Anatomy of a regulatory race to the top: Changes in delisting rules at Korea's two stock exchanges, 1999–2002

One dimension of competition among stock exchanges is the quality of products they have to offer. In order to attract listings and trading volume, exchanges can affect the quality of their listed firms by altering their standards for firm disclosure and governance. We identify a competition with respect to delisting standards between Korea's two stock exchanges and show that it complies with the three components of a regulatory race to the top: external trigger, mobility among diverse regimes and meaningful changes that converge to similar rules. The race between the two Korean exchanges ended with stricter rules and better protected minority shareholders. The race also ended, however, with neither exchange gaining market share with respect to trading volume or new listings. Korea's experience, therefore, suggests a reason why these races are rare. In the absence of an external trigger, exchanges will be reluctant to enter a race if they think it will result in rule convergence and no winner.     

All in a day's work,at home: teleworkers’ management of micro role transitions and the work–home boundary

Based on boundary theory, this study analysed the cues and rituals home‐based teleworkers use to facilitate transitions between work and home roles. Qualitative findings revealed that teleworkers primarily engage in strategies aimed at segmenting work from home roles, although some utilise cues to integrate work and home. Teleworkers used time, space, technology and communication as cues to aid role transitions and manage the work–home boundary. Overall, teleworkers appeared to grapple with the tension between the desire for flexibility and the need for structure, and use cues and rites of passage in order to facilitate this balance. Female teleworkers were more likely to use segmenting cues relative to male teleworkers. Teleworkers with children living in the home were less likely to integrate work and home roles. Extensive teleworkers used space more frequently than less extensive teleworkers, but otherwise, both groups reported similar use of cues.     

International sourcing of services: the “Homeshoring” alternative

The offshoring and outsourcing of service work from high-wage to low-wage countries has received considerable exposure in the popular press. Here, an alternative to offshoring is presented, called “Homeshoring.” In Homeshoring, a process is decoupled, just as it would be if it were offshored, but the work is sent to low-wage areas within a firm’s own country, rather than to another country. Homeshoring does not represent merely “domestic sourcing,” as it implies a new relationship and a working relationship with governmental economic development agencies. The benefits and disadvantages of this strategic choice are examined.     

Escaping the Japanese Pyramid: The Association of Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Entrepreneurs (SME Doyukai), 1947-1999

In Japanese society the pinnacle of economic and political powerresides in Tokyo conglomerates and elite ministries: the Ministryof International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Ministryof Finance. Until now, the story of this power arrangement hasbeen told from the perspective of national bureaucrats and bigbusiness executives. The image projected to the outside worldhas been of cooperative, trust-based relational contractingwith big business at the top "taking care" of its suppliersand subsidiaries below. The story from the bottom, however,is one of technology expropriation (of patentable technology)and monopsony squeeze (unilateral cost-down demands, for example).Firms unwilling to toe the line have been wholly excluded fromaccess to the benefits reserved for those at the top of thepyramid, where one finds lucrative main bank financing, governmentsupport, and copious technological information. This article offers a historical narrative of the politicalstruggle by independent-minded entrepreneurs in postwar Japan.Central to the struggle has been the challenge of building broad-basedcoalitions to avoid becoming embedded in these hierarchies whileat the same time trying to obtain alternative sources of financeand technological know-how. The most successful example of suchefforts is the Association of Small and Medium Size EnterpriseEntrepreneurs (SME Doyukai). The SME Doyukai has somehow managedto remain completely independent from the state, while mostother small business associations have not. This independencehas not been free, and the association has gone through a numberof institutional dilemmas as a result. We analyze these dilemmasover time and offer comparative lessons.     

Foreign reserve management during the global financial crisis

This paper examines how countries managed their foreign currency reserves during the global financial crisis. Evidence based on changes in reserve stocks suggests that many governments, even those with high levels of pre-crisis reserves, were reluctant to use them during the crisis. As a consequence, a number of recent studies of cross-country experiences during the crisis find little evidence of a positive role for reserves in macroeconomic crisis-management. This paper examines whether this assessment of the non-role of reserves during the crisis is justified. While the reserve stock data indicates stable reserve levels for many countries during the crisis, distinguishing between reserve changes that occurred due to interest income and valuation changes on existing assets and asset purchases and sales, indicates that many emerging economies actively depleted reserves. Further, the data indicate that countries whose pre-crisis reserve levels were in excess of what can be explained by standard models of reserve accumulation were the most likely to sell reserve assets during the crisis.     

Matching vertical integration strategies to competitive conditions

This paper contrasts the vertical integration strategies of 192 firms in the presence of diverse environmental and strategic forces to suggest how successful uses of vertical integration differ from less successful ones. Briefly, firms which did not use vertical integration as effectively transferred more goods and services internally, and they did so more often under adverse industry conditions. A frequent error was to undertake more integrated activities in-house and engage in longer chains of processing from ultra-raw materials to finished goods. Ironically, many of the vertically integrated firms that suffered adversity possessed the bargaining power needed to contract advantageously for goods or services, but accepted an overly risky ownership position unnecessarily by producing them, instead.     

Testing the relationship between work and health : A bivariate hazard model

A bivariate hazard model which allows the hazards to be correlated shows that decisions about work and health are significantly related. Failure to take the correlation into account will cause selectivity bias.     

Joint ventures and competitive strategy

A framework for using joint ventures (and other forms of cooperative strategy) within varying competitive environments is constructed, and hypotheses are developed concerning the impact of particular industry traits upon firms' options in pursuing them. Industry examples illustrate the framework's hypotheses. In this framework, demand traits suggest what types of cooperative strategies are needed. Competitor traits suggest how firms will respond to these needs for cooperation. Since joint ventures can be inherently unstable organizational forms, it is important for managers to (1) select the right cooperative strategy option and (2) modify the autonomy from (and coordination with) sponsoring firms that ventures enjoy as their industry structures evolve. Familiarity with cooperative strategy options is important because (1) as growth slows, (2) as markets shrink or become crowded, (3) as industries become global, or (4) as technological change accelerates to speeds where individual firms cannot recover their initial investments, managers will have less margin for error. If managers do not learn how to use cooperative strategies advantageously their firms may encounter difficulties in delivering adequate value to their customers, replenishing their base of skills, and/or safeguarding their abilities to increase long-term shareholder value.     

How strategic is HRM?

This study of 115 subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies indicates that a majority had integrated HRM and strategic planning systems within their organizations. HRM issues were explicitly discussed in strategic plans; HRM executives were involved in the planning process as “strategic partners”; and HRM was generally recognized as playing an important role in implementing business strategies. The degree of integration present was not related to short-run firm performance, however, time lags may be a factor. Implications of these findings are drawn. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.