Entrepreneurs,formalization of social ties,and trustbuilding in Europe (fourteenth to twentieth centuries)1

The establishment of trust is a key component of economic activity and social ties can make business dealings work better. However, we do not know much about how economic actors created new social ties deliberately in order to pursue their objectives. This article analyses the way in which merchants and entrepreneurs used specific rituals to establish formal social ties, with the intent of protecting their business relationships. It focuses on relational instruments that until now had been neglected, particularly godparenthood and marriage witnessing. It shows that formalization, ritualization, and publicity of ties were used by entrepreneurs to establish trust with their business associates, for example when information was asymmetric or when institutions were perceived as inefficient in guaranteeing mutual good behaviour. The analysis covers a long period, from the late middle ages to today. It pays particular attention to the consequences of the Reformation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth. Contrary to the received wisdom, it suggests that formal social ties such as godparenthood continued to play an important role in economic activity during and after the industrial revolution. New databases on early modern Italy and nineteenth‐century France are used.     

Cooperating mercantile networks in the early modern Mediterranean 1

This article outlines the commercial and financial activities of commercial networks active in the ‘Venetian’ eastern Mediterranean between the loss of Cyprus (1571) and the onset of the War of Candia (1645). The goal of the article is to present the results of recent research on early modern Mediterranean trade and finance, drawing attention to some promising areas of investigation that have been overlooked by scholarship and that constitute part of the author's own work in progress. The central question is: how did traditional Mediterranean networks and trade fare in the age of global expansion? In other words, did Mediterranean trade networks experience an evolution in their structures similar to the rest of the world? An attempt is made to answer this question through an analysis of the activities of Greek, Venetian, and English mercantile and financial networks in the eastern Mediterranean, showing the peculiarities of the interplay between trade and finance that underpinned the economy of the Venetian Stato da Mar. This attempt highlights two phenomena at play within the ‘Venetian Mediterranean’: firstly, that foreign operators began directly financing Venetian imperial administrative structures, and secondly, that the number of Venetian merchants involved in these operations increased as new players entered the financial game.     

Does religion enhance firm performance? Evidence from private firms in China

We study the impact of religiosity on firm performance in China. We find that entrepreneurs with religious beliefs have higher accounting performance. Firms are more likely to obtain bank credit if entrepreneurs have religious beliefs as religiosity stimulate them to invest more in networking, which further enhance the access to bank credit. Religious entrepreneurs have more trust towards external people, which incentivizes them to adopt a shareholding reform and employ external professional CEOs instead of family members, and thus enhances the corporate governance of these firms. In contrast, religious entrepreneurs also prefer family members as shareholders and inheritance of the firm by family members. The preference of inheritance of the firm by family members undermines the enhancing effect of external CEOs on firm performance. Religious entrepreneurs are more likely to spend more on safety insurance for employees, which is driven by the altruism originated from religious doctrines and also the risk aversion channel. The impact of religiosity complements market institutions, and political and social status of the entrepreneurs, which shows the interaction between religion and formal market institutions. We find that it's mainly Buddhism that drives our results, while other religions have limited impact on business activities in the country.     

BANKING RECORDS,BUSINESS AND NETWORKS IN COLONIAL SYDNEY, 1817–24

Examining accounting transactions between depositors in the first accounts ledger of the Bank of New South Wales contributes to our knowledge of early Australian colonial businesspeople and their business activities. A social network analysis framework is applied to the transactions to disclose business networks and prominent individuals in the networks. The analysis seeks to ascertain the importance of these people to commerce and the significance of their networks in facilitating commercial relationships in a business environment fraught with uncertainty. The results illustrate the importance of networks to colonial trade and mercantile activity, especially for smaller scale businesspeople.     

Private transnational governance in the heyday of the nation‐state: the Council of European Industrial Federations (CEIF)1

This article examines an example of private transnational governance in the first decades after the Second World War: the Council of European Industrial Federations (CEIF), created in 1949 by the peak‐level trade associations in western Europe. Based on this case, the article takes issue with two predominant views in the current literature: a view that sees the European integration process, at least in its early stages, as driven largely by nation‐states and political agendas; and another view, widespread among business and economic historians, that contacts between business associations at that time served the main purpose of re‐establishing international cartels. The CEIF actually performed a wide variety of functions: it represented organized business at international events and in organizations, acted as a multilateral arena for the exchange of information and for building trust among the businesspeople of various European countries, and, from 1958 onwards, helped bridge the divide between those inside and those outside the Common Market. On occasions, for example, in the case of export incentives, it even managed to forge a consensus for policy action when national governments were unable to agree.     

