Foreign ownership mode,executive compensation structure,and corporate governance: Has the literature missed an important link? Evidence from Taiwanese firms

We propose an alternate context-based extension to the agency theory-grounded explanation of foreign ownership mode choices proposed in the literature. Using a sample of Taiwanese firms investing in the greater China region over the 2001–2009 period, we show that both economic and non-economic factors influence the choice of foreign ownership mode. In addition, we document that higher institutional ownership percentages motivate Taiwanese firms to select shared ownership in the greater China region. Further, no long term compensation mix/ownership structure link is found. These findings run counter to a theory provided for foreign ownership mode choices of US based firms. Our findings provide support for the validity of stewardship and social capital theory, but not financial incentives-based agency theory, for Taiwanese firms investing in the greater China region.     

Does Founders' Human Capital Matter for Innovation? Evidence from Japanese Start‐ups

Using an original questionnaire survey, this paper explores whether and how founders' human capital affects the innovation outcomes of start‐ups. We found that founders with greater human capital are more likely to yield innovation outcomes. Because certain types of human capital may boost research and development (R&D) investment, which possibly results in innovation outcomes, we estimate the determinants of innovation outcomes by an instrumental variable probit model. Our findings suggest that specific human capital for innovation, such as prior innovation experience, is directly associated with innovation outcomes, whereas generic human capital, such as educational background, indirectly affects innovation outcomes through R&D investment.     

Remittances and Financial Access: Is There Really a Link and for Whom? Evidence from Mexican Household Data

In policy discussions, it has frequently been claimed that migrants' remittances could function as a ‘catalyst’ for financial access among receiving households. This paper provides empirical evidence on this hypothesis from Mexico, a major receiver of remittances worldwide. Using the Mexican Family Life Survey panel (MxFLS) for 2002 and 2005, the results from the fixed effects logit model show that receiving remittances is strongly correlated with the ownership of savings accounts and to a limited degree with the availability of borrowing options. Effects are particularly important for microfinance institutions, and more important for rural households compared to urban households.     

Does quality of innovation,culture and governance drive FDI?: Evidence from emerging markets

This study examines how technology, culture and corporate governance drive inward FDI in emerging economies. A study of 22 emerging economies shows that technology is the major attractive factor influencing inward FDI. Further, FDI increases as technology absorption and innovation capacity increase. The greater the quality of country governance, the greater the influence of corporate governance on FDI. Cultural dimensions such as individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance exhibit a weaker influence on inward FDI, while power distance and indulgence have a stronger influence on inward FDI. Our results support the leapfrogging approach of emerging economies towards promoting innovation and enhancing technology adoption to drive FDI. Interaction effect of country governance further highlighted that the better the governance of a country the impact of technology, innovation, corporate governance and culture in attracting inward FDI also increases.     

Chinese cross‐border mergers and acquisitions in the developing world: Is Africa unique?

China has emerged as an important partner for Africa. Not surprisingly, Chinese business and investment relations with Africa have been growing. This article contends that Africa offers a different proposition to Chinese business interests in non‐African developing economies. In this optic, it takes a “comparative” institution‐based view treating factors that determine Chinese multinationals' cross‐border merger and acquisition (CBMA) decisions as comparatively different for Africa to the rest of the developing world. From a panel data estimation of the number of Chinese CBMAs from 2007 to 2016, we find among market size, natural resources, strategic assets, labor productivity, and institutional governance, only natural resources and market size have a distinctive effect, with Chinese investors being more attracted to African natural resources than the African market. The drive for natural resources provides impetus for Chinese MNEs to choose CBMAs over greenfield investment, and through majority ownership to exercise control. Our inference is that Africa is “significantly” different from other developing regions, in terms of CBMAs, as Chinese multinationals have a strong motive to control access to natural resources.     

Are top managers important for firm performance and idiosyncratic risk? Evidence from sharia vs non‐sharia‐compliant firms in the UK and Pakistan

We examine the impact of top managers on performance and idiosyncratic risk of the sharia‐compliant firms in the UK and Pakistan by constructing a manager–firm matched panel data and then tracking the role of individual top managers across different firms. The results regarding the individual effects on performance by a particular firm show that there exists a significant difference for managers who move from a non‐sharia to a sharia‐compliant firm. However, this difference is not significant for managers who move from a sharia‐compliant firm to another sharia firm. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Does services liberalization benefit manufacturing firms?: Evidence from the Czech Republic

While there is considerable empirical evidence on the impact of liberalizing trade in goods, the effects of services liberalization have not been empirically established. This study examines the link between services sector reforms and the productivity of manufacturing industries relying on services inputs. Several aspects of services liberalization are considered, namely, the presence of foreign providers, privatization and the level of competition. The results, based on firm-level data from the Czech Republic, show a positive relationship between services sector reform and the performance of domestic firms in downstream manufacturing sectors. Allowing foreign entry into services industries appears to be the key channel through which services liberalization contributes to improved performance of manufacturing sectors. This finding is supported by evidence that foreign acquisitions of Czech services providers result in profound changes in the labor productivity and sales of acquired firms. As most barriers to foreign investment today are not in goods but in services sectors, the findings of this study may strengthen the argument for reform in this area.     

