Methodology for analyzing the level of international entrepreneurship development

Purpose: The purpose of this article is the development of a methodology for analyzing the level of international entrepreneurship development and how to introduce and test this methodology in the non-financial enterprises in Poland. Design/Methodology/Approach: The proposed methodology consists of three stages. At the first stage, the indicators are analyzed, allowing revealing the level of participation of business structures in the national economy system. At the second stage, indicators characterizing the degree of investment activity and the efficiency of business structures functioning, as well as their activity in international markets, are examined. The third stage is devoted to the calculation of the final index of enterprises’ participation in international entrepreneurship. The research methodology is based on the use of the following methods: a descriptive statistics method; the method of grouping statistical data; the method of correlation analysis, as well as the regression analysis method. Findings: The proposed methodology makes it possible to comprehensively assess the level of entrepreneurial structures development and the degree of their involvement in international business processes. Practical Implications: The authors’ methodology can be the scientific rationale for the process of development of international entrepreneurship. Originality/Value: The methodology proposed the total index of participation of enterprises in international entrepreneurship as a comprehensive indicator of entrepreneurial activity in international markets, based on volumes and efficiency of export operations of business structures.peer-reviewe

Transcending History’s Heavy Hand: The Future in Economic Action

Abstract This paper discusses sociological analyses of the formation and role of expectations in the economy. Recognition of the social constitution of expectations advances the understanding of economic action under conditions of uncertainty and helps to explain core features of modern capitalist societies. The range of applications of the analytical perspective is illustrated by closer examination of three core spheres of capitalist societies: consumption, investment, and innovation. To provide an idea of core challenges of the approach, three major research questions for the sociological analysis of expectations are presented.Zusammenfassung Wie lassen sich die Entstehung und die Rolle von Erwartungen in der Wirtschaft soziologisch analysieren? Erwartungen sind sozial konstituiert. Der Rekurs auf Erwartungen trägt zum Verständnis wirtschaftlichen Handelns unter Bedingungen von Unsicherheit und zum Verständnis charakteristischer Wesenszüge moderner kapitalistischer Gesellschaften bei. Nähere Betrachtungen von drei Sphären wirtschaftlicher Aktivität – Konsum, Investition und Innovation – verdeutlichen das breite Spektrum möglicher Anwendungen der Erwartungsperspektive in der Wirtschaftssoziologie. Die zentralen Herausforderungen für die soziologische Analyse von Erwartungen werden anschließend anhand von drei wichtigen Forschungsfragen skizziert.Contents 1 Introduction 2 Uncertainty and the social constitution of expectations 3 Expectations in contemporary capitalism Consumption Investment Innovation 4 Questions and perspectives of an economic sociology of expectations Where do expectations come from? How do expectations spread and gain momentum? The moral economy of expectations 5 Conclusion Reference

A new perspective on the competitiveness of nations

The capability of firms to survive and to have a competitive advantage in global markets depends on, amongst other things, the efficiency of public institutions, the excellence of educational, health and communications infrastructures, as well as on the political and economic stability of their home country. The measurement of competitiveness and strategy development is thus an important issue for policy-makers. Despite many attempts to provide objectivity in the development of measures of national competitiveness, there are inherently subjective judgments that involve, for example, how data sets are aggregated and importance weights are applied. Generally, either equal weighting is assumed in calculating a final index, or subjective weights are specified. The same problem also occurs in the subjective assignment of countries to different clusters. Developed as such, the value of these type indices may be questioned by users. The aim of this paper is to explore methodological transparency as a viable solution to problems created by existing aggregated indices. For this purpose, a methodology composed of three steps is proposed. To start, a hierarchical clustering analysis is used to assign countries to appropriate clusters. In current methods, country clustering is generally based on GDP. However, we suggest that GDP alone is insufficient for purposes of country clustering. In the proposed methodology, 178 criteria are used for this purpose. Next, relationships between the criteria and classification of the countries are determined using artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANN provides an objective method for determining the attribute/criteria weights, which are, for the most part, subjectively specified in existing methods. Finally, in our third step, the countries of interest are ranked based on weights generated in the previous step. Beyond the ranking of countries, the proposed methodology can also be used to identify those attributes that a given country should focus on in order to improve its position relative to other countries, i.e., to transition from its current cluster to the next higher one

