm that Senegal is not an attractive country to carry out investment projects by Polish entrepreneurs and to conduct bilateral trade transactions. The huge potential of Senegal has been recognized for many decades by European and world economic powers. Practical Implications: Senegal is among the African countries with one of the lowest capital risk premiums. The ease of doing business index developed for Senegal is another argument that certainly should not discourage potential entrepreneurs from doing business in the country. Senegal's membership in numerous international organizations indicates its openness to broad economic cooperation. Originality/value: Thanks to favorable economic, legal, and political conditions, as well as long-term educational cooperation, Senegal may be an attractive country for Polish entrepreneurs to implement investment projects and bilateral trade transactions and obtaining foreign capital for their implementation does not have to be difficult.

Detecting pivotal countries of China's OFDI in the “Belt and Road” initiative: The perspective of similarity of doing business

From the perspective of similarity of doing business, this paper seeks to find the pivotal countries of China's OFDI in the “Belt and Road” initiative. Based on the Doing Business Index data and macro-location panel data of China's OFDI in 61 countries, six countries are selected as pivotal countries. Further analysis found that proposal of the “Belt and Road” initiative, promotion of China's economic development level, raising of the partnership level and visits of bilateral leaders can make the inflection point forward. Our findings will provide a meaningful reference for deepening the “Belt and Road” initiative.

Factors Affecting Performance of Small & Medium Enterprises: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Management

Entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial innovation, and knowledge management all play critical roles in improving the performance of Pakistan's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Pakistan's business index score decreased from 137th to 138th due to the country's low performance in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector. Small and medium-sized firms must overcome several obstacles in order for the country's economy to thrive. This study will address this issue. We used a cross-sectional design and a quantitative technique in our research. Data were acquired via an email questionnaire and analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique and SmartPls. The findings suggested that entrepreneur orientation and innovation are critical factors in enhancing the success of SMEs. Additionally, knowledge management acts as a buffer between entrepreneurial attitude and organizational performance, as well as between entrepreneurial innovation and organizational performance. The study's findings have a number of implications for SME management and policymakers, including the importance of innovation and knowledge management in achieving better performance standards.

Does “investment climate” affect GDP? Panel data evidence using reduced-form and stochastic frontier analysis

It is often believed that investment enhances welfare, particularly through channels of capital creation, employment generation, and output growth. Two commonly used measures of a nation’s ability to attract investment are the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) and the Ease of Doing Business Index (EDBI). This paper attempts to estimate the causal link between these indices and per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A positive relation between these would essentially vindicate the theory that better investment implies better prosperity. Two complementary methods are used for estimating the effects, viz, reduced form analysis and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). SFA is an appealing method but to have a convincing SFA setup and eventually get at causal estimates, endogeneity issues need to be addressed. Reduced form setting using fixed effects and proxy variables provides the required foundation for the SFA. Overall, we find evidence of a positive relation between GCI and per capita GDP.