Revista de Economía y Negocios

Small to medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) poor performance is often ascribed to external factors such as burdensome character of the legal framework, limited scope to penetrate the export market and access to finance. However, internal factors such as marketing, operation and in particular accounting services may be equally responsible to such state of affairs. This study therefore attempts to analyse the importance attached to formal accounting systems among the small to medium-sized Mauritian manufacturing firms operating in six main industry groups. The research findings are based on a comprehensive survey of the financial and working capital management practices of 141 SMEs. Additional rigour to the research findings was possible through the use of 12 mini case studies.
 

Section 133 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), which took effect on July 1, 2010, requires academic institutions to supply textbook information on their courses at the time students register for the courses. One of the rationales for this provision is that it gives students extra time to purchase the textbook from suppliers other than a college or university textbook store. It is argued that this should put a downward pressure on prices in the textbook store. This paper constructs a theoretical model to check the validity of this argument. The findings indicate that this policy does not necessarily reduce textbook prices. On the contrary, under some conditions the textbook prices in college and university bookstores could increase. Given that students and parents often complain about the cost of textbook prices, examination of this issue is well-warranted and has important implications for consumers and policymakers.
 

Tax fairness is a critical canon of a good tax system. Taxpayers’ perceptions of the fairness of a tax have been identified by researchers as important for policy makers due to the potential impact on tax compliance. It is against this background that this paper seeks to determine whether selected tax fairness dimensions are applicable for a small developing economy. The principal component technique showed that general fairness is a relevant tax dimension in a country that is politically and economically stable. Interestingly, fewer participants were concerned about their personal self-gain, suggesting that people had greater interest in the overall effect of taxes on the public.
 

This study estimates the efficiency levels of firms in the manufacturing sector of Ghana using a single-stage stochastic frontier technique. A five-year panel data of 135 observations made between 2005 and 2009 are considered. The results show that the frontier model instead of the traditional average response (OLS) function is an adequate representation for the data. Findings reveal that employment, capital, corporate governance, ownership, and years of firm operation/experience have reasserting influence on the productivity of the firms. However, research and development and time which are used as a proxy for technological progress are found to have negative influence on the firm’s output. The combined effects of factors involved in the technical inefficiency model are responsible in explaining the level and variations in the production of the firms in Ghana, although individual effects of some variables are not significant. Over all, private firms fared better. However, the predicted mean technical efficiency is estimated to be 38 percent. This finding indicates that there is high potential for increasing firm’s output by an average of 62 percent in the short-run without any additional resource by adopting the practices of the best firm.
 

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between working capital management and firm profitability and to identify the variables that most affect profitability. Working capital management is considered to be a vital issue in financial management decision and it has its effect on liquidity as well as on profitability of the firm. Moreover, an optimal working capital management positively contributes in creating firm value. In this study, we have selected a sample of 10 FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) companies in India from CMIE database covering a period of 10 years from 2000–01 to 2009–10. Profitability has been measured in terms of return on assets (ROA).Cash conversion cycle (CCC), interest coverage ratio, age of inventory, age of creditors, age of debtors and debt-equity ratio have been used as explanatory variables. Pearson’s correlation and pooled ordinary least squares regression analysis are used in the study. The study results confirm that there is a strong negative relationship between variables of the working capital management and profitability of the firm. As the CCC increases, profitability of the firm decreases, and managers can create a positive value for the shareholders by reducing the CCC to a possible minimum level. There is also a stumpy negative relationship between debt used by the firm and its profitability.
 

The present research investigates the effects of personality traits, such as self-efficacy and locus of control, on job satisfaction. It also examines the mediating impact of goal commitment on relationships between personality and job satisfaction. The results indicate that both self-efficacy and locus of control are positively associated with goal commitment. In addition, locus of control is found positively related to job satisfaction. However, self-efficacy does not have the same positive relationship with job satisfaction. The study further confirms the mediating effect of goal commitment on relationships between personality traits and job satisfaction.  

Exponential growth of the internet has drawn people’s attention toward social network sites (SNS) all around the world. On the other hand, the emergence of new social media and technologies gives businesses the opportunity to change the way of communication with their customers. Thus, many businesses strive to invest on SNS to create values for themselves. This paper tries to investigate how companies can achieve business values through online SNS. The study explored the efficiency of SNS through which the links between social network determinants and business success was illustrated. We proposed a conceptual framework to accurately measure inter-connection between efficiency contributors of SNS towards business prosperity. The research provided empirical evidences to verify the customer communication management (CCM) and promoting factors as strong indicators for efficiency of SNS. The study also found out significant positive interaction between SNS’ efficiency and gaining business success via CCM and promoting determinants. The introduced framework and the respective results could have the potential to lead business development, sustainable profit and business prosperity as well.
 

This paper discusses the results of a survey on employee loyalty conducted in Oakland, California. The survey revealed a serious disconnect between the opinions of managers, including executives, and non-management employees on issues of employee loyalty, trust of management, mutual respect between management and non-management employees and other related questions. The survey showed that the majority of employees do not feel loyalty from their employer, do not believe that companies take their interests into account, and do not trust or respect their managers, while most managers positively assessed the situation. This disparity needs to be thoroughly addressed by companies in order to improve employee loyalty.

This paper examines the prioritized selling of the nest egg by baby boomers during their retirement years. To this end, a written questionnaire was mailed to 2500 randomly selected United States adults born between 1946 and 1964. Potential respondents were asked financial planning questions and also requested to list their main concerns and the hobbies they intend to pursue during retirement. The most noteworthy findings from this study indicated that future retirees expect to sell their International investments relatively quickly while selling their 401(k) comparatively last. Several prominent authors have concentrated on the pre-retirement approach, or the saving and investment phase of asset accumulation. However, only a limited amount of research has been conducted on baby boomers financial perceptions of life during retirement. Countless asset withdrawal studies have used complex Monte Carlo computer simulations to determine a safe percentage rate subtracted from the retirement nest egg each year and still maintain a long term comfortable lifestyle. This study brings into the financial planning discussion the human part of the equation which includes future retirees’ perceptions, opinions, attitudes and intentions. The importance of this study is the reporting of baby boomers’ future selling intentions of the nest egg. Knowledge of these selling intentions will assist the financial community prepare for the retiring of 77 million adults.