Conceptualising the Role of International Capital Flows for Housing Markets

The existing literature on the role of international capital flows for housing markets can be classified into approaches which focus on the macro relationship between the current account and housing prices on the one hand and studies which specify more specific transmission channels on the other. Building on this literature, we conceptualise the role of international capital flows for housing markets via four central transmission channels. We suggest that by differentiating among these channels, the risk build-up potential of capital flows for housing markets can be evaluated more precisely than in the early literature on global imbalances.     

Drug trafficking,money laundering and the business cycle: Does secular stagnation include crime?

The aim of the paper is to analyze theoretically and empirically the impact the macroeconomic cycle has on the accumulation of capital by organized crime, using estimates for the global drug market. So far, the economic literature has neglected the relationships existing between illegal markets, money laundering and the business cycle. We propose a dynamic model where the business cycle influences the criminal economy via two different channels. On the one side, illegal markets grow at variable rates, depending on the health of the legal economy. Second, a pass‐through effect can exist, since the business cycle affects the legal markets which criminal operators use to launder their revenues. Furthermore, we analyze the consequences of a ‘saturation effect’ limiting maximum accumulation of illegal capital. We find that overall illegal capital is affected by the business cycle through a capital multiplier; in addition to this, the dynamics of interest rates in financial markets can influence such multiplier.     

Social progress,business formation,and access to investment capital

The rate of business formation is higher in countries that rank better on dimensions of social progress. This creates a need for investment capital and helps drive a positive relation between social progress and IPO activity. For example, my results suggest that a one standard deviation improvement in a country's Social Progress Index is associated with an additional 0.372 IPOs and a $69.416 increase in cumulative IPO proceeds raised per million people. The relation is stronger for emerging markets than for developed markets. Social progress is also positively correlated with the proportion of IPO firms that receive venture capital funding.     

转型背景下商业地产的投资前景与融资模式——基于REITs的投资价值分析

为了严格控制房价过快上涨,国家相继出台了一系列的房地产调控政策,房地产企业普遍感到资金链越来越紧。在新形势下,房地产开发企业的出路在于向商业地产转型。应采取向保障性住房建设、商业地产、旅游地产等领域投资的策略。在融资方面,必须改变长期以来单纯依靠银行贷款的筹资模式,走多元化融资道路。通过资产证券化,发展房地产投资信托基金（REITs）则是当前可优先选择的模式。REITs可以拓宽房企的融资渠道和广大投资者的投资渠道,有利于促进房地产开发企业向商业地产转型。政府应尽快明确REITs的合法地位;加快培育优质商业资源;公开市场交易,促进多元化投资主体的形成。     

Credit access for high-risk borrowers in financially concentrated markets: Do SBA loan guarantees help?

The Small Business Administration's (SBA) loan guarantee program was established to correct financial capital market inefficiencies and improve small business access to financial capital. However, the SBA loan guarantee program has been criticized for its failure to improve the performance of financial capital markets available to small businesses. This study considers the financial capital market failure created by lenders' monopoly power (specifically, financial market concentration) in financial capital markets. Based on this potential market failure, a model is derived to evaluate the behavior of lenders and borrowers in financial capital markets. Using the national Survey of Small Business Finance, this study compares the financial characteristics of small business borrowers with and without SBA loan guarantees, and provides a qualitative assessment of the SBA's ability to correct financial capital market inefficiencies. When considering only the interaction between borrower quality and the degree of financial market concentration, high-risk borrowers in high concentration financial markets have a higher probability of receiving an SBA loan guarantee than low-risk borrowers in low concentration financial markets. However, when other factors influencing the demand for financial capital are included in the model, only the borrower attributes (credit risk and age) are significant. While the SBA loan guarantee program appears to partially mitigate the effects of the market failure caused by financial market concentration for high-risk borrowers, the program appears to be better designed to address borrower risk, rather than credit market failure.     

Dynamics of Islamic Financing in Malaysia: Causality and Innovation Accounting

This article addresses the underresearched issues of marketing challenges and business strategies/models for emerging markets. It suggests that firms need to fundamentally rethink their business models and marketing policies for emerging markets. Although strategies focusing on product affordability and availability are necessary, identification of niche market segments and making clear choices about which segments to pursue, with what value propositions will promote great success. Moreover, strategic flexibility, local sourcing, engagement of nontraditional partners, and local entrepreneurship will be important factors for successful pursuit of the emerging markets.     

