The US stock market and the international value of the US dollar

We investigate the spillover effect of the US equity market on the value of the dollar and therefore on the return and volatility of US equity investments for the international investor. The data are daily observations of the S & P 500 and the US dollar in terms of seven foreign currencies covering the period 1971–2002. Using Geweke measures of feedback, we find a high percentage of contemporaneous association between daily movements in the S & P 500 index and changes in the value of the dollar. A consistently positive relationship between the S & P 500 and the dollar is found for the period 1992–2002, creating a compounding effect for the foreign investor in US equities. However, investment by foreigners in US equities did not result in consistently higher returns but in higher volatility compared to their US counterparts for the period 1971–2002.     

Exchange market intervention and the US dollar

In the past years central banks of major Western industrialised countries have repeatedly attempted to change the trend of the US-Dollar rate by means of intervention in the foreign exchange markets. Our authors analyse the objectives, effects and chances of success of such exchange market interventions.     

Target zones for the US dollar?

The discussion of target zones for flexible exchange rates is evidence of the desire to experiment with new instruments for stabilising the international monetary system. What distinguishes target zones from systems of flexible and fixed exchange rates? What form should they take? How should one regard the various objections to target zones?     

Engineers and management: The challenge of the challenger incident

The Challenger incident was a result of at least four kinds of difficulties: differing perceptions and priorities of the engineers and management at Thiokol and at NASA, a preoccupation with roles and role responsibilities on the part of engineers and managers, contrasting corporate cultures at Thiokol and its parent, Morton, and a failure both by engineers and by managers to exercise individual moral responsibility. I shall argue that in the Challenger case organizational structure, corporate culture, engineering and managerial habits, and role responsibilites precipitated events contributing to the Challenger disaster. At the same time, a number of individuals at Morton Thiokol and NASA were responsible for the launch failure. Differing world views, conflicting priorities of the engineers and managers on this project, and the failure of either engineers or management to take personal moral responsibility for decision-making contributed significantly to the event. Patricia H. Werhane is the Wirtenberger Professor of Business Ethics at Loyola University of Chicago. She is one of the founding members and past president of the Society for Business Ethics and editor-in-chief of Business Ethics Quarterly. Her publications include Ethical Issues in Business, coedited with Tom Donaldson, Persons, Rights, and Corporations, and Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism forthcoming with Oxford University Press.     

Roger boisjoly and the challenger disaster: The ethical dimensions

This case study focuses on Roger Boisjoly's attempt to prevent the launch of the Challenger and subsequent quest to set the record straight despite negative consequences. Boisjoly's experiences before and after the Challenger disaster raise numerous ethical issues that are integral to any explanation of the disaster and applicable to other management situations. Underlying all these issues, however, is the problematic relationship between individual and organizational responsibility. In analyzing this fundamental issue, this paper has two objectives: first, to demonstrate the extent to which the ethical ambiguity that permeates the relationship between individual and organizational responsibility contributed to the Challenger disaster; second, to reclaim the meaning and importance of individual responsibility within the diluting context of large organizations.Russell P. Boisjoly is Associate Professor and Chairperson, Department of Finance at the University of Lowell where he specializes in Corporate Finance. His research focuses on applications of finance to regulated firms, especially in trucking and electric utility industries. He has published a number of articles on capital structure, mergers, bankruptcy prediction, and ethics.Ellen Foster Curtis is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Lowell where she specializes in Business Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Transportation. Her research focuses on labor relations, impacts of transportation deregulation, and ethical issues in business. She has published a number of articles on these topics, labor relations in the transportation industries, and ethics.Eugene Mellican is Chairperson of the Philosophy Department at the University of Lowell. He describes himself as a student of philosophy concentrating on issues in applied ethics.     

The rise of dollar credit in emerging market economies and US monetary policy

This paper examines the hypothesis that the boom in dollar credit in emerging market economies (EMEs) is associated with an excessively low interest rate in the US. For this purpose, we use a multivariate correlated unobserved component model that allows for correlation between shocks to dollar credit, cross‐border interest rate gaps—measured as the difference between emerging market interest rate and the US interest rate, and dollar index both in the short run and in the long run. In addition, it also provides us a quantitative estimate of the permanent and transitory movements in dollar credit in EMEs, interest rate gaps and dollar index. The results from this model do suggest that a temporary increase in interest rate gaps and decline in the dollar index are associated with a temporary increase in the dollar credit in EMEs with a very high degree of correlation. The estimate of the cyclical component of the dollar credit in EMEs from our model captures the recent boom and bust in this market and compares favourably to alternative trend–cycle decomposition methods.     

Factors Influencing the Early Internationalization of High Technology Start-ups: US and UK Evidence

The paper examines factors influencing the early internationalization of small high technology international start-ups in the US and UK in order to understand why small high technology start-ups are increasingly international in nature at or near inception. The study qualitatively identifies influential factors and quantitatively measures the level of importance of 25 leading factors to the firms. The study found that the principal factors influencing the early internationalization of international start-ups are the international vision of the founders, their desire to be international market leaders, the identification of specific international opportunities, and the possession of international contacts and sales leads.     

