Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the U.S. Restaurant Industry.

The business environment is a profound concern for the state and institutions to make it encouraging to boost entrepreneurship. Given such relevance of the business environment, this paper aims to link selected business environment aspects to business sector. The study identified the perceived differences between sectors in the Czech and Slovak Republics and then a comparison of a similar group of firms. To shape the study, survey-based research planned and conducted in two segments of firm’s (service and non-service), covered 641 enterprises. The current research adopted factor analysis and then t-test and Mann-Whitney test to determine the results. The major findings of the study reveal that the Slovak firms in the service sector scored higher in macroeconomic environment, consumers’ consumption and competition factors and lower in access to finance factor, as compared to their non-service counterparts. However, another key finding indicates that the Czech entrepreneurs’ perception did not statistically differ in any selected aspects of business environment between the firms operating in service and non-service sectors. In all the cases business support was found insignificant. This paper adds to the existing literature in entrepreneurship by offering a better understanding of the linkage between business sector and business environment aspects.

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Perception of the Selected Business Environment Aspects by Service Firms

This study investigates the impact of firm characteristics on the financial performance of companies listed on the Egyptian stock market. Regression model was performed to regress six firm characteristics variables, namely firm size, foreign listing, age, leverage, liquidity, and assets tangibility. The study controlled for five more variables related to corporate governance including board size, board independence, CEO role duality, audit committee, and the quality of external auditor to avert their effect on financial performance. The study used both accounting measures such as return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) and market-based Tobin's Q Ratio for measuring financial performance. The findings generally indicate that firm characteristics have an impact on both accounting financial performance as measured by ROA or ROE and market-based financial performance as measured by Tobin's Q, with little difference in the level of such impact. These findings revealed that firm characteristics affect corporate financial performance as evaluated by the company or the market.

The Impact of Firm Characteristics on Corporate Financial Performance in Emerging Markets: Evidence From Egypt

This paper examines the dynamic relationship between fintech investments and financial performance, and it explores whether the bank size could influence the performance in the context of the digital transformation (digitization). The fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) model is estimated for 23 European banks throughout the whole period ranging from 2010 to 2019 and for the two sub-periods spanning from 2010 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2019. The econometric results evince that fintech are positively and significantly related to the bank profitability, inferring that the greater the digital engagement of banks is, the higher the profitability is. Our findings provide evidence that the bank size is a moderator factor in affecting the relationship between digital investments and the profitability. Hence, larger banks benefit more from investments in the financial technology so as to improve their performance. Our study has substantial policy implications as we suggest that the increased investment in the fintech is a possible channel through which banks improve their performance, particularly when the bank size is considered large. 

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The Effect of Financial Technology Investment Level on European Banks’ Profitability

Financial accounting information plays an important role in assessing and forecasting firms’ financialperformance. But besides that, there are other external factors affecting the performance of firms, suchas economic and financial crises, which cause imbalances over the economy and affects the business environment.Thus, based on financial statements data, in this paper, the determinants of financial performance areexamined, and the impact of a financial crisis on these factors is analyzed, using the fixed and random effectspanel estimators. A sample of non-financial firms from European countries considering annual data for theperiod of 2006 to 2015 was used for this research. The results achieved by panel data analysis show that acrisis exerts a significant positive effect over financial performance as well as liquidity, assets turnover, andlabor productivity, meaning that firms tend to put in greater efforts to maintain financial performance in theface of a crisis. Financial performance is significantly and negatively influenced by leverage independently ofthe crisis effect, showing return on assets to be lower than the average interest rate.

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The Financial Performance of European Companies: Explanatory Factors in the Context of Economic Crisis

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelationship between macroeconomic factors, firm characteristics and financial performance of quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigates the effect of interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate and the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, while the firm characteristics were size, leverage and liquidity. The dependent variable financial performance is measured as return on assets (ROA).




Design/methodology/approach




The study used the ex post facto research design. The population comprised all quoted manufacturing firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The sample was restricted to companies in the consumer goods sector, selected using non-probability sampling method. The study used multiple linear regression as the method of validating the hypotheses.




Findings




The study finds no significant effect for interest rate and exchange rate, but a significant effect for inflation rate and GDP growth rate on ROA. Second, the firm characteristics showed that firm size, leverage and liquidity were significant.




Practical implications




The study has implications for regulators and policy makers in formulating policy decisions. In addition, managers may better understand the interplay between macroeconomic factors, firm characteristics and profitability of firms.




Originality/value




Few studies have addressed the interplay of macroeconomic factors and firm characteristics in determining the profitability of manufacturing firms in the country and developing countries in general.

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Chinedu Francis Egbunike

Papers

Macroeconomic factors, firm characteristics and financial performance: A study of selected quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria