Multinational Firms’ Motivations and Foreign Direct Investment Decisions: An Analysis of the Software and IT and Financial Services Sectors in the Irish Context

This article focuses on the way greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) in different sectors is influenced by locational characteristics and explores the role of policy in attracting and retaining foreign investment. We contribute to the literature by empirically investigating the investment motivations of multinational companies in the software and information technology (IT) and financial services sectors in Ireland and those locational factors that contribute to the retention of FDI. The methodology used in this research is of a qualitative nature, and an exploratory deductive approach is adopted in order to gain an understanding of firms’ internationalization decisions and motivations. The data demonstrate that companies in the two sectors follow different investment motivations. Firms in the software and IT sector entered Ireland primarily because of the availability of a high‐quality workforce, whereas firms in the financial services sector entered Ireland following the deregulation of markets and the subsequent ease of doing business. The article builds on these findings to develop policy recommendations. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Question of Integrity: Variants of Bt Cotton,Pesticides and Productivity in Pakistan

Bt cotton remains one of the most widely grown biotech crops among smallholder farmers in lower income countries, and numerous studies attest to its advantages. However, the effectiveness of Bt toxin, which depends on many technical constraints, is heterogeneous. In Pakistan, the diffusion of Bt cotton occurred despite a weak regulatory system and without seed quality control; whether or not many varieties sold as Bt are in fact Bt is also questionable. We utilise nationally representative sample data to test the effects of Bt cotton use on productivity. Unlike previous studies, we invoke several indicators of Bt identity: variety name, official approval status, farmer belief, laboratory tests of Bt presence in plant tissue, and biophysical assays measuring Bt effectiveness. Only farmer belief affects cotton productivity in the standard production model, which does not treat Bt appropriately as damage‐abating. In the damage control framework, all Bt indicators reduce damage from pests. Biophysical indicators have the largest effect and official approval has the weakest. Findings have implications for impact measurement. For policy‐makers, they suggest the need, on ethical and productivity grounds, to improve variety information and monitor variety integrity closer to point of sale.     

Measuring and explaining the efficiencies of the United Arab Emirates banking system

Using newly collected data from a survey distributed to all banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this article measures economic efficiency in the banking industry, namely allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency. Employing a nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach, the study estimates the efficiency for a cross section of the UAE banks in 2004. The results indicate that the dominant source of inefficiency in the UAE banking is stemming from allocative inefficiency rather than technical inefficiency. Furthermore, the main source of the relatively small size, technical inefficiency in the UAE banking industry is not the scale inefficiency but rather pure technical inefficiency. The results further indicate that the UAE banks are able to use their input resources more efficiently when they have more branches, and that newer banks are performing better than older banks on average. Moreover, the results also show that short experiences of employees affect efficiencies negatively and government ownership tends to reduce efficiency (as the government shares increase in the bank, the efficiency scores get lower). Finally, the most interesting results have to do with finding higher average efficiencies in banks that employ more women, more managers and less national citizens of the UAE.     

Empirical economics acknowledges the cooperation of

Empirical economics acknowledges the cooperation of     

Blockchain for tracking serial numbers in money exchanges

Money exchange is one of the most common day‐to‐day activities performed by humans in the daily market. This paper presents an approach to money tracking through a blockchain. The proposed approach consists of three main components: serial number localization, serial number recognition, and a blockchain to store all transactions and ownership transfers. The approach was tested with a total of 110 banknotes of different currency types and achieved an average accuracy of 91.17%. We conducted a user study in real‐time with 21 users, and the mean accuracy across all users was 86.42%. Each user gave us feedback on the proposed approach, and most of them welcomed the idea.     

Mobile learning adoption for tourism education in a developing country

Since developing countries are gradually introducing mobile-based tourism education, it is a growing demand to understand the students’ intention to adopt mobile learning. The study used partial least squares-based structural equation modelling to analyse survey data from 176 questionnaires at three tourism education institutes in Bangladesh. The study contributes to the theory of planned behaviour by examining the antecedent impact of innovativeness and moderating effect of self-efficacy. Results confirmed innovativeness as a significant antecedent on the attitude–intention relationship; however, the moderating effect of self-efficacy has not been supported. The study has marketing implications for tourism education institutes and government bodies.     

Synchronizing relational benefits with customer commitment profiles

ABSTRACT

The literature no longer considers commitment to be a distinct variable. Instead, commitment represents a combination of affective, calculative, and normative dimensions for individual customers, resulting in the adoption of a person-centric view for its measurement. However, customer satisfaction as a result of confidence benefit, social benefit, and special treatment benefit may vary among customers with different commitment profiles which encourages variable-centric view. Considering both variable- and person-centric views, this study uses survey data to examine the impact of relational benefits on the satisfaction of customers with different commitment profiles. It also examines the moderation role of relationship age. With cluster analysis identifying three commitment profiles, findings from structural equation modeling confirmed that highly-committed customers expected excessive special treatment benefit; low-commitment customers preferred confidence benefit to reduce cognitive dissonance; while affective-dominance customers expected all three types of benefit proportionately. The study’s theoretical and practical contributions conclude the paper.     

International financial reporting standards — credible and reliable? An overview

The study discusses how IFRS's objective of the harmonization of accounting standards and improvement of quality of financial reporting may have been negatively affected due to public authorities' influences in the European Union (EU), the U.S., the U.K. and China. In addition, we discuss issues related to the inconsistent interpretations and implementations of IFRS as principle-based accounting standards. Moreover, we discuss how the funding system of the IASB may (or may not) have affected its independence. The review of relevant literature and discussion is critical to IFRS adoption/convergence efforts in the U.S.     

Statistical estimate of the proportional hazard premium of loss

The well known Proportional Hazard Premium Principle, introduced by Wang (1996), depends upon the survival function of the insured risk and a risk aversion index. Using this premium principle, we propose an asymptotically normal semi-parametric estimator for the net-premium of a high-excess loss layer of heavy-tailed claim amounts. An algorithm to compute confidence bounds is given. Moreover, a comparison between this estimator and the non-parametric estimator, proposed by Necir & Boukhetala (2004), is carried out.     

The High-Value Commodity Export Effects of Standards in Africa

ABSTRACT

The stringency in standards usage, especially in developed markets, has trade effects, particularly for Africa. Thus, this study investigated the export effects of the EU standards for Africa in a two-step, Helpman et al. (2008) model for two high-value commodities. In all, 52 African countries were considered from 1995 to 2012. This study finds that fish standards are trade enhancing at the extensive margins, but not at the intensive margins. However, vegetable standards are trade inhibiting at both the extensive and intensive margins. Thus, these findings suggest that the impacts of standards on exports are commodity-specific.