Firm Operating Research Articles

The demands of populism on business and the creation of “corporate political obligations”

Populism is an ideologically fluid political vehicle which increases political risk and forces firms to adapt. As populist parties claim to speak exclusively for the people, any activities that could be perceived as going against populist ideals or leaders are problematic from the corporate point of view. These obligations need not require firms to actively support the populist party or to champion causes dear to the populists, as they may simply expect that firms refrain from challenging the status quo. But these expectations can alter firm operations and planning, particularly intangible activities such as corporate social responsibility, making a firm divert resources away from what it may desire to compete in the economic marketplace and forcing it instead to compete in the social and political marketplace. In this paper, we explore these obligations imposed on firms and term them corporate political obligations (CPO), a specific type of corporate political activity but one which is imposed from the outside. Through our examination, we find that CPO is the dark side of stakeholder capitalism, with states utilizing power to claim rights within the marketplace that are not theirs to claim.

Managers' brokerage for business model innovation: A case study

Business model innovation is recognized as a key process for strengthening firms' performance in situations of strong competitive pressure and environmental changes. This process is driven by intra‐organizational advice networks between managers, which exchange different types of advice based on organizational learning mechanisms such as cognitive search (how to conceptualize and create a novel business model) and experiential learning (how to adapt and experiment a novel business model. Investigating what are the key figures emerging from such network is essential for an in‐depth understanding of the business model innovation process. By focusing on a multi‐unit firm operating in the personal care service industry, we use Social Network Analysis (SNA) to examine the brokerage role of managers when sharing different types of advice towards a novel business model. Our results show that middle‐level managers connect different managerial groups in different networks; however, differences exist between groups of middle managers, confirming their peculiar nature within organizations.

The Place of Artificial Intelligence in Accounting Field and the Future of Accounting Profession

The study evaluates the place of Artificial Intelligent in accounting field. The study reviewed conceptual and theoretical studies on AI and drawn conclusion. Library research was adopted in gathering information for the research. It was discovered that Artificial Intelligent improved firm operation. Though it cannot totally replace the place of accountant. However, it would reduce the demand of much accountant. it would have positive effect, and if harnessed correctly, AI and automation could significantly enhance how Accountants work as well as the services they provide to clients. It reduced safe time and reduce spending. This study recommends that Accountants should upgrade themselves. also, future Accountants should acquire knowledge in digital technology in accounting companies of any size should AI to eases their sales, marketing, accounting and customer service without spending much on labour. National University Commission and universities should include AI in University curriculum where students would learn both theories and practical aspect of AI.

Keenness of Households to Solid Waste Management Payment in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria

This study examines the keenness of households to solid waste management payment in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government, Lagos State, Nigeria with a focus on some factors such as location quality, standard of living, gender and education. The data for this study was collected using a standardized and self-administered questionnaire which was divided into five sections namely socio-demographic, quality of location, quality of residents, Operations of the waste managers and households’ keenness to pay. From the results, location quality (B = 0.191, p<0.05), waste management operation (B = 0.150, p<0.05) and standard of living (B = 0.589, p<0.05) contributed significantly to the model. The results of the regression analysis also indicated that the model explained 52.8% of the variance and was a significant predictor of household keenness on payment for solid waste management (F (3, 253) = 94.358, p <0 .05). The relationship between household keenness to paying for waste management and gender was not significant; male (M=27.66, SD=6.57) and female (M=27.43, SD=6.96), t (255) = 0.270, p= 0.787. The level of education shares a statistical significance with the keenness of household to waste management payment [F (4, 252) =3.026, p=0.018]. In conclusion, the keenness of households in this study to solid waste management payment has shown that education level, quality of location, standard of living of the households and the waste management firm operation are factors to reckon with if the public private partnership that is involved in waste management is to survive.

