Global strategy as a factor in Japanese success

This article argues that the use of globally integrated strategy provides an additional explanation for Japanese success. Furthermore, this explanation links directly to many of the accepted factors that result in competitive superiority for Japanese companies. The article elaborates on different aspects of global strategy and contrasts typical Japanese and American approaches, and provides some empirical evidence on these differences. Japanese companies' success in post-bubble reconstruction will require a reemphasis on such strategies.     

Fiscal and Monetary Policy Interactions in an Endogenous Growth Model With Financial Intermediaries

This paper presents a framework that can help reconcile conflicting findings in the growth-inflation literature. Here, the behavior of financial intermediaries plays a crucial role in the determination of the economy's inflation and real growth rates. Absent any restrictions on financial intermediation, there will be a unique equilibrium when agents are fairly risk averse. In this case, an increase in seigniorage-financed government spending will always be inflationary and detrimental to growth. When agents exhibit a low degree of risk aversion, multiple equilibria emerge and a positive relation between inflation and growth à la Tobin can be observed.     

Diversification entry: Internal development versus acquisition

The economic theory of barriers to entry is integrated with the corporate strategy concept of relatedness, to develop a model of the choice between internal development and acquisition in diversification entry into new markets. The model is tested on original data collected for this study from PIMS Program participants. These original data cover the parent company characteristics, entry strategy and entry outcome for 59 entrants into 31 markets. These entry-related data are merged with existing PIMS data on the structure of the entered markets and their incumbents. Results of binary regression analysis show that the choice between the two entry modes is well explained by measures of barriers and relatedness. Higher barriers are more likely to be associated with acquisition entry. Greater relatedness is more likely to be associated with direct entry.     

Population growth and economic growth: a reconsideration

The relationship between population growth and development has long been a controversial topic in the economic development literature. Early work by Hoover and Coale and more recent work by Blanchet suggest that high fertility suppresses per capita income growth. However, recent work by Kelley and Srinivasan are ambivalent about such a neo-Malthusian relationship between population growth and economic growth. The authors examine these conflicting positions. They emphasize that the rates of both population growth and income growth are endogenous variables within a general equilibrium framework. An endogenous growth model with endogenous fertility is then developed. It is found that when all exogenous variables are controlled for, there exists an inverse relation between population growth and economic growth. However, when some exogenous factors change, such as an improvement in technological progress, the relation becomes ambiguous. This suggests that the conflicting findings in the literature may be because of the presence of substantial heterogeneity in unobserved variables across countries and over time in cross-country panel data sets.     

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.     

中国城市迈向近零碳排放与正气候发展模式

在巴黎举行的第21次联合国气候变化大会(COP21)提出了实现全球温室气体的净零排放。城市要迈向零碳排放的发展模式不能只局限在建筑的技术应用层面。从空间与多元化手段整合的要求上,零碳排放的发展需要通过于城区空间层面创新规划、设计、运营路径达到。提出"正气候"的城市项目发展模式,作为未来我国城市通过城区建设更新带来的机遇,迈向零碳排放的手段。正气候发展模式可以有效引导我国城市发展尽快达到碳排放峰值。在我国城市还有20年城镇化的历程中,一方面可以把未来新建城区的碳排放量最少化,同时也要把握城区发展和更新的机遇,以项目带动城市空间(如土地-交通结构)重组、低碳投资,推动市场手段与体制改革,为周边城区带来减低碳排放的外部性效应,从而达到整体净负碳排放的"正气候"效果。迈向正气候的城区发展模式,在实施保障方面需要跳出以技术应用为核心的传统政策思维,不限于在建筑尺度的设计手段,而要积极探讨在城区空间尺度可以带来的外部性减碳手段,包括推动分布式能源建设、绿色出行、废物零填埋、建筑节能管理服务、城市森林等。与此同时,需要在目前我国法定城市规划与建设流程上提出创新体制,引入动态监控碳排放机制,保障减碳排放目标能够通过法定管理体制贯彻城区建设的整个生命周期,达到正气候效果。     

Optimal population size and endogenous growth

"Many applications in economics require the selection of an objective function which enables the comparison of allocations involving different population sizes. The two most commonly used criteria are the Benthamite and the Millian welfare functions, also known as classical and average utilitarianism, respectively. The former maximizes total utility of the society and thus represents individuals, while the latter maximizes average utility and so represents generations. Edgeworth (1925) was the first to conjecture, that the Benthamite principle leads to a larger population size and a lower standard of living.... The purpose of this paper is to examine Edgeworth's conjecture in an endogenous growth framework in which there are interactions between output and population growth rates. It is shown that, under conditions that ensure an optimum, the Benthamite criterion leads to smaller population and higher output growth rates than the Millian."     

Effect of green innovation strategy on firm‐idiosyncratic risk: A competitive action perspective

Despite increasing concern for corporate environmental responsibility in numerous industries, the relationship between green innovation strategy (GIS) and idiosyncratic risk is a rarely scrutinised topic, particularly in the automotive domain. In this study, we empirically explore the association between GIS and idiosyncratic risk and analyse the moderating role played by the firm's competitive action. We rely on the secondary information sourced for 132 top automotive firms, in the period ranging from 2011 to 2017 by applying the system generalised methods of moments estimator to the dynamic panel data model. Our findings indicate that GIS significantly reduces the idiosyncratic risk of all firms, and this relationship strengthens with the increase in the competitive action of the firms. Our evidence supports “it pays to be green” firm heterogeneity argument. This study highlights the academic and managerial implications and focuses on the environmental issues published in environmental management literature.     

Exchange rate exposure and the use of foreign currency derivatives in the Australian resources sector

In this paper, we provide a re-examination of the exchange rate exposure and foreign currency derivative use by Australian resources firms in the 2006–2009 period which is characterized by increased volatility caused by the global financial crisis. In particular, we consider the interaction of a resources firm's exchange rate risk exposures, foreign currency derivative use and the global financial crisis simultaneously. Conforming to expectations, our results indicate that more companies are significantly exposed to exchange rate risk since the onset of the financial crisis. However, there is a lack of evidence that the use of foreign currency derivative is more effective in alleviating exchange rate exposures during the crisis as opposed to the pre-crisis period.