The great trade collapse and the Spanish export miracle: Firm‐level evidence from the crisis

We provide novel evidence on the microstructure of international trade during the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent global recession by exploring a rich firm‐level data set from Spain. The focus of our analysis is on changes at the extensive and intensive firm‐level margins of trade, as well as on performance differences (jobs, productivity and firm survival) across firms that differ in their export status. We find no adverse effects of the financial crisis on foreign market entry or exit, but a considerable increase in the export intensity of firms after the financial crisis. Moreover, we find that exporters were more resilient to the crisis than non‐exporters. Finally, while exporters showed a significantly more favourable development of total factor productivity after 2009 than non‐exporters, aggregate productivity declined substantially in a large number of industries in Spanish manufacturing. We also briefly explore two factors that might help explain the surprisingly strong export performance of Spain in the aftermath of the great trade collapse: improved aggregate competitiveness due to internal and external devaluation and a substitutive relationship between domestic and foreign sales at the firm level.     

中国纺织企业出口与生产率关系:基于上市公司 2001～2010年数据的实证检验

本文采用中国纺织类上市公司2001～2010年数据,对新新贸易理论关于企业出口与生产率关系的两个假说进行实证检验,结果表明:(1)出口企业比非出口企业具有更高生产率,出口高参与度企业比低参与度企业具有更高生产率;(2)样本企业存在自选择,即生产率差异是决定企业是否参与出口的原因,且出口高参与度企业此关系更趋明显;(3)就所有样本企业而言,不存在"出口中学",但出口高参与度企业的单独检验显示存在此效应。本文认为,采用过去10～15年数据对中国企业的检验,除了已关注到的贸易方式、所有制等特殊问题外,企业特定贸易壁垒等因素也有待进一步考察。     

Firm-Level Determinants of Political CSR in Emerging Economies: Evidence from India

Multinational companies (MNCs) frequently adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities that are aimed at providing ‘public goods’ and influencing the government in policymaking. Such political CSR (PCSR) activities have been determined to increase MNCs’ socio-political legitimacy and to be useful in building relationships with the state and other key external stakeholders. Although research on MNCs’ PCSR within the context of emerging economies is gaining momentum, only a limited number of studies have examined the firm-level variables that affect the extent to which MNCs’ subsidiaries in emerging economies pursue PCSR. Using insights from resource dependence theory, institutional theory, and the social capital literature, we argue that MNCs’ subsidiaries that are critically dependent on local resources, have greater ties to managers of related businesses and to policymakers, and that those that are interdependent on the MNCs’ headquarters and other foreign subsidiaries, are more likely to be involved in PCSR. We obtain support for our hypotheses using a sample of 105 subsidiaries of foreign firms that operate in India. Our findings enhance our understanding of the factors that determine MNCs’ political CSR in emerging economies.     

The complementarity effect of exporting,importing and R&D on the productivity of Ukrainian MNEs

After two decades of research on Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNE), the debate still concerns the antecedents and strategies of their foreign expansion. However, much less has been said on the effects of international participation on their productivity. Building on insights from the Resource-Based View of the firm and agency theory, we develop hypotheses on the presence of complementarities among export, import and R&D and their impact on productivity. Our empirical analyses on a panel of 23,000 time-year observations of Ukrainian MNEs over the period 2000–2006, confirm that: (i) EMNEs benefit from complementarities stemming from the assimilation and integration of knowledge from international external sources (import and export) with internal knowledge (own R&D investment); (ii) the effect is more pronounced for private-owned enterprises (POEs) rather than state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and (iii) especially when they trade with partners in/from advanced markets.     

Subsidiary strategy of emerging market multinationals: A home country institutional perspective

We examine the effects of home country institutional factors, namely, home country government support, domestic institutional weaknesses, and state ownership on the subsidiary-level strategy of global integration (I) and local responsiveness (R) of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). We draw upon the home country institution-based view and the I/R framework to develop our theoretical model. We empirically test our hypotheses using an original new survey data collected from Chinese multinational subsidiary managers supplemented with parent-level and country-level data. We find that home country government support and domestic institutional weaknesses have significant and negative effects on global integration strategy of Chinese multinational subsidiaries. On the other hand, domestic institutional weaknesses push foreign subsidiaries to pursue local responsiveness strategy. Nevertheless, those with greater degree of state ownership in their parent firms are neither willing to disintegrate from their parent firms nor motivated to pursue local responsiveness strategy in order to deal with home country institutional deficiencies and develop new sources of competitiveness in foreign markets. Our findings have advanced the literature on subsidiary strategy in the context of EMNEs, and provide important implications for subsidiary managers and policy makers.     

Multinational enterprise parent-subsidiary governance and survival

We investigate the relationship between multinational enterprise parent-subsidiary governance (MNEPSG), host country governance quality (HCGQ), and foreign subsidiary survival. We draw upon agency theory, MNEPSG literature, and institutional theory to develop a holistic conceptual model. We test our hypotheses using a large longitudinal sample of 1,711 MNEs and 13,398 subsidiaries in 63 countries from 1990-2013. We find that key MNEPSG mechanisms (Ownership, Expatriates, and Regional Headquarters) positively impact foreign subsidiary survival, whereas HCGQ negatively impacts it; and that increasing Ownership and Expatriates is more effective in high HCGQ contexts. We discuss important implications for research and practice.     

