Managerial Values Across Cultures: Australia, Hong Kong and the United States

The relationship between personal managerial values and a range of important organisational variables has increasingly been recognised. Personal values are shaped by the wider cultural milieu in which the individual is socialised. Managers from different cultural contexts may therefore be expected to possess different work and business-related values. However, exposure to a more universalistic managerial ethos may also generate a degree of similarity in managerial values across cultural contexts. In order to examine these issues, the values and expectations of managers in Hong Kong (N = 653), Australia (N = 505) and the United States (N = 1,060) were compared. Both differences and similarities were revealed, leading to speculations about the relative impact of culture versus roles on managerial values.     

A model depicting the relations among perceived stressors,role conflict and organizational commitment: A comparative analysis of Hong Kong and the United States

As managers and employees from different cultures begin to encounter one another in the workplace, the need arises to understand how organizational variables relate differentially based on one's culture. This study attempts to provide a preliminary examination of the relationship between stressors, sources of conflict and job commitment across two differing cultures, specifically the United States and Hong Kong. Although more similarities than differences between the two cultures were found, this study provides at least preliminary evidence that members of different cultures may perceive some stressors differently and exhibit different relationships between stressors and work attitudes.     

Upward and downward influence tactics in managerial networks: A comparative study of Hong Kong Chinese and Americans

This paper reports an empirical investigation of individual preferences in the use of managerial influence tactics by Hong Kong Chinese and Americans. Subjects in a cross-cultural scenario study were asked to evaluate alternative upward and downward influence tactics in terms of their preferred usage. The findings indicate a main effect for culture and for direction of influence attempt. In addition, direction of influence attempt interacts with subject gender and culture on a tactic-by-tactic basis to reveal differences in influence preferences. Implications of the findings and directions for future studies are discussed.This research was supported by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The special assistance of Mimi Kam and Ricky Lam in back-translation of the research instruments is appreciated, as are the contributions of Joseph Raelin of Boston College and Harold Welsch of Depaul University in data collection.     

The impact of the regulatory framework on fixed-mobile interconnection settlements: the case of China and Hong Kong

Network interconnection is one of the most critical issues in the process of telecommunications deregulation. An improperly interconnected new network is not dissimilar to an isolated network, while network externality remains a concern for subscribers who are searching for demand-side economies of scope. Traditional studies mainly focus on formal mechanisms of setting an interconnection price, while this study indicates that an appropriate regulatory framework is also one of the most important factors in settling effective network interconnection arrangements.     

Strategies of upward influence: A cross-national comparison of Hong Kong and American managers

This study compares American and Hong Kong Chinese strategies for advancing in organisations. Evaluated are the likelihood of using a particular strategy, the perceived risk associated with each strategy, and the ethical appropriateness of the strategy. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine overall differences. Univariate analysis of variance identified the particular strategies that differentiated the American and Hong Kong respondents. For example, the Hong Kong Chinese were more likely to use informal information networks. The Americans were more likely to employ more individual strategies, such as image management, in order to differentiate themselves from the competition in their organisation.     

Cartel formation and pricing: The effect of managerial decision-making rules

We experimentally investigate how the managerial decision-making process affects choices in a Bertrand pricing game with an opportunity to form non-binding cartels. To do so we compare the effects of three decision-making rules for the firm (decisions by CEOs, majority rule and consensus) to each other and to decisions in a benchmark consisting of single-individual firms. It has been argued elsewhere that groups behave more competitively than individuals. In this setting this predicts that for all three decision-making rules we should observe fewer cartels and lower prices. This is not what we find. For the formation of cartels, there are no differences across treatments. For prices asked, we find that first, cartels lead to higher prices in all treatments, despite the fact that they are non-binding. Second, the decision-making rules strongly affect the prices asked. One thing that stands out is that firms run by CEOs ask higher prices (i.e., defect less often from the cartel) than observed in the other treatments.     

美欧玩具标准的比较

我国玩具出口以欧美地区为主,欧美的玩具政策和标准主导着世界各国政策的制定,通过研究欧美最近更新的法规,可以更好地掌握玩具标准法规的发展趋势。     

Social networks and opportunity recognition: A cultural comparison between Taiwan and the United States

This paper investigates the moderating effect of national cultural contexts on the relationship between social networks and opportunity recognition. Data obtained from Taiwan and the United States support the proposition that cultural contexts, specifically the individualism‐collectivism dimension, moderate the relationship between tie strength, structural holes, and opportunity recognition. Results indicate that in the United States, tie strength is negatively associated with opportunity identification and structural holes are positively associated with opportunity identification; whereas in Taiwan we find the opposite. The results also show that the interaction effect between bridging ties and tie strength on opportunity recognition varies depending on the cultural context. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategy implementation: A comparison of face-to-face negotiations in the peoples republic of China and the United States

Crucial to every business alliance are the face-to-face negotiations that occur during the formulation and maintenance of the commercial relationship. Our study of American and Chinese businesspeople in simulated intracultural negotiations suggests both similarities and differences in style. For example, negotiators in both cultures were more successful when taking a problem-solving approach. Alternatively, the Chinese negotiators tended to ask many more questions and to interrupt one another more frequently than their American counterparts. Such subtle differences in style may cause problems in Sino-American negotiations, which may, in turn, sour otherwise fruitful commercial alliances.     

