Environmental Requirements,Knowledge Sharing and Green Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the Electronics Industry in China

Building on the Porter hypothesis, which posits that regulatory stringency triggers innovation and thereby allows firms to achieve the dual purpose of environment protection and enhanced business performance, the present research develops an integrative model that explores the determinants of green innovation with a focus being placed on knowledge sharing. Data were collected from 203 green innovation project leaders from electronics manufacturers operating in China. The results indicate that knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between green requirements and new green product success as well as that between green requirements and green product and process innovations. Interestingly, the empirical analysis rejects the hypothesized positive influence of green requirements on green product and process innovations as well as that on new green product success, while confirming that there exists a direct and positive association between green requirements and knowledge sharing. The direct positive impact of knowledge sharing is the strongest on green process innovation. This study provides a theoretical basis for investigating the possible determinants in the causal links between green requirements and green innovation success and establishes that knowledge sharing and green process innovation may be the points where leverage can be applied to best secure innovation success. Implications of the findings on environmental policy and law design are also discussed to see how the regulatory role of the government can be better positioned to facilitate compliance and innovation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Investigating the different approaches to importance–performance analysis

Importance–performance analysis (IPA) is an analytic technique that generates a two-dimensional importance–performance grid, where the values of importance and performance across attributes are plotted against each other. This technique is used to assist service and other firms in prioritizing areas for service improvement when resources are limited. This study contributes to service theory by first performing a comprehensive literature review of four different and commonly used approaches to IPA. Survey data from the ports sector are then used to elucidate the value and the distinctiveness of these four different approaches, and it is also shown how the underlying theoretical assumptions led to somewhat varying, and contradictory interpretations. Subsequently, novel guidelines for integrating results from these four different approaches are proposed. The study advances service theory by detailing the integration of the different approaches to make sense of the importance and performance of diverse service attributes. The integrative approach developed in this paper also provides practitioners with clearer guidance for the application of IPA.     

Management training in small and medium-sized enterprises: methodological and conceptual issues

The paper examines the impact of management training and development on the organisation and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), via a variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques and including both crosssectional and longitudinal approaches to analysis. The paper demonstrates the value of management training and development in SMEs and demonstrates a series of one-off and longer lasting effects on their organization and performance. The paper also highlights the conditions under which management development projects are likely to be more successful. Finally, the paper extends the schema developed by Arthur and Hendry (1990) and Hendry et al. (1991), indicating the factors influencing training within businesses, and shows the indirect and complex links between management training and firm performance.     

Bilateral Trade Balances: Evidence from Malaysia*

This study examines the impacts of real exchange rates on the bilateral trade balances of Malaysia with the USA, Japan and Singapore. The results for the long‐run cointegrating vectors show that depreciation or devaluation of real exchange rates will improve bilateral trade balances. In the short run, there is some evidence of the J‐curve phenomenon. Changes in real money supply contribute greatly to changes in real exchange rates. Generally, changes in real exchange rates contribute significantly to changes in bilateral trade balances. Monetary policy can be used to influence bilateral trade balances.     

Robust anomalies? A close look at accrual‐based trading strategy returns

The last 40 years have seen an extensive literature documenting so‐called anomalies in major capital markets. Evidence of ‘abnormal’ returns associated with trading strategies based on readily observable phenomena such as accounting‐based data involves experimental design choices that can be expected to influence the results. We show how evidence of an accrual anomaly in Australia is sensitive to research design specifications such as the choice of proxy for total accruals; the definition of abnormal returns (i.e. the return generating model); the impact of data trimming as a response to exceptionally large returns; and the choice between value and equal weighting of returns. We show that research design choices do matter and help reconcile conflicting prior evidence of any accrual anomaly in Australia. More broadly, our results suggest the need for caution in drawing inferences from trading strategy tests which claim to identify anomalies.     

The Evolving Role of Government in China's Transitional Economy

This paper recounts the changing economic role of Chinese government, both at the central and local levels, in the reform process. The previously all-encompassing role of the central government has been greatly reduced, mandatory plans abolished, prices decontrolled, and administrative controls decentralised. Decentralisation has reoriented the interest of local governments towards reform and system innovation, fostered a climate for reform initiatives and spontaneous reform at local level, and induced competition among different localities that has again provided incentives for local governments to change, to adapt to changes, and to innovate. Decentralisation, however, has also led to dilemmas and problems, and created instability and uncertainty in China's macro-economic conditions and central-local relations.     

Regret theory and the banking firm: The optimal bank interest margin

This paper examines the optimal bank interest margin, i.e., the spread between the loan rate and the deposit rate of a bank, when the bank is not only risk-averse but also regret-averse. Regret-averse preferences are characterized by a utility function that includes disutility from having chosen ex-post suboptimal alternatives. We show that the presence of regret aversion raises or lowers the optimal bank interest margin than the one chosen by the purely risk-averse bank, depending on whether the probability of default is below or above a threshold value, respectively. Regret aversion as such makes the bank less prudent and more prone to risk-taking when the probability of default is high, thereby adversely affecting the stability of the banking system.     

Working with customers: Cooperation and competition in relational marketing

The relationship and interaction between salespeople and their customers may be usefiilly examined in terms of how they believe their goals and interests are related. Twenty‐five sales persons and 40 travel agents and managers in charge of corporate travel were interviewed on specific interactions. Results support previous theorizing that productive conflict management and resulting trust and personal bonds contribute to successful marketing relationships and suggest that these dynamics occur when sales representatives and clients have developed strongly cooperative goals, but not when they have competitive or independent goals. Results were interpreted that the constructive discussion of opposing views complements cooperative goals as important contributors for developing successful relational marketing.     

Progressive taxation and the intensity and timing of investment

This paper examines the effect of progressive taxation on a firm's investment intensity and timing decisions using a real options approach. The firm possesses a perpetual option to invest in a project at any instant by incurring an irreversible investment cost at that time. The amount of the irreversible investment cost determines the intensity of investment that augments the value of the project. Tax progression is specified in a particular case of a constant marginal tax rate with an exogenously given tax exemption threshold that makes the average tax rate increase with the tax base. We show that the firm's investment decisions are neutral to tax progression only when the exogenously given tax exemption threshold is sufficiently large. When tax neutrality does not hold, we show that progressive taxation has a perverse effect on investment intensity. Finally, we show that progressive taxation induces the firm to invest earlier as compared to the case under proportional taxation (i.e., in the absence of any tax exemption).