Volumen 14 (2019): Edición 2 (August 2019)

Viewed retrospectively since the work of Modigliani and Miller (M&M, 1958), the capital structure still remains a matter of study. The capital structure issue then is examined from different perspectives, and thus intertwining firms and macroeconomic determinants. Studies were focused to examine the relationship between leverage ratios and macroeconomic environment. Motivated from what was done earlier, we try to bring in this study evidence as well. Thus, totally 49 Ukrainian firms are selected and data are examined from 2012 to 2016. The paper is aimed at studying the process of leverage adjusting by examining five firm’s characteristics and three macroeconomic determinants. We found that leverage is influenced significantly from both, firm characteristics and macroeconomic determinants. The study provides evidence those firms with higher tax shield, tangibility, net trade credit, and profitability used more leverage than counterparties. Firm’s size and inflation are confirmed as insignificant determinants. On the other hand, GDP growth rate and default spread are confirmed to play a role on leverage policies.

The study intends to deliver a logical analysis of the well-known (and too much used) model of rationality named homo œconomicus. To this end, it is put into evidence the reductionism of the model (more, its cartesianism and mechanicism), by logically assessing the basic principle and the axioms and, also, the relaxations introduced over time. The paper gets the conclusion that economists tried successively to save the homo œconomicus model over time, but all these attempts did nothing but block the developments of the economic theory. Finally, the research organizes into a diachronic matrix the different ways in which economists actualized the genuine model in order to put it in line with the actual behaviour of the economic subject.

The marketing of educational services has become both a priority and a challenge, taking into account the technological changes that have arisen from the aspect of the tools and teaching methods used, as well as from the point of view of the requirements on the market manifested by the bearers of labor demand and supply. In addition, the opening and internationalization of these services has led to an increase in competition in this area, which forces universities to attach greater importance to educational marketing activities. From the point of view of the study of the behavior of the consumer of university educational services, the approach is even more challenging as the offer of educational services presupposes the rendering of an inexpensive, unstable, perishable and extremely variable service in terms of diversity, which requires an extremely complex analysis of the variables that influence the behavior of the “consumer” student, as well as from the point of view of the purchasing decision process, as a result of the action of these factors. In this context, the present paper aims to analyze the necessity of applying specific educational marketing tools, methods and techniques, especially of university marketing, not only from the perspective of the promotional component, which has a leading role in this field, but also starting from to the analysis of the peculiarities of the behavior of the consumer of educational services as a beneficiary.

The 2008-2009 global crisis has severely affected the world economy. Most national governments utilized fiscal policy measures including subsidies to reinforce and sustain their economies. In this study we examine the impact of the 2008-2009 global crisis on subsidies paid to manufacturing firms either by their governments or the European Union (i.e. EU). Our results indicate that, overall, a significantly larger proportion of firms had received subsidies after the global crisis. When we look into different subgroups, we find that firm size, female ownership, female management, and quality certification did not matter (more firms in all of these subgroups had received subsidies). On the other hand, our results demonstrate that firm type and top manager’s experience level made a difference in terms of subsidies received after the crisis.

Over the last decades, terrorism has become a global phenomenon to which every society is exposed from time to time. Terrorist attacks can have many economic consequences that may affect a number of sectors, including the capital market. The main goal of this paper is to examine the reaction of the CAC40 index to one terrorist attack, mainly “Charlie Hebdo” using an event study methodology. By calculating the abnormal returns and the cumulative abnormal returns in the event period, the results obtained show no significant abnormal returns on the day of the terrorist attack suggesting that the market had directly absorbed the effect of the attack. Thus, the findings suggest that the French market is semi-strong efficient. Investors can rely neither on past information nor on publicly available information to make abnormal profits.

Background. A firm, as it develops, tends to overcome local, regional, and national business environment boundaries by expanding into global economic space. The intense dynamics of internationalization, the expansion of multinational companies from emerging economies, the presence of multinational companies owned by the state are just a few of the specificities that shape the global business environment today. In the literature, these trends have become challenging topics, both open to criticism and appreciation.

Aims and approach. In this study we aim to map the expansion of business in the international environment from a sectoral perspective. In this respect, using the data synthesized by UNCTAD in the World's Top 100 non-financial MNEs and Top 100 non-financial MNEs from developing and transition economies, we aggregated, for each sector, the main performance indicators (assets, sales and employment) which reflects the magnitude of the expansion of the activity of the companies included in these ranks outside the economic area of origin. Also, based on the algorithm for calculating the Transnationality Index, we have calculated an aggregate Sectoral Transnationality Index for each of the two tops.

