Issue #1 (cont.) (Volume 15 2017)

In December 2013, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) published the International Integrated Reporting Framework.
The aim of the Framework is to provide the guiding principles and the content elements of an integrated report. The integrated report constitutes an evolutionary step in the corporate’s financial and non-financial communication, moving from the social responsibility reporting to the integrated reporting.
This practice is at the beginning in Europe and especially in Italy, where only a few listed companies have decided to face the multitude of challenges the integrated report implies.
Considering the relevance of such a new form of communication, the paper examines the main steps carried out by an Italian listed company moving towards the integrated report. The research has been conducted by adopting a qualitative case study approach, by focusing on Sabaf S.p.a, an Italian listed medium sized company belonging to the Star Segment. This company has been selected, because it was one of the first adopters of the integrated report among the Italian listed companies.
The study is built on data gathered through sites visits, structured interviews and company materials.
The paper examines Sabaf’s transition from the corporate social responsibility report to the integrated report, aiming at answering the following research question:
Why has Sabaf moved to integrated reporting? Which are Sabaf’s main steps towars the integrated report? How is the Sabaf’s integrated reporting process going?
The findings should be of interest to a number of parties including standard setters, firms, financial advisors, auditors and users of non-financial statements.

This research is a case study belonging to the historical research. The data were taken from the Department of Natural Product Buying and Financial and Controlling XYZ CORP. XYZ CORP is a manufacturing enterprise and exporter of clove oil and its derivatives to the world with a market share of about 55% of the world market. This study aims to empirically examine and study the ethical behavior of suppliers in the ever-changing business environment. The analysis tool used is the Mann Whitney test with SPSS 17.0 software. Based on the survey results it was revealed that for natural raw materials, the average purchase price between the rainy season and the dry season does not differ significantly, but the cost of purchase in the dry season, and the rainy season varies significantly. In this study, the price does not affect the acquisition of raw materials purchased from suppliers. The results of this study also obtained empirical evidence that the trading patterns of natural raw materials are strongly influenced by the behavior or ethics of suppliers, in addition to weather factors or uncertain climate.

Independent audit assurance of sustainability reporting is the basis for increasing the credibility of the stakeholders, its transparency and reliability; it is a means of implementing legal liability of the company and the evidence of achievement of its legitimacy to the public. The bases for providing such assurance are the standards of implementation of audit tasks in the sphere of sustainable development. Comparative analysis of international practice as for assurance regarding the SR with local realities, based on the reporting database of Ukrainian GRI companies for the 2005-2014 years, witnessed the initial phase of such practices among Ukrainian companies, and the need to strengthen regulatory efforts to determine the legal status of SR auditing standards in Ukraine, ensuring a legal environment and the development of corporate social responsibility initiatives.

It was acknowledged that institutional environment plays important role for shaping entrepreneurial behavior in transition economies. The present study investigates the influence of entrepreneurs’ perceptions of institutional environment on their entrepreneurial plans in a large representative sample from a transition economy. The findings reveal that institutional environment has a significant influence on entrepreneurial plans and that firm age and size moderate the effect of institutional environment on entrepreneurial plans. The paper provides recommendations for future research and a discussion of practical implications.

In ensuring sustainable development an important role belongs to natural preservation areas with different functions and modes of preservation, where an important place is occupied by natural conservation territories and natural conservation objects that form the natural reserve fund. A system of management of natural reserve fund of Ukraine is associated with many problems and shortcomings. The authors have studied the experience of efficient management of similar institutions in other countries, such as the national natural and regional landscape parks. They have outlined prospects for the development of natural reserves in Ukraine in accordance with international standards and requirements. They have also outlined innovative tools for the protection of biodiversity. They have offered a range of measures to improve the efficiency of the system of management of natural reserves based on the best international practices (establishing standard expenses of the state budgetary financing, insurance, the use of geoinformation technologies, grant projects and programs, adaptive management, restructuring of management, improvement of the organizational structure, effective system of paid services, etc.).

