The China–US Trade War: Deep‐Rooted Causes,Shifting Focus and Uncertain Prospects

The USA has waged a trade war against China, whose rapid rise has come to be seen as a threat to US hegemony. Besides imposing additional tariffs on imported Chinese products, the USA is also tightening restrictions on the transfer of technology to China and the business activities of some Chinese high‐tech companies, notably Huawei. The escalation of the trade war into a tech war could lead to a decoupling between the US and Chinese economies, if not a world economy divided into two economic blocs that centered on them.     

Innovation Capacity and the Implementation of Eco‐innovation: Toward a Contingency Perspective

This study develops a framework by drawing on the perspectives of contingency theory to investigate how innovation capacity affects eco‐innovation. The examination covers four moderators, including customer requirement, export destination, environmental regulation and government subsidy, and focuses on the types of eco‐innovation concerning pollution and waste. A sample of 2964 manufacturing firms from the Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey is utilized to test the hypotheses. A moderated hierarchical logit method is adopted to analyze the data. The results overall suggest that the effect of innovation capacity on eco‐innovation depends on the levels of the four moderators. Specifically, the results show that innovation capacity has different effects on eco‐innovation when customers have a demand for eco‐innovation, export markets have high environmental awareness, future environmental regulations are expected, and the government provides a subsidy for environmental innovation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Predominant sources and contributors of influential business ethics research: evidence and implications from a threshold citation analysis

Influential or frequently cited business ethics research does not appear in a vacuum; our study reveals its predominant sources and contributors by discipline. By examining citations from articles published in three top business ethics journals (Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly and Business Ethics: A European Review) over the period 2004–2008, we document that the preponderance of influential business ethics research comes primarily from the management faculty. In addition, management journals and management books are the predominant sources for influential business ethics research. Further, among the management fields, organizational behavior and organizational structure predominate leadership and strategy as the major subject areas for influential business ethics research, suggesting that this influential body of research is focused on a micro rather than on a macro context. These empirical results lend credence to the perception that there is a silo effect in influential business ethics research and suggest that business ethics research in a micro context might have permeated to the teaching of business ethics.     

Political Connections and Firm Performance in Chinese Companies

This study uses panel data analysis to examine the relationship between political connections and firm performance in Chinese firms from 2004 to 2008. We define firm‐level political connections and demonstrate a robust result for the positive relationship between political connections and firm performance. In addition, we integrate the effects of ownership structure, related‐party transactions and political connections into our analysis and continue to show a positive relationship. We show that political connections dampen the negative effect on firm value of related‐party transactions. Finally, we demonstrate channels through which the benefits of political connections are realized in terms of greater cash holdings, larger long‐term loans, lower financing costs, larger sales and lower sales costs. Our results indicate that state‐owned and non‐state‐owned enterprises use political connections equally effectively to enhance performance.     

The premium of dynamic trading

It is well established that, in a market with inclusion of a risk-free asset, the single-period mean–variance efficient frontier is a straight line tangent to the risky region, a fact that is the very foundation of the classical CAPM. In this paper, it is shown that, in a continuous-time market where the risky prices are described by Itô processes and the investment opportunity set is deterministic (albeit time-varying), any efficient portfolio must involve allocation to the risk-free asset at any time. As a result, the dynamic mean–variance efficient frontier, although still a straight line, is strictly above the entire risky region. This in turn suggests a positive premium, in terms of the Sharpe ratio of the efficient frontier, arising from dynamic trading. Another implication is that the inclusion of a risk-free asset boosts the Sharpe ratio of the efficient frontier, which again contrasts sharply with the single-period case.     

How recreation involvement,place attachment and conservation commitment affect environmentally responsible behavior

This study examines a behavioral model using latent variables of place attachment, recreation involvement, conservation commitment and environmentally responsible behavior among tourists visiting wetlands. In total, 928 usable questionnaires were collected. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied to the data by using LISREL 8.70 for Windows. Analytical results, which further elucidate the behavioral models of nature-based tourism, suggest that place attachment, recreation involvement and conservation commitment critically impact environmentally responsible behavior. In this behavioral model, conservation commitment simultaneously and partially mediates the relationships between place attachment and environmentally responsible behavior and between recreation involvement and environmentally responsible behavior. A series of management implications are drawn, including the need to use this information via a visitor interpretation strategy, greater use of partnerships with local communities and businesses to spread the importance of wetlands and of environmentally friendly behavior, and the need to work with other wetlands to share the type of visitor motivations best suited to encourage environmentally friendly behavior.     

交往感受对企业间持续合作的影响机制研究——基于实证分析的视角

首先通过调查问卷的数据,进行探索性因子分析和确定性因子分析,确定影响企业间持续合作的企业间交往感受的要素构成;接着采用结构方程的方法,研究了交往感受各要素是如何影响企业持续合作的合作程度和合作效率两个方面,并分析了影响的程度,得出了有价值的研究结论.这种研究方法具有较强的创新性,研究结论对我国企业如何开展企业间合作提供了重要的理论支撑和实践指导.     

Can the Gains from International Diversification Be Achieved without Trading Abroad?

We examine whether portfolios of domestically traded securities can mimic foreign indices so that investment in assets that trade only abroad is not necessary to exhaust the gains from international diversification. We use monthly data from 1976 to 1993 for seven developed and nine emerging markets. Return correlations, mean-variance spanning, and Sharpe ratio test results provide strong evidence that gains beyond those attainable through home-made diversification have become statistically and economically insignificant. Finally, we show that the incremental gains from international diversification beyond home-made diversification portfolios have diminished over time in a way consistent with changes in investment barriers.     

The business of product counterfeiting in China and the post-WTO membership environment

China is generally acknowledged to be the world's number one country producer of counterfeit products. After becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) China is now obligated to comply with WTO provisions on protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs). However, product counterfeiting operations in China are well entrenched. The postWTO membership environment has changed little, and such illicit operations are unlikely to subside soon. Furthermore, there is not much foreign companies can do because the response strategies recommended in the business literature have limited effect in the Chinese environment. Foreign companies may have to wait until China becomes on balance a victim instead of a benefactor of product counterfeiting before they can hope to see better protection of their IPRs.     

The Influence of Service Innovation Capability for Self‐Service Technology Investment

The purpose of this paper is to predict self‐service technology (SST) investment from the extents of service innovation capability (SIC) and electronic customer relationship management (e‐CRM) practices. This study proposes a theoretical framework that delineates the relationships among SIC, e‐CRM practices, and SST investment. The results indicate that SIC has positive impacts on e‐CRM practices, which in turn are positively related to SST investment. Moreover, e‐CRM practices have partial mediating effects on the relationships between SIC and SST investment as well as have partial moderating effects on the relationships between SIC and SST investment. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.