Financing Alternatives for Chinese Small and Medium Enterprises： The Case for a Small and Medium Enterprise Stock Market

Financing alternatives for small and medium enterprises in China are discussed in the present study. In particular, we analyze the significant changes and developments in China s “second board” stock market. China s extensive network of regional assets and equity exchanges, which were set up to facilitate private equity transfer, and non‐performing loan transactions seem to partially fill the void for small and medium enterprises, which cannot easily obtain approval for listing on the stock exchanges. Foreign investors can identify investment opportunities in non‐listed domestic state‐owned and private businesses through these regional assets and equity exchanges. At the same time, foreign stock markets are now attracting the young Chinese enterprises to list their stocks on their exchanges. (Edited by Zhinan Zhang)     

The Effects of Attitudinal and Demographic Factors on Intention to Buy Pirated CDs: The Case of Chinese Consumers

This study examines the impact of attitude toward piracy on intention to buy pirated CDs using Chinese samples. Attitude toward piracy is measured by a multi-item scale that has been shown to have a consistent factor structure with four distinct components, namely, social cost of piracy, anti-big business attitude, social benefit of dissemination, and ethical belief. Our findings reveal that social benefit of dissemination and anti-big business attitude have a positive relationship with intention to buy pirated CDs while social cost of piracy and ethical belief have a negative relationship. Among these components, ethical belief tends to most strongly predict intention to buy pirated CDs. Demographic variables such as gender and age also help explain the respondents' intention to buy pirated CDs. In addition, those respondents with experience of buying pirated CDs would tend to be more likely to buy pirated CDs than those without such experience. The results are discussed with a view to helping copyright businesses to effectively suppress piracy, and directions for future research are suggested.     

Chinese Offshore RMB Currency and Bond Markets： The Role of Hong Kong

This paper discusses the role of Hong Kong in China’s grand scheme to build up the RMB as a global reserve currency.We highlight the economic importance of Hong Kong to China in terms of channeling foreign direct investment into China,some of which,in the future,will be denominated in the RMB.We discuss the development of China’s RMB currency swap and deposit markets in Hong Kong.These offshore markets enable the RMB to trade freely, setting the stage for the RMB to become fully convertible and allowing market forces to play a role in pricing the value of the RMB,and help in the development of the RMB-denominated bond(or dim sum bond)market in Hong Kong.Finally,we present evidence of the phenomenal growth of the dim sum bond market in Hong Kong,which can further enhance and strengthen the use of the RMB outside China.     

A Citation Analysis of Business Ethics Research: A Global Perspective

The paper documents the post-war retrenchment and failure of the post-war British Consumer Co-operative Movement. In contrast to the general failure one CEO, Terry Thomas stands out both for his success in co-operative rebranding and returning to profitability the UK Co-operative Bank and because he alone amongst the top echelons of the Co-operative Groups Management based his strategies on a clearly articulated philosophy based on his understanding of the values and purpose of the co-operative movement rooted in its historical traditions grounded in the writings and achievements of Robert Owen, The paper goes on to provide a case study of the bank’s process of transformation from loss-making subsidiary to the first positive co-operative national brand in the post-war period of its history. The author argues that lack of appropriate vision based on the founding values and purposes of the Co-operative Movement is the principal reason for the management’s and governance failures that have beset the UK Co-operative Group. Instead of using the past to help in understanding the present and planning for the future, the UK Co-operative Group Leadership ignored it or worse used the past successes to congratulate itself and disguise its manifest failures. In this, they were supported by an uncritical Co-operative Union (later renamed Co-operatives UK). Davis argues large co-operatives cannot be managed by a civil service responsible to an elected board. Co-operatives need a servant-leadership model of professional management dedicated to the transformational goals set by the founders of the co-operative movement. This needs a radical rethink and promotion of co-operative management education and a dedicated executive recruitment that seeks out value-based professionals whose attitudes and values are compatible with Co-operative values, ownership and purpose.     

A Conceptual Framework for Instilling a Global Mindset in Business Students

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a conceptual framework for instilling and fostering a global mindset among students of business in general and international business in particular. Students learning to become global managers must first have an open mindset and be aware of changes in themselves. When managers encounter problems at a global firm, they need to consider the unique situations that cause problems and create appropriate solutions. Different settings or environments require different approaches, reflecting the complexity of heterogeneity and indeterminacy in decision-making. We suggest pedagogical methods for teaching international business by instilling a global mindset in business students.     

