Getting the best solution from a supplier – A social capital perspective

Due to the current shift towards solution provision in many industrial markets, buyers are under increasing pressure to develop sourcing strategies to procure custom solutions for their firm in order to achieve competitive advantage. The question arises as to how buyers can ensure they get the best solutions from their suppliers and whether social capital can be applied to improve solution provision processes and value creation. Existing empirical research, however, has paid only little attention to the antecedents of suppliers’ solution provision performance, i.e., their capability to diagnose buyer needs and to design and implement solutions to meet them. We tested how social capital dimensions (relational, cognitive, and structural) relate to solution provision. The study uses empirical data obtained from a survey of 475 suppliers representing both manufacturing and service industries. Partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) and polynomial regression were used to analyze the data. The results demonstrate that the availability of social capital in a buyer-supplier relationship is a relevant antecedent to successful solution provision activities. However, the different dimensions of social capital are found to compensate for each other to some extent. Our study further demonstrates that solution provision is not a monolithic activity but can better be understood as a multi-phase process (diagnosis, solution design, and implementation). Different aspects of social capital may have a different impact depending on the phase of solution provision. The successful diagnosis of buyer needs mediates the effect of social capital on solution design and implementation. It is also found that production characteristics of a buyer and the type of a supplier solution affect the role of social capital in solution provision process.     

Is evil rewarded with evil? The market penalty effect of corporate environmentally irresponsible events

The negative response of the capital market to environmentally irresponsible events is an important governance mechanism that motivates enterprises to assume environmental responsibility. Based on the theory of effective markets and organizational legitimacy, this paper takes corporate environmentally irresponsible events in Chinese environmentally sensitive industries during the period of 2014–2018 as a research sample, and our work uses the event study methodology to explore the penalty effect of the capital market from a mathematical empirical and case empirical dimension. Furthermore, this research discusses the spillover effect of corporate environmentally irresponsible events in the capital markets. The empirical results show that once an irresponsible event is exposed, it causes a significant negative cumulative abnormal return (CAR) in the short term, and the difference between the industry and the ownership type leads to a significant difference in the duration and impact of the penalty effect. More interestingly, the capital market's penalty for corporate environmentally irresponsible events may have a notable industry spillover effect, but there are differences between the penalty effect and the spillover effect in different markets. This paper confirms that the penalty mechanism of the capital market related to an environmentally irresponsible event can effectively restrain the behaviour of the company involved and the industry to which it belongs, and it may also provide a new way for the government to build an eco‐environmental protection system of multisubject “co‐governance” and bring the punitive “forced” mechanism of the capital market to bear on corporate environmentally responsible behaviour.     

人力资本投资行为异化研究

企业人力资本投资行为是企业可持续发展的战略性资源投资行为,是企业取得核心竞争力的关键因素。本文通过搜集和分析十大创新型企业的人力资本投资数据,描述我国企业人力资本投资行为的异化现状,并找出异化原因,提出解决方法,为理论界提供新的研究数据,也为实务界提供新的决策依据。     

Contingent factors of the coinsurance function of internal capital markets: Evidence from the US nonlife insurance industry

By analyzing intragroup reinsurance activities in the US nonlife insurance sector from 1999 to 2016, we provide evidence that the coinsurance function of internal capital markets is contingent on internal capital providers’ financial resources and the relative sizes of capital receivers within the group. We demonstrate that insurance groups commonly use intragroup reinsurance (a substitute for capital) to support insurers that sustain underwriting losses. Larger insurers are more likely to obtain internal reinsurance if their affiliated insurers hold more financial resources. Our findings show that the financial capabilities of group members providing support affect the feasibility of the coinsurance function through the activities of internal capital markets. Group members with greater influence are more likely to benefit from the coinsurance function.     

