Advances in data envelopment analysis

Since its introduction in 1978, data envelopment analysis (DEA) has become one of the preeminent nonparametric methods for measuring efficiency and productivity of decision making units (DMUs). Charnes et al. (1978) provided the original DEA constant returns to scale (CRS) model, later extended to variable returns to scale (VRS) by Banker et al. (1984). These ‘standard’ models are known by the acronyms CCR and BCC, respectively, and are now employed routinely in areas that range from assessment of public sectors, such as hospitals and health care systems, schools, and universities, to private sectors, such as banks and financial institutions (Emrouznejad et al. 2008; Emrouznejad and De Witte 2010). The main objective of this volume is to publish original studies that are beyond the two standard CCR and BCC models with both theoretical and practical applications using advanced models in DEA.

Performance management in the United States and France:four case studies in the retail and airline industries

The profusion of performance measurement models suggested by Management Accounting literature in the 1990’s is one illustration of the substantial changes in Management Accounting teaching materials since the publication of “Relevance Lost” in 1987. At the same time, in the general context of increasing competition and globalisation it is widely thought that national cultural differences are tending to disappear, meaning that management techniques used in large companies, including performance measurement and management instruments (PMS), tend to be the same, irrespective of the company nationality or location. North American management practice is traditionally described as a contractually based model, mainly focused on financial performance information and measures (FPMs), more shareholder-focused than French companies. Within France, literature historically defined performance as being broadly multidimensional, driven by the idea that there are no universal rules of management and that efficient management takes into account local culture and traditions. As opposed to their North American brethren, French companies are pressured more by the financial institutions that fund them rather than by capital markets. Therefore, they pay greater attention to the long-term because they are not subject to quarterly capital market objectives. Hence, management in France should rely more on long-term qualitative information, less financial, and more multidimensional data to assess performance than their North American counterparts. The objective of this research is to investigate whether large French and US companies’ practices have changed in the way the textbooks have changed with regards to performance measurement and management, or whether cultural differences are still driving differences in performance measurement and management between them. The research findings support the idea that large US and French companies share the same PMS features, influenced by ‘universal’ PM models.

Expert System for Decision-Making Problem in Economics

An expert system (ES) is a class of computer programs developed by researchers in artificial intelligence. In essence, they are programs made up of a set of rules that analyze information about a specific class of problems, as well as provide analysis of the problems, and, depending upon their design, recommend a course of user action in order to implement corrections. ES are computerized tools designed to enhance the quality and availability of knowledge required by decision makers in a wide range of industries. Decision-making is important for the financial institutions involved due to the high level of risk associated with wrong decisions. The process of making decision is complex and unstructured. The existing models for decision-making do not capture the learned knowledge well enough. In this study, we analyze the beneficial aspects of using ES for decision- making process.

Can psychometric testing be used to explain, predict and measure behavioural competences and the funding resource orchestration of the entrepreneur?

Financing is a critical entrepreneurial activity (Shane et al. 2003) and within the study of entrepreneurship, behaviour has been identified as an area requiring further exploration (Bird et al. 2012). Since 2008 supply side conditions for SMEs have been severe and increasingly entrepreneurs have to bundle or ‘orchestrate’ funding from a variety of sources in order to successfully finance the firm (Wright and Stigliani 2013: p.15). This longitudinal study uses psychometric testing to measure the behavioural competences of a panel of sixty entrepreneurs in the Creative Industries sector. Interviews were conducted over a 3 year period to identify finance finding behaviour. The research takes a pragmatic realism perspective to examine process and the different behavioural competences of entrepreneurs. The predictive qualities of this behaviour are explored in a funding context. The research confirmed a strong behavioural characteristic as validated through interviews and psychometric testing, was an orientation towards engagement and working with other organisations. In a funding context, this manifested itself in entrepreneurs using networks, seeking advice and sharing equity to fund growth. These co-operative, collaborative characteristics are different to the classic image of the entrepreneur as a risk-taker or extrovert. Leadership and achievement orientation were amongst the lowest scores. Three distinctive groups were identified and also shown by subsequent analysis to be a positive contribution to how entrepreneurial behavioural competences can be considered. Belonging to one of these three clusters is a strong predictive indicator of entrepreneurial behaviour – in this context, how entrepreneurs access finance. These Clusters were also proven to have different characteristics in relation to funding outcomes. The study seeks to make a contribution through the development of a methodology for entrepreneurs, policy makers and financial institutions to identify competencies in finding finance and overcome problems in information asymmetry.

