Asian Entrepreneurship in the International Business World

This review will focus on the role of Asian entrepreneurship in the international business world. As we are now considered to be in the Asian century, it is important to see how business grows, develops, and changes based on entrepreneurship. Asian entrepreneurship is unique to the geographic area but also encompasses people, business, and government that has a focus on Asia and is part of the global community. The continuing rapid evolution of Asian economies over the next decade will require a focus on entrepreneurship as it incorporates technology and innovation change. More countries in Asia need to focus on entrepreneurship as a way to achieve global best practice and to make breakthroughs in science and technology. A focus on the role of entrepreneurship in Asia in order to meet social and sustainable needs is a particular key concern of many governments and trade organizations around the world. This article will focus on the book Asian Entrepreneurship as a key reference for understanding and improving the social, environmental, and economic conditions for international business. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Corruption in Asia Pacific business organizations: insights on causes,conditions, consequences and treatment

ABSTRACT

In the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis a wave of articles and commentaries focused increasingly on the so-called ‘dark side’ of Asian business. At the forefront of these lay investigations into the deleterious effects of corruption on economic development, business performance and international investor confidence. In subsequent years, due in part to converging pressures for universal corporate standards, the flow of research declined on the (implicit) assumption that corruption was a decreasing problem as new generations of Asian managers assimilated ‘Western’ values and practices. However, despite continuing admonishments and initiatives, the effects of corrupt practice at all levels remains as entrenched and as serious as ever. Blending micro and macro-level analysis along with both conceptual and empirical investigations, this collection offers some of the most recent frameworks and findings to explain the causes, conditions, consequences and treatment of corruption in 21^st century Asia.     

ASEAN's role in Japan's economic policy in East Asia

Although Japan's economic and trade policy with the United States and Europe has been widely researched in such works as Tyson (1992), relatively less research has been done on Japan's recent trade and economic policies towards other East Asian countries such as Korea and Taiwan. Since the mid-1980s, because of rising labor costs and appreciation of the Japanese yen, Japan has increased manufacturing production in ASEAN countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. The purpose of this short article is to discuss Japan's increased economic focus in Asia, and implications for East Asian countries such as Korea and Taiwan. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Openness and growth: an interpretation of empirical evidence from East Asian countries

This study investigates the effect of openness on economic growth for rapidly growing economies in East Asia in which rapid growth has been accompanied by a persistent openness to world trade. The framework of analysis is a five-variable vector autoregressive model that consists of real output, money supply, real government spending, foreign price shocks, and openness measures. The results do not strongly support the 'new' growth theories in which increasing openness affects long-run growth. For most countries in the sample, fiscal policy shocks as well as foreign price shocks have greater impacts on economic growth than does the openness shock. The results are generally consistent with the view that the role of the government is critical for growth among the East Asian economies.     

East Asian FDI and the political economy of local development

This article situates the experience of the North East region within the context of the debates concerning East Asian FDI and the political economy of local development. The analysis looks in detail at the Sedgefield Borough economy to offer a more critical reading of the role of East Asian FDI in local economic development. The study concludes that East Asian FDI is a small but significant segment of the local economy which reveals evidence of some ‘leading edge’ developments in particular areas in tandem with a recurrence of the structural characteristics reminiscent of previous ‘branch plant’ investments. The conclusions for the business support network concern the need to change the focus and apparent control over the local economic development strategy and to forge strong links to the agenda of more active regional institutions and policy being promoted by the current Labour government.     