Financial crises and economic growth

This paper constructs a simple yet robust model of financial crises and economic growth where financial markets affect real economic activity. Financial markets increase real output by facilitating investment through the borrowing/lending of capital. However, the borrowing of capital is risky due to randomness in the firms’ production. Financial crises occur when output and liquid capital are insufficient to meet required loan payments and systemic defaults occur. In this model, a financial crisis caused by systemic defaults can shift the economy from an equilibrium with positive borrowing/lending to an equilibrium with no borrowing/lending. In this no-lending equilibrium, neither traditional fiscal or monetary policy tools are effective in increasing output. Fiscal and monetary policy can only increase the likelihood of the equilibrium evolving to a borrowing/lending equilibrium.     

基于专业分工视角的物流活动演进分析

物流与供应链在当前国民经济发展中发挥着越来越重要的作用,但是二者之间的演进关系仍然困扰了该领域的研究者和实践者。文章在充分的文献回顾基础上,以专业化分工作为分析的基本立足点,通过交易成本理论对物流活动的演化过程进行深入分析。研究表明,物流管理和供应链管理都是专业分工进一步深化的结果;供应链比传统物流活动具有更低的协调成本,而且供应链在更广泛的意义上考虑生产成本,以及产品的需求状况等。     

制造业聚集、知识溢出与区域创新绩效——以我国医药、电子及通讯设备制造业为例的实证研究

本文的目的是探讨制造业生产行为聚集所产生的各类知识溢出对区域创新绩效的影响。这些溢出包括知识的专业化溢出、多样化溢出和空间溢出。对我国医药、电子及通讯设备制造业实证分析的结果显示,知识的专业化溢出对两类制造业的区域创新存在积极影响;多样化溢出对医药制造业区域创新绩效的影响为正,对电子及通讯设备制造业的影响为负。实证结果表明,各类知识溢出对区域创新绩效的影响存在行业间差异和国家间差异。     

Structure and Location of Innovative Activity in the Italian Economy, 1981–85

An ‘innovative activity matrix’ is established from a recent ISTAT/CNR survey of innovation. After specifying the particularities of an innovative activity matrix in comparison with other flow matrices, we show that it is asymmetrical and clustered in parts of economic space. The structure of the innovative activity matrix is similar to that of the domestic and import requirement but not the capital flow matrix. Strong correlations indicate the following: that input–output analysis is useful for identifying the location of innovative activities in economic space; that it can be analyzed in an economically meaningful way; that its location is structured; and that, furthermore, it is structured in ways which are statistically related to economic activity. The paper ends with suggestions for the examination of possible causal relationships.     

Economic convergence: Policy implications from a heterogeneous agent model

In this paper we study the effectiveness of different types of cohesion policies with respect to convergence of regions. A two-region agent-based macroeconomic model is used to analyze short-, medium- and long-term effects of policies improving human capital and fostering adoption of technologies in lagging regions. With fully integrated labor markets the human capital policy positively affects the economically stronger region but reduces production in the targeted weaker region. Subsidies for high technology investment in the weaker region have a positive local output effect and a negative effect on the neighboring region, thereby fostering convergence. When labor markets are not integrated both policies support convergence.     

国际垂直专业化的测量及差异分析

根据Hummels et al.Hummels al.(2001)的国际垂直专业化指数,采用中国的投入产出表,从承接国(或地区)视角,测量中国27个工业行业1997-20111997 2011年的国际垂直专业化程度,并借鉴北京大学中国经济研究中心课题组(2006)的方法,测算中国与OECD国家和非OECD国家(或地区)的国际垂直专业化程度。研究结果表明:加入WTO后,中国的国际垂直专业化程度上升较快,分行业来看,资本密集型行业(包括技术密集型行业)的国际垂直专业化程度得到较快提升,而劳动密集型行业的国际垂直专业化程度较低;分伙伴国(或地区)来看,中国与OECD国家的垂直专业化程度更高,主要是高技术密集型行业,但是中国与非OECD国家(或地区)各行业的垂直专业化程度上涨幅度较大,尤其是资本密集型行业。     

