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Reports and experiences suggest that several developing African economies are faced with entrepreneurial-impeding forces such as lengthy bureaucratic processes and poor regulatory space. The study examines a general trend in “doing business performance” among selected African countries and uses the case of Ghana to explore how particular indicators or forces affect the development and deployment of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policies.

Comparative analysis of six African economies on their ease of doing business score. This is followed by a critical review of the literature to develop a six-point explanatory framework to explore the relative position of the six countries on the ease of doing business scores. Using Ghana as a critical case study, the authors deploy an in-depth case study analysis via in-depth interviews of relevant stakeholders to validate the information from secondary sources.

The study observes that the nature of leadership, socio-cultural imperatives, economic structure and policy and the role of domestic institutional players and international players have implications for the extent to which the state creates an enabling environment for SMEs and entrepreneurial activities. The role of supportive cultural software that will help drive SME and entrepreneurial growth has been established. The study contends that different aspects of national culture do have implications for the tendency for people to be business-minded or to have the ability to take risks. The demand and supply sides are crucial in promoting SME growth.

The study develops a framework that helps explore elements to help explain ease of doing business scores and the viability of SMEs in Africa. These elements were validated through qualitative interviews as well.

This chapter advances our understanding of vulnerable consumers by exploring new relationships between resource scarcity and consumer decision-making. Although resource scarcity often prompts individuals to pull back on spending, recent research has shown that it can also increase consumers' motivation to engage in behaviors that fulfill their need for personal control. We extend this stream of research by offering the novel proposition that because resource scarcity motivates the desire for control, activating thoughts about scarcity will increase consumers' interest in products offering self-improvement benefits. We offer initial empirical evidence for when resource scarcity causes consumers to forgo their desire to save by increasing their willingness to pay for products that offer self-improvement benefits. In doing so, this chapter (i) highlights resource scarcity, a state of vulnerability, as an antecedent to the desire for self-improvement, (ii) provides a more nuanced perspective on the motivational underpinnings of resource scarcity and its effects on consumption, and (iii) sheds light on when resource scarcity can increase rather than decrease consumer spending.

“Immediate Gratuitousness” puts cryptocurrency and its sister industries into a history of performances of extravagance, daring, and waste. My assertion is that the people to read at this point in the development of crypto are not Mazzucato or Galbraith, Minsky or Perez (or Hayek and Mises), but Antonin Artaud, playwright of the theater of self-destruction and gratuitous gestures. This account of crypto situates it in a context of value produced through performance and ruinous waste, from burning a million British pounds on the Isle of Jura in 1994 to the production of proof-of-burn minting mechanisms, and explains how to make sense of our carnivalesque moment through the logic of the extravagantly destructive.

Both the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the popular press have routinely criticized firms for the complexity of their financial disclosures. This study aims to investigate how financial analysts respond to the tone complexity of firm disclosures.

Using approximately 20,000 earnings conference call transcripts of S&P 1,500 firms between 2005 and 2015, the authors first calculate the abnormal negative tone, the measure of tone complexity; then use such tone measure in econometric models to examine analyst forecast behavior. The authors also test the robustness of the results under different model specifications, tone word lists and alternative tone measure calculations.

Consistent with the notion that analysts respond to the information demand from investors and incur more costs and effort to analyze firm disclosure when the tone is more complex, the authors find that higher tone complexity is positively and significantly associated with more analyst following, longer report duration, more forecast revisions, larger forecast error and larger forecast dispersion. In addition, the authors find that tone complexity has a long-term impact on analyst following but has a limited long-term impact on analyst report duration, analyst revision, forecast error and dispersion.

This study complements existing literature by highlighting the information role of financial analysts and by providing evidence that analysts incorporate the management tone disclosed during conference calls to adjust their forecasting behaviors. The results can be used by policymakers as evidence and support for further improving firm communication from a new dimension of disclosure tone.

Leaders are role models and through social influence processes, they shape the behaviour of their followers. We build on social learning, social identity and person-environment (P-E) fit theories of leadership to explore the association between leaders’ and followers’ resilient behaviours.

