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Theme: ‘Creating futures: Sustainable economies?’ Purpose: To share continuous and collaborative research outputs that review existing strategies and to propose mechanisms for the likely achievement of a sustainable economy that is unique but inclusive to different entities in the world.Target audience: This year’s 7th International Conference on Business and Finance (ICBF) continues its tradition of being the premier forum for presentation of research results and experience reports on contemporary issues of finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, business innovation, big data, e-Government, public management, development economics and information systems, including models, systems, applications, and theory.Editorial Policy: All papers were refereed by a double blind reviewing process in line with the South African, Department of Higher Education Training (DHET) refereeing standards. Papers were reviewed according to the following criteria: relevance to conference themes, relevance to audience, contribution to scholarship, standard of writing, originality and critical analysis

Business & management --- business and management sciences --- finance --- sustainable economies --- Botswana --- Corporate social responsibility --- Exchange-traded fund --- Inflation --- Market capitalization --- Small and medium-sized enterprises

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The informal sector is an important source of livelihoods and jobs for a vast majority of people in developing countries. However, there is concern that it may undermine growth and development of the formal sector. For instance, the growth literature indicates that research and development activity and innovation are a key driver of long-term growth. How does the competition that formal sector firms face from informal sector firms affect research and development activity by the formal firms The present paper attempts to answer this question using firm-level survey data for small and medium-size enterprises in a large cross-section of mostly developing countries. The results show that higher informal competition leads to greater a likelihood of spending on research and development by formal firms. For the most conservative baseline specification, a one standard deviation increase in informal competition leads to an increase of 5.2 percentage points in the likelihood of spending on research and development by formal firms. This is a large increase given that less than 18 percent of the firms in the sample engage in research and development activity. Further, consistent with the "parasite" view of informality, the positive impact of informal competition on research and development activity is magnified when the business environment is less conducive to operating in the formal sector compared with informal sector due to factors such as higher corruption, weaker rule of law, more burdensome business regulations, and a higher tax rate on profits. As expected, there is no impact of informal competition on research and development activity among large firms. The main findings are robust to several controls, alternative specifications, and endogeneity checks.

Competition --- Firm Productivity --- Informality --- Innovation --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- Research and Development --- Science and Technology Development --- Small and Medium Size Enterprises --- Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises

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With the development of the Internet, the growth of social media and the rapid spread of mobile devices, the marketing communication landscape has changed profoundly and has become digitized. Since then, companies have enlarged their playground by taking into account what is now called "digital" marketing communication. 
As companies have entered and now operate in this new online environment, it is of crucial importance to assess the impact of new media on their business activities. In this context, the focus of the study was on the management of online channels by small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This exploratory research aims at better understanding why SMEs use digital marketing communication and how they manage it on a daily basis. This work starts with a review of the current literature. Recent research has contributed substantially to the adoption of digital channels by SMEs. Nevertheless, additional studies are required to examine what happens after the adoption phase within SMEs. To achieve this objective, twelve interviews were conducted among restaurants and retail stores in Wallonia. More specifically, their usage and management of online channels for their marketing communication was analysed. 
The main findings of this study have revealed that the majority of SMEs do not manage effectively their DMC. In fact, due to a lack of time and knowledge, SMEs do not entirely exploit the potential of those digital channels. Moreover, it was also discovered that SMEs do not fully take advantage of the statistic tools provided by online platforms. Finally, it was discovered that none of the SMEs surveyed had established any digital marketing communication strategy.

Digital marketing communication (DMC), social media, online/digital channels, management statistical tools, small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Marketing

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Firms and enterprises --- Europe --- Small business --- -Businesses, Small --- Medium-sized business --- Micro-businesses --- Microbusinesses --- Microenterprises --- Small and medium-sized business --- Small and medium-sized enterprises --- Small businesses --- SMEs (Small business) --- Business --- Business enterprises --- Industries --- Size --- -Small business --- Small business - Europe

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The lack of funding available from the financial sector for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is known as the "financing gap". This timely report analyses this gap for both credit and equity financing and seeks to determine how prevalent such a gap may be, both among OECD countries and non-OECD economies. The report recommends measures to foster an improved flow of financing to SMEs and entrepreneurs.

Small business. --- Small business --- Finance --- Business & Economics --- Financial Management & Planning --- Finance. --- Businesses, Small --- Medium-sized business --- Micro-businesses --- Microbusinesses --- Microenterprises --- Small and medium-sized business --- Small and medium-sized enterprises --- Small businesses --- SMEs (Small business) --- Business --- Business enterprises --- Industries --- Size