Government Grants Research Articles

Does tertiary education promote technological innovation sustainability? The role of national intellectual capital. An empirical evidence

Tertiary education redefines its role in research and innovation, acting as a proponent of the research and innovation culture, creating real-world solutions, and bridging the gap between decision-making, governance, and innovation. We empirically explore tertiary education’s effect on innovation and national intellectual capital’s role. The empirical findings of the 2SLS and instrumental variable fixed effect model with Driscoll-Kraay robust standard errors, based on panel evidence from 79 economies from 1995 to 2017, show that tertiary education has a positive and substantial effect on innovation performance as determined by patent and trademark applications. Comparable results are obtained using instrumental variable panel quantile regression as robustness tests to support the findings. Also, theoretically, the result shows that national intellectual capital reinforces the impact of tertiary education as a catalyst for technological progress. The findings support R&D data policies that support specific digital innovation, skills, knowledge creation, and diffusion. Proactive policy frameworks should be adopted to promote national intellectual capital through internet infrastructure for economic inclusion that fosters innovativeness; tertiary education using digital technology redefines creativity, stimulates cooperation, and aids in forming innovative ecosystems; boosting government and private grants to university academics allows for identifying ideas with the greatest long-term potential.

Surviving beyond expiry: a systematic literature review of zombie firms

PurposeThis paper reviews the literature on zombie firms to provide a holistic view by delineating their formation, impact, widespread nature, prevention and policy implications.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a systematic literature review methodology, in which 76 papers published in journals ranked on the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) 2022 list were reviewed. The study period was from 2000 to 2022.FindingsAmong the main findings, the widespread problems of zombie firms were evident. The authors found that consistent support, either in the form of government grants or a weak financial framework, was responsible for their formation. The suboptimal performance of factors of production, depressed job creation, low innovation and overall negative impact on economic activity are the consequences of zombification. This can be controlled by ensuring better bankruptcy codes, focused on government assistance, technology use and better due diligence by banks.Practical implicationsThis review serves as a reference point for future researchers as a cohesive and holistic study presenting a full picture of the problem, so that the proposed solutions are robust and tenable.Originality/valueThis review is among the initial attempts to comprehensively study published work on zombie firms in terms of analyzing their region-specific nature, with an emphasis on definition, causes, impact and prevention.

Management of Own Investment Activity by Small Business Entities

The article highlights the problem of investment activity manifestation by small businesses whose activities are related to agriculture. The reserves remaining at the disposal of entrepreneurs after paying personal income tax and VAT are determined by analyzing tax liabilities and obligations. Monitoring of the official websites of the Entrepreneurship Promotion Funds showed the possibility of attracting investments in the form of grants for business support and development. The purpose of the study is to identify and justify ways to implement investment activities through a competent tax policy in relation to small businesses engaged in agricultural production. To achieve this, the task was set to analyze tax deductions from the perspective of increasing the subject’s own monetary and cash resources and the latter’s ability to invest them in production. In the course of the work, the following methods were used: monographic, abstract-logical, economic-statistical, systems approach, comparative analysis. The methodological and theoretical basis was the works of representatives of domestic science, regulatory and legislative acts of the Russian Federation regulating the functioning of the tax system; official publications, as well as materials of scientific and practical conferences. The study results proposed: to consider the financial capabilities and opportunities of small businesses in the agricultural production sector as an incentive for their own investment activity; when declaring the right to apply tax deductions [Tax on personal income (standard, social, property, investment, professional) and “input Value Added Tax”], to release their own funds from taxation and apply them, as well as to use the possibilities of attracting government (public) and private grants as investments in the production process.

Promoting Surgeon-Scientists in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery—From Bench to Bedside

