Business Groups and Tax Havens

Setting up affiliated companies in tax havens is a legitimate, but ethically dubious, business practice. This study examines the conditions under which emerging business groups tend to use such a business practice. Business groups in emerging economies have been operating in weak institutional environments with substantial government intervention and ineffective market-supporting institutions. Having offshore companies in tax havens enables the groups to bypass some market transaction costs and institutional constraints, and it also provides them the opportunity to evade taxes and hide illegal conduct, such as bribery. Empirical evidence based on a sample of Taiwanese business groups showed that business groups with a higher level of prosocial orientation established fewer offshore companies in tax havens, as manifested by their commitment of resources to establishing nonprofit organizations. In contrast, groups that have higher levels of product and international diversification tend to use this ethically dubious business practice. However, highly internationalized groups are less likely to do so when they have committed substantial resources to prosocial activities.     

加入WTO对中国证券业的影响及对策

加入WTO对我国证券市场带来一场深刻的革命 ,并产生全面的影响。表现在 :证券市场参与主体趋向多元化、证券市场体系趋向层次化、证券市场产品趋向多样化、资源配置趋向合理化、中介服务质量趋向优质化、市场竞争趋向激烈化和证券监管趋向规范化。面对加入WTO带来的影响 ,必须采取相应的对策 ,即优化证券行业结构 ,实施券商集团化运作 ;筹划设立公众公司 ,建造中国式航空母舰 ;撮合中外券商联姻 ,增强国内券商竞争力 ;推行OFII、QDII机制 ,加快国际化进程 ;转换经纪业务模式 ,建立客户关系管理系统 ;完善监管机制 ,实行混业管理模式 ;学习他人成功经验 ,推进我国证券业发展     

Business Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility

We present an analysis of over 400 comments about complying with tax obligations extracted from online discussion forums for freelancers. While the topics investigated by much of the literature on taxpayer behaviour are theory driven, we aimed to explore the universe of online discussions about tax in order to extract those topics that are most relevant to taxpayers. The forum discussions were subjected to a qualitative thematic analysis, and we present a model of the ‘universe’ of tax as reflected in taxpayer discussions. The model comprises several main actors (tax laws, tax authority, tax practitioners, and the taxpayer’s social network) and describes the multiple ways in which they relate to taxpayers’ behaviour. We also conduct a more focused analysis to show that the majority of taxpayers seem unconcerned with many of the variables that have been the focus of tax behaviour research (e.g. audits, penalties, etc.), and that most people are motivated to be compliant and are more concerned with how to comply than whether to comply. Moreover, we discuss how these ‘real-world’ tax discussions question common assumptions in the study of tax behaviour and how they inform our understanding of business ethics more generally.     

Venture Creation Speed and Subsequent Growth: Evidence from South America

Though time is an important dimension of the venture creation process, our understanding of why some entrepreneurs are able to act more quickly than others is limited. Equally, not much is known about the relationship between venture creation speed and the subsequent venture growth. In this paper, we use a resource‐based perspective to provide insights into the factors that quicken or retard venture creation and to explore how speed impacts on subsequent growth. This is important because the topic remains generally underresearched and because even less is understood about venture creation speed in the context of South American economies. Data were collected from face‐to‐face interviews with 647 entrepreneurs in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Using a multivariate regression framework, we find that entrepreneurs make use of their human and social capital resources to shape the speed by which their venture is created. Moreover, their perceptions of unfavorable environmental conditions seem to retard venture creation. Findings also suggest that entrepreneurs who take more time to create a more solid resource base tend to receive better growth outcomes. Implications from the findings are discussed.     

面向中间商营业推广的模式和风险分析

营业推广与广告、人员推销和公共关系是促销组合策略的四大元素。在我国,随着商品经济的发展和成熟,企业在销售市场上的竞争日趋激烈,其中较为直接有效、使用频繁又较高的手段就是营业推广。在进行营业推广的过程中,许多企业虽然有明确的目标,但是使用的模式和手段却存在一些不妥,进而导致效果不理想甚至是事得其反。其实,“营业推广”这一貌似简单,被企业视为短期行为的“小手段”,其中的学问也不少,千万不可小视。     

Business Groups and Corporate Responsibility for the Public Good

This paper analyzes the relationship between Business Groups as a distinct way of organizing economic activities and their relation to the public good. We first analyze the phenomenon of Business Groups and discuss some of their core features. Subsequently, the paper moves to analyzing the existing literature on Business Groups and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the most common label for the topic of this Special Issue. Subsequently, specific peculiarities of Business Groups in the context of CSR and their contribution to the public good are fleshed out. Based on this analysis, the paper delineates some implications for the field of CSR and the wider debate on the nature of the firm. We close with some perspectives for future research.     

Comparing Business Intelligence and Big Data Skills

While many studies on big data analytics describe the data deluge and potential applications for such analytics, the required skill set for dealing with big data has not yet been studied empirically. The difference between big data (BD) and traditional business intelligence (BI) is also heavily discussed among practitioners and scholars. We conduct a latent semantic analysis (LSA) on job advertisements harvested from the online employment platform monster.com to extract information about the knowledge and skill requirements for BD and BI professionals. By analyzing and interpreting the statistical results of the LSA, we develop a competency taxonomy for big data and business intelligence. Our major findings are that (1) business knowledge is as important as technical skills for working successfully on BI and BD initiatives; (2) BI competency is characterized by skills related to commercial products of large software vendors, whereas BD jobs ask for strong software development and statistical skills; (3) the demand for BI competencies is still far bigger than the demand for BD competencies; and (4) BD initiatives are currently much more human-capital-intensive than BI projects are. Our findings can guide individual professionals, organizations, and academic institutions in assessing and advancing their BD and BI competencies.     

