International Convergence of Accounting Practices: Choosing between IAS and US GAAP

This study examines reporting practices of a sample of foreign listed and domestic‐only listed companies from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Australia to determine the extent to which companies voluntarily use “international” standards. Two types of use of non‐national standards in the consolidated accounts presented to the public are considered: adoption of “international” standards instead of national standards, and supplementary use where “international” standards are used in conjunction with national standards. “International” standards are defined as US GAAP or IAS (now IFRS). The study tests for a preference for either set of standards and considers the relationship of choice of regime with firm attributes. The results show significant voluntary use of “international” standards in all five countries and among foreign listed and domestic‐only listed companies. Companies using “international” standards are likely to be larger, have more foreign revenue and to be listed on one or more foreign stock exchanges. US GAAP is the predominant choice, but IAS are used by many firms in Germany and some in Japan. Firms listed in the United States' regulated markets (NYSE and NASDAQ) are more likely to choose US GAAP, but companies traded in the OTC market often select IAS. The study demonstrates for managers and regulators that there is considerable support for “international” standards, and that choice of IAS or US GAAP relates to specific firm characteristics which differ according to a firm's country of origin. Most use of “international” standards reflects individual countries' institutional frameworks, confirming the key role of national regulators and standard setters in assisting companies to achieve more comparable international reporting.     

U.S. chief procurement officers’ perspectives on public procurement

Each year public procurement officials in the United States spend trillions of dollars to purchase goods and services for public use. The volume of public procurement spending compels public administration and supply chain management scholars to examine these procurement practices. Based on a unique dataset composed of a series of qualitative and quantitative interviews with chief procurement officers (CPOs) and their team members from 45 states and 2 territories in the United States, this paper explores the key institutional factors affecting state-level public procurement in the U.S., explores variation in the definition of contract performance, and assess the importance of multiple factors in creating procurement contracts. We present an agenda for future research on state-level public procurement in the U.S that has important implications for the theory and practice of public procurement.     

The effects of network groups on minority employee turnover intentions

Companies in the United States are concerned with retaining minority employees to maintain or increase the diversity of their workforce. Here we assess the value of one approach companies have used to retain minority employees: “network” groups. Based on data obtained from a large company with extensive network groups, this study compares the turnover intentions of minority employees who have joined one of the company's network groups to those who have not joined one of the company's network groups. The data show that employee network groups can be useful in helping companies retain managerial‐level minority employees. Extensive recommendations are provided to help organizations maximize the effectiveness of network groups. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Explicit and implicit corporate social responsibility: Differences in the approach to stakeholder engagement activities of U.S. and Japanese companies

This study uses the theoretical frameworks of institutional theory and comparative capitalism to demonstrate how cross‐cultural differences in national institutional frameworks are related to differences in the meaning and the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and, as a result, how they create different incentives and opportunities for companies to engage in stakeholder management activities. More specifically, we draw upon the framework of “explicit” and “implicit” CSRs to investigate whether and how stakeholder management practices and programs differ between the United States and Japan. We first develop and validate a Stakeholder Engagement Activities (SEAs) scale, designed assess differences in the approach (explicit or implicit) that companies use to address a variety of common SEAs. Then we analyze data and present the results of surveys collected from 227 companies in the United States and Japan. We find that although the SEAs of American companies are characterized by strong “explicit CSR,” in contrast, the SEAs of Japanese companies exhibit strong “implicit CSR.” In the discussion that follows, we attribute these distinctions in the SEAs to differences in the configuration of political, economic, and market mechanisms in each country. The findings of this study contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the differences in prevailing CSR practices of American and Japanese companies than noted by previous researchers. From a practitioner's perspective, the findings of this study reveal that despite the global nature of CSR, stakeholder management practices are both interpreted and operationalized differently due to differences in national institutional frameworks.     