Surgeon-scientists (defined as principal investigators [PIs] with a Doctor of Medicine [MD] degree or a combined MD and Doctor of Philosophy [PhD] degree) in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (OHNS) are imperative for achieving clinical translation in the OHNS field. To (1) raise awareness about the current state of surgeon-scientists in OHNS, (2) contextualize the landscape of surgeon-scientists in OHNS by comparing it to those of neurosurgery and ophthalmology, and (3) identify strategies for attracting and retaining surgeon-scientists in OHNS. Research funding data from fiscal years 2015 to 2021 among surgeon-scientists in OHNS, neurosurgery, and ophthalmology were obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results and the US Department of Defense (DOD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs awards database. The Association of American Medical Colleges provided the total number of active physicians in each specialty per year and the number and percentage of residents with an MD-PhD degree in each specialty per year. Cohen d was used to express the standardized value of the magnitude of the mean difference between compared groups. From 2015 to 2021, on average, there were 9566 active physicians in OHNS, 5559.8 in neurosurgery, and 18908.8 in ophthalmology. In OHNS, a greater number of NIH K (research career development) grants were held by surgeon-scientists than by PIs with a PhD degree (21.4 vs 5.1; mean difference, 16.3; 95% CI, 14.3-18.3; Cohen d = 9.6), whereas most NIH R (research) and U (cooperative agreement) grants (144.1 vs 81.6; mean difference, 62.6; 95% CI, 46.3-78.9; Cohen d = 4.5) and DOD grants (9.9 vs 4.1; mean difference, 5.7; 95% CI, 1.0-10.4; Cohen d = 1.4) were held by PIs with a PhD degree. In a comparison of OHNS to neurosurgery and ophthalmology, after the number of R and U grants was scaled by the number of physicians in each field, neurosurgery had a much greater number of grants per surgeon than OHNS (0.02 vs 0.01; mean difference, 0.01; 95% CI, 0.01-0.02; Cohen d = 4.2). Additionally, neurosurgeons received a much larger R and U grant amount per physician than otolaryngologists ($10 630.20 vs $4511.80; mean difference, $6118.40; 95% CI, $2625.90-$9610.80; Cohen d = 2.0). For the R and U grant metrics, there were no meaningful differences between OHNS and ophthalmology. Results of this database study showed that from 2015 to 2021, the number of governmental grants held by surgeon-scientists in OHNS increased, but there is room for improvement given the metrics of neurosurgeons, a population smaller than otolaryngologists. Possible strategies include intramural research grants, surgeon-scientist training programs, and partnerships between specialty societies and NIH administering institutes and centers.

More is better or in waste? A resource allocation measure of government grants for facilitating firm innovations

To strengthen firms' innovation capability and improve innovation performance, it is not surprising for the government to grant them financial funding. Previous research in allocation of government grants fails to quantitatively identify the wastes within, which leaves a significant research gap. This study contributes to the literature by proposing a novel data envelopment analysis model to deal with the misallocation issue. We first propose a centralized allocation model with the output-oriented focus to identify the effectively used resources or wastes. An algorithm is then proposed to determine the optimal total amounts of allocated resources and eliminate possible wastes. In an application of allocating government grants for high-tech firms, the proposed approach investigates government’s optimal allocation plan of innovative subsidy and tax reduction. We find the mixed impacts of grants on innovation performance and diverse allocation results across different types of firms. More government grants are suggested to be allocated, but excessive investment and unnecessary waste should be alerted in allocation. Impacts of returns to scale characteristics and innovation failure rates on allocation results are also explored. Our results affirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach and provide solid policy implications.

Getting a Grant is Just the First Step: Administrative Capacity and Successful Grant Implementation

This study examines the link between the pace of utilizing the awarded intergovernmental grants and the administrative capacity of recipient government organizations. Past research focused on the relationship between higher administrative capacity and obtaining grants. However, there is a lack of attention to how capacity affects grant funds utilization, which is critical for achieving societal impact. To address this issue, the study analyzes the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) established by the CARES Act to aid state and local governments with COVID-19-related expenses. The study justifies and performs multiple regression analyses using data from various sources, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Census Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll, and the Government Finance Officers Association. The study discovered that financial administrative capacity was positively linked to the proportion of funds spent early in the CRF program rollout, a finding that withstood scrutiny when employing various measures of administrative capacity. However, the connection between capacity and spending tapered off toward the end of the program rollout, potentially due to workload stabilization, increased program clarity from the federal government, capacity-building by recipients, and the use of external experts. The findings of this study carry significant implications for both research and practice, underlining the necessity of studying the implementation stage of government grant programs and investing in building administrative capacity within recipient organizations.

