Published: March 11, 2015

Business failure may be the result of either voluntaristic (internal) firm actions/decisions, deterministic environmental (external) events or both given causes (integrative approach). This study examines the prevalence of these causes of business failure. Results indicate that the largest proportion of firm failures is explained by the integrative approach, although two other perspectives hold a prominent role also. Moreover, internal causes of failure are more frequent than external. The findings based on multinomial logistic regression revealed that the causes of failure also vary with the size and age of firms. The implications of the results for research and practice are discussed

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Published: April 10, 2015

This paper investigates how action-based entrepreneurship training influences entrepreneurial knowledge and personal attitudes, which in turn reportedly develop individuals’ entrepreneurship intentions. A cohort of students who had undergone social entrepreneurship training under the auspices of Enactus South Africa was studied to determine the relationship between these three key variables associated with entrepreneurship tendencies. The study, in particular, addresses the question of whether practical entrepreneurship training bears any consequences on developing students’ personal attitudes, entrepreneurship knowledge, and entrepreneurship intentions. Stratified sampling techniques were utilized to collect data from 355 Enactus South Africa students from the constituent 27 colleges and universities that …

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Published: Nov. 19, 2014

The article provides a direct test of the applicability of a western paradigm to Russia – a country with a different cultural and economic system. This article aims to give knowledge-intensive companies in Tatarstan (Russia) a better understanding about influence of their level of market orientation on business performance. This study validated Kohli and Jaworski’s market orientation scale in knowledge-intensive industries, particularly in small and medium knowledge-intensive companies in Russia. The findings show that the market orientation has a positive impact on nancial and non-financial business performance in knowledge-intensive industries. It is important for hi-tech companies to improve their performance …

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Published: Feb. 14, 2011

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement has attracted significant attention from academics and has quickly moved up the corporate agenda over the past number of years. However, the literature tends to focus disproportionately on large organizations. As SMEs (small and medium enterprises) play a crucial role in the European economy and their unique characteristics make it far from applicable for them to employ CSR theories and practices of large corporations, considerable research is needed to enhance SME CSR field. The purpose of this article is to contribute to this endeavor by conducting a thorough review of the literature on the …

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Published: April 18, 2012

These analyses explore the differences in locus of control and subjective well-being in China and Southern Africa, including how these variables relate to each other in each region and how demographic variables relate to both subjective well-being and locus of control. One hundred and eleven professionals were studied across Southern Africa and China and the hypothesis that the different regions would yield different locus of control and subjective well-being profiles was supported, with different demographic variables affecting each region differently. Furthermore, locus of control and subjective well-being were differently correlated to one another, with China showing significant negative correlation between …

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Published: Feb. 14, 2011

This study examines the predictive power of comprehensive income and its individual components within the homogenous institutional setting of German IFRS firms. First of all, the predictive power of income numbers is an attribute of high relevance for analysts as it reduces their forecast risks. Second, the standard setters are prominently referring to the importance of financial statements to assist their users in predicting the entity’s future cash flows and, in particular, their timing and certainty. Third, the examination of predictive power provides direct evidence on the relation between accounting information and future firm operating performance. The authors find no …

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Published: Oct. 8, 2011

This paper presents the most recent evolutionary lines in operational research, through a review of the basic principles that guide this field of research. In broad terms, some emphasis is given to the fact that Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (or Aid) (MCDA) takes into account that decision-making processes are complex and composed of several actors with different perceptions and value systems, stressing that this approach highlights the limits of objectivity, and considers the possibility that some problems may not have an optimal solution. In this vein, it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the modeling of particular …

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Published: Feb. 14, 2011

This paper presents the findings from a study, based on the annual reports’ analysis of German corporations listed in the DAX30, TecDAX, MDAX and SDAX, that investigates whether the implementation of audit committees and independent members with financial expertise leads to higher accounting quality (lower earnings management and accounting errors). The analysis of regressions conducted states a significant negative link between the independence and financial expertise of its members, earnings management and accounting errors. Significant results cannot be achieved if less than 50% of the audit committee members are independent financial experts

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Published: Dec. 16, 2014

Peter Drucker (1986), in “Management: Tasks, responsibilities, and practices” states that business enterprises and public-service institutions, are organs of society which do not exist for their own sake, but to fulfil a specific social purpose and to satisfy need of society, community, or individual. To achieve the above objectives, managers of these institutions must plan, control and make decisions about the resources entrusted to their care. A key element of efficient organizational decision making is to use reliable information, both operational and managerial accounting data for analysis and decision support. This can be achieved by using activity-based costing (ABC) method. …

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Published: July 5, 2012

The escalating demand of stakeholders’ interests in social performance has put pressure on corporations to embark on social responsibility reporting and practices in order to gratify the demands and to gain public support. Some organizations have already responded well to this perspective, either by publishing a separate report regarding their social activities, or by providing such information in their annual report or on their web site. The aim of this study is to better understand the relationship between CSR and financial performance in Indian context. Previous research on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance has largely been …

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