Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business
Volume V, Number 2
ABSTRACTS
Investment in an Uncertain World
Michelle Catherine Baddeley
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse divergent approaches to the analysis of fixed asset investment. In recent years, the basic predictions of orthodox and Keynesian theory have converged despite divergent policy implications. So in this analysis a range of empirical specifications of investment models is assessed in order illuminate the appropriate policy approaches for boosting investment.
JEL Classification: E2, E12
Key words: accelerator models, Knightian uncertainty, financial markets, q theory
Strategic Accounting Problem of Capital Gearing in Croatia
Lorena Mosnja - Skare ; Marinko Skare
Abstract: The authors attempt to broaden the knowledge on the capital structure theory exploring determinants that force gearing to differ considerably. They found gearing is significantly negatively correlated with the size of the company, its profitability and tangibility. The results are based on a sample of 86 Croatian companies and are comparable to prior research in the field.
JEL Classification: G32, G3
Key words: capital structure determinants, gearing, financial management, strategic accounting
Business in Tourism: SMEs Versus MNCs
Nevenka Cavlek
Abstract: The tourism business worldwide is dominated by small businesses (SMEs). However, the liberalisation and globalisation of the world economy have led to a growing integration of markets not only for goods and capital, but for services too. This has had an inevitable influence on the development of the tourism industry. The extensive internationalisation of tourism demand has forced companies involved in tourism to create large corporations (MNCs), international strategic alliances and other forms of co-operation. The aim of this paper is to determine and analyse the business environment within which tourism companies operate.
JEL Classification: M21
Key words: tourism, SMEs, MNCs, development strategies.
Development of Management Competences in Growth-Oriented New Ventures
Jean-Paul Thommen ; Steffen Behler
Abstract: The objective of the article is to examine the management competences of founders which are relevant for the success of growth-oriented companies. A survey showed that the demands on management competences during the different stages of new ventures vary significantly. In this context the stages of business formation are defined as pre-formation stage, implementation stage and growth stage, whereas the following types of competences were identified: specialised methodological systems/innovation, leadership/social and implementation competences. While at the beginning of a new venture implementation-oriented competences seem to be of particular relevance in order to initiate a growth-oriented enterprise, leadership and social competences become increasingly significant during the further development of the enterprise. This development toward a professional management must, due to the expansive growth of growth-oriented business formations, occur within a relatively short time span.
JEL Classification: M13, M11
Key words: growth-oriented companies, competences of entrepreneurs, individual/team competences, measures to develop management competences
Regional Partnership – Entrepreneurship Development Concept
Sylwia Sysko-Romańczuk ; Alberto Lozano
Abstract: The worsening economic situation in Poland demonstrated by the growing number of companies going bankrupt, a high unemployment rate, deepening disproportion in development rate in individual regions and the fall of Poland’s international competitiveness requires taking radical action to stop the unfavourable tendencies. Sustainable economic growth is only enabled by the production of wealth i.e. development of entrepreneurship. Based on empirical research authors present the diagnosis of the entrepreneurship in the West-Pomeranian region, its stimulators and constraints in relation to the general economic situation in Poland.
JEL Classification: M13
Key words: regional development, entrepreneurship
On the Missing Link between Currency Substitution and Crises
Yasuyuki Sawada ; Pan A. Yotopoulos
Abstract: Traditional approaches to the etiology of financial crises focus on the fundamentals of an economy, more specifically on the disequilibrium in the balance of payments. The purpose of this paper is to extend this ‘first generation’ literature of financial crises with a general model that focuses on the quality of a currency as a store of value for asset holding purposes – as opposed to the medium-of-exchange characteristics of a currency that enter considerations of the balance-of-payments approach. A formal model is sketched around a utility function that includes money as an asset held in both local currency and foreign exchange. Given a steady stream of money supply, asset-price considerations in a free currency market make a fixed exchange rate untenable for the local currency and lead to devaluation and to crisis. Impressionistic evidence from the recent experience of financial crises corroborates the hypothesis of currency substitution. The policy implications of the hypothesis parallel those f market incompleteness for asymmetric information, as cast within the framework of asymmetric reputation between the soft and hard currency that leads to currency substitution for asset-holding purposes.
JEL Classification: G14, F31
Key words: capital flight, dollarisation, currency substitution, financial crises
BOOK REVIEW
Nicola Acocella: ‘The Foundations of Economic Policy: Values and Techniques’, Cambridge University Press, 1998
PRESS RELEASE
9 October 2002
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2002 jontly to
Daniel Kahneman (Princeton University, USA)
Vernon L. Smith (George Mason University, USA)
“for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty” and “for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms”. |
