Living in a refugee camp and making way in life through education

This is preface to special issue of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning journal (Supporting Students from Refugee and Asylum Seeker Backgrounds). Being born and having grown in a refugee camp is the context of my own experiences of learning and getting education. The challenges faced by learners in refugee camps are discussed through a personal narrative

Trust me, I'm an entrepreneur! Can trust help SMEs to gain the credit they need?

Research on relationship lending focuses attention on economic factors which influence the relationships between SMEs' owners/managers and banks but no previous work has focused on the role of trust. Trust is expected to reduce transaction costs and agency costs, reduce the perceived credit risk and, thus, influence credit availability. Trustwor-thiness is associated with three attributes of SME owner managers' namely; ability, be-nevolence and integrity. It is hypothesised that lending managers' assessment of the trustworthiness of SME owner managers affects the ability of SMES to gain the credit. Trustworthiness is hypothesised as positively associated with credit access in contrast to lower trustworthiness which is associated with credit constraint. Use of overdraft is con-sidered here as indicator of credit constraint. The data were obtained from a survey of lending managers from banks in North East Italy. Control variables and a vector of trustworthiness factors were collected on a random sample of borrowers, resulting in a sample of 535 firms. Results from regression analysis found evidence that firms enjoy-ing high level of trust are able to access the credit they need and therefore are less credit constrained. Some implications of these results for banks, owner managers and future research are discussed

Back to the future, forward from the past: The journey that is lifelong learning

"Professor Devendra Kodwani, Executive Dean of The Open University’s Faculty of Business and Law, introduced the OU's 50th anniversary inaugural lecture series with a lecture on lifelong learning and the role of universities, on Tuesday 28 January 2019. In this lecture, he reflected on the past of individual and collective learning and the role of universities. Looking to the past and the future, he put a spotlight on the present need for lifelong learning and the role of higher education institutes.

Non-compliance, board structures and the performance of financial firms during crisis: UK Evidence

This paper examines the effectiveness of internal corporate governance mechanisms for improving the performance of financial firms in the UK. The research is first of its kind to look into the relationship between corporate governance and performance of financial firms in the UK before and during the financial crisis. Using Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM) estimates that control for dynamic endogeneity, this study shows that firm performance as measured by Total Shareholder Returns (TSR) and Return on Equity (ROE) is negatively associated with the level of non-compliance with the UK Corporate Governance Code. The study also finds that having higher number of internal controls is most effective monitoring mechanism and is positively associated with firm performance. However, board independence represented by the number of non-executive directs (NEDs) is the least effective monitoring mechanism and is negatively associated with the performance of firms. The study also shows that directors’ share ownership is an effective incentive mechanism for aligning their interests with shareholders as it is positively associated with firm performance. However, the findings suggest that remuneration is negatively associated with performance. Finally, the study provides evidence which indicates that board size impact the performance of firms differently in different time periods. As proposed by agency theory the study provides evidence that shows the positive impact of effective monitoring and incentive alignment for performance. It also provides support for the resource dependence view that directors are a critical resource during difficult economic times

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and their cost of capital

Existing finance literature is inadequate with respect to its coverage of the capital structure of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This lack of coverage means that SMEs are provided with little or no guidance for optimising their cost of capital. This paper is an attempt to provide such guidance. For unlisted SMEs the cost of equity cannot be derived from the capital market, nor can it be ascertained by asking the entrepreneurs, since their decision to invest is usually driven by many other factors, over and above the simple (financial) return on investment requirement. A further problem in quantifying cost of equity results from the fact that entrepreneurs can be asked to provide additional (informal) investment in the form of personal guarantees. We put forward a model that attempts to solve these problems. Firstly, our model determines a 'legitimate' expected return for the entrepreneur, by considering the probability of liquidation of the venture and the loss incurred by the entrepreneur in this event. The former can be derived by looking at the specific survival rate of firms; the latter, is based on how much the potential bankruptcy affects the wealth of the entrepreneur. Secondly, we suggest taking into consideration the personal collateral provided by the entrepreneur, as if it were additional equity invested in the venture. To calculate such an amount, we suggest taking into account only the amount of collateralised debt that cannot be covered by the revenue from the sales of the firm's assets in case of liquidation

SMEs and banks: investigating the link between trust and the pledging of personal collateral

