Do the ASEAN countries and Taiwan form a common currency area?

Common currency areas and Asian common currency areas in particular are highly topical and somewhat controversial areas for research. We explore the hypothesis that the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meet necessary conditions for forming a common currency area and whether Taiwan appears a natural member of such an area. We test data on the ASEAN countries and Taiwan for consistency with a common currency area. We produce the first evidence that these five ASEAN countries and the ASEAN countries plus Taiwan meet the microeconomic criteria to form a common currency area.     

‘Enhancing the Creative Process for Learning in Primary Technology Education’

When undertaking design and technology activities, children are provided with opportunities to create solutions to problems in new and innovative ways. The mental processes involved in the generation of new ideas may be enhanced when children’s attention is not focussed and is allowed to wander in a relaxed and uncompetitive environment. Research indicates that the two mental states, generative and non-generative, cannot exist simultaneously. This paper reports on a research project which investigated the impact on children’s thinking when a period of non-focussed thinking became part of the technology process. The results support the previous proposition that a child’s non-generative/analytical mental state needs to give way to a generative state so that a child can be more fully creative. Moreover, from this study that documented children’s ideas during their involvement in a design and technology activity, teachers are urged to provide an incubation period as part of the technological process in the classroom, so that children’s creativity can be fostered.     

From leisure to labour: towards a typology of the motivations,structures and experiences of work-related blogging

Beyond a purely social activity, mode of leisure or form of escape, blogging is an increasingly important form of labour that is becoming central to many jobs, occupations and forms of self-employment. Yet, the labour dynamics of blogging remain poorly understood and articulated. To address this gap, this paper presents a novel typology of work-related blogging based on the integration of existing knowledge, an in-depth qualitative analysis of 10 blogs and 1,304 blog posts and a ‘total social organisation of labour’ framework. It contributes to the sociology of work by unpacking and nuancing our collective understanding of the relationships between blogging, labour market mobility and labour market trends such as the fragmentation of work, the heightened significance of unpaid labour and new forms of resistance and solidarity in the digital age.     

What we will do versus what we can do: The relative effects of unit‐level NPD motivation and capability

Although a firm's innovation performance has been commonly attributed to its innovative capability, in a study of 102 Chinese automobile assemblers, we find that employees' collective motivation for new product development (NPD) is more important than NPD capability in determining firms' innovation performance. This finding suggests that researchers need to simultaneously consider both unit‐level capability and unit‐level motivation in studying the mechanisms that drive innovation. Furthermore, our results indicate that a firm's strategic orientation focusing on NPD affects its employees' collective NPD motivation and NPD capability through relevant, mediating HRM practices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Systemic Bank Risk in Brazil: A Comprehensive Simulation of Correlated Market, Credit, Sovereign and Inter-Bank Risks

In this study we present a comprehensive forward‐looking portfolio simulation methodology for assessing the correlated impacts of market risk, private sector and Sovereign credit risk, and inter‐bank default risk. In order to produce better integrated risk assessment for banks and systemic risk assessments for financial systems, we argue that reasonably detailed modeling of bank asset and liability structures, loan portfolio credit quality, and loan concentrations by sector, region and type, as well as a number of financial and economic environment risk drivers, is required. Sovereign and inter‐bank default risks are increasingly important in the current economic environment and their inclusion is an important model extension. This extended model is demonstrated through an application to both individual Brazilian banks (i.e., 28 of the largest banks) and groups of banks (i.e., the Brazilian banking system) as of December 2004. When omitting Sovereign risk, our analysis indicates that none of the banks face significant default risk over a 1‐year horizon. This low default risk stems primarily from the large amount of government securities held by Brazilian banks, but also reflects the banks' adequate capitalizations and extraordinarily high interest rate spreads. We note that none of the banks which we modeled failed during the very stressful 2007‐2008 period, consistent with our results. Our results also show that a commonly used approach of aggregating all banks into one single bank, for purposes of undertaking a systemic banking system risk assessment, results in a misestimate of both the probability and the cost of systemic banking system failures. Once Sovereign risk is considered and losses in the market value of government securities reach 10% (or higher), we find that several banks could fail during the same time period. These results demonstrate the well known risk of concentrated lending to a borrower, or type of borrower, which has a non‐zero probability of default (e.g., the Government of Brazil). Our analysis also indicates that, in the event of a Sovereign default, the Government of Brazil would face constrained debt management alternatives. To the best of our knowledge no one else has put forward a systematic methodology for assessing bank asset, liability, loan portfolio structure and correlated market and credit (private sector, Sovereign, and inter‐bank) default risk for banks and banking systems. We conclude that such forward‐looking risk assessment methodologies for assessing multiple correlated risks, combined with the targeted collection of specific types of data on bank portfolios, have the potential to better quantify overall bank and banking system risk levels, which can assist bank management, bank regulators, Sovereigns, rating agencies, and investors to make better informed and proactive risk management and investment decisions.     

