Client corruption culture and audit quality: the conditioning effect of the competitive position of the incumbent auditor

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Prior research suggests that corporate corruption culture captures an audit client’s general attitude towards opportunistic behavior. In this...     

The electric vehicle revolution: Critical material supply chains,trade and development

The emergence of a mass market for electric vehicles (EVs) offers development opportunities for countries that have abundant resources of cobalt, nickel, lithium, copper, aluminium and manganese. Not surprisingly, developing countries have proposed ambitious plans to expand production of these raw materials. However, an observation from the resource curse literature is that strong institutions are required if they are to mitigate the risk of poorly directed, often excessively procyclical, investment, not least because of the complexity, opacity and price volatility of many raw materials utilised by global EV value chains. This paper examines the outlook for EV demand and associated raw material usage paying attention to the drivers and sensitivities required to assess and track future market transformations. These end use shifts are then placed in the context of the broader supply chain adjustments and trends shaping the demand. For resource exporters, adapting to structural change will require fiscal, regulatory, environmental and institution reforms designed to capture shifting patterns of resource wealth in a way which takes appropriate account of comparative advantages in specific value chains and mitigates adverse environmental and social consequences from their extraction and processing.     

Covid-19 in America: Global supply chain reconsidered

This research asks: To what extent has America's reliance on the global supply network aggravated the country's public health and economic crisis; and how did the American government respond to supply chain weaknesses during the early years of the Covid-19 pandemic? This study first assesses important conceptual considerations that explain the expansion of global value chains and the growth of trade interdependencies among nations. Next, an analytical case study observes (1) America's supply chain vulnerability through three major waves of infection, (2) the difficulty to mend weaknesses in the supply linkages once the novel coronavirus spread globally and (3) American government's failures to both anticipate and respond to supply shortages, especially in the health sector. Trump administration's policies failed to ensure a reliable supply of simple personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare professionals and hospitals throughout the first three waves of infection. Moreover, state and federal governments' substantial reliance on large manufacturers who have established procurement relationship with government led to continuous nationwide supply shortages throughout 2020. The federal government's inability to engage small and medium manufacturers in the production of critical supplies of PPE and diagnostic tests deepened and prolonged the devastating impacts of the pandemic. Our case study demonstrates that the American government needs to rethink the country's substantial reliance on the global supply chain, and the specific requirements to boost domestic manufacturing capacity. The revitalisation of America's manufacturing ability and the local supply networks will boost the productive power of the nation, strengthen resiliency, reduce vulnerability in disruptive times and prepare the nation for future crises.     

Measuring the Connectedness of the Global Economy

We develop a technique to exploit forecast error variance decompositions to evaluate the macroeconomic connectedness embedded in any multi-country macroeconomic model with an approximate vector autoregressive (VAR) representation. We apply our technique to a large global VAR model covering 25 countries and derive vivid representations of macroeconomic connectedness. We find that the US exerts a dominant influence in the global economy and that Brazil, China, and the Eurozone are also globally significant. Recursive analysis over the period of the global financial crisis shows that shocks to global equity markets are transmitted rapidly and forcefully to real trade flows and real GDP.     

Das RCEP-Abkommen und dessen Bedeutung für die EU

Wirtschaftsdienst - Im November 2020 wurde das RCEP-Abkommen als größtes Freihandelsabkommen der Welt von Brunei, Kambodscha, Indonesien, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, den Philippinen,...     

Performance implications of market orientation,marketing resources,and marketing capabilities

Abstract

Drawing on the competitive capability theory, this paper examines how market orientation, marketing resources, and marketing capabilities contribute to firm performance. The empirical results show that being market oriented influences the level of marketing resources firms possess and the capability to deploy such resources. The findings show marketing resources and marketing capabilities are significant drivers of firm performance, and their impact is greater when they are complementary to each other.     

Cross‐modal Interactions between Color and Texture of Food

Color has a profound influence on human perception. Not only does it cause changes in physiological or emotional states, it can shape what is perceived in other sensory modalities. However, the body of research on these “cross‐modal” experiences has predominantly examined color's influence on taste and smell. As such, the aim of this study was to identify the cross‐modal influence of color on the sense of touch. In four experiments involving food products, the cross‐modal interaction between color and texture was found to be automatic, unlearned, and a moderating effect on perceived texture. Furthermore, results indicate a person's haptic predisposition, or “need for touch,” influences their sensitivity to these cross‐modal effects. This research builds on current theory involving color, presents a number of areas for future research, and discusses managerial implications of color–texture cross‐modal interactions.