Global Business and Economics Review 

About: Global Business and Economics Review is an academic journal published by Inderscience Publishers. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Business & Economics. It has an ISSN identifier of 1097-4954. Over the lifetime, 530 publications have been published receiving 2618 citations. The journal is also known as: Global business and economics review & GBER.

Entrepreneurial activity and economic growth

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of entrepreneurial activity for economic growth. Entrepreneurs are individuals who perceive and exploit profit opportunities. Every time an entrepreneur fills an existing niche in the market, he mobilises resources. This produces the conditions for new markets to develop and, as a consequence, new entrepreneurial opportunities are created. Thus, I argue, entrepreneurs are catalysts of economic growth for the entire economy. If, as I claim, entrepreneurship creates a network externality that promotes the creation of new markets, then each individual entrepreneurial action has a more than proportional impact on economic growth.

The impact of natural events and disasters on the Australian stock market: a GARCH-M analysis of storms, floods, cyclones, earthquakes and bushfires

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of natural events and disasters in Australia on Australian stock market returns. The data set employed consists of daily price and accumulation (including dividends and changes in capitalisation) returns from 1 January 1980 to 30 June 2003 and the complete timing and duration of all severe storms, floods, cyclones, earthquakes and bushfires recorded during this period. A GARCH-Mean model is used to model the return series and the natural events and disasters are specified as exogenous explanatory variables. The results indicate that at the market level, natural events and disasters have no significant impact on returns however defined.

The exploration activity's added value into the innovation process

Abstract: This article responds to the lack of research on the way a new idea is transformed into a market-accepted new product. Through non-participant observation and multiple interviews, an empirical investigation within a large French telecommunications operator (OPERACOM), shows that companies should integrate an exploration activity into the innovation process. In order to facilitate its implementation by managers, the research proposes a synthesis of features, comprising the exploration axes/criteria (technology, client use and business value), the participants (clients/creative users, designers, partners…), the organisational system (exploration centre, core team), the governance as well as the added value of the activity. The paper further combines theoretical findings with empirical data to identify the managerial implications of the findings, as well as additional theoretical considerations.

Decisive FDI barriers that affect multinationals' business in a transition country

Abstract: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows are of crucial importance to the process of transition from a planned to a market economy for the Central and East European (CEE) countries in the global marketplace. This paper explores specific obstacles that foreign investors and foreign Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), from certain sectors and origin, faced during the establishment of their FDI projects in a transition country, such as Bulgaria. What is more, the degree to which these barriers have been considered by MNEs is evaluated, and special attention is given to the unstable Bulgarian legal framework, its corruption, briberies and bureaucratic procedures. The research data come from the author's questionnaire research, which was conducted in Bulgaria from the period mid-1998 until the end of 1999. Our questionnaire survey concluded that foreign MNEs looked upon bureaucratic or administrative issues and the regulatory environment, together with corruption, political and macroeconomic instability, as the most decisive barriers in their decision to undertake FDI projects in a Balkan country.

Competing for criminal money

Abstract: To compete for criminal money by means of high levels of bank secrecy has been a tempting strategy for countries to attract globally mobile funds. We show in a model that this 'Seychelles strategy' can increase national output, in particular, if a country takes first movement leadership in the competition game. If all countries try to do the same, there will be a race to the bottom and a supranational authority like the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) must intervene. However, there are also some intrinsic barriers to the Seychelles strategy. Among others, criminal capital might crowd out legal capital and money laundering might increase crime. Our findings suggest that countries have created niches for money laundering. Small countries can free ride for a while, but will eventually face external sanctions and internal crime problems.