A Theoretical Probe on the Establishment of Chinese Union Pay among Chinese Banks

With China＇s entering WTO and the gradual opening of finance market, domestic banks, whether large or small, state-owned or not, are confronted with challenges and fierce competitions from foreign consortiums and banks. Consequently, it arouses a warm debate over whether China Union Pay should be established among native banks. This paper focuses mainly on this issue, through game theory analysis; it clearly articulated the significance and necessity of setting up China Union Pay among native banks and also compared between the benefits and loss of them to get the final recommendation.     

Does Property Rights Reform Improve the Efficiency of China＇s State-owned Banks？

China ＂s state-owned banks have undergone radical changes over the past two decades, including partial privatization and listing in both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. This paper evaluates the effects of these changes by analyzing the efficiency of Chinese banks over the period 1998-2012 using two frontier techniques and comparative analysis. The findings suggest that the performance and technical efficiency of the Big Four banks improved considerably after property rights reform, but this improvement is not sufficient to keep the banks at the production frontier. Tobit regressions confirm that static ownership effects are negative but that the property rights reform has had significant and positive effects on the technical efficiency of state-owned commercial banks. GDP growth and the financial crisis have had positive effects on the efficiency of Chinese banks, which is more significant for joint stock commercial banks than state-owned commercial banks. The results indicate the value of ownership reforms of state-owned asset management companies and insurance companies and the establishment of a countercyclical capital buffer.     

Cooperation Satisfaction and Performance： Empirical Evidence from Chinese Banks and Their Foreign Strategic Investors

In this paper, we investigate whether the mutual satisfaction of Chinese banks and foreign strategic investors （FSI） in terms of their cooperation with each other affects the performance of Chinese banks＇. Since 2004, China ＇s banking authority has conducted an annual survey on Chinese banks and their FSI, assessing levels of mutual satisfaction in terms of their cooperation. We use these survey results to examine the effects of satisfaction levels on the profitability of Chinese banks. Our results reveal that satisfaction affects profitability; that is, satisfied foreign investors and Chinese banks yield better performance. Satisfaction determinants for each party are also examined. Although the profitability of Chinese banks does not show a significant effect on the satisfaction of either party, bank loan to deposit ratios, regions of FSI home countries, and the type of Chinese banks＇ are important factors that might affect satisfaction.     

Size, performance and financial conditions for Spanish real estate firms 2004-2007

Spanish real estate has experienced more than a decade of continuous buoyancy, from 1995 to mid 2006. High rates of return, especially in the housing sector, during this period, have prompted the entry of many firms in the market and the growth in activity of incumbents, with the subsequent excess capacity. This situation, combined with the reduction in demand associated with fiancial constraints, has brought about a deep crisis within the real estate industry. In the future scenario of reconfiguration and consolidation of the sector, many firms will be likely to disappear. One key question is that which type of real estate firm will survive. Casual evidence suggests that size may be a relevant factor through its connection with efficiency. This paper explores the roles of size, performance and financial leverage using a sample of Spanish developers and builders over the period 2004-2007. Basic results from a panel estimation suggest the existence of a positive correlation between size, proxied both by income and assets, and Return on Equity （ROE）. In turn, the estimates also suggest that larger firms display higher margins （computed as profits over sales） and are more leveraged in relative terms. Our interpretation is that many finns may lack the critical mass necessary to dilute fixed costs and achieve larger levels of efficiency. This feature endangers not only the possibility of profits in harder times, but also their survival. These empirical findings suggest, in addition, that a process of concentration among Spanish firms in the industry could entail gains in terms of efficiency.     

Loan Commitments and Deposit Insurance in Commercial Bank Lending

As is known by all, loan commitment and deposit insurance are very important to commercial bank. Recent literature focuses on liquidity provision as a unique service provided by financial intermediaries. In this paper, the author addresses why commercial banks dominate the provision of these services. Liquidity provision in lending is reflected in offering loan commitments. The author argues that commercial banks have a unique advantage in providing this form of liquidity. These results are consistent with commercial banks＇ unique corporate lending role （that of liquidity provision） deriving from their access to fixed-price deposit insurance.     

