2008 East Asia Investment Forum Investment Cooperation in East Asia Facing Global Financial Fluctuations

2008 East Asia Investment Forum was held from May 10 to May 11 in Beijing with the theme of"In- vestment Cooperation in East Asia Facing Global Financial Fluctuations".It shed light on investment challenges and opportunities in Vietnam,Lao,Cambodia and Burma which are the four emerg- ing markets in East Asia,and investment hotspots in Vietnam as well as the poten- tial for investment cooperation in East Asia. Initiated by the Network of East Asian Think-tanks and guided by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs,the Forum was sponsored by China National Asso- ciation for International Studies and sup- ported by China Foreign Affairs Universi-     

More Cooperation to Enhance Prosperity in East Asia

By the end of 2003,the contract investment capital of Japanese enterprises in China totaled to US$57.48 billion.Japan has been the biggest trading partner of China for 11 successive years,and they are big importers to each other.     

Why are childlike portrayals appealing in East Asia?

This study compares the effectiveness of childlike and adult-like portrayals in Taiwan and the US. It is argued that culturally shaped self-concepts affect responses to ads using these two types of portrayal. Childlike portrayals should exert a positive influence on ad evaluations in cultures where such images are generally relevant to and congruent with the self-concept. Findings of an experiment showed that, in both cultures, childlike portrayals were perceived as friendlier than adult-like portrayals. Taiwanese participants, however, whose interdependent self-concepts focus on interpersonal relations and harmony, reported more warm feelings and a stronger self–brand connection, as well as more favourable attitudes towards the ad and the brand, following exposure to the childlike portrayal. In contrast, American participants did not respond to the two portrayals differently, presumably because they found the childlike image to be less relevant to their independent self-concepts.     

The Philosophic Thoughts in Hardy’s Poetry

This article explores the philosophic thoughts of Thomas Hardy from his poetry mainly from the three aspects: Hardy's disillusionment to God, the imminent will and the pessimism which interact with each other and contribute the main thoughts of the poet to life and fate.     

The Role of Asia in World Economy

With the upgrading of Asia‘s global role, she also shows her care about her role in international organizations.     

The Agency Problems Embedded in Firm’s Equity Investment

We find that agency problems are embedded in firm’s excess and abnormal equity investments that are mainly dictated by controlling shareholder’s motives and ethical choices manifested in ownership and board structure. The excess equity investment is gauged with respect to industry average. The abnormal equity investment is specifically referred to the number of nominal investment companies that are fully controlled by the controlling owners while subject to little governance. Our empirical evidences of 345 Taiwanese non-financial listed firms show that firm’s excess and abnormal equity investments are negatively correlated with controlling shareholder’s cash flow rights while are positively correlated with the control–cash flow deviation, and board affiliation. The results are supportive of the positive incentive hypothesis and the negative entrenchment hypothesis put forth by La Porta et al. (2002, Journal of Finance 57, 1147–1171) and Claessen et al. (2002, Journal of Finance 57, 2741–2742). The negative relation between equity investment and firm’s value further supports the agency postulation that corporate excess and abnormal equity investments represent a leeway for controlling shareholder to exploit wealth of minority shareholders. This study potentially contributes to the literature of business ethics by portraying an empirically testable linkage from controlling owner’s ethical choices to his actions and therefore firm’s value. Yin-Hua Yeh, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the Graduate Institute of Finance at Fu-Jen Catholic University (FJU) in Taiwan. He is also the Director of the Center for Corporate Governance and Business Ethics at FJU. His main research and teaching areas are corporate governance, corporate finance, and merger and acquisition. Tsun-Siou Lee, Ph.D., is Professor of Finance at National Taiwan University. His main research and teaching areas are corporate governance, futures and options, and financial innovation. Pei-Gi Shu, Ph.D., is Professor of Business Administration at Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan. He is also the Vice Dean of Management College at FJU. His main research and teaching areas are mutual funds and behavioral finance.     

The role of a municipality’s financial health in a firm’s siting decision

When deciding where to locate a new facility, a firm needs to consider the financial health of the municipality where its activities will take place. Unless it sites its facility in a financially viable community, a firm is putting a substantial investment at risk. Despite the importance of this issue, many firms pay insufficient attention to a municipality’s financial condition. Instead, they focus on matters such as the tax rate, the quality of the school system, or the absence of regulatory constraints. All of these features are important, but unless a municipality is financially healthy, they can evaporate before a company has attained its expected return on investment. There are 5 financial statements and 10 financial ratios that can be used to create a financial health template, which can help a firm to assess a municipality’s financial strength, or its counterpart financial weakness. The template goes beyond the debt-repayment focus of credit rating agencies to matters such as financial autonomy, cash flows, and borrowing capacity. We use data from three cities—Barcelona, Dublin, and Detroit (pre- and post-bankruptcy)—to demonstrate the template’s ability to facilitate comparisons among cities that are in different countries and that use different accounting systems.     

