The Economic Situation in 1995

Ｉｎ1995,ＣｈｉｎａａｃｈｉｅｖｅｄｏｂｖｉｏｕｓｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓｉｎｍａｃｒｏｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃｓｒｅａｄｊｕｓｔｍｅｎｔａｎｄｃｏｎｓｏｌｉｄａｔｉｏｎＭａｊｏｒｇｏａｌｓｗｅｒｅｆｕｌｆｉｌｌｅｄ;ｉｎｆｌａｔｉｏｎｗａｓｐｒｏｐｅｒｌｙｒｅｓｔｒａｉｎｅｄ;ｔｈｅｇｒｏｗｔｈｒａｔｅｏｆｅｃｏｎｏｍｙａｐｐｒｏａｃｈｅｄｔｈｅｐｒｏｐｅｒｇｒｏｗｔｈｒａｎｇｅ;ｔｈｅｓｔｒａｔｅｇｉｃｇｏａｌｏｆｄｏｕｂｌｉｎｇｔｈｅｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃｏｕｔｐｕｔｏｆ1980ｗａｓｒｅａｌｉｚｅｄｆｉｖｅｙｅａｒｓ…     

The challenge of constructing regional advantages in peripheral areas: The case of marine biotechnology in Tromsø, Norway

The idea of constructing regional advantage (CRA) has recently been emphasized by scholars as a new way for firms to gain competitiveness in a globalizing learning economy. The rationale behind the idea is that advantages in a regional industry can be constructed by proactive public–private partnership. This article uses, and examines the relevance of, the CRA framework in analysing the development and functioning of the marine biotechnology industry in Tromsø, which is a fairly peripheral region in Norway. Despite the fact that much effort has been put into education and R&D at the University of Tromsø and related research institutes, and the fact that many public policy tools have intended to create a blooming marine biotechnology industry in the area, the results have so far been meagre. This article explains the rather weak results in terms of the number of firms and jobs in the marine biotechnology industry in Tromsø as being due to a lack of synthetic knowledge on how to industrialize research results and little spillover of market knowledge. With regard to more general theoretical lessons linked to the CRA framework, this article argues for seeing the concept of related variety in a broader industrial and geographical sense in peripheral regions.     

The Beveridge–Nelson decomposition in retrospect and prospect

Beveridge and Nelson [Beveridge, Stephen, Nelson, Charles R., 1981. A new approach to decomposition of economic time series into permanent and transitory components with particular attention to measurement of the ‘business cycle’. Journal of Monetary Economics 7, 151–174] proposed that the long-run forecast is a measure of trend for time series such as GDP that do not follow a deterministic path in the long run. They showed that if the series is stationary in first differences, then the estimated trend is a random walk with drift that accounts for growth, and the cycle is stationary. In contrast to linear de-trending, the smoother of Hodrick and Prescott (1981) and Hodrick and Prescott [Hodrick, Robert, Prescott, Edward C., 1997. Post-war US business cycles: An empirical investigation. Journal of Money Credit and Banking 29 (1), 1–16] and the unobserved components model of Harvey, [Harvey, A.C., 1985. Trends and cycles in macroeconomic time series. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 3, 216–227]. Watson [Watson, Mark W., 1986. Univariate detrending methods with stochastic trends Journal of Monetary Economics 18, 49–75] and Clark [Clark, Peter K., 1987. The cyclical component of US economic activity. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 102 (4), 797–814], the BN decomposition attributes most variation in GDP to trend shocks while the cycles are short and brief. Since each is an estimate of the transitory part of GDP that will die out, it seems natural to compare cycle measures by their ability to forecast future growth. The results presented here suggest that cycle measures contain little if any information beyond the short-term momentum captured by BN.     

The role of leaders in generating management innovation†

Abstract

This study provides an empirical insight into the level of management innovation in Australian service organisations, conceptualising management innovation using an integrative framework of management innovation which encompasses four dimensions, new managerial practices, processes, structures and techniques. In addition, the study contributes to the contingency-based literature by examining the role of leaders, in respect to both leadership style (initiating and consideration styles) and the use of controls (diagnostic and interactive use), as drivers of management innovation. Data were collected through a mail questionnaire distributed to 445 middle level managers. The findings show that leadership style influences management innovation with a more initiating style associated with the extent of use of new managerial techniques. Management innovation was also influenced by the use of controls with a more interactive (diagnostic) approach associated with the extent of use of new managerial processes and techniques (practices and structure). In line with the Competing Values Framework, the findings highlight the tension involved in the role of leaders in generating management innovation.     

