International Journal of Business and Economic Development

Entrepreneurship research concerning networks has largely focused on network structure, content and governance. We believe that further research is required in order to gain a richer understanding of why specific network forms and types originated. The purpose of this paper is to explore the existence, importance, values and meanings of both the informal and formal networks and networking behaviours of small-scale hotel owner-managers embedded in the socio-economic context of Croatia. In order to gain richer and more detailed understanding of entrepreneurial networks and to understand the influence of socio-economic setting on entrepreneurial networking, we have employed qualitative, in-depth study with small hotel owners. Results suggest that entrepreneurs do not establish strong personal and firm-to-firm ties, but rather focus on formal associations. Reported findings identify socio-cultural factors apparently unique to the context of former socialist economy which have the potential to explain the reported networking behaviour. The adopted research approach brings another dimension to existing theoretical underpinnings, which can encourage researchers to extend or revise theories with new contextual variables.

Poverty is a universal phenomenon which does not go well with the progressive 21st century and hence the worldwide efforts to overcome the problem. At the beginning of the 21st century (2002), the late professor C.K. Prahalad had propounded a path breaking theory of poverty alleviation called the bottom of the pyramid business theory, which is not only making MNCs investments (FDI) in underdeveloped countries and promoting their growth and employment generation and increase in incomes and thereby consumption and expenditure but also producing goods and services needed by the poor households at the bottom of the economic and business pyramid. The paper is devoted to the consideration of the theory in the emerging market economy of India where poverty is a biggest problem and the situation is not found significant for the BOP business. Can there be a market solution to it?

This study aims to study the entrepreneurial competencies, international outsourcing relationship components and SME performance factors, and to develop a model to test the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and Psychological contracting of outsourcing, between outsourcing relationship and Small and medium enterprises performance. Finally, it seeks to identify the effect of Psychological contracting on the relationship between the entrepreneurial competencies and Small and medium enterprises Performance. The Study was conducted on SMEs in IT sector, which constitute the whole bulk of the industry. A questionnaire was administrated and the results did a relationship between the above-mentioned variables with varying degrees of importance.

This study examines the dynamic interaction between inflation and credit rationing in the case of Nigeria for the period 1970-2011. It uses time-series data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin in its analysis of examining the long run and causal relationship between inflation and credit rationing. In doing so, it employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure suggested by Pesaran et al. (2001) and the Granger causality test suggested by Toda and Yamamoto (1995). Empirical findings reveal that although there is an evidence of a long run relationship between credit rationing and inflation, no pattern of such long run relationship is established. The results reveal further that there is no evidence of causality in either direction between inflation and credit rationing in Nigeria. Consequently, the study recommends, among other policy implications, that financial reforms may be pursued without adversely affecting the purchasing power of the citizenry.

In contrast to the traditional mindset (TMS)—the conscious awareness, controlled mental processes, and analytical-logical manipulation of symbols—an alternative mindset (AMS) is viewed as the pre-conscious mental processes (i.e. associative, imaginative, intuitive) and holistic thinking. Since Plato, the West has considered TMS as the hallmark of intelligence and simply of any cognition. Yet, in recent decades various research explored complementary and/or alternative to analytical-logical cognition mental. Alternative mindsets were primarily explored for their individual benefits, while our research focuses on organisational benefits. To do this, we used a bi-weekly meditative practice to induce an AMS in organisational actors. We hypothesized that following the shift from TMS to AMS, organisational actors will benefit from enhanced creative production and well-being. Empirical experiments were conducted with 144 self-selected participants within three organisations, measuring well-being and creativity, consisting of eight 20 minute mindfulness meditation sessions, with a “placebo” relaxation technique for control groups. Statistical analysis showed significant increase in well-being and creativity for experimental compared to control groups as of six sessions. As AMS organisational benefits span from enhanced well-being and creative production, as our experiments show, to potentially higher employee engagement, health and relaxation, AMS could potentially aid i

This study uses a partial equilibrium model to analyse the impact of East African Community elimination of import duty on imports of manufactured products from the European Union on preferential basis under the proposed EAC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement. Results show possibility of a 9% increase of manufactured goods imports from EU into the EAC region. Imports from EU found to be likely to increase the most are those with higher tariffs of 25% or 10%. EAC tariff elimination is found to be likely to lead to lower prices for manufactured goods, leading to small consumption gains of about 0.03% of the regions GDP. We recommend that EAC countries take measures to improve the competiveness of their manufactured goods in order to compete with EUs manufactured products once the EAC-EU EPA comes into effect.

The use of celebrities such as movie stars, sports heroes, entertainers, music experts and all the likes as endorsers by marketers in promoting brand awareness, recognition, and preferences, has become the order of the day in advertising practices both in developed and developing economies. It therefore behooves on marketing professionals to design possible techniques to enhance its effective use by companies. This instigated the researchers to theoretically examine what celebrity endorsement is all about, celebrity-worship relationship and endorser effects, risks associated with the use of celebrity endorsement and celebrity endorsement selection criteria. A critical review of extant literature revealed that celebrity endorsement makes advertisement more memorable and the company in the short-run generates high brand awareness as well as an increase in market share. There are certain risks associated with celebrity endorsement such as negative publicity, overshadowing, multiple endorsement, over-endorsement, extinction and cost implications. The study indicated that, successful celebrity endorsement is a combination of attributes such as trustworthiness, expertise, similarity, familiarity, likeability, and a match between the celebrity and the message (brand,). To ensure the effective use of celebrity endorsement, the paper highlighted some strategic options.

This paper investigates the short-run and long-run relationships between three main macroeconomic variables in Oman using the Johansen multivariate co-integration techniques as well as the stationary VAR for the period between 1971 and 2013. The results indicate that there is a long-run relationship between these three macroeconomic variables; the real GDP, the real government expenditure and the real oil revenues. The estimated coefficients for the real oil revenues and the real government expenditure are correctly signed and statistically significant at 5% level. Both variables depict positive relationship with GDP which are 0.672 and 0.872 respectively. The impulse response functions and the variance decomposition from the stationary VAR show that these variables are very important to the short-run dynamics of the Omani economy. Overall, government expenditure appears to be the main source for economic growth in long-run, and in short run variations in government expenditure are generally derived by oil revenue shocks. Therefore, the volatility in oil revenue requires public expenditure management reforms and the need to diversify income sources in order to enhance economic stability and growth.

This paper provides statistical evidence in support of the view, widely held in the dry industry, that there is a lead-lag relationship between Chinese steel production and dry bulk freight rates. Furthermore, this raises an important question about the direction of their relationship. Despite the plethora of studies on micro and macro economic determinants of freight rates, there have been no studies addressing these issues. Hence, this paper undertakes such an investigation using Co-integration analysis, VAR based Granger Causality tests and Impulse Response analysis. Another contribution is that we apply our methodology separately to the spot and period freight markets, and empirically examine and analyze the differences among the causal relationships of four different vessel categories. The results are generally in line with industry expectations and contribute to the understanding of commodity and freight market movements.