ICT diffusion in public administrations and business dynamics: Evidence from Italian municipalities

Public administrations have been adopting information and communication technologies (ICT) to transform their internal organization and provide better public services to citizens and firms. However, the external benefits, despite being deemed relevant, have been empirically overlooked. We first explore the relation between ICT diffusion in public administrations and business demography at the municipal level by studying the Italian context. Our results show that ICT diffusion in the PA contributes to significantly reducing the death rate of firms and boosting their turnover rate. The adoption of ICT in the PA also exerts a positive impact on the firm birth rate, although it is not statistically significant. These results shed light on the importance of promoting e-government and framing coherent digital agendas as public instruments for supporting entrepreneurship and regional economic development.     

Microeconomic consequences and macroeconomic causes of foreign direct investment in southern African economies

The authors use a new data set on firms in 13 countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and comparators from other regions to identify the benefits and determinants of FDI in this region. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has facilitated local development in the SADC. Foreign-owned firms perform better than domestic firms, are larger, and locate in richer and better-governed countries and in countries with more competitive financial intermediaries. They are also more likely to export than domestic firms and evidence suggests that they might have positive spillover effects on domestic firms. Based on a standard empirical model, the SADC is attracting the inward FDI per capita that the region's level of income would predict. But this means that there are less capital inflows per capita to the region than there are to wealthier parts of the developing world. Moreover, the SADC is attracting less FDI than comparators for reasons that are possibly more fundamental than current income, namely, countries’ past growth record, demographic structure and the quality of physical infrastructure. Interestingly, inward FDI is less sensitive to variation in income within the SADC than in other parts of the world, but is more responsive to changes in country's openness to trade.     

“互联网+”与消费品制造企业转型——基于架构创新的视角

通过研究架构理论,分析了消费品制造企业在互联网+背景下的架构创新。提出变换外围要素、核心要素相同的二阶中性置换可以形成两种不同的消费品制造企业架构创新模式。经过改进的双层技术接受模型检验,两种模式的结果殊途同归,预测两种模式结合的双层架构创新模式会成为未来新型消费品制造企业架构创新的主流。     

制造企业与服务中介合作创新的激励机制

运用多任务委托代理模型,构建了制造企业与服务中介合作服务创新的激励机制模型。该模型考虑了双方的知识共享水平、努力水平对服务创新质量的影响。研究表明:契约一旦被设定,双方的努力水平为均衡解下的努力水平;双方的努力水平、知识共享水平和服务创新质量都随着激励系数的增大而增大;但激励系数的增大并不总会使制造企业收益增大,制造企业收益在激励系数临界值处达到最大值,超过临界值后会随着激励系数的增大而下降;双方的知识共享程度的增大会使服务创新质量和系统收益增大。最后通过数值算例验证了相关结论。     

The impact of privatization on efficiency and profitability

Over the past three decades, China has undergone tremendous economic and social change as a consequence of the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. This paper examines a key feature of this transition – the privatization of the state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) – through both a theoretical model and empirical analysis. Using newly collected primary data from a variety of sources, we study how privatization of listed SOEs affects employment, wages, profits and other aspects of economic performance at the firm level. Our major finding is that privatization results in substantial downsizing of employment, increased labour productivity and rising profitability.     

中国地区腐败对民营企业国有化的影响

本文使用1998-2007年中国工业企业数据库与省级腐败数据,通过一个简单的模型,证明了在腐败的制度环境下,国有股权可以帮助民营企业避免政府侵害,因此腐败越严重、民营企业越倾向于国有化;并且,盈利能力强的企业更容易受到腐败的侵害。本文发现无论是狭义国有化还是广义国有化都与企业所在地区的腐败率以及企业资产回报率显著正相关;此外,资产回报率越高的企业因腐败而国有化的概率越高。因此,“国有化”可能是中国民营企业面对政府侵害的应对措施。这对我们理解转型国家中民营企业的生存环境与政企关系具有重要意义。     

出口退税政策对出口贸易的持续影响效应研究——来自异质性企业出口生存率的证据

出口退税作为一项贸易调控政策,在一国政府应对国际贸易的大幅波动中发挥着重要作用.文章以企业出口关系持续性作为研究切入点,结合高度细化的出口退税率数据,运用生存分析模型对出口退税政策的实施效果进行系统评估.研究表明:(1)总体而言,出口退税率的变动在短期和长期均对企业出口关系的稳定性产生了显著影响.(2)在短期内,出口退税政策的调整对企业出口持续性的影响不因其所在区域和行业特征的差异而存在显著不同,但在所有制属性层面,民营企业受到的影响程度最大.(3)在长期内,来自东部地区、民营以及低技术行业的企业不仅受政策变动的作用时效更长,而且受政策调整的影响效果也更明显;而来自西部地区、三资以及高技术行业的企业则对出口退税政策调整的反应敏感程度最低.因此,出口退税政策的实施需要结合出口信贷等政策加以综合运用,以保证经济的平稳运行.     

Absorptive capacity and firm performance: an integrative framework of benefits and downsides

Research underscores the important role a firm's absorptive capacity plays in developing knowledge, promoting open innovation, managing alliances, facilitating organisational learning, creating strategic variety, and enhancing financial performance. However, prior research often overlooks how absorptive capacity could increase a firm's costs associated with building this capacity, perpetuate and even increase inertia because of reduced variety and limited organisational search, handicap internal knowledge development, and complicate knowledge sharing. Research also ignores the growing complexity of absorptive capacity, a factor that could reduce a firm's gains from exploiting external knowledge. Our discussion builds on the knowledge-based view to provide an integrative framework for the performance effects of absorptive capacity. Based on different benefits and downsides of absorptive capacity at multiple levels of analysis, it points to an inverted U-shaped relationship between absorptive capacity and a firm's financial performance, highlighting several promising avenues for future research.     

基于中国经验重构新新贸易理论的分析框架

异质性企业贸易模型是新新贸易理论的基本分析框架,该模型从企业生产率异质性角度分析企业出口的决定因素,得到企业拥有高生产率是保证其出口的重要条件,从而出口企业的生产率要高于内销企业的结论。不过,对中国企业的经验研究却发现,出口企业的生产率未必高于内销企业,甚至低于内销企业,即中国出口企业存在"生产率悖论"。目前,对于"生产率悖论"的研究主要集中于经验分析,并没有提出一个合理解释该现象的理论模型。文章从扩展异质性企业贸易模型的角度,建立了一个旨在解释"生产率悖论"的数理模型。尽管该模型对"生产率悖论"具有解释作用,但是并没有否定生产率对企业出口的作用。文章进一步使用较新的LP方法计算了中国制造业企业的生产率并运用统计法检验了出口企业"生产率悖论"的存在性,检验结果表明中国制造业大部分行业不存在"生产率悖论"。总之,文章研究认为生产率只是企业出口的一个必要条件而不是充分条件,这也重新构建了新新贸易理论的分析框架。     

累积投票制与投资者保护

 基于近年来频发的个股崩盘现象,本文运用2013-2018年上市公司的数据,对大股东减持前的业绩预告信息进行分析,探究业绩预告、大股东减持与股价崩盘风险之间的内在联系,并针对不同市场环境和股份性质进行实证检验。结果表明,上市公司倾向于在减持前公布积极业绩预告。其在一定程度上提高股价崩盘现象的发生率,在熊市和民营公司中作用更加明显,消极业绩预告影响不显著。本文的研究丰富了信息披露与股价反应的相关文献,对投资者和监管部门做出决策具有一定的启示意义。