The countryside in urbanized Flanders: towards a flexible definition for a dynamic policy

The countryside, the rural area, the open space, … many definitions are used for rural Flanders. Everyone makes its own interpretation of the countryside, considering it as a place for living, working or recreating. The countryside is more than just a geographical area: it is an aggregate of physical, social, economic and cultural functions, strongly interrelated with each other. According to international and European definitions of rural areas there would be almost no rural area in Flanders. These international definitions are all developed to be used for analysis and policy within their specific context. They are not really applicable to Flanders because of the historical specificity of its spatial structure. Flanders is characterized by a giant urbanization pressure on its countryside while internationally rural depopulation is a point of interest. To date, for every single rural policy initiative – like the implementation of the European Rural Development Policy – Flanders used a specifically adapted definition, based on existing data or previously made delineations. To overcome this oversupply of definitions and delineations, the Flemish government funded a research project to obtain a clear and flexible definition of the Flemish countryside and a dynamic method to support Flemish rural policy aims. First, an analysis of the currently used definitions of the countryside in Flanders was made. It is clear that, depending on the perspective or the policy context, another definition of the countryside comes into view. The comparative study showed that, according to the used criteria, the area percentage of Flanders that is rural, varies between 9 and 93 per cent. Second, dynamic sets of criteria were developed, facilitating a flexible definition of the countryside, according to the policy aims concerned. This research part was focused on 6 policy themes, like ‘construction, maintenance and management of local (transport) infrastructures’ and ‘provision of (minimum) services (education, culture, health care, …)’. For each theme a dynamic set of criteria or indicators was constructed. These indicators make it possible to show where a policy theme manifests itself and/or where policy interventions are possible or needed. In this way every set of criteria makes up a new definition of rural Flanders. This method is dynamic; new data or insights can easily be incorporated and new criteria sets can be developed if other policy aims come into view. The developed method can contribute to a more region-oriented and theme-specific rural policy and funding mechanism

Does relationship lending promote growth? : Savings banks and SME financing

This paper addresses the question whether close borrower-lender relationships, so called hausbank-relationships, facilitate the funding and beneficial development of SME. To this end, we derive a model which relates a firm's growth rate to its need for external funds and subsequently compute the firms that exceed their predicted growth rate. We then use this measure to identify specific characteristics that are associated with long- and short-term financing of firm growth, in particular the influence of relationship lending. We find that close ties with savings banks predict firms' access to external finance to fund growth. Moreover, the long-term liabilities of firms with hausbank-relationships almost double those with multiple relationships while the overall leverage is about the same. In turn, we find an strong empirical relationship between the provision of long-term funds and firm growth. Keywords: small business lending, credit access, public banks JEL Classifications: G21, D2

Explaining Influences on Career \u27Choice\u27 in Comparative Perspective

This study explores the influences on career choices of the MBA students from three countries at micro-individual, meso-institutional and relational and macro-structural levels, questioning the apparent dominance of ‘free choice’ in the context of persistent forms of structural constraints in career markets. The paper takes a critical perspective on career ‘choice’, acknowledging the contested nature of ‘choice’ and identifying career as a product of socially and historically situated choices which are negotiated through structural constraints The central hypothesis of the study is that ‘it is more likely for the MBA students to report micro-agentic or meso-instutional and relational rather than macro-structural conditions as key influences on their career choices’. The study draws on the findings of a cross-national survey involving Britain, Israel, and Turkey, using the career choice dimensions designed by Özbilgin and Healy (2003). Findings show that MBA students consider the impact of structural conditions as less significant on their career choices than their own human capital and capacity to make free choices. The study provides an understanding of the main cross-national diversities and similarities in reporting of influences on career ‘choice’, and brings to bare interesting theoretical and methodological insights

Competition, corporate governance and selection in emerging markets

The paper introduces the three articles in this Policy Feature, concerned respectively with competition, corporate governance and selection in emerging markets. Apart from being important in their own right, it is shown how these topics have recently acquired urgent domestic and international policy significance. This overview also provides the intellectual background to the issues raised in the papers and examines their interrelationships in analytical, empirical and methodological terms. It outlines a research programme which would not only have direct policy relevance for both emerging and mature countries, but would also have broader analytical significance for many areas of economic theory.Competition, Corporate Governance, Selection, Emerging Markets