How Foundations Exercise Power

Foundations (and philanthropy in general) have great political power in the United States and worldwide, yet this is hardly noted by political analysts or journalists. Their power is exerted in many ways, such as by funding progressive organizations and movements; sponsoring policy “think tanks” and organizations of public officials; influencing the political culture through media, academic researchers, and university programs (including public interest law in law schools); and co‐opting activists and potential rebels among the rich and poor. Because of their resources and prestige, they are powerful members of coalitions and collaborations with overt and covert government departments, U.N. agencies, universities, and nongovernmental organizations. Foundations have been major actors in the “Cold War,” which continues as the attempt to deflect any movement towards socialism here or abroad. Globalization has amplified the power of foundations, for many of the global institutions were created by foundations and continue to be fostered by them. The sponsorship of civil society institutions worldwide by private foundations, now with additional billions from governments and international governmental institutions, supports U.S. hegemony: military, political, and economic. We cannot know what the world would have been like absent foundation activities, but the current one does not appear to have a democratic, peaceful, or sustainable future.     

Winds of tapering,financial gravity and COVID-19

Real interest rates have fallen dramatically since the early 1980s. Economic theory states that lower real rates discourage savings while promoting spending. However, today, in the world economy, we face a global saving glut problem in which, even in negative real rates, economic agents keep saving. This situation leads to excess demand for safe assets (US Treasuries), lower bond yields, and higher equity valuations. Thus, the world economy has become more dependent on major economies, especially the United States. In this research, we aim to measure the dependency of the world economy on United States monetary policy. We called this new methodology “financial gravity” and tried to quantify the nature by using panel data analysis. We define monetary dependency (financial gravity) by US Investment flows and their reaction against International Reserves, Credit Default Spreads (CDS), and Foreign Exchange Rates. Our empirical findings support that financial gravity is positively related to international reserves and negatively related to Credit Default Swap Spreads (CDS) and Foreign Exchange rates. We also analyzed the COVID-19 period and found that pandemics positively contributed to world reserve accumulation due to economic lock-down measures, fiscal stimulus packages (unemployment benefits), and decreased global spending.     

America's technology slip — A new political issue

A declining rate of technological innovation in the United States is postulated based on measurements of relative productivity, and balances of trade (especially in manufactured goods). Reasons given for this decline include slowing of t areas, shifts of the national R&D effort to less productive areas, low capital investment compared to other nations, a decline in the rate of formation of technology-based corporations, increased regulatory barriers and other factors. Development of synthetic fuels based on plentiful U.S. reserves of coal is given as an example of technological need and opportunity which could be exploited to reverse the technology slip. Political and governmental considerations and options are discussed in terms of roles and policies vis-à-vis the private sector and the voting public.     

美国经济所面临的挑战（英文）

美国经济在全球经济中占有非常重要的地位,因此美国经济的未来走势直接关系到全球经济的发展.本文分析美国在经济发展中所具有的优势地位以及在未来经济发展中所要面对的挑战与风险。美国未来经济面临着巨额的经常项目逆差、财政收支赤字、能源价格高涨以及房地产泡沫破灭的威胁,使美国必须采取措施进行调整。这将导致本世纪初美国未来经济发展速度减慢。     

Determinants of Expatriate Success: An Empirical Study of Singaporean Expatriates in The Peoples Republic of China

ABSTRACT

Globalization of business operations has assumed an increased significance in contemporary business strategy across the developed and developing world. Assignment of staff overseas is one of the most critical areas of the global business operations. While there have been numerous studies on various aspects of expatriate performance, such as selection, training, and compensation of expatriates, these studies have been mostly “americentric” in their scope and approach. Keeping in view the growing importance of China as a favored recipient of Foreign Direct Investment not only from the United States and Europe, but also from other Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore this study has examined factors that determine the success of Singapore expatriates in China. One of the significant findings of the study is that there is a discrepancy between perception of success factors between the expatriates themselves and the human resource directors (HRDs) of the multinational corporations who have an important role in the assignment of those expatriates. Thus this study argues that in addition to the knowledge of what constitutes success in overseas ventures it is important to achieve a common agreement on the factors determining such success.     