The role of green reputation, carbon trading and government intervention in determining the green bond pricing: An externality perspective

Green bonds, due to their inherent externalities, pose challenges in achieving equilibrium prices under optimal public resource allocation and social welfare without governmental intervention. While numerous studies have explored green bond pricing via government subsidies and other strategies, this paper diverges by targeting the equilibrium price of green bonds as the optimal public resource allocation, specifically from an externality's standpoint. We integrate factors such as the cap-and-trade system, carbon taxes, government subsidies, and green reputation into the fractional jump-diffusion model. This is further combined with real options theory and the fast Fourier transform method to derive the green bond pricing equation. Through optimization techniques, we delve into the influences of various factors and the interplay of different governmental strategies. Numerical findings suggest that, in an ideal scenario where the government grants adequate carbon allowances to green bond issuers, the carbon emission trading mechanism can facilitate the bond in achieving its ideal equilibrium price. Conversely, when the government is restricted by carbon constraints, preventing green bond issuers from acquiring ample carbon allowances, supplementary measures like government subsidies and carbon tax policies can complement the cap-and-trade system, ensuring green bonds attain their ideal equilibrium price. Furthermore, given the carbon emission reduction level of green projects, our model can determine the optimal government subsidy ratio and the ideal carbon tax price.

The Moderating Effect of Politicians’ Power on the Correlation Between Total Grants and Unit Grants in Special Grants Distribution

To investigate whether political power influences the allocation of government grants, a grants allocation panel dataset of 150 units of analysis was constructed for the period 2016-2019. Specifically, the aim of this study is to find out how politicians’ influence would work in situations where the size of the pie, the sum of the amount of grants distributed to every electorate, changes. This perspective that focuses on changes in the aggregate amount of grants, which has not been considered in previous studies, is reflected in the interaction term between the size of the resources and the measure of political power. Fixed effect estimation reports that the coefficient of the interaction term is significant with a positive sign. This implies that powerful politicians are not satisfied with merely securing more grants than the previous year. Instead, they seek to obtain more year-on-year increment in grants than other politicians. Policymaker is advised to monitor and exclude any political influence in the decision-making process of grants allocation.

STRATEGI PEMASARAN UMKM OLEH-OLEH MAKANAN KHAS PONTIANAK

<p><em>Pontianak City has typical food souvenirs to support its tourism industry but still has problems in marketing the product. This situation has been getting worse since pandemic covid-19. This research aims to determine a marketing strategy for Pontianak food souvenirs MSMEs to increase their income. The research method uses a descriptive method with a SWOT analysis tool to determine alternative strategies. Samples were 19 informants consisting of 4 key informants and 15 regular informants. The SWOT analysis results led to a WO (Weakness - Opportunity) Strategy with five alternative strategies. 1) Promoting products through Facebook Ads. 2) Expand the marketing area by selling in supermarkets and e-commerces. 3) Utilize the government grants for MSMEs that Covid-19 hurt to promote and keep product availability. 4) Registering and displaying products at the Pontianak UMKM Center also has to participate in the business skills improvement program. 5) Participate in exporting programs and increasing product quality according to foreign market standards.</em></p>

Features and challenges of national and international practices in representing operations with government grants in enterprise accounting

Manuscript is dedicated to the examination of key aspects related to the representation of government grant operations in accounting records. It aims to identify critical issues, analyze previously proposed methodologies, and provide recommendations for enhancing the accounting system to consolidate information regarding government grants and earmarked receipts within the accounting framework. The purpose of the paper is to analyze existing methodologies for recording government grant transactions, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and provide recommendations for improving the process of recording government grant transactions in accounting records. The research findings reveal key aspects of the scholarly discourse on the issue of registering government grant transactions in accounting records. The paper proposes an enhanced accounting model for representing government grant operations and earmarked receipts. The manuscript provides a comparative perspective on accounting practices for recording government assistance in Ukraine and several foreign countries. The author summarizes that there are significant issues in the domestic methodology for registering government grant transactions. The paper presents approaches to improving the accounting tools for government grants and earmarked receipts, aiming to enhance the quality of financial information. The author suggests categorizing transactions into two groups: government grant transactions and earmarked receipts transactions. Researching international practices in recording government grant transactions allowed for identifying commonalities and differences with national accounting practices.