In a three-wave, multisource study amongst 269 Dutch leaders and their followers, we investigate the mediating role of coaching in the relationship between leaders’ resilient behaviour and followers’ resilient behaviour and the moderating role of regulatory focus in this mediation path.

Our results show that coaching is a key relational vehicle through which leaders’ resilient behaviours shape employees’ resilient behaviours, and this indirect association is stronger for employees scoring low on promotion focus. In addition, our results show that resilient employees attract more coaching from their leaders, which further strengthens their resilient behaviours.

Existing studies have shown the occurrence of trickle-down effects of various leader behaviours, moods and work states on those of their followers. However, it remained obscure whether leaders’ resilient behaviour could trickle down to followers’ as well. Our study shows that such a link indeed exists and that coaching is a relational vehicle that embodies two key mechanisms to (1) foster social learning through behavioural entrainment and contagion and (2) facilitate support provision through which leaders promote resilient behaviour in their followers.

This systematic review aims to identify what works for psychological interventions or teaching strategies designed to improve wellbeing in psychological therapy trainees (PTTs).

A systematic review was conducted in keeping with best-practice guidelines. The protocol for the review was registered prospectively on PROSPERO.

Seventy studies were included in the review. The balance of evidence across quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies cautiously suggests that interventions designed to improve PTT wellbeing may be of value. Novel findings regarding barriers and facilitators of successful intervention were identified. Particularly notable in this regard was the finding that providing trainees with a degree of choice or control over elements of the intervention appeared to be an important facilitator of success. Importantly, however, the review identified a number of methodological weaknesses in the literature, undermining the certainty of findings. More high-quality research is needed to answer the questions of the review decisively.

Evidence tentatively suggests that interventions to support trainee wellbeing are often received well by trainees and are frequently perceived by trainees as beneficial. Providing trainees with some degree of choice or control regarding how to engage with wellbeing interventions during training may be important.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first review to systematically identify and synthesise findings on this important topic.

The literature highlights the disconnection between university-based teacher education and field experiences as a significant barrier to student teacher preparation. To address this gap, the Research Teams (RTs) programme promotes a Networked Learning System (NLS), focusing on boundary-crossing work, inquiry and critical reflection to generate knowledge. This paper examines the emergence of relational and collective agency within this collaboration, linking school and university knowledge to enhance professional learning and drive teaching innovation.

Employing an exploratory qualitative design, data collection includes advising team notes, reflective session materials, interviews and focus groups. Qualitative content and discourse analysis were utilised.

Findings reveal how RTs promote relational agency among university tutors, school staff and preservice teachers and collective agency in the context of collaborative research. The pandemic presents both social interaction opportunities and challenges.

The relevance of this study lies in the necessity to advance knowledge regarding the development of collaborative learning systems that encourage cross-institutional relationships, allowing for the creation and flow of knowledge. It highlights the role and development of collective and relational agency in fostering the development of a NLS. It also raises questions about the challenges and investments needed to sustain and scale collaborative research models that cross professional and institutional values and beliefs within schools and universities.

The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the impact of innovation vouchers (IVs) by assessing the additionality of IV instruments supporting business-research collaboration in Lithuania.

The approach relies on studying potential input, behavioural and output additionalities created by IVs. Adopting this perspective, the paper outlines a theoretical framework that indicates the expected contribution of IV schemes and empirically tests its implications. The model is tested by analysing the Inno-vouchers LT instrument implemented in Lithuania in 2012–2014. The study relies on a counterfactual impact evaluation (CIE) and descriptive statistical analysis of survey data of the applicants for IVs.

The study findings are structured around three types of additionalities. Evidence on input additionality of IV projects provides mixed results, but a significant share of projects included private investment that would not exist without Inno-vouchers LT. Yet, many beneficiaries would also have implemented projects without public support. Both survey data analysis and CIE provide evidence of behavioural additionality, albeit limited. They strongly support the hypothesis that IVs increase companies’ willingness to cooperate with research organisations. Finally, evidence on output additionality is ambiguous. Long-term or indirect output additionality (measured by employment and turnover) seems to be non-existent according to CIE results.

Despite the policy relevance and use of IVs instruments, evidence on the effectiveness is limited. The authors present findings on IVs additionality and suggest avenues for further research.