Information footholds: Isolating local presence as a factor in analyst performance and trading

I compare the performance of buy/hold/sell recommendations from foreign, local, and expatriate (foreigners with local operations) analysts in an emerging market. Location appears to be important: expatriate analysts significantly outperform foreign analysts. Expatriates also significantly outperform locals, implying that other factors such as global resources also play a role, and a variety of controls for the characteristics of the recommending firm does not alter findings. Trading based on expatriate recommendations generates significantly positive risk-adjusted returns. Furthermore, foreign and local institutional investors appear to trade on the superior information of expatriate analysts, even when it contradicts their own information.     

A behavioral theory of governments’ ability to make credible commitments to firms: The case of the East Asian paradox

An expansive literature exists linking institutional constraints, credible commitments, and economic growth. Yet, this literature runs into difficulty when it tries to explain the East Asian “paradox:” rapid economic growth achieved by countries with low levels of formal constraints on government discretion. We use a behavioral theory of commitment to argue that the characteristics of the salient actors (governments) and their actions (policies) affect the credibility of their behaviors in ways independent of the structural underpinnings of a country’s political institutions. This behavioral theory of commitment provides a distinct but complementary lens through which to view the apparent paradox presented by these East Asian countries, and more generally provides an alternative theoretical mechanism to explain and predict governments’ ability to credibly signal their commitment to a course of action to investing firms. The success of East Asian countries in encouraging investment from both domestic and foreign firms implies that firms interpret governments’ actions as credible signals of their intention to honor their commitments to firms, consistent with the behavioral theory of commitment.     

Resilience in the Dynamics of Economy-Environment Systems

The ecological concept of resilience has begun to inform analysis of change in economy-environment systems. The linkages between resilience and the stability of dynamical systems are discussed, along with its role in understanding of the evolution of such systems. Particular linkages discussed include those between resilience, biodiversity and the sustainability of alternative states. Recent developments in modelling the resilience of joint economy-environment systems suggest the advantages of analysing change in the system as a Markov process, the transition probabilities between states offering a natural measure of the resilience of the system in such states. It is argued that this ‘emergent property’ of the collaboration between ecology and economics has far-reaching implications for the way we think about, model and manage the environmental sustainability of economic development.     

Occupational health and safety in transitional Lithuania

Using the example of occupational health and safety regulation, this article examines the tensions between neo‐liberalism and social democratic policy approaches in the context of pre‐accession transitional Lithuania. It is argued that attempts to provide a ‘business‐friendly’ investment climate may be creating a ‘race to the bottom’ as legislative failures to provide for employee voice come into conflict with assumptions of the so‐called European social model.     

A transaction cost perspective on foreign market entry strategies of US and Japanese firms

A large scale survey of top US and Japanese executives is conducted in order to assess the power of transaction cost economics (TCE) in explaining a firm's choice of entry mode (e.g., joint venture vs. full ownership) when it enters a foreign market. Results suggest that several TCE tenets are useful in explaining US firms' choice of entry mode. However, TCE predictions were not supported by the entry mode choices of Japanese firms. Implications of these findings for researchers and managers are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Is it better to give than to receive? Exploring gender differences in the meaning of memorable gifts

Research on gift-exchange behavior has generally found that women are more concerned and involved with giving gifts than are men. Moreover, the consumer behavior literature has focused almost exclusively on gift-giving behavior, offering few insights regarding gift-receiving roles. As an initial step toward understanding gift receiving, 89 men and 85 women from the United States (n = 124) and Europe n = 50) completed written narratives regarding their most memorable gift experiences. An interpretive analysis of the texts uncovered several themes associated with giving and/or receiving gifts, and correspondence analyses generated distinct gift-receiving and gift-giving profiles for men and women. Surprisingly, given the more prominent role of women in gift giving, four of the five female profiles involved memories of receiving rather than giving gifts. It was the men that tended to report gift-giving experiences; two of the three male profiles that emerged involved giving gifts. The texts then were reexamined and further interpreted to acquire a deeper understanding of each profile and how giving and receiving profiles of both men and women might be related to one another. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Configuring value for competitive advantage: on chains,shops, and networks

Building on Thompson's (1967) typology of long-linked, intensive, and mediating technologies, this paper explores the idea that the value chain, the value shop, and the value network are three distinct generic value configuration models required to understand and analyze firm-level value creation logic across a broad range of industries and firms. While the long-linked technology delivers value by transforming inputs into products, the intensive technology delivers value by resolving unique customer problems, and the mediating technology delivers value by enabling direct and indirect exchanges between customers. With the identification of alternative value creation technologies, value chain analysis is both sharpened and generalized into what we propose as a value configuration analysis approach to the diagnosis of competitive advantage. With the long-linked technology and the corresponding value chain configuration model as benchmark, the paper reviews the distinctive logic and develops models of the value shop and the value network in terms of primary activity categories, drivers of cost and value, and strategic positioning options. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Designing and supporting transnational teams: The human resource agenda

As the challenges of managing across borders become increasingly complex, companies are exploring innovative ways to organize and manage people. Many are turning to the use of transnational teams composed of individuals from multiple nationalities working on tasks that span multiple countries. This article reports the findings from a study of human resource practices used in 34 transnational teams from 23 multinational firms. The article provides specific examples of how staffing, training, and rewards systems are adapted to support the strategic orientations of these teams.¹ © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.