ISO 9001 Quality Standard is a series of internationally accepted guidelines as to how companies should set up their quality management systems. Certification to this quality standard is accepted worldwide and helps companies to operate successfully in a global economy. There has been considerable debate in the literature as to whether or not the certification has a positive impact on the organizational effectiveness. The objective of this study is to empirically estimate the impact of certification on the performance of factors that measure organizational effectiveness such as profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction. Survey data was used for this study. Samples of 500 companies each from US, and the BRIC nations Brazil, Russia, India and China were selected for this study. Hypotheses on the impact of certification on individual factors were tested and the results presented in the paper.

This paper investigates the linkages between the four emerging stock markets of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka after a period of financial liberalisation in South Asia in 2000. The initial analysis was conducted for the period from January 2000 to December 2019 as well as for two sub-periods before and after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The paper examines whether the equity returns from these four markets become more linked after this crisis. During a crisis period, investors may attempt to diversify internationally whilst taking advantage of the 2000 financial liberalisation that took place in South Asia. More specifically, the paper investigates the existence of co-integration amongst the markets and convergence toward the long-run equilibrium using the vector error correction model. A single co-integrating vector for the entire period and in the post-crisis sub-period is found. Forecasting the returns one-week ahead using data for the period from January 2016 to December 2019 confirmed the robustness of the model used. An important implication of this finding is that linkages between the sample countries have increased over time, especially around the time of the Global Financial Crisis. As a result, the potential for diversifying risk by investing in all four of these South Asian countries is limited in the long-run because their equity markets move together over time.

This study focuses on the determinants of access to finance by SMEs in the city of Goma. With regard to theoretical and empirical reflections on the issue of credit rationing, this study explores a dual approach centered respectively on the theory of informational asymmetry and the governance theory. Based specifically on a quantitative approach, the results of the surveys of 271 SMEs, using logistic regression, have clearly demonstrated that access to finance, in the context of highly imperfect markets such as that of the city of Goma, depends largely on the following variables: collaterals, solvency, nondefault, duration of existence and social capital, with reference to the preponderance of their odds ratios. Specifically, for collateral, it reduces distortions arising from information asymmetry while discouraging opportunistic behavior by SME owners. Analysis provided additional results according to which the holding of an additional income-generating activity as well as the interpersonal relations of the SME owner with the MFIs increase the probability of access to financing. The extension of the analyses, by using principal component analysis, enabled the derivation of the governance quality index, whose average value was 0.45 and which indicates a governance weakness. These results call for the establishment of a better organizational framework, a consolidation of the management system and the observance of effective control mechanisms within SMEs. This remains a key success factor for easy access to finance.

Management is a practice of coordinating and governing collective action. Leading this social collaboration and this organizational practice called management, a research question remains: What is the Essence of Management? The literature considers that the modern capitalist system gave rise to management practices. But, both capitalism and management preexisted modern industrial revolution. This historical amalgam creates a misleading belief that management can only be applied within this historical materialism. This fundamental research through sociological and anthropological metasynthesis reveals how Management is a social practice independent of organizations and the economic system while a longitudinal social experimentation reveals how existential reflexivity transforms the management social practice toward an existentialist contribution. The discussion addresses the implication in considering management as a social practice and it’s potential for radical humanist transformation.

While studies on successful entrepreneurship are abundant, this stream of research focused predominantly on start-up entrepreneurship. Acquiring an existing firm, or entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), is an alternative form of entrepreneurial entry. Using a unique sample of nascent ETA entrepreneurs, in particular middle-aged senior experienced individuals, collected through online surveys, we test the importance of three forms of capital on the odds of successfully acquiring a business: financial, human, and social capital. Human capital or the experience and expertise of the ETA entrepreneur significantly increases the chances of success. However, contrary to our knowledge of start-up entrepreneurs, financial capital is another vital predictor, while social capital seems to have no significant impact. Our findings suggest that start-up and ETA entrepreneurship require different resources to be successfully completed due to their inherent differences.