International payment finality requires a supranational central-bank money： Reforming the international monetary architecture in the spirit of Keynes

Payment finality is a key issue domestically as well as across a country＇s borders. In the current international monetary architecture, the existing protocols for a delivery-versus-payment operation with central-bank money do not and cannot provide for international payment finality through the links that national central banks have established between themselves on a multilateral basis. This problem concerns each country considered as a whole, but not its residents. In this connection, moving from a positive to a normative analysis, this paper points out the lack of an international settlement institution, as well as the ways and means to provide such an institution, as the result of a structural change of the current international monetary architecture. The lack of an international means of final payment implies that, to date, countries use national currencies as objects of trade, which are thereby subjected to supply and demand on the foreign-exchange market, where exchange rates may, and do, vary daily according to a currency＇s excess demand （either positive or negative） with respect to another currency. This paper argues that exchange rates＇ erratic volatility is the result of the current international monetary disorder, which denatures national currencies when they are traded on foreign-exchange markets.     

The Cause of Turnovers of Top Management -An Empirical Research on the Special Treatment Companies in China

The turnover of top management is important for both foreign stock market and corporate management. China has developed its own stock market for more than ten years. During this period, a lot of listed companies＇ top managers were on the move. Based on 97 Chinese ST companies of 2004, this paper invesdgates the main factors, which causes the top management turnovers in the ST companies. The results of regression analysis show that the turnover of top management in Chinese ST companies is highly positively related to the change of large shareholder and are negatively related to the rate of net profit to total assets. We also find that net cash flow that is provided from operations per share, the proportion of state-owned shares and the type of audit views have no influence on the top management turnovers in such ST companies in China.     

Consumer decision making process in shopping for halal food in Malaysia

This paper reports on the results obtained from quantitative and qualitative data on consumer decision making process in shopping for halal food. A total of 213 questionnaires were returned by respondents, confirming that our respondents who are concerning about the ＂halal＂ logo are also concerning about the ingredients used. The study also confirms that there is a significant relationship between respondents＇religion and their perceptions towards halal logo and ingredients. While the qualitative data from a focus group interview on how Muslim consumers shop for halal food shows that there is a need for assurance that food to be purchased is halal, implying the presence of risk and uncertainty when making purchase considerations. Using the audit risk framework in conventional assurance services, the study finds that assurance is sought in relation to the halalness of business premise, halalness of product, and assurance from environmental elements such as the halal logo displayed.     

Chinese Stylized Sterilization： The Cost-sharing Mechanism and Financial Repression

This paper attempts to explain why sterilized intervention was so successful and sustainable in China during the first decade of the 21st century.We argue that the Chinese Government established a sterilization cost-sharing mechanism among the People’s Bank of China, commercial banks and the household sector.On the one hand,Chinese commercial banks have to assume some of the sterilization costs by purchasing low yield central bank bills and maintaining high levels of required reserves.On the other hand,Chinese households assume some of the sterilization costs by bearing negative real deposit interest rates.The costsharing mechanism under financial repression prevents a huge quasi-fiscal loss by the People’s Bank of China as well as high inflation.However,Chinese households have become victims of this financial repression.Faced with the pressure of changing the growth model from investment-driven to domestic consumption-driven,the interest rate will have to be liberalized eventually,which will,in turn,make sterilized intervention unsustainable.     

Impact of Cross-Strait Trade Liberalization： A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper applies a computable general equilibrium model to investigate the potential economic effects of trade liberalization across the Taiwan Strait. Our simulation results reveal that cross-Strait trade liberalization will have significant positive impacts on external trade, domestic investment and real GDP for the economies in this area in general and in Taiwan in particular. Furthermore, the negative impact from the formation of a free trade arrangement between Taiwan and Chinese Mainland on Hong Kong seems to be rather small. These results suggest that cross-Strait trade liberalization is very likely to bring about a win-win situation for the economies in this area.     

