Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Recognition of First Time International Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Evidence from Firms in Knowledge-Based Industries

Purpose: This paper aims to complement existing theories of internationalization by studying an important aspect which has been neglected in previous studies: the process of international entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. International market entry is conceptualized as an entrepreneurial, innovative act; and opportunity recognition consists of both discovery as well as deliberate and systematic search. Methodology: The methodology employed involves eight case studies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in knowledge-based industries in Australia. The unit of analysis is the “opportunity-firm” nexus. Findings: Firms with little or no prior international knowledge tend to make use of opportunity discovery rather than deliberate/systematic search. In contrast, firms with extensive prior international experience and knowledge were found to deliberately search and discover their first international opportunity. International opportunity discovery did not occur simply through serendipitous encounters with new information from networks or referrals but involved interpreting possible matches between pre-existing means (resources, skills, new technologies) and new ends (international markets) in a problem solving process. It favours those with the requisite prior knowledge and entrepreneurial orientation. Practical Implications: The study offers guidelines on what business practitioners and export promotion agencies can and cannot do to influence opportunity recognition process. Particular attention was paid to strategies to avoid costly deliberate search among resource-stricken SMEs. Originality/Value: This study introduces Knightian uncertainty and Kirznerian discovery as the conceptual cornerstones of internationalization that can help account for the lack of incrementalism and optimizing logic in internationalization among smaller firms.
Towards a New Model for Communicating Climate Change

While nearly 20 years of public communication about climate change has undoubtedly raised international awareness and concern, large-scale behavioural change has not followed. The aim of the current paper is therefore twofold, namely; (a) to provide an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical evidence on which past and current climate change campaigns are based and (b) to advance a new communication model. With regard to the former, it is argued that the evolution of public climate change campaigns can be delineated according to the following typology; (1) 'the cognitive-analytical type', (2) the 'affective-experiential type' and (3) 'the social-normative type. ' In addition, three major explanations are offered for the relative ineffectiveness of past campaigns: (a) while human behaviour is often the result of complexly integrated behavioural processes, most public climate change campaigns ought to be, but are unfortunately not, designed in an integrative manner, (b) public campaigns do not pay sufficient attention to the psychological determinants of the behaviours that they are trying to change and (c) often fail to make the climate change context explicit. Based on these shortcomings, an integrated conceptual framework is advanced to guide the design of future public interventions and to help narrow the gap between communicating climate change and changing individual behaviour.
Percent Accruals

We document how the effectiveness of an accruals-based trading strategy changes with the benchmark used to identify an extreme accrual. We measure “percent accruals” as accruals scaled by earnings, rather than total assets, and show that this seemingly small change produces a radically different sort of the data. We find that a trading strategy based on percent accruals yields significantly larger annual hedge returns than the traditional accruals measure, and does so mostly by improving the long position in low accrual stocks. The hedge returns are also significant in all but the lowest quintile of arbitrage risk. We show that percent accruals more effectively select firms where the difference between sophisticated and naïve forecasts are the most extreme. As such, our results are consistent with the earnings fixation hypothesis and are inconsistent with some alternative explanations for the accrual anomaly. We also find that percent accruals are not dependent on the presence or absence of special items and identify misvalued stocks just as well for loss firms as for gain firms, in contrast to the traditional accruals measure.
Competitive Implications of Inter-Firm Mobility

This paper examines the competitive consequences of interfirm mobility. Because the loss of key members (defined as top decision makers) to competing firms may amount to a replication of a firm’s higher-order routines, we investigate the conditions under which interfirm mobility triggers transfer of routines across organizational boundaries. We examine membership lists pertinent to the Dutch accounting industry to study key member exits and firm dissolutions over the period 1880–1986. We exploit information on the type of membership migration (individual versus collective) and the competitive saliency of the destination firm as inferred from the recipient status (incumbent versus start-up) and its geographic location (same versus different province). The dissolution risk is highest when collective interfirm mobility results in a new venture within the same geographic area. The theoretical implications of this study are discussed.
The Rise of Mobile Banking and the Displacement of Brick-and-Mortar Branches, 2014-2019

The share of households using mobile banking has increased from 16% to 28% between 2014 and 2019. Using data across all census tracts between 2014 and 2019, we investigate the incidence of mobile banking and its relationship with traditional brick-and-mortar bank branches. First, we document three stylized facts: mobile banking is more common in areas with a higher concentration of individuals employed in information and professional services sectors, areas with higher shares of college graduates, and areas with a higher share of youth between ages 18 and 30. Second, we estimate the elasticity between mobile banking and both the incidence of banking deserts and the number of physical bank locations. Exploiting within-tract variation and controlling for time-varying shocks, we find that residents of banking deserts are 1.3-4.7% more likely to have mobile banking and that an additional physical branch opening, net of closures, is associated with a 0.3-0.7% decline in mobile banking usage. Our results suggest that mobile banking can serve as an important vehicle for financial inclusion by providing an alternate avenue for consumers to access banking services, particularly in rural communities.
Microwave-assisted extraction of pectin from pineapple peel

Pineapple peel has the potential to become one of the sources for pectin production due to the high content of pectin in its dietary fibre composition. Pectin is used as food thickener, emulsifier, stabiliser and gelling agent in food industry. The conventional extraction process with long operating hours at high temperature has been identified to cause thermal degradation of pectin molecules. Microwave technology application in pectin extraction has shown high potential to expedite the extraction process and produce higher yield. Therefore, this research was intended to investigate the effect of various factors (irradiation time, pH, temperature, microwave power and solid-to-solvent (S/S) ratio) of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) on the pineapple peel pectin (PPP) yield. Pectin extracted was then analysed for its dry weight yield percentage and degree of esterification (DE). It was shown that the pectin yield was significantly affected by pH, S/S ratio and microwave power. From this study, no significant effect of irradiation time was observed from 2.5 min until 20 min to the yield of pectin, thus longer time of extraction is not necessary in MAE. The highest yield of PPP obtained was in the range of 2.27 to 2.79% w/w at pH 2.0 and S/S ratio of 1:20. The result of DE (63.93 ± 0.30%) indicated that PPP is categorized in high methoxyl pectin (HMP) pectin type because the DE values were greater than 50%. This study showed that MAE is highly potential for extraction of high yield of PPP.
Political Instability, Property Investment, and Economic Growth: Are They Inter-Related? An Empirical Study in Malaysia

The main objective of the current study is to explore the effect of political unrest or instability on property investment and the economic growth of Malaysia. This study used an Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique to observe the short and long-term association of the proposed model. The outcomes of this study are varied for each model. First, there appears to be no long-term association between political instability (PI), property investment (PT), and economic growth (GDP). Second, there is a long-term inverse correlation between PI and PT; and GDP is significantly and positively correlated with PT. Finally, there is a long-term correlation between GDP, PI, and PT.
Cognitive Thinking Styles and Susceptibility to Framing Effects

Cultural differences in thought processes (i.e., holistic versus analytic thinking) have been suggested as an explanation for different susceptibility to framing effects. To test this, we conducted an experiment which investigates several framing problems and various measures of cognitive modes of thinking in two countries: Germany and Vietnam. We end clear evidence that holistic thinking style reduces the framing effect in specific tasks while in others it does not. Indeed, this is the primary factor (but maybe not the only one) explaining cultural differences in framing between Germans and Vietnamese. We suggest a theoretical model predicting the task-dependence of this effect. More- over, we observe that demographics can also affect the susceptibility to framing effects. Additional data from Taiwan confirms our results.
IPO Regulation and Initial Capital Structure: Evidence from the JOBS Act

We examine capital structure implications of newly public firms' availing themselves of regulatory exemptions. Title I of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act provides newly public firms broad-scale regulatory relief but limits the benefits to a certain subset of firms named "Emerging Growth Companies (EGCs). " One of the EGC criteria is based on a $700 million public float threshold. We find evidence that firms appear to bunch up their public float at IPO issuances below the $700 million threshold and repurchase their shares after the issuances to be eligible for the EGC status. Firms staying below the threshold are more likely to substitute public equity with debt. We further find that the leverage effect persists over time (the leverage ratchet effect) even when EGCs lose their status.
The Diversification Benefits of Cryptocurrencies in Multi-Asset Portfolios: Cross-Country Evidence

