Capital Budgeting for Small Businesses: An Appropriate Modification of Net Present Value

This paper sets forth a capital budgeting technique that is both theoretically correct and sensitive to the special financing needs of the small business. This technique involves evaluating cash flows and determining if they are sufficient to meet the loan payment schedule. A sufficient amount of cash flow must remain after debt obligations are met to compensate the equity investment. Net operating cash flows are discounted at the cost of equity while the tax shield from interest and depreciation is discounted at the cost of debt

A Proposed Capital Budgeting Technique For Liquidity Constrained Small Businesses

Although the ad vantages of capital budgeting models using discounted cash flaws are well known, small businesses continue to rely on non-discounted techniques in making capital budgeting decisions. This paper analyzes the financial environment in which small businesses operate that makes traditional capital budgeting models inappropriate. A capital budgeting technique is developed that is sensitive to the needs of small businesses and also meets the three-fold criteria for capital budgeting methods.

An Exploratory Role Analysis Of Opinion Leaders, Adopters, And Communicative Adopters With A Dynamically Continuous Innovation

Since Venkatraman’s (1989) research on communicative adopters, little attention has been directed toward this segment of consumers who are often very important actors in the adoption process.  This research is designed to examine whether Venkatraman's (1989) communicative adopter concept is applicable to dynamically continuous innovations, in this case, Graphic User Interface (GUI) computer software. The communicative adopter group was found to be significantly different than all other groups on all constructs except homophily.  Consistent with Venkatraman's (1989) research, the communicative adopter segment can be called "Change Agents."  Each of the three segments, opinion leaders, adopters, and communicative adopters, is important to marketers of new GUI computer software, but this research suggests that the best prospects in terms of marketing efforts are the communicative adopters.  The results extend research in this area and provide support for theory development.  Issues with respect to managerial implications, such as market segmentation strategies, are also discussed

The R&D Tax Credit And Its Implications For Small Business

The present study describes how the R&D tax credit functions, explores the impact of the R&D tax credit on SMEs, and proposes that the R&D tax credit is granted permanent status in the US tax code.  This would provide a permanent tax incentive for SMEs to create new technology based intellectual property.  Similar tax credits have been effectively adopted in Europe to stimulate high technology business creation

Green marketing in the top publicly traded Australian organizations

This paper examines the inclusion of sustainability into marketing activities of the top Australian firms. The results found that almost half of organisations (46%) did not integrate sustainability or environmental issues into their mission statement. Of those that did include sustainability in their mission, few then integrated environmental issues into other areas of their activities, as reported on their corporate web sites. This suggests that while sustainability is frequently talked about within organisations as being important, it does not necessarily translate in to a strategic integration across activities. Firms might therefore be using environmental issues tactically, which could unfortunately result in superficial attempts at becoming environmentally sustainable.<br /

Social enterprises and the performance advantages of a Vincentian marketing orientation

This study focuses on the managerial issue of should social enterprises (SEs) become more marketing oriented. It adapts the Kohli et al. (J Mark Res 30:467–477, 1993) MARKOR marketing orientation scale to measure the adoption of marketing by SEs. The items capture Vincentian-based values to leverage business in service to the poor as a measure of a Vincentian marketing orientation (VMO). A VMO is an organisational wide value-driven philosophy of management that focuses a SE on meeting its objectives by adopting a more marketing orientated approach to serve the needy and poor in a just and sustainable manner. SEs that exhibit a VMO seek to understand and respond to both the needs of their beneficiaries and stakeholders. They are constantly generating, disseminating, and responding to environmental, beneficiary, and stakeholder information and develop their business propositions to more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the poor, while guided by a philosophy of leveraging business for social good. This study of SEs in Australia found that a VMO is strongly and positively correlated with social, economic, and environmental performance. These findings suggest that SEs may benefit by leveraging marketing capabilities to better serve their beneficiaries and stakeholders

The Unintended Effects of AACSB\u27s 2003 Accreditation Standards

The AACSB recently adopted new accreditation guidelines that are less restrictive regarding what constitutes qualified faculty for accreditation purposes. The new standards are less restrictive, with less emphasis on a terminal degree and more on faculty being fully participating. However, the new standard may have a detrimental effect on the quality of collegiate business education. It may also reduce the standing and prestige of business schools within the university community. Finally, it may reduce the value of AACSB accreditation

Climate change regulation : implications for business executives

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to provide an overarching conceptual decision model that delineates the major issues and decisions associated with carbon regulations that will allow executives to better understand the potential regulatory schemes and implications that may be imposed in the near future.Design/methodology/approach &ndash; The authors use the extant literature as the foundation to develop a conceptual model of the decisions pertaining to climate change regulation that face business executives today.Findings &ndash; This paper suggests four major categories of issues that must be addressed in any climate change regulatory scheme. These include: &ldquo;scope&rdquo; &ndash; will carbon emission management systems be global or regional; &ldquo;who pays&rdquo; &ndash; will the consumer or will the supply chain be responsible for the cost of their emissions; &ldquo;market or compliance-based mechanisms&rdquo; &ndash; will the CO2 emissions system be market-based or a compliance-based regulatory system; and &ldquo;criteria&rdquo; &ndash; how can credence of the remedy be established &ndash; what is necessary for a business initiative to qualify for as a creditable carbon offset?Research limitations/implications &ndash; This paper offers a framework that categories the fundamental decisions that must be made in any climate change regulation. This framework may be useful in advancing research into any of the four categories of decisions and their implications on commerce and the environment. This paper is designed to be managerially useful and in that way does limit its ability to specifically advance many dimensions of research.Practical implications &ndash; The paper offers executives for a simple model of the decisions that must be made to craft an effective climate change regulatory scheme. In addition, it suggests how these decisions may create exploitable economic opportunities for innovative and proactive firms.Originality/value &ndash; This paper adds value to the debate by clarifying the decisions that must be addressed in any climate change regulation scheme.<br /