Conclusions. The analysis carried out leads to a series of conclusions regarding the dynamics and configuration of the universe of the world's most prominent multinational companies. Although this is mainly an exploratory research, we appreciate that this sectoral approach leads to a deeper level of analysis, expanding the area of knowledge in the field and, at the same time, creating a framework for new investigative perspectives.

As time went by, innovations have not only accompanied, but also shaped the evolution of humankind, while being its loyal source of progress; and they have played the same leading role at organizational (firm/company) level – although, if moving beyond the cumulative (global) outputs, a thorough (unit based) analysis would reveal that (the same) innovations have always distinguished between first movers and followers, innovators and imitators, winners and losers. Thus, the most innovative companies have had the opportunity of capitalizing on their realized innovation potential as industry innovation leaders, while the other companies have had to search for other types of strategic positioning in order to be competitive. But realities and trends are quite different nowadays – the unprecedented (time-related) pace and (space-related) diffusion rate that characterize innovations ask for companies to fundamentally change their approach on innovation: under the new circumstances, innovation can no longer be an option (but a perennial must – a marathon, not a sprint) and each company has to become (to a certain degree) an innovative company – in order to survive. Against this background, the paper aims to: (a). provide an outline of the main categories/topics the literature on organizational innovation deal with; (b). identify the profile and main characteristics of innovative companies; (c). compare and contrast two globally recognized rankings of the most innovative companies (BCG & PwC) in terms of companies’ characteristics.

The purpose of the present research is estimating the potential traffic for SIA (Sibiu International Airport, SBZ) for the year 2017. Predicting as accurate as possible the passenger traffic for a certain airport is an aspect of major importance for both the airport management and the airline companies. The theoretical quality of the forecasting models for air traffic of passengers is fundamental for obtaining the most accurate predictions. In this regard, a two-step process was used in developing the traffic forecasting model: (1) Identifying the proper regression model for traffic estimation based on the number of aircraft departures, and (2) Forecasting the number of aircraft departures for the current routes operated SIA. The predicted total passenger traffic overestimates the actual total traffic with only 2.4% and the actual total traffic without the transit traffic with only 1.42%.

The term “people's quality of life” has not been given any widespread explanation in the context of society digital transformation. There are six attributes specified to characterize digital component of people's quality of life. Basing on official statistics data, subindices for the corresponding data blocks were computed. A mixed method to estimate the digital component of people's quality of life was used. Also, the Russian index of digital component of people's quality of life was defined for the whole country and for its federal districts. The results of computations allowed to characterize the changes in subindices within blocks and in the integral index covering eight federal districts and in Russia in the whole for the period of 2015–2017. Positive dynamics of the Russian index of digital component of people's quality of life was revealed with some fluctuations for different federal districts.

Innovation is considered an essential point of market competitivity and industrial dynamics. However, there is one main reason that delays or inhibits the innovation spread, the consumer resistance to innovation. Innovation resistance of the consumers has undergone less consideration to describe and forecast adoption-related behaviour. The actual paper develops and empirically validates a scale that intends to measure consumers’ inclination to resist innovation that emerge from people’s tendency to resist changes and manifest status-quo satisfaction when it’s related to fashion items. The scale describes a measure of the inclination to the status-quo option, even if people are satisfied with existing fashion items or with the degree of innovation in the fashion industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing Mauritian consumers’ attitude towards SMS advertising. Based on the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory, a questionnaire was designed and administered among 277 University of Mauritius students using a survey method. Results showed a positive relationship between infotainment, credibility and SMS advertising value. Findings also revealed that advertising value had a positive impact on attitude towards SMS advertisement. Conversely, irritation had a negative relationship with the SMS advertising value. Therefore, marketing managers should present precise information to consumers in a pleasant and enjoyable way. Offensive, insulting and frustrating elements in SMS adverts that can irritate consumers should be avoided. These findings have managerial implications for marketing practitioners in creating and implementing effective SMS marketing campaigns to tap into the benefits of using mass advertising.