Export Performance: Is It Possible through Knowledge and Capabilities? Evidence from Turkish Manufacturing Firms

Purpose: This article measures to what extent export performance is affected by certain resource-based view (RBV) elements and seeks to elucidate relationships between these elements. Design: Among those RBV elements, knowledge and experience as resources, and marketing, production, product development, logistics, and service differentiation as capabilities, are chosen to be the basis of this research. Their effects on export performance are measured with a survey applied to personnel of Turkish manufacturing firms operating in Istanbul district. Findings: The results show us that marketing planning capabilities and service differentiation capabilities have a significant effect on export performance. The overwhelming effect of knowledge and experience of firms on marketing planning capabilities is one of the intriguing findings. Notwithstanding that, we found no trace of a relationship between product development capabilities and service differentiation capabilities. Value: This research provides several managerial and academic implications by contributing to a resource-based view in terms of knowledge and capabilities. Additionally, in this study, it is underlined that collective knowledge is vital for achieving high export performance.     

Is the R&;D behaviour of fast-growing SMEs different? Evidence from CIS III data for 16 countries

This paper studies the R&;D behaviour of fast growing SMEs using CIS III data for 16 countries. We group the countries into three categories of countries having roughly the same stage of technological development. Our first finding is that R&;D is more important to high-growth SMEs in countries that are closer to the technological frontier. The second finding is that high-growth SMEs are only more innovative than non-high-growth SMEs in countries close to the technological frontier. This suggests that gazelles derive much of their drive from the exploitation of comparative advantages. From a policy perspective, this indicates that there are important limits to centralising policies that aim to foster high-growth SMEs.     

How do fiscal and technology shocks affect real exchange rates?: New evidence for the United States

Using vector autoregressions on U.S. time series relative to an aggregate of industrialized countries, this paper provides new evidence on the dynamic effects of government spending and technology shocks on the real exchange rate and the terms of trade. To achieve identification, we derive robust restrictions on the sign of several impulse responses from a two-country general equilibrium model. We find that both the real exchange rate and the terms of trade—whose responses are left unrestricted—depreciate in response to expansionary government spending shocks and appreciate in response to positive technology shocks.     

Misfortunes or mistakes? : Cultural sensemaking of entrepreneurial failure

This study examines cultural views of venture failure through the lens of sensemaking, which includes attributions of causality. Specifically, we explore failure accounts that are attributed to mistakes made by entrepreneurs, and those attributed to misfortunes outside the control of the entrepreneur. Reports of entrepreneurial failures from 1999 to 2001 were collected from seven major US newspapers, and 389 accounts of failure were analyzed for statements identifying the failure's cause. The data suggest that cultural sensemaking of failure varies by the geographical area where failure occurs. In addition, 331 accounts of the consequences of failure were analyzed which suggest that failure has a large impact on the stigmatization of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship within the local area, as well as on the individual entrepreneur's view of themselves following failure.     

“省直管县”是否改善了县域经济绩效:一个自然实验证据

近年来,部分省份出现省直管县的体制创新试点,理论分析表明这一体制对地方经济绩效有积极的影响,但目前仍缺少可信的经验证据予以支持。利用浙江和福建两省的县域面板数据建立双差分(DID)模型,通过构造一个自然实验,检验省直管县体制对经济绩效的净因果效应,结果表明,省直管县体制对县域经济具有显著、持续的积极影响。稳健性检验进一步证实结论的可靠性。     

Hair-brained or great-hair business? : Assessing alternative markets and product-service designs for successful startups by small-retail entrepreneurs

Deborah Lunt had wanted to see a business building with her name on it since she was thirteen years old. She now wanted to build upon the reputation that she had earned through her twenty years in the hair-care industry. She decided to move from the upscale streets of Boston to the suburbs where she felt she could provide a more relaxed and personalized ambience. Deborah excels in hair cutting, color, styling, and her perceptiveness of what her clients want. She built her entire clientele through word-of-mouth and even after she relocated to the Boston suburbs, her clients continued to travel long distances to obtain her services. As Deborah sat in her office one day sipping mineral water between her appointments, she wondered how she could grow her client base. She started day dreaming and was suddenly brought back to the present with the “ding dong” at the door, and one of her clients and friend, a marketing professor at a nearby university, walked in for her monthly appointment. As Deborah cut and styled her client's hair, she shared her thoughts and dreams with her. The professor knew that Deborah was ambitious and hardworking, and that if she had a clear marketing plan, she could succeed in growing her business. The professor also knew that, although Deborah had left her job at an upscale hair salon in a high-end retailing location in the city (the most expensive street for shopping in Boston) to startup her own business, Deborah had done so without a written plan and only a vague vision for the future. The professor suggested to Deborah that she needed to put some effort into developing a viable written marketing plan.     

