Are differences in firm size transitory or permanent?

An Erratum for this article has been published in Journal of Applied Econometrics 18(2) 2003, 249 Previous empirical work on corporate growth rates using cross‐section or short‐panel econometric techniques suggests that growth rates are random but that some degree of mean reversion exists. This means that size differences between firms are transitory. Another, more natural way to explore the long‐run distribution of firm sizes is to examine data on the growth of particular firms over long periods of time. Using a sample of 147 UK firms observed continually for more than 30 years, our conclusions are that growth rates are highly variable over time and that differences in growth rates between firms do not persist for very long. Further, firms show no tendency to converge to either a common size or to a pattern of stable size differences over time. These results are compared and contrasted with standard approaches that suggest that firms reach and maintain stable positions in a skewed size distribution. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A model for the influence of social interaction and social support on female expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment

This paper offers a model to describe the way in which female expatriates develop relationships and utilize those relationships to become cross-culturally adjusted. This model includes three predictive components affecting cross-cultural adjustment. The first includes the factors affecting whether a woman is able to form relationships on the expatriate assignment. These antecedents can include the female expatriate's personality, the cultural norms towards women, her language skills and the availability of possible opportunities for interaction. The second component includes the various sources of social interaction and social support (e.g. family members, and host national colleagues). The third component describes the nature of a female expatriate's social interaction and social support (e.g. emotional, informational and instrumental). Practical considerations for multinational organizations sending female expatriates are offered.     

The impacts of export competition on international technology flows

Knowledge flow is a key to building technological capabilities. This article investigates how competition in international trade affects knowledge flow between countries using patent data and trade data for analysis. The main finding is that export competition in the third market (in our study, the US market) seems to have a positive impact on the flow of knowledge. The findings from this study contribute to the debate on ‘learning-by-exporting’.     

Convertible bond arbitrage,liquidity externalities,and stock prices

In the context of convertible bond issuance, we examine the impact of arbitrage activity on underlying equity markets. In particular, we use changes in equity short interest following convertible bond issuance to identify convertible bond arbitrage activity and analyze its impact on stock market liquidity and prices for the period 1993 to 2006. There is considerable evidence of arbitrage-induced short selling resulting from issuance. Moreover, we find strong evidence that this activity is systematically related to liquidity improvements in the stock. These results are robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of arbitrage activity.     

Factors influencing the adjustment of women on global assignments

This study tests a four-factor model proposed by Caligiuri and Cascio (in press) for predicting the cross-cultural adjustment of female expatriates. The four factors tested in this paper were family support, personality characteristics, organizational support and host nationals' attitudes towards female expatriates. Structured phone interviews with thirty-eight American female expatriates from US-based companies were conducted. The responses were content analysed and regression was conducted. The results suggest company and family support are significantly related to cross-cultural adjustment. Thus, suggestions are given for future research on female expatriates using the theoretical model of social support. Practical recommendations for how to maximize the likelihood of success for women on global assignments are also given.     

GOVERNANCE IN RELATION TO INFANT MORTALITY RATE: EVIDENCE FROM AROUND THE WORLD

ABSTRACT ** :  Governance is estimated to have a significant negative effect on the infant mortality rate based on a sample of 112 countries. The sample contains both developed and developing nations. The estimated magnitude of the effect is not significantly different between female and male infant mortality rate. Furthermore, we investigate whether governance is the preferred predictor of infant mortality rate compared to relative income. Though the statistical results are not conclusive, there is more evidence in favour of the governance indicator .     

Brain drain versus brain gain: an exploratory study of ex-host country nationals in Central and East Europe

To fuel further growth and development, many countries in Central and East Europe that have made the transition from socialist to market economies are anxious to reverse the brain drain by attracting their nationals who have studied and/or worked abroad to return. This study seeks to examine the experiences and challenges encountered by nationals upon their return home, after having lived abroad for an extensive period of time. These people are referred to as ‘ex-host country nationals’ (EHCNs). The findings of this exploratory study of 86 EHCNs, all recipients of prestigious scholarships to study abroad, have important implications, both theoretical and practical, for international human resource management, including governmental attempts to curb or reverse brain drain from their respective countries.     

National innovation systems and international knowledge flows: an exploratory investigation with the case of the Netherlands

Since the late 1980s, the literature on innovation systems has flourished, often tying these systems to nation-states. Technology, however, often flows across the borders of nations. In this paper, four cases are studied where foreign technology is imported and appropriated from abroad into Dutch companies. By doing so, the questions what a national system of innovation consists of and what such a system means for firms are explored. The cases studied provide a picture of international-sectoral systems, adding up to a loosely interacting innovation system at the national level.     

A Principal Components Analysis of Common Stochastic Trends in Heterogeneous Panel Data: Some Monte Carlo Evidence

In this paper we propose a new approach based on principal components analysis to test for the number of common stochastic trends driving the non-stationary series in a panel data set. This test has the advantage that it is also consistent when there is a mixture of I (0) and I (1) series, making it unnecessary to pre-test the panel for unit root. Furthermore, the test solves the problem of dimensionality encountered in large panel data sets.     

Broad‐based incentive plans,HR practices and company performance

The purpose of this paper is to further develop our knowledge of the complementarities between broad‐based incentives and human resource (HR) management practices, and their combined impact on company performance. We focus on three HR practices that are expected, separately and in combination, to enhance the effectiveness of broad‐based plans: information sharing, upward communication, and training in team skills. Using a sample of 305 Canadian firms, we find that companies with broad‐based incentive plans have lower levels of upward communication and higher levels of information sharing compared with companies that do not offer incentives to the majority of their workforce. Further, we find that companies with broad‐based incentive plans are more productive compared with companies with no such plans, and the presence of supporting HR practices increases their productivity advantage even further. In particular, upward communication combined with broad‐based incentives has a strong positive relationship with productivity.