The rich body of literature examining the entrepreneurship education-entrepreneurship intention relations tends to neglect the influence of contingent and other mediating factors on the relationship. This elusion creates an erroneous assumption that entrepreneurship intentions are insulated from external influences and the entrepreneurship education-intentions relationship is an automatic, directly linear interaction. Contesting this premise, this research explores the influence of exposure to entrepreneurship education (EE), mediated by precursors (such as attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control) to entrepreneurial intentions on the actual entrepreneurship intentions (EI) of vocational education students at a particular institution in Zimbabwe. Drawing on a cross-sectional research design and 154 randomly selected students, the study examines the extent to which they intended to engage in entrepreneurship careers in the near future. A non-parametric technique, the Spearman correlation test, and regression analysis were employed to test the relationships between EE on the direct determinants of EI, between the immediate determinants of EI and actual EI and to test a number of predictive effects. The results demonstrate that EE had a positive correlation with the direct determinants of EI. In addition, EE predicted all the immediate determinants of EI, except for subjective norms. Lastly, there was no evidence to support a direct predictive effect of EE on EI, controlling for other psychological factors. To a large extent, the results validated the Theory of Planned Behavior as a guiding tool for estimating any premeditated entrepreneurial behavior. Thus, the Theory remains an invaluable theoretical lens for academics, educators and policymakers’ evaluation of effective ways of enhancing the grooming of potential entrepreneurs.

The problems of formation of small business in Ukraine are caused by insufficient financial provision, ineffective mechanism of taxation and unsustainable state regulatory policies. The aim of the paper is analyze financial provision of small businesses and substantiation of its improvement scenarios with the use of foresight instruments. The paper evaluates the criteria of financial provision of small businesses. It offers the organizational mechanism of financial provision of small business. It also assesses the system of relations “state-small businesses” in the formation of financial provision of companies and identifies the main obstacles for the realization of small business potential. The use of foresight technologies in building scenarios for the formation of financial provision of small businesses is proposed. Stages and methods of systemic foresight are considered. The conclusion is made that financial provision of small business in Ukraine should be focused not only on changes in the legislation, but also on the improvement of state support of small businesses and expansion of the relationship “state-small businesses”.

The paper presents a comprehensive approach to monitoring the level of sustainable development of the enterprise. The basic principles and elements of forming the system of monitoring sustainable development of the enterprise were considered and systematized. The paper provides an analysis of existing approaches to assessing the sustainability of the enterprise during its development. The analysis of the results of monitoring the sustainable development of the enterprise allows to record stable and unstable periods of its development, which helps managers choose the strength of management impact according to the current situation. The theoretical foundations of the concept of sustainable development of economic systems are elucidated on the basis of the analysis of scientific publications. The authors have pointed out the importance of introducing the concept of sustainable development and possible benefits from its use. The enterprises implementing the sustainable development strategy in Ukraine have been highlighted. Based on the results of the study, the information and analytical content of the monitoring system for sustainable development of some processing enterprises of Ukraine was substantiated. The analysis of the application directions of the sustainable concept development has been carried out and a practical example of the information implementation and analytical system for monitoring the sustainable development of a food industry enterprise has been examined using as an example the Obolon Corporation, Kiev. The positive experience of using this method of monitoring the sustainable development of the Obolon Corporation should become an example for most processing enterprises in Ukraine.

The relevance of the topic is defined through the idea that appropriate leadership competencies and their application in certain activities enabling the followers can ensure the prospects of organizational development and individual career opportunities. To review and summarize the aspects of research findings of leadership science in expression of competencies in managerial processes, highlighting the leadership competencies in the context of general competencies. Methods. In order to formulate analytical findings describing the concept of leadership, generalizing the stages of development of theories, expression of leadership competencies and impact, there were used the methods of scientific literature analysis and synthesis as well as simulation. Results. According to the scientists insights, the article deals with leadership concept analysis, leadership research overview according to development stages. Scientific novelty. The analyzed theme has a scientific novelty, because recently there has been more and more discussion about the importance of leadership, but it is important to analyze the core leadership competencies that would predetermine both the findings of decisions of organizations’ managerial processes and positive changes of individual career in the integration in the activities of organizations. Practical significance. The need in leadership competencies is related to the issues of good leadership in organizations. Aiming to implement ideas of modern leadership in organisations, the leader has to have certain characteristics of leadership expressions, such as ability to communicate effectively, respond to the needs of others, and influence the behavior of the followers directing them towards the achieving of the set goals and implementation of the leader’s vision.