Ancestral, Delta, and Omicron (BA.1) SARS-CoV-2 strains are dependent on serine proteases for entry throughout the human respiratory tract

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 variant emerged in late 2021 and became the globally dominant variant by January 2022. Authentic virus and pseudovirus systems have shown Omicron spike has an increased dependence on the endosomal pathway for entry. We investigated the entry mechanisms of Omicron, Delta, and ancestral viruses in cell models that represent different parts of the human respiratory tract, including nasal epithelial cells (hNECs), large-airway epithelial cells (LAECs), small-airway epithelial cells, and embryonic stem cell-derived type II alveolar cells. Omicron had an early replication advantage in LAECs, while Delta grew to higher titers in all cells. Omicron maintained dependence on serine proteases for entry in all culture systems. While serine protease inhibition with camostat was less robust for Omicron in hNECs, endosomal entry was not enhanced. Our findings demonstrate that entry of Omicron BA.1 SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on serine proteases for entry throughout the respiratory tract. This work was supported by The Medical Research Future Fund (MRF9200007; K.S., J.M.P.) and the DHHS Victorian State Government grant (Victorian State Government; DJPR/COVID-19; K.S, J.M.P.). K.S. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Investigator grant (APP1177174).

Impacts of subsidy reallocation policy on the innovative performance: Empirical evidence from photovoltaic industry in China

Given the fervent debates on the effect of subsidies around the world, this paper examines the relationship between the subsidy reallocation policy and innovative performance of the photovoltaic industry in China. We take the setting as China has announced its climate goal to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality before 2060, which dramatically changes its subsidy policies as to the new energy industry by reallocating financial supports to the industry. By employing a difference-in-difference model, we find that reallocation of government grants improves the innovative performance. Then, we explore the detailed mechanism by which government subsidies may affect innovative performance of the photovoltaic industry and investigates the heterogeneity of industrial links, development stages, ownership attributes and credit environments of the photovoltaic industry.

Corporate environmental responsibility and financing patterns: Does firm size matter?

ABSTRACT This article provides a comprehensive assessment of the impact of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on financing patterns of working capital and fixed investment. Financing sources include internal funds, equity, different types of debt financing, and government grants. Specifically, this study examines differences in the impacts of CER on financing patterns for smaller and larger firms. Based on a sample of 15,082 firms covering 27 countries, our empirical findings indicate that environmentally responsible activities do not significantly affect financing patterns of working capital but affect the use of internal finance and almost all external sources for capital expenditures. Moreover, the impacts of environmentally responsible activities on capital expenditures vary across financial sources and depend on firm size. The revealed pecking order among financing sources and changes in the debt ratio offer valuable insights into the validity of capital structural theories for smaller and larger eco-friendly firms.

The virus in the queues

Queues have been at the centre of South Africa’s COVID-19 story. National lockdown was declared on 26 March 2020, around the time ‘month-end’ salaries and government grants are paid out. Within the first few days, reports came of the long lines outside banks and supermarkets, with journalists regularly citing people’s failure to ‘social distance’. This article uses the queue as an analytic tool to explore the unequal vulnerabilities entailed in the experience of COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa.

Mengungkap Praktik Akuntansi Budaya Dalam Upacara Adat Pelantikan Orang Kay Suku Kei Maluku

This study aims to uncover accounting practices in financing the traditional ceremony of the inauguration of the traditional head (Orang Kay) in the Kei Tribe. The research uses an ethnomethodological approach with observation, interview, and documentation methods. Based on the results of interviews and data analysis, in the inauguration of the traditional head (Orang Kay) there is an accounting practice that has characteristics with other tribes. In the inauguration of Orang Kay, there are three sources of financing, namely Yelim, village funds, and city government grants. The allocation of yelim is used to finance the inauguration traditionally, while the allocation of village funds and government grants is used as financing for the inauguration in government. In yelim management there

Public Employment Policy in Conditions of Uncertainty and Digital Changes

The scientific study analyzed the state of employment of the population in Ukraine under martial law. Established that the problems of employment of the population as a result of military operations include: forced mass migration of the population, reduction of the economically active population, an increase in the level of unemployment, deterioration of working conditions, a decrease in the practical demand for highly qualified workers and a simultaneous increase in the need for low-skilled labor, etc. Substantiated that the public policy of employment in conditions of uncertainty should have an anti-crisis character and be aimed at creating an opportunity to restore the economic activity of the population in new living and working conditions. Also, attention was focused on the fact that public employment policy in conditions of uncertainty should prepare the ground for the formation of digital competencies and practices of labor market participants, in particular, highly qualified employees of the service sector, knowledge-intensive and technological business activities. Two directions of public employment policy in conditions of uncertainty are considered, namely, anti-crisis, which includes the government program of relocation of enterprises, state support to employers by providing them with preferential lending under the program "Affordable loans 5-7-9%", creation of new jobs, application targeted measures to support employment, development and implementation of programs to ensure employee mobility and retraining, etc.; and digital – the government grant program eRobota, which provides grants to Ukrainians through digital interaction tools for starting a business, developing entrepreneurship and training. Proven that in conditions of crisis and uncertainty in the economy, effective means of public employment policy are: the provision of state orders for goods and works in connection with the creation of new (temporary) jobs and organizational and resource support for entrepreneurship and self-employment of the population in rural areas. Attention was focused on the importance of forming up-to-date digital competences of employees. Proposed to create a Center for the formation of digital competences within the State Employment Service of Ukraine, to carry out work on the organization of training digital competences of persons who hold managerial positions in the private, public, and non-profit sectors of the economy, with the aim of improving their qualifications, conducting thematic trainings.

