Migration and servicification: Do immigrant employees spur firm exports of services?

Services play an increasingly important role in production, employment and international trade but are subject to substantially higher trade costs relative to manufactured goods. Knowledge of how these trade costs can be mitigated is important for facilitating trade of services. In this paper, we analyse the role of immigrant employees as facilitators of firm exports of services, a role that remains largely unexamined. We bridge the gap in existing research by drawing on new data for nearly 30,000 Swedish firms during the period 1998–2007 within a heterogeneous firm framework. The results have important policy implications. As the multilateral approach to facilitating trade is challenged and more countries are imposing measures to restrict the cross‐country mobility of people, policymakers may need to find new ways to promote exports of services. Our results indicate that immigrant employees spur firms' export of services activities: hiring one additional foreign‐born worker can increase services exports by approximately 2.5 per cent, on average, with a stronger effect found for skilled and newly arrived immigrants. Therefore, policymakers could leverage the findings of this study to implement initiatives that utilise high‐skilled immigrants to promote services exports.     

我国知识型服务贸易发展之路探析

知识型服务贸易的核心包含在信息服务贸易、技术服务贸易、金融服务贸易和专业服务贸易这四类载体中。本文通过详细分析当前我国这四类服务贸易的现状及问题,对我国如何更好地发展知识型服务贸易进行了探析。     

A Conceptual Model of the Internationalization of Services Firms

Abstract

In the 1990s, the global marketplace is characterized by the speed and ease with which services cross over national boundaries. As a result, service industries in many countries around the world have become extremely important in the development and socioeconomic well-being of these countries. The purpose of this paper is to understand the internationalization process of services firms. It is concluded that international operations of services firms are driven by a similar set of variables used by manufacturing firms, but the intensity and direction of some key relationships require modification and adaptation.     

过境交付服务贸易的发展及其影响

电子商务技术和国际外包活动等新型商务实践的发展明显促进了过境交付服务贸易的发展。本文在缺乏准确统计数据的情况下,通过对现有相关统计指标和统计数据的处理,就电子商务和国际服务外包引起的过境交付数字传媒产品、电子服务贸易、IT和商务处理服务贸易等的发展程度做了粗略估计,并就这些新型过境交付服务贸易产品发展所引起的关税损失、服务质量监管和知识产权保护、发展中国家的贸易收益和经济社会安全等特殊问题进行了初步探讨。     

A knowledge-and-physical-capital model of international trade flows, foreign direct investment, and multinational enterprises

This paper addresses two important issues at the nexus of the literatures on international trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign affiliate sales (FAS), and multinational enterprises (MNEs). First, the introduction of a third internationally-mobile factor (physical capital) to the standard 2 × 2 × 2 “knowledge-capital” model of MNEs with skilled and unskilled labor allows us to resolve fairly readily the puzzle in the modern MNE literature that foreign affiliate sales among two identical economies completely displace their international trade. Intra-industry trade and intra-industry FDI (and FAS) can coexist for national and multinational firms (with identical productivities) in identical countries. Second, the introduction also of a third country to the model suggests a formal N-country theoretical rationale for estimating gravity equations of bilateral FDI flows and FAS, in a manner consistent with estimating gravity equations for bilateral trade flows.     

Do we need deeper trade agreements for GVCs or just a BIT?

The paper investigates two policies geared towards stimulating and shaping global value chains (GVCs), namely deep regional trade agreements (DRTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs). In an augmented gravity model, we test the impact of both policies on a variety of trade in value added indicators. We find that both policies are likely to increase GVC trade, although their transmission channels differ. While backward linkages are stimulated through both BITs and DRTAs, forward linkages respond only to DRTAs. The estimates suggest that negotiating a DRTA with investment provisions has a higher impact on trade in value added than signing a shallow RTA and a separate BIT.     

The influence of firm-specific and country-specific advantages in the internationalization of emerging market firms: Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the role of institutional factors that enable firm- and country-specific drivers of emerging market (EM) firms’ internationalization based on case-based research conducted in one EM, Turkey. Findings indicate that 10 major factors comprised of firm-specific and country-specific advantages drove the focal case study firms abroad: the firm-specific factors ranged from financial and operations supremacy; excellence in value chain activities; inexpensive human resources; rapid learning capabilities in production and technology development; and adaptability to foreign markets; while the country-specific factors included home-government policies supporting internationalization; logistical advantages arising from geographical position; adaptability capabilities resulting from former survival through institutional voids; strong social ties formed through networks; and availability of low cost resources. These findings are discussed and future research questions are offered.     