Lessons for African Economies from Irish and East Asian Industrial Policy

When comparisons in terms of industrial policy lessons to be learned have taken place, it has tended to be solely vis-a-vis the ‘development state’ East Asian experience. This paper broadens the analysis and considers lessons which African countries can learn from other so-called ‘tiger’ economies including Ireland and the East and South Asian countries. We recognise that the latter are indeed clearly significant as many African countries at the time of independence had economic structures and levels of income quite similar to East Asian countries, yet have grown at vastly different rates since then. Exploring why this has been the case can thus offer important insights into possibilities for industrial policy. Yet this comes with some health warnings over East Asian experience. We suggest that another important contribution can come by looking at the Irish example, given its emphasis on corporatism rather than simply relying on state direction in the operation of industrial policy. The Irish model is also more democratic in some senses and has protected workers’ rights during the development process in contrast to the often highly dirigisite East Asian model. Overall we suggest that some immediate actions are needed, notably with regard to the financial system in small African economies. Without such changes, a poorly functioning financial system will continue to keep investment at low levels. In relation to the small size of the African economies, the paper recommends regional integration and sufficient overseas development assistance (ODA) for infrastructural development. It is also critical to note that the various small African economies each face their own industrial and economic development challenges, and that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not appropriate; rather the key is to tailor policies and systems to the unique opportunities and development challenges in each African country.     

Economic Governance,Accountability and Accounting Change in East Asia

The development of economic governance is now thought to require the remaking of respective accountabilities along with significant corresponding accounting change. On the basis of key discourses about a particular ‘critical’ period in East Asia's recent history, this article considers whether certain regional and individual country accountabilities were actually remade and whether the role of accounting changed accordingly. It finds that the preferred strategies governing economic recovery after the East Asian crisis were partial and incompletely realized. It concludes that ‘higher order’ governance has been unexpectedly problematic and requires more East Asian sourced research in future.     

FDI,Growth and the Asian Financial Crisis: The Experience of Selected Asian Countries

This paper studies the trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into selected South‐East Asian and East Asian economies after the Asian crisis. Empirical evidence indicates that South‐East and East Asian economies are recovering from the Asian crisis with strong output growth driven largely by export growth. However, output growth in the post‐crisis period is also accompanied by rising unemployment rates, growing government deficits, and declining FDI inflows into the South‐East Asian region. The declining FDI inflows into South‐East Asia after the crisis is of concern, as our empirical results show that FDI is important for output growth in the region. Our results also suggest that there might have been structural changes in the regional economies that could have led to a downward shift in the output growth of Asian economies in the post‐crisis period. This raises the issue of the sustainability of their output growth in the post‐crisis period.     

对我国外债管理的分析及对策建议

从20世纪80年代拉丁美洲的债务危机,到1998年的亚洲金融风暴,可以看到在面对危机时,一个国家管理外债的水平和控制风险的能力,这在一定程度上决定了这个国家是否能顺利渡过困境。我国政府目前面对纷繁复杂的国际经济形势,大力加强国家外债管理,对我国经济建设将起着至关重要的作用。本文初步探讨了我国外债的现状,对外债管理做了一些粗浅的分析研究,目的在于政府合理利用外债,最大限度地控制风险,促进经济健康发展。     

An economic analysis of the East Asia crisis

Since the summer of 1997, the East Asian “tiger” nations have suffered an unprecedented bout of weakness, plunging what had been vigorously expanding economies into a deep crisis. A number of domestic economic problems joined forces with turbulence on the foreign exchanges to generate a crisis of confidence on a grand scale. The crisis was triggered off by fundamental imbalances, with a key role being played by the “moral hazard” effect: domestic enterprises had been backed by implicit state guarantees, and it was always assumed that the IMF would assist if necessary. Then a destabilizing wave of speculation ran through the financial markets, pushing even countries with sound economic structures into difficulties. This article highlights the sequence of developments in the East Asian crisis, providing an economic explanation of the phenomenon.     

Effects of Economic Recession on Export Activity

Abstract

Since 1920 there has been 15 economic recessions and expansions in the US and on average recessions have lasted just over a year. The most recent recession was that of 1989–1991, which, with the increased globalization of business, did not spare Australia. Using a geo-business model the research investigates changes in export managers' perceptions on a number of variables before and during the last recession. It also considers whether recession in the domestic market acted as a motivator for Australian firms to enter export markets. Data is analyzed from a survey that attracted respondents from 233 export firms. Findings are presented and implications for theory development and government and policy makers are discussed. Limitations are noted and directions for future research are indicated.     

