On One Forgotten Cause of the Arab Spring: the Lack of Economic Freedom

Had the Arab Spring been widely interpreted as a revolution for ‘laissez faire’, it would certainly have stimulated more reflection on the central place of the entrepreneur in economic development, and the fundamental role of economic freedom to let this prosperity‐generating entrepreneurship flourish. The future of the Arab Spring depends on the capacity of the new democratically elected governments to implement measures to prevent crony capitalism, restore the rule of law and promote economic freedom in order to ensure general prosperity.     

COUNTERING THE ASSAULT ON CAPITALISM

Capitalism is the most efficient system for solving problems and for advancing human welfare. Yet it faces opposition both from intellectuals and those with vested interests in big government. If business leaders would push for ‘liberate to stimulate policies’, they might succeed in creating a freer tomorrow and solving more of humanity's problems.     

Entrepreneurship and economic growth: Evidence from emerging and developed countries

This paper presents an extension to the economic growth model developed by Wong, Ho, and Autio (2005 Autio, E. 2005. 2005 report on high-expectation entrepreneurship, Toronto: GEM Consortium.  [Google Scholar]), to reflect differences in the economic effects of opportunity and necessity-based entrepreneurship in both emerging and developed countries. Data from 44 countries for the years 2004 and 2005, as collected by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research and Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) research, are used to identify predictors of GDP growth for emerging and developed nations. The GEM data are used to determine the effect of different types of entrepreneurship on GDP growth. The GCR data operationalize additional control variables suggested by three economic growth theories: new economic geography, endogenous growth theory and national systems of innovation. This contribution to the literature suggests that, in developed countries, a significant portion of economic growth rates can be attributed to high-expectation entrepreneurs exploiting national investments in knowledge creation and regulatory freedom. However, in emerging countries this effect is absent. It is hypothesized that a threshold exists for entrepreneurs to gain access to the formal economy, below which entrepreneurial contributions act through informal mechanisms.     

Cross-national differences in stakeholder management: Applying institutional theory and comparative capitalism framework

Drawing upon the research in institutional theory and comparative capitalism, the present study investigates how cross-national differences in the political, business, and economic institutional contexts of the United States, Italy, and Japan are associated with the ways in which companies in each of these countries prioritize and engage in their stakeholder engagement activities (SEAs). Using Porter and Kramer's framework, which classifies corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as falling into four categories (good citizenship, mitigating harm from value chain, transforming value chain activities, and strategic philanthropy), we investigate how companies in the United States, Japan, and Italy prioritize and engage in these four SEAs. An analysis of data collected from 340 companies across these countries reveals that while companies in each of these three countries undertake the four types of SEAs, the prioritization and prevalence of the four types of SEAs vary from one country to the other, in ways that align with the prevailing institutional contexts of each country. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of why and how companies' approaches to CSR differ across countries. From a practitioner's perspective, the findings highlight the cultural specificity of CSR, implying that despite the global nature of CSR, the implementation of CSR needs to be tailored to a country's context.     

The long‐run effect of government ideology on economic freedom

According to popular attitudes in Western democracies, the choice between right‐wing and left‐wing parties is a choice between socialism and unbridled free markets. In contrast, the cold and staid research of academia has frequently concluded that particular political parties do not really matter, as whichever party is elected will be closely tethered to the will of the median voter. This article considers the effects of the ideology of parties in power over the long run (1928–95) on economic freedom in subsequent periods. Right‐wing governments are found to have modest, positive effects on economic freedom, but the effects are not particularly robust. The findings here are consistent with others elsewhere, which conclude that there is minor, uneven evidence of an effect. Nonetheless, historically small effects may not be indicative of the future, should these effects be poorly indicative of today's tumultuous political landscape.     

Environmental strategy in the global banking industry within the varieties of capitalism approach: The moderating role of gender diversity and board members with specific skills

This research sets out to analyse environmental disclosure in the banking industry by considering the varieties of capitalism framework. This approach is concerned with the way companies interact strategically to resolve coordination issues arising from their operations, and it is supported by prior research. This is a fruitful perspective for exploring the association between country‐level factors and disclosure by firms, such as environmental reporting. This research is based on an international sample of countries operating in coordinated market economies (CMEs) and liberal market economies (LMEs). The results obtained show that financial institutions operating in CME countries are involved in more environmental matters than banks domiciled in LME countries. As regards the moderating variables, the evidence shows that women on the boards of banks in CME countries encourage the reporting of environmental information, as predicted. Nonetheless, and contrary to our expectations, members with specific skills on boards within CME cultures do not favour greater disclosure of environmental information compared with those on boards of banks operating in LME contexts.     

