外商对华投资发展历程及在华四大经济区域投资差异分析

基于1992-2011年外商在华投资数据，阐述在华投资经历的四个阶段，从我国东部、中部、西部和东北四大经济区域看，各区域在外商投资企业数量和外商投资总额上存在着巨大差异，区域投资严重失衡。这主要是由于政策战略导向作用、区位差异和投资回报率存在差距造成的。提出加强人力资源队伍建设，充分利用区域资源优势吸引外资，不断完善引资政策等对策建议。     

Purchasing Behavior of Tourists Towards Tennessee-Made Products

Abstract

Purchasing behaviors of tourists for Tennessee-made food products were examined. Amount of units purchased, approximate expenditures, and where products were purchased were recorded. Over 95% of the individuals purchased Tennessee-made food products for themselves and 64% purchased the products as gifts. The majority of the products were purchased at speciality stores or tourist sites. Products most often purchased included candies/confections and chocolates. Quality of the products was the most important factor in the decision to purchase. The average tourist visiting Tennessee purchased 4.9 items and spent $34.60 on these products. Processors of state-made products and tourism departments need to market the quality and uniqueness of their products at speciality shops and tourist sites.     

Globalization,employment relations and human resources indicators in ten developed market economies: international data sets

This paper provides statistical information on internationalization, human resources and labour market outcomes in ten important developed market economies (DMEs). Such data are useful for practitioners and academics who are interested in international HRM. The article's aim is to provide easily accessible statistical tables of selected characteristics, which can be used to draw initial comparisons between countries and to test competing accounts of the impact of globalization on national patterns of employment relations. It includes standard sources so readers can elaborate and update these data.     

Doing Business in Vietnam

Abstract

As Vietnam opens up its economy through a series of economic reforms, entrepreneurs from both Western and Asian economies are flocking to the country to share in its rapid growth. In view of the growing foreign interest in conducting businesses in Vietnam, this paper attempts to provide an overview of the political, economic and business environments in the country. Although the country is full of opportunities, it may pose several problems and challenges to new players as well. Thus, this paper will further discuss the possible investment issues and challenges facing foreign companies which are considering venturing into Vietnam. Some cultural characteristics and operating rules during business interactions in Vietnam are discussed. Common mistakes committed by foreign companies entering the country are also highlighted. It is hoped that this paper will provide an in-depth understanding of the Vietnamese business environment and help improve the likelihood of the successful venture performance of international investors, thus benefiting both the foreign investor and the growth of Vietnam in the global marketplace.     

Exploring heterogeneity in travel time expenditure of aging populations in the Netherlands: results of a CHAID analysis

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the increasing literature on travel behavior and time use of the elderly. The Dutch National Travel Survey, administered in 2009, was used as a data source. First, various facets of activity-travel patterns of the elderly were compared against overall sample averages. Results indicate that the new generation of elderly people do not differ that much from other age groups in terms of their activity-travel behavior. Differences in behavior can be largely understood in terms of constraints acting on agendas. Moreover, travel patterns of elderly are affected by socio-demographic variables. Second, to further qualify the average findings, the Chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) method was applied to explore heterogeneity among the elderly in terms of travel time expenditure. It is analyzed how differences in travel time co-vary with socio-demographics, in addition to activity type, activity duration and travel aspects. The results suggest that the aging population can be systematically broken down into several homogeneous cohort segments. Travel time of elderly groups depends significantly on transport modes, travel motivation, and seven socio-demographic variables (gender, age, living environment, personal net-income, household size and season). Moreover, there is less heterogeneity in travel time of elderly who are older than 75 years old. However, for younger elderly people, especially the group aged from 65 to 74 years old, heterogeneity affects their travel.     

Consumer self‐construal and trust as determinants of the reactance to a recommender advice

Commercial recommendation agents (RAs) represent an important type of the decision support systems (DSSs) that are widely used by online retailers and firms. To date, little is known about the factors that shape the user's decision making and reactance toward the recommendations of these agents. Building on theories from psychology and information systems domains, this research proposes that a user's self‐construal and trust are two relevant factors that interact to shape the behavior toward the RA advice. Two studies, the first conducted using potential online customers and the second conducted at a behavioral laboratory, provided support to this proposition. The first study considered RA trust and showed that activating the interdependent self leads users with low (high) trust to exhibit high reactance behavior toward the RA advice. The second study variated trust using trust cues and corroborated the latter finding, while showing no important impact for the psychological reactance trait. As expected, in both studies the reactance behavior of independent users was not affected by trust. These results contribute by underscoring that social interdependence extends to RAs because the role of trust becomes salient when the interdependent self is activated for a user.     

企业低碳行为与股东价值关系的实证研究

结合我国低碳政策背景，实证检验了我国企业低碳行为与股东价值的关系，研究发现：总体而言我国企业低碳行为有利于股东价值的提升，环境敏感行业的低碳行为与股东价值的关系更显著，但是与被动的低碳行为相比，主动低碳行为并来获得更大的股东价值。这表明我国政府制定的低碳政策取得了一定的效果，但是还需要进一步培育低碳产品需求、明确碳交易或碳税等低碳政策，从而使企业主动低碳行为获得应有的更大市场回报。     

State-ownership and financial constraints on investment of Chinese-listed firms: new evidence

We examine how state-ownership affects financial constraints on investment of Chinese-listed firms during 1999–2008. We find that although an average sample firm experiences some degree of financial constraints, state-ownership does not necessarily help in reducing the firm's financial constraints on investment. Further evidence shows that state-ownership does not lead to more borrowing from the Chinese banking sector, implying that state-ownership does not necessarily reduce the firm's financial constraints via the state-controlled banking sector. We consider not only the standard factors in the investment equation, but also the firm's equity financing behaviour explicitly. The result is robust to both the conventional proxy for financial constraints, i.e. the investment–cash-flow sensitivity, and a recently developed proxy for financial constraints, i.e. the KZ index. Our results suggest that China's corporatisation movement is effective in that soft budget constraints once enjoyed by former state-owned enterprises have been removed along with the progress of corporatisation. These firms, although still state-involved, can be seen as modern corporations operating in a market environment.     

Conditions Ensuring the Decomposition of Asset Demand for All Risk-Averse Investors

Abstract

The paper explores how the demand for a risky asset can be decomposed into an investment effect and a hedging effect by all risk-averse investors. This question has been shown to be complex when considered outside of the mean-variance framework. Dependence among returns on the risky assets is restricted to quadrant dependence and it is found that the demand for one risky asset can be decomposed into an investment component based on the risk premium offered by the asset and a hedging component used against the fluctuations in the return on the other risky asset. The paper also discusses how the class of quadrant-dependent distributions is related to that of two-fund separating distributions. This contribution opens up the search for broader distributional hypotheses suitable to asset demand models. Examples are discussed.     

Big Five Audits and Accounting Fraud*

We examine the association between Big Five audits and the incidence of accounting frauds allegedly committed by U.S. public companies between 1981 and 2001. Many commentators argue that the prominent financial reporting failures that led to major corporate governance reforms cast serious doubt on whether the large public accounting firms continue to supply relatively high‐quality audits, especially in recent years. However, in unmatched and matched samples, we provide strong, robust evidence that fraudulent financial reporting becomes less likely with the presence of a Big Five auditor. Importantly, time‐series tests suggest that the Big Five are consistently associated with a lower incidence of fraudulent accounting, including in the last five years of our sample period when the number of frauds soared. Moreover, we find evidence implying that these relations are causal rather than an artifact of endogeneity in auditor choice.