Assessing the Belt and Road Initiative as a narrative: Implications for institutional change and international firm strategy

This article explores the role of narratives as drivers that guide the institutional change associated with globalization and deglobalization. For China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to succeed as a driver of institutional change in favor of globalization, it must pass the narrative “virality” test and successfully contend with competing narratives. Rival narratives will be launched by firms and organizations worldwide that expect to win or lose from deglobalization or from new forms of globalization. This study develops a useful framework for establishing the extent to which China’s BRI is a genuine narrative or just a story. In this regard, four testable propositions are put forth to ascertain whether the BRI is values-based, extends an invitation to participate, is open-ended, and is associated with economic performance for both Chinese and non-Chinese participants. The analysis of the BRI-related institutional change that leads to globalization applies a theoretical lens centered on the narrative economics perspective and on the institution-based view and political economy perspective. Implications for BRI stakeholders, international business practitioners, and international business scholarship are outlined.

     

中国“一带一路”能源合作将由双边向多边转换

一直以来,中国的国际能源合作多采取双边合作的模式.尽管中国与中亚地区的能源合作为中国与其他地区的合作提供了范本,但“一带一路”能源合作需要更有效、更全面的国际法律框架来保护投资,中国过去以双边关系为主导的能源合作将向多边的合作机制转换.能源宪章的全面性法律框架值得“一带一路”能源合作借鉴.中国将从现有多边体系中学习经验,进而建立由中国或亚洲主导的多边合作机制,推动和保护“一带一路”能源合作.     

发展经济学视阙下的“一带一路”与可持续发展

发展是实现人民幸福的关键。中国政府倡导的全球发展倡议有两大理论和实践来源:2030联合国可持续发展目标是促成国家间合作和提供全球公共产品的重要动力;中国的"一带一路"倡议作为全球合作平台和公共产品的提供者,为国际社会提供了中国方案和中国智慧。本文结合"一带一路"倡议的理念与实践、2030联合国可持续发展目标,从发展经济学的研究视角,提炼出贫困与不平等、经济发展、健康与可持续的社会、气候与环境、投资与援助这五大关键变量,建构了发展经济学视阙下的"一带一路"倡议和可持续发展目标的分析框架,阐明全球发展倡议的生命力。通过文中的相关案例和实践研究得出:"一带一路"倡议完美契合2030联合国可持续发展目标,彰显了可持续发展的中国方案;面对全球公共卫生危机、大国竞争态势和实现联合国可持续发展目标的挑战,推动"一带一路"高质量发展继续为全球可持续发展赋能。     

加快“一带一路”油气合作机制建设

油气合作是“一带一路”倡议的重要组成部分,是以资源为基础、以资金为推动、以技术为保障,促进域内国家经济发展的政治合作.这也决定了“一带一路”的油气合作应遵循国家推动、企业实施和共同发展的路径,建立油气合作的长效机制.在机制内容上,国家层面应着重推进油气勘探开发统一政策、油气建设统一标准和促进油气投资资金的跨境自由流动;企业层面应着重做好公司治理、管理融合、技术推广和员工交流;社会层面则应加强文化交流、参与当地公益事业和强化油气合作的舆论正面引导,等等.国家、企业和社会层面应各司其职,做好各自相应的工作,使“一带一路”油气合作取得预期成果,促进“一带一路”倡议的“五通”新型合作不断发展.     

Ownership strategy of Japanese firms: transactional,institutional, and experience influences

We compare the effects of transactional, institutional, and experience influences on the ownership strategies of Japanese investors. Our theoretical development suggests that the equity position of a foreign investor should increase as the specificity of the assets transferred to the foreign affiliate increases, but a lower equity position should be assumed when the foreign investor requires complementary assets to establish a foreign entry. International experience and a strong institutional environment also should lead to increases in the equity position of the foreign investor. These relationships were tested with data on more than 1000 Japanese investments in nine countries of East and South‐East Asia. The results demonstrate that experience and institutional factors were the most important influences on the ownership position taken in the foreign investment, while transactional factors had a much less important and a more ambiguous role. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“一带一路”倡议下新疆对外开放研究

在当前逆全球化思潮愈加明显的背景下,中国对全球化的积极态度受到世界关注。经济全球化是不可逆转的历史大势,作为一个快速发展的大国和新兴经济体的代表,中国的快速发展受惠于经济全球化,未来也必将是经济全球化的支持者和推动者。中国的"一带一路"倡议自身拥有开放性特征,为经济全球化注入新活力,是古代丝绸之路的延伸与创新,也是给沿线国家带来发展、和平、双赢的智慧之路。新疆位于"丝路经济带核心区",在"一带一路"建设中的地位越发重要。新疆要想成为"一带一路"倡议在西北地区的重要战略支撑,就要发挥独特的地理优势和对外开放重要窗口作用,与沿线国家,深化合作共识,提高合作水平。     