Real Earnings Management and Information Asymmetry in the Equity Market

The literature suggests that real earnings management (REM) activities can increase adverse selection risk in capital markets. Due to their opacity and the difficulties in understanding their implications, REM strategies may increase the level of information asymmetry among investors. This paper examines the association between earnings management through real activities manipulation and information asymmetry in the equity market. To estimate the level of adverse selection risk we use a comprehensive index of information asymmetry measures proposed by the market microstructure literature. For a sample of Spanish listed firms, we find that firms’ strategies of increasing earnings through REM are associated with higher information asymmetry in those firms that meet last year’s earnings. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that earnings management through real activities manipulation garbles the market, enhances private information production, and exacerbates information asymmetry in the stock market.     

The short and long-run impact of globalization if firms differ in factor input ratios

Empirical evidence has shown that exporters are more capital intensive than non-exporters. Based on this evidence, I construct a two-factor general equilibrium model with firm heterogeneity in factor intensities, monopolistic competition, scale economies and international trade. This setting can explain several empirical regularities on international trade, factor market competition, factor relocations and factor returns: (i) exporters are more capital intensive than non-exporters, regardless of a country's relative factor endowments; (ii) finite supply of capital limits a country's export activities; (iii) trade liberalization increases the relative return to capital; (iv) new profit opportunities in export markets change the distribution of firms towards the more capital intensive ones. Finally, I extend the setting to endogenous capital accumulation and show that trade liberalization induces economic growth and, in the long-run, benefits all factors in real terms.     

Product market integration,wage dispersion and unemployment

International product market integration enhances both the export possibility of supplying to foreign markets and the import threat of foreign firms penetrating into domestic markets. These mechanisms affect labour markets since they amount to increased job mobility. At the same time heterogeneity may increase since it is unlikely that the opportunities and threats are uniformly distributed across different groups/sectors. In a Ricardian trade model admitting heterogeneity in the labour market, it is shown that lower trade frictions are associated with aggregate welfare gains, increased trade and specialization, but also more dispersion in wages. Structural labour market problems caused by union market power are reduced while those caused by minimum (reservation) wages are strengthened.     

浅谈高职院校产学视角下的装饰艺术

装饰艺术涉及各个产业的艺术设计,具有广阔的社会与经济基础,同时又具有不断发展的前沿性。装饰艺术设计已不是传统的文化价值意义,而是与现代社会经济市场息息相关的学科,它将改变一个国家的创新设计能力,提升民族多元化社会形态的价值观念。在此意义上,高校的装饰艺术学科也因此改革,与市场接轨,产学结合。     

Institutions for Financial Development: What are they and where do they come from?

Abstract.  Among the fundamental causes of long-run economic performance, differences in 'institutions' have received considerable attention in recent years. At the same time, a large body of theoretical and empirical work shows that financial development can have a big effect on economic performance. This raises the more fundamental question as to why some countries have developed financial markets while others do not. This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical research on this issue and shows that one of the channels whereby better institutions may have an effect on economic development is through the consolidation of larger and better financial markets. An issue that is left aside in this paper relates to what regulations and policies lead to better functioning capital markets. At some level, one can think of regulations and policies as particular types of institutions. Nonetheless, institutional problems are deeper causes leading to poor economic performance; bad policies might simply be part of the channels through which they influence performance. Thus, addressing the question of what determines the emergence of 'good' institutions – i.e. institutions that promote financial development – seems particularly important. Recent research providing some answers to this question is also reviewed.     