美国《消费品安全改进法案》及变化动态——美国ASTMF963-08标准与中国GB6675标准对比

《美国消费品安全改进法案》的主要内容是：在全美建立统一的强制性国家标准;进一步规范含铅玩具;玩具上加贴可追溯性标签;将自愿性标准ASTMF963转化为强制性标准;对某些儿童产品实行强制性第三检测;对玩具中的6种邻苯二甲酸盐实施控制。     

The impact of liberalization on the scope of efficiency improvement in electricity-generating portfolios for the United States and Switzerland

In this study, Markowitz mean-variance portfolio theory is applied to electricity-generating technologies of the United States and Switzerland. Both an investor (focused on changes in return) and a current user (focused on return in levels) view are adopted to determine efficient frontiers of electricity generation technologies in terms of expected return and risk as of 2003. Since shocks in generation costs per kWh (the inverse of returns) are correlated, Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation (SURE) is used to filter out the systematic components of the covariance matrix. Results suggest that risk-averse investors and risk-neutral current users in the United States are considerably closer to their efficiency frontier than their Swiss counterparts. This may be due to earlier and more thorough deregulation of electricity markets in the United States.     

Merger Policy in the United States: A Reconsideration

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Industrialization and Values Evolution: The Case of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China

This field study evaluated the convergence, divergence, crossvergence, and multi-crossvergence perspectives of value system evolution in industrializing regions. Value differences were identified among graduating business university students in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and the United States. Specific value dimensions in this study reflected the primary influence of either industrialization or regional culture. Thus, our overall results suggest that both industrialization and culture influence the combination of values held in Hong Kong. This finding could be interpreted as supporting the crossvergence perspective of value system evolution. A more precise interpretation, however, is that some value dimensions converge with increasing industrialization, while others remain divergent.     

Municipal fiber in the United States: A financial assessment

Despite growing interest in broadband provided by municipally owned and operated fiber-to-the-home networks, the academic literature has yet to undertake a systematic assessment of these projects' financial performance. To fill this gap, we utilize municipalities' official reports to offer an empirical evaluation of the financial performance of every municipal fiber project in the U.S. operating in 2010 through 2019. An analysis of the actual performance of the resulting fifteen-project panel dataset reveals that none of the projects generated sufficient nominal cash flow in the short run to maintain solvency without infusions of additional cash from outside sources or debt relief. Similarly, 87% have not actually generated sufficient nominal cash flow to put them on track to achieve long-run solvency. In addition, 73% generated negative nominal cash flow over the past three fiscal years, leaving them poorly positioned to make up their deficits and causing them to fall farther into debt. An assessment based on the net present value of these projects' operating cash flow indicates that 53% of projects would not be on track to breakeven even assuming the theoretical best-case performance in terms of capital expenditures and debt service. Close analysis of these projects’ performance reveals that revenue generation likely plays a more important role in generating cash flow than efficiency in construction costs or operating efficiency.     

陈振东:关注两地经贸寄意教育发展

作为经济界、纺织服装界的委员,香港预发控股集团主席陈振东上交的提案达6份之多.他对中国经济形势和香港、内地经贸发展的特点以及合作有很多建设性认识.其提案的关注点不离这些方面.     

Gender and Technology in Hong Kong: A Study of Pupils' Attitudes Toward Technology

Attitudes play an important role in guiding and predicting future actions. In Hong Kong, where traditional attitudes regarding female and male roles often clash with more-modern influences, students' negative or positive attitudes toward technology have obvious implications for their participatory role in society. This paper reports on a study of Hong Kong Pupils' Attitudes Toward Technology. Items in a survey distributed to nearly 3,500 junior secondary school students were used to gauge their attitudes toward several areas of technology. Questions related to parents' careers and domestic influences were also asked.The analysis revealed that significant differences existed between girls and boys in many of the items. For instance, the importance of taking technical subjects such as Design & Technology (D&T) was found to be significant in their attitudes about technology being an activity for both genders. Similarly, students' interest in technology, attitudes about technology in the school curriculum, and ideas about careers related to technology showed significant differences between girls and boys. Given the results of the study, changes in Hong Kong's secondary school D&T are proposed. Current strategies being developed in Hong Kong's D&T teacher preparation programs are also outlined.     

34届香港玩具展元月7日开幕同期举办第8期香港国际文具展

由香港贸易发展局（贸发局）主办的香港玩具展规模为亚洲之最，在全球排名第二，第34届的展览将于2008年1月7日至10日于香港会议展览中心举行。