Exploring the Nexus between Supply Chain Agility and Firms' Performance within Emerging Nations

This paper aims to determine the relationships between supply chain agility (SCA) in different directions and the operations of the firms operating in emerging nations. An additional objective of this paper is to establish the mediating role of innovative climate in the specific domain. The quantitative field study was conducted on a sample of different SME's managers in Pakistan; 200 surveys were distributed, and the search engine marketing (SEM) technique was utilized to analyze the outcome. Several factors of SCA in the supply chain have been taken into consideration to determine the links of supply chain performance (SCP) and to ascertain the effects of SCP and SCA. SCA factors like swiftness (FAWC) and alertness (FASC) were utilized to establish those linkages towards SCP along with mediating the role of innovative climate. On the basis of calculations, it was observed that there is a positive linkage between FASC and SCP. The linkage of FSWC was also found positive on SCP. Therefore, this study ascertains the fact that FAWC and FASC contain positive connections with the SCP having a positive mediating influence on the innovative climate in the domain of Pakistan. This paper contributed to establishing the fact that innovative climate positively mediates the relationships between FAWC and SCP of the organizations as well as between FASC and SCP, respectively. Such findings confirm the significance of an innovative climate in the organizations, which further support achieving the organization SCP. The findings of this study have implications for sales managers, policymakers, and practitioners who may be interested in considering the impact of personality from a sales perspective.

Have renewables and market-oriented reforms constrained the technical efficiency improvement of China's electric grid utilities?

China has carried out a series of regulatory reforms in the power grid network industry in the past decade, but not all the people believe that they have improved the efficiency of grid industry. The increasing renewable energy, as well as more frequently observed extreme weather have brought great challenges to the operation of grid firms. However, there are still few reports on the efficiency of utilities that combine the influence of reform, renewable energy, and extreme weather. This study estimates the impact of China's 2015 market-oriented reform on the efficiency of 30 provincial grid firms from 2010 to 2019. It aims to investigate the effect of this reform by means of the reform index and the reform implementation index while considering the impact of power mix changes and weather factors. The empirical results demonstrate that utilities that have promoted various reforms, represented by tariff reform, are generally more technically efficient. The efficiency improvement brought by reform outperforms the negative impact caused by the increasing intermittent renewable energy, especially after considering the contents of the reform. Grid firms in provinces with large temperature ranges can more easily attain high technical efficiencies. Overall, the technical efficiency of grid firms shows individual, regional, and environmental heterogeneity. These results call for a combination of power market reform and climate change mitigation strategy.

Acquiring supply chain agility through information technology capability: the role of demand forecasting in retail industry

PurposeDespite the importance of demand forecasting in retail industry, its influence on supply chain agility has not been sufficiently examined. From a total information technology (IT) capability perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedent of supply chain agility through retail demand forecasting.Design/methodology/approachCombining the literature reviews, the quantitative method of algorithm analysis was targeted at, and the firm data were processed on MATLAB.FindingsThis paper summarizes IT dimensions of demand forecasting in retail industry and distinguishes the relationship of supply chain agility and demand forecasting from an IT capability view.Practical implicationsManagers can derive a better understanding and measurement of operating activities that appropriately balance among supply chain agility, IT capability and demand forecast practice. Demand forecasting should be integrated into the firm operations to determine the agility level of supply chain in marketplace.Originality/valueThis paper constructs new theoretical grounds for research into the relationship of demand forecasting-supply chain agility and provides an empirical assessment of the essential components for the means to prioritize IT-supply chain.

A conceptual model and case study of blockchain-enabled social media platform

Nowadays, with the emergence of Web 3.0 and the metaverse, we collectively witnessed the explosive development of the decentralised autonomous organisation and the blockchain business model. Particularly, the advancement of technologies has further given birth to a novel form of social platform as blockchain-enabled social media (i.e., SocialFi), which is growing both in size and number of users. Accordingly, the rapid development of these blockchain-enabled social media firms illustrates the requirement to better understand the reasons behind this increase and the innovative practices and strategies of firms in this emerging field. Using the case of Pixie – the world’s first fully functional decentralised photo and video sharing social network based on blockchain technology, this insight paper identifies a conceptual model of blockchain-enabled social media that is useful for illustrating the successful business strategy and operations of firms. Particularly, the identified model employs four pillars of innovation as fundamental technologies, governance and operations, incentive mechanism design, and organisational structure and performance. Based on this crypto economy social media model, the study further presents the main challenges, discusses the implications based on agency theory, as well as highlights several directions for future research associated with blockchain-enabled social media.