Business model fashion and the academic spinout firm

Studies indicate that most European new, technology–based firms (NTBFs) have been founded by relatively senior, highly–educated personnel coming from existing companies. These founders already have strong, industry and market links. A relatively small proportion have spun out of university or other public research facilities. However, this latter group has attracted particular attention from several interested groups, including governments and the scientific establishment. For governments, this has appeared to offer a means whereby public policy could have a direct and significant impact on economic development. Hence substantial public resources are increasingly being committed to support these developments in most industrialised countries. The founders of HEI spinouts are often academics aiming to commercialise nascent technologies and they face challenges which are less likely to arise for the founder with an industry background. The emerging technologies often commercialised in academic spinouts may have many potential applications. At the outset founders must make critical strategic choices of applications to develop, if they are to attract the substantial resources often needed for the risky development process. Some of these choices need an understanding of changing fashions in business models and investors' current preferences for particular industries. It is a difficult challenge for academic founders with little prior market knowledge and linkages, and no previous experience of professional investors and their requirements, to select the applications and business models which will support successful venture creation. This paper explores a number of key issues which surround these decisions and their relation to the changing business environment. It is concluded that the acceptability of novel technologies and products is mediated by systemic interactions which are ill–understood by industry and government.     

Women's Groups in British Unions

Women's groups in unions are collective spaces within which women seek to advance their concerns and access empowering positions. This paper examines their pursuit of gender equality in unions. The need to explore unions and women's groups is heightened by women's significance as a source of union membership, and the connection between union revitalization and responsiveness to women. The paper uses case studies of two unions, MSF and USDAW, and seven women's groups. The analysis is structured by a typology of two frameworks: (i) a typology of gendered equality ideas derived from various literatures, and (ii) the dynamic and linked dimensions of Hyman's (1994) union organization model. Implications for research and theory, and for union policy and practice, are discussed.     

Absorptive capacity,learning, and performance in international joint ventures

This paper proposes and tests a model of IJV learning and performance that segments absorptive capacity into the three components originally proposed by Cohen and Levinthal (1990). First, trust between an IJV's parents and the IJV's relative absorptive capacity with its foreign parent are suggested to influence its ability to understand new knowledge held by foreign parents. Second, an IJV's learning structures and processes are proposed to influence its ability to assimilate new knowledge from those parents. Third, the IJV's strategy and training competence are suggested to shape its ability to apply the assimilated knowledge. Revisiting the Hungarian IJVs studied by Lyles and Salk (1996) 3 years later, we find support for the knowledge understanding and application predictions, and partial support for the knowledge assimilation prediction. Unexpectedly, our results suggest that trust and management support from foreign parents are associated with IJV performance but not learning. Our model and results offer a new perspective on IJV learning and performance as well as initial insights into how those relationships change over time. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Onesource Corporate Consulting,Inc.: Tax and financial reporting considerations

This case places you in the role of a new staff accountant at a public accounting firm who is asked to research financial accounting and tax issues for a client engagement. The client, Onesource Corporate Consulting, Inc. is a large, rapidly growing and successful consulting firm that specializes in corporate restructuring work, forensic investigations, litigation consulting, strategic communications consulting, economic consulting, and technology development. You must research issues affecting the company’s financial statements and tax reporting, including: contingent debt, forgivable loans issued to employees, revenue recognition for various types of contracts, and lease incentives. You will likely find this case challenging. However, this case is based on a real company and the research and analysis required in this case is reflective of issues and assignments you may encounter early in your career.