Rising Capital Amount ＆ Increasing Cases in 2008＇s Trade Disputes

The China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission （CIETAC）, an institution under CCPIT, is the most important permanent arbitration institution in China. The CIETAC independently and impartially resolves economic and trade disputes by means of arbitration and conciliation （mediation）.     

The Prevalence and Impacts of ‘Envelope Wages’ in East–Central Europe

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the prevalence and impacts of the illegitimate wage practice where employers pay formal employees both a declared wage and an additional undeclared ‘envelope wage’, a survey involving 10,171 interviews across 10 East–Central European nations is reported to evaluate its commonality and evidence from 313 interviews conducted in Moscow to analyse its impacts. Finding that 10% of employees were paid envelope wages during 2007 amounting on average to two-fifths of their gross wage, and that this arrangement has deleterious implications for both employees and the economy, the article concludes by discussing how it might be tackled.     

The Business Economist’s Toolkit

Business economists are not members of the high church of academic orthodoxy. Our tool kit includes research functions, such as business cycle analysis, demographics research, data analytics, primary research, diversity of thought, and client research. It also includes personal skills that should be cultivated and practiced, such as curiosity, maintaining a nonpartisan view, humility, courage, and effective communication.     

The effect of trust in management on salespeople’s selling orientation

Marketing Letters - In the following study, a sales rep hard-selling orientation is much more influenced by the hard-selling orientation they perceive senior management want them to adopt when (1)...     

Free Trade Areas in East Asia: Discriminatory or Non‐discriminatory?

The debates on regional trade arrangements in East Asia focus on whether the RTAs can be net trade creating or diverting, and whether they impede multilateral trade liberalisation or not. This paper attempts to answer these questions by quantitatively estimating the economic impact of possible East Asian free trade areas based on a bilateral gravity model, and evaluating the main characteristics of the proposed FTAs. We find that the trade creation effect expected from the proposed East Asian FTAs such as a China‐Japan‐Korea or an ASEAN plus three (China, Japan, Korea) FTA will be significant enough to overwhelm the trade diversion effect. We also judge that East Asian FTAs will likely be a building block for a global free trade.     

The GDR’s foreign trade policy

Before the German Democratic Republic (GDR) achieved worldwide political recognition in 1972 and 1973 many Western observers were of the opinion that the GDR’s trade with Western industrialised countries was still not very developed. A closer look at this field of activity shows, however, a different picture.     

The Economics of Japan’s Stagnation

The Japanese economy has been mired in subdued growth and deflation for more than two decades. This paper describes the key economic facts and features of Japan’s decades of stagnation. It discusses why long-term Japanese government bonds’ nominal yields have stayed very low in spite of elevated government debt ratios and chronic fiscal deficits. It also provides a brief overview of Abenomics and recent economic developments in Japan.     

Managing people in global markets—The Asia Pacific perspective

In this introductory note to the Special Issue, we examine the growing discourse surrounding the ‘Asia Pacific century’. We outline the growth in importance of this region and the challenges that MNEs face in managing people within and from these increasingly diverse markets. The eight papers in this SI are briefly summarized under four emerging themes: Increasing Competition for Skilled Workforces; Managing International Assignments in the Asia Pacific; The Challenge of Integration and Alignment of HR Practices; and HR Implications of a ‘New Competitive Order’.     

Small and medium size firm’s marketing competitive advantage and environmental initiatives in the Middle East

The paper explores Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia within the context of environmental sustainability. The objective of the study is to examine whether SME’s sustainable marketing competitive advantage through environmental initiatives can positively associate to a firm’s environmental (green) best practices and stakeholder influences; similarly, it also identifies if best practices mediate environmental costs and competitive advantage. A sample of 181 responses are obtained and are analysed using factor analysis, multiple regression and their interaction effects. The findings show that the association between firms that have competitive advantage due to environmental initiatives were found to be significant for best practices and indirect stakeholder influences. Furthermore, the results identified that by using environmental best practices, SMEs can lower their environmental costs to gain marketing competitive advantage. These findings highlight the function of environmentalism and how it can influence practitioners.