R&D Expenditures And Investors Perception For An Input On Innovation Creation And Firm Growth: Empirical Evidence From Athens Stock Exchange

The question that the present study attempts to examine, concerns whether investors value the potential of Greek enterprises to produce innovation, in a way that it could lead them to higher productivity, profitability and future growth. An answer to such a question, seems to bear significance for a country that tries to understand the reasons for an underachieving economy, struggling for growth, both macro and microeconomic. If the answer is positive, this means that investors are affected in their decision for buying or selling a stock by the growth prospect that innovation, expressed with R&D spending, creates for an enterprise. R&D expenditures are used in this study, since they represent the enterprises input for the creation of innovation (Acs & Audretsch, 1988) and therefore, the effort for future development and firm growth. The approach employed, follows the same rationale as Green et al, (1996) and Stark and Thomas (1998) do. The R&D data that we have utilized, are collected from all the Athens Stock Exchange, (henceforth ASE), public firms for the period 2005-2010 that spend on R&D. The results, unlike previous research, depict a strong negative relation between R&D expenditures and stock price. In other words, investors in this Eurozone country do not consider R&D expenditures to be creators of innovation that will result in future growth, but they seem to be affected negatively in their assessment of the firms financial condition by R&D spending

TEORIJSKA PITANJA O INFORMACIJSKIM SUSTAVIMA RAČUNOVODSTVA OKOLIŠA U OBRAZOVNIM PROGRAMIMA ZA HOTELIJERSTVO

In a competitive environment the application of Information Technology Systems by tourism companies can increase future prosperity and financial growth. The purpose of this paper is to measure the natural assets and to calculate the environmental benefits, as well as, the associated costs, so as to include all the above in the financial statements (balance sheet and profit & loss account). It is crucial to point out that the installation of a Green Accounting Information System requires evaluation of human assets (students and professors), availability of space, value the benefits, as well as, estimate the necessary installation costs. Literature suggests that although many information systems of environmental management have been developed, no significant progress was made on the growth of green accounting information systems due to the inherent difficulty for the monetary expression of environmental accumulated costs and related natural resources.U konkurentskom okruženju primjenom sustava informacijske tehnologije turistička poduzeća mogu jačati svoj budući prosperitet i financijski rast. Svrha je rada izmjerili prirodne vrijednosti, te izračunati ekološke koristi kao i pripadajuće troškove, a radi uključivanja istih u financijska izvješća (bilanca i račun dobiti i gubitka). Ključno je istaknuti da prilikom uvođenja informacijskih sustava računovodstva okoliša treba procijeniti ljudske potencijale (studenti i profesori) i raspoloži prostor, te utvrditi koristi sustava i odrediti troškove njegovog uvođenja. Iz literature se može zaključiti da, iako su izrađeni brojni informacijski sustavi za menadžment okoliša, nema značajnijeg napretka na širenju informacijskih sustava "zelenog" računovodstva zbog inherentne teškoće monetarnog izražavanja akumuliranih ekoloških troškova i s njima povezanih prirodnih resursa

An evaluation of websites quality factors in agro travel and ecotourism

Tourism is an information intensive industry and as a service industry, information is the most significant quality factor for the industry. E-tourism is part of electronic trade that includes the fastest developing technologies that assist to the hospitality and tourism strategic planning and management. The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the quality of 3 Internet sites and detecting their strong and weak points by analyzing quality into its constituent dimensions. Research was carried out by personal interviews and via electronic mails to a sample of 413 persons and internet users, out of which 157 responded. Statistical analysis included simple and multiple comparisons ANOVA and t-tests. Research detected some medium quality ratings, as well as, some more positive evaluations of certain individual factors. The Internet sites that collected the highest ratings are Agrotravel (5.32), Guest inn (5.08) and Ecotourism (4.26). Elements considered important in all three web portals are the lack of interaction facilities and conversation sections and personalized options with user personal accounts. Emphasis must be paid on the design, information, interaction and overall quality of a web site