Broadening the Concept of International Entrepreneurship: Internationalisation, Networks and Politics

In this article, the situation where a company internationalises over an extended period without changing operation mode is explored. The focus of the empirical research is the Australian company CSR and its large-scale sugar exporting operations, which developed over a period of about 75 years. Because of the highly politicised nature of the sugar industry in many countries, CSR was called upon to make extensive investments in political networks in order to achieve its global sugar exporting operations. Overall the CSR experience demonstrates that it is possible to stretch the use of a given mode, although this may demand considerable creativity in market, network and policy responses of a kind which illustrate that international entrepreneurship may come in many guises, and may need to be viewed in a broader way.     

On the County-Level Credit Outcome Beta

In their pioneering work, Musto and Souleles (Journal of Monetary Economics 53(1):59–84, 2006) apply portfolio theory to consumer lending. This paper extends their work by analyzing three county-level credit outcome betas. We use the probability of default calibrated from the credit score, the actual default rate, and the actual bankruptcy rate to compute ‘score’, ‘default’, and ‘bankruptcy’ betas for each U.S. county. The correlation between default and bankruptcy betas is quite low. Counties in states in which a borrower has a right to take action against aggressive collection practices tend to have higher default betas but lower bankruptcy betas. These findings suggest the possibility of an ‘informal bankruptcy’ option for consumers. The effects of county score, default, and bankruptcy betas on the county average revolving credit line per borrower are negative. For small lenders that do not have access to the detailed historical credit files on individual consumers, the county-level beta approach of this paper might be helpful for diversifying portfolios geographically and managing risk on existing accounts.     

Capital adequacy and asset securitization: an assessment of the world's central banks

National banking systems around the world are subject to disruption through the failure of a single institution. To lessen this risk, regulations governing bank definition, capital adequacy, overdraft operations, and asset securitization are needed. This article reports on these four issues and concludes that (1) the definition of a bank varies widely between nations; (2) some central banks do not require that sufficient capital be maintained to attenuate the effect of internal or external shocks; (3) overdraft operations, where allowed, often result in a high degree of system risk; and (4) off-balance sheet financing operations may not be as risky as first was reported.     

Thirlwall’s Law and the Stability of Export and Import Income Elasticities

The aim of this paper is to examine the stability of income elasticities used in Thirlwall's law to approximate a country's long-term growth and to see empirically how non-constancy will affect these predictions. For this purpose, three countries - Canada, New Zealand and the UK - are analysed, using annual time series data from 1973 to 1995. These three countries were chosen on the basis of their contrasting trade patterns. The results obtained are different for each country but they still suggest the predictive power of one of the two specifications of Thirlwall's law is good.     

How important is improving food availability for reducing child malnutrition in developing countries?

Do increases in the food supply per person in a country, i.e., national food availability, contribute substantially to reductions in malnutrition among its children? This paper sets out to answer this controversial question using panel data from 63 developing countries over 1970–1996. This paper gives evidence in support of a statistically significant and strong positive impact of national food availability on child nutrition, finding that increased food supplies have resulted in significant reductions in malnutrition since the 1970s despite population increases over the period. However, per‐capita food supplies have a declining marginal impact: their effect is quite strong for countries with very low food availability (e.g., most countries in sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia), but weak or non‐existent for those with high levels (e.g., most countries in the Near East and North Africa). Further, non‐food factors, such as women's education and status and the quality of health environments, are also important determinants of children's nutritional status. Depending on the state of food availability in any particular geographic area and relative costs, these factors may merit greater priority in policies to reduce malnutrition.     

Ethics and Executive Coaching: An Agency Theory Approach

In recent years executive coaching has become an important management development practice in many organizations. Executive coaching is a partnership between a management level client and a coach hired by an organization to assist the executive in becoming a more effective and successful manager. While executive coaching has become a frequent and important practice in organizations, there has been relatively little serious consideration of the complex ethical issues that arise for persons and organizations. This study proposes that executive coaching involves an agency relation with specific moral duties that go beyond the usual standards of professional ethics. Agency theory, and in particular a focused understanding of the agency relationship, can provide a needed ethical grounding and basis for moral thinking about executive coaching.     

Managed Mental Health Care: Stakeholder Effects and Policy Implications

ABSTRACT: During the past several years, healthcare delivery in the United States has shifted from a primarily fee-for-service system toward managed care. Mental health care has been affected disproportionately by this trend. The existing literature on managed mental health care is abundant, but narrowly focused. The purpose of this study is to take a broader public-policy approach, considering simultaneously the effects on system stakeholders: patients, providers, employers, insurers, and society.     

Fallacies in the Stakeholding Debate

This paper reviews the logic underlying the fashionable stakeholding literature and finds it at variance with received economic theory. It concludes that many stakeholding views are flawed, particularly in regard to the rôle of profit which is seen as a constraint rather than an objective.