From local to global innovation: The role of subsidiaries’ external relational embeddedness in an emerging market

This study examines factors that influence the development and transformation of local innovations into global innovations from an emerging market subsidiary. We argue that subsidiaries’ relational embeddedness with the external local network is essential for the development of local innovations. Turning local innovations into global ones is the result of the level of innovativeness evoked by the subsidiary located in an emerging market. However, the transformation of local into global innovations is more likely to happen in the case of subsidiaries having previous reverse knowledge transfers in functional areas. Reverse knowledge transfers indicate internal embeddedness, which is essential for local innovation to be transformed into global innovation. We draw on survey evidence from 131 foreign subsidiaries operating in Brazil. Using a Structural Equation Modeling technique, our results support our hypotheses and show that subsidiaries’ relational embeddedness with the external local network is positively associated with local innovation, which is transformed into global innovation, especially when innovation is developed in the subsidiary´s functional areas with previous reverse knowledge transfers. We draw implications for the field of subsidiary management research, specifically to understand the role of local innovation from foreign subsidiaries in emerging markets.     

我国出口企业重要技能的识别及其排序

根据对我国东部经贸发达地区的800家外贸企业所进行的问卷调查,采用主成分分析法识别出8大类共56项重要出口技能,8大类技能包括国际金融、国际营销、国际贸易政策与规则、国际贸易物流、国际结算、国际贸易战略管理、国际贸易调研和国际贸易实务;通过计算均值和标准差,对88项出口技能按重要性进行了排序。实证研究发现,我国外贸企业认为对于成功出口最重要的技能是国际贸易政策与规则、国际结算和国际贸易调研类技能。总体上,我国外贸企业更重视基本的金融技能和战略管理技能;对于国际营销技能重要项目的整总体评价一般甚至有些偏低;同其他国家企业的情况相比,我国外贸企业对国际贸易物流和国际贸易实务技能的重视程度相对较低。     

Power,CSR strategy,and performance in foreign-owned subsidiaries

We investigate how a subsidiary's power base influences its strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) focus on international and local issues, and performance. We develop a theoretical framework and test symmetric hypotheses as well as non-symmetric research queries based on insights from resource dependency theory and institutional theory. We use survey data collected from foreign-owned subsidiaries located in the mid-range emerging economy of Taiwan. We find that a large power base positively influences an international CSR strategic focus in subsidiaries. Furthermore, our symmetric results indicated that only international CSR strategies are conducive to performance. However, our complementing non-symmetric results show that the distinct power-base dimensions in combination with a local CSR strategic focus can also lead to high performance outcomes.     

试论技术壁垒对国际贸易的影响及对策

中国加入世界贸易组织后,可以在WTO框架内参与国际分工,充分利用中国的比较优势参与国际竞争,利用WTO规则,开展国际贸易,这将极大促进中国对外贸易的发展。 但随着经济全球化和贸易自由化的发展,各国限制贸易的手段也发生了极大的变化,从以关税壁垒为主要手段发展为以非关税壁垒为主要手段,在非关税壁垒中,进口配额、 “自动”出口配额、进口许可证、外汇管制等传统手段已被以技术法规、技术标准、合格评定程序为主要内容的技术壁垒逐渐取代,技术壁垒正成为国际贸易壁垒的主体。     

Business cycle synchronisation in East Asia: The role of value‐added trade

We empirically investigate the relationship between business cycle synchronisation and the role of value‐added trade focusing on a panel of 12 Asian countries from 1995 to 2011. In addition, we propose the inclusion of two novel determinants, for example external value‐added trade intensity and exchange rate volatility and also saturate our empirical model with other common determinants found in the literature. Our findings first confirm that value‐added trade intensity, rather than gross trade intensity, has a sizable, positive and statistically significant impact on synchronisation among East Asian countries. Second, the exchange rate volatility has a significant negative effect on the business cycle synchronisation, which verifies that the exchange rate volatility is another important determinant of business cycle synchronisation. Our findings have important implications for the monetary cooperation in the region: strengthening trade linkage could reduce the costs of monetary cooperation by increasing the incidence of symmetric shocks.     