The permanent income hypothesis in five major industrial countries: a multivariate trend-cycle decomposition test

This paper presents a new test of the permanent income hypothesis in five major industrial countries. The test first decomposes consumption and income into their long run trend (permanent) and short run cyclical (transitory) components, using the recently developed multivariate stochastic detrending approach developed by Vahid and Engle (1997), among others. This approach exploits the presence of possible common stochastic trends and cycles among the variables in the system to arrive at a more efficient decomposition of these variables. Using the decomposition results, and in contrast to many articles in the literature, the paper finds support for the permanent income hypothesis. Specifically, the paper finds that, while permanent consumption is related to permanent income, transitory consumption is related to neither permanent nor transitory income.

Career patterns of top management team members in five countries: an optimal matching analysis

This paper introduces optimal matching analysis (OMA) to the field of top management research. With this method, we develop six career patterns of top management team (TMT) members from five countries based on their international experience, organizational tenure and professional experience. The results provide strong support for the significance of these patterns, since each country (Denmark, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) shows one to four predominant career patterns of their managers and the occurrence of these patterns also differs significantly between the fields of activity within the TMT (chairperson, head of a division, primary activities and support activities).     

The politics of cutback management in thirteen European countries: statistical evidence on causes and effects

The politics of fiscal consolidation in thirteen European countries are statistically analysed. Based on the political economy literature, political factors are identified that explain for the consolidation. Variables are selected representing strength of government and political orientation, and fiscal consolidation is distinguished into spending cuts and cuts in administration. The statistical analysis of political explanations for cutbacks hardly yields significant results and nor does the analysis of fiscal and economic effects of consolidation. The analysis of political effects of consolidation does lead to significant results. Some earlier political economic findings are not supported for our sample of thirteen European countries.     

发达国家应急管理特点研究

发达国家基本上都是依据法律建立立体化、网络化的综合减灾、应急管理体系,从上到下常设专职机构,由相关专业人员组成抢险救援队伍,军事化或准军事化管理,建立严格而高效的政府信息发布系统,明确政府相关职能和部门合作事项,有超前的灾害研究和事故预防机制,普遍重视灾害意识培养和全社会的应急培训,有充足的应急准备和可靠的信息网络保障.对我们国家应急管理体系建设很有借鉴和启示作用.     

人居环境发展中的五律协同机制研究

人居环境协调发展具有普适规律的典型特征.从环境学的角度分析了自然规律、社会规律、经济规律、技术规律和生态规律对我国传统人居环境发展演化特征的影响,从宏观和微观两个层面探讨了与市场发展相适应的人居环境和谐发展的调控手段.     

浅析机床夹具设计中的虚设过定位

传统意义上认为工件某个自由度由多个定位元件重复限制称为过定位,在实际应用中,一般工艺要求不允许出现过定位,然而在大型零件加工过程中仍然需要过定位来增加定位装夹刚度,防止工件变形,因此正确区分过定位与虚设过定位成为夹具设计的关键。     

工业劳动力流动、技术溢出与经济地理新均衡——新经济地理学基础模型新发展

在原始核心边缘模型基础上发展的新的核心边缘模型假设工业工人的劳动生产率不再是外生变量,而是跟产业集聚的外部性有关。发展的核心边缘模型不仅验证了原始核心边缘模型的基本性质,还得到了一些新的结论：第一,工业企业生产规模报酬递增程度高有利于产业的集聚,但工业企业生产的规模报酬递增程度低也会诱发产业的重新集聚。第二,产业的空间分布受两股相反力量（集聚力和分散力）的支配。一般情况下,本地市场效应和生活成本效应是促进工业企业集聚的力量,市场拥挤效应则是促使工业企业走向分散布局的力量。第三,在加入本地与跨界技术溢出效应后,对称结构稳定的贸易自由度范围缩小了,而核心边缘结构稳定的贸易自由度范围扩大了。     

