Volume 40 No. 2

Lawrence A. Nicholson, Antonio Cardentey Levin, Dave Valliere and Michael Steele, Nlandu Mamingi, Patrice Borda, Stacey Estwick, Kelza Scantlebury and Philmore Alleyne

Issue Summary

The thematic focus in this issue includes: Family-owned business, entrepreneurship, English-speaking Caribbean, Affect theory, Caribbean sexuality, Caribbeanness, Eroticism, entrepreneurial intent; Jamaica; Canada; economic development; employment; measurement validation, economic growth, Autoregressive distributive lag model, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, external debt, trade openness, principal-principal conflict; financial flexibility; liquidity; corporate governance; debt capacity, Risk Management, Risk Disclosures, Annual Reports, Public Limited Companies, Content Analysis.

In this issue

Family-owned Businesses - The Seat of Entrepreneurship: The Case of Three English-Speaking Caribbean Countries

Pages:  1-26Author(s):  Lawrence A. Nicholson

In recent years increased attention has been given to family-owned businesses (FOBs), concomitant with robust entrepreneurial activities in the English-Speaking Caribbean (ESC). This raises the relevant question of any possible link between the two constructs, in the context of the ESC. Using data from three countries, the study explores the impact of FOBs on entrepreneurship in the ESC and concludes that FOB is the ‘seat’ of entrepreneurship in the region. With the seemingly global push in promulgating entrepreneurship as a platform for economic development, the study has implications for policy makers and family business and entrepreneurship researchers.

Keywords:  Family-owned business, entrepreneurship, English-speaking Caribbean

The Passion According to Zulé Revé. Bodily Mediations in Mayra Montero’s The Red of His Shadow

Pages:  27-41Author(s):  Antonio Cardentey Levin

The Cuban-Puerto Rican author Mayra Montero makes Caribbean sexuality the main subject of her novel Del Rojo de Su Sombra within the context of the Haitian emigration to the Dominican sugar cane plantations. Sexuality takes on a complex dimension not reducible to acts of mere carnality. Rather, it reveals the different religious, spatial and behavioral passages peculiar to the syncretic cults common to the region. Narrated bodily relationships play a key role to the extent that they determine the characters’ being-in-the-world as well as their religious and ethical motivations.

The protagonist’s varying erotic experiences are existential tests, which provide her with the required spiritual energy to transgress different boundaries–geographical, existential as well as sexual ones.  Thus, I aim to examine the various connotations of such corporal relationships by following Deleuze’s theory of affect based on Spinoza’s Ethics and his body dynamics. I argue that female sexual passion becomes a powerful means of resistance, especially for the protagonist and her embodiment of Erzulie, tutelary deity in the Voodoo pantheon. The author addresses this doubling of personality in terms of fusion or union, rather than through fission or division of the individual as is usual in the Romantic tradition of the double.

Keywords:  Affect theory, Caribbean sexuality, Caribbeanness, Eroticism

An Improved Measure of Entrepreneurial Intent: A Jamaica-Canada Perspective

Pages:  42-62Author(s):  Dave Valliere and Michael Steele

This paper reports on entrepreneurial intent (EI) in Jamaica in comparison to EI in Canada. Using an improved scale design, it measures EI in both countries and compares them using structural equation modelling. It is observed that, contrary to expectations in the literature, there is no entrepreneurial intent deficit in Jamaica relative to Canada. Rather, it appears that there are systemic barriers that prevent aspiring Jamaican entrepreneurs from acting upon their intentions. This highlights the need for future research into prevalence rates and the factors that promote translation of the entrepreneurial intent into action, and thereby into national economic development.

Keywords:  entrepreneurial intent; Jamaica; Canada; economic development; employment; measurement validation.

The Determinants of Economic Growth in the Countries of the OECS

Pages:  63-98Author(s):  Nlandu Mamingi and Patrice Borda

This paper re-examines the issue of the determinants of economic growth in the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in the period 1980-2011. It answers two questions. What are the determinants of economic growth in the countries of the OECS? What are the sizes of their short-run and longrun impacts? To this end, the paper uses the cointegration autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach at the country level to draw conclusions concerning each country individually and the region as a whole. External debt, natural increase rate, and private consumption are found to negatively affect economic growth in the region in the short and long runs, and trade openness and foreign direct investment (FDI) positively impact economic growth. Overall, long-run impacts are far bigger than the corresponding short-run impacts. Natural disasters have negative impacts on economic growth, but only in a handful of countries. The negative impact of budget deficit shows up in one country with a complete data set. These results have policy implications.

(An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 34th Annual Review Seminar of the Central Bank of Barbados. The present version is based on Mamingi and Borda (2014). We thank Dr. DeLisle Worrell, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, and other participants for their useful comments. We acknowledge Dr. Ankie Scott-Joseph and Moses Davis for helping us with data collection. Naturally, all remaining errors are our own).

Keywords:  Economic growth, Autoregressive distributive lag model, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, external debt, trade openness

The Impact of Principal-principal Conflict on Financial Flexibility in Transition Economies: A Study of Caribbean Firms

Pages:  99-123Author(s):  Stacey Estwick

This study examined the impact of principal-principal conflict on financial flexibility in transition economies. The use of this population allowed for the examination of the financial viability of the firm, in a region characterised by high ownership concentration. This study analysed secondary data on publicly listed firms in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados during the 2007 to 2013 period, using panel data analysis and Arellano and Bond (1991) 2-step Generalised Methods of Moments estimators. In line with traditional evidence, which suggests that the self-serving bias of block holder owners stifles the financial viability of the firm, these results suggested that concentrated ownership negatively impacts the overall financial flexibility stock of the firm. This result forms the foundation for further research in principal-principal conflict in the Caribbean, which would allow governance legislation to specifically address the problems associated with high levels of ownership concentration.

Keywords:  principal-principal conflict; financial flexibility; liquidity; corporate governance; debt capacity.

A Content Analysis of Risk Management Disclosures in Barbadian Public Limited Companies’ Annual Reports

Pages:  124-161Author(s):  Kelza Scantlebury and Philmore Alleyne

This paper examines the risk reporting practices in the annual reports of Barbadian public limited companies for the year ending 2010. The study’s sample comprises the twenty-two (22) companies listed on the Barbados Stock Exchange. Following a content analysis, the annual reports of the selected companies are examined, using a relatively under-utilised coding approach by Lajili and Zeghal (2005). Findings show that risk reporting in Barbadian public limited companies falls short in providing useful information to investors and other interested parties preventing them from correctly assessing a company’s overall risk profile.  Additionally, we find that risk disclosures are done on a voluntary basis since there are no regulations in place that mandate the disclosure of risks. The paper reveals that risk reporting by Barbadian public limited companies needs improving if users are to make fully informed and effective investment decisions. Such improvement can bolster investor confidence and trust in the information presented to them in the annual reports from which they make their evaluations. This study fills the paucity of research on risk management disclosures in the Caribbean.

Keywords:  Risk Management, Risk Disclosures, Annual Reports, Public Limited Companies, Content Analysis.

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