Set in the Western Province of South Africa, this study is centred on a group of small business owners who received financial support from a leading South African business developer. The main aims were to obtain from the recipients what they envisaged as their main challenges, and to compare those challenges at a later stage to get a better understanding of the real challenges of small business pre and post startup. The ultimate benefit will be to report on these to inform practitioners and researchers so that every stakeholder can have a fresher insight into this phenomenon with the hope that much more concrete discussions and interventions may emerge. This longitudinal study adopted the mixed method, specifically the use of a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview schedule. This method enabled the researcher to gain a better understanding of the issues at play with respect to first time recipients of funds, as well as engage intimately with them in order to obtain salient information regarding challenges of small business pre and post business startup. Interestingly, most participants indicated that almost all the items in the questionnaire were major challenges. This study should not only generate the necessary discussions among practitioners and scholars on small business growth constraints in South Africa, but, at the same time, uncover through such discussions, some of the undocumented challenges of small businesses in emerging markets so that the chances of survival of small businesses beyond the 2-3 year mark are improved.

China’s involvement in Africa has become one of the contentious topics in the development literature. The background of the study is that Sino-African relations can be grouped into two phases thus: past relations and contemporary relations. The two phases are dissimilar, as past relations are categorized by solidarity against imperialism, while contemporary relations are characterized by economic relations. The study uses a historical approach to analyze China’s resurgence into Africa and Zimbabwe, a case study is used to examine the contemporary Sino-African relations. Secondary data were utilized to come to sound conclusion of the study. The study mainly found out that China’s resurgence into Africa presents both negative and positive impacts for Africa and that the negatives need to be regulated in order for African countries to benefit from the relations.

Given the rapid and sustained growth of Aspen over the past decade, the main aim of this study is to identify and analyze the growth strategies, adopted by Aspen over the period from 2004 to 2014. The research method used was a descriptive study through a single case study of Aspen by analyzing secondary data in the form of publicly available company reports and presentations, as well as financial results, issued between 2004 and 2014. The study finds that, guided by strategic and visionary leadership, Aspen adopted a number of growth strategies including (i) organic growth, as a key factor in creating incremental value for Aspen and its stakeholders, (ii) inorganic growth, in the form of carefully planned and well executed acquisitions, aligned to the Group strategy, (iii) extending territorial coverage through global expansion, particularly into emerging pharmaceutical countries, and (iv) ongoing investment in production capabilities as a means of achieving a strategic advantage. Despite the challenges of intense competition, restrictive legislation, pressure on medicine prices, currency volatility and market specific risks, Aspen has delivered double-digit earnings growth to its shareholders for 16 consecutive years.

Regardless of the nature, size, or business sector, organizations are now collecting burgeoning various volumes of data in different formats. As much as voluminous data are necessary for organizations to draw good insights needed for making informed decisions, traditional architectures and existing infrastructures are limited in delivering fast analytical processing needed for these Big Data. For success organizations need to apply technologies and methods that could empower them to cost effectively analyze these Big Data. However, many organizations in developing countries are constrained with limited access to technology, finances, infrastructure and skilled manpower. Yet, for productive use of these technologies and methods needed for Big Data analytics, both the organizations and their workforce need to be prepared. The major objective for this study was to investigate developing countries organizations’ readiness for Big Data analytics. Data for the study were collected from a public sector in South Africa and analyzed quantitatively. Results indicated that scalability, ICT infrastructure, top management support, organization size, financial resources, culture, employees’ e-skills, organization’s customers’ and vendors are significant factors for organizations’ readiness for Big Data analytics. Likewise strategies, security and competitive pressure were found not to be significant. This study contributes to the scanty literature of Big Data analytics by providing empirical evidence of the factors that need attention when organizations are preparing for Big Data analytics.

Does small business add the same value as entrepreneurial venture to an economy? Entrepreneurial ventures are resilient to economic duress, while providing higher quality and quantity of jobs, products and services. A needed entrepreneurial economic omnipresence pervasively stimulates socio-economic mindset in opportunity, rather than resource pursuit. A managed economy is under challenge by a knowledge economy and the policies of the former have become irrelevant for the latter. The unpredictable economic times call for a flexibility associated with an entrepreneurial economy. In this presentation, a literature review was conducted to highlight this conundrum in an economy. The findings are that entrepreneurial ventures have their distinctive features from simply small business enterprise and are better served in an entrepreneurial economy than a managed economy.

The significance of an entrepreneurial business and economy for individuals and policy makers alike has never needed an emphasis as in the days of our economic volatility.