A Tale of Two Crises: One We Missed and One We Can’t Afford To

The current economic crisis seems to be waning, largely due to effective federal government and Federal Reserve responses. Economists deserve credit for helping to avoid the abyss, but we failed to predict the crisis and warn policymakers so that the crisis could have been mitigated or avoided. We must not miss predicting the next crisis, however, as it is staring us in the face. We can see clearly that federal debt will severely damage the U.S. economy within several decades under current policy. Moreover, simulations that take into account the effect of debt on interest rates indicate that the depressing effect on the U.S. economy will be even worse than official projections suggest.     

Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Value Chains: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?

We outline the drivers, main features, and conceptual underpinnings of the compliance paradigm. We then use a similar structure to investigate the drivers, main features, and conceptual underpinnings of the cooperative paradigm for working with CSR in global value chains. We argue that the measures proposed in the new cooperation paradigm are unlikely to alter power relationships in global value chains and bring about sustained improvements in workers’ conditions in developing country export industries. After that, we provide a critical appraisal of the potential and limits of the cooperative paradigm, we summarize our findings, and we outline avenues for research: purchasing practices and labor standard noncompliance, CSR capacity building among local suppliers, and improved CSR monitoring by local resources in the developing world.     

Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship Education: Where Are We,and What Are the Possibilities?

The growing need for a workforce equipped to face uncertainties and address problems not susceptible to inquiry based on pure analytical skills has caused the rapid growth of design‐based curriculum and educational activities. Entrepreneurship education has embraced a design thinking lens, as evidenced by the increasing number of curricula incorporating processes that have roots in design. Yet there is limited understanding of the conceptual underpinnings and the implementation of such practices. We provide theoretical links to provide conceptual clarity to design‐based entrepreneurship education, propose recommendations with a multistakeholder alignment‐based model, and perform a survey to demonstrate its current state of practice.     

What Do We Conclude from the Success and Failure of Mergers?

Tichy's review of the evidence presents at best a very mixed picture of the success of mergers as a corporate strategy. However, care should be taken not to interpret this as a case for crudely prohibitive competition policy. A simple framework is developed to show that mergers anticipating market changes might not be inappropriate, even when ex post results will appear disappointing. We argue that the competition authorities should protect consumers, and not provide management consultancy on behalf of shareholders. We suggest a more limited reform of the EC Merger Regulation than that proposed by Tichy.     

Political Risk Assessment and the Arab Spring: What Can We Learn?

Whether dealing with debt issues in the Eurozone, investment prospects in emerging markets, or potential disruptions in patterns of global trade, the identification, assessment, and measurement of political risk (PR) are recurring issues for businesses and governments today. In the past few years, abrupt social and political change has become the rule in international relations. A prominent instance of this is the “Arab Spring,” the massive and unexpected wave of social and political turmoil that, starting in the winter of 2010‐2011, swept across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The Arab Spring has significantly affected the business climate of the countries involved. In doing so, it has also exposed the shortcomings of the extant approaches to PR assessment. This article discusses the performance of five different approaches to PR assessment (OECD, ONDD, EIU, PRS, SACE) vis‐à‐vis the Arab Spring, providing some specific suggestions on how to improve PR assessment and analysis. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

What Do We Know about Success and Failure of Mergers?—Rejoinder

Responding to the comments of Coscelli, Lyons and Weston, I argue: (1) The aim of my paper was not primarily to discuss recent competition policy, but to extract stylized facts and compare them to theory; (2) utilizing all empirical merger studies published in refereed journals, instead of only the sound ones, does not appear to influence the results; (3) economies to scale—and consequently endogenous merger motives—are of less importance for mergers dealt with by the competition authorities; (4) a post-merger number of competitors of less than four to five steeply raises the likelihood of tacit collusion and conscious parallelism; (5) concentration is already high and still increasing in quite a number of markets; (6) mergers in network sectors are more dangerous than in manufacturing, as the number of potential competitors is small in most cases; (7) I agree with my critics that strictly banning the critical categories of mergers may be too harsh; I still hold, however, that competition authorities should take account of these critical types in a more formal way (e.g. by merger rules).     

Swissair: We Care

SwissairandChinaSwissair'sfirstofficialscheduledservicetoChinatoucheddownhereinBeijingsome25yearsago.ThepassengersfromZurichhadbeentravelingforover32hours,andhadlandedinGeneva,AthensandBombayalongtheway.ThelongjourneytoChinahasbecomefar,farswifterovertheinterveningyears.Swissair'sBoeing747scurrentlytakeunderathirdofthebine,completingtheflightinjusttenhours.SwissairwasonlythesecondEuropeanairlinetostartservicestothePeople'sRepublicofChina,followingAirFrance.Itmayhavebeenabolddecisionatth…     

We Must De It,Do It Persistently,and Do It Well

The start of the sixth session of the China Auto Inter- national Exhibition Tour brings a Chinese wind that sweeps across auto markets both at home and abroad.To strike while the iron is hot,China's Foreign Trade in-     

We Need Your Feedbacks!

Dear Readers, Thank you very much for your interest in and support for China's Foreign Trade.From the first day the Magazine was launched,we have been so happy to see suggestions,comments,encouragement and even complaints from you,dear readers.Over this more than half century,we have been thriving for changes and improvements to be the best.Every word from you is important to us and any feedback will be regarded by us as a chance to improve the Magazine.     

We Need Your Feedbacks !

Dear Readers, Thank you very much for your interest in and support for China's Foreign Trade.From the first day the Magazine launched,we have been so happy to see suggestions,comments,encouragement and even complaints from you,dear readers.Over this more than half century,we have been thriv- ing for changes and improvements to be the best.Every word from you is important to us and any feedback will be regarded by us as a chance to improve the Magazine.     

Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?

Investigations into ethical judgments generally seem fuzzy as to the relevant research domain. We first attempted to clarify the construct and determine domain parameters. This attempt required addressing difficulties associated with pinpointing relevant literature, most notably the varied nomenclature used to refer to ethical judgments (individual evaluations of actions’ ethicality). Given this variation in construct nomenclature and the difficulties it presented in identifying pertinent focal studies, we elected to focus on research that cited papers featuring prominent and often-used measures of ethical judgments (primarily, but not exclusively, the Multidimensional Ethics Scale). Our review of these studies indicated a preponderance of inferences and conclusions unwarranted by empirical evidence (likely attributable at least partly to inconsistent nomenclature). Moreover, ethical judgments related consistently to few respondent characteristics or any other variables, emergent relationships may not always be especially meaningful, and much research seems inclined to repetition of already verified findings. Although we concluded that knowledge about ethical judgments seems not to have advanced appreciably after decades of investigation, we suggested a possible path forward that focuses on the content of what is actually being judged as reflected in the myriad of vignettes used in the literature to elicit judgments.     

元培翻译:We are ready

北京元培世纪翻译有限公司于2005年3月从元培教育分离成为独立法人,是一家专门从事翻译服务、翻译培训和教育产品研发的服务机构。2006年12月30日,元培翻译作为中国翻译服务企业的代表成功加盟奥运会,首度亮相国际奥林匹克舞台,成为北京2008年奥运会笔译和口译     

How Can We Better Understand Current and Future Workforce Values in the Global Business Environment?

Our study tested the predictive power of socioeconomic development theory and age differences theory to explain work values across cultures and across age groups. We compared the values orientations of future managers, business students under the age of 25, with those of current managers and professionals, who we split into three decade groups (30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 59). Our respondents (n = 1,518) come from six diverse societies: Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Russia, the United States, and Vietnam. Our findings indicate that both theories contribute to our understanding of work values and behaviors. One implication is that while socioeconomic development theory makes an important contribution, it is clearly not sufficient by itself to explain work values/behavior differences in the global context. The study findings and the discussion of them will hopefully provide multinational managers with a clearer assessment of current and future workforce values/behavior. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

2008 Olympics,We Are Ready!

Stepping into August 2007,the Beijing Olympic Games is already being counted down for just one year.Chinese people are making every effort to prepare for the great ceremony in full swing. So,how is the process going now?Let's hear the voice of authorities from Beijing Organizing Com- mittee for the Games(BOCOG)of the XXIX Olympiad released on the press conference of the State Council Information Office on August 6,to get the lastest news.     

Why Do We Buy Traditional Foods?

Consumer behavior toward traditional specialties varies according to the cultural context of consumption. It thus becomes crucial to develop marketing strategies that target segments with different levels of familiarity with food. Our article purposes to analyze the purchase drivers of traditional foods known to consumers because of their reiterated consumption. The importance of the product’s attributes, the purchasing motivations, and the information channels are studied by applying the CUB model, which utilizes a probabilistic structure that simulates the individual’s psychological mechanism in adopting a choice of preference. The case study is that of extra-virgin olive oil in Italy, where this product is a fundamental element of the culinary tradition. The results show that in the ambit of traditional specialties, in contexts of elevated familiarity, the traditional information channels of marketing are less effective and call for strategies based on a more direct connection between consumer and producer.     

Do We Have Real Estate Foams？

"The Real Estate industry in Beijing has kept an aver-age 16.3% level of growth over the past 5 years. Additionally, the investment in real estate makes up more than 60% of the annual investment in non-liquid assets. In the first season of 2007, Beijing's housing price had increased by 9.8%. From the time when Beijing     

“We Are Friends to Enterprises”

Old name,new born As a matter of fact,Shanghai Pudong Chamber of International Commerce(Shanghai Pudong CCOIC) is very young,as young as we could call it a new born. In the aim of serving for member enterprises,Pudong CCOIC was founded on April 28 last year.However,the name of Pudong CCOIC is as long as Pudong CCPIT."In the past years,the Pudong CCOIC was just a name. We mixed the function of CCOIC and CCPIT together. But the world develops so rapidly that it requires us to head for a professional servic...     

Financial Advice Giving and Taking—Where are the Market’s Self-healing Powers and a Functioning Legal Framework When We Need Them?

German banks tend to emphasize how satisfied their clients are with the financial advice they offer. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that this satisfaction may have little to do with the quality of the information exchange between clients and advisors but rather with substitute factors like the friendliness and appearance of the advisor. Applying the theoretical perspectives of New Institutionalism and Behavioural Finance we explain in this article why the coexistence of information and interest asymmetry between retail clients and advisors must lead to poor advice quality and why the market’s self-healing powers and the actual regulatory framework fail in preventing that. We support our theoretical analysis with some empirical evidence from a recent study we conducted to test the factual quality of the advice German banks give in the retail banking area. The results obtained are very consistent with previous findings of a poor level of quality of the information exchange between client and advisor and predominantly confirm our theoretical conclusions. We finally offer some suggestions that might pave the way out of this dilemma.

The Relative Impact of Market Orientation and Entrepreneurship on Export Performance: Do We Really Know Enough?

ABSTRACT

The impact of international corporate entrepreneurship and market orientation on firm performance is well acknowledged in the literature, but their relative influence on the performance of exporting firms remains inconclusive. This study seeks to help clarify the influence of these organizational resources by introducing a third complementary resource, namely commitment to learning. The results, based on data obtained from a survey of exporters in China, show that commitment to learning mediates the relationship between market orientation and entrepreneurship. It was also found that market orientation could be a double-edged sword for exporters in that it can enhance export satisfaction through entrepreneurship, but it can also have negative impact on profit.