Search results

The combination of low rates of private saving and projected increases in the fiscal burden of financing a public pension scheme for an ageing population poses a major policy challenge in New Zealand. Policy discourses espouse pension reform and the redoubling of household saving efforts. However, some of the policy options could have offsetting effects. To inform the debate with research findings, the purpose of this paper is to revisit the relationship between social security and household saving.

The paper employs a constructed social security wealth (SSW) variable in a hybrid life cycle‐permanent income consumption/saving model pioneered by Feldstein. Time series techniques are used.

The results show that an increase in the constructed gross SSW variable boosts saving. This suggests that concerns with accumulating assets to match the length of the implicit life expectancy at the current pension eligibility age overwhelm the view that the pension benefit is an adequate substitute for household assets. The other findings are consistent with a priori expectations: increases in disposable income boost saving; there is a significant propensity to consume out of household net wealth; and inflation and unemployment engender significant precautionary saving.

A policy to raise the retirement age may reduce the gross SSW and therefore the fiscal burden of the public pension scheme. However, in shortening the expected post‐retirement period that households have to save for, the policy may also reduce the saving rate.

Although the Feldstein approach has been used in studies in countries like Australia, Canada and the USA, a comparable study has not been undertaken in New Zealand. This study seeks to fill that void.

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the issues, challenges, and impediments coming in the way of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalization in small developing nations of South Pacific like Fiji and Samoa.

The paper encompasses both quantitative and qualitative data. Analyses of antecedents are descriptive in nature, while establishing the relationship between intervening variables and outcomes are quantitative. For quantitative data, structured questionnaires are used, while for the collection of qualitative data, archival and library research methods are employed. Structured questionnaire is used to collect data from 118 and 78 sampled respondents in Fiji and Samoa, respectively, and statistical analysis is performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences package.

These research findings pinpoint that the problem lies in evaluating the nature of issues affecting internationalization of SMEs. The results also show that the performance of Fijian and Samoan SMEs is same across different business sectors and those SMEs in these two countries exhibit different change patterns in their export growth.

The scope of the paper is limited only to the SMEs in Fiji and Samoa and cannot in any way be generalized to large firms.

SMEs seeking to internationalize will need to learn a lot about the internal and external factors impacting their organizations. Many a times entrepreneurs believe that through sustained planning, they can reduce the shocks resulting from environmental uncertainty, however, in reality some of them may be able to benefit while others despite planning may not be able to overcome growth‐related problems, as they may require reactive action. Therefore, learning is essential in international expansion and so is having a clear understanding of the environment that entrepreneurs operate in. Future research should seek to highlight documented cases of SME internationalization.

This paper is one of the important studies taken in the context of Pacific SMEs. The research that has been conducted in the past are mostly confined to Asian countries, with very little in the area of SME internationalization. The findings of this paper will have relevance for policy making and supportive measures at government levels for SME internationalization.