The risk–return relation in the corporate loan market

This paper analyzes the hypothesis that returns play a risk-compensating role in the market for corporate revolving lines of credit. Specifically, we test whether borrower risk and the expected return on these debt instruments are positively related. Our main findings support this prediction, in contrast to the only previous work that examined this problem two decades ago. Nevertheless, we find evidence of mispricing regarding the risk of deteriorating firms using their facilities more intensively and during the subprime crisis.     

The Development of Accounting Regulation in Extractive Industries in Australia, South Africa and Canada

In view of the economic significance of extractive industries, the special accounting issues raised, and the numerous calls over many years for standardization, there has been less regulation of their accounting than as expected. The development of accounting regulations and practices in the extractive industries in 3 countries is reviewed, which are Australia, South Africa and Canada.     

The Productivity of Government Spending in Asia: 1983–2000

Leightner [The Changing Effectiveness of Key Policy Tools in Thailand. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for East Asian Development Network, EAON Working Paper 19(2002)x0219-6417] develops a new analytical technique, named Reiterative Truncated Projected Least Squares (RTPLS), which produces 1/2 the error of OLS when omitted variables interact with the included independent variable. In this paper, RTPLS is applied to annual panel data on government spending and GDP from 1983 to 2000 for 23 developing Asian and Pacific countries. RTPLS produces estimates for the government spending multiplier for these countries and shows how omitted variables have affected these multipliers across countries and over time.JEL Classification: C13, E62, O23     

Liquidity risk integration in portfolio choice： The bid efficient frontier

In this paper, a tractable solution is proposed to integrate, to a certain extent, market liquidity risk in the portfolio selection process. It is shown how an investor may take advantage of this additional risk source within the standard mean-variance optimization framework, by in certain circumstances overcoming the pitfalls of illiquidity and in others seizing a liquidity premium. Bid prices appear effective to capture liquidity risk. The efficient frontier conceived with bid prices consists of mean-variance optimal allocations that cover more liquid stocks （large caps） under stressed market conditions and less liquid stocks （small caps） under normal conditions.     

The Audit Opinion of Earnings Management in Listed Companies of China

The paper testes the relationship between audit opinions and financial sensitive zones and accounts on the basis of the data of A-share companies in China. The author finds that when ROE of listed companies is in the small-profit zone or in the large-loss zone, the probabilities that they get modified audit opinions increase. But the right-offering zone, accrual accounts and accounts below the line have no significant effects on the modified audit opinions. Besides, the author also finds that the ratio of accounts receivable to asset, debt ratio, previous year＇s audit opinion and change of CPA firms have significant positive effects on the modified audit opinions, while the ratio of major business revenue and size of companies have no notable effects. Some other factors such as cash ratio, age of the listing and CPA firm ranking have no consistent and continuous effects.     

On The Notion of Organic Holism in Aristotle＇s Poetics

The theories in Aristotle＇s Poetics are the earliest and the basis of western principal aesthetic notions. This article generally analyzed a very important aesthetic thinking of Aristotle in this work --the notion of organic holism. The significance of this notion to literary theories is also included.     

The gender diversity–performance relationship in services and manufacturing organizations

Empirical findings on the link between gender diversity and performance have been inconsistent. This paper presents three competing predictions of the organizational gender diversity–performance relationship: a positive linear prediction derived from the resource-based view of the firm, a negative linear prediction derived from self-categorization and social identity theories, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear prediction derived from the integration of the resource-based view of the firm with self-categorization and social identity theories. This paper also proposes a moderating effect of industry type (services vs. manufacturing) on the gender diversity–performance relationship. The predictions were tested in publicly listed Australian organizations using archival quantitative data with a longitudinal research design. The results show partial support for the positive linear and inverted U-shaped curvilinear predictions as well as for the proposed moderating effect of industry type. The curvilinear relationship indicates that different proportions of organizational gender diversity have different effects on organizational performance, which may be attributed to different dynamics as suggested by the resource-based view and self-categorization and social identity theories. The results help reconcile the inconsistent findings of past research that focused on the linear gender diversity–performance relationship. The findings also show that industry context can strengthen or weaken the effects of organizational gender diversity on performance.     