Knowledge management in support of enterprise risk management

Risk management and knowledge management have so far been studied almost independently. The evolution of risk management to the holistic view of Enterprise Risk Management requires the destruction of barriers between organizational silos and the exchange and application of knowledge from different risk management areas. However, knowledge management has received little or no attention in risk management. This paper examines possible relationships between knowledge management constructs related to knowledge sharing, and two risk management concepts: perceived quality of risk control and perceived value of enterprise risk management. From a literature review, relationships with eight knowledge management variables covering people, process and technology aspects were hypothesised. A survey was administered to risk management employees in financial institutions. The results showed that the perceived quality of risk control is significantly associated with four knowledge management variables: perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing, perceived quality of communication among people, web channel functionality, and risk management information system functionality. However, the relationships of the knowledge management variables to the perceived value of enterprise risk management are not significant. We conclude that better knowledge management is associated with better risk control, but that more effort needs to be made to break down organizational silos in order to support true Enterprise Risk Management.

Economics of the new member states: A post-crisis perspective

This essay addresses four major issues confronting the Central and Eastern European new members of the European Union in the decade to come. First: what to think of the financial meltdown of 2008-2009. Second, what have they learned from the tremors, having shaken the previous star performers of the EU? Third we ask if we can expect a return to ‘normalcy' as forecast by most models of financial rating agencies and international financial institutions? Fourth the question is raised what did the new members benefit from their EU membership? Some conclusions on the future of EU reforms and policies close the overview.

Monetáris politikai tendenciák I. Eszköztárak (Tendencies in monetary policy I. - Asset prices)

A közgazdaságtan, szűkebben a monetáris politika előtt két elméleti és gyakorlati kihívást látok: a globális egyensúlytalanságoknak nevezett jelenséget és az eszközár problematikát. Előbbi a világgazdaságban koncentráltan fölhalmozódó adósságokat és követelésállományokat jelenti, utóbbi a banki és nem banki pénzügyi piacok folyamatainak lehetséges pénzügypolitikai vonatkozásaira utal. Mondandómat két cikkben fogalmazom meg. Ez az írás először a monetáris stabilitás és instabilitás kérdéskörét mutatja be történeti keretben, ami tekinthető mindkét aktuális témakör földolgozásához szükséges elméleti fölvezetőnek is. Ezt követi a monetáris politika és az eszközárak kapcsolatának vizsgálata. A következő cikk foglalkozik a globális egyensúlytalanságokkal. Azért választottam e sorrendet, mert a két téma szorosan összefügg, az itt leírt magyarázatok segíthetik a későbbiek megértését. Az írásban többször megfogalmazok saját véleményt, a hangsúly mégis a szakirodalom bemutatásán van. / === / Global imbalances and asset price booms and busts are the two main practical and theoretical challenges in economics, especially in monetary policy. The first of them concerns the accumulative tendencies of debts and claims in the world economy, the second challenge deals with the processes of bank and non bank money markets. These topics are dealt with in two articles. The first one presents the issue of monetary stability and instability from a historical perspective. With that the connections between monetary policy and asset prices will be studied. The next article will deal with global imbalances. The topics are closely related and this order helps better understanding. The articles are mainly based on the current literature although I insert my own views as well.

Analysis of operational risk of banks – catastrophe modelling

Nowadays financial institutions due to regulation and internal motivations care more intensively on their risks. Besides previously dominating market and credit risk new trend is to handle operational risk systematically. Operational risk is the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events. First we show the basic features of operational risk and its modelling and regulatory approaches, and after we will analyse operational risk in an own developed simulation model framework. Our approach is based on the analysis of latent risk process instead of manifest risk process, which widely popular in risk literature. In our model the latent risk process is a stochastic risk process, so called Ornstein- Uhlenbeck process, which is a mean reversion process. In the model framework we define catastrophe as breach of a critical barrier by the process. We analyse the distributions of catastrophe frequency, severity and first time to hit, not only for single process, but for dual process as well. Based on our first results we could not falsify the Poisson feature of frequency, and long tail feature of severity. Distribution of “first time to hit” requires more sophisticated analysis. At the end of paper we examine advantages of simulation based forecasting, and finally we concluding with the possible, further research directions to be done in the future.

A fenntartható fejlődés elvei és azok érvényre jutása a banki gyakorlatban II. rész (The principles of sustainable development and their realization in the banking practice II. part)