Benefits of Environmental Stewardship

Abstract

Environmental sensitivity has gained much attention in business organizations; however, there is little empirical evidence on the business benefits from environment oriented measures. Some of the many promised benefits from environmental sensitivity are categorized and rated. The framework proposed by the Management Institute for Environment and Business (MEB) is used to assess company environment stewardship. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from 66 business organizations in the United States and from 31 organizations in Pacific Rim nations. These organizations were known to have undertaken at least some “green business” activities. The results suggest that companies showing higher degrees of environment stewardship will derive greater business benefits than organizations which aim at minimum compliance with government regulations in this area. While, compared with American organizations, on the average the Pacific Rim companies show significantly less environmental stewardship and derive significantly less benefits from it, “their efforts in the area have also been rewarded.”     

Transforming Transformers into Militainment: Interrogating the DoD‐Hollywood Complex

This article examines how the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Hollywood collaborated to manufacture the blockbuster films Transformers (T) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (TRF) to sell in global markets and to sell a positive image of DoD personnel, policy, technology, and practice to the world. T and TRF are global militainment films made by the “DoD‐Hollywood complex” to make money in markets and put the U.S. military before the world in a positive light. To show how, the article's first section defines the “DoD‐Hollywood complex,” presents a brief 20^th‐century history of its formation, and describes the current DoD institutions, policies, and practices that fuse DoD publicity agencies to Hollywood filmmakers. The second section highlights how DoD assisted T and TRF's production and contemplates why Hollywood solicited DoD support. The third section shows how T and TRF put DoD in a positive light. The conclusion addresses some of the consequences of T and TRF with regard to democratic theory. By showing T and TRF to be global militainment commodities, this article interrogates the nexus of “reel” and “real” U.S. military power and sheds light on how DoD interacts with Hollywood studios to influence how it gets screened by entertainment media and seen by global spectators.     

Factors Influencing the Product Customization Decision Process of Foreign Industrial Product Manufacturers

Abstract

This study explores the product adaptation decision process of “successful” foreign industrial product manufacturers with operations in the United States. A “successful” foreign firm is operationally defined as one utilizing at least 75 percent of its U.S. production capacity. Such firms are accorded the status of “experts” and an attempt is made to study their decision making process regarding the introduction of locally designed products in the U.S. An induced rule based expert system outlines the sequential roles played by the nationality of parent firm, level of decentralization in marketing decision making, mode of entry into the U.S., length of time with manufacturing operations in the U.S., size of the U.S. subsidiary, and extent of R & D undertaken in the U.S. by the subsidiary. Such a formal system would serve senior management of the developing organization as a permanent and ever expanding repository of expertise and as an effective management training tool. The study also illustrates the use and relevance of expert system technology in an international marketing application.     

Liquefied Natural Gas: Redefining Nature,Restructuring Geopolitics,Returning to the Periphery?

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry began as a means of making use of natural gas resources in socially remote regions and of natural gas associated with oil production. Natural gas was transformed from a waste product into LNG that could be moved thousands of miles to market, redefining “waste” as a valuable raw material. As the newest large-scale LNG exporter, the United States entered the LNG industry based on another redefinition of nature: the extraction of natural gas previously economically and technologically inaccessible in shale formations. Hydraulic fracturing and new drilling technologies have created reserves of natural gas that are driving down prices with excess production and provoking a search for new markets via LNG exports. Liquefied natural gas is reshaping economies, communities, industries, and ecosystems in the United States and in other parts of the world. This article analyzes the role of the LNG industry with a particular focus on the economic and geopolitical consequences for the United States. The United States is returning to its historical role of energy exporter. Some view the return to this role as an economic and geopolitical boon that will enhance the U.S. economy and the nation’s global standing. A contrasting interpretation sees the United States sliding into the extractive periphery, serving the energy demands of a growing China, much like the United States once did for Europe and especially Great Britain. This view condemns what it views as the exploitation of U.S. natural resources to meet China’s energy needs while leaving large areas of the United States with depleted resources, damaged ecosystems, and disrupted communities.     

