One cost of the Chilean capital controls: Increased financial constraints for smaller traded firms

There is growing support for taxes on short-term capital inflows in emerging markets, such as the encaje adopted by Chile from 1991 to 1998. This paper assesses whether the Chilean capital controls increased financial constraints for different-sized, publicly-traded firms. It uses an Euler-equation framework and shows that during the encaje, smaller traded firms experienced significant financial constraints. These constraints decreased as firm size increased. Both before and after the encaje, however, smaller firms did not experience significant financial constraints, and there is no relationship between firm size and financial constraints. Although Chilean-style capital controls may yield some benefits, any such benefits should be weighed against this cost of increasing financial constraints for small and mid-sized firms.     

East meets West: Toward a theoretical model linking guanxi and relationship marketing

This conceptual study critically examines the separate concepts of guanxi and relationship marketing, explores the differences between the two approaches, and proposes innovative linkages between them. Chinese guanxi develops relationships at the inter-personal level, whereas relationship marketing develops relationships at the inter-organizational level. Both concepts are well known, but a dearth of critical comparison remains in academic literature, even though evidence suggests that managers can use the linkages between the approaches to improve customer recruitment and retention. Through a critical review and synthesis of prior research on guanxi and relationship marketing, this study proposes a novel theoretical model that links guanxi and relationship marketing and develops theoretical and managerial implications of such linkages. As such, this study offers new and valuable insights and benefits for Asian firms, which employ only guanxi-type relationships.     

中国对非洲直接投资与贸易的关系研究——基于面板数据的实证分析

文章从理论上回顾了对外直接投资的贸易效应,以非洲33个国家为样本,运用2002～2006年的数据,建立了中国对非洲直接投资与贸易之间关系的面板数据(Panel Data)模型,并进行了实证分析.研究发现,我国对非洲国家直接投资与贸易存在着互补效应;我国对非洲直接投资尚处于起步阶段,进一步拓展非洲市场有利于创造中非合作双赢局面.     

Contingent effects of managerial guanxi on new product development success

A survey of new product development (NPD) managers finds both a linear, positive relationship between managerial guanxi and new product speed to market and an inverted U-shaped relationship between managerial guanxi and new product innovativeness. In addition, both transaction-specific investments (TSIs) and relationship commitment have a positive moderating impact on the relationship between managerial guanxi and new product speed to market. However, TSIs increase the damaging effect of managerial guanxi on new product innovativeness, whereas relationship commitment reduces such an effect. The results from this study can help business practitioners use guanxi to improve NPD performance under different contexts of inter-firm relationships.     

Does the “management approach” contribute to segment reporting transparency?

Segment reporting creates an opportunity for companies to add value to the information they disseminate about their industry and geographic operations. This article examines the “management approach” to segment reporting from a user perspective that should be of great interest to corporate financial executives. The management approach to segment reporting requires companies to report segment financial information consistent with the way they manage their businesses. We conclude that, despite more segment data being reported, the potential of the new management approach to significantly benefit users is compromised by uneven compliance among reporting companies. The complicity of external auditors in compliance shortcomings should concern all stakeholders in the financial reporting process. Noting two high-profile examples of accounting fraud, we comment on how the management approach sheds light on Enron's operations, while WorldCom concealed important segment information due to probable auditor malfeasance.     

The moderating effects of customer driven complexity on the structure and growth relationship in young firms

Close exchange relationships with customers are recognized as important for young firms. In fact, close partnerships with customers provide many advantages, such as innovation, opportunity recognition, reputation, etc. The current paper argues that customers with their close exchange relationships create significant complexities for young firms that require effective structural response. Based on past work on customer driven complexity, four parameters of customer driven complexities were conceptualized: customer variability, customer opportunism, customer-interaction variability, and customer-interaction specificity. Using both archival and survey data from 134 young (6 year old or younger) firms, this study tests the moderating influences of customer driven complexity variables on the relationship between structure and growth of young firms. Findings support the suggestion that more formalization and less delegation of authority at the customer interface significantly contribute to the growth in young firms. However, the positive relationship between formalization and revenue growth is found to be weaker when young firms face a higher level of customer variability and stronger when firms face a higher level of customer opportunism. Similarly, the negative relationship between delegation of authority and revenue growth is weaker when these firms face either a higher level of customer-interaction variability or a higher level of customer-interaction specificity.     