Tritium Opportunities and Challenges for Fusion Developments Worldwide—CNL and UKAEA View

The commercial generation of electricity and high-temperature thermal energy via fusion technology remains one of the promising alternatives to help meet the challenging targets to decarbonize the global energy system. Fusion technology can play a significant role as part of the long-term switch away from carbon-based fuels for electricity and heat due to high energy output, usage of abundant fuel that can be made available without environmental degradation, and avoidance of long-lived and toxic transuranics. Many countries have their own fusion research and development programs, while large research efforts are being undertaken in multicountry collaborations, such as ITER. Recently, fairly new (semi-) commercial organizations have been successful in initiating independent development programs funded by government grants and private investments. Different fusion reactor technologies still share many challenges, with one of the major issues being the management of the deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel cycle and associated auxiliary systems. These different fusion technology developers could benefit immensely from existing and available DT expertise, allowing them to focus primarily on the physics and mechanical aspects of their reactor technologies while finding support for common tritium technological challenges through collaboration. As world-leading experts in DT technology, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency(UKAEA), are well positioned to support such needs of the fusion industry. This paper broadly explores the worldwide DT challenges, identifies opportunities where tritium expertise is key to the development of fusion infrastructure, and presents a view of how CNL and UKAEA are addressing these opportunities for the various fusion developers. This paper presents a holistic view that may be informative to future tritium roadmap and decision-making exercises conducted within the community.

Sharing the Stage: Exploring Inequities in Resources for the Arts Across Funding Institutions

This paper examines and compares the funding distribution inequities in arts organizations across three different funding institutions—government grantmaking, charitable contributions, and crowdfunding—through different inequity measures. Based on three different datasets including the National Endowment for the Arts grants data, National Center for Charitable Statistics data, and Kickstarter crowdfunding data starting in 2009, we find that compared to non-arts funds on the same platforms, arts-related funds in these institutions are not more concentrated in the hands of a few, although the level of concentration is strikingly high. In addition, we find that nonprofit contributions are heavily concentrated, far more than government grants. However, contributions to arts nonprofits are not more concentrated than to other nonprofits. We also explore how the pandemic crisis impacted arts funding distributions.

Political Investments and the Winner of Government Grants

This paper investigates whether corporate political connections and corporate donations to national-level political campaigns are associated with the allocation of government resources. Based on a sample of Taiwanese publicly held companies, the findings show that political campaign contributions are associated with successful applications for government innovation subsidies as well as more government innovation subsidies. The findings also show that companies that show their loyalty by only donating to the ruling party’s candidates in campaigns receive higher amounts of government innovation subsidies than other companies. Overall, the findings provide evidence that political connections through political campaign contributions may affect government’s decision for resource allocation.

Manajemen Pembiayaan Pendidikan untuk Peningkatan Kualitas Sumber Daya Manusia di Madrasah Aliyah Negeri

Education is the key to human resource development, and adequate funding is a crucial factor in achieving quality education. This study explores various financing strategies implemented by MAN 2 Kota Bandung in improving the quality of its human resources. Through data analysis and literature review, this article aims to identify various sources of funding, such as budget allocation, government grants, community contributions, and partnerships with the private sector. The method used in this research is a qualitative case study method. The results of this study show that effective financial management has made a positive contribution to the enhancement and nurturing of human resources at MAN 2 Kota Bandung. This success is reflected in students' academic achievements, adequate educational facilities, and the improvement in the quality of educators. This article provides guidance for similar educational institutions in their efforts to enhance human resource quality through effective financial management.