A considerable body of literature has emerged in recent years that has documented the increasing importance of innovative practices in small business firms within the United Kingdom. Much of this literature has developed in response to reports that UK firms were underperforming in the area of...

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to provide a framework for benchmarking firm performance (profitability) using panel data. Further, to illustrate how the estimation results can be used for simulation (what if?) exercises. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply the econometric...

The length of the working week and the flexibility of working time are two aspects which impact on the international competitiveness of Australian industry. The popular view of the Australian worker is often couched in terms such as “lazy” and “slack”, and the “sickie” appears to...

A stratified random sample of respondents was identified from databases compiled by associate researchers located in each of five countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan. The aim of the study was to establish which dimensions of management skill are important to...

The authors find evidence from Australian time-series data supporting two hypotheses about the determination of labor absence. First, labor absence modeled in a utility-maximizing framework that stresses the opportunity cost of labor absence receives considerable support from the data. Variables...

The principal aim of this article is to provide some insights into the role of economics in modelling labour demands. The impression that we have built up over time is that, while many of the existing economic theories have a considerable amount to offer in understanding the demand for labour,...