Marketing channel relationships in China: A review and integration with an institution-based perspective

Because marketing channel research is predominantly conducted in the Western world, marketing channel theories and practices may not be generalizable to Chinese markets. Despite the rapid growth of Chinese economies and their increasing importance to the global economy, our understanding of marketing channels in China is limited. This research reviews and integrates studies of marketing channels in the Chinese context. From an institution-based perspective, we develop a set of propositions focusing on issues such as guanxi, trust and dependence. We explore the impact of Chinese institutional environments (regulatory, normative and cultural) on marketing channels. Lastly, we offer suggestions to help firms adapt their channel operations to Chinese markets.     

Fashion's role in visualizing physical and psychological transformations in movies

Using visual narrative art, this study looks into the images of cinema costumes and investigates how the fashion and styles in the movie reflect both the main characters' psychological changes and their identity-forming processes. This study analyzes the transformative effect of fashion (movie costume), the development of individual characters, and social and other situational influences on the heroine in the movie Pretty Woman (1990). Pretty Woman's underlying theme is derivative from three classic fairy tales: Cinderella, Pygmalion, and Beauty and the Beast. Such fairy tales in movie dramas are archetypal enactments representative of deep emotional and physical transformations audiences wish to experience. Watching protagonists' wardrobe changes and emotional transformations enables viewers to identify/self-recognize the storylines and catharses in the movies and often to achieve virtually the same experiences and emotional highs—outcomes which are the modern equivalent to Aristotle's “proper pleasure.”     

中国本土文化环境下的商务"关系":一项探索性研究

Recently, guanxi has become one of the hottest topics in domestic academia. Although relationship and guanxi are the same in Chinese characters, significant differences exist between the “relationship” in the western academic context and what Chinese people are familiar with, the Chinese “guanxi”. The indiscriminate imitation of the western relationship marketing in China neglecting the Chinese native culture context is detrimental to a true and thorough understanding of the Chinese relationship marketing practice. Therefore, it is of great significance to conduct research on guanxi in the Chinese native commercial context. Based on domestic and foreign literature review, this paper uses a qualitative research method including content analysis and focus group to get a thorough understanding of guanxi both from the academia and from the practitioners, followed by quantitative analysis methods including questionnaire investigation and factor analysis to develop a native commercial guanxi concept scale. After comparison of the qualitative and quantitative research results, an integrated guanxi concept system is built, which lays foundation for the future guanxi research. __________ Translated and revised from Yingxiao kexue xuebao 营销科学学报 (Journal of Marketing Science), 2006, 9(1): 1–14     

Measuring the part worth of the mode of transport in a trip package: An extended Bradley–Terry model for paired-comparison conjoint data

This study measures the travelers' perceived change in utility by accepting one of the modes of transport air, rail, or bus as one component of a packaged city trip. The part-worth values for the trip product elements are expected to depend on a number of traveler characteristics. The predictors hypothesized are city travel experience, general modal preference, socio-economic status, and car ownership. In the survey, the combinations of trip attributes differed between the two subgroups of leisure and business travelers. The leisure travelers rated three levels of mode, length of stay, and price, but only one level of the hotel category. The business travelers were shown four mode alternatives and only two levels for each of the other trip product elements. The conjoint measurements were elaborated by fitting an Extended Bradley–Terry Model. Demonstrating the application of the EBTM is the main purpose of the paper. The EBTM offers several advantages over the more popular versions of conjoint analysis. It correctly treats ties and allows for simultaneous estimation of the trip package (‘object’) parameters, object covariates (trip attributes), subject covariates (traveler characteristics) and their interactions. For both the business and the leisure travelers, the mode of transport dominated the assessment of a city trip package. For leisure tourists, e.g., switching from train 2nd class to an economy flight boosted the trip package more than twice as much as replacing train for bus. A variation of the package price was much more important for the leisure than for the business travelers. The socio-economic status proved to be an important factor and was particularly influential among the business travelers. In the leisure tourists' sub-sample age was not only important for valuing the mode of transport, but had a preferential impact for all trip components. Finally, the limitations of this demonstration study that discourage extrapolation to city travelers in general are emphasized.     

Interest rates and the recent weakness in M2: An extension to the P model of inflation

A model of changes in the deflator for nondurables and services consumption expenditures is estimated simultaneously with the error-correction model of M2 growth described in Koenig (1996). The inflation forecasts generated by the joint model have marginal predictive power for changes in the GDP deflator and exhibit none of the systematic bias which has plagued the original formulation in recent years. Output-market slack is of little use in predicting changes in the consumption deflator, but there is evidence of a speed effect.