Technological intensities in East and Southeast Asian electronics firms: Does network strength matter?

This paper examines the importance of network strength (NS) on the technological intensities (TI) of electronics firms. TI was disentangled into the categories of human resource (HR), process technology (PT) and R&D (RD) intensities, and the differences between foreign and local firms. The results show that firms in Korea and Taiwan endowed with superior NS enjoy significantly higher skill intensity, TI and RD than firms in Malaysia and Thailand, which have inferior NS. There were no obvious differences in HR practices between foreign and local firms in the four countries. Local firms enjoyed higher TI and RD than foreign firms in Taiwan. There was no statistical difference involving all the technological categories between foreign and local firms in Korea. Foreign firms in Malaysia enjoyed statistically superior TI compared with local firms. Local firms in Thailand showed higher TI and PT than foreign firms. TI and RD of firms are strongly correlated with NS, which showed a stronger impact on TI and RD among local rather than foreign firms. The superior NS of Korea and Taiwan has helped firms participate in higher technological activities and pay higher wages than firms in Malaysia and Thailand.     

History of microfinance in Bangladesh: A life cycle theory approach

This study aims to conceptualise and document the historical evolution of microfinance in Bangladesh using the life cycle theory (LCT). Based on the LCT nomenclature, the microfinance sector in Bangladesh shows characteristics broadly consistent with the saturation phase (2006–2015) – which potentially has adverse impacts on both microfinance clients and institutions. The maturity phase (1996–2005) of microfinance has corresponded with competition and several innovations (financial and non-financial). However, the saturation phase sees increasing presence of uncoordinated microfinance institutions and expansion of multiple borrowing, as well as commercialisation and ‘mission drift’, which constitute important challenges for the regulatory authority and management of microfinance institutions.     

Sons of Gwalia: defrauded shareholders' claims in insolvency

The recent Australian High Court decision in Sons of Gwalia v Margaretic abolished the rule that defrauded shareholders claims should be subordinated to the claims of general creditors in insolvency. This paper examines the decision, discusses its potential implications and explores whether it should be overruled through legislative amendment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Technological intensities and economic performance: a study of foreign and local electronics firms in Malaysia

This article compares technological intensities (TI) and economic performance of foreign and local electronics firms in Malaysia. The results show that foreign firms enjoyed higher labour productivity, wages and export intensity than local firms, though technological intensities between both sets of firms were similar. The econometric results show a strong and positive relationship between labour productivity and technological intensity in all the samples. The higher coefficient of TI in the local sample compared to the foreign sample shows that productivity in local firms is driven much more from in-house technological effort at host-sites than in foreign firms who can access technology from their parent plants. However, the relationship between TI (contributed by differences in R&D intensity) and export-intensity in the local sample is negative demonstrating that much of such effort is devoted to inward-oriented production. Reversing the relationship also produced the same negative relationship in the local sample. Skills intensity enjoyed a positive relationship with TI with similar coefficients. The positive and significant relationship between wages, and R&D and TI shows that the more technology-intensive local firms pay higher wages to attract human capital.     

Government-Business Coordination and Small Enterprise Performance in the Machine Tools Sector in Malaysia

This paper compares the performance of small and medium size subcontractors in the machine tools industry in two different states of Malaysia, Penang and Kelang Valley. It is shown that while Penang has developed a fairly successful small and medium subcontracting industry, Kelang Valley has not. The difference in performance (measured by value-added) is due in part to differences in the extent and quality of government-business coordination. In contrast to Kelang Valley, the relatively autonomous state government of Penang took a pro-active approach to business development and provided support to its small and medium enterprises (mainly Chinese-owned) in the form of public training and market-information exchange.     

Botswana: Poverty amid plenty

This paper uses the technological capabilities framework for examining differences in technological intensities and economic performance between foreign and local food and beverage, and textile and garment firms and metal engineering firms in Kenya. Foreign firms had statistically significant higher labour productivity means than local firms in textile and garment manufacturing. Foreign firms were also more export- and technology-intensive than local firms in textile and garment (process technology and R&D) and metal engineering (HR). Foreign firms had higher and statistically significant skills and overall technology (TI) means than local firms in food and beverages. The econometric exercise showed that foreign ownership had a statistically significant and positive relationship with overall technological and HR intensities. In labour productivity, the coefficient of TI was higher in the foreign firms' sample than in the local firms' sample. Local firms had higher value added in domestic than export markets. Export intensity had a positive relationship in the process technology regressions, but an inverse relationship in the HR regressions in the foreign firms' sample. Overall, the statistically significant results suggest that foreign firms' technology, productivity and export intensity levels in economies with weak institutions tend to be superior to local firms.