Using a sample of 21 developing and developed countries, we analyze whether a well-diversified investor of traditional assets (stocks, bonds, real estate, and commodities) may benefit from investing in cryptocurrencies. Country-specific analyses indicate that cryptocurrencies usually fit in the tangent portfolio (maximum Sharpe ratio) but no -- or very little -- in the minimum variance portfolio (MVP). Out-of-sample analysis indicates that even global portfolios that already benefits from international diversification may enjoy investing marginally in cryptocurrencies: mean-variance optimal and naive with cryptocurrencies outperformed otherwise identical portfolios in terms of risk-adjusted returns. Besides, exchange rate movements do not drive this better performance -- it occurs for both local (all returns denominated in the local currency) and global perspectives (all returns in U.S. Dollars). We also find that cryptocurrencies' diversification benefits occur both before and after the COVID-19 pandemics, with the 1/N portfolio with cryptocurrencies presenting the higher risk-adjusted returns. Our paper adds to the literature by analyzing the marginal effects of adding cryptocurrencies on a sample of developing and developed economies and considering up-to-date data following the COVID-19 crisis.
Why Hire a Big 4 Auditor 500 Miles Away?

This paper investigates why a firm would hire an auditor far away from its corporate headquarter. Using a sample from the Audit Analytics database, we show that 75% of the firms hire a Big 4 auditor less than 33 miles away from their headquarters, and the median distance is only 14 miles. For the majority of firms, the driving time from a client’s headquarter to its auditor’s office is less than 45 minutes, and the median driving time is only 21 minutes. However, our results also show that some firms are willing to go the extra mile and hire a remote auditor. About 10% of the sample hire a Big 4 auditor more than 150 miles away, and some firms even hire an auditor more than 500 miles away. We test a few possible explanations, including earnings management hypothesis, competitive audit fee hypothesis, diversified operating location hypothesis, etc. Our analysis shows that firms having the tendency to manage earnings are more likely to hire a remote auditor. Specifically, we find that firms that are more likely to report small positive earnings, more likely to have financial restatements, and more likely to report higher expected discretionary accruals, tend to hire remote auditors. We also find that firms with diversified geographic segments, not operating segments, are more likely to hire remote auditors. Finally, we show that competitive audit pricing affects firms’ office choice, but only within certain distance. Beyond certain limit, there is no difference in audit fees offered by local and non-local auditors.
The Role of Structural Decisions on the Manufacturing Performance of Sugar Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

The overarching goal of sugar manufacturing firms is long term survival and the ability to wade off competition evident in the industry. This requires manufacturing firms to rapidly develop emanating from manufacturing technological advancements, frequent innovations, as well as rapid developments in their structural capacities. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of structural decisions on performance. Specifically, the study sought to: explore the effect of capacity on the performance, assess the effect of process on the performance, examine the effect of structure on the performance, and to determine the effect of operations and development on the performance of sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study was based on Routine Based Theory and adopted both descriptive and experimental research designs anchored on realism ontology, and used both quantitative and qualitative approach. The unit of analysis was sugar manufacturing plant. The respondents were sought through both purposive and simple random sampling strategies, yielding a sample of 165 respondents. Structured questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect primary data. Data was processed both descriptively and inferentially using Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS version 21. EFA, correlation analysis and regression analysis, were equally used, while qualitative data analysis was done through expert judgment, scenario mapping and critical thinking. The overall study results revealed that structural decisions have insignificant effect on performance.
Developing Securities Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does it Matter?

A raging debate exists on the utility of stock market capitalism to African countries. Whilst some commentators take the view that stock markets are irrelevant to Africa and advise African states to prioritise the development of their banking systems, other commentators view well-functioning markets as important to economic growth. Using developments in law and finance literature, this paper advances two main claims. First, that there is substantial empirical and historical evidence in support of the theoretical proposition that liquid securities markets promote economic growth. In this regard, banks are not substitutes, but complements to securities markets in promoting long-run growth. Second, by conducting an empirical analysis of securities cross-listing of all firms listed on all 24 stock exchanges in Sub-Saharan Africa, this paper advances the claim that financing practice shows that cross-listing has not provided a suitable alternative source of finance to Sub-Saharan African firms, making the development of domestic markets and domestic regulation crucially important.
Investigating Exchange Rate Dynamics in Mozambique: A Hybrid Model Approach