Is self-employment really a bad experience? : The effects of previous self-employment on subsequent wage-employment wages

We use propensity score matching methods to quantify the effects of past self-employment experience on subsequent earnings in dependent employment using data on the population of Danish men observed between 1990 and 1996. Our results generally confirm existing studies in that we find that a spell of self-employment is associated with lower hourly wages compared to workers who were consecutively wage-employed. We also show, however, that this effect disappears—and even becomes positive in some settings—for formerly self-employed who find dependent employment in the same sector as their self-employment sector. Hence, the on average negative effect of self-employment is rather caused by sector switching than by the self-employment experience per se. Moreover, formerly self-employed who either enjoyed a high income or hired at least one worker during their self-employment spell receive wages in subsequent dependent employment that are at least as high as for individuals who have been consecutively wage-employed.     

Whose business is it anyway? Closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article examines how gender may account for productivity gaps across enterprises. First, using data from six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the article demonstrates that the extent and significance of any productivity gap by gender depends critically on the criteria used to classify an enterprise. Using a definition of ‘female participation in ownership,’ there are few differences in average performance measures. However, a 12% productivity gap emerges when a tighter definition, based on decision-making control, is used. Second, the article examines which entrepreneurial characteristics (education, management skills, experience and the motivation for being an entrepreneur) are most associated with higher productivity. The findings reveal that there are some gender gaps in the prevalence of these characteristics, but that these do not account for the overall gender productivity gap. Rather, while women benefit as much as men from education and management skills, there are non-linear impacts by gender in the benefits of having a family background in entrepreneurship; sons rather than daughters benefit from having a father that was an entrepreneur or from joining a family enterprise.     

Does family employment enhance MSEs performance?: Integrating socioemotional wealth and family embeddedness perspectives

This paper analyzes the effect of family employment on performance in micro and small enterprises (MSEs) by combining two research perspectives that, until now, have been conducted separately: the family embeddedness perspective of entrepreneurship (Aldrich and Cliff, 2003) and the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach to family business (Gomez-Mejia et al 2007). Our integrated perspective allows us to highlight how the nature of the employment relationships in MSEs enhances the benefits derived from the socioemotional endowment associated with family labor, and reduces the opportunity costs of employing relatives. Moreover, we assert that this relationship is moderated by specific family characteristics that determine the firm's ability to preserve the SEW, while at the same time pursuing financial goals. Our results provide partial support to the enhancing role of family labour on MSEs performance: employing family members increases sales but decreases profitability as measured by ROA. This effect also results in improved performance for women-led firms and for firms that have received family funding, but impairs MSEs performance when the business is the main source of the owner´s household income.     

“可持续发展”:建立《文化表现多样性公约》与WTO的重要关联点

文化与贸易,似乎是永无休止的争议。历时近三年的中美出版物和视听产品案以我国败诉并承诺修改相关文化贸易措施而告终,但此案所涉及的《文化表现多样性公约》与WTO规则之间的关系却值得进一步思考。大多数学者对以《文化表现多样性公约》解释WTO相关条款持积极态度,进而强调须寻求公约与WTO协定间的文本联系。缺乏文本联系被认为是阻碍在WTO框架下更加有效地适用《文化表现多样性公约》的核心原因。文章立足于演化解释的视角,认为设立WTO的马拉喀什协定序言中的可持续发展这一概念本身是演化性的,其源于经济与环境范畴,但逐渐扩展至包括社会和文化的范畴。可持续发展作为WTO协定与《文化表现多样性公约》共通的文本联系,可赋予文化在WTO中的合适地位,成为一种尚未尝试的可行性方案,为我国在今后涉及与此相关的WTO案件提供了另一种抗辩的可能。     

大学生思想政治教育创新 2012年7月9日

本文的观点是大学生思想政治教育必须经由知识教育,必须通过知识和教育,但它并不仅仅局限于知识的教育,因为它的目的与其说是引导教育对象掌握的知识和应用知识,知识的发展,它需要通过教育对象的个人相应的专门知识,以创造一个健康向上的精神的世界,形成了科学的世界观,坚定的信心和信念,形成思想道德素质。这思想道德素质,形成正确的思想教育工作的目标显示,它的坚定性和相应的思想和理论的态度,形成正确的思维能力和使用相应的教育目标的能力思想和理论指导自己的行为,自觉性和主动性。     

Which subfield to enter first?: The role of a firm's pre-entry experiences

In this study, we draw from the organizational experience and market entry literature and investigate if a firm's pre-entry experiences predict which subfield to enter first. We employ a unique data set from the biotechnology industry where two distinct subfields emerged around the same time due to a revolutionary discovery. Among the firms that entered one of the two emerging subfields, we examine the relationship between pre-entry experiences and which subfield a firm enters. Our key finding is that general experience rather than specialized experience increases the likelihood of a firm entering first the subfield with higher level of uncertainty as opposed to the subfield with lower level of uncertainty.