The slippery slope framework of tax compliance emphasizes the importance of trust in authorities as a substantial determinant of tax compliance alongside traditional enforcement tools like audits and fines. Using data from an experimental scenario study in 44 nations from five continents (N = 14,509), we find that trust in authorities and power of authorities, as defined in the slippery slope framework, increase tax compliance intentions and mitigate intended tax evasion across societies that differ in economic, sociodemographic, political, and cultural backgrounds. We also show that trust and power foster compliance through different channels:trusted authorities (those perceived as benevolent and enhancing the common good) register the highest voluntary compliance, while powerful authorities (those perceived as effectively controlling evasion) register the highest enforced compliance. In contrast to some previous studies, the results suggest that trust and power are not fully complementary, as indicated by a negative interaction effect. Despite some between-country variations, trust and power are identified as important determinants of tax compliance across all nations. These findings have clear implications for authorities across the globe that need to choose best practices for tax collection.

The main objective of this paper is to study the capital structure determinants of SMEs in the hospitality sector and how this can influence their level of indebtedness. Using panel data methodology and considering a sample of 43 Portuguese hotels we study the capital structure determinants between 2004 and 2013. The paper intends to examine the indebtedness level in light of the two main theories -the Trade-off theory and the Pecking Order theory. We chose the hospitality sector because of its importance in the Portuguese economy and because this particular sector has hardly been studied. In addition to total indebtedness, we extend the literature by analyzing the differences between short-term and long-term indebtedness. The results obtained suggest that profitability, assets tangibility, firm dimension, total liquidity and risk are key factors affecting the capital structure of hospitality sector SMEs, while growth, other tax benefits and age were not deemed relevant. These results allow us to conclude that Trade-off and Pecking Order theories should not be considered in isolation to explain the capital structure of hospitality sector SMEs.

The central objective of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between the capital structure of Portuguese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their export performance. We focus our study in the Portuguese industrial firms due to their importance for the Portuguese economy and role played in the country's economic recovery amid the recessionary environment of the last decade. Though many empirical papers studied the determinant factors of capital structure, the interaction between export performance and capital structure has been much less studied. We intend to fill that gap, particularly for the case of Portugal and focusing on SMEs, where agency and asymmetric information problems could impact more on export performance, and not on large and listed corporations. Using panel data methodology, considering a sample of 3.164 firms and the period from 2011 to 2014, the paper extends the literature since analyzes the impact of the presence in foreign markets on short and long-term indebtedness. Distinguishing between different sectors of activity, the results suggest that profitability, asset tangibility, size, liquidity and presence in foreign markets are key factors affecting the capital structure of industrial SMEs. Albeit not validating the "upstreamdownstream" hypothesis, we highlight the possible role played by agency costs and information asymmetries over debt during the internationalization process.

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a perceção e sensibilidade ao risco das "PME de excelência" portuguesas e constatar quais os benefícios que retiram da gestão do risco. É também objetivo investigar se as empresas entendem a gestão do risco como algo de positivo e se apresentam maturidade na identificação e tratamento do risco. O método de análise utilizado é quantitativo e exploratório. Numa primeira fase, foi efetuado um inquérito às empresas e realizada uma análise descritiva dos resultados. Numa fase posterior, foi efetuada a análise fatorial de componentes principais. Os resultados apresentam quatro fatores com relevância na análise do risco empresarial, nomeadamente, os fatores relacionados com os riscos de funcionamento, competitividade, adaptação e mercado. As empresas associam o risco de funcionamento a características internas, o risco de competitividade a condições de diferenciação e concorrência, o risco de adaptação ao ambiente que as rodeia e o risco de mercado a variáveis financeiras. Palavras-chave: Risco, gestão do risco, normas internacionais de gestão do risco, processo de gestão do risco, análise fatorial.

In the last decades, the academic literature has devoted considerable attention to the determinants of export performance. In result of those research efforts in identifying and examining the influence of such determinants, the literature presents a wide set of variables associated with higher levels of exports. This paper provides a contribution to that literature by trying to evidence the impact of firm certification—namely, in terms of the firm’s quality, environmental, and health and safety management systems—on export performance. The paper analyses an unbalanced sample of 1684 Portuguese industrial SMEs for the period 2010 to 2020, uses other determinants of internationalization as control variables, and explores the possibility of moderating effects on the certification–internationalization relationship. Two alternative econometric methods are employed: a random-effects model and a Tobit model. The results evidence the importance for firms, especially in the low or medium–low technology sectors, to have certain ISO certifications in order to further develop their export activities and increase their foreign acceptance, particularly in the European Union markets. Further, certification seems to reinforce the positive relation between firm size and internationalization.