Since the seminal work of Chris Argyris research has realized that the design of Management Control Systems (MCS) has a significant impact on the social framework of an organization. This influence has been discussed in literature for decades. But there has been no holistic alternative for budget related MCS until the development of Beyond Budgeting (BB). Even though BB proponents claim that BB empowers organizations to become more adaptable, efficient and fair and is able to reduce unethical behaviors, BB has not been adopted by a considerable amount of organizations. One reason for this conservative attitude of organizations might be the lack of a framework that makes it possible to assess the possible advantages of BB for a specific organization. Current research suggests evaluating MCS in terms of their impact on organizational justice perceptions. Building on these new empirical findings, our paper tries to contribute to a better understanding of the potential advantages and disadvantages of BB by assessing the impact of BB characteristics on organizational justice perceptions. After identifying BB core characteristics, these characteristics are assessed regarding their impact on organizational justice perceptions. Partial least squares regression is applied to evaluate the relationship between BB core characteristics and organizational justice perceptions. Our results suggest that applying BB might enhance informational and interpersonal justice perceptions and therefore be beneficial for knowledge-based organizations.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of cryptocurrencies, including the origin of cryptocurrencies, how cryptocurrencies operate, and the current situation of cryptocurrencies. In addition, we also provide the performance comparison of major cryptocurrencies with the performance of the stock market indexes. All the cryptocurrencies exhibit higher average returns and volatility than the stock market indexes, which appeals to risk-taking investors. We then perform additional analysis on the determinants of cryptocurrencies returns. We show that major fundamental variables are less likely to affect the returns of cryptocurrencies except for the S&P 500 index returns and the exchange rates between U.S. dollars and Euros.

Neuromarketing as research method contrbutes to understanding consumer behavior a step further than traditional marketing research. The aim of the current study is to explore the usability and cognitive understanding of banking services webpages. In this regard, the theoretical part of the article reviews the relevant literature related to neuromarketing as research method and the use of eye-tracker as research technique. Further on, a two-step research design was developed for studying the consumers’ attention and memory during and after viewing two Romanian banking services websites. The results showed that the way information is structured and presented on the webpages influence their usabiliy and cognitive understanding.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the content of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and to find the connections and the differentials factors that are between the two areas. The study is based on literature review and wants to find the core subjects and the differentials between the two areas, in order to a better and comprehensive understanding of these topics.

The history of family run business in Surat, India is more than 350 years now. However, over the last several decades, it has been observed that family run enterprises in Surat have not been able to scale up the business by untapping opportunities in international markets. The paper aims to explore the experiences of family-run enterprise owners in their attempt to grow their businesses in Surat. Given the stagnant growth trajectory, less expansion, and minimal diversification over the last several decades, the researcher is intrigued to study the experiences of these family-run enterprise owners. As a phenomenological research study, there is only one question: What experiences have these enterprise owners faced in a family-run enterprise as they attempt to grow their businesses? Non-leading prompts were asked to encourage participants to expand their responses to lead to a deeper understanding of those experiences. As respondents, seventeen family-run enterprise owners have been contacted for In-Depth Interview (IDI). The respondents were from diamond, textile and restaurant business in Surat. The study aided in identifying existing challenges and strengths making the whole experience of family-run enterprise owners unique, diverse and different from the conventional businesses operating in different industry. The findings indicate that the potential of family-run enterprises have not been harnessed to its fullest due to prevailing mediocrities, sub-standard practice, sophisticated and disoriented business procedures and system. Organization Development (OD) interventions would be effective in unearthing deeper issues and problems amongst these family-run enterprises in Surat.

Economic growth can be seen as an effect of both fiscal policies and different legislative norms applied at national and macroeconomic level. Investments are a determining factor in the evolution of socio-economic life, influencing also the employment rate. This paper aims to identify the influence of investments on economic growth and employment using the vector autoregressive model (VAR). Based on the quarterly data from Romania, between the first quarter of 2000 and the second quarter of 2018, the Granger causality test and the impulse - response function was applied to identify the effect of the investments on the sustainable development of the Romanian economy. The results revealed that investments in Romania influence the economic growth and, implicitly, the employment. In terms of impulse – response function, a negative relationship between investment and employment was identified, which may be due to the fact that the need for human resources is no longer a priority in some sectors of activity due to technology.

This paper examines the characteristics that relate to a country’s entrepreneurial attitudes, perceptions, intentions, and aspirations for 17 developing and emerging economies during the 2002-2016 period. Many of those countries have recorded high economic growth rates and have increasingly become more outward-oriented in terms of both, exporting activities as well as direct investments abroad. The empirical analysis is based on survey data from the Adult Population Survey of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project. We create an overall entrepreneurial attitude index (taking values between 0 and 100) from 6 underlying GEM entrepreneurial attitude indicators. In addition to examining relevant cross-country patterns and trends, a statistical analysis is conducted to test whether a more positive entrepreneurial attitude in a country is associated with a higher international business orientation. The findings indicate that there has been an increase in the overall entrepreneurial attitude index on average, but there are different trends among countries. Most importantly, the results show that improved entrepreneurial attitudes do not explain the increasing international business orientation that has been observed during the sample period. This suggests that in the developing and emerging economies under study other factors were strongly driving the expansion of international business activities.