Business Studies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to examine the influence of two dimensions of entrepreneurial competencies, namely, strategic competency and ethical competency on the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs); and second, to explore the role of network competence as a mediator among these understudied variables.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study were collected from wholesale and retail-based SMEs in Malaysia through a standard structured questionnaire. PLS–SEM approach was utilised to analyse the data.FindingsAlthough the findings did not reveal a direct effect of strategic and ethical competencies of entrepreneurs on SMEs’ growth, these competences, however, were found to be influential in driving their growth when network competence was used as a mediator.Originality/valueThe existence of a mediation effect between strategic and ethical competencies and SMEs’ growth via network competence has provided insights which add new knowledge to the ...

We survey the literature on international equity market integration. In doing so, we examine the theory of integration, the burgeoning literature on empirical evidence, and the implications. It is clear from our review that significant methodological advances in recent years have provided a new perspective on the degree of such integration. Among the most important implications of the rapidly amassing evidence of substantial integration among both the developed and the emerging markets is the need for international investors to carefully monitor the risk associated with varying benefits of diversification.

The English Great Re-coinage of 1696 was one of the great monetary events in history. The English currency, a bimetallic standard based on the weight and fineness of the coinage, was debased in order to pay troops in the Netherlands during the Nine Years War. By 1695 almost 50% of the specie content was missing from coinage in circulation, causing a monetary crisis. The May 1695 actions of demonetisation of England's debased coinage and the issuing of new full-weight coin were instrumental in the creation of the British Gold Standard. This national monetary standard became the International Gold Standard during the nineteenth century. Charles Davenant, an author of economic tracts, politician and civil servant, was an important voice during the re-coinage policy formulation period. Davenant's theory of paper credit and his model of the circular flow of income provide a reasoned and critical analysis of the English monetary system in the 1690s and the potential impact of policy options being entertained by the Crown. This paper attempts to look beyond the traditionally studied debate between John Locke, Isaac Newton and William Lowndes; into the deeper theoretical and political concepts behind the final decision to re-coin the English currency. In this paper the impact of Davenant's monetary theory and his submission to Lord Godolphin on the action to re-coin will be investigated and placed within the wider context of the 1694-1695 Commission on the Coinage. JEL Classifications: E5, Nl, N2 THE GREAT RE-COINAGE OF 1696 Developments in Monetary Theory §1. Introduction

We examine by means of a survey of Irish adults the extent of financial risk tolerance in Irish adults. We administer the Grable & Lytton 13 item risk tolerance instrument, and find a number of stylized facts on age, gender and education levels and their impact on risk tolerance. This is to our knowledge the first comprehensive survey of Irish adults on their risk tolerance.

The English Great Re-coinage of 1696 was one of the great monetary events in history. The English currency, a bimetallic standard based on the weight and fineness of the coinage, was debased in order to pay troops in the Netherlands during the Nine Years War. By 1695 almost 50% of the specie content was missing from coinage in circulation, causing a monetary crisis. The May 1695 actions of demonetisation of England's debased coinage and the issuing of new full-weight coin were instrumental in the creation of the British Gold Standard. This national monetary standard became the International Gold Standard during the nineteenth century. Charles Davenant, an author of economic tracts, politician and civil servant, was an important voice during the re-coinage policy formulation period. Davenant's theory of paper credit and his model of the circular flow of income provide a reasoned and critical analysis of the English monetary system in the 1690s and the potential impact of policy options being entertained by the Crown. This paper attempts to look beyond the traditionally studied debate between John Locke, Isaac Newton and William Lowndes; into the deeper theoretical and political concepts behind the final decision to re-coin the English currency. In this paper the impact of Davenant's monetary theory and his submission to Lord Godolphin on the action to re-coin will be investigated and placed within the wider context of the 1694-1695 Commission on the Coinage. JEL Classifications: E5, Nl, N2 THE GREAT RE-COINAGE OF 1696 Developments in Monetary Theory §1. Introduction

Transition towards circular-economy model is a must to sustain the planet resources. Under circular economy model wastewater is transformed from a waste into a resource. Therefore, a comprehensive circular economy index; the Circonomics Index, is proposed to measure circularity of wastewater industry. The component indicators of the index are linked directly to the three Rs; reduce, reuse and recycle, of circular economy. The novelty of the proposed Index is that it uses objectively constructed weights that reflect the environmental benefits of the treatment process, and the index captures the reuse and recycling efficiency of an WWTP, which reflect the specific nature of wastewater. The findings show that treatment technology is a major factor in determining the production efficiency, reuse rate and recycling performance of a WWTP. The results of using the Circonomics Index have profound implication for policy makers to speed up the process of moving to a circular economy.

Sustainability in the public finances. This was the mantra of the IMF-ECB-EC Troika bailout. How was sustainability achieved? Mainly by changing aspects of the budgetary process. Ireland was required to submit the entirety of its budgetary framework for external scrutiny by the Troika and Eurozone member state governments. We briefly explore how the economic constitution of the European Union in the context of the Irish bailout turned macroeconomic sustainability into an instrument to redirect the majority of Irish policy decision-making out of the hands of democratically accountable parliamentarians and into the arms of unaccountable technocrats.

This paper is the result of a crowdsourced effort to surface perspectives on the present and future direction of international finance. The authors are researchers in financial economics who attended the INFINITI 2017 conference in the University of Valencia in June 2017 and who participated in the crowdsourcing via the Overleaf platform. This paper highlights the actual state of scientific knowledge in a multitude of fields in finance and proposes different directions for future research.

The purpose of parliament is to present a discussion of policy in a fashion that will bring about a consensus that results in collective action. Such a collective action serves the common good of the state, although second-order effects and Pareto optimality is difficult to obtain, if not impossible. Parliament attempts to address the second-best world in a socially optimal fashion. As such accountability and scrutiny are the key tools through which such a body can address the challenges faced by a financial sector faced with profound difficulties. Such accountability is of paramount importance to provide sustainable public trust in parliament.

This paper investigates the perception amongst insiders of the degree of innovativeness of organisational culture in Ireland's higher education institutions. While the role of higher education institutions has expanded to include being a driver of innovation, we suggest that any such body is perhaps best suited to achieve this if it itself is innovative. We review the literature on corporate innovation, discuss a recent metric of innovativeness in culture and present the results of a large-scale survey on said culture within the higher education sector in Ireland. There is a divide between the university and institutes of technology sector, with organisational culture in universities being perceived to be much more innovative than that in institutes, despite these latter being designed to be closer to industry. We also find that STEM faculty members see culture as less innovative than others. These findings raise questions around the implicit and explicit thrusts of Irish higher education policy.