When global virtual teams share knowledge: Media richness,cultural difference and language commonality

Technological developments and internationalization have made virtual communication a central part of everyday life in many larger organizations. In recent years this trend has been intensified by travel-budget cuts imposed by the global financial crisis. Accordingly, the use of virtual media for internal knowledge sharing is now more important than ever before. Extant studies have provided useful theories and empirical documentation on how to manage global virtual teams. However, no prior research has examined the interaction of media type with the relation between culture/language and canonical/equivocal knowledge sharing. This is an important omission because cultural and linguistic variations are known to have a great effect on knowledge sharing. We use ethnographic field-study methodology for an exploratory examination of the effects of culture, shared language commonality and media choice on knowledge sharing in a large Danish MNC with particular focus on its Indian subsidiary. Results show that certain types of media are more useful for certain types of knowledge sharing depending on the cultural and linguistic variation between the communicating parties.     

A State Within the State? An Event Study on the Bundesbank (1948–1973)

In this paper we analyse certain periods in the history of the Bundesbank concentrating on the determinants of central bank independence as suggested in the literature. The Bundesbank law of 1957 was born only after a long and tedious political process which outcome was initially not at all clear. It is concluded that some determinants outlined in the literature played indeed a role in the making of the Bundesbank Law of 1957. Still, the Bundesbank was put in charge of the Dmark by the Allieds and this proved to be advantagous for the new institution, as was the subsequent debate about federalism. We argue that popular backing is one of the important forces in support of the Bundesbank's independence. However, this support is not exogenous, as the Bundesbank has always tried to influence public opinion. Our analysis of the conflicts between the Bundesbank and the federal government over monetary policy suggest that if a conflict concerned interest rate policy, the Bundesbank always got its way. Even with respect to exchange rate policy, which is primarily in the realm of the federal government, the position of the Bundesbank often prevailed, as the Bundesbank behaved skilfully. The history of the Bundesbank also provides ample evidence of coordination problems with fiscal policy that may arise with two independent players. Finally, it is clear that the theory on the determinants of central bank independence overlooks that very often the government and the Bundesbank were not two monolithic entities, but that there were different views about policy.     

Does culture influence IPO underpricing?

This paper examines how cultural differences influence cross-sectional variation in IPO underpricing across 39 countries. We conjecture that cultural difference across geographic boundaries will influence the acceptance of and the expectations for IPO underpricing. Cross-sectional differences in culture are measured using Hofstede's six cultural dimensions. Our analysis shows that high power distance and high long term orientation are significantly associated with higher IPO underpricing. We also show that underpricing is significantly lower in countries characterized by high uncertainty avoidance. When the model is expanded to include legal origin, market based and corporate governance variables, the three cultural factors remain significant. Our findings provide further evidence that culture impacts capital market returns. Overall, our finding that culture impacts IPO underpricing, suggests important implications for policy makers and investors.     

Citation Metrics: Serious Drawbacks,Perverse Incentives,and Strategic Options for Heterodox Economics

This article reviews strategic suggestions for heterodox economic journals and heterodox economists relating to quantitative indexing. It contains a critique of Thomson Scientifics “Journal Impact Factor” as well as an integrated discussion of general strategic guidelines and specific strategic suggestions accounting for the special paradigmatic position of heterodox economics.     

Market Power, Scale Economies and Productivity: Estimates from a Panel of Establishment Data

This paper presents a new econometric framework that permits simultaneous estimation of price-cost margins, scale economies and productivity from a panel of establishment data. The model contains only a few, economically interesting parameters to be estimated, but it is nevertheless consistent with a flexible (translog) underlying technology, quasi-fixed capital and the presence of persistent differences in productivity between establishments. The framework is applied to study market power, scale economies and productivity differences in a number of manufacturing industries in Norway. The results reveal statistically significant, but quite small, margins between price and marginal costs in most manufacturing industries.     

China's Outward Direct Investment in Africa

The empirical determinants of China's outward direct investment (ODI) in Africa are examined using an officially approved ODI dataset and a relatively new OECD–IMF format ODI dataset. China's ODI is found responding to the canonical economic determinants that include the market seeking motive, the risk factor, and the resources seeking motive. It is also affected by the intensity of trade ties and the presence of China's contracted projects. A host country's natural resources have an impact on China's decision on how much to invest in the country rather than on whether to invest in the country or not. China's drive for Africa's natural resources is mainly a recent phenomenon and, probably, became prominent after the “Going Global” policy adopted in 2002.     

Tax Ratios in Macroeconomics: Do Taxes Really Matter?

In various empirical studies so-called tax ratios (tax revenues expressed as a ratio of some aggregate tax base) are employed as approximations for tax burdens. The most difficult problem in calculating tax ratios is the way in which personal income tax revenues are attributed to labour and capital. We argue that the methodology of Mendoza et al. (1994) is seriously flawed in this respect. Using information from national sources, we calculate more accurate tax ratios for eight OECD countries that differ substantially from those of Mendoza et al. (1997). Still, the results of the empirical analysis of Mendoza et al. (1997) do not change significantly if we use our tax ratios instead of those of Mendoza et al.. However, the results change once country specific effects are taken up in the model. Capital taxes are, e.g., shown to reduce economic growth. We find that the results of Daveri and Tabellini (2000) are neither sensitive to the use of the tax ratios nor to the specification of the model: high labour taxes have increased unemployment in Europe.     

Strategy-proof and nonbossy allocation of indivisible goods and money

Summary. Which strategy-proof nonbossy mechanisms exist in a model with a finite number of indivisible goods (houses, jobs, positions) and a perfectly divisible good (money)? The main finding is that only a finite number of distributions of the divisible good is consistent with strategy-proofness and nonbossiness. Under various additional assumptions - neutrality, individual rationality, object efficiency, weak decentralization - the distribution of the divisible good is further restricted. For instance, under neutrality the outcome of the mechanism can have only one distribution, which is hence independent of individual preferences. In this case the mechanism becomes serially dictatorial. On the other hand, individual rationality leads to a fixed price equilibrium with a well-defined rationing method (Gale's top-trading cycle procedure). Received: October 3, 2000; revised version: August 10, 2001     

International research strategies of multinational corporations: A German perspective

This paper explores the international research activities of multinational corporations that are related to Germany. It analyzes what role German companies and Germany as a host of foreign companies play in the growing specialization of global exploitation and generation of knowledge. The paper covers application oriented as well as strategic research for two company samples—German and non-German—on the basis of a complex indicator-based analysis (patents and publications) and microdata from business reports. The paper shows that internationalization of research and development (R&D) has increased and broadened in scope. It highlights the strong and growing differences existing between technological and scientific areas as well as between different sectors. Apparently, while the market adaptation of products is still the major driver for German companies, international knowledge seeking has become more and more important, especially in technological areas that are linked very closely to basic research. While Germany as a host of international industrial R&D is much more attractive for applied research (mechanical engineering) than for basic research, the country has still established attractiveness in selected knowledge-intensive technological areas and shows a high intensity of international cooperation. There is a high level of reciprocity in knowledge-intensive areas pointing towards a global specialization and division of labor.