“一带一路”背景下人民币区域化的可能性探究

"一带一路"不仅对于我国经济结构的优化升级和经济的增长具有重要意义,而且还可以推动人民币走出去,推动人民币区域化的进程。虽然该倡议可以给人民币区域化带来极大的机遇,但随之而来的还有很大的挑战。在这个契机下推动人民币区域化,会受到以美国为主导的TPP和TIPP的阻碍、周边国家的政治和社会因素的制约以及我国国内金融状况的束缚,但是我国可以通过采取各种措施来克服这些阻碍,进一步推动人民币区域化的发展。     

“一带一路”背景下新疆特色旅游业的前景展望

在经济全球化背景的影响下,"加强旅游合作,扩大旅游规模"已成为我国与国际合作接轨的重要战略构思,对旅游业发展有至关重要的作用。新疆作为新丝绸之路经济带的核心区,在"一带一路"推动下,旅游业会迎来巨大机遇。因此,本文从旅游业的角度探讨新疆在"一带一路"背景下的发展。如何开发及利用其它资源,对发展旅游业具有现实意义。同时其它产业与旅游业的有机整合,也为新疆旅游业发展提供新思路。     

Mapping moral philosophies: strategic implications for multinational firms

Strategic managers appear increasingly under pressure from stakeholder concerns regarding social and ethical issues. Partially in response, the supply of ethical decision‐making models has grown rapidly. Business ethics scholars have broadened their scope to incorporate moral philosophies into their research endeavors. Despite these positive trends, the international focus of business ethics research has been slow to evolve. Yet, diverse moral philosophies, often most apparent across international borders, have important strategic implications for multinational firms. The ethical norms pursued by cross‐cultural alliance partners, distributors, suppliers, customers, financiers, and foreign government agencies can create public relations disasters, foster shareholder unrest, lead to consumer boycotts, and impact organizational outcomes. We seek to rectify the deficiency in international business ethics scholarship with two distinct contributions. First, we develop a new cross‐cultural, macro‐level model of societal ethics. Second, we map moral philosophies onto an established framework for assessing socioeconomic environments. These theoretical tools should assist managers of multinational organizations, international policy‐makers, and researchers to recognize and prepare for the ethical consequences of international strategic decisions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Risk,uncertainty, ignorance and myopia: Their managerial implications for B2B firms

Rare events are common: Even though any particular type of ‘rare event’ - a world war, global economic collapse, or pandemic for that matter - should only occur once every 100 years, there are enough of those types of ‘rare events’ that overall, they commonly occur about once every 10 years. As we are currently experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not sufficiently leverage the rich toolset that risk management offers to prepare for and mitigate the resulting uncertainty. This article highlights four aspects of risk management, and their practical and theorical implications. They are: 1) Risk (in the narrower sense), where possible future outcomes can be captured through probability distributions. 2) A situation of uncertainty, where there is transparency regarding what is not known, but probability distributions are unknown, as well as causal relationships influencing the outcome in question. 3) A situation of ignorance, where there is no understanding that certain possible future developments are even relevant. And finally: 4) The emergence of organizational and inter-organizational myopia as an effect of risk, uncertainty and ignorance on collective human behaviour.     

“一带一路”背景下中国金融服务贸易国际竞争研究

随着世界经济复苏,我国提出建设"一带一路",致力于将丝绸之路经济带与海上丝绸之路相结合形成一个容纳多方力量共同发展的大经济圈,依靠我国和周边国家已有的多边机制,建立行之有效经济区域合作平台,应对不断变化的国际经济新形势。本文以"一带一路"为背景研究了中国金融服务贸易国际竞争。     

Slack resources,firm performance,and the institutional context: Evidence from privately held European firms

Research summary : Integrating the behavioral and institutional perspectives, we propose that a country's formal institutions, particularly its legal frameworks, affect managers' deployment of slack resources. Specifically, we explore the moderating effects of creditor and employee rights on the performance effects of slack. Using longitudinal data from 162,633 European private firms in 26 countries, we find that financial slack enhances firm performance at diminishing rates, whereas human resource (HR) slack lowers performance at diminishing rates. However, financial slack has a more positive effect on firm performance in countries with weaker creditor rights, whereas HR slack has a more negative effect on performance in countries with stronger employee rights. The results provide a richer view of the relationship between slack and firm performance than currently assumed in the literature. Managerial summary : A key dilemma managers often encounter is whether, on the one hand, they should build in excess resources to buffer their firms from internal and external shocks and to pursue new opportunities or whether, on the other hand, they should develop “lean” firms. Our study suggests that excess cash resources—which are usually viewed as easy to redeploy—benefit firm performance, especially when firms operate in countries with weaker creditor rights. However, excess human resources—which are usually viewed as more difficult to redeploy—hamper firm performance, particularly when firms operate in countries with stronger labor protection laws. Thus, the management of slack resources critically depends on the characteristics of these resources (e.g., redeployability) and the institutional context in which managers operate. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“一带一路”背景下新疆经济发展现状与机遇探究