Risk Management in Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses and How Accountants Contribute*

We investigate how owners of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) perceive, make sense of, and practice risk management. Drawing on Schatzki's practice theory, we theorize on how and why risk management happens in SMEs. Thus, we fill a gap in the extant literature, which focuses almost exclusively on risk management within large organizations. We interview entrepreneurs and conduct site observations to gain insight into their risk management activities, the drivers that lead to the adoption of said activities, their attitudes toward risk management, and how their accountants may shape and contribute to risk management in SMEs. We find that rather than a specific set of formal processes, entrepreneurs view risk management as a mindset that emphasizes the preservation of key assets, creation of competitive advantages, and development of local talent and expertise. We observe practices that are mainly informal yet planned, deliberate, and fully integrated within the fabric of organizations that align with ideal forms of risk management. We also find that full-time, in-house accountants do help entrepreneurs with risk management, while external accountants, whose main activities relate to financial statement preparation and tax filings, do not systematically help entrepreneurs manage risk. We contribute to both the theory and practice of risk management by sharing empirical insights into how SME owners perceive, make sense of, and manage risk.     

商事信托对国际商法的影响与我国应对策略

商事信托是目前国际上金融领域应用广泛的一种制度创新,鉴于信托制度的优越性,已经在商务活动中扮演着重要的作用。但在国际化的背景下,商事信托制度一方面给国家商法带来了机遇,同时也给经济发展带来了巨大的挑战,如何应对这个挑战成为我国加入WTO后亟需面对的课题。     

‘Crooks,thieves, and receivers’: transaction costs in nineteenth‐century industrial Birmingham1

The existence of cooperation and trust between competing economic agents is taken for granted by much of the literature on industrial districts. This article explores the structure of the Birmingham jewellery‐making district and the problems created by the opportunistic behaviour of many of its members. Archival sources show that the district was plagued by endemic dishonesty and that proximity did not generate trust and cooperation. The absence of barriers to entry into the trade created a district where social sanctions could not be used to reduce moral hazard. All these factors threatened to destroy the district during the crisis of the 1880s. The article shows how firms joined together to create the Birmingham Jewellers Association, to establish and enforce ‘rules of the game’, with the aim of reducing transaction costs.     

商业银行跨境人民币结算及其创新策略

商业银行跨境人民币业务创新主要涉及到货物贸易、服务贸易、境外投资等跨境经营活动领域。从业务发起的动机来看,更多的业务是从利用汇率利率差异进行合理套利为出发点进行操作。应明确跨境人民币业务的发展方向,提升跨境人民币业务创新的资产负债管理水平和风险管理水平,加快跨境人民币业务系统建设,加强跨境人民币业务创新的人才储备。     

The Siamese rice trade during the interwar years: Trade pattern,crisis and business survival

This article recounts the story of the Siamese rice trade during the interwar years. Many previous studies tend to focus on the Great Depression in 1929 and the decline in the Siamese rice trade. However, export statistics show that Siam continued to export large volumes of rice during this period. This article examines the Siamese rice export patterns and highlights how instrumental Western and Japanese firms were in determining the destinations to which the rice was shipped. It also explores business strategies in response to interwar market conditions that helped the Siamese rice trade survive.     

Trust and contracting with foreign banks: Evidence from China

We empirically investigate whether firms doing business in regions characterized as having high social trust receive preferential treatment on loan contractual terms by foreign banks. Tracing cross-border syndicated lending activities in China, we document that firms located in provinces with higher social trust scores obtain significantly low costs of bank loans and experience less stringent collateral requirement. To address the potential endogeneity issues, we adopt an instrumental variable approach and a two-sided matching model, and report consistent results. We also estimate a system of three equations through three-stage-least square estimator to accommodate the joint determination of price and non-price terms in loan contracts. In addition, we find that the effect of social trust on cost of bank loans is more prominent for firms located in provinces with relatively less developed formal institutions.     

The rise of red private entrepreneurs in China: Policy shift,institutional settings and political connection

This article examines the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) membership and private entrepreneurship in China since 2002, the year when the party revised its constitution and officially removed ideological discrimination against private entrepreneurs in member recruitment. Drawing on the data from the six waves of a nationwide survey on privately owned enterprises in China from 1997 to 2008, we find that, while very few private entrepreneurs were recruited into the CCP during the decade we examine, the constitutional change had encouraged many party members to enter the private sector. We also show that party members who became entrepreneurs after the 2002 policy shift tended to be more senior than those who had started their business before the constitutional change. Furthermore, our difference-in-difference estimation demonstrates that the phenomenon of party members turning entrepreneurs was more prominent in regions where the level of marketization was lower, legal protection was less available, and local governments were prone to more corruption, since political rents were generally larger in environments with weaker market-supporting institutions. This study suggests that party members in general and especially the elite among them were quick to sense the opportunity and knew how to translate their political influence into economic power.     

Trade credit and ethnicity: Case of ethnic minority area in China

Using data for trade credit practices, this work investigates interfirm trust formation by ethnic minority firms in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The main findings of this research are as follows. First, there is a general ethnic bias against ethnic minority firms in receiving trade credit. Second, ethnic minority firms are less eager than Han firms to build interfirm trust with their business partners by offering trade credit, which is partly due to their financing constraints. Third, ethnic minority firms have less trust of other ethnic minority firms in offering trade credit. Fourth, these trade credit practices by ethnic minority firms tend to be more pronounced in those surviving after 2005. Fifth, ethnic minority firms do not share their members' information regarding productivity within their circle of ethnic minority firms. Overall, interfirm trust is insufficiently formed, even among ethnic minority firms.     