Analysis on the effect of economic interaction＇s pulse from the Sino-US trade perspective

In an open economy, the economic concussion in sole country will transmit to other countries which make the international economic concussion play an important role in the formation of economic fluctuation. Both America and China, as two prominent economy units, have a great impact not only on the regional economy but also international economy. This paper constructs a shock-response model for China-America bilateral trade relations by using of impulse-response function of the vector auto-regressive model. The fluctuation of mutual economic growth caused by the shock of bilateral trade variances is empirically analyzed. Further more; the paper also uses variance decomposition technology to estimate its contribution-rate. The empirical analysis result shows that American economy has a notable impact on China, and Chinese economy will depend on American economy more and more.     

Hot Money Flows,Commodity Price Cycles and Financial Repression in the USA and China： The Consequences of Near-zero US Interest Rates

Under near-zero US interest rates, the international dollar standard malfunctions. Emerging markets with naturally higher interest rates are swamped with hot money inflows. Emerging market central banks intervene to prevent their currencies from rising precipitately. They lose monetary control and domestic prices begin inflating. Primary commodity prices rise worldwide unless interrupted by an international banking crisis＇. This cyclical inflation on the dollar＇s periphery only registers in the US core eonsumer price index with a long lag. The zero interest rate policy also fails to stimulate the US economy as domestic finaneial intermediation by banks and money market mutual funds is repressed. Because China is forced to keep its interest rates below market-clearing levels, it also suffers from finaneial repression, although in a form differing from that in the USA.     

Analysis on competitiveness of Chinese commercial banks

This paper analyzes the operation environment of Chinese commercial banks, including the changes of macro-economy environment, the development of financial markets, the changes in supervisory environment, the implementation of broadly opening policy, the restructuring of competition and the change of customers＇ requirements. Based on constructing the analysis framework on competitiveness of Chinese commercial banks, we can analyze and get some main conclusions. This paper also presents the finance appraisal for Chinese national commercial bank on capital adequacy, assets quality, profitability and liquidity.     

The impact of innovation on export behavior： An empirical analysis of Lao garment firms

Research on the role of innovation as important factor for creating and maintaining competitiveness of nations and firms has long been popularized among scholars and policy makers. The impact of innovation on exporting has been investigated in many countries. However, this issue has paucity of research in the Lao PDR. This study empirically investigates whether or not innovation performed by Lao garment firms determines their exporting behaviors. Utilizing the Probit and Tobit regression to analyze the data from the recent survey of industrial cluster development of Lao garment industry in 2007, the empirical results show that innovation as measured directly by “new product” and “new production process” have positive impact not only on export probability but also export intensity in the case of Lao garment firms. This implies that Lao garment finns who become the innovators have high probability to be exporters. Moreover, among exporters who are innovators outperform non-innovators in terms of export intensity. In addition, this study also finds that Lao garment exporters enjoy more competitive advantage due to lower labor cost. The findings from this study have important policy implications regarding how the government can support Lao garment firms to be innovators in order to sustain export performance.     

Measuring Net Foreign Assets： The Case of China

This paper discusses two methods of measuring net foreign assets（NFA）： directly using the financial account and indirectly using the current account. The former method is found to be more accurate than the latter method. The paper also includes a detailed discussion of the valuation methodology. The results show that China＇s NFA are much lower than the cumulative current account surplus or the cumulative foreign exchange reserves. This leads to an underestimation of growth in foreign direct investment and an overestimation of the capacity of foreign exchange reserves to cope with possible withdrawals. Therefore, the Chinese Government should pay more attention to valuation issues to obtain more accurate measurement of NFA. Meanwhile, the Chinese monetary authority should relax its control on the foreign exchange settlement system, allow the private sector to hold a certain amount of foreign exchange, and encourage foreign assets to be denominated in RMB to solve structural problems, including entity and currency mismatch     

Research on CRM Strategy Implementation of Banking in China

With China entry into WTO and opening of the financial markets, banking industry will be sure to be faced with drastic competition from foreign banks that have apparent competitive advantages Over native banks in such aspects as capital, technology, operation, management and innovation. Especially, they have abundant experience in CRM. Up till now, native banks are in their first step on implementing CRM. To establish competitive advantage, native banks must change their operation idea and reinforce the construction of CRM. This paper analyzes CRM implementation characteristics of banking in China, put forward a new CRM strategy system of banking in China, and then points out some problems deserve attention in bank＇s CRM implementation     