Research on relationship lending focuses attention on economic factors which influence the relationships between SMEs' owners/managers and banks but no previous work has focused on the role of trust. Trust is expected to reduce agency costs, the perceived credit risk and, thus, influence credit availability and credit terms. Trustworthiness is associated with three attributes of SME owner managers' namely; ability, benevolence and integrity. It is hypothesised that lending managers' assessment of the trustworthi-ness of SME owner managers affects the request of personal collateral from bank when credit is provided. Trustworthiness is hypothesised as negatively associated with per-sonal collateral in the form of personal guarantees and personal assets. Using the data obtained from a survey of lending managers from banks in North East Italy we test this relationship. Research methods include construction of control variables and a vector of trustworthiness factors based on the data collected on a random sample of 535 borrow-ing firms. Results from the regression analysis show some evidence that the line of credit of firms enjoying high level of trust are less collateralised with entrepreneurs' personal assets even if the significance of both the specification and trust is low. Our findings support the view found in earlier literature on trust that personal collateral pledging is decided at the beginning of the relationship and then such a decision is not changed by the bank. Some implications of these results and future research are dis-cussed

Trust and the Demand for Personal Collateral in SME - Bank Relationships

Previous research on relationship lending has paid very little attention to the role of trust. Trust might be ex-pected to reduce agency costs, perceived credit risk and thus the request for personal collateral. Trustworthiness is associated with three attributes of SME owner/managers’: ability, benevolence and integrity. We hypothe-sised that loan managers’ assessment of the trustworthiness of owner/managers is negatively associated with the personal collateral demanded by banks. Using the quantitative and qualitative data about 457 SMEs-bank rela-tionships in North East Italy, we tested this hypothesis. The results show that trust has a minor role in reducing the request of collateral

Analysing corporate governance and accountability practices from an African neo-patrimonialism perspective : Insights from Kenya

The authors thank the Editors of this Special Issue, including the Managing Guest Editor Dr Philippe Lassou, and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and comments that greatly improved our manuscript. The authors are also immensely grateful to Professor Teerooven Soobaroyen for his useful suggestions and critique of earlier versions of this paper, and whose feedback has helped to improve its quality significantly. Finally, we acknowledge the input of delegates at the 9th Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) Conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand.Peer reviewedPostprin

Big data academic and learning analytics: connecting the dots for academic excellence in higher education

Purpose Although big data analytics have great benefits for higher education institutions, due to lack of sufficient evidence on how big data analytics investment can pay off, it is tough for HEIs practitioners to realize value from such adoption. The current study proposes a big data academic and learning analytics enabled business value model to explain big data analytics potential benefits and business value which can be obtained by developing such analytics capabilities in HEIs. Design/methodology/approach The study examined 47 case descriptions from 26 HEIs to investigate the causal association between the big data analytics current and potential benefits and business value creation path for big data academic and learning analytics success in higher education institutions. Findings The pressure of compliance with all legal & regulatory requirements and competition had pushed higher education institutions hard to adopt BDA tools. However, the study found out that application of risk & security and predictive analytics to higher education fields is still in its infancy. Using this theoretical model, our results provide new insights to higher education administrators on ways to create big data analytics capabilities for higher education institutions transformation and suggest an empirical foundation that can lead to more thorough analysis of big data analytics implementation. Originality/value A distinctive theoretical contribution of this study is its conceptualization of understanding business value from big data analytics in the typical setting of higher education. The study provides HEIs with an all-inclusive understanding of big data analytics and gives insights on how it helps to transform HEIs. The new perspectives associated with the big data academic and learning analytics enabled business value model will contribute to future research in this area

Estuary or Confluence? A Critical Analysis of Anglo-American Governance’s Implementation within an Emerging Economy Context

This paper draws upon a critical framework of theorising, comprising of postcolonialism and neopatrimonialism perspectives, to analyse the state of corporate governance (CG) and transparency within an emerging African economy. Data consists of a combination of twenty-nine semi-structured interviews with key CG stakeholders, together with field observations and archival evidence. We uncover how foreign-originated accounting and CG systems interact with dynamisms of Kenya’s institutional and postcolonial reality, including powerful neopatrimonialism order. These includes ineffective corporate boards, rampant corruption, inadequately-skilled accounting professionals, weak regulatory and enforcement systems and lack of shareholder engagement. We find that implementation of Anglo-American governance and accounting innovations, such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), has done little to improve CG practices within Kenya’s corporate sector. In particular, ‘institutional collision’ is manifested in our findings, where we evidence conflicts between demands of formal structures and vigorous informal institutions, such as corruption and cronyism in board appointments. We argue that it is delusive to assume that Kenya’s capital markets, or those of other similar African countries, can achieve advanced countries status by merely adopting western accounting and CG structures. We conclude by recommending ways of improving CG practices in Kenya, including: re-design of corporate sector regulatory framework to remedy conflicts in regulation, encouraging shareholder activism and adoption of inclusive approach to corporate reporting