金融企业在金融危机中的风险规避

美国次贷风波爆发以来,无论从全球资本市场的波动还是美国实体经济的变化来看,次贷之祸造成的危害在美国乃至全球范围内都不容小觑。如果仅从中国金融机构持有次贷相关资产的角度来看,中国金融机构在这场危机中遭受了损失,但风险尚在控制范围之内,影响并不算大。也就是说,始发于2007年的这次金融危机对中国金融企业的影响是启示大于损失。     

Is the representation of beneficiaries by international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) still pornographic?

This paper examines how beneficiaries are represented by International Nongovernmental Organizations (INGOs) to attract potential donors' attention and if such representations stereotype people of color living in developing countries. The study draws on the multi-level methodological approach to understand the content and overall meaning of 320 photos from the 32 largest INGOs operating in the United States. Findings suggest that INGOs still portray beneficiaries stereotypical and thereby reinforcing colonial narratives of “Othering” by an overwhelming representation of single mothers, infants, and girls, and few representations of men and families; and greater emphasis on deliberately positive representation.     

Opening up the firm: What explains participation and effort in voluntary carbon disclosure by global businesses? An analysis of internal firm factors and dynamics

A voluntary climate initiative that has emerged over the past two decades as an institutional arrangement for corporations around the globe to signal and demonstrate their proactive climate leadership is the CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project). Unlike the extant literature that has emphasized stakeholder and regulatory pressures, this paper argues that voluntary carbon disclosure is both beneficial and costly for corporations with respect to the existence of supportive management structures, explicit CSR practices, and the existence of complementary assets. Moreover, there is variation between European firms and other global businesses because of Europe's distinctive national business systems framework in conjunction with global supply chain imperatives. Empirically, this study employs a novel discrete‐continuous modeling approach to distinguish between a corporation's decision to disclose and the linked but subsequent decision of how much to disclose climate change information. Results indicate that the main drivers of participation in voluntary carbon disclosure by the Global 500 firms is the existence of senior managers and executive‐level officers and the adoption of ESG principles by global businesses. Conditional on participation, European Union‐based and other global businesses that articulate a corporate vision for environmental sustainability, adopt ESG principles, and invest in complementary assets disclose climate change strategies and emissions at higher levels than companies without these internal firm capabilities. This study has implications for national climate policy and global climate change governance more generally, both of which increasingly focus on concrete climate solutions by corporations.     

Transnational Corporations and Urban Development

Transnational corporations (TNCs) in Africa play significant roles in controlling utilities, privately appropriating common resources, and planning urban space. On the one hand, the extralegal powers of TNCs are legitimized with patronizing discourses about the incompetence of African nations in managing their own affairs and with the specter of a “resource curse” that supposedly immobilizes the self‐governing capacities of Africans. On the other hand, TNCs arrogate to themselves statutory municipal power, ignore or manipulate various channels of accountability, and privately appropriate sociallycreated rents. Some critics of TNCs propose a withdrawal from globalization or greater regulation to limit the power of TNCs. But protectionist or isolationist approaches are entirely mistaken and further undermine the social management of the commons in Africa. Instead, Africans should seek directly to break the chains of monopoly and oligopoly, especially over natural resources. They should also strive to use land for the common good and to systematically build social states in Africa to overcome subservience to TNCs. While previous attempts at autonomous development in Africa have sometimes led to military action by former colonizers and current neo‐colonial imperialists, recent evidence from Africa suggests that such a strategy might succeed now. This article proposes to extend the politics of urban reform in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era in the United States to contemporary Africa. In doing so, it shows how African cities today are working to create local capacity by municipalizing services that have been privatized, such as distribution of water. Despite many obstacles posed by TNCs and their home governments, Africans are making great strides to overcome the enduring legacies of colonialism.     

Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: event study cases

This paper examines how the U.S. capital market perceives corporate social responsibilities (CSRs) by examining the constituent companies of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and explores whether the implementation of CSR policies and verification by independent organizations contribute to variances in financial performance . This paper also examines different events (i.e., nominations, inclusions, and awards) in the analysis of how much importance investors place on CSR. The results show that investors do not exhibit significant recognition of U.S. companies included in the DJSI. However, when CSR becomes common practice within a given industry, certification by independent third parties regarding CSR policies conveys actual benefits to corporate performance. In addition, this paper compares degrees of CSR recognition between investors in the United States and investors in Taiwan. This study uses the Awards of Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility given by Common Wealth Magazine to assess whether investors form different expectations of CSR based on company size. The results indicate that Taiwanese investors are increasingly aware of CSRs and the awards received by mid-sized companies show significant impacts. Changes in share prices for mid-sized companies are slower than for large companies. This paper argues that CSR policies not only enhance reputation but also lead to good financial performance. Companies are encouraged to take an active attitude toward CSR by understanding the relevant costs.     

The liability of mimicry: Implementing “global human resource management standards” in United States and Indian subsidiaries of a South Korean multinational enterprise

There is increasing evidence that multinational enterprises (MNEs) from less dominant economies tend to mimic and disseminate human resource management (HRM) practices sourced from a dominant economy, usually the United States, to overcome their “liabilities of origin.” However, our understanding of the specific challenges involved in the implementation of such practices by firms across different national and subsidiary contexts remains limited. Drawing on evidence from a case study of a South Korean MNE, we examine the extent to which, and ways in which, global HRM policies mimicking U.S. practices are implemented across its sales, manufacturing, and research and development subsidiaries in the United States and India. We find discernible differences in the implementation of the global policies both between the two host country sites and across the three function-specific subsidiaries in each country, identifying a range of national and subsidiary-specific factors that inform these variable implementation outcomes. In addition to legitimacy challenges related to the source, appropriateness, and process of transfer, we note a unique form of legitimacy challenge—“the liability of mimicry”—whereby local actors can challenge head office policies on the basis of a claim to superior expertise in the dominant practices, as a particular concern of MNEs from emerging economies.     

Birth of the Modern Corporation: From Servant of the State to Semi‐Sovereign Power

It is widely known that large business corporations have accumulated enormous political and economic power since the early 20^th century. They not only create barriers to entry to small firms in the economic domain, they also pose a serious threat to democracy by dominating public discourse and occupying a wide range of public spaces. Efforts to halt or reverse the growth of corporate power have been largely ineffective, in large part because they have been entirely reactive. In order for citizens to reclaim the economy and politics, a new strategy is necessary, one that starts by analyzing the source of corporate power. The method of analysis in this article is historical, specifically the history of changes in the United States of the legal instruments of incorporation and their relationship to emerging conditions in the economy and business. In the first half of the 19^th century, corporations were chartered by state governments to carry out public benefit activities, particularly infrastructure projects. These mixed corporations lost favor during the depression of the 1840s and were replaced by private for‐profit corporations that continued using the same debt financing instruments employed by states. They were also still regulated by the states that issued their charters. When corporations sought to avoid competition by creating cartels, they had difficulty maintaining discipline and discovered they needed new rights in order to gain permanent control of markets. In the 1890s, they were granted the status of “natural persons,” with the legal protections of citizens, but they also gained the right to buy other corporations, thereby solidifying their market power and making them largely autonomous from public control. Each transition was contested, but when it was completed, it seemed to the public as if corporations had always had their new powers. In order to regain the power to hold corporations accountable to the public, those old contested issues need to be brought back into public discourse, so that citizens might decide for themselves how much power corporations should have.