The Six Relationships between Goodwill and Core Competence of Corporation—Review of Research on Goodwill Accounting

Goodwill and core competence of the corporation are two concepts and they are easy to be confused, moreover, it uneasy to differentiate the source of advantages gained by the corporate, and also leads to a serious distortion between the value of the corporation acknowledged by market and the record value of accounting. This paper analyses the substance of goodwill and that of corporate core competence before coming to the conclusion that goodwill is a kind of combined intangible asset while core competence is a reluctant intangible asset, which means that both goodwill and core competence of the corporate belong to intangible assets, but the composing factors are inter-crossing and inter-containing. Moreover, goodwill and core competence have similar characters and there are also some relationships between them, such as succession ＆ development, abstract ＆ concrete, and superficiality ＆ essence as well. At the same time, there are some distinct differences between them in the following aspects： origination of research, initial definition, research background and theoretical basis, composing factors, value identified and measurement methods, way of value manifested, principle of value contribution and its accounting, etc. In the end, this paper comes to the conclusion that it is core competence that stands for the capability to gain advantages profit while goodwill is only a purchasing price margin, which is the balance of the exchanging value and book value of the net assets of the enterprise purchased. So, the core competence theory should be combined into goodwill accounting so as to establish core competence accounting, which will manifest the source of advantages gained by the corporation.     

Bank Reforms,Competition and Efficiency in China＇s Banking System： Are Small City Bank Entrants More Efficient？

This paper analyzes technical efficiency in China＇s banking system by large banks and small city banks as well as the pre-WTO and post-WTO accession periods＇. Using an unbalanced panel dataset for 63 banks over 1997-2006 and employing the stochastic frontier function approach, the empirical results reveal that the new entrants, small city banks, experienced a slightly higher efficiency score than incumbent large banks, on average. Compared with the pre- WTO accession period, the efficiency score is found to have improved significantly after entry into the WTO as a result of the competition effect. This competition effect is particularly relevant for small city banks. Finally, determinants of X-inefficiency are examined     

A Lesson Learned from the Comparison of Bank Interest Rate in US and UK

According to the interest board, the current account interest and the loan interest rate vary from banks to countries. Both the current account interest and loan interest of US banks are lower than those of UK banks. And the spread between the two interest rates is greater in UK than that in US. Why is that？ The central banks base rates are always the reference interest rates for other banks when setting up the interest rates of their own. And the economy situation in that country may be a factor that affects the spread. Moreover, these two aspects link to each other. In this paper, we will look deeply into the economic situation and the pattern of change in the central bank interest rates in US and UK, hopefully we can bum a light to figure out the trend of change in bank interest rates.     

Understanding Failure in International Retailing： An Institutional Framework for Future Investigation

The move from domestic market to one that includes major retailers. Whiles prior research acknowledged differences international firms is not proving an easy task for between country environments and stressed the importance of addressing these differences in order to avoid the dangers and failures inherent in internationalisation, there is still lack of suitable framework that captures the effects of the institutional environment on failure in international retailing. The purpose of this paper is to introduce institutional theory as a complementary framework to explain failure in international retailing and suggest propositions for further research. The paper seeks to answer the research question： What are the factors in the institutional environment of a host country that affect failure in international retailing？ Consequently, the objective of this paper is threefold： （1） to introduce institutional theory as alternative theoretical framework to conceptualise failure in international retailing; （2） to identify institutional factors that exert pressures on the operational activities of international retailers in foreign markets and which leads to failure; （3） to provide some research propositions for further investigation. This paper offers several contributions. First, we extend current theories in international business, particularly, the literature on retail internationalisation and institutional theory by exploring pressures and difficulties that international retailers face in a new host institutional environment. Second, we identify a set of institutional factors that exert pressures on international retailers in foreign markets that lead to failure. Finally, with the institutional approach, this study fills the gap in earlier works by developing a complementary framework along with 11 propositions for future research. One major limitation of this paper is that it is conceptual; hence, further empirical analysis is needed to test the suggested propositions.