Similarities and differences in employee motivation viewed by Korean and Japanese executives: empirical study on employee motivation management of Japanese-affiliated companies in Korea

This study examines similarities and differences in employee motivation management between Korean and Japanese executives of Japanese-affiliated companies in Korea, based on questionnaire surveys. The respondents' views of employee motivation factors were analysed, by contrast with motivational factors and hygiene factors (maintenance factors) developed by Herzberg. The survey results reveal that both Korean and Japanese executives realize the importance of employee motivation management, and that Japanese executives have a stronger awareness of it than Korean executives. Both recognize it for the sake of high corporate performance, employee job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Seeing motivation factors: the majority of Korean and Japanese executives regard ‘wage and bonus increases’ as a strong motivational factor; ‘employment stability’ is recognized as a motivational factor by Korean executives; and ‘clarifying company policy and job objectives’ is the most important motivational factor to Japanese executives. Their views of these three factors are not consistent with Herzberg's theory. We also found a recognition gap between Korean and Japanese executives: ‘esteem and praise for job performance’ is a hygiene factor to Korean executives but a motivational factor to Japanese executives.     

Measurement of technical and allocative efficiencies using a CES cost frontier: a benchmarking study of Japanese transmission-distribution electricity

This paper estimates the technical and allocative inefficiencies of the transmission-distribution sector of Japanese electric utilities using a panel data during the 1981–1998 period. A stochastic production frontier of the CES form is jointly estimated with input demand equations. Taking advantage of the self-duality, we retrieve the cost frontier by which the impacts of technical and allocative inefficiencies on costs and input demands are measured. The estimated elasticity of substitution is significantly different from unity in favor of the CES specification over the Cobb–Douglas. The results show that observed costs are 9 to 48% higher than the efficient level; technical inefficiency raises costs by 1 to 28%, while allocative inefficiency does so by 8 to 30%. Although their impacts on costs are similar, technical inefficiency more fluctuates so the differences in the performance of utilities are mainly due to technical inefficiency. We also find a substantial over-utilization of capital for all utilities.

Productivity, efficiency, scale economies and technical change: A new decomposition analysis of TFP applied to the Japanese prefectures

This paper aims to examine the productivity change of the Japanese economy using the data pertaining to the 47 prefectures during the period 1981–2000. The decomposition analysis of the Hicks–Moorsteen–Bjurek productivity index is conducted to explore the sources of the productivity change. In summary, technical change and efficiency change are two of the most important components driving procyclical productivity. We find that relative their importance varies over periods. Supply shocks captured by technical change component caused upturns in productivity in the mid and late 1980s and in 1999 and 2000. Supply shocks also caused downturns in the early and mid 1990s. On the other hand, demand shocks captured by efficiency change component drove upturns of productivity in 1984, 1990 and 1996, when supply shocks were not detected. J. Japanese Int. Economies 19 (4) (2005) 617–634.     

Cross-sectional regression analysis of return and beta in Japan

This paper investigates the relationship between return and beta using the cross-sectional regression method. Regression of return on beta without differentiating positive and negative market excess returns produces a flat relationship between return and beta. Taking into account the difference between positive and negative market excess returns yields significant conditional relationships between return and beta. The conditional relationship between return and beta is found to be in general better fit when the market excess return is negative than positive in terms of the goodness of fit measures such as R² and the standard error of the equation.     

Evaluation by the Aumann and Serrano performance index and Sharpe ratio: Bitcoin performance

We compare Bitcoin performance based on the Aumann and Serrano performance index and Sharpe ratio assuming that asset returns follow the class of discrete normal mixture distributions. The Aumann and Serrano performance index can take into account higher moments of the underlying distribution of assets and is relevant for risk-averse investors. We evaluate Bitcoin performance based on the Aumann and Serrano index relative to the performance of other assets. Our evaluation shows that Bitcoin is rated highly by the Sharpe ratio but rated very poorly by the Aumann and Serrano index. We also find some stock assets can beat Bitcoin by the Sharpe ratio when an investment horizon is monthly.     

Product Market Competition and Corporate Real Estate Investment under Demand Uncertainty

This article theoretically and empirically analyzes the interactions among corporate real estate investment, product market competition and firm risk. In our model, firms own strategic real estate or lease generic real estate. Our model predicts that strategic real estate ownership is positively correlated with industry concentration and negatively related to demand uncertainty. Also, firm risk is higher for firms with more strategic real estate operating in a more concentrated market. This prediction arises because smaller investments induce greater market competition, which effectively eliminates the right tail of the firm's profit distribution. We provide strong empirical support for our predictions. In particular, firm value is more volatile in less competitive markets for a given level of demand uncertainty.     

Reexamining the Robustness of the Market Value of Equity

We apply the methodology of Knez and Ready (KR) (1997) to data from the Japanese stock market and reexamine the robustness of the risk premium for the market value of equity (MVE). In particular, we compare two alternative explanations for the relation between stock returns and MVE: the one pointed out by Fama and French (FF) (1992) and the other proposed by Berk (1995). Consistent with results for the U.S. market, when we check FF's explanation for MVE, we find that the risk premium for MVE is not robust against extreme observations. Besides the evidence supporting KR's findings, we study the role of MVE proposed by Berk (1995), who points out that under controlled expected cash flows, MVE will be negatively correlated with expected returns. After showing that MVE negatively correlates with risk in the presence of expected cash flows, we test the robustness of the relation between returns and MVE. We find that the estimated risk premium for MVE is robust when realized cash flows (earnings plus depreciation) or book value of equity (BE) is used as a proxy for expected cash flows.     

Estimates of optimal public capital stocks in Japan using a public investment discount rate framework

The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the optimality of the level of public capital in Japan. We use a methodological approach based on Burgess's (1988) procedure for calculating the public discount rate. This approach involves estimating a production function, but does not necessarily require utility function estimation. The results indicate that, although the Japanese economy experienced a public capital deficiency over the period 1960–1982, public capital moved toward optimal levels throughout the period. First version received: March 1997/final version received: June 1998