现阶段人民币国际化的进展及面临的问题

近两年来,人民币国际化在跨境贸易人民币结算、与其他国家和地区央行开展货币互换、重新启动人民币汇率形成机制改革、建设香港人民币离岸市场(CNH)、促进境外人民币交易以及推进跨境直接投资人民币结算等方面,都取得了令人瞩目的进展,但与此同时,现阶段的人民币国际化进程也面临着一些问题或困境。这其中,跨境贸易人民币结算的发展不平衡和其中存在的大量套利融资等投机活动,值得关注。总地来看,人民币国际化所面临的内在问题主要有两类:一类是发展中可以解决的问题,另一类是制度或体制等长期性、前提性的问题;而从外部环境因素来看,伴随着人民币国际化进程的加快,作为现行国际货币体系核心国家的美国和地区性大国日本的反应与对策,也将对人民币国际化进程产生日益增大的影响。对此,需要引起足够的重视并有必要开展积极的研究。     

Banking on global success: Internationalization strategy and its limitations (the case of Allied Irish Banks)

This article explores the choices and challenges facing Ireland's leading financial services corporation, Allied Irish Banks (AIB), in its strategy for international market growth. It begins with an examination of the company's internationalization strategies within the global banking context. It then considers the limitations of international market expansion and transnational management control for a company with low brand recognition outside of its home market and limited experience of international operations. Finally, it elaborates on the strategic challenges that face the organization and reflects on the lessons for other midsized international companies competing in consolidating, globalized industries.© 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of the yuan‐dollar exchange rate on Mexican manufacturing exports to the US: A cointegration approach

This paper makes use of three econometric methods and three time intervals to evaluate the long‐term effects of several key variables on Mexican manufacturing exports to the US . The evidence across econometric techniques and sample periods systematically indicates that: (i) a real depreciation of the yuan‐dollar exchange rate reduces Mexican manufacturing exports by lowering the price of Chinese goods in the US market; (ii) a depreciation of the peso‐dollar real exchange rate generates a strong supply‐side effect due to the high import content of Mexican manufacturing exports, which ultimately leads to lower (rather than higher) sales in the US ; and (iii) external demand and labour productivity are positively related to manufacturing exports, whereas real wages are negatively related. Therefore, a falling external demand for Mexican manufacturing products or a real depreciation of the Chinese currency could, to some extent, be offset by increasing labour productivity faster than wages. These findings reflect two fundamental problems of the Mexican economy: (i) low investment in high‐quality formal instruction and proper training programs, which gives rise to severe bottleneck points for faster labour productivity growth and (ii) excessive reliance of the export‐oriented manufacturing industry on foreign suppliers of intermediate inputs.     

Internationalization of services: The case of intra‐multinational enterprise trade

Increased tradability of services, made possible by the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution, has been at the heart of the internationalization of services. Although rapid growth of the services trade between parents of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their overseas subsidiaries has contributed to the internationalization of services, empirical studies examining the determinants of intra‐MNE trade in services are few. This article, using the ownership, location, and internalization (OLI) framework, attempts to explain intra‐MNE trade in services. The results provide strong support for the OLI perspective, and posit a complementary relationship between manufacturing foreign direct investment and intra‐MNE services trade. The results also suggest the importance of subsidiaries' absorptive capacity and breadth of global connectedness for intra‐MNE trade.     

The dollar and special drawing rights

The IMF's Interim Committee recently for the first time discussed the creation of a “Substitution Account” to convert certain amounts of excess reserve currencies into SDRs. This issue is likely to be on the agenda of the next annual meeting of the IMF in the fall of this year. Prof. Feuerlein discusses the problems of such an account.     

Internationalization of an academic invention through successive science-business networks: The case of TAVI

The aim of this paper is to explain how new technology ventures move, grow, and scale. Such ventures internationalize much faster than depicted by the traditional Uppsala model (Johanson and Vahlne, J Int Bus Stud 8:23–32, 1977; Johanson and Vahlne, Mark Rev 7(4), 1990; Johanson and Vahlne, J Int Entrep 1:83–101, 2003; Johanson and Vahlne, Manag Int Rev 46:165–178, 2006; Oviatt and McDougall, J Int Bus Stud 25:45–64, 1994). According to the Uppsala model, the main reason it takes time is that entrepreneurs need to build networks and learn. Many scholars have investigated how they may be able to learn faster and grow networks more effectively. While these explanations contribute to a better understanding of the process, they appear disturbingly insufficient. By means of an in-depth case study, we aim at identifying how learning and network-building constraints may be circumvented. We have investigated the internationalization process of an invention at a Danish university hospital that became a new technology within minimally invasive heart surgery. While the invention took place in the periphery of the international medical network, the venture circulated to the most competent international science-business networks to mobilize resources and competencies. We found that its ability to succeed resulted from its roots in international academic networks and its connecting to core nodes in these as well as in adequate business networks—including, in particular, Venture Capital firms that are in the business of developing and scaling such technology ventures. We also found that the innovation process evolved through phases that called for different resources and capabilities. It thereby offered opportunities for actors, networks, and companies that control such capabilities to move in to take control and pull the venture through the next phase. The process is less like a long distance run, and more like a relay race. This radically reduces the need to learn as the new venture expands and scales.     

Virtual currencies: different schemes and research opportunities

Marketing Letters - The digitization of money has led to the emergence of numerous virtual currencies. Despite their great financial relevance, virtual currencies have not received much attention...     

The impact of the euro crisis on Switzerland

The euro area crisis is the main external factor threatening the Swiss economy. In 2010 and 2011, the Swiss franc was rapidly appreciating against the euro, causing a drop in exports, losses for the tourism business and a rise in unemployment. This paper gives an overview of developments in the euro area and explains the reasons for the strength of the franc, the effects it had on the economy and the measures taken to curtail its appreciation.     

The new EU countries and euro adoption

In the new member states of the EU which have not yet adopted the euro, previous adoption strategies have come under scrutiny. The spillovers and contagion from the global financial crisis revealed a new threat to the countries’ real convergence goal, namely considerable vulnerability to the transmission of financial instability to the real economy. This paper demonstrates the existence of extreme risks for real convergence and argues in favour of a new adoption strategy which does not announce a target date for the currency changeover and which allows for more flexible and countercyclical monetary, fiscal and wage policies.