经济资本与经济增加值管理在基层商业银行应用问题探讨

随着国内商业银行财务重组和股改上市的完成,传统经营模式和考核机制存在的弊病日益凸显,而经济资本管理作为西方成功的管理典范,正在被国内商业银行借鉴并渗透到管理活动中。但目前大多局限于基础理论和框架的运用,缺乏科学有效的计量工具。从长远看,要造就一个可持续发展的银行,提高核心竞争力,必须要以经济资本和经济增加值为核心,变革经营行为,提高管理水平,以应对日益复杂和激烈的竞争环境。     

Economic Freedom and Women's Emancipation in the MENA Region

The position of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a complex topic, difficult to comprehend without allowing for socio‐cultural norms, legal frameworks and the global gender context. In thinking about a practical framework for action, the free market perspective is relevant and necessary. However, this alone does not seem to provide a complete answer to the problem of promoting women's economic status. This article makes the case for the importance of market‐friendly, but also gender‐sensitive, policies to promote women's economic freedom and hence women's emancipation in the MENA region.     

经济结构调整与技术的相互关系研究

经济结构的不断调整就是技术不断的进步,而技术是调整经济结构的最重要手段。本文分别从技术对经济结构调整的正负作用两方面入手,对应列举了技术发展对经济结构调整及经济增长的实例,深入研究了经济结构调整与技术的相互关系,从而论证经济结构调整离不开技术,技术引进、改造以及创新更要满足经济结构调整的需要。     

Institutional duality and human resource management practice in foreign subsidiaries of multinationals

We examine how institutional context affects the decisions that subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) make in pursuing particular human resource management (HRM) practices in response to institutional duality. Drawing on Varieties of Capitalism, along with the concept of intermediate conformity, we argue that the use of particular HRM practices by MNC subsidiaries will differ depending on both the combination of home and host institutional contexts, and on the nature of the particular practice under consideration. Using data from a survey of HRM practices in 1196 firms across 10 countries, we compare HRM practices in subsidiaries located and headquartered in different combinations of liberal and/or coordinated market economies. Our study suggests MNC subsidiaries conform only to the most persuasive norms, while exercising their agency to take advantage of the opportunities presented by institutional duality to adopt practices that distinguish them from indigenous competitors.     

Host-country effects in coordinated,liberal and hybrid market economies: US subsidiaries in Switzerland,Germany and the UK

The paper addresses two as yet unexplored issues regarding the uptake of host-country employment relations practices, contributing to a better understanding of findings for hybrid host-market economies such as Switzerland. Host-country effects are differentiated by practices that belong to either industrial relations or education and training, as per the varieties of capitalism approach. There follows an investigation of the extent to which foreign subsidiaries' overall uptake of host-country employment relations practices is determined by the subsidiary incorporation type and size for practices related to industrial relations and education and training. Analyses of US subsidiaries in Switzerland, and, in contrast, those in Germany and the UK, on the whole support the propositions that distinguish between industrial relations and education and training-related host-country effects.     

中外城市住宅高度形态比较研究

首先对住宅高度形态的三种类型,即低层、多层和高层住宅的优缺点进行了比较分析,分析了美国、德国和日本住宅高度形态的现状,得出城市住宅高度形态合理选择的结论如下:低层住宅是最适合人类居住的住宅形态;多层住宅次之;高层住宅是最不适合人类居住的住宅形态。然后介绍了我国北京、上海、重庆等城市住宅高度形态的现状,进一步分析了我国与国外城市住宅高度形态的差异。最后提出了我国住宅高度形态的政策建议。     

Using job embeddedness factors to explain voluntary turnover in four European countries

The aging of the European workforce coupled with existing deficits of skilled workers in vital sectors (e.g., information and communication technology) make the attraction and retention of skilled workers a critical strategic human resource management issue. The large-scale, multi-country study reported in this article investigates the causes of voluntary turnover. The study is based on a large European dataset that contains information about a wide variety of variables that have been shown to influence voluntary turnover. The results indicate that the traditional turnover model, where ease of movement and desirability of movement are regarded as important predictors of turnover, receives support. Importantly, the study also shows that a new theory of employee retention – job embeddedness – explains a significant amount of variance above and beyond the role of demographic and traditional variables. In sum, the evidence suggests that the turnover decision is not only about the individual's attitudes towards work or about the actual opportunities in the labour market, but also job embeddedness.