我国上市企业对外投资绩效的实证研究

随着贸易、投资自由化的蓬勃发展,我国上市企业对外投资越来越明显。本文采用以财务指标为基础的综合评价方法来衡量上市企业对外投资前后的业绩变动,并以此分析和检验了2002-2005年间我国上市企业对外投资的绩效。分析结果表明:我国上市企业对外投资绩效在整体上有一个先升后降的过程,尽管上市企业对外投资后第一年经营业绩会有一定的提升,但提升缺乏长期性;不同对外投资类型绩效不相一致,其中战略联盟对企业绩效有显著提升;民营控股上市企业的对外投资效果要优于国有控股的上市企业以及集体控股企业。     

Customer Satisfaction in Retail Banking

Professional services firms (PSFs) engaged in international operations present a unique challenge for governments. They directly and indirectly affect governmental policies and the agencies that enforce these policies through policy development, problem solving, and implementation. Yet, governments that seek to advance rational, forward thinking public policy have little, if any, regulatory control over the input and influence of these professional experts. International professional service firms face an increasingly competitive marketplace and complex challenges that demand skill sets that are markedly different from those characteristically required of consumer service companies. This study identifies the qualities of the best performing PSFs that engage clients worldwide. Implications are discussed for governments to ensure the greater public good.     

我国服务贸易发展战略重点、主要任务与政策建议

服务业开放度低和贸易逆差这两大问题严重制约了我国服务贸易的可持续发展。我国应推动实施服务贸易开放平衡战略,加快服务业开放,完善服务出口促进体系,扭转服务逆差扩大趋势,提升服务贸易国际竞争力。本文从开放地区布局、开放产业时序、开放路径、防范开放风险等方面提出了服务业开放的主要任务,从服务出口主体、服务出口方式、服务出口平台、服务出口市场等方面提出了扩大服务出口的主要任务,并从体制机制、促进政策和统计监测3个方面提出了政策建议。     

Do cross-border mergers and acquisitions increase short-term market performance? The case of Chinese firms

Despite the new momentum in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by emerging market firms, we have a limited understanding of the impact of these activities. Drawing on signalling theory and the institution-based view, this paper examines the extent of stock market reactions to the announcement of cross-border M&A deals, based on an event study of a sample of Chinese firms during the period 2000–2012. The findings indicate that the announcement of cross-border M&As results in a positive stock market reaction; this effect is more significant in the mainland Chinese stock markets (Shanghai and Shenzhen) than that in the Hong Kong market. The shareholders of Chinese firms that acquire a target firm in a host country with a low level of political risk gain higher cumulative abnormal returns than those firms targeting companies in countries with a high level of political risk. The shareholders of Chinese state-owned enterprises experience lower abnormal returns compared with those of Chinese privately owned firms when engaging in cross-border M&A deals.     

The role of experiential and non-experiential knowledge in cross-border acquisitions: The case of Indian multinational enterprises

This paper investigates the antecedents of the internationalization of emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) through cross-border acquisitions. Using a panel data set of 1138 cross-border acquisitions made by 515 Indian multinational enterprises (MNEs) during 2000–2013, it examines interactions of in-house resources with experiential and non-experiential knowledge to explore how EMNEs manage and exploit their knowledge base when internationalizing. The results show that Indian multinational enterprises have ‘interface competence’. They combine in-house resources with experiential market and externally sourced technological knowledge for undertaking cross-border acquisitions. The Uppsala model provides insights in analyzing the role of market knowledge and the Global Factory model helps in analyzing the role of technology in cross-border acquisitions by EMNEs.     

贸易投资一体化与当代国际直接投资新动向

贸易投资一体化是当今国际经济生活中的重要特征,贸易投资一体化现象的产生和发展,显著地影响着国际直接投资的发展走向。不仅生产(制造)环节的国际直接投资深入发展,而且跨国公司的对外直接投资日益集中于增值潜力最大的研发环节和销售与营运环节,出现了研发的全球化、销售与营运的全球化。     

Do WTO+ commitments in services trade agreements reflect a quest for optimal regulatory convergence? Evidence from Asia

Literature examining WTO + commitments in services trade agreements (STA s) has not considered the role of services regulation. We bridge this gap using a sample of 15 South/South‐East Asian countries, given the burgeoning trend of Asian economies towards services preferentialism and the largely WTO + nature of their preferential services commitments. Our empirical findings suggest that Asian trading dyads with regulatory frameworks that are more similar and more trade restrictive tend to undertake higher levels of WTO + commitments in their STA s. There is also evidence in our results, including by modes of supply, for WTO + commitments in Asian STA s being driven by goods trade complementarities, alluding to supply chain dynamics in the region. Such results support the hypothesis that the heightened “servicification” of production generates a demand to lower services input costs arising from regulatory incidence and heterogeneity.