George Saridakis

The role of higher education skills and support in graduate self‐employment

This article examines the career progression of self‐employed graduates immediately following graduation and four years subsequently. Using a career socialization theory specific to entrepreneurial settings, it links the role of skills acquired in UK higher education courses and the use of support with self‐employment outcomes. Using a wide range of controls (e.g. individual background, prior education, career orientations), the article finds that higher education is initially important in supporting graduate self‐employment, but that this support decays in value.

Do human resource practices enhance organizational commitment in SMEs with low employee satisfaction

This paper considers a large matched employee–employer data set to estimate a model of organizational commitment. In particular, it focuses on the role of firm size and management formality to explain organizational commitment in British small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high and low levels of employee satisfaction. It is shown that size ‘in itself’ can explain differences in organizational commitment, and that organizational commitment tends to be higher in organizations with high employee satisfaction compared with organizations of similar size with low employee satisfaction. Crucially, the results suggest that formal human resource (HR) practices can be used as important tools to increase commitment and thus, potentially, effort and performance within underperforming SMEs with low employee satisfaction. However, formal HR practices commonly used by large firms may be unnecessary in SMEs which benefit from high employee satisfaction and positive employment relations within a context of informality.

Crime, Deterrence and Unemployment in Greece: A Panel Data Approach

This study empirically examines the relationship between crime, deterrence and unemployment in Greece. A regional dataset over the period 1991-1998 was collected and analyzed. Our econometric methodology follows the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator applied to dynamic models of panel data. The results show that property crimes are significantly deterred by higher clear-up rates. Also for property crime rates, the results indicate that unemployment increases crime. For violent crimes, however, the effect of the clear-up rate and unemployment are found to be insignificant.

The Impact of Enterprise Size on Employment Tribunal Incidence and Outcomes: Evidence from Britain

Employment Tribunals are the formal means of adjudicating disputes over individual employment rights in the UK. This article hypothesizes that, because small firms favour informality over formality, they are more likely (i) to experience employee claims than large firms; (ii) to be subject to different types of claims; (iii) to settle prior to reaching a formal Tribunal; and (iv) to lose at a Tribunal. Data from the 2003 Survey of Employment Tribunal Applications are used to examine these hypotheses. They are generally supported, although in relation to the third there was no size effect. Furthermore, our results show that firms that have procedures and follow them are more likely to win than those firms that do not have any procedures. Recognizing the benefits of informality, while also ensuring that small firms follow proper standards of procedural fairness, is a policy dilemma that has yet to be resolved.

Information disclosure of social media users: Does control over personal information, user awareness and security notices matter?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap in the existing literature by exploring the antecedents of information disclosure of social media users. In particular, the paper investigates the link between information disclosure, control over personal information, user awareness and security notices in the social context, all of which are shown to be different from existing studies in e-commerce environments. Design/methodology/approach – The authors collected and analysed data from 514 social network users. The model is estimated using ordinary least squares and robust standard errors are estimated using the Huber-White sandwich estimators. Findings – The results show that in social networking contexts, control over personal information is negatively and statistically associated with information disclosure. However, both user awareness and security notices have a positive statistical effect on information disclosure. Originality/value – Whilst research on issues of individual information priva...

Violent crime and incentives in the long-run: evidence from England and Wales

This study uses recent advances in time-series econometrics to investigate the non-stationarity and co-integration properties of violent crime series in England and Wales. In particular, we estimate the long-run impact of economic conditions, beer consumption and various deterrents on different categories of recorded violent crime. The results suggest that a long-run causal model exists for only minor crimes of violence, with beer consumption being a predominant factor.

The role of security notices and online consumer behaviour

This paper uses a survey of social networking users to empirically explore their perceptions of security notices - independently verified artefacts informing internet site users that security measures are taken by the site owner. We investigate such factors as purchase experience, purchase intention, risk propensity, usage of various social network categories and user victimisation. The results suggest a strong positive link between purchase intention and paying attention to security notices/features on social networks. We find that higher use of narrow-purpose social networking services has a negative association with paying attention to security notices. We also show that users with higher risk propensity pay less attention to security notices/features. Finally, we find no association between purchase experience, user victimisation and perception of security notices/features. Our results provide new, and possibly more refined, evidence of the factors that influence the attention paid to security notices/features by social media users. The results have important implications for theory development, policy and practice. We attempt to close the gap in literature on consumer behaviour in social context.We model user behaviour, risk, usage, victimisation and impact of security notices.We empirically test the proposed model using a survey of 500+ social network users.We apply an ordered probit analysis to explore the role of security notices.Notices influence users who are risk averse and willing to transact on social media.

Purpose of social networking use and victimisation

We explore barriers to social media adoption for collaborative learning.Purpose of use and victimisation are explored between students and non-students.Students are open to social media use for academic purposes.Students are safer users of social networks than those not in HE. Current literature widely reports successful uses of social media as a source of information, collaborative and learning tool for students in higher education. Although universities increasingly promote the use of Social Network Services (SNS) little is known about how students use them. Also the adverse effects of social media activity, such as cybercrime victimisation in HE, are under explored. Concerns over informal leisure use of SNS by students leading to cyber victimisation may help explain slow adoption of social media in education. This paper shows, however, that students use SNS in a similar way to those users who are not in education, with more that 60% using SNS for both socialising and gathering information. We find that students are less likely to be victims of cybercrime than non-students suggesting that SNS activity is less risky within the university lifespan. The implications of this study are significant for policy and practice for universities and educational authorities.

Liquidity constraints in the first year of trading and firm performance

This article uses a survey of new businesses for three regions of England – Buckinghamshire, Shropshire and Tees Valley – and focuses on the effect of liquidity constraints experienced within the first year of trading on firm growth (measured using employment) and ‘partial survival’ (the probability of remaining in activity). We control for a range of firm characteristics, management traits and strategy variables. The empirical framework adopted allows for sample censoring arising from firm exit. Fewer firms in the less wealthy area reported liquidity constraints. Our results suggest that the experience of the first year is critical to the survival and subsequent resilience of the firm but has no effect on growth.

Human resource practices, employee attitudes and small firm performance

This article uses the matched employee–employer dataset from the Workplace Employment Relations Study of 2011 (WERS2011) in Britain to empirically examine the direct relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance in the United Kingdom, as well as the potential moderating effect of organisational commitment/job satisfaction on the HRM-performance linkage. We find a positive and direct relationship between the use of certain formalised human resource (HR) practices and SME performance, measured by financial performance and labour productivity. More importantly, we find that the positive relationship between HR practices and financial performance varies between SMEs with high job satisfaction and low job satisfaction, and that the relationship is weakened in SMEs with high job satisfaction. The results suggest that certain HR policies and practices may improve small firm performance, especially within firms with low levels of commitment and satisfaction.