Sustainable practices of the large-scale textile firms in Ghana

This paper sought to assess sustainable practices employing the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) concept among Ghana's large-scale textile firms, with a focus on their production processes. This aims at ensuring adherence to sustainable practices, standards and certification and best global practices to improve their production to maximize returns. This study is based on quantitative research approach and employs descriptive statistics and reliability of individual firms in assessing their production sustainability with standards and certifications indicators. The descriptive statistics involve the usage of mean and standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis and correlation for examining normality and reliability diagnostics for all the variables studied. Theoretical and empirical evidence on sustainability show adherence of standards and certification coupled with best sustainable practices among offshore textile firms. However, although domestic textile firms are adhering to the norms of GSA, there are gaps in the implementation and adherence to global sustainable design and production methods. The research was limited to the use of TBL performance indicators. It must be noted that several factors such as type of industry, company size, local regulations, interested party's efforts among others could be used as moderators. Application of standardization and green certification in the operations of the textile firms will help address sustainability challenges by optimizing the TBL. This will lead to efficient utilization of water, energy, chemicals, materials, etc., as well as waste reduction and improvement of health and safety of workers. This study addresses safety and health issues confronting domestic textile firms through provision of safe and healthy working environment to prevent work-related injury and ill health among current and future workers and the community. Empirical and theoretical reviews show a significant number of researches on sustainability. Evidently, most of such studies focus on the manufacturing sector with the global textile industry receiving its share. It is also observed that the domestic textile industry has also been overly researched. However, it appears that empirical and theoretical gaps exist with respect to issues of sustainability of the Ghana Textile Industry which is the focus of this study.

Successful Aging at Work: The Role of Development/Maintenance Context and HR Attributions in Burnout

Fusing the lifespan perspective on age with organisational psychology theory on HR attributions, we examine the confluence of HR attributions, burnout, and the employee management context with regard to the study of work and ageing. Time-lagged, multi-level survey data were collected from a sample of N = 1,165 blue-collar employees working at the manufacturing plants of a large-scale firm operating in the Turkish energy industry. A cross-level moderated mediation model was tested using multi-level structural equation modelling (SEM). The results supported study hypotheses such that the positive association between age and burnout was mediated by well-being HR attributions, and this mediated association was moderated by the employee management context surrounding employee safety. At the organisational units level, development-oriented contexts—indicated by the degree of innovation strategy, safety training, and active unit safety leadership—weakened the positive association between age and well-being HR attributions, whereas a maintenance-oriented context indicated by passive unit safety leadership strengthened this association. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for successful ageing at work are discussed.

Managing the Paradoxical Role of Control in Innovation Teams: A Leadership Perspective

Self-managed teams facilitate the necessary organizational flexibility and rapid product innovation for organizations to meet the increasing rate of change in their market conditions. However, recent evidence shows that achieving this goal is not so straight forward. Self-managed teams need to carefully balance autonomy and control to maximize their innovation output. This study adopts a multi-level perspective and investigates how concertive control mechanisms affect team innovation through the experience of paradoxical tensions (team level) and the moderating role of the managers’ paradox mindset (unit level). We collected survey data from 149 self-managed teams and their managers, all part of a multinational FinTech firm operating in various sites around the world. We then performed a mediated moderation analysis to verify our hypotheses.

The Interplay of E-commerce, Resilience and Exports in the Context of COVID-19

Scholars have extolled e-commerce as a pathway for sustaining firm operations in the unique circumstances of COVID-19. To add crisis time evidence to the body of work, and based on World Bank Enterprise Survey data, this inquiry interrogates 249 small manufacturing firms in Italy by examining the effect of e-commerce on (1) resilience, (2) direct exports and (3) indirect exports. The results show that while e-commerce has a positive impact on direct exports, a negative influence is recorded on indirect exports. Besides, e-commerce significantly increases resilience which, in turn, accelerates direct exports. However, resilience is found to have a trivial influence on indirect exporting. Furthermore, held as a constant, firm size demonstrates a significant and positive effect on direct and indirect exports. These fresh findings prompt implications for understanding the correlates of e-commerce, resilience and export behaviour. Practically, there are salient insights for stakeholders engaged in reviving small manufacturers’ exports for a speedy post COVID-19 recovery in Italy.