Infrastructure Development and the Repositioning of Power in Three Mekong Region Capital Cities

Infrastructure — broadly defined to include road and rail networks, telecommunications, electricity and other utilities — offers both direct and indirect benefits to economic growth. The direct effects include employment and contracts for local firms, while its role as an enabling technology means that a multiplier effect is provided for the economy as a whole. Infrastructure also has a role to play in promoting the efficiency of governance and social cohesion. The relative importance of these factors varies according to the specific conditions applying within a geographical location. The Burmese capital, Naypyidaw, for example, has a symbolic status as the seat of postcolonial Burmese power, while also offering a strategic location from which to govern the country. The role of infrastructure in this case is to promote efficiency of rule and create a network in which the city can form a node connected with economically important locations. In Phnom Penh and Vientiane, by contrast, infrastructure is being used to both promote economic activities and link up with cross‐border markets. In all cases, albeit in different ways, capital cities are being repositioned within actual and emerging power networks in order to control and take advantage of processes of international capital accumulation.     

环境不确定性、内部控制质量与权益资本成本

以2008—2011年深沪两市A股公司为检验样本,检验了环境不确定性与内部控制对权益资本成本的影响。检验结果发现:环境不确定性与公司权益资本成本正相关,同时高质量的内部控制有助于缓解环境不确定性与资本成本之间的正相关关系,当公司被行业专长机构投资者持股时,这一缓解效应更为显著;进一步检验发现,与其他内部控制要素相比,拥有良好的内部控制环境更能够显著地缓解环境不确定性对资本成本的不利影响。     

The R&D knowledge base in city-agglomerations and knowledge searching in product innovative SMEs

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at the relation between the R&D knowledge base of city-agglomerations and knowledge sourcing in product innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The small open Belgian economy is used as a test case. The characteristics of the city-agglomeration’s R&D knowledge are posited to be instrumental for SMEs’ reliance on particular sources of information for innovation. The R&D knowledge base is studied as a multidimensional concept consisting of R&D capacity, R&D specialization and R&D diversification. A representative sample of product innovative SMEs drawn from two waves of the Community Innovation Survey between 2008 and 2012 reveals that a strong R&D capacity at city-agglomeration level favours private external information sources for innovation, but has no influence on the likelihood to rely on public sources for innovation. Accordance between specialization of the private R&D knowledge base and the SME’s activities positively influences the use of clients as information sources for innovation, whereas under these circumstances supplier responsiveness turns out to be less frequently solicited for. A more diversified private R&D environment reduces the reliance on universities and public research organizations as information sources for innovation. A public R&D knowledge base specialized in natural sciences or engineering favours information sources from universities.     

Non-linear causal linkages of EPU and gold with major cryptocurrencies during bull and bear markets

This paper sets out to explore whether the innovative Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) index and the safe haven asset of gold influence returns of high-capitalization cryptocurrencies in a non-linear manner. Estimations take place both concerning flourishing and stressed periods in the digital currency markets. Econometric outcomes reveal that the returns of almost half of the cryptocurrencies investigated are tightly connected to the EPU index in bull markets while even more currencies are linked with the index during bear markets. Similar findings are revealed as concerns gold as it proves to be more influential during bear markets due to its hedging capacities. There is also evidence that causality in variance is significant in all but the higher quantile concerning both EPU and gold estimations in both bull and bear markets.     

Scarcity, regulation and endogenous technical progress

This paper studies to which extent a firm using a scarce resource input and facing environmental regulation can still manage to have a sustainable growth of output and profits. The firm has a vintage capital technology with two complementary factors, capital and a resource input subject to quota, the latter being increasingly scarce through an exogenously rising price. The firm can scrap obsolete capital and invest in adoptive and/or innovative R&D resource-saving activities. Within this realistic framework, we first characterize long-term growth regimes driven by scarcity (induced-innovation) vs. long-term growth regimes driven by quota regulation (Porter-like innovation). More importantly, we study the interaction between scarcity and quota regulation. In particular, we show that there exists a threshold level for the growth rate of the resource price above which the Porter mechanism is killed while the scarcity-induced growth regime may emerge. Symmetrically, we also find that there must exist a threshold value for the environmental quota under which the growth regime induced by scarcity vanishes while the Porter-like growth regime may survive.