Determinants of Expatriate Success: An Empirical Study of Singaporean Expatriates in The Peoples Republic of China

ABSTRACT

Globalization of business operations has assumed an increased significance in contemporary business strategy across the developed and developing world. Assignment of staff overseas is one of the most critical areas of the global business operations. While there have been numerous studies on various aspects of expatriate performance, such as selection, training, and compensation of expatriates, these studies have been mostly “americentric” in their scope and approach. Keeping in view the growing importance of China as a favored recipient of Foreign Direct Investment not only from the United States and Europe, but also from other Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore this study has examined factors that determine the success of Singapore expatriates in China. One of the significant findings of the study is that there is a discrepancy between perception of success factors between the expatriates themselves and the human resource directors (HRDs) of the multinational corporations who have an important role in the assignment of those expatriates. Thus this study argues that in addition to the knowledge of what constitutes success in overseas ventures it is important to achieve a common agreement on the factors determining such success.     

Inequality and trade: Some insights from the history of economic thought

ABSTRACT

Perceptions of income inequality and social insecurity are increasing in advanced economies of the North-Western hemisphere. They are widely associated with offshoring and related phenomena of the transnationalization of production and finance. This article examines the capacity and limits of standard trade theory in explaining the links between trade and inequality. It suggests avenues for gaining further insights by taking recourse to the larger inventory of theories and concepts in the history of economic thought.     

The road to innovation vs. the role of globalization: A dynamic quantile investigation

This paper investigates the distributional effects of globalization on innovation using 86 countries data from 1986 to 2016. Our results derived from the dynamic panel quantile regression technique show that overall globalization has a positive influence on national innovation in the least innovative countries. Similar evidences are found when utilizing globalization (de jure) and social globalization indices. Subsample analysis shows that globalization leads to better innovation performance in the medium innovative countries among OECD countries. Therefore, our findings contribute to the existing literature in identifying the changing effect of globalization on innovation.     

State capacity and the quality of policies. Revisiting the relationship between openness and government size

Countries with different levels of state capacity have access to different sets of policies. In particular, countries with strong state capabilities are able to draw from a broader menu of policies than countries with lower capabilities. We apply and test this insight to the case of exposure to trade‐related risk. So far, most of the literature has considered that only one type of policy—the one that increases government size—can help to overcome the challenge imposed by openness. However, there are a number of policies that can mitigate trade‐induced risks, many of which do not have the necessary implication of increasing public spending. Yet, many such policies require governmental capabilities not available to any country. For that reason, while the choice of a particular policy within a menu depends on political conditions, the relationship between openness and the size of government might be mediated by the capabilities of states. This paper provides reduced form evidence confirming that the empirical relationship between openness and government size is conditional on state capabilities. Therefore, public policies cannot be assessed independently of the capacity of the State that would have to implement them.     

Managing supply-demand risk in global production: Creating cost-effective flexible networks

Globalization has led to the creation of hyper-efficient supply chains that work well in a predictable world. However, with globalization comes a world full of uncertainties, and these efficient supply chains often cannot cope with unpredictable fluctuations in demand and supply. These supply-demand imbalances are a major business risk in a vast array of industries—including aerospace and defense, automobiles, chemicals, engineered products, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors—because capacity is very expensive. Mix