Foreign ownership and the financing constraints of firms operating in a multinational environment

We examine the effects of foreign ownership as well as other firm-specific variables on enterprises' access to credit in 135 underdeveloped nations using micro survey data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys. The analysis takes into consideration the role of the multinational environment in the structure and operation of firms. The findings demonstrate that foreign ownership is a strong predictor of a company's ability to acquire financing, but with restrictions. Government ownership and local private owners tend to be significant in line with the control criteria in the research, but foreign ownership and often dominating investors are highly predictive of financing limitations. Whether the firm is a foreign subsidiary and operates separately from its mother company significantly mitigates the foreign ownership effect. Firm-specific traits including size, industry of operation, export status, and accounting auditing represent significant indicators as well. In addition, the caliber of institutions of governance, cultural and social circumstances, and overall measures of financial, political, and human development all seem to be important determinants of access to financing and greatly lessen the impact of ownership structure in various nations.

Influence of Company Size, Leverage, Sales Growth and Operating Capacity on Financial Distress

Financial distress is a condition where the company faces financial difficulties. Financial distress has a close relationship with bankruptcy in a company because financial distress is the stage where the company's financial condition has decreased before the bankruptcy. The purpose of this study was to find out empirical evidence about the effect of firm size, leverage, sales growth and operating capacity on financial distress. The population of this study is Real Estate and Property Companies Listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017-2019. The sample in this study is 100 companies that have been selected by the purposive sampling method. The analysis method uses multiple linear regression analysis techniques. The results show that leverage has an effect on Financial Distress while Company Size, Sales Growth and Operating Capacity have no effect on financial distress.

Changes in industry and corporate effects in the United States, 1978–2019

AbstractResearch SummaryI present evidence of a shift in the relative contributions of industry and corporate effects to heterogeneity in business performance in the United States. In a systematic analysis of sequential timeframes between 1978 and 2019, I find a persistent rise in the explanatory power of corporate effects, which has grown to surpass that of industry effects. Consistent with these trends, I also find that an increasing share of multi‐business firms is operating only high‐performing or only low‐performing businesses, which coincides with refocusing efforts that began in the 1980s. This temporal perspective provides an explanation for why prior studies estimating industry and corporate effects have reached different conclusions.Managerial SummaryI present evidence that how much industry and corporate parentage each matter to business performance among diversified firms in the United States has changed over time in a systematic way. Specifically, my analyses show that while factors at the industry level may have mattered more than those at the corporate level from the late 1970s through most of the 1990s, this has since reversed and corporate parentage likely explained more of business profitability throughout the 2000s and 2010s than industry membership. These changes coincide with a trend that began in the 1980s toward greater focus and relatedness among the operations of diversified firms.

The Emergence of Resources Seeking Chinese Firms’ Specific Advantages in Emerging Market

It is argued that the role of the Chinese government to support the cross-border operations of Chinese firms is to assist these firms in overcoming their limited established brands, and their disadvantages in technology and managerial resources, which were also the reasons why such firms decided to enter emerging markets instead of developed markets. This strategic choice is preferred to avoid direct confrontation with established firms from developed countries endowed with superior ownership advantages. Therefore, Chinese resources seeking firms innovate by increasing investment in developing and emerging markets to develop unique ownership advantages for sustainable market development and competitive advantage. This research investigates the ownership advantages of resources seeking Chinese firms in these markets using the OLI theory. The paper contributes to explaining the specific advantages of Chinese MNEs when entering emerging markets. The study applied a two-stage qualitative methodology to examine Chinese firms operating in Nigeria. The first stage included an exploratory study based on interviews with key informants and experts while the second stage included a case study methodology. The study focused on resources seeking Chinese MNEs operating in Nigeria.