Is the Yen/Dollar Exchange Rate Really Responsible for East Asia's Export and Business Cycles? A Commentary on McKinnon and Schnabl (2003)

In a paper published in The World Economy, Ronald McKinnon and Gunther Schnabl claim that fluctuations in the nominal yen/dollar exchange rate are the principal causal factor behind the export and business cycles in East Asian countries ( McKinnon and Schnabl, 2003 ). Their econometric work, however, suffers from at least two important difficulties. First, while McKinnon and Schnabl preclude industry shocks as an explanation for the East Asian countries’ macroeconomic fluctuations, cyclical fluctuations in the global electronics industry have a significant impact on their short‐run export and output dynamics. Second, although McKinnon and Schnabl assume that the relative industrial competitiveness of Japan and other East Asian countries moves in tandem with fluctuations in the nominal yen/dollar exchange rate, the empirical validity of this assumption is not indisputable. Once these two issues are taken into account properly, it becomes very difficult to make a convincing case for the yen/dollar exchange rate being the main driver of East Asia's macroeconomic instability. A brief critique will also be made of another paper that has appeared recently in The World Economy ( Doraisami, 2004 ), which models Malaysia's pre‐crisis export dynamics using the nominal yen/dollar exchange rate as a proxy for the country's export competitiveness.     

东亚货币合作的经济基础——基于Frankel-Rose内生性假说的新检验

本文以两大主流货币合作假说为理论背景,着重借鉴了Frankel-Rose内生性假说的分析框架,研究东亚地区经济一体化的动态特征对于该地区货币合作,即货币统一进程的制约与影响。主要结论表明,随着东亚地区各国间贸易联系的日益密切以及经济趋同性的进一步提高,最优货币区标准会在其建立之后得到自发优化。东亚货币合作内生性假说的成立势必会降低在该地区开展货币合作的成本。     

Measuring Consumer Sensitivity to Corporate Social Performance Across Cultures

ABSTRACT

In the context of a severe economic crisis, the objective of this research is to examine to what extent the economic crisis and austerity's measures have generated new marketing strategies in food companies. We develop a comparative analysis though multivariate analysis of variance, consisting of 10 food product categories across eight European countries, distinguishing between countries that needed financial support—the so-called rescued countries—and the countries with better economic development. Our findings show an increasingly trend toward increasing product prices and price per quantity in the rescued countries, along with an increase in the package content. Our findings suggest that food companies have been raising prices through the recession, as consumers continue to pare their spending and demand.     

Emerging Asia: Decoupling or Recoupling

In this paper, we investigate the degree of real economic interdependence between emerging East Asian and major industrial countries to shed light on the heated debate over the ‘decoupling’ of emerging East Asia. We first document the evolution of macroeconomic interdependence for emerging East Asian economies through changing trade and financial linkages at both the regional and global levels. Then, by employing a panel vector autoregression (VAR) model, we estimate the degree of real economic interdependence before and after the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. Empirical findings show that real economic interdependence increased significantly in the post‐crisis period, suggesting ‘recoupling’, rather than decoupling, in recent years. Output shocks from major industrial countries have a significant positive effect on emerging East Asian economies. More interestingly, the reverse is also true. Output shocks from emerging East Asia (and China) have a significant positive effect on output in major industrial countries. The result suggests that macroeconomic interdependence between emerging East Asia and industrial countries have become ‘bi‐directional’, defying the traditional notion of the ‘North–South relationship’ as one of ‘uni‐directional’ dependence.     

