The international diversification-performance link in Spain: Does firm size really matter?

This study provides new insights into the link between international diversification and firm performance in a sample of large manufacturing firms and SMEs based in Spain for the 1994–2008 period. Specifically, the focus is on how the nature and shape of this relationship may vary over time with firm size. The results show the existence of a horizontal-S curve when the whole sample of firms is considered in the empirical analysis. However, major differences are found between SMEs and large firms, and even within the actual group of SMEs. Strong support is found in large firms for the existence of a horizontal-S curve. Within the group of SMEs, there are small firms with a linear and negative relationship, whereas medium-sized firms record a U-shaped form. These findings suggest that as the international diversification-performance link is size-dependent, future research should explicitly consider firm size in order to better understand the nature of this relationship.     

Live and let die: A survival analysis of foreign R&D units in Swedish MNEs

This paper develops and tests a set of hypotheses regarding factors that influenced the longevity of foreign research and development units in Swedish multinational enterprises over the period 1992–2012. The results reveal an underexplored aspect of the R&D internationalization—the volatility of foreign R&D laboratories. During the investigated period, more than 40% of the R&D units in the sample had been terminated. The results substantiate earlier research regarding the negative effects of mergers and acquisitions on R&D in acquired units but show that these effects are not immediate. They appear – if at all – with a time lag of several years. The hazard of closure for an individual unit seems to be more strongly related to its role and position within the MNE than to local country characteristics. It was smaller for strongly locally embedded units and units with global mandates, but – contrary to expectations – the hazard was greater for units highly integrated with the rest of the MNE.     

The concept of near money in loyalty programmes

Loyalty reward schemes often have their own currency, for example, frequent flyer miles, which is a form of near money or quasi money. In a variation of earlier work by Snelders et al. (1992), when examining both New Zealand (Study 1) and Hong Kong (Study 2) residents, respondents provided typicality ratings, similarity ratings, and answers and reaction times to the question “Is X a type of money?” for examples of money, near money and objects of value. The results from both studies showed that near money is conceptualised in a way that is like but distinct from legal tender. Two further studies investigated implications of this conceptualisation. Study 3 found that preferences for spending near money were influenced by the ostensible purpose of the currency, and Study 4 showed that near money seemed to be placed outside of regular legal tender mental accounts.     

The effect of physical environment on passenger delight and satisfaction: Moderating effect of national identity

This study aims to examine the influence of an international airport's physical environment on passengers' delight and satisfaction. This study also aims to assess the moderating role of national identity on the relationship between physical environment and passengers' delight and satisfaction. A convenient sampling technique was used to select the sample. A total of 271 questionnaires distributed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia were used for data analysis. The result from the structural analysis suggests that physical environment in an international airport influences passengers' delight and satisfaction. Moreover, national identity portrayed in airport moderates the relationships between physical environment, passengers' delight and satisfaction. Overall, findings of this study extends the understanding of physical environment, passengers' delight and satisfaction and national identity in the context of an international airport and offer implications for international airport authorities. Discussions and implications for airport practitioners, limitations, and suggestions for future research are also provided.     

Venture capital funds and the public equity market

This paper considers the relationship between the public equity market and the returns to venture investing using a dataset which is derived from the records of two large limited partners who have been investing in venture capital for almost 30 years. Evidence is found to suggest that market conditions over the investment cycle, and exit conditions at the time of exit in particular, are an important determinant. This paper also investigates whether any other aspects of the venture investment process respond to events in the broader market. While general trends are evident in the venture investment cycle, only the intensity of the investment process is found to respond to events in the public equity market.     