<br>The purpose of this article is to explain the dynamics of the exchange rate in Mozambique. The applied VAR model reveals that, in fact, it is the exchange rate that determines the macroeconomic variables (fundamentals), and not the opposite (at least in the short run), as predicted in exchange rate monetary models. Variables based on market microstructure (Order Flow) have the potential to predict exchange rates, as the IRF shows a significant and consistent reaction of exchange rates to structural shocks on order flow (demand pressure), while the exchange rate reacts not only significantly less, but also in the opposite direction to that predicted in the models based on fundamentals. These results are consistent in the long run, as demonstrated by the VECM model. In addition, the exchange rate forecast, based on a hybrid model which combines macro and micro variables, exceeds the benchmark model (random walk). Furthermore, since agents’ interpretations of fundamentals are incorporated in order flows, this appears to be the transmission mechanism between macroeconomic indicators and exchange rates, and in this way, order flow helps to clarify the exchange rate puzzle identified in the literature. Finally, this article suggests the use of microstructure variables of the foreign exchange market to predict exchange rates, as well as using them as a proxy for expectations, which can contribute to effective implementation of forward-looking monetary policy. <br>
The Local Spillover Effect of Corporate Accounting Misconduct: Evidence from City Crime Rates

This study documents a spillover effect of accounting fraud by showing that after the revelation of accounting misconduct there is an increase in financially motivated neighborhood crime (robberies, thefts, etc.) in the cities where these misconduct firms are located. We find that more visible accounting frauds (e.g., greater media attention and larger stock price declines) are more strongly associated with a future increase in financially motivated neighborhood crime. Our findings are consistent with the general strain theory put forth by Agnew (1992), where individuals facing strain are more likely to commit financially motivated crime. In our setting, we predict that adverse shocks stemming from the fraud, strains local communities leading to the increase in the rate of financially motivated crime. Consistent with our predictions we find that the association between fraud revelation and increased future financially motivated crime is strongest when local city-wide unemployment increases, where local job markets are shallower, and where local income inequality is high.
The Right Person at the Right Time: Audit Committee Members and the Quality of Financial Information

We analyze some personal characteristics of the members of the audit committee of the Spanish listed firms and the relation between these characteristics and earnings management. We find a non-linear relation with tenure, so that long tenures can initially compromise the directors’ independence but, after a given threshold, longer tenures improve the expertise of the members. Serving in too many boards has a negative influence on the ability of directors to detect earnings management, and higher academic background and more diverse professional background improve the directors’ abilities.
To Float or to Sink? Revisiting the Causal Effects of Exchange Rate Regimes

This study proposes a novel instrumental variable construction procedure based on international trade concentration that has a sufficiently strong first stage for exchange rate policy choice globally and applies it to revisit the causal effects of exchange rate regimes on macroeconomic outcomes. Fixed exchange rates are shown to cause lower economic growth rates, higher volatility of output and inflation, and higher unemployment, without reducing average inflation. These effects persist even when monetary unions are excluded from the sample, across subsamples with varying levels of per capita income and institutional quality and is robust to alternative regime classifications as well as to property rights, human capital, and trade openness controls.
What Enables Local Governments to Mainstream Climate Change Adaptation? Lessons Learned from Two Municipal Case Studies in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Municipalities represent a key opportunity for implementing local adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Most research has focused on the barriers to climate change adaptation, and little research exists that considers the conditions under which a municipality is able to initiate the process of mainstreaming climate adaptation. Through a case study of two municipalities in the Western Cape of South Africa, this paper identifies the factors that enable action to be taken at the local government level. The presence of dedicated environmental champions is key, particularly within political leadership. Experiencing the costs of climate change often provides the strongest initial catalyst for action and is aided by the recognition that the local environment has value. Access to a knowledge base, the availability of resources, political stability and the presence of dense social networks all positively affect adaptation mainstreaming. It is these enabling factors that other government levels and stakeholders need to support with different interventions. We draw attention to two under-researched topics, the effect of political instability on municipal functioning and the effects of social network characteristics on facilitating institutional change.
Can Agents Add and Subtract When Forming Beliefs?

Bayes' Theorem has an implicit, fundamental rule of how subjects should incorporate informationally equivalent signals of opposite direction: two opposite-directional signals should cancel out such that prior beliefs remain constant. In this study, we test whether agents always follow this simple counting heuristic. We find that this is not the case. Whenever a sequence of signals that go in the same direction is interrupted by a signal of opposite direction, agents violate the simple counting heuristic and strongly overreact to the signal of opposite direction. In contrast to that, subjects correctly follow the counting heuristic whenever opposite-directional signals alternate.