A behavioural analysis of the subsistence standard of living

Subsistence is analysed as an endogenous variable, contraryto its conventional exogenous treatment. It is postulated thatthe subsistence-livers perceive their own standard of subsistence,direct their earnings behaviour towards attaining, maintainingor exceeding this standard and, thus, reveal the standard throughthis behaviour. The labour supply function of the working poor,which displays a forward-falling segment at low wages and anupward-rising segment at higher wages, is hypothesised to offermeasures of subsistence and survival standards. The conceptsare rationalised using Sen's concept of ‘freedom of choice’and Arrow's concept of ‘freedom as flexibility’.It is argued that at below-subsistence living, individuals lackfreedom of flexibility in choosing their preferences and thussuffer the loss of freedom of choice—while subsistenceoffers a reasonable minimum of this freedom, the freedom iscompletely lost at the lowest survival standard.     

Strategic responses to extreme institutional challenges: An MNE case study in the Palestinian mobile phone sector

Besides firm-level resources and industrial influences, firms’ strategies have been related to their institutional contexts. Empirical studies have investigated survival strategies in international environments where institutional voids, barriers and violence have had independent influences.This study is the first to analyse strategies in circumstances that combine all these negative challenges. In the Palestinian mobile phone industry, a surviving MNE has faced not only violence, voids and institutional barriers imposed by three different governments, but also the liability of foreignness and its associated uncertainties.In a highly uncertain environment, it is found that being a MNE brings benefits as well as liabilities of foreignness. Furthermore, this MNE discloses many strategic responses to institutional challenges that are associated with positive outcomes, even in a most extreme Palestinian environment that produces the most propitious circumstances for negative responses and outcomes.     

The application of Green Lean Six Sigma

Green Lean Six Sigma has been recently clarified to improve the environmental sustainability performance of operations, but it seems glaringly scarce and in need of cutting-edge studies to integrate the concepts of green, lean, and Six Sigma into one unified application. This paper is accordingly aimed at constituting the application of Green Lean Six Sigma as a cleaner production. In doing so, a Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC)-based approach that is one of Six Sigma's well-known methods was proposed to systematize a Green Lean tool—environmental value stream mapping. Thus, this paper as one of the preliminary studies aligns environmental value stream mapping with DMAIC through presenting the proposed methodological approach, which relies on the five DMAIC phases—Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control—and considers green wastes in each phase simultaneously. To support the narrow body of knowledge, this proposed approach was validated via the action research-oriented case study implemented in the substrate manufacturing system that seeks to develop the environmental sustainability of its production processes and subsequently its general competitiveness. The findings indicated the effectiveness of a DMAIC-based approach in systematizing environmental value stream mapping and improving its efficacy to achieve environmental sustainability. The case analysis revealed that the application can significantly lessen the consumption of chemicals and energy in the system by 28% and 21%, respectively.     

Technological effort and disembodied technology exports: An econometric analysis of inter-industry variations in India

This paper attempts a preliminary test of the determinants of Indian technological capability as measured by disembodied technology exports by a sample of the largest private-sector quoted companies in India. After placing the study in the context of research on the nature of technological activity in developing countries, the authors describe the variables which they have used to explain inter-industry variation in technology exports. The results of a preliminary statistical investigation are presented. Despite acknowledged limitations of data, the authors are able to suggest some interesting tendencies which could be the subject of further investigation: (a) formal R&D is a significant positive influence on the sort of technological development which is embodied in technology exports; (b) skill and scale requirements appear to promote technological development rather than retard it; (c) the presence of foreign ownership does not seem to inhibit technological development or technology exports.     

Iran on the news – exploring videos’ effects on potential tourists

ABSTRACT

While previous tourism studies on the visual have tended to focus on the analysis of photos, only recently videos have received more attention by tourism scholars. Within the emerging tourism literature on videos, little has been written on the videos produced and shared by online news and documentary networks and their persuasive effects on potential tourists’ perceptions about a destination. By focusing on Iran, this work investigates whether videos produced and shared by online news and documentary networks influence viewers’ perceptions about the country and their willingness to travel to the country. This study employs semi-structured, in-depth interviews to explore the meanings and interpretations attached to two videos about Iran, which were produced and shared by an Iranian online news and documentary network. A total of 15 participants, including a film producer and 14 respondents as audience were interviewed. Overall, the findings of this study highlight that the videos’ interpretations by the participants were multiple and often diverged from the producer’s intentions. Moreover, although the videos were perceived as tools produced to attract tourists, they were not regarded as sufficiently persuasive to totally change previously formed images about Iran and create a strong desire to visit the country.     

The role of service embeddedness in the internationalisation process of manufacturing firms

Over the last decade the growth of service firms, and their internationalisation, has attracted considerable attention from researchers, with a special focus on characteristics that distinguish services from goods. However, as the composition of a firm's product can contain both good and service elements, this paper argues that it is somewhat misleading to categorise a product simply as either a ‘good’ or a ‘service’. Manufactured goods often contain client-related services embedded in them. Further, the nature of these embedded services may vary with respect to their degree of separability of production and consumption. Based on several case studies of Australian manufacturing subsidiaries in the UK, this paper examines the impact of inseparable embedded services on a firm's entry-mode choice. It reveals that the extent and nature of embedded services have a considerable impact on a firm's choice of foreign entry mode. The research findings are likely to contribute to the existing marketing and internationalisation literature.     

Against the tide: the commencement of short selling and margin trading in mainland China

China's recent removal of short‐selling and margin trading bans on selected stocks enables testing of the relative effect of margin trading and short selling. We find the prices of the shortable stocks decrease, on average, relative to peer A‐shares and cross‐listed H‐shares, suggesting that short selling dominates margin trading effects. Contrary to the regulators' intention and recent developed market empirical evidence, liquidity declines and bid‐ask spreads increase in these shortable stocks. Consistent with Ausubel (1990), these results imply that uninformed investors avoid the shortable stocks to reduce the risk of trading with informed investors.     

Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting: an empirical evidence from commercial banks (CB) of Pakistan

The aim of this paper is to explore Pakistani listed commercial banks corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting information along with the probable effects of different corporate governance (CG) elements on CSR disclosures. Furthermore, the relevance of different theories in explaining the results of this study is also provided. For analyzing the banks’ CSR reporting practice, which was done using content analysis, the annual reports for the years 2005–2010, of all the commercial banks were examined. Non-executive directors and foreign directors which are elements of CG were considered and multiple regression analyses were carried out to check the impact of CG elements on banks’ CSR reporting initiatives. The results of the study reveal that even though reporting of CSR is voluntary in Pakistan, the participation of Pakistani commercial banks in different CSR activities is not low. Furthermore, the level of CSR activities performed by the banks is impressive. The results displayed that non-executive directors have a positive impact on the CSR reporting supporting stewardship theory in CB of Pakistan. The major limitation of this study is that the data is only based on annual reports of commercial banks of Pakistan. It is therefore, not easier to generalize the findings of this research to other corporate sectors. Secondly the annual reports of commercial banks for the years 2005–2010, a time period of just 6 years were analyzed as access to data before and after the specified years was not readily available. This paper relates CSR disclosure with possible impact of CG in the particular perspective of a transitional economy’s banks such as Pakistan. By providing empirical facts of the effect of CG structure on the CSR activities practices in developing countries’ banking sector setting, this paper provides novel contribution to the current CSR literature.