Introduction to SmartPLS software

SmartPLS is a software with graphical user interface for variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling method. Besides estimating path models with latent variables using the PLS-SEM algorithm, the software computes standard results assessment criteria (e.g., for the reflective and formative measurement models, the structural model, and the goodness of fit) and

Content Analysis Method and Examples

Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (i.e. text). Using content analysis, researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings and relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts. As an example, researchers can evaluate language used within a

How phenomenology can help us learn from the experiences of others

What is phenomenology? In simple terms, phenomenology can be defined as an approach to research that seeks to describe the essence of a phenomenon by exploring it from the perspective of those who have experienced it [6]. The goal of phenomenology is to describe the meaning of this experience—both in terms of what was experienced and how it was

Introduction to Statistical Data Analysis

Statistics is basically a science that involves data collection, data interpretation and finally, data validation. Statistical data analysis is a procedure of performing various statistical operations. It is a kind of quantitative research, which seeks to quantify the data, and typically, applies some form of statistical analysis. Quantitative data basically involves descriptive data, such as survey

Meta-analysis in management research

"Meta-analysis is the statistical combination of results from two or more separate studies" (Deeks et al, 2019, chapter 10). When the treatment effect (or effect size) is consistent from one study to the next, meta-analysis can be used to identify this common effect. When the effect varies from one study to the next, meta-analysis may be used to identify the reason for the

The Growth of firms: objectives, process and types

Firms grow in order to achieve their objectives, including increasing sales, maximising profits or increasing market share. Firms grow in two ways; by internal expansion and through integration. The growth of firms is for a number of reasons, including: To increase profits To decrease costs To dominate the market To reduce risk To fulfil

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Methods for Literature Reviews

What is a literature review? Literature reviews are foundational to research proposals, theses and dissertations, as well as scholarly books and articles. In addition to their place within larger pieces of writing, literature reviews are also published as a type of free-standing article. Let’s use a simple definition for a literature review: “a systematic syntheses

Different types of literature review and brief illustrations

Our classification scheme is largely inspired from Paré and colleagues’ (2015) typology. Below we present and illustrate those review types that we feel are central to the growth and development in management. 1. Narrative Reviews The narrative review is the “traditional” way of reviewing the extant literature and is skewed towards a qualitative interpretation

Introduction to Eviews

EViews is a statistical package for Windows, used mainly for time-series oriented econometric analysis. It is developed by Quantitative Micro Software (QMS), now a part of IHS. Version 1.0 was released in March 1994, and replaced MicroTSP. The TSP software and programming language had been originally developed by Robert Hall in 1965. The current version of EViews is 12, released in November 2020. EViews is

Introduction to Microeconomics

The Rolling Stones once said: “You can’t always get what you want.” This is true. For most people (even Mick Jagger), that there are limits to what you can have or do is a simple fact of life learned in early childhood. For economists, however, it can be an obsession. Much of microeconomics is

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What Is a Market?

Business people, journalists, politicians, and ordinary consumers talk about markets all the time—for example, oil markets, housing markets, bond markets, labor markets, and markets for all kinds of goods and services. But often what they mean by the word “market” is vague or misleading. In economics, markets are a central focus of analysis, so

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Real versus Nominal Prices

We often want to compare the price of a good today with what it was in the past or is likely to be in the future. To make such a comparison meaningful, we need to measure prices relative to an overall price level. In absolute terms, the price of a dozen eggs is many

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Why Study Microeconomics?

We think that after reading this book you will have no doubt about the impor- tance and broad applicability of microeconomics. In fact, one of our major goals is to show you how to apply microeconomic principles to actual decision-making problems. Nonetheless, some extra motivation early on never hurts. Here are two examples that

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Supply and Demand

The basic model of supply and demand is the workhorse of microeconomics. It helps us understand why and how prices change, and what happens when the government intervenes in a market. The supply-demand model combines two important concepts: a supply curve and a demand curve. It is important to under- stand precisely what these

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The Market Mechanism

The next step is to put the supply curve and the demand curve together. We have done this in Figure 2.3. The vertical axis shows the price of a good, P, again measured in dollars per unit. This is now the price that sellers receive for a given quantity supplied, and the price that

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Changes in Market Equilibrium

We have seen how supply and demand curves shift in response to changes in such variables as wage rates, capital costs, and income. We have also seen how the market mechanism results in an equilibrium in which the quantity supplied equals the quantity demanded. Now we will see how that equilib- rium changes in

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Elasticities of Supply and Demand

We have seen that the demand for a good depends not only on its price, but also on consumer income and on the prices of other goods. Likewise, supply depends both on price and on variables that affect production cost. For example, if the price of coffee increases, the quantity demanded will fall and

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Short-Run versus Long-Run Elasticities

When analyzing demand and supply, we must distinguish between the short run and the long run. In other words, if we ask how much demand or supply changes in response to a change in price, we must be clear about how much time is allowed to pass before we measure the changes in the

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Understanding and Predicting the Effects of Changing Market Conditions

So far, our discussion of supply and demand has been largely qualitative. To use supply and demand curves to analyze and predict the effects of changing market conditions, we must begin attaching numbers to them. For example, to see how a 50-percent reduction in the supply of Brazilian coffee may affect the world price

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Effects of Government Intervention—Price Controls

In the United States and most other industrial countries, markets are rarely free of government intervention. Besides imposing taxes and granting subsidies, governments often regulate markets (even competitive markets) in a variety of ways. In this section, we will see how to use supply and demand curves to ana- lyze the effects of one

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