Team innovation in retail services: the role of ambidextrous leadership and team learning

Service Business - Drawing upon the ambidextrous leadership theory for innovation, this study investigates the role of opening and closing leadership behaviors in both exploratory and exploitative...     

The dynamics of textile firm responses to the restriction of endocrine disrupting surfactants: a Vietnam case study

Abstract

Since textile industry has been claimed to endanger the environment and human health, the insight of textile firm behavior regarding chemical use and discharge is vital for designing environmental risk management strategies. This study aimed to explore the dynamics of responses to the restriction of nonylphenol (NP) and its ethoxylates (NPEOs) among the Vietnamese textile manufacturers from the perspectives of attitude and the perceptions of adaptabilities, risks, benefits, and barriers. The chemicals are used as surfactants and are known to be responsible for endocrine disrupting effects. In-depth interviews were conducted with technical specialists from four textile firms and one chemical supplier. Regulatory and market situations with regards to the chemicals were also assessed. The findings revealed varied responses to chemical elimination where perceived technical risk, financial risk, benefits, and barriers played different roles in driving a certain action. The attitude towards chemical restriction was shaped by the trade-off between perceptions of financial risk and benefits and was moderated by market strategy. Efforts, such as enhanced washing or reductions in the dose of NP/NPEOs, imply the potency of continuous discharge of these chemicals into the environment, suggesting critical investigations on NP/NPEOs removal to prioritize actions for balancing between economic growth and environmental protection. Poor access to new policies and technological and chemical innovations was the most important barrier among private firms, highlighting the roles of non-governmental textile and garment industrial/trade associations in enhancing their members’ informative capacity. The study reflects the significance of incorporation of firm behavior research into environmental risk management practice.     

Economic policy uncertainty and firm tax avoidance

We find strong evidence that firms reduce cash effective tax rate when economic policy uncertainty heightens. Firms also engage in more aggressive forms of tax avoidance including long-term tax planning or shelters. Cash holdings attenuate the negative effect of policy uncertainty on cash effective tax rate, especially for financially constrained firms. The cash tax savings are retained for reinvestments rather than dividend payouts. Our findings suggest that policy uncertainty exacerbates external financing frictions, which in turn induces precautionary motives of tax avoidance.     

Does Tourism Improve the Community’s Well-Being in Marine-Protected Areas?

International Advances in Economic Research -     

Invoice currency choice,nonlinearities and exchange rate pass-through

ABSTRACT

Estimating time-varying thresholds as a proxy for exporter’s predicted exchange rates, this study proposes a new approach to analyse possible asymmetric behaviour of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) or pricing-to-market (PTM) in Japanese exports between yen appreciation and depreciation periods. Constructing the industry-specific nominal effective exchange rate on a contract (invoice) currency basis, we perform the multivariate threshold near-vector autoregressive (near-MTVAR) estimation and reveal a strong tendency of symmetric ERPT in the short-run, between yen appreciation and depreciation periods. From the 2000s, however, Japanese machinery exporters increased the degree of PTM even in the long-run, while other industries raised the degree of long-run ERPT, reflecting the difference of product differentiation across industries. This evidence has significant implications for the recent unresponsiveness of the Japanese trade balance to the large depreciation of the yen.     

Concentration of land holdings: An empirical exploration of Kuznets' conjecture

According to Kuznets (1963), the dynamics of the maldistribution process starts from an initial unequal income distribution, then through a cumulative effect, a high concentration of asset holdings is induced which in turn contributes to a high concentration of income. In other words, unequal income distribution tends to be self-perpetuated and unequal asset holdings is a medium of such process. The literature on rural income distribution seems to suggest a different emphasis by assigning a more crucial role to asset holdings, i.e., land, in the explanation of unequal income distribution. This study shows, via a simultaneous equation model and a multi-nation cross-sectional set of data, that both the land and income concentration ratios are positively related. Of the two rival conjectures of emphasis, the empirical evidence lends support in the general case to Kuznets, that is, over the entire range of countries, developed and less-developed, inequality in income seems to cause inequality in land holdings rather than vice-versa In the specific case of less developed countries, it is the high concentration of land holdings that influences the unequal distribution of income.     

The Relationship Between Output Growth and Unemployment: A Re-examination of Okun's Law in Australia

In this article, we investigate the questions of whether some form of Okun's Law holds for Australia, and if so whether the Okun relationship has been stable. The results indicate that alternative formulations of the ‘law’ do not give rise to numerically similar parameter estimates. Nevertheless, one of these formulations yields estimates which appear to be both plausible and consistent with results from previous analyses. This particular formulation suggests that Okun's relationship in Australia underwent a structural change around 1974. The parameter estimates obtained can be regarded as rules of thumb which may be useful in discussing broad consequences of policy actions.     

The role of natural resources in trade patterns among the U.S., Japan,and other countries in the Asian Pacific Rim

The Role of Natural Resources in Trade Patterns among the US, Japan, and Other Countries in the Asian Pacific Rim. —The paper investigates the role natural resources play in shaping the trade patterns of both the US and Japan in trading with each other and with country groups in the Asian Pacific Rim. It has been argued that it is the US’s effective exploitation of natural resource endowment which was instrumental in that country’s rise to economic preeminence at the turn of this century. Given that the US relative resource abundance has diminished after the Second World War, one would expect to see the declining role of resources in American exports. Using data for 1973, 1982, and 1991, the empirical results indicate clearly that natural resources continue to play a critical role in explaining the more recent bilateral trade patterns.     

The power of control: the acquisition decisions of newly public dual-class firms

Many private firms that go public opt for a dual-class share structure which gives insiders stronger voting power, at the expense of shareholder democracy. We examine how the dual-class structure influences the merger decisions of newly public firms, which have a notable appetite for acquisitions. Specifically, we compare acquisition activity, method of payment choice, and the long-run value implications of acquisitions by newly public single-class and dual-class US companies. Our results show that dual-class IPO firms make relatively more acquisitions in innovative industries and are less likely to pay with stock as compared to single-class IPO firms. The reluctance of dual-class firms to pay with stock is positively related to the wedge between the insiders’ voting rights and cash-flow rights. We also find that newly-public dual-class acquirers perform better in the long-run than newly-public single-class acquirers, mainly due to dual-class acquisitions in innovative industries. Our multivariate analysis shows that these findings hold after controlling for relevant risk factors associated with industry, deal, and firm specific characteristics. These results suggest that the dual class structure may enable newly-public firms to make better M&A decisions after going public.