"一带一路"倡议的提出对于新疆经济的发展有着重要的影响。文章对新疆目前经济发展的现状进行了分析,通过数据对比简单分析了新疆的经济发展水平;指出新疆经济发展中的障碍与对策。并结合"一带一路"背景探究未来新疆经济发展会面临的机遇。     

Familial capitalism in global institutional contexts: Implications for corporate governance and entrepreneurship in East Asia

Many of the world’s firms have a familial dimension; including some of the most dynamic and emerging markets of East Asia. However, this important aspect of organizing economic activity remains understudied and misunderstood. A central theme of this article is that while families matter in economic activity throughout the world, they matter in different ways depending on the institutional context. To illustrate this theme a varieties of capitalism perspective is used to develop a rudimentary global comparative framework. Institutional context is portrayed as a key determinant of the degree and type of family governance that typify national economies. Implications for corporate governance and entrepreneurship in East Asia are discussed.

Corporate spinoffs and analysts' coverage decisions: The implications for diversified firms

Research summary: This paper investigates how spinoffs improve the quality of analysts' research about diversified firms, theorizing that these deals may induce analysts to revisit their earlier coverage decisions. The gains resulting from these shifts are expected to be more pronounced when a firm undertakes a legacy (rather than a non‐legacy) spinoff, which removes the business that may be constraining analysts' coverage decisions in the first place. Consistent with this argument, firms that undertake legacy spinoffs experience greater improvements in the composition and quality of their analyst coverage than their non‐legacy counterparts, and in their overall forecast accuracy and stock market performance. Taken together, these findings shed light on the relationships among the scope decisions, analyst coverage, and valuations of diversified firms. Managerial summary: Existing research has established that when companies undertake spinoffs, analysts produce more accurate forecasts about the divesting firms than they did prior to those deals, and the stock market performance of those firms also improves relative to pre‐spinoff levels. This paper explores the effects of legacy spinoffs (the spinoff of a firm's original or “legacy” business) for forecast accuracy and stock market performance. Firms that undertake legacy spinoffs are found to enjoy greater improvements in forecast accuracy and stock market performance than their non‐legacy counterparts. These findings are driven by the fact that legacy spinoffs induce analysts to revisit their existing coverage decisions to a greater extent than non‐legacy spinoffs, contributing significantly to the economic benefits of these deals for shareholders. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolving dairy markets in Asia: Recent findings and implications

This paper is an overview of important findings regarding the ongoing evolution of Asian dairy markets based on a series of new economic investigations. These investigations provide systematic empirical foundations to assess Asian dairy markets with their new consumption patterns, changing industries, and trade prospects under different domestic and trade policy regimes, with four case studies (China, India, Japan, and Korea), a prospective analysis of future regional patterns of consumption, and a policy analysis of trade liberalization of Asian dairy markets. The overview distills the findings of these new investigations and integrates them in the earlier economic literature; it draws policy implications, and identifies lessons for countries outside of Asia, especially for emerging exporters in Latin America.     

“一带一路”背景下新疆能源化工类上市公司盈利能力分析

本文是以新疆目前上市的4个能源化工类公司为主要研究对象,借助新疆能源化工类上市公司盈利能力分析的指标体系和这4家上市公司2010-2016年的财务数据,运用趋势分析法、比率分析法和事件研究法,以"一带一路"的提出时间,也就是2013年为时间点,将有关财务指标进行分析,找出新疆能源化工类上市公司盈利能力方面存在的问题,并针对问题提出合理对策,从而达到能够提高能源化工类上市公司的经营能力,最终提高其盈利能力,最终为更好地促进新疆能源化工行业的持续发展而做贡献。     

“一带一路”倡议与企业国际化程度——基于制造业上市公司的证据北大核心

本文将“一带一路”倡议视为一项准自然实验,基于2007~2020年A股制造业上市公司数据,运用双重差分模型探究“一带一路”倡议对企业国际化程度的影响。研究发现,“一带一路”倡议能够显著提升企业国际化程度。作用机制研究发现,“一带一路”倡议可以通过缓解融资约束和提升研发强度提升企业国际化程度。异质性检验发现,“一带一路”倡议能够提升大规模企业和中小规模企业国际化程度,且对中小规模企业国际化程度的提升效应更加明显;相对于内向型城市节点,“一带一路”倡议显著提升了外向型节点城市企业国际化程度。进一步地,“一带一路”倡议能够显著促进企业国际化范围的扩张。