China–US trade War: an Indonesian perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper takes a holistic approach to the effect of US-China trade war on Indonesia. The paper starts by laying out the context of the rise of protectionism and nationalism, comparing developed and developing country context, and its various causes such as unequal distribution of benefits and responses to the rise of China. The new US approach focusing on goods trade deficit, targeting mainly China but also other countries, including Indonesia and it should be seen as a tool to address the real concerns of the US regarding unfair trade, such as technology transfer, industrial subsidies and trade and investment distortions. It also reflects the US view of the inadequacy of the WTO. In terms of direct impact, the US-China trade war is creating uncertainities to global growth and in particular any decline in China’s growth is likely to hit Indonesia and other ASEAN countries given that China has become their number one trading partner. As for benefit from trade diversion and investment relocation to avoid the trade war, given the structure of its exports and lack of integration in the Global Value Chains, Indonesia is unlikely to benefit compared to several other Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam. However, any net benefit from this, will far outweigh the cost of the uncertainty in the rules based multilateral trading system (MTS) and the retreat of the US leadership to safeguard the MTS. The paper looks at how the current US unilateralism is framed in a carrot and stick approach, which does not benefit developing countries like Indonesia. To fill the leadership vacuum to maintain an open rules based order, other countries need to take the leadership position. This can be done by pursuing their own unilateral agenda of structural reforms, increasing regional economic integration and take collective leadership to conduct necessary reforms of the WTO especially on issues that are at the heart of the US-China trade war such as industrial subsidies, strengthening IPR, investment issues related to technology transfer, and competition policy and the level playing field.     

What Is the Way Forward for IASB’s Research Programme under the Evidence-Supported Approach? Some Analyses and Comments Based on the 2015 Agenda Consultation

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) the paper reviews the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB's) evidence-supported approach to standard setting, in particular the very broad definition of evidence that does not distinguish between scientific evidence used for developing the normative foundation (the standards) and observations in practice. Based on comparisons with medicine and auditing, we argue that there are good reasons for the IASB to separate scientific evidence from other sources of information. As producers of scientific evidence, the academic community must consider whether better alignment between publishing incentives and standard setting can be achieved. (2) Examining the 2015 Agenda Consultation, the ‘top-five’ research projects were identified: ‘Disclosure Initiative – Principles of Disclosure’, ‘Primary Financial Statements’, ‘Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity’, ‘Business Combinations under Common Control’, and ‘Goodwill and Impairment’. In order to further support evidence-informed standard setting, we provide research-based comments on these projects (based on the European Accounting Association's Agenda Consultation comment letter).     

Employment Systems in Japan's Financial Industry: Globalization,Growing Divergence and Institutional Change

This article examines growing divergence and change in the employment systems of Japan's financial industry from the early 1990s until shortly after the so‐called Lehman Shock. This was a period which saw accelerated deregulation and globalization strongly impact the country's financial markets, leading to intensified competition over human resources. Foreign multinational corporations introduced into Japan's local product and labour markets new global ‘rules of the game’; in response, some native firms were forced to alter core aspects of a traditional employment model. The result was the emergence of diverging patterns of employment. The present study will demonstrate that the interaction of two key factors — national ownership and variation among core products and services offered — is shaping employment diversification, mediated by firms’ individual policies and practices. This research contributes to the debate on the effects of globalization on the divergence and change of employment systems.     

The Usefulness of Accrual Information in Non‐mandatory Environments: The Case of Japanese Local Government

This study investigates how accrual accounting is used in a system in which it co‐exists with cash accounting. It uses a survey methodology to explore the factors that influence the extent to which accrual information is useful for decision making, when used in a dual system. The results show that although accrual information was used less for budgeting, evaluation, asset management or debt management, officials found accrual information useful for performance management. Moreover, neither experience nor leadership significantly contributed to decision‐making effectiveness. The study also found that the central government was the most influential promoter of accrual accounting in Japan. Of particular interest is the link between performance measurement and accrual information.     

Environmental and Social Matters in Mandatory Corporate Reporting: An Academic Note

This note provides an overview of mandatory corporate reporting for environmental and social matters in Canada, the United States and the EU. When researchers and educators consider reporting on these matters, they often look to voluntary corporate reporting. However, we argue that a lot of related information exists in companies’ mandatory reports, either in the disclosures dictated by securities regulators, or via other required channels. Our objective is threefold. First, to describe what currently exists regarding mandatory reporting on environmental and social matters (to inform). Second, to discuss several of the current ongoing debates regarding such reporting (to encourage discourse). Third, to encourage research into the mandatory reporting of environmental and social matters.     

What’s new in female entrepreneurship research? Answers from the literature

Female entrepreneurship to date represents a key component of the business sector worldwide as, in 2012 more than 187 million out of 400 million entrepreneurs were women (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2013). In academia the gender factor in entrepreneurship emerged in the late 1970s Schwartz (Journal of Contemporary Business, 5(1), 47–76, 1976) and especially since the beginning of the new millennium a substantial growth in the investigation of this topic has been registered. Thus, the time has come to systematize the academic progress on this issue and to reflect on future research directions in order to gain deeper insights into the female entrepreneurship domain. In this vein, our paper aims to enrich the conversation on female entrepreneurship by reviewing 248 papers published in the last 14 years. In doing so, we identify and analyze the new insights that have emerged in the literature from both a managerial and a sociological perspective, thus responding to the numerous calls for a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of this topic.     

The shortened Corporate Ethical Virtues scale: Measurement invariance and mean differences across two occupational groups

So far, the field of business ethics lacks validated measures for assessing virtues at the organizational level. The aim of this study is to investigate the measurement invariance of a shortened Corporate Ethical Virtues scale. In this manner, we contribute to validating an instrument that is both psychometrically sound and efficient to use. We conducted two survey studies of two independent groups (managers and school psychologists). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the eight‐factor model of the scale, and we found it to be invariant in two different occupational groups. The managers gave higher appraisals of ethical culture than the psychologists did in seven out of the eight dimensions. We found that despite the contextual differences, the shortened scale measures the eight dimensions of organizational ethical virtues, as intended. Thus, the use of this more compact scale can be recommended for future studies, which will hopefully stimulate more research on ethical culture in various work contexts.     

The Services Sector as a Driver of Change: Indonesia’s Experience in the ASEAN Context

By various performance indicators, the Indonesian services sector ranks below those of its main ASEAN neighbours. This is concerning for Indonesia, given the the increased attention worldwide on the services sector as a likely source of growth, the contribution of the services sector to the competitiveness of other sectors, and the opportunities available for capturing the gains from innovation and change in services. There is scope, we argue, to increase the number of formal jobs in the sector and to dispel its reputation as the employer of last resort. We find that a restrictive policy regime contributes to the sector’s poor performance, leading to an argument for reform. We discuss a potential strategy for such reform, focusing on four factors: increasing transparency and policy information; capturing the opportunities from international commitments; and exploring the potential of, one, new technology, and, two, urbanisation.     

Tourism,business linkages and small enterprise development in South Africa

Although considerable attention is given to the prospects for developing small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa's tourism economy, very little relevant research has been undertaken in this regard. In this article, the findings are presented from over 60 detailed interviews conducted with key enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in tourism, outsourcing and small enterprise development in South Africa. The aim is to examine opportunities for outsourcing and business linkage development in South Africa's tourism economy, and to investigate the difficulties that confront the tourism SMME economy through examining the status of business linkages between large tourism enterprises and SMMEs in South Africa. The South African research is located within the context of existing works on tourism and small enterprise development in developing countries.