Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy (E-Journal)
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Size Matters: Entrepreneurship and Institutions
Get PDFEncouraging the growth of firms is a priority for many governments, so identifying the factors that keep firms small is extremely important for public policy. One of these factors might be the poor quality of institutions. In this paper, I test whether institutions such as corruption, law and order, regulations, bureaucracy, investment friendliness of the government and property rights affect the number micro, small and medium firms and their rate of growth. This paper uses data on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME's) from the International Finance Corporation and firm growth data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys. It shows that better institutions increase the number of medium firms and encourage their growth, but do not have an effect on the number or growth of micro, small or large firms. These results suggest that changes in public policies are needed to improve institutions and foster the survival and growth of medium firms
Social Entrepreneurship – a Perspective of the Young Romanians
Get PDFMore and more nonprofit organizations employ business strategies to be more effective and to achieve their social goals. Social entrepreneurship is an option for increasingly more people who want to change the society for the better. The study investigates how Romanians understand the role of nonprofit organizations in society, as well as which are the perceived differences between nonprofit organizations and social enterprises. Of special interest is the Millennials` view, an increasingly more important part of the society. The results lead not only to a better understanding of the way the social system is perceived but also to identifying how to involve Millennials in the social economy
Knowledge Dynamics
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to present a new perspective on knowledge dynamics. This perspective is based on the energy metaphor and the theory of multifield knowledge spectrum. That makes a significant step forward with respect to all the other knowledge dynamics models, which are based on the stocks and flows metaphor since the new perspective uses the entropy principle from thermodynamics and not the Newtonian logic. While the metaphor of knowledge flows leads to the physical motion in space, the metaphor of knowledge energy allows us to interpret dynamics as an irreversible transformation between two well-defined fields. Also, the paper presents the entropic transformation of the potential organizational knowledge into the operational organizational knowledge performed by organizational integrators
A Theoretical Analysis of the Mission Statement Based on the Axiological Approach
Get PDFThe aim of this work is focused on a theoretical analysis of formulating the mission statement of business organizations in relation to the idea of the organizational axiological core. On one hand, we consider the CSR-Corporate Social Responsibility which, in our view, must be brought into direct connection both with the moral entrepreneurship (which should support the philosophical perspective of the statement of business organizations mission) and the purely economic entrepreneurship based on profit maximization (which should support the pragmatic perspective). On the other hand, an analysis of the moral concepts which should underpin business is becoming fundamental, in our view, as far as the idea of the social specific value of the social entrepreneurship is evidenced. Therefore, our approach highlights a number of epistemic explanations in relation to the actual practice dimension
America’s Economic Crisis and Europe’s Hamletian Dilemma
Get PDFThe current paper aims to present briefly, yet clearly, the key developments of the complex phenomenon that is usually labeled as the ”global economic crisis”. Furthermore, the paper reveals some of the contagion mechanisms that transformed the American banking crisis into “Europe’s existential crisis”. The paper builds on a general consent that seems to be emerging among scholars and politicians – “the crisis in Europe is existential. It is a question of whether the EU survives as a recognizable entity.” (Giddens, 2012). We totally agree with the fact that the American crisis and the European crisis could (and should) be now treated as two separate realities. However, these realities have emerged from the same root cause, which means that in order to understand why Europe is now struggling with its Hamletian dilemma, one should first take a close look behind the scenes of global economy
From Solution Shop to Boutique Consulting? Capturing Recent Developments on the German Consulting Market
Get PDFDigitalization, globalization, new technologies and shorter product life cycles are only a few keywords underlining the fact that companies are under increasing pressure for faster adaptation, innovation and hence applying a higher knowledge intensity. We assume that these conditions require an increasingly important role of consulting companies, because they seem to be the intermediaries needed to bridge the faster growing gaps between existing business models, organizational structures and accelerating market change. Market pressure is growing on the market for consultant companies as well. New technologies and digitalization should influence both the structure of the consultancy market and the business models of consultancies. Christensen suggested a trend from Dzsolution shop” to Dzboutique consulting.” To track current developments, we concentrate on the German consulting market as one of the most important consultant markets worldwide and explore changes of the last two years based on various studies. Processes of change seem to be both substantially driven by digitalization and to reflect change on the non-consultancy markets. A high willingness to switch among providers documents a high pressure on performance. The impact of digitalisation seem to be observable in structural and qualitative change. With regard to the German consulting market and the latest available data we cannot validate a tendency from a dominance of “solution shop” consultancies to “boutique” consultancy service
The Rationality of a Social Animal