Az utóbbi évtizedben a környezettudatos gazdálkodás szerepének felértékelődése új tevékenységi területet nyitott meg a bankok előtt, amit nemzetközi szóhasználattal élve green banking-nek neveznek. A fenntartható fejlődést támogató projektek banki finanszírozása számos lehetőséget nyit a pénzügyi intézmények számára – hírnév, új ügyfélbázis, kockázatcsökkentés, jövedelmezőség növelése –, amennyiben a bankok a fenntarthatóság elveit megfelelően integrálják működési stratégiájukba. A cikksorozat második részében a szerzők a bankok fenntartható működését támogató külső és belső motiváló tényezőit veszik vizsgálat alá, amelyet már nemzetközi elvek és megállapodások is szabályoznak és támogatnak. Kiemelt fontosságot tulajdonítanak a környezettudatos gazdálkodás banki stratégiába történő integrálásának, melynek alapjait teremthetik meg a cikkben vizsgált nemzetközi irányelvek. ________ In the last decade, a lot of publications came to light, dealing with the social and environmental responsibility of financial institutions. Banks are expected to improve their competitive advantage by demonstrating economic development, while promoting environment care and social responsibility. This sustainable finance means to manage environmental and social risks in corporate lending and project financing. Green financial institutions have developed a wide range of innovations that can support sustainable development. This article highlights a few external and internal factor that support this aim, and which are regulated by international principles. However the authors’ survey shows that in the relevant literature there are a lot of ways to define sustainability and its achievement. They suggest that all of them can be interpreted associated with green banking operation. The goal of this paper is to identify the role of financial institutions in achieving sustainable development, and stress its strategic importance. The authors also attempt to show, why and how can this sector become the promoter of sustainability.

Challenges the finance profession has been facing following the 2008-2009. A multi-country research

In the successful strategic management of the modern companies each function plays their specific role. While today’s businesses in many ways are different from their ancestors, the key fundamentals are derived from the same roots. Their main purpose of existence is to serve the needs of their shareholders and stakeholders by creating value (Pike et al., 1993). To achieve this effectively and efficiently the various functions need to work in close cooperation with each other. The global crisis, starting in 2008, proved that volatility is higher for the financial markets and the ordinary businesses that have been anticipated before. As the recession started as a financial crisis many people started to blame – amongst others – banks and financial institutions for excessive risk taking and taking short profits ahead of long term sustainable growth. Accordingly the lost confidence in the financial institutions has taken a toll on the reputation of other Finance professionals such as accountants, book keepers, treasury, tax people and others. The finance function’s strategic importance is linked to its ability to help interpreting the business performance and provide transparency. In order to restore the trust the finance profession is now facing one of the biggest challenges of its history, the need to reinvent itself. This paper presents the findings of a recent international research conducted in the United Kingdom, France, Hungary and Poland interviewing 169 executives of the business sector plus the review of 237 job descriptions of finance professionals in order to understand the challenges of the modern finance function. The findings of the study could provide relevant answers and help to overcome a very current problem that Finance is facing today, how to rebuild reputation and to stay a trusted partner and enabler for long term business strategy.

The political economy of poverty alleviation strategies. The initiative for heavily indebted poor countries in Bolivia: More of the same

In the year 2000, approximately 1.1 billion people lived in extreme poverty while developed countries spent US$600 billion a year on defense. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative is a recent component of a larger poverty reduction strategy supported by the International Financial Institutions, as well as many developed and developing countries. By implementing lessons of the past fifty years, this program attempts to diminish misery around the globe. As such, it provides debt relief while seeking to enable the poorest countries to simultaneously attain sustainable debt and promote human development. Interest in poverty reduction around the globe reemerged in the 1990s. This study contributes directly to this recent effort by presenting a nuanced approach that builds on the stepping-stones generated by other poverty scholars. To fulfill its goal, this investigation applies a political economy framework. Within this framework, the author conducts an actor-specific analysis. This dissertation addresses the following question: How do domestic and international actors respond to the implementation of poverty alleviation strategies? The author assumes actors desire to maximize their utility calculation and suggests these calculations are based on the player's motivations and external influences. Based on their motivations, the external influences, and the initiative's guidelines, each actor develops a set of expectations. To fulfill those expectations, stake holders utilize one or several strategies. Finally, the actors' ability to achieve their expectations determines each player's assessment of the initiative. The framework described is applied in an in-depth, actor-specific analysis of the HIPC in Bolivia. Bolivia's National Revolution represents the country's first attempt at reducing poverty. Since then, all governments have taken specific steps to combat poverty at the local and national levels. The Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) is one of the most recent macro strategies of this kind. The case study demonstrated that three factors (national ownership, effective sponsorship and the local context) determine the success levels of poverty reduction strategies from abroad. In addition, the investigation clearly shows that poverty reduction is not the sole motivation in the implementation of poverty alleviation strategies. All actors, however, share the dream of poverty reduction.