The Roles of Justice and Customer Satisfaction in Customer Retention: A Lesson from Service Recovery

Customers complain because they want to be treated fairly by the company when a service failure occurs. The role of perceived complaint justice and its relation to customer satisfaction has been discussed and researched. However, a static view is mostly adopted in previous literature. We argue that satisfaction is cumulative and both prior satisfaction and post-recovery satisfaction should be looked at in relation to complaint justice in the context of service recovery. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating the mediating role of justice in the relationship between prior satisfaction and post-recovery satisfaction (both with the recovery and with the organization) and examining the mediating role of post-recovery satisfaction in the relationship between the dimensions of justice and customer retention. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 200 customers that had service failure experience at Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Justice dimensions (distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice) were found to fully mediate the relationship between prior satisfaction and satisfaction with recovery. All dimensions, except the interactional justice, were also found to be partial mediators in the relationship between prior satisfaction and post-recovery satisfaction with organization. Findings also revealed the mediating roles of two post-recovery satisfaction variables in transferring the justice dimensions into behavioral intention, with the two variables playing almost opposite roles. Discussion and recommendations are provided for future development and improvement in building long-term relationship with customers.     

The Effects of Stock Characteristics on the Direction and Extent of Herding by Foreign Institutional Investors in the Taiwan Stock Exchange

We use a dynamic herding measure to explore the causes of foreign institutional investor (FII) herding in the Taiwan stock market and examine the effects of stock characteristics on the direction and extent of such herding. We find that FII herding primarily results from cascades rather than habit investing or momentum trading. The result of a panel smooth transition regression shows that FIIs' negative cascades focus on their largest net purchases of stocks, but FIIs' positive cascades focus on winner and small-sized stocks. To increase portfolio returns, investors can use FIIs' cascades to inform their stock purchases.     

Pricing and hedging American fixed‐income derivatives with implied volatility structures in the two‐factor Heath–Jarrow–Morton model

Most previous empirical studies using the Heath–Jarrow–Morton model (hereafter referred to as the HJM model) have focused on the one‐factor model. In contrast, this study implements the Das ( 1999 ) two‐factor Poisson–Gaussian version of the HJM model that incorporates a jump component as the second‐state variable. This study aims at examining the performance of the two‐factor model through comparing it with the one‐factor model in pricing and hedging the Eurodollar futures option. The degree of impact arising from the jump factor also is examined. In addition, three new volatility specifications are constructed to enhance further the pricing performance of the model. Their performances are compared according to three performance yardsticks—in‐sample fitting, out‐of‐sample pricing, and the hedging test. The result indicates that the two‐factor model outperforms the one‐factor model in both the in‐sample and out‐sample price fitting, but the one‐factor model performs better in the hedging test. In addition, the HJM model, coupled with the proposed volatility specification, leads to good fitting results that will be of considerable use to practitioners and academics in guiding model choice for interest‐rate derivatives. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:839–875, 2002     

Female role orientation of Chinese women: Conceptualization and scale development

This article addresses the conceptual and measurement issues related to the study of the female role orientation (FRO) of Chinese women. It first reviews the concept of FRO and its important dimensions. It then reports on the construction and psychometric assessment of a measure of FRO. Four multiitem scales are developed that show strong evidence of reliability and validity across samples of Chinese women from mainland China and Hong Kong. Further analysis provides evidence of scale invariance across the two samples. The final section includes a discussion of the implications of the findings and directions for future research. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Testing for cointegration with threshold effect between stock prices and exchange rates in Japan and Taiwan

This paper empirically investigates the exchange rate effects of the New Taiwan dollar against the Japanese Yen (NTD/JPY) on stock prices in Japan and Taiwan from January 1991 to Mach 2008. Our study employs the newly threshold error-correction model (TECM) elaborated by Enders and Granger [Enders, W., Granger, C.W.F., 1998. Unit-root tests and asymmetric adjustment with an example using the term structure of interest rates. Journal of Business Economics & Statistics 16, 304–311] and Enders and Siklos [Enders, W., Siklos, P.L., 2001. Cointegration and threshold adjustment. Journal of Business Economics & Statistics 19, 166–176], assuming the nature of the relationship between the variables is on the basis of non-linearity. The empirical evidence suggests that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between NTD/JPY and the stock prices of Japan and Taiwan during the time period investigated. However, an asymmetric threshold cointegration relationship only exists in Taiwan’s financial market. Furthermore, we extend our research by taking into account the effect of the U.S. exchange rate specifically on Taiwan’s financial market. This research also finds a long-term equilibrium and asymmetric causal relationships between NTD/USD and the stock prices of Taiwan. In addition, the results of TECM Granger-Causality tests show that no short-run causal relationship exists between the two financial assets considered for both countries’ cases. However, in the long run a positive causal relationship running from either the Japan or U.S. exchange rate to the stock prices of Taiwan strongly argues for the traditional approach.