The determinants of shareholders＇ wealth of acquiring firms in India

Corporate restructuring has become a major component in the financial and economic environment all over the world. Industrial restructuring has raised important issues for business decisions as well as for public policy formulation. Since 1991, Indian industries have been increasingly exposed to both domestic and international competition and competitiveness. The companies started restructuring there operations around their core business there M ＆ A. But M ＆ A is an area of potential good and harm in corporate strategy including manufacturing industry. Therefore, an attempt has been made to analyze the security returns and to find out the net wealth increase or decrease to the shareholders of acquiring firms. In India, there are totally 58 manufacturing companies which have undergone mergers and acquisitions during 2000, 2001 ＆ 2002. Thirty percentage from the total population was taken as sample size （i.e., 17 companies out of 58）. The present study is mainly based on secondary data. The Market Model and Market Adjusted Returns Model analysis are used as tools of analysis.     

The Terminal Value （TV） Performing in Firm Valuation： The Gap of Literature and Research Agenda

The uncertainty about the future of firms must be modeled and incorporated in the valuation of enterprises outside the explicit period of analysis, i.e., in the continuing or terminal value （TV）. There is a multiplicity of factors that influence the TV of firms which are not being considered within current evaluation models. This aspect leads to the incurring of unrecoverable errors, thus leading to values of goodwill or bad will far away from the substantial value of intrinsic assets. As a consequence, the evaluation results will be presented markedly different from market values. There is no consensus in the scientific community about the method of computation of the TV as a forecast in an infinite horizon. The size of the terminal, or non-explicit period, assumed as infinite, is never called into question by scientific literature, or the probability of business bankruptcy. This paper aims to promote a study of the existing literature on the TV, to highlight the fragility of the evaluation models of companies that have been used by the academic community and by financial analysts, and to point out lines for future research to minimize these errors.     

Historicizing the ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship: The case of the ethnic Chinese in Bangkok

This paper aims to come to a better understanding of the meaning of ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship for second- and third-generation ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in Bangkok, Thailand. Research on ethnic Chinese entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia typically investigates the dominance, attributed to specific ‘Chinese’ cultural values and strong intra-ethnic networks, of the ethnic Chinese in business and entrepreneurship. Our research among second- and third-generations shows an inclination of the interviewees to emphasize the irrelevance of their ‘ethnic’ Chinese background in entrepreneurship. To understand the meanings of the expressed irrelevance, we argue that it is constructive to incorporate a historical/generational approach of the ethnic group (migration history, nationalism) and of the business (social organization) into the study of ethnic entrepreneurship. The contribution to ethnic entrepreneurship research is threefold. Firstly, we show how a generational lens provides a more nuanced understanding of the ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship. Secondly, we show how incorporating the historical context helps to position business conduct in the social/societal experiences of entrepreneurs. Finally, our case study of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in Thailand brings an Asian perspective to ethnic entrepreneurship debates that generally concern European and North American research studies and thus hopes to inspire future comparative research.     

The persistence of gender discrimination in China – evidence from recruitment advertisements

In this paper we present an analysis of recruitment advertisements that suggests that Chinese employers frequently discriminate on gender grounds, both directly and indirectly. We illustrate how employers continue to use entrenched stereotypes and perpetuate highly segregated expectations of men and women's roles at work, predominantly to the detriment of women and hindering their progress in the labour market. The paper concludes that while employers’ recruitment practices are not the only cause of women's continued labour-market disadvantage – and are in themselves a function of the wider of economic, socio-cultural and ideological factors that underlie it (Kitching 2001; Patrickson 2001; Leung 2003; Cooke 2005) – a change to employer behaviour in this area is a necessary and potentially achievable step forward towards greater equality.     

The Challenge Facing SMEs in the Eu’s New Member States

The paper considers the main threats and opportunities for SMEs in new member states, arising out of EU membership, including the implications for SMEs at the micro level. Whilst accession-related changes have important potential implications for firms of all sizes, the distinctive size-related characteristics of SMEs affect their ability to identify, cope with and respond to new sources of threat and opportunity. These potential impacts face new member countries at a relatively early stage in the development of market-based systems, which still contain many deficiencies (particularly in institutional terms) and a SME sector with many characteristics that reflect its fledgling status.