The Choice of Debt Source by UK Firms

Peer reviewed

Internal Control application : Empirical evidence from Sweden

Aim The aim of this study is to explore based on internationally recognised frameworks: 1. how internal control structures are applied in Sweden among different sectors; 2. how organizational size and environment affect internal control structures; and 3. the impact of internal control structures on organizational performance. Methods A quantitative method was used in the data collection and analysis. The sample consisted of 1117 organizations operating in Sweden. A mean analysis was conducted to measure the level of internal control structures among different industries, organizational sizes, and different choices of listing in the stock exchange market. Person’s correlation analysis was then used to explore possible correlations between external environmental factors and internal control structures, and internal control structures and organizational performance. Lastly, a structural model was built to measure the impact of internal control structures on organizational performance. The measurements of internal control structures and organizational performance are based on COSO framework’s principles and objectives. Results This study gives an insight on how internal control structures are applied across industrial sectors in Sweden, with financial institutions and manufacturing organizations having notably higher levels of internal control structures. Additionally, it provides evidence of the impact external environmental factors have on internal control structures. Furthermore, it shows that organizations that are listed in the Swedish stock exchange market have an equivalent level of internal control structures to those registered in the American stock exchange market. In contrast, organisations that are not listed in the stock exchange market have a notably lower level of internal control structures. Lastly, it illustrates the positive impact the presence of internal control structures has on organizational performance. 3 | P a g e Conclusion The results highlight a crucial role the supervisory authority Finansinspektionen (FI) has in regulating the Swedish financial market. They also show that the stability of the Swedish business environment has had a positive impact on the level of internal control structures.

Gestão híbrida em cooperativa de crédito: uma análise a partir do interesse, participação, satisfação e expectativa dos cooperados da COOPERUFPA

The globalization of markets has confirmed for the processes of change in organizations both in structure and in management. This dynamic was also observed in credit unions because they are financial institutions and are under the rules of the Brazil´s Financial System. Given the context of organizational changes in the financial capital has played the traditional management reform is urgent. In organizations credit unions, given its dual purpose, because in the same organizational environment and capitalism coexist cooperative whose logics are antagonistic, but can live through the balance between instrumental rationality and substantive rationality in credit unions. Based on this concept a new form of management should be thought to be able to accommodate the demand of cooperative, community, government and the market. Hybridization has been observed in management practices` COOPERUFPA into dimensions financial, social and solidarity participation with a trend in paradigmatic form of hybrid management, in that it directly or indirectly affect the management decisions in the credit union. The hybrid management is a trend that has been setting the basis for societal transformation, so that credit unions promote actions of welfare oriented cooperative members and the community around the same time that attend the dynamics of market globalization. These actions, in the context of hybrid management should be implemented by COOPERUFPA from the sociability of the remains and the wide diffusion of solidarity culture between cooperative partnership as a way to recover their participation in trade relations, financial and the social collective developement. For the members of COOPERUFPA financial interest is evidenced in greater relevance for the social interest given its dominant relationship as "mere customer" of the credit union, however, the proactive participation of the life of the cooperative credit union is one of its expectative among of participation of to share power in decisions by general meetings. This passivity`s cooperator of the COOPERUFPA in defending the ideals overshadowed the spread of cooperative principles and values of cooperation among them. Thus his conception for COOPERUFPA in the financial dimension, social and solidarity democracy, performed transversely. The COOPERUFPA for not developing an education policy for the cooperation among its members, contributed to a process of collective alienation of cooperative ideals, since the cooperative do not understand the reality that surrounds them as members of an organization whose mission is to social and financial sustainability of its members

Apoio governamental à inovação tecnológica: análise da indústria farmacêutica paraense

The transformations economical, cultural and social that happen in world ambit they are associated to the intense progress and expansion of new technologies, forcing governments, people, companies and nations to the introduction of new patterns of behavior, forcing, in that way, to the continuous renewal of products and technological processes to maintain the competitiveness, so much among nations, as in the managerial world. In that matter, the technological innovation is recognized as basic factor of maintainable economical competitiveness, being the responsible for the breaking and/or improvement of the techniques and production processes, what presupposes the systematization varied institutional arrangements that they involve firms, interaction nets among companies, government agencies, universities, research institutes, laboratories of companies and scientists and engineers activities. Those arrangements, to the if they articulate with the educational system, with the industrial and managerial section and, also, with the financial institutions, they take the form that Freeman (1987) it coined of national system of innovation, promoted through public politics of CT&I, which seek to induce and to support innovative initiatives in the companies, as well as to establish demands and to prioritize vocations and regional potentialities. In that context of government support to the technological innovation interferes this study, that it looked for to know the reasons of the fragility innovative in the pharmaceutical industry of State of Pará in Brazil, pointed for PINTEC (2005), starting from the point of view of the businessmen of that section. For such, the qualitative approach was used - with interviews directing semi and the technique of the content analysis. The results of the research pointed that the fragilities innovative of the section links to the ignorance of the government support to the technological innovation on the part of the businessmen of the pharmaceutical industry of State of Pará in Brazil