DIGITAL SOBRIETY: SOLUTION FOR DIGITAL POLLUTION ANDA TOOL FOR PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

The recent global changes in the environment around us imply that the physical and digital worlds are becoming increasingly impacting. Digital technologies are progressively influencing industrial, agricultural, scientific, medical, educational, and other operations, as more and more aspects of daily life shift online. The application of environmental digital technologies in the context of global and national environmental monitoring, improving the safety of industrial firm operations, and enhancing environmental sustainability is a pressing necessity on the planet. Digital sobriety can be a solution for reducing digital pollution by requiring all digital players, whether customers, industry professionals, or public actors, to adjust their behaviour in order to assure the development of a sober, responsible, and ecologically ethical digital industry.

Cash transfers as a response to COVID-19: Experimental evidence from Kenya

We deliver one month’s average profit to a randomly selected group of female microenterprise owners in Dandora, Kenya, arriving just in advance of an exponential growth in COVID-19 cases. Relative to a control group, firms recoup about one third of their initial decline in profit, and food expenditures increase. Control profit responds to economic conditions and government announcements during our study period, and treatment effects are largest when control profit is at its lowest. PPE spending and precautionary management practices increase to mitigate the health risks of more intensive firm operation, but only among those who perceive COVID-19 as a major risk.

Examining the Need of Big Data Analytics in Auditing: A Bibliometric Approach

Big data has become a growing trend in business operations. It is being employed in a variety of industries from manufacturing to accounting and supply chain management. Businesses that can take advantage of big data may be able to make better judgments, save money, and keep up with changing client needs.In the accounting scope, especially in auditing, big data allows auditors to increase their project’s samples and make comparisons across larger sets of data sets through its real-time data analysis characteristics. Big data assists auditors in detecting fraud and updating the reporting process to enable them identifying the immediate business risks and conducting appropriate audits according to the risks. Big data uses automation and artificial intelligence to analyse larger volumes and in a faster rate of data, increase auditor’s understanding on non-compliance history, current policy changes, and potential risk and fraud.Despite the potential benefits of big data analytics for the auditing profession, the auditing business has lagged behind in terms of its adoption or its utilisation (Aboud and Robinson, 2020). Internal and external auditors have not fully tapped into real-time data insights to monitor compliance and guarantee that businesses are reaching their maximum potential, despite the fact that big data offers a wide range of auditing applications. For example, using data from prior events, predictive and prescriptive analytics can be used to assess the possibility of future outcomes. In addition, auditors and other stakeholders will be more confident in assessing the efficiency of specific firm operations. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) highlight the current trend of big data analytics adoption in the auditing field and (2) discuss the need of big data analytics in auditing. Keywords: Accounting Information Systems, Big Data, Big Data Analytics, Audit, Bibliometric.

Concurrent 13. Presentation for: PESA Australia business environment review 2021

Presented on Wednesday 18 May: Session 13 With a backdrop of energy transition and an accelerating need to decarbonise, the oil and gas business environment was complex and conflicted through 2021. The complexity of the energy transition was continually highlighted by academia and international agencies. While asserting gas and LNG as a fuel critical to the energy transition, they continued to warn that the transition away from fossil fuels is not occurring fast enough to arrest catastrophic climate change. International cooperation culminating at COP26 somewhat faltered in the face of the immense challenges the energy transition poses. Complexity was also demonstrated through the rise in LNG spot prices as Asia’s demand for energy rebounded. Though high spot LNG prices through this period proved lucrative for producers, the surge in prices pushed some Asian markets back to emission-intensive yet low-cost coal for energy generation, signalling the volatility and challenges of LNG’s position as an energy transition fuel. Conflict was seen when environmentally focused activist investors disrupted business-as-usual operations for several Australian and international firms, with all signs pointing to an intensification of this trend in the coming years. In response, capital markets rallied behind low-carbon energy investments with trillions of dollars flowing towards renewables, hydrogen and CCS projects. Finally, to compound the complexity of the myriad external forces, oil and gas firms coalesced around four key decarbonisation responses. Oil and gas firms focused efforts on: (1) strengthening and refining net zero commitments; (2) operational decarbonisation including CCS investment; (3) investment in low-carbon fuels including hydrogen; and (4) consolidation, to strengthen balance sheets, build business model resilience and diversify their portfolios. To access the presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here