The Location of Markets,Perceived Entrepreneurial Risk,and Start-up Capital of Micro Rural Firms

It is argued that when founders of SMEs perceive the probability of a successful and lucrative venture to be greater, they are more likely to provide a greater proportion of the start-up capital. This paper provides an empirical examination of two concurrent hypotheses. Firstly, that the size of the debt or equity is affected by factors influencing perceived entrepreneurial risk. Secondly, that the location of the market for the firm’s output is a major factor reducing perceived entrepreneurial risk and increasing equity of the start-up capital. A statistical analysis based on the simultaneous tobit model is used. Results show that significant factors influencing risk perception include the size of the new business and the sector of economic activity, as well as entrepreneurial experience and the location of the markets for the firm’s output. The results highlight implications for the design and implementation of rural development policies and especially for the instruments supporting rural business creation.     

State institutions, risk, and lending in global capital markets

This paper examines one component of the expansion of global capitalism, the lending of capital across national borders and the affect of national political institutions and arrangements upon that lending. Global capital markets expanded rapidly during the latter part of the twentieth century, prompting discussions about the role of mobile capital. This contribution makes three key points to the understanding of globalization, its impacts, its causes, and its relationship to the nation-state, business and development. First, globalization is an uneven, bifurcated, phenomenon. Only a select group access these global capital markets, while many watch from the sidelines. Second, national political arrangements help us understand systematic disparities in access to global capital. National and local public policies, national political institutions, and other local activities prove instrumental in affecting access to global capital. Democracy and regulatory stability matter as they provide information to international investors about the risk to investments from local arenas. Third, the data presents a methodological obstacle in understanding how politics affects access to global capital. The structure of the data’s distribution can hide real relationships and pervert substantive interpretations if not managed. Without addressing the statistical concerns presented by the data the results would at worst be little more than garbage in, garbage out, and at best misleading.     

我国地方政府自主发债问题研究

目前我国保障房建设资金的短缺突显出地方资金和债务上存在问题。我国计划在广东、浙江试点实施地方自行发债,以解决地方政府融资问题,保证保障房的建设。我国地方政府在发债方面应注意清理地方债务,定期公布财务状况,完善相关法律法规。     

The nature of informal food bazaars: Empirical results for Urban Hanoi,Vietnam

This paper aims to study the interesting phenomenon of informal food markets in urban areas, which have been neglected in the past research. Based on an empirical study of consumer choice between informal and formal markets (markets built-up by street hawkers vs. government-planned markets), this paper provides a basis for understanding the nature of informal markets in the Vietnamese context. The results show that cheap price and convenience (proximity) are important in shaping the choice by consumers for informal markets for food, while close relationship with sellers or services provided by sellers are not. Shoppers with higher concern for freshness and safety of fresh food are more likely to shop at formal markets. Additionally, low-income shoppers are found significantly inclined toward informal markets, while higher-income shoppers tend to shop at formal markets. Therefore, these two types of market should be viewed as two marketplaces to serve two segments of consumer groups, rather than two markets competing for a share of the business.     

商圈建设与城市发展——以重庆江津商圈建设为例

商圈对于城市发展具有重要的功能和作用。文章分析了区域性中心城市必须拥有自己商圈的原因,回答了对商圈建设的种种疑问,研究了商圈建设必须统筹考虑商圈规模、建筑风格和业态布局等因素,提出了通过统一思想、科学规划、审慎拆迁、招商引资、资金投入等措施来建设商圈。     

New-firm startups,technology, and macroeconomic fluctuations

New-firm startup activity is examined within a framework pooling a cross-section of 117 industries over six time periods between 1976 and 1986. A model is introduced relating startup activity both to elements of the business cycle, in particular the macroeconomic growth rate, the cost of capital, and the unemployment rate, and to industry-specific characteristics, especially the technological conditions underlying the industry. The pooled cross-section regression results suggest that macroeconomic fluctuations as well as industry-specific elements contribute to startup activity. While new-firm startups respond positively to macroeconomic growth, they are promoted by a low cost of capital and high unemployment rate. A somewhat surprising result is that new-firm startups are not apparently deterred in capital intensive industries and where R&D expenditures play an important role. The empirical results suggest that new firms may be able to overcome their inherent size and experience disadvantages in such markets through exploiting university research and pursuing innovative activity.     

Making a little go further: Capital and the New Zealand entrepreneur

Using case analysis, this article examines the sources of start-up and development capital for 133 entrepreneurs who began commercial enterprises in New Zealand between 1880 and 1910. Though capital markets were immature, entrepreneurs overcame this limitation by employing capital economizing techniques to start firms, and then continued to exert managerial control by reinvesting profits rather than borrowing. The results of this investigation offer a comment on the prevailing firm structure in New Zealand, as well as providing a partial explanation for the capacity building noted by other economic historians during this recessionary period in New Zealand economic history.     

