Contracting from East to West: Bridging the cultural divide

When contracting in a global environment, basic cultural differences increase the risk of misunderstandings. Culture generally provides the context for contract language and shapes the parties’ most basic assumptions regarding their respective rights and responsibilities. Businesses must recognize, respect, and reconcile cultural differences if they hope to contract successfully in the global environment. For U.S. and Chinese businesses to better understand how to successfully negotiate and carry out contractual relations with one another, they must recognize the differences in core cultural values between the two countries and develop strategies for reconciling these differences. Bridging these cultural differences adds value to business transactions and minimizes the risk of failure. To help managers recognize and understand cultural differences between the U.S. and China, this installment of Business Law & Ethics Corner focuses on five dimensions of the culture of the U.S. and China: individualism/collectivism, universalism/particularism, power distance, context, and direction. These aspects explain some of the major differences in viewing the law and approaching contracts. To help managers navigate these cultural differences, this article offers guidance regarding how to respect and reconcile cultural predispositions to achieve true synergies. By bridging these cross-cultural differences between the U.S. and China, managers can achieve the mutual expectations necessary to the long-term success of cross-cultural business transactions.     

In-Store Shopping Behavior

SUMMARY

The analysis of consumer shopping behavior is one of the most critical aspects which has to be taken into consideration in a context of retailing internationalization, where managers need to define the degree to which international firms can standardize or adapt their strategies in foreign markets. The aim of this research is to analyze and point out the main cross-cultural differences regarding in-store behavior comparing three countries: Italy, France and Poland. The study presents the results of an empirical research carried out on the household goods retail sector, which shows on a global level a positive growth trend that is predicted to continue in the next years especially through the internationalization of the retailing chains.     

The influence of the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance on business strategy development: A cross-national study of hotel managers

The purpose of this exploratory study was to empirically investigate the potential influence of uncertainty avoidance (UA) on hotel top managers’ approach to strategy development. Scales were developed to measure managers’ openness to strategic change, involvement of others, formality of strategic control, type of data used in strategic analysis, and strategic planning time horizon. Responses from 207 managers (50 Americans, 43 Malaysians, 70 Thai, and 44 Turkish) were analyzed using ANOVA. The findings indicated that UA had minimal influences on the managers’ approach, as different managers from cultures with varied degrees of UA demonstrated noticeable similarities among the five variables investigated. Practical implications as well as suggestions for future research were provided.     

Country size and the voluntary provision of international public goods

Standard studies on voluntary contributions to an international public good treat national economies as if they were single agents. This masks the fact that nations are comprised of populations of citizens, whose collective benefits a national government takes account of when deciding on the amount of the contributions. This paper constructs a model which explicitly allows for the effect of population differences and explores their consequences. We can then present the so-called exploitation of the great by the small by Olson and Zeckhauser [Olson, M., Zeckhauser, R., 1966. An economic theory of alliances. Review of Economics and Statistics 48 (1966) 266–279] and explore how residents of larger countries fare relative to those in smaller countries. We also elaborate on the effects of changing populations and show that growing into a large country is not necessarily beneficial for the country's residents.     

The use of International Accounting Standards terminology, a survey of IAS compliance disclosure

This study examined where and how companies that purport to be using International Accounting Standards (IAS) are referring to IAS in their financial statements. Virtually all firms surveyed referred to IAS in the footnotes but referred to IAS in the audit report just under 50 percent of the time. The largest group of companies uses a combination of home-country and IAS standards. A significant number of firms report the use of IAS standards with exceptions. The majority of these firms do not discuss the dollar impact of those exceptions. Referencing IAS with home country standards or exceptions reduces comparability and transparency of financial statements. The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) is referenced as the source of IAS in about half of the cases. Failure to reference the IASC as the source of IAS may result in ambiguity concerning what IAS means     

水运交通对我国经济的影响研究

水运是现代综合运输体系的重要组成部分,它直接为现代工业、商业贸易服务。本文从以下3个层面,探讨了水运交通对经济的影响。首先,通过对海运承担的外贸运量和石油、铁矿石的进口量的数量分析,阐述了水运对对外贸易的支撑作用;其次,通过案例和数据,从经济格局演化、资源开发、均衡经济等角度,探究了水运对区域发展的推动作用;最后讨论了水运作为国际合作依托的重要作用。     

日元国际储备地位变迁对人民币国际化的启示

20世纪70年代，日元曾迅速赶上英镑，成为世界第三大储备货币，而21世纪初日元的储备地位却被英镑悄然越过；尽管日本的GDP长期高于德国，但日元在国际储备中的比例一直低于马克。数据分析表明，日元和英镑的储备地位相对变化源于币值的变动；而日元和马克储备地位差别源于商品与劳务进口总额的差别。中国相应参数的比较暗示：人民币有可能在实现自由兑换之前成为世界第三储备货币。     

Linking knowledge, entry timing and internationalization strategy

This paper contributes to the current internationalization theory by linking the characteristics of the firm's resource-base, its market-entry timing orientation and international growth orientation so as to shed more light on internationalization strategies. By employing multi-industry data, we find that the nature of the firm's knowledge, its entry timing orientation and international growth orientation are related to its internationalization strategy. Among other results, we find that the firm's accumulated expertise is positively related for both the international growth orientation and entry timing orientation. The international growth orientation, in turn, is related both to the path type of internationalization the firm employs as well as the geographical diversification in market entry. In other words, the results suggest that the firm's resource-base influences on both its entry timing orientation and to the internationalization strategy. These and other findings are discussed with regard to their scholarly and managerial implications.     

2008年我国宏观经济形势分析及2009年展望

经济危机全面爆发和危机向实体经济扩散已导致全球经济加速下滑．2008年成为我国整体经济增长由升转降的趋势转折年，结束了连续五年保持两位数的强劲增长态势。随着危机的深化，2009年我国经济形势将更为严峻，经济回落态势在短期内难以调头，预计政府将会继续执行积极财政政策和适度宽松的货币政策。本文对我国2009年整体宏观经济形势进行初步展望，并提出相关政策建议。     

The role of relational capabilities in the organization of international sourcing activities: A literature review

Multinational companies (MNCs) establish subsidiaries in various countries, spreading the value chain internationally and fostering the involvement of external partners. The global supply network has become a major source of the total value generated by MNCs, which are pushed to develop “relational capabilities” to interact with their suppliers. The main objective of this article is to assess the current understanding in the academic literature of the intra-organisational dimension of relational capabilities, focussing on the adoption of internal mechanisms supporting international sourcing activities. A total of 47 articles are identified and assessed. The literature review shows that thus far fragmented and in some areas limited research has been conducted on the development of relational capabilities by MNCs within international sourcing activities. Research efforts have been placed mainly on the examination of organisational units active in international sourcing and on control and management processes, while less attention has been paid to knowledge management solutions.