Participation of blacks and immigrants in the American Merchant class, 1890–1910: Some demographic relations

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries many persons of minority ethnic status perceived that business enterprise offered an important opportunity for joining the mainstream of American economic life. To become a merchant was to acquire a measure of personal independence and a chance for higher rewards than those earned by industrial employees. To establish a business required the assumption of substantial risk, for the rate of failure among incipient enterprises was always great. Many would willingly bear the risk. But how many could survive, and where was the probability of success highest? The answers depended in part on the demographic features of the markets they undertook to serve.This article seeks, through an analysis of quantitative evidence, to answer some questions about the relation between demographic patterns and the extent of participation in retail merchandizing. Did urbanization promote such participation? Was the North or the South more stimulating to the merchant class? To what extent did participation in merchandizing differ among blacks, immigrants, and native whites? By employing quantitative evidence and multiple regression analysis, this paper offers more precise answers than traditional methods of historical inquiry would permit. But at the same time it raises questions that can only be answered by more traditional methods of study.     

A Matter of Trust: The Ashby Research Service and the Business of Market Research

As Australia's pioneering market research firm, the Ashby Research Service helped introduce market research to Australian businesses and played a leading role in building confidence in market research as a business investment. By examining the firm's activities and organisational operations from the 1930s to the 1970s, this article contends that the establishment, development, maintenance, and deepening of trust underpinned all aspects of the firm's operations – from internal practices to externally focused client relations. The long-term approach also illustrates the multiplicity of factors contributing to the development of trust in business, and underscores the importance of culture in this process.     

企业联想、关系质量和旅客忠诚的关系研究——关于机场商业的实证分析

基于线索利用理论，从航空旅客视角出发，结合机场商业特点，创新性地将企业联想运用到机场商业，实证分析了旅客对机场商业的企业联想通过关系质量影响航空旅客忠诚的内在机制。研究发现：航空旅客感知到机场商业的能力会正向影响旅客对机场的满意、信任、承诺；同时，航空旅客感知到机场商业承担社会责任也会正向影响旅客对机场的满意、信任与承诺；再者，关系质量中的满意、信任、承诺均对旅客忠诚有正向影响。最后根据研究结论为机场当局提出相关管理策略建议。     

AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION ARCHIVES AS SOURCES FOR BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

The administration and control of immigration to Australian during the twentieth century produced a huge archive of records of individual migrants that have potential for innovative approaches to the business and economic history of ethnic minority groups. This article describes some of these records, which have mostly been used by amateur family historians, focused on those related to Chinese immigrants before the World War II and Southern Europeans immigrants after 1945. The article gives examples of how these records can be used, suggests potential research projects, and discusses briefly some of the guides available. Several images of these archival documents are reproduced.     

Risk Attitudes and Self-employment in China

Using the 2006 wave of the Chinese General Social Survey, the present paper examines the effect of risk attitudes on the likelihood of entrepreneurship in China. Our results show that risk attitudes have a nonlinear effect on the likelihood of being entrepreneurs. Risk neutral people are most likely to be entrepreneurs, while both risk averse and risk seeking people prefer to work for wages. When we further divide entrepreneurs into necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs, we find only a marginal difference in risk attitudes between wage workers and necessity entrepreneurs, while less risk averse individuals tend to be opportunity entrepreneurs. Our results have important poliey implications for the government ＂s efforts to promote entrepreneurial activities.     

Risk,success, and failure: female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England

This article analyses female entrepreneurship in late Victorian and Edwardian England. Traditional views on female entrepreneurship in nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century England point towards a decline in the number and relevance of women as business owners in comparison to the eighteenth century, and their retreat into a ‘separate sphere’ away from the world of trade and production. Recent studies, however, have deeply challenged this view, suggesting that women still played an important role as entrepreneurs during industrialization and beyond. Nevertheless, a number of questions remain unanswered with regard to the features of female entrepreneurship during these phases of British history, and issues such as scale of operation, attitude to risk, credit structure, and managerial styles are still widely debated. Using original sources, this article provides a novel view on these issues, analysing female entrepreneurship from the perspective of bankruptcy. Analysing statistics on women's bankruptcy derived from Board of Trade reports, as well as a sample of archival cases, this article argues that overall female business owners traded in ways similar to their male counterparts in terms of business size, risk‐taking, and, eventually, success.     

Tourism,business linkages and small enterprise development in South Africa

Although considerable attention is given to the prospects for developing small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa's tourism economy, very little relevant research has been undertaken in this regard. In this article, the findings are presented from over 60 detailed interviews conducted with key enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in tourism, outsourcing and small enterprise development in South Africa. The aim is to examine opportunities for outsourcing and business linkage development in South Africa's tourism economy, and to investigate the difficulties that confront the tourism SMME economy through examining the status of business linkages between large tourism enterprises and SMMEs in South Africa. The South African research is located within the context of existing works on tourism and small enterprise development in developing countries.