Small Firms,Social Capital and the Enhancement of Business Performance Through Innovation Programmes

The paper explores the extent to which social capital is advantageous to small and medium enterprise (SME) growth. Social capital is a communal property involving civic engagement, associational membership, high trust, reliability and reciprocity in social networks. It is capable of being identified in social, political and economic contexts, often associated with strong communities. However, not all strong communities exert the effects of social capital in respect of business activities. This paper assesses government programmes to promote collaboration amongst SMEs for improving innovation capacity by increasing social capital through networking. It shows that, for a sizeable proportion of programme-funded firms in Denmark, Ireland and Wales (U.K.) social capital building was associated with enhanced business, knowledge and innovation performance. Of particular importance was the opportunity afforded to firms for linkage with external innovation networks, and the build-up of embeddedness, or the institutional basis for the enhancement of social capital. As a consequence of discovering the advantages of social capital, over a third of respondents planned to continue to develop it in future, in many cases funding such activities privately rather than calling on the public purse.     

How can family-owned Mittelstand firms use their unique resources to master the digitalization age? The role of family historical,venture, and collaborative capital

Family-owned Mittelstand firms have often been characterized as Janus-faced, meaning they can have two contrasting sides when it comes to innovation. On one side, they are technology leaders—especially in niche markets. On the other side, they can be slow adopters, deeply rooted in tradition. Digitalization is one of the biggest innovation challenges to firms of all sizes and ownership types. Research and observations in business practice show that while some family-owned Mittelstand firms master digitalization despite limited resources and traditional industries, others lag dangerously behind. So, how can family-owned Mittelstand firms prepare for a digital future, and which familial idiosyncrasies might help them? Based on current observations and interview data, we propose a framework for how these firms can use their unique resources to tackle challenges related to digitalization. To be successful in a digital world, they must leverage their family historical capital, family collaborative capital, and family venture capital. We highlight why and how these capital types should be linked to fully leverage their potential.     

A systems perspective on markets – Toward a research agenda

This paper addresses the implications of an emerging, increasingly important way of thinking about markets: systems thinking. A market is one of the most founational abstractions in marketing and business research; yet, it often receives too little attention. As a result, the taken-for-granted assumptions about markets spur from over-simplified conceptualizations of neoclassical economics that depict markets as static and mechanistic. Systems thinking represents a major change in perspective that involves transcending this mechanistic worldview and thinking instead in terms of wholes, relationships, processes, and patterns. We argue that building a theory of markets based on systems thinking, would enable scholars to develop more realistic models that correspond with fast-changing business environment and therefore, increase both the rigor and relevance of future research. To further this aim, we identify the main implications of systems thinking and formulate them into a research agenda to further the systemic understanding of markets.     

Provision of human capital by business schools of Pakistan: A need for the sustainability of the Pakistani banking sector

Economic growth of Pakistan through the banking sector relies heavily on the human capital dispensed to them by the Pakistani business schools. A conceptual model of the continuous improvement cycle for building human capital is developed through a literature review, with the aim of helping to generate human capital. Six semistructured interviews were conducted with bank branch managers and eight junior bank managers to gauge the extent to which this model was being followed so that the growth in the Pakistani banking sector remains. The results showed that a linear model was currently in place where there was no room for continuous improvement for building human capital for the banking sector.     

Chinese,Algerian Enterprises Seek to Expand Business Cooperation

A Chinese trade delegation and representatives from Algerian companies met in Algiers, capital of Algeria on November 15 seeking further cooperation in areas such as infrastructure construction, machine building, finance, service and agriculture.     

管窥建筑施工企业精准物流管理研究

物资成本在施工企业总成本中占有较大的比重。通过降低物资成本从而降低企业的总成本,而建筑施工企业精准物流管理是一种有效的物资管理方式。本文首先分析了传统建筑施工企业物流管理模式的弊端;在此基础上提出了精准物流管理。进而分析了精准物流管理的基础:建筑施工企业信息化、基于精准建造的建筑施工企业流程重组和精准建造思想。更进一层分析了精准物流管理模式以及实施的关键。最后,对精准物流管理的实施提出了建设性的建议。     

Examining the Role of Brand Equity in Business Markets: A Model,Research Propositions,and Managerial Implications

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a model of brand equity for business markets. It is argued that the potential benefits of branding and brand equity development have been neglected in business markets and that a general model and stream of relevant empirical research could be useful to managers in business markets depending on the situational nature of their market and competitive structure. The model adapts and extends existing brand equity literature to reflect the unique aspects involved in a business-to-business marketing context. The model developed considers marketing strategies as antecedents, two different classes of moderator variables, brand equity as a perception by the buyer or the market, a series of consequences of brand equity perceptions, and perceived risk as a moderator of the brand equity-consequences relationship. Propositions have been defined and discussed to help facilitate research and provide guidelines for industrial marketing managers.