1,720,959 research outputs found
The impact of regulatory business environment on SME's funding choices in developing countries - evidence from Africa
Full text linkWhile it is known that some elements of the business environment (BE), such as macroeconomic conditions, impact access to finance and the funding choices of SMEs, very little is known whether other elements of the BE – such as the institutional setting and the regulatory business environment (RBE) – influence access to (or supply of) finance and the funding choices of SMEs. Using a World Bank Enterprise Surveys panel sample (2003-2020) from 30 African countries and employing Propensity Score Matching (PSM) methods, it is noted that while an enabling institutional setting and RBE in Africa increases access to external finance for SMEs, SMEs still opt for retained earnings over funding from banking and non-banking financial institutions for their working capital. This funding behaviour can be explained by that SMEs located in enabling RBEs have increased productivity and financial performance and so can employ larger amounts of retained earnings for their operations. Furthermore, even though more accessible in enabling RBEs, external finance remains unaffordable for most SMEs in Africa. These findings indicate the need to tailor interventions to make varied finance more accessible and affordable for SMEs in developing countries
The impact of trade facilitation on African SMEs' performance
Full text linkWhile contemporary literature indicates that the business environment (BE) impacts almost all entrepreneurial activities, there are indications that the unique business and institutional setting in Africa (with its challenges and opportunities) and the nature of SMEs (their strengths and weaknesses), among other factors, lead to context-specific impact of regulations on the performance of African SMEs. Using regressions and propensity score matching methods on a panel of 39,461 firm observations (27 African countries) from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, we unearthed evidence to suggest that while enabling tax administration and business licensing regulations improve SMEs’ performance, trade facilitation impedes African SMEs’ performance. Furthermore, the institutional context of competition (from foreign firms) worsens trade facilitation’s negative impact on African SMEs’ performance. These findings suggest a fine-tuning of BE regulations in African countries. Trade facilitation, for example, must be carefully thought through and implemented in a way to benefit SMEs
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
SME financing, performance, and innovation in developing countries – the impact of the institutional and regulatory business environment in Africa.
Full text linkSmall and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute enormously to the industrial output and export of goods and services in developing countries and play a significant role as the engine of growth in these countries, accounting for large proportions of manufacturing and general employment. However, SMEs in developing countries tend to be financially constrained, less productive, pay lower wages, and are less likely to introduce new products and services than large firms. While it is known that some elements of the business environment (BE), such as weak macroeconomic conditions, are to blame for the peculiar challenges faced by SMEs in developing countries, very little is known about the influence of other elements of the BE (such as institutions) on the operations and financial performance of SMEs. Consequently, this PhD thesis aims to explore how some elements within the BE – such as institutions, the regulatory business environment (RBE), and innovation systems – impact (1) access to finance and funding choices; (2) the financial performance; (3) the funding choices – financial performance relationship, and (4) the innovation profiles and output of SMEs in Africa. Using a rich panel sample of 39,461 firm observations (27 African countries) from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys and employing panel regressions, Propensity Score Matching (PSM), and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) methods, these findings were noted: First, the supply of external finance increases in African countries with enabling institutional and RBEs, however, this increased supply of finance does not translate to greater patronage by SMEs. Second, not all dimensions of an enabling RBE enhance the performance of SMEs in African countries. While an enabling business licensing and tax administration environment improves the performance of SMEs, trade facilitation impedes the performance of SMEs due to their limited capacity to compete with foreign firms and financial constraints. Third, working capital funding from internal sources (such as owners, family, and friends, and retained earnings) and trade credit results in weaker financial performance for SMEs in African countries, while working capital funding from financial institutions (banking and non- banking) results in stronger financial performance for SMEs in African countries. Fourth, SMEs in African countries are more likely to adopt DUI (innovation based on learning-by-doing, by-using, and by-interacting) drivers than STI (science, technology, and innovation) drivers due to their specific institutional and innovation environment. Fifth, SMEs that adopt a combination of STI and DUI drivers are more effective at generating business process (or non-technological) innovations than product (or technological) innovations. And sixth, financial constraints have a greater effect on the generation of product innovations than on business process innovations for SMEs in Africa. These findings indicate the need to tailor policies and interventions aimed at improving specific elements of regulatory institutions and innovation systems, since these institutional elements have profound impact on the operations, innovation, and financial performance of SMEs in African countries
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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