Volume 53 (2017): Issue 1 (March 2017)

The debate about the influence of financial market development on economic growth has been ongoing for more than a century. Since Schumpeter [1912] wrote about the happenings on Lombard Street there has been growing interest in the way financial market development affects economic activity and growth. As development issues have deepened, inquiry into the finance-growth nexus has also grown, with recent research focusing on various aspects of financial crisis and developments in the BRICS economies. This study investigates the influence of financial market development on the higher growth of BRICS as compared to non-BRICS counterparts. The research utilizes the Generalised Method of Moments and an extended endogenous growth model to estimate the influence of a set of financial market indicators. We find that higher private sector levels of credit and financial depth in the BRICS economies contributed to the economic growth of those economies.

This article analyzes rate-of-return and risk related to investments in socially responsible and conventional country indices. The socially responsible indices are the DJSI Korea, DJSI US and Respect Index, and the corresponding conventional country indices are the Korea Stock Exchange Composite KOSPI, Dow Jones Industrial Average and WIG20TR. We conclude that investing in the analyzed SRI indices do not yield systematically better results than investing in the respective conventional indices, both in terms of neoclassical risk and return rate.

This finding suggest that socially responsible investing should be assessed in terms of behavioral economics related to the psycho-social features of investors, rather than to simplified rational choices (based only on the risk and return rate analysis) that neoclassical economics assumes.

Crime is a major impediment to economic growth and development in Nigeria despite measures taken to reduce it. There is, however, currently no major statistical analysis of how crime affects economic growth in that country. This study examines the link between crime and growth based on the theory of rational choice and empirical data. Exogenous and endogenous growth models are employed, and include deterrence variables. The period examined is 1970–2013 and estimation is done using the autoregressive distributed lag model. The results of our study show that crime affects economic growth at a 1% and 10% level of significance. In other words, crime imposes the costs of prosecution and punishment on the citizens and country, which influences the growth of the economy. Given our results, we suggest that police and the system of justice should be strengthened. Indeed, this may be necessary if the development target stated in Nigeria vision 20: 2020 is to be reached.

There is an intrinsic link between the success of service firms and the availability of high-quality human resources, making employee attitudes and behaviors a critical concern for service organizations. This paper examines the role of generational differences in the relationship between person-environment fit, job satisfaction and work engagement in the tourism industry. The study was based on a group of 981 tourism employees in 15 localities in Poland. Data were collected through self-administered paper-based questionnaires. The hypothesized relationships were tested using a hierarchical regression analysis. This research revealed that Generation Y employees experienced lower job satisfaction, lower work engagement, and a lower degree of needs being met in the workplace than did their predecessors. It was also found that person-group fit was a stronger predictor of work attitudes for Millennials. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on generational diversity in the workplace and its implication for human resources management. Specifically, in the service context, it adds a generational perspective of the person-environment fit influence on work-related attitudes.

This paper investigates organisational-level attributes that allow European SMEs to choose equity-based modes of entry to foreign markets, thus becoming micro-multinationals. We hypothesize that international R&D cooperation (hypothesis 1) and using digital marketing (hypothesis 2) by SMEs increase their likelihood of becoming a mMNE. These hypotheses are tested through a logistic regression analysis based on a large sample of European companies drawn from the Flash Eurobarometer study. Separate regression models are estimated for companies originating from EU-13 and EU-15. Hypothesis 1 is supported by both samples. Hypothesis 2 is supported in the EU-15 sample. Our identification of organisational-level attributes that increase the likelihood of SMEs choosing equity-based internationalisation contributes to International Entrepreneurship entry mode literature.

The article clarifies the concept of value for customer, demonstrates challenges related to the concept itself and its measurement and sheds new light on the consequences of conceptual and metric choices. The analysis focuses on three points: first, it shows, how the definition and delineation of customer perceived value (CVP) implies the choice of certain measurement tools, but does not necessarily reveal the essence of the measured construct. Second, it provides a quantitative measure of CVP components showing the functional interconnections between them without presenting their causal relations. Third, it suggests the priority of a theoretical conceptualization over any technical craft considerations in CVP measurement.

The article begins with mapping and deconstructing the value concept, which is followed by a critical discussion of its measurement challenges. Mixed methodology for empirical exploration of CVP construct is recommended here, being as the approach that blends quantitative methods with a deeper understanding of CVP provided by qualitative tools.