Domestic Bond Market Development: The Arirang Bond Experience in Korea

This study contrasts the development of the Republic of Korea'smarket for won-denominated foreign bonds (Arirang) with similarmarkets in the Asia-Pacific region. It discusses the problems,concerns, and key issues related to the development of thismarket within the broader context of domestic, regional, andglobal bond market development. Korea's experience providesvaluable lessons for other emerging market economies also seekingto build bond markets for local and foreign issuers. The sophisticationof the local bond market is not enough to make it appealingto foreign borrowers. Market development demands ensuring anenabling infrastructure and a background of macroeconomic stability,nurturing local and international demand, deregulating capitalflows, and minimizing exchange restrictions. JEL codes: F34, G18     

Redshift: A radical change in the fabric of computing

Some companies are boosting their computing power to massive scales. Should your company? That depends on whether your company's needs are blueshifting or redshifting. Greg Papadopoulos, Jonathan Schwartz and Jason Woods explain why these new business terms could define your company's future.     

An extension to a DEA support system used for assessing R&D projects

This paper describes an extension to the data envelopment analysis (DEA) support system that has been used for the assessment, rating, and ranking of diverse portfolios of research and development (R&D) projects at Lucent Technologies. The approach is illustrated through its application to a large portfolio of R&D projects considered by Lucent's Advanced Technologies Group. The method proceeds by first stratifying the portfolio into comparably efficient groups of projects through the construction of a series of efficient DEA frontiers, and then by lexicographically ranking each project within these groups relative to DEA-based contextual attractiveness measures calculated from the different partitions. The advantages to this approach are provided not only from the perspective of the specific project rankings that are produced but also from the broader managerial insights that can be derived from any resulting differences between officially sanctioned, quantitative decision-making procedures, and the quality of the decisions that have actually been made by managers.     

The New International Division of Labour in Asian Electronics: Work Organization and Human Resources in Japan and Malaysia

This article documents and analyses the organization of work and human resources management in ten manufacturing plants in Malaysia and three plants in Japan. Each of the plants carries out specific tasks within an emergent international division of labour surrounding two Japanese multinational producers of consumer electronics goods. Plant roles reflect their positions in commodity chains driven by the multinationals, varying in relation to product-to-product and component-to-component divisions of labour, and in relation to the location of product and process innovations. How work is organized and how workers are managed are explained by the location of each plant within this division of labour, and by the characteristics and situation of labour, the one commodity which talks back, within the local environment.     

Conceptual blending in advertising

Conceptual blending occurs at the moment of perception and creates new meanings out of existing ways of thinking. Analysis of data collected in phenomenological interviews reveals the blending processes consumers use to “make sense” of advertisements. We recognize subtle similarities and differences between metaphor and blending, and examine their occurrence in three types of blending networks in ads.     

Reforming the IMF's Weighted Voting System

This paper surveys various proposals to reform the IMF's quota determination process and voting regime. We first provide some necessary context by describing IMF decision rules, including the methods by which the Fund determines quotas according to countries’ relative positions in the world economy. This section also addresses the arbitrariness of the IMF quota determination process and how IMF decision rules hamper developing country influence within the Fund. Following this, we review several proposals designed to provide developing countries greater voice in IMF decision‐making. We conclude that the problems of developing country representation are not likely to be fixed by either reallocating quotas on the margins of the existing IMF system or by tinkering with the quota‐determination formulas. Rather, more fundamental institutional adjustments will be required.     

Improving competitiveness. Critical success factors for tourism development

For a variety of reasons an increasing number of local authorities and other agencies have turned to tourism as a means of economic development. To date, however, the level of activity among policy makers has not been matched by research that might inform their deliberations. Although the importance of demand-related issues — such as the promotion of particular destinations — is recognised, this paper shifts the focus to the neglected issue of sector supply. It argues that if tourism is to contribute to economic development that is sustainable, private — and public-sector facilities (such as attractions or hotels) must be nationally — and often internationally — competitive. The paper proposes a model for understanding the competitiveness of organisations in the sector and reports the findings of its application in a case study of east and south-east London.     

Global challenges to replicating HR: The role of people,processes, and systems

Global firms often struggle to replicate practices among their culturally and geographically dispersed subsidiaries. Part of the reason for this is that certain practices, including human resource management (HRM) practices, are complex and context specific. In this study, we develop a framework to help identify how firms might overcome challenges of practice replication through alignment of information systems, application processes, and people. We find that managerial alignment of formal processes and systems, along with informal alignment of people (shared objectives), improve the capability of a multinational corporation (MNC) to replicate human resource practices across subsidiaries. We also discuss managerial implications. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.