促进盐城市外贸发展的对策研究

地处苏北沿海的盐城市外贸发展还处于较低的水平,繁荣发展盐城市对外贸易对该地区外向型经济和国民经济发展有十分重要意义。促进盐城市外贸发展要从产业发展、企业国际竞争力提高、出口品牌优势构建等方面形成综合竞争优势。     

试析国际保理业务在我国的发展及对策

近年来 ,国际保理业务在国际贸易中所占的比重越来越大 ,其作用明显加强。文章阐述了国际保理业务在我国的发展现状 ,分析了它在国际贸易应用中的优势 ,并对推动我国保理业务的发展提出了具体的建议。     

The effect of early international commitment on international positional advantages in Spanish and Belgian international new ventures

Past research into internationalisation processes assumes that prior experience influences both a firm’s capability to absorb foreign market knowledge and its international competitiveness. However, recent international entrepreneurship research seems to suggest that an early international commitment can also contribute to develop competitive advantages. Further study of this relationship will provide a better understanding of the competitive behaviour of international new ventures. This paper focuses on how international new ventures acquire market knowledge from foreign markets and develop sustainable positional advantages there. The hypotheses derived from our model were tested using extended data gathered from samples of Spanish and Belgian new ventures. To support the validity of the scale content used, all the items were taken from a review of related literature. We attempted to ensure that they meet the conceptual definition and reflect all the relevant dimensions. We used confirmatory analysis to evaluate convergent validity. A structural equation model was used to test the research hypotheses. The results of the data analysis allow us to confirm that an early international commitment influences the positional advantages of international new ventures, since it facilitates the development of market orientation.     

比较优势理论在中国出口贸易中的体现

文章在比较优势理论的基础上对我国的出口贸易进行分析,指出劳动密集品在出口贸易中具备的优势和存在的潜在问题.我们不仅要合理利用劳动密集产业中具备绝对优势的产品出口为经济发展作贡献,同时也要注意培养具备相对优势的劳动密集型产品,充分利用国际分工.     

我国货币政策通过国际贸易传递的实证分析

本文利用相关分析、Granger因果关系分析和自回归分布滞后模型 ,对中国货币政策通过国际贸易传递的途径进行了实证分析 ,结论表明 ,我国货币政策无法通过汇率途径传递到国际贸易上 ,通过信贷传递到国际贸易上是扭曲的途径 ,货币政策能够通过物价途径对净出口有正面影响。     

The development of critical capabilities in foreign subsidiaries: disentangling the role of the subsidiary’s business network

Within business literature in general, capabilities have advanced to the prime determinant of the corporation’s economic rents. Within international business literature, it is further assumed that multinational corporations can enhance their pool of capabilities through foreign subsidiaries. Foreign subsidiaries are seen as means to assimilate new capabilities from their local, external network and integrate these capabilities into the multinational corporation. Data from more than 2000 foreign subsidiaries shows that some foreign units actually are endowed with superior capabilities which are useful for other corporate entities. It is argued that the development of critical capabilities within these subsidiaries is driven not only by internal corporate actors, but also by external actors. The analysis provides evidence that the role of different internal and external network partners for capability development varies according to the functional activity under consideration. Thus, subsidiaries benefit from various internal and external network actors in very different ways. The contribution ends with some conclusions and some avenues for future research.     

新贸易理论对我国外贸战略的启示

国际贸易理论是开展国际贸易活动的指导,同时不断发展的国际贸易实践要求国际贸易理论必须同时不断发展。国际贸易理论大致经历了三个发展阶段。20世纪80年代以来针对国际贸易领域出现的新现象,经济学家提出了"新贸易理论"。在新贸易理论形势下我国的贸易政策应重视培育和转化国家竞争优势,发挥政府作用,扩大国内市场;通过创新实现我国外贸结构转型升级;提高外贸竞争力,制定保护政策,培养竞争优势;实现从贸易大国向贸易强国的转化。     

The relationships between types of network organization and adoption of management mechanisms: an empirical study of knowledge transactions of MNC’s subsidiaries in Taiwan

This paper examines the relationships of various types of network organizations and the adoption of management mechanisms through the application of network theory. We found that strong relationships exist as described within the four hypotheses by empirically evaluating case studies of MNC subsidiaries in Taiwan. Based on “the knowledge transaction density” observed between an MNC’s enterprise group and local firms, the subsidiaries can be classified into three categories of network organization, namely: (1) Self-sufficient, (2) Production- based, and (3) Operation-centered subsidiaries. The literature review suggests that there are four types of mechanisms that MNC headquarters use to control their foreign subsidiaries. These mechanisms are bureaucratic, personnel, performance and cultural controls. This research reports three major findings. Firstly, for Operation-centered subsidiaries, headquarters prefer to adopt two or more management mechanisms simultaneously. Secondly, for Production-based subsidiaries, headquarters prefer to adopt bureaucratic management mechanisms. Finally, for Self-sufficient subsidiaries, headquarters prefer to adopt performance and cultural management mechanisms.     

Trade policy,export expansion,human capital and growth

This paper empirically investigates the impact of trade policy on export expansion and on GDP growth in developing countries while controlling for the human capital stock and the initial level of development. By using a simultaneous system estimation we unite the approach found in the export expansion and growth literature with the approach found in papers that estimate the effect of trade policy on growth, while also making several improvements in the estimation of the underlying relationships. The results obtained from our estimation are more credible because of these improvements and therefore have stronger policy implications. We find that outward-oriented trade policies substantially and significantly impact growth in developing countries not only by directly enhancing exports but also through a feedback (or multiplier) effect.