Economic and Business Review (EBR)
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362 research outputs found
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Exploring Consumer Resilience during COVID-19: Demographics, Consumer Optimism, Innovativeness and Online Buying
No full textThis study investigates the predictors and outcome of consumer resilience given the Covid-19 pandemic and retail context. Predictors are represented by demographic characteristics and underexplored protective factors of consumer optimism and innovativeness, while the outcome variable includes online buying. Empirical research was conducted on the convenience sample of 400 Croatian consumers. Research results show that, given demographic characteristics, gender plays an important role in consumer resilience. In terms of the individual protective factors, both consumer optimism and innovativeness positively influence consumer resilience. In addition, consumer resilience negatively impacts online buying. Findings also have practical implications for companies’ marketing strategies
Tightening and Loosening of Macroprudential Policy, Its Effects on Credit Growth and Implications for the COVID-19 Crisis
No full textIn this study, we analyze the effects of macroprudential measures on bank lending in the European Union. We develop several dedicated macroprudential policy indices reflecting different policy actions taken by the authorities in individual member countries, with the aim to affect credit activity in national banking sectors. In our empirical model, we measure responsiveness of gross loans in banks to selected macroprudential policy indices, taking into account a set of bank level and macroeconomic control variables. We use the Fitch Connect bank level dataset with financial statements for 3,434 European banks with 18,616 observations and macroeconomic data provided by the World Bank and IMF statistics covering the period between 2000 and 2017. Information on the use of macroprudential instruments is taken from a new macroprudential policy database, MaPPED, gathered and published by European Central Bank, where we were able to extract the information on both timing and the direction of use of the macroprudential policy instruments. Our findings show that macroprudential instruments can be used effectively for regulatory modulation of credit activity in banks, with some fluctuations in the level of the effectiveness through the business cycles. Therefore, in loosening cycles, macroprudential measures are found to be strongly and positively associated with bank lending. On the other side, tightening actions are found to have a downward effect on bank lending, while these effects are less pronounced. These results are of great importance in the current crisis arising from the impact of COVID-19, as policymakers are trying to support the economy by easing macroprudential regulatory constraints to ensure lending to the real sector
Accommodating HRM in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): A Critical Review
No full textThe significance and imprint of SMEs as dominant employers is not proportionally reflected in people management scholarship. In an effort to map out the prospects for greater understanding, this paper critically evaluates the prevailing understanding in HRM. First, a case is made for definitional clarity to avoid aggregate interpretations of SMEs and ill-defined applications of HRM. The paper then explores four key theoretical frames of reference, namely universalism, best fit, cultural and ecological theories, highlighting their merits and limitations as applied in the SME context. This assessment results in a call for more holistic, integrative and context sensitive theory and research to understand the dynamics of talent management in an SME context. This provides a pathway to better capture, and inform, the realities of practice in this area
International Reflections on the Challenges of Entrepreneurial Education Working with Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
No full textWith the European Council looking to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to help support the strategic goal of increasing small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) activity through increased entrepreneurial education, we reflect on the challenges facing both HEIs and SMEs through the lens of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 funded research and innovation staff exchange project ‘Global Entrepreneurial Talent Management 3’ (GETM3). This research generated data during the three-year duration of the project and through a mixed-methods approach. The effectiveness of entrepreneurial education against this strategic requirement and the barriers which need to be overcome to achieve it are considered. We observed that common ground between academia and SMEs is favoured where partnerships are interactive, agile and flexible. We finalise this paper by offering a series of recommendations and guidelines to help HEIs work more closely together to fuel further entrepreneurial activity
Accounting for Sources of Information in Trade Fairs: Evidence from Portuguese Exhibitors
No full textTrade fairs are important sources of information for decision making in marketing management. Currently, trade fairs are places where participants share useful data and information, while creating relationships between customers (visitors) and suppliers (exhibitors). However, only a limited number of studies have focused on the identification of the sources of information that exhibitors can provide for marketing managers at trade fairs. This study examines the importance of the different types of information resources that can be delivered by exhibitors to managers in order to transfer information about product and market trends. Based on the data from a survey of 172 Portuguese executives from different industries, the theoretical hypotheses are tested, using CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis). Consistent with our hypotheses, the results show that Direct Marketing techniques, such as face-to-face contacts and product/service demonstrations, are often used by exhibitors. Information in digital formats and demonstration in digital equipment (Digital Marketing) are also used in trade fairs to display information to potential customers. Additionally, the organization of parallel events (Event Marketing) during a trade fair supplements the package of activities developed by exhibitors to transmit and capture information for their companies. These results provide certain support for the importance of trade fairs in view of being a rich source of market information about not only new technological developments of products, but also major strengths and weaknesses of competitors, and future market trends, among other types of information needed for the marketing planning
Welcome Aboard! Earning Your Place on the Crew
No full textAn important TM practice to improve retention of newcomers is the socialization process used to assimilate them. We conducted two studies; an exploratory qualitative study followed by a survey-based study. Our results indicate a substantial percentage of U.S. workers experience hazing as newcomers. Compared to newcomers who experience traditional onboarding, hazed workers report higher turnover intentions and strain and lower levels of engagement; important outcomes for firms seeking to reduce the costs and disruptions of early-tenure turnover. Leaders of SMEs may heed the call to provide a welcome mat rather than a gauntlet for new employees to run
The European National Transfer Accounts: Data and Applications
No full textPopulation ageing exerts considerable pressure on the funding of public transfers. It is of utmost importance to understand how the transfer system can adapt to population ageing. Using National Transfer Accounts, we illustrate the different organisation of transfer systems across Europe. Countries like Greece and Romania, where labour income already falls short of consumption at age 54, would greatly improve their public system sustainability by following the Swedish example where this happens ten years later. High consumption at older ages is less problematic when financed substantially through savings (the UK) rather than almost exclusively through transfers (Austria)
Get What You Give? Investigating Employer and Young Professionals’ Psychological Contracts in European SMEs
No full textThis paper looks at psychological contracts in small and medium-sized enterprises, an underrepresented topic in the psychological contract literature. Adopting a multi-perspective approach, we explore what employers and young professionals expect regarding their employment obligations. The results of a qualitative research design and interviews conducted in four European countries reveal the importance of competence and performance-enhancing behaviours on one side and support for performance and development, good working conditions, autonomy, flexibility, work–life balance, and relationships on the other. Moreover, we identify what is offered and expected by both members of the dyad and shed light on the changing dynamics of today’s psychological contracts. Our findings hold implications for both employers wishing to retain their best young professionals and individuals interested in understanding what small and medium-sized enterprises are offering prospective candidates
An Increase in Racism during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Ontology of Race: Intercultural Comparison of the European and Chinese Traditions
No full textThe article treats intercultural problems of global-scale crises, focusing upon the pandemic of the viral disease COVID-19. It deals with the question of whether racism is universal or culturally conditioned, and shows that it is an ideological inheritance of the ontological status of the concept of race, which was developed and established in the context of the European ideational tradition. By presenting traditional Chinese models of relational and anti-essentialist concepts of the self, the article aims to point to new possibilities of understanding interpersonal and intercultural interactions that can help us to develop new strategies against the pandemic