The Nature of the Self,Self-regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self

The concept of the self and its relation to moral action is complex and subject to varying interpretations, not only between different academic disciplines but also across time and space. This paper presents empirical evidence from a cross-cultural study on the Buddhist and Confucian notions of self in SMEs in Vietnam and Taiwan. The study employs Hwang’s Mandala Model of the Self, and its extension into Shiah’s non-self-model, to interpret how these two Eastern philosophical representations of the self, the Confucian relational self and Buddhist non-self, can lead to moral action. By demonstrating the strengths of the model, emphasizing how social and cultural influences constrain the individual self and promote the social person leading to moral action, the paper extends understanding of the self with empirical evidence of the mechanisms involved in organizational contexts.

     

Trade Diversion as Firm Adjustment to Trade Policy: Evidence from EU Anti‐dumping Duties on Vietnamese Footwear

This paper evaluates the impact of the 2006 European Union anti‐dumping (AD) action on Vietnamese footwear in three markets: imports to the EU, footwear producers in Vietnam, and the trade diversionary adjustment of Vietnamese firms in the US market. We find that the AD action reduced Vietnamese imports to the EU by as much as 65 per cent. Given that the EU makes up almost two‐thirds of Vietnam's footwear exports and footwear is among the top four export industries for Vietnam, this reduction is economically significant. Consistent with predictions of our model, we find evidence of trade diversion by Vietnamese producers from the EU to the US market. Our difference‐in‐difference estimates of the AD actions on the value of Vietnamese footwear imports to the United States ranged from 69 to 71 per cent over the period 2004–07 and 69 to 72 per cent in terms of quantity. These results highlight the spillover effects of trade policy in third markets when firms adjust to trade barriers. Our results are robust to triple‐difference specifications where we adjust for trend differences and a series of placebo specifications.     

Strategic Responses to Changing Climate Change Policies: The Role Played by Carbon Accounting

Using a broad institutional theory lens, this paper examines the climate change strategies and carbon accounting practices adopted by two New Zealand electricity firms in response to changes in government climate change policies over time (2002–12). The two firms pursue different strategic responses to climate change‐related institutional and economic pressures in order to maintain both legitimacy and a competitive advantage. Five different strategic responses are identified: avoidance, operational conformance, strategic conformance, strategic differentiation, negotiation and manipulation. Firm‐level characteristics are also important drivers of inter‐firm variations in the strategic responses. Further, carbon accounting makes the greatest contribution to carbon reduction when integrated as part of strategic processes that support strategic conformance and strategic differentiation. Carbon monitoring systems, internal carbon information use and carbon disclosure were the main forms of carbon accounting used to realise the different strategies employed.     

SURVEY OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN SE EUROPE – A NEW CONCEPTUAL FRAME FOR SUSTAINABILITY METRICS

The practice so far has indicated that there is a sensitive relationship that exists between social and economic subsystem of sustainable development, therefore this research suggests comparison of the states of these two subsystems as a new conceptual frame which is essential for strategic conceptualization of development. The research pointed out a rather visible collision between the achieved degree of economic and social development in the countries of South Eastern Europe in respect to Germany and France, which were taken into consideration as two of the most developed countries in the European Union and in the entire world. The indicators which are given in this research point to the necessity of further scientific and practical consideration of strategic conceptualization of relationship between economics and society.     

Robust thresholding for Diffusion Index forecast

In this paper we propose a new methodology in improving the Diffusion Index forecasting model (Stock and Watson, 2002a, 2002b) using hard thresholding with robust KVB statistic for regression hypothesis tests (Kiefer et al., 2000). The new method yields promising results in the context of long forecasting horizons and existence of serial correlation. Numerical comparison indicates that the proposed methodology can improve upon the existing hard thresholding methods and outperform the soft thresholding methods (Bai and Ng, 2008) when applied to a real data set that forecasts eight macroeconomic variables in the United States.     

Organisational ambidexterity and supply chain agility: the mediating role of external knowledge sharing and moderating role of competitive intelligence

The dynamic growth of a supply chain in an incessantly changing environment emanates from the dynamics of an organisation as well as its supply chain members. The primary aim of this research is to investigate the relationships between supply chain agility and its dynamic precursors including organisational ambidexterity and external knowledge sharing. The research further examines the moderating role of competitive intelligence for the relationship between organisational ambidexterity and supply chain agility. A sample of 381 respondents from chemical manufacturing companies in Vietnam produced the data for analysis. The research results shed light on the chain effect from organisational ambidexterity through external knowledge sharing to supply chain agility. The moderating role that CI plays in the relationship between organisational ambidexterity and supply chain agility was also verified. The findings from the research broaden supply chain literature through establishing the positive effect of organisational ambidexterity on supply chain agility with CI as a moderator for this effect.     

Measuring asymmetry and persistence in conditional volatility in real output: evidence from three East Asian tigers using a multivariate GARCH approach

We search for evidence of conditional volatility in the quarterly real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates of three East Asian tigers: Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The widely accepted Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (EGARCH)-type model is used to capture the existence of asymmetric volatility and the potential structural break points in the volatility. We find evidence of asymmetry and persistence in the volatility of GDP growth rates. It is noted that the structural breakpoints of volatility correspond reasonably well to the historical economic and political events in these economies. Policy implications from our findings are discussed.     

Information Technology and the World Growth Resurgence

Abstract. This paper analyzes the impact of investment in information technology (IT) on the recent resurgence of world economic growth. We describe the growth of the world economy, seven regions, and 14 major economies during the period 1989–2004. We allocate the growth of world output between input growth and productivity and find, surprisingly, that input growth greatly predominates! Moreover, differences in per capita output levels are explained by differences in per capita input, rather than variations in productivity. The contributions of IT investment have increased in all regions, but especially in industrialized economies and Developing Asia.     

Technical Efficiency of Industrial State-Owned Enterprises in Vietnam

Measured among themselves, industrial state-owned enterprises (SOE) in Vietnam have recorded a rather high level of technical efficiency, as well as a moderate improvement in technical efficiency between the 1997 and 1998. Of the possible factors, the share of skilled workers, location in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and engagement in export activities were considered the most important in determining the technical efficiency level. Between 1997 and 1998 there was no evidence of technological progress. For the ongoing SOE reform process in Vietnam, attention should be given to improving the skills of the work force and to encouraging the export-led development strategy. Creating a competitive envir-onment and a fully developed system of market-supporting institutions is also highly needed. In addition, it is necessary to invest in new technology for industrial SOE in Vietnam.     

International Effects of Stock Market Dispersion

We study the extent to which stock market dispersion is related to unemployment and output growth for 16 countries over 20 years. Using panel vector-auto-regressions and panel dynamic regressions, we find increases in stock market dispersion across industries to induce future increases in unemployment and future decreases in industrial production (IP) growth. Moreover, the responses of unemployment and IP growth following a positive shock to stock market dispersion are persistent and are robust to various controls, sample periods, and estimation methods. Our article provides cross-country evidence in support of the hypothesis that shifts in demand across industries negatively affect employment.