We use the rise and dispersion of sovereign spreads to tell the story of the emergence and escalation of financial tensions within the eurozone. This process evolved through three stages. Following the onset of the Subprime crisis in July 2007, spreads rose but mainly due to common global...

With policy rates near the zero bound, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has introduced a series of unconventional monetary easing measures since late 2009 in response to lingering deflation and a weakening economy. These measures culminated in a new Asset Purchase Program under the Comprehensive Monetary...

While there have been extensive studies exploring the relationships between demographic profiles of employees and their job satisfaction and job performance in developed and industrialised countries, there is a paucity of research for developing nations. This paper addresses this vacuum in the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether information on intellectual capital (IC) is value relevant for investors and the role played by the single components of IC (human capital, organizational capital, relational capital) in creating firm value. Design/methodology/approach...

Small firms in developing countries continue to experience difficulties in accessing finance from formal financial institutions. This paper argues that regulating microfinance operations and activities is likely to strengthen microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) financial sustainability. This in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the intellectual capital (IC) performance of the Australian Financial Sector for the period 2006‐2008. It also aims to examine the relationship between IC performance and the financial performance of the financial sector....

Purpose – The OECD recently identified tax crime as one of the top three sources of money laundering. In the context of increased acknowledgement that tax evasion, capital flight and money laundering are key threats to the economic stability of developing countries, South Africa, like many...

Benchmarking is the process of identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices from within the organization or from other businesses to help improve performance. The importance of benchmarking as an enabler of business excellence has necessitated an in‐depth investigation into...

Purpose This study aims to analyze stock market reactions to layoff announcements in the renewable energy sector. The global renewable energy sector and most of the producers of wind and solar energy equipment are struggling. While changes in the regulation and in the promotion of energy...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the expected cost of a large-sized photovoltaic (PV) system (= 1 MW) in reaching grid parity, not taking into account any type of government incentives (now quite uncommon in industrialized countries). A PV system located in Southern Italy...