Get PDFDifferent social sciences study human beings. Economics is one of them and it is focused on a specific field of human action and social cooperation. The entire human collaboration is based on significant moral and ethical standards. If we want to understand how people are involved in economic (and other social) relationships, we need to understand the human nature. There are many scientists that consider human beings to be closed to animals, often being dominated by impulses and feelings difficult to be controlled. An inter-disciplinary science has been developed – behavioral economics that provide an interpretation to human action from this perspective. The idea to consider human beings closer to animals (social or not) is an argument to introduce a third party (the state) that should regulate and control the human actions do not become aggressive or disruptive. The state is viewed as panacea to these imperfections associated to the human way of acting and cooperating. Crisis is considered to be determined or enforced by such imperfections. This paper discusses the idea of rationality in human action and argues against this common approach about its nature
International Experience of the Development of Corporate Social Responsibility: Comparative Analysis of the Influence of the State
Get PDFThe paper aims to provide analysis of the international experience of the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to provide stimulation methods used by the state to develop CSR in Russia. The study is based on the identification of characteristics of CSR development in Russia; it subsequently concludes the most appropriate methods for the Russian state and business interaction in this sphere. Determination of the level and stage of the development of CSR in Russia is carried out by multivariate statistical (cluster) analysis. The results of the study of international experience in the development of corporate responsibility and the results of the cluster analysis were used for the further improvement of the state policy in this field in Russia. This paper proposes a number of measures aimed both at improving conditions for socially responsible companies and at increasing the disclosure of information in the field of CSR and improvement of its quality
Linking Entrepreneurial Orientation to Firm Performance in a Post-Socialist Market Context: the Case of Hungary
Get PDFEntrepreneurial orientation provoked the interest of numerous scholars as well as political and administrative decision-makers. Both start-ups and already established corporate entities are increasingly persecuting new opportunities, products, and business models in order to establish superiority above their competitive environment. The tendencies evince an optimist impact of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance, namely on financial performance. Beyond the aforementioned relationship, there are impulses such as environmental and organizational factors, which are affecting the businesses. The results of this study provide evidence of the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance in a post-socialist context. We test the impact of three moderators on this bivariate relationship. In contrast to the substantial body of literature for Western markets, we contribute to minimizing the considerable gap of research in post-socialist economies. Entrepreneurial orientation as an organizational behavior may affect the financial performance of businesses differently in distinct market contexts. Both, internal and external factors are crucial to identifying, analyze and monitor, to achieve superior performance and to overcome competitors. This study builds upon a stratified sampling survey of Hungarian company owners and managers from the Amadeus database. The study uses a deductive approach. For the analysis, we rely on structural equation modeling using the PLS algorithm. Our study contributes to the existing literature by means of confirming the entrepreneurial orientation to firm performance relationship for Hungary. In this context, we test the moderating effects of environmental dynamism, environmental hostility as environmental factors and firm age as an organizational factor. Environmental hostility is closely related to an unfavorable environment, deriving from rapid and radical changes in the industry, which are typical for post-soviet economies. In such dynamic environment, destructive innovations of the industrial actors appear more often as the economy switches to an open competition, capitalist market. The results confirm that the internal and external factors have no significant influence on the entrepreneurial orientation to financial performance direct relationship
Managers versus Digital Natives Employees. A Study Regarding the Perceptions of the Romanian Managers Working with Youngsters
No full textDuring the last few years, the concerns regarding the youth in the European Union have become a topic of high interest for the European Commission. The official data gathered by the European authorities show that the early school leaving and youth unemployment, coined under the umbrella term of NEETs phenomena, plague the young generation, thing which, along with the aging of the population, gives rise to many questions related to the future of the European construct in terms of economic evolution. Some authors have written since the 90s about the emergence of a new generation, comprising of people born roughly between the 1980s and the year 2000, who are digitally savvy and seem to embrace a different life outlook than the previous generations. In Romania academics and the media have become interested in this generation not because of their prolific activities and professional success, but because many of them seem to lack the desire to take a job or to invest in a solid career. Previous studies have shown that there are indeed digital natives who seem to be extremely proficient with technology, innovative, problem solvers who bring increased profit to the companies they work for, but also that there is another category of youngsters who expect much from their managers and from the companies they work for, in terms of salary and work conditions, but who are not well prepared professionally and who are not ready to respect the discipline required by their employers. The present study has the objective to reveal what Romanian managers think about the young employees (the so called digital natives) and about the prospective employees belonging to the same generation. Data has been collected using in depth interviews with Romanian managers who are currently working with digital natives and with managers who recruit youngsters. The results show that there is a remarkable gap between various groups in this generation. There seem to be two large categories of young employees: the ones who are professionally well equipped, willing to improve their lot and working to find the best ways to do their tasks, and others who seem to be always chasing for a dream in the professional realm but never manage to respect and follow the rules that would help them make it real