International Public Sector Accounting Standards （IPSAS） Implementation in the European Union （EU） Member States

The aim of this paper is to analyze the implementation level of International Public Sector Accounting Standards （IPSAS） in the member states of the European Union （EU）. After an introduction of the legislative framework in the EU and a review of the literature about the implementation of IPSAS in the EU member states, this paper classifies, on the basis of a survey, the states according to their formal implementation levels of IPSAS. It also analyzes the types of accounting （cash basis accounting, modified cash basis accotmting, accrual accounting, and modified accrual basis accounting） used by the states studied. The survey shows that there are important disparities among the member states, both for the application of IPSAS and for the type of accounting that is used. Furthermore, it appears that even if IPSAS is not legally adopted in most European member states, there is a tendency to use modern accounting systems based on accrual accounting close to IPSAS.     

Entry,trade costs,and international business cycles

Are firm entry and fixed exporting costs relevant for understanding the international transmission of business cycles? We revisit this question using a model that includes entry, selection to exporting activity, physical capital accumulation and endogenous labor supply. We determine that once the stochastic process for exogenous productivity is calibrated to consider the endogenous dynamics in TFP created by the number of firms and the time series volatility of entry is calibrated to the data, our model yields minimal departures from the Backus et al. (1992) benchmark. The richer model shares all of the successes of the previous model in terms of the volatilities of aggregate quantities, as well as its failures, in terms of replicating patterns of international co-movement and the volatility of international relative prices.     

Travel and tourism competitiveness index: The impact of air transportation,railways transportation,travel and transport services on international inbound and outbound tourism

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of air transportation, railways transportation, travel and transport services on international inbound and outbound tourism in a panel of 19 tourists - oriented countries, over a period of 1990–2014. By applying principal component analysis, the study constructs travel and tourism competitiveness index for inbound and outbound tourism. The main constructs of inbound tourism index include international tourists' arrival, tourism receipts, receipts of passengers' transports items and travel items while the constructs of the outbound index include international tourists' departure, tourism expenditures, and expenditures for passengers transport and travel items. The result of panel Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) regression shows that the presence of air transportation, railways transportation, and trade openness positively affect inbound tourism index, while travel and transport services negatively affect tourism competitiveness index. The causality results confirm the bidirectional relationship between inbound tourism, air transportation, railways passengers carried, trade openness and travel and transport services, while there is a unidirectional causality running from inbound index to railway goods transported, from air transport freight to trade factor, and from travel services to air transport freight. Outbound tourism index confirmed the bidirectional causality relationship with air transportation, railways transportation, and travel and transport services, while the causality running from outbound index to trade factor, from air transport passenger carried to travel services, and from railway goods transported to trade and transport services, which support the unidirectional causality relationship between them. The variance decomposition results show that air transportation freight is the contributor that largely influences inbound-outbound tourism, while railways passengers carried and trade openness has the least share to influence inbound and outbound tourism index for the next 10-year period. The impulse response function indicates that air transportation, railways transportation, trade openness and travel services will positively impact on inbound truism while travel and transport services will positively affect outbound tourism for the next 10-year period. The study concludes with the importance of transportation sector that deem desirable to promote tourism worldwide. The concentration of different modes of transportation including air transportation, railways transportation, and travel and transport system would helpful to advance international tourism.     

Optimal investment strategies in an international economy with stochastic interest rates

We investigate how investors should optimally choose to invest in a dynamically complete international market. We find closed-form solutions for the optimal investment strategy and for the wealth loss an investor suffers from not investing internationally. Theoretically, we show that the gain from international investment is due to the speculative investment only, and why it is important for an investor from a large economy to invest in a small economy. In a numerical example we compare the wealth losses investors from Denmark and the U.S. suffer due to home bias.     

Export Expansion Process for Electronics:

This paper explores the changes in Hong Kong electronics manufacturing firms regarding the development of vertical channel integration as export marketing strategy. Analysis of data suggests that Hong Kong electronics manufacturers are increasingly utilizing foreign based channel intermediaries, and establishing internalized export departments and overseas sales offices to handle their export functions. in addition, a few cases of horizontal integration exist in the form of takeovers of Hong Kong manufacturing firms by multinationals from the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom.