The internationalization of competition policy: implications for international business

In the post–Uruguay Round World Trading System and with the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a new set of agendas on the governance of the world economy has emerged. Among them are the relationship between trade and social policy, trade and the environment, and trade and competition policy. These issues are new in the sense that policymakers have, until now, avoided drawing direct‐policy linkages between them. The main reason for this is that traditionally social and competition policies have been domestic policy domains that international policymakers were prevented from influencing. While environmental policy has been subject to several international negotiations, the link between trade and the environment has been relatively under‐discussed in the GATT. Moreover, there have been few international agreements that have drawn a direct link between trade and the environment.¹ The focus of this paper is the relationship between trade and competition policy. In particular, this paper seeks to address the issues related to international competition policy and the concerns and problems faced by international business in this context. ¹ An exception being the agreement on trade in endangered species (CITES). © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

农产品品牌创建主体与经营模式的分析

本文首先分析了农产品品牌创建中涉及到的农业企业、农业行业组织、农业合作组织、农户和政府等相关主体及其在农产品品牌创建中承担的角色。并进一步从产业链的角度,结合农产品品牌创建各主体的功能来探讨农产品品牌化经营的可行模式,并在此基础上给出一定的政策建议。     

Understanding B2B Supplier Selection Relationships: The Case of Taiwan Agribusinesses

Purpose: This article seeks to investigate the factors impacting the selection of suppliers in the Taiwan agribusiness sector and explore the relative importance of these factors. In addition, it explores the potential differences based on the organization's size and stakeholders (i.e., buyer versus supplier and management versus operational).

Methodology/Approach: This study is exploratory in nature and involves a two-stage process. In the first stage, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 agribusiness professionals in Taiwan to determine the relevance of the current literature about the criteria used in the selection of suppliers in the Taiwan agribusiness industry. The second stage involved 16 case studies with 32 interviews, using information gathered from the first stage.

Findings: Findings revealed that the support of the 22 selection criteria presented in the preliminary framework was important to influencing an organization's selection of suppliers in the Taiwan agribusiness industry. The findings suggest that Taiwan agribusiness buyers consider the financial position of the suppliers and the quality of their managerial teams as critically important in the supplier selection process. There was little indication that the desire for business, geographical location, and repair service were regarded as important criteria for selecting suppliers.

Research Implications/Limitations: The findings of this research have added new insights to the existing literature of B2B supplier selection criteria with the identification of two additional criteria (innovativeness and willingness to cooperate). The exploratory nature of this study and the initial development of a framework of supplier selection within the context of the Taiwan agribusiness industry had constrained the applicability of the findings to other markets and industries.

Practical Implications: The findings highlighted a list of important selection criteria that agribusiness managers can consider during their supplier selection process. In addition, the findings can assist agribusiness managers from supplying organizations to build on their organizations' strengths and capabilities in meeting those important supplier selection criteria so that they can stay ahead in the increasingly competitive agribusiness industry.

Originality/Value/Contribution: By focusing on the agribusiness sector, this study provides insights into a much neglected industry where supplier selection is a crucial issue to many agribusinesses, particularly from the perspective of major buyers in value-adding agribusiness enterprises.     

Psychology, Behavioral Economics, and Public Policy

Economics has typically been the social science of choice to inform public policy and policymakers. In the current paper we contemplate the role behavioral science can play in enlightening policymakers. In particular, we provide some examples of research that has and can be used to inform policy, reflect on the kind of behavioral science that is important for policy, and approaches for convincing policy-makers to listen to behavioral scientists. We suggest that policymakers are unlikely to invest the time translating behavioral research into its policy implications, and researchers interested in influencing public policy must therefore invest substantial effort, and direct that effort differently than in standard research practices.     

Ownership structure and earnings management in emerging markets—An institutionalized agency perspective

Previous earnings management research has largely focused on firm-level governance mechanisms in single countries or on macro-level variables in multiple countries. Building on this research, we incorporate firm ownership predictors along with national institutional dimensions to explore why firm decision makers in emerging markets vary in their earnings management behavior. Our theoretical framework integrates agency and institutional theories proposing that firm-level ownership mechanisms do not function in isolation, but are reinforced or attenuated by elements of the institutional governance environment. The multilevel empirical analysis of 1200 firms in 24 emerging markets indicates that controlling ownership is positively related to earnings management. We find that the level of minority shareholder protection in a country weakens this positive relationship. We also find that regulatory quality strengthens the negative relationship between institutional ownership and earnings management activity. It is hoped that awareness of how firm ownership structures interact with national-level institutions in affecting firm-level behavior will help managers and investors develop skills and practices to better cope with business norms in emerging economies.     

What if your owners also own other firms in your industry? The relationship between institutional common ownership,marketing, and firm performance

The growth in institutional holdings of public firms has led to increased interest in the concept of common ownership, in which the same investor owns stakes in multiple firms within the same industry. Economic theory suggests that common ownership could affect firm performance, but little empirical research has examined the nature of this effect or how a firm’s extant marketing potentially relates to this effect. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a relationship between common ownership and firm performance that is moderated by the firm’s extant marketing capabilities and its relative marketing strategic emphasis. Our empirical approach employs data from over 43 million institutional holdings to develop a measure of common ownership and accounts for empirical issues like endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity. The results document a positive relationship between common ownership and firm performance and provide some evidence that this effect is stronger for firms with lower marketing capabilities and a relative strategic emphasis towards R&D spending. These results suggest that public policymakers should consider the firms’ extant strategic marketing when assessing regulations on common ownership.     

International business-government relations: The risk management strategies of MNEs in emerging economies

In emerging economies where the institutional environment is weak, the level of risk faced by MNEs remains high. Extant literature recognizes the forms of risks faced by MNEs, but only a few studies have attempted to explain how firms identify and mitigate these risks. This study addressed the commercial risk management strategies of MNEs operating in Vietnam. We found that the government remained the key stakeholder and maintaining active relations with them aided MNEs’ operational success. The risk mitigation strategies employed by MNEs included managing alertness, portraying good behavior, navigating through the state of comfort, and active mediation.     

Markets and managerial discretion: Tooth & Co., 1970–1981

Studies of business have often sought to explain features of management activity, particularly labour management activity, with reference to the product market conditions faced by managers. This paper argues that a more nuanced understanding of management can be gained by examining both the product and financial market environment. These conditions influence the structuring of management and the development and application of managerial policy. This paper examines the management, particularly the labour management, of one of Australia's leading companies during the twentieth century. Specifically it examines how the product and financial market environment faced by this company in the 1970s influenced the labour management strategies pursued. It shows that particular market conditions will privilege or provide justification for certain types of labour management activity. This is illustrated by examining this company's operation under two distinct sets of market conditions.     

Effects of Concentrated Ownership and Owner Management on Small Business Debt Financing*

Using unique data and a new powerful Monte Carlo-based statistical tool, we examine the effects of concentrated ownership and owner–management (CO-OM) on the creditor–shareholder agency conflicts in small firms. A significant CO-OM effect from the small business owner's view, but insignificant from the commercial lenders' perspective, is found. Special features of informational asymmetry problems in small firms with CO-OM are also highlighted. Theoretical and empirical contributions are made to the small business management and corporate governance literature. Findings obtained from this research have important implications for small business practitioners as well as researchers, and this study can serve as a reference for policymakers and institutional lenders to assist small firms in successfully raising money through debt financing. In addition, a new powerful methodology is introduced to deal with various potential statistical biases and can be further applied to this line of research.     

Macro-level determinants of formal entrepreneurship versus informal entrepreneurship

Based on the eclectic theory of entrepreneurship, this article analyzes macro-level determinants of national rates of formal versus informal entrepreneurship. Our evaluation of the factors identified in this theory reveals a set of empirically-testable, higher-order determinants: economic opportunities, quality of governance, macro-level resources and abilities, performance-based culture and socially-supportive culture. The results of our analysis obtained through the PLS (partial least squares) approach to structural equation modeling contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by providing an empirically-supported model that shows how formal and informal entrepreneurship are driven differently. This model clarifies the conflicting findings in previous research about the effects of socioeconomic, institutional, and cultural factors on entrepreneurship rates across countries. Finally, by showing the effect of each determinant on formal and informal entrepreneurship, this study has important implications for policymakers as well as businesses.     

Institutional investors, shareholder activism, and earnings management

The widespread practice of earnings management adversely impacts the quality of financial reports and increases information asymmetries between owners and managers. The present study investigates the effect of shareholder activism (as expressed by the proxy proposals sponsored by shareholders), and monitoring by the largest institutional owner on earnings management. Our longitudinal analyses indicate that the number of shareholder proposals received by firms is positively related to subsequent earnings management, yet concurrently, monitoring by the largest institutional owners is negatively related to earnings management. Our findings shed light on the equivocal results reported by prior research regarding the impact of shareholder activism on firm performance, on one hand, and ownership monitoring and performance, on the other.     

Institutional ownership of stock and dimensions of corporate social performance: An empirical examination

Collectively, institutions own an increasing proportion of outstanding corporate equities. As an emergent force in shaping corporate America, the linkages between institutional ownership and corporate social performance (CSP) require empirical examination. Not only do corporate policy makers need to know those areas where social performance may lure or inhibit capital infusions, lawmakers also need a better understanding of the social forces guiding corporate policy. As anticipated, this study found a positive relationship between the amount of institutional ownership of corporate stock and a company's social responsiveness as measured by the representation of women on its board of directors; however, no statistically significant relationship with social responsibility as measured by charitable giving was found. The exemplar of social issues management — compliance with the Sullivan principles — showed an unexpected, negative relationship with the level of institutional ownership.Betty S. Coffey's research interests are in the area of strategic management, organizational change, and social issues.Gerald E. Fryxell is Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His current research interests are in the area of corporate culture, innovation, and strategic management.     

管理理论在中国的创新现状、辩证价值与未来发展

文章基于对理论价值的辩证性思考,主要从开发式与探索式创新的视角回顾改革开放以来管理学在中国的理论创新现状,并进一步提出未来演进的相关理论命题从而构建“中国管理学理论知识创造与传播的发展模型”。基于对相关理论文献的推演以及对中国管理学纵向的实际考察,文章认为管理学在中国的理论创新存在多元化的开发与探索象限;虽然数十年以来管理理论的贡献水平逐渐提高,这也在很大程度上符合主流学术共同体的制度逻辑,但是中国管理学理论知识的有效创造与传播还应该兼顾其他理论创新程度较低或者非理论化研究的可能空间,甚至需要保持上述不同象限之间的平衡,从而为全球管理知识的更新做出来自中国的独特价值贡献。     

Emerging market corporate bond yields and monetary policy

I examine spillover of monetary policy on corporate bond yields. Emerging market corporate bond yields are positively associated with the federal funds rate. However, this positive relation is transmitted through the domestic policy rate. If domestic policy rates are held constant, the spillover of US monetary policy on corporate bond yields diminishes. This suggests that domestic policymakers face a tradeoff: if they leave their policy rate unchanged when the Fed hikes, this may have benign consequences for corporate bond yields. However, a higher US policy rate may lead to exchange rate depreciation for emerging market currencies and thus elevated debt burdens for their US dollar debtors. Alternatively, if the Fed hikes and policymakers follow suit, funding conditions for corporates worsen through higher yields.     

Income shares,secular stagnation and the long-run distribution of wealth

Four alarming stylized facts have recently emerged in the United States: (a) a decline in the labor share of income; (b) a decline in labor productivity; (c) an increase in the top 1% wealth share and (d) an increase in the capital-income ratio. In Capital in the XXI Century, Thomas Piketty's argument is that the r > g inequality determines an increase in the capital-income ratio; if the elasticity of substitution in production is above one, the profit share rises. We provide a contrasting explanation that draws from the Post Keynesian approach to differential saving propensities between classes and the Classical-Marxian theory of induced technical change. In a simple model of “capitalists” and “workers,” we show that institutional changes that lower the labor share—declining unionization, increasing monopsony power in the labor market, the global ‘race to the bottom' in unit labor costs or the exhaustion of path-breaking scientific discoveries—can reduce labor productivity growth because of the lessened incentives to innovate to save on labor costs. A falling labor share reduces workers' total savings, and wealth concentrates in the capitalists' hands. A higher profit share and wealth share both put pressure on accumulation: but the long-run growth rate, which is anchored to labor productivity growth, has fallen. To restore balanced growth, the capital-income ratio must rise, independent of the elasticity of substitution. These tendencies are not inevitable: taxation can be used to implement any wealth distribution targeted by policymakers, while worker-crushing institutional arrangements can also in principle be reversed through policy. Neither change appears likely given the current institutional and global policy climate.     

基于制度理论的企业非相关多元化与绩效关系研究

传统战略管理理论认为非相关多元化对企业绩效有负向影响。然而在中国这样的转型经济国家,由于制度的缺失导致市场有效性相对较弱,非相关多元化可以使企业形成内部市场从而弥补制度的欠缺,通过对中国500强企业的实证研究也证明非相关多元化与企业绩效正相关。由于中国民营企业的非相关多元化程度较国有企业更高,民营企业非相关多元化与企业绩效的关系也较国有企业更为显著。     

An Antitakeover Amendment for Stakeholders?

The non-financial effects (NFE) antitakeover amendment addresses the duties of company directors and management when faced with a possible takeover bid. The NFE amendment either permits or requires managers to consider the interests of the company's stakeholders during takeover bids. Other types of antitakeover devices have been viewed as protecting either stockholder or management interests. The NFE amendment would appear to protect a broad spectrum of interests including those of company employees, creditors, and the community in which the company operates. Positive market returns to the adoption of NFE amendments provide some evidence that investors approve. The percent of both management and institutional ownership are positively related to the market reaction to the NFE amendment adoption. To the extent that institutional ownership proxies for the broad spectrum of stakeholder interest, NFE devices, unlike some other amendments that have been studied, appear to be in the interests of more than a single interest group.     

我国上市公司股权激励中的机会主义问题研究

股权激励的制度安排是为了解决委托代理关系产生的利益矛盾,将管理层与股东利益一致起来。同时,股权激励也可能导致管理层的机会主义行为,即通过盈余管理、股利政策、投融资决策等影响业绩和股价,使之向对自己有利的方向发展。强化内外监督和约束、防范股权激励的负面影响,是推进股权激励制度建设中不可或缺的重要环节,具体包括:一是优化公司治理结构;二是提升我国证券市场的有效性;三是培育经理人市场。股权激励这种上市公司内部的制度安排需要外部的一系列制度安排来配套才能有效地发挥作用。外部配套的制度安排会通过影响管理层的预期来影响管理层的行为选择,从而较好地降低和防止管理层的机会主义行为。     

科学管理理论在中国现代餐饮连锁业中的价值分析

本文认为,科学管理以发展规模经济、降低成本与管理费用为主流管理原则,根本目的是谋求最高效率,其重要手段是用科学化的、标准化的管理方法代替原有的经验管理。我国的餐饮连锁业竞争已趋向白热化,但竞争的主流手段依旧是低水平的促销方式。随着经济的急剧发展和现代信息技术在企业管理中的广泛应用,泰勒的科学管理精髓对实现企业的标准作业管理、提高企业管理水平、解决中国现代餐饮连锁业发展中面临的问题有重要的指导价值。     

Agribusiness ethics: Specifying the terms of the contract

Agricultural production in the western world in our time is primarily agribusiness. As such, a business ethics approach can be extended to agricultural production. Given the nature of the agricultural production system, however, not only are general principles for business ethics applicable, but more specific obligations need to be generated. A social contract approach such as Donaldson's, with modifications, serves to provide both the general principles for the ethical practice of agribusiness, as well as more specific obligations for agents in the production system. An analysis of three cases is offered in order to highlight ethical issues particular to agribusiness, as well as to provide content for the principles which the social contract view regarding agribusiness can be seen to generate.