Responsible cronyism in transition: understanding changing attitudes to business corruption in Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Existing research on corruption in Asian business has focused on issues of causation, manifestation and impact, but with little attention paid to how corrupt practices evolve over time. Despite two decades of empirical evidence of changing work values among Asian managers, we know little as to how, why and to what extent this affects their corollary attitudes and behaviours towards corruption. Focusing on ‘responsible’ cronyism – as indicative of pressures to adapt current crony practices – we pursue an interview-based investigation in the emerging economy of Myanmar. Findings uncovered significant heterogeneity in participant perspectives towards responsible cronyism, seen variously as a West-East hybrid progression, a reversion to traditional Burmese values and an instrumental negotiation tool. Implications for how we understand changing attitudes to corruption in Myanmar (and emerging Asia) for both theory and practice, along with future research directions are discussed.     

Structural Change,Economic Crisis and International Labour Migration in East Asia

Increased international labour migration was one important dimension of structural change and globalisation in East Asia from the mid 1980s. Large international movements of mainly unskilled contract labour occurred in response to widening wage gaps between more and less developed countries in the region as the former experienced rapid structural change. Labour importing countries increasingly relied on unskilled migrant workers in less preferred jobs, in both export‐oriented and non‐tradable goods industries. The Asian economic crisis dramatically influenced the context in which international labour mobility had occurred in the pre‐crisis period. Important issues included a possible reversal in role of international migration in structural change, both among unskilled contract workers and more skilled migrants, and replacement of migrants by unemployed local workers. The paper argues that the Asian economic crisis did not reverse the fundamental trend toward greater reliance on unskilled migrant workers in agriculture, manufacturing and service industries. Business and professional migration remained significant and even rose in some countries during the crisis. However, several countries were forced to develop a more coherent policy towards migrant workers, in light of the social impact of the crisis.     

Changing facets of leadership in East Asia: globalization,innovation and performance in Japan,South Korea and China

ABSTRACT

Japan, South Korea and China are the three juggernauts of the East Asian economy. In gross domestic product terms, China is the world’s second largest economy, Japan the third and South Korea the eleventh. Also, Japan and South Korea are the only two of the OECD’s prestigious Development Assistance Committee members from Asia, providing a large combined annual budget to developing countries, and the only two Asian countries of the seven-member 50–20 Club with members with a population of 50 million or more and a per capita GDP of US$20,000 or more. Many studies have offered explanations of this Asian economic and corporate success, although few have attempted to explain the leadership styles in these three countries. Globalization has also changed these economies enormously, leading to the possible convergence with universalism forces and commensurate globalization of their leadership styles. This collection, therefore, presents some of the most recent findings of leadership studies on Japan, South Korea and China in light of this.     

The global financial crisis,financial linkages and correlations in returns and volatilities in emerging MENA stock markets

The 2007 United States financial crisis has developed into the most severe worldwide economic crisis since the 1927 Great Depression. In addition to its severe repercussion in North America and the European Union, the crisis has put pressure on emerging markets in general, and the Middle East and North Africa region in particular. For a better understanding of how the crisis affected the MENA region, we focus in this paper on the global and regional financial linkages between MENA stock markets and the more developed financial markets, and on the intra-regional financial linkages between MENA countries' financial markets.     

东亚通货膨胀趋势及决定因素

文章选取11个东亚国家和地区的数据为代表,采用针对不同国家的最优ARIMA模型预测东亚通货膨胀的发展趋势,发现东亚大部分国家面临较大的通货膨胀压力,通货膨胀持续上涨的趋势明显。并采用面板数据和Pooled-OLS分析法分析东亚通货膨胀的决定因素,研究表明东亚的通货膨胀形成的原因复杂,在惯性通胀、产出缺口、国际油价和粮食价格等多个因素的共同作用下形成;并发现次贷危机前后的东亚通货膨胀的决定因素有所不同,次贷危机前石油和粮食价格等成本因素大大地推动了东亚的通货膨胀,次贷危机后产出缺口等需求因素较大地影响了东亚的通货膨胀。针对东亚通货膨胀问题,文章提出包括中央银行改革、紧缩性货币政策、能源和粮食储备战略和调控个别行业或商品的对策和建议。