PR&D can affect some factors that could increase or reduce the expected rate of return for VC investments, but our outcomes indicate a net effect positive and PR&D does seem to generate value through fostering VC activity in the economy. This is especially true in countries with higher institutional quality and higher level of articles published by the scientific community. This could indicate two things: first, that PR&D is more efficient and strategically addressed in countries with high institutional quality; and second, it confirms that scientific production works in partnership with PR&D in generating VC opportunities. PR&D is more important for the generation of VC investments in countries with lower infrastructure; in these countries, the government decision for increasing PR&D takes more relevance in fostering active VC markets. The above conclusions are confirmed for early stage (ES), high technology (HT) and manufacturing sector (MS) venture capital investments, indicating that PR&D is specifically important for these three kinds of VC investments, however infrastructure availability remains definitive to increase MS venture capital investments. The results are based on a panel study controlling endogeneity with a generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel estimator model with a collapsed instrument matrix and two lags.

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This study investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment, institutional quality, economic freedom, and entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The research compares the capacity and appetite for business creation among high-income, low-income and emerging countries. The results are based on a panel study of data, from 2004 to 2009 for 87 countries, using as its source "The World Bank Entrepreneurship Snapshots" to look at the connection between business creation, institutional quality, market freedom and foreign direct investment (FDI). The findings reveal a strong positive relationship between institutional quality and business generation in all three of the above categories. Meanwhile, institutional quality and how this develops remains significant to business creation at least two years after a business is incubated, underscoring its importance as a contributory factor for creating an environment conducive to entrepreneurship. The freedom to create businesses and invest has a marked impact on business generation in emerging countries, while the influence of international trade appears more important as a spur to the genesis of business in low-income countries. Results also show that regulation of the free market has a short-term effect on business creation. Finally, there is a direct and significant relationship between FDI and business development in emerging countries. The effect of FDI is also felt for at least two years after the foreign investment. This result is consistent with "the spillover theory of entrepreneurship" (Acs et al, 2009;Görg and Strobl, 2002;Ayyagari et al, 2010).

Short-term thinking continues to dominate corporate decision making due to the pressure to achieve expected quarterly earnings. As such, strategic goals take a back seat to short-term performance among the prime objectives of CEOs, the board of directors and management teams. Be that as it may, shareholders and stakeholders expect corporate leaders to pay equal attention to the long-term health of the corporate enterprise. An empirical study is conduced to test how long-term oriented board of directors diminish earnings management, increase disclosure and reduce risk. The results show that a long-term board orientation decreases earnings smoothing, stock price synchronicity and downside risk. To study this relationship, we construct a panel data from 2004 to 2015 comprising of 2834 OECD country firms. We conclude that board independence, board expertise and board audit committee activity increase long-term firm orientation. We find that boards with these characteristics are prone to the implementation of executives’ long-term incentives, suggesting that a long-term orientation is beneficial not only to increase firms’ transparency and disclosure but also to reduce firms’ downside risk. Firms with long-term orientation reveal enough information to avoid stock price synchronicity, prevent the use of earnings management to conceal real firm performance and reduce downside risk - all decreasing the chance of financial failure. The results of the study not only nullify the arguments that there is no impact of long-term orientation and long-term incentives but also bolster and enrich the stream of literature that supports these variables’ impact on earnings management, stock price synchronicity and downside risk. Within the context of the international setting of the paper, we have substantiated the external validity of the results across geographies and country-wide regulations.

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