经济增长的金融推动机制分析

金融业通过什么样的机制对经济增长产生着影响呢？本认为有两种机制存在于两之间：总量机制与结构机制。本着重讨论了后一种机制，指出金融从下述三个方面促进经济增长：降低信息收集成本，有效分配资源；有效降低对企业的监督成本；促进创新的进行。     

"大推进"工业化理论及其可行性研究

文章根据结构主义经济学和新兴古典经济学的"大推进"工业化理论,分析了该理论在各国工业化中的应用历程,指出"大推进"模式在社会主义市场经济条件下具有广阔的发展空间,不同国家或区域应结合自身的经济发展条件,采取相应的"大推进"模式,以加速工业化进程.     

Corporate Governance and Corruption: Ethical Dilemmas of Asian Business Groups

This study looks at how the corporate governance of family-owned business groups, the most dominant form of private sector organising in Asia, deals with different forms of corruption during the course of common business transactions. As a part of an ethnographic study conducted in 2007 to look at the impact of corporate governance reforms in the Philippines, one of the emergent themes from the study was the presence of significant corruption in the business environment of the country. A total of 40 semi-structured interviews were conducted with board members from business groups and senior public sector officials supplemented by document analysis of media articles and other text and participant observation. Using Rose-Ackerman’s typology of petty and grand corruption, results show the dilemmas faced when trying to operate within the precepts of corporate governance whilst dealing with the practical reality of corruption in public sector institutions. The results of the study provide empirical evidence into corruption’s impact on Asian business groups and contribute to knowledge on the links between strong institutions and the efficacy of corporate governance.     

Development and Growth of the Business Class

Abstract

Air travel is forecasted to be a strong growth market for the 90s. An annual growth rate of over 4% is being predicted until the end of the century. Comprising 20% of the seats and 40% of the overall revenues, the business travel segment had assumed an important strategic focus within the airline industry. This study looks at the competitive issues involved in meeting the demands of the business traveler, especially in the light of the changing relationships between those who supply the product, those who distribute, and those who use it. With corporate America along with the rest of the world continuing to do more business, but with less travel, this study looks at some of the changes that the airline industry can implement to lure business travelers back. Finally, a model is proposed, which the airlines can use to adopt to the changing needs of the market.     

"团带式"商业规划模式的构建与实证

本文在分析"商圈理论"和"组团理论"等基础上,提出了"团带式"商业规划模式,并以北京市平谷区"十二五"商业发展规划为研究对象,提出了该模式应用的六个支撑要素,即一个区域在具备交通干线、经济发展、招商引资、辐射区域、商业人才和商业项目等六方面要素的有力支撑时,可以应用该模式进行商业规划.利用"团带式"商业规划模式可以有效解决区域跨越式发展所带来的负面效应影响,引导区域商业由中心式分布向均衡式分布过渡,改变在组团核心地带商业过于密集和人口过于拥挤的现状,并预防其交通过于拥堵、生活环境趋于恶化等问题.该研究对于科学制定区域性的商业发展规划,提高城市商业的服务功能,提供了一种理论和实践模式.     

Coming Full Circle: The Study of Big Business since 1950

Taking a broad view of historians' work on the rise of big businessin the United States over the last half-century, this articleattempts to assess both where business history has been andwhere it may go in the future. The analysis recognizes the centralityof the impact made by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., but it also delvesinto other paths, including some not taken, of interest to historians.This wide-ranging interpretation also maintains the importanceof big business itself as a subject worthy of historical attentionand argues that its crucial role in the development of Americansociety has not yet been considered by mainstream historianswith the intensity it deserves. Musing over the nearly constantpreoccupation of practitioners with defining the scope of businesshistory as a field, the essay highlights a number of topicsneeding attention, suggesting that historians of business arewell positioned to shed light on the growing role of businessin all aspects of life in the twenty-first century.     

Ethical Cognition of Business Students Individually and in Groups

This study provides evidence regarding the level of ethical cognition of business students at the entry to college as compared to a national norm. It also provides comparative evidence on the effects of group versus individual ethical cognition upon completion of a business ethics course. The Principled Score (P-score) from the Defining Issues Test (DIT) was used to measure the ethical cognition of a total sample of 301 business students (273 entering students plus 28 students in a business ethics course). The results indicate that (1) business students are not significantly different from the national norms at entry to college and (2) group reasoning helps male students improve their P-scores significantly in the business ethics course at a loss of P-score (albeit not statistically significant) for female students.     

How Small Business Managers’ Age and Focus on Opportunities Affect Business Growth: A Mediated Moderation Growth Model

Research on business growth has been criticized for methodological weaknesses. We present a mediated moderation growth model as a new methodological approach. We hypothesized that small business managers’ age negatively affects business growth through focus on opportunities. We sampled 201 small business managers and obtained firm performance data over 5 years, resulting in 836 observations. Growth modeling showed systematic differences in firm performance trajectories. These differences could be explained by modeling focus on opportunities as a mediator of the relationship between small business managers’ age and business growth. The study illustrates how mediation models can be tested using growth modeling.     

浙江省转体型商业企业集团研究

编者按：《浙江省转体型商业企业集团研究》是浙江省商业经济学会的课题之一。全文１．７万字,由七个部分组成：一、企业集团的一般特征和转体型企业集团的特殊性;二、我省转体型商业企业集团组建及运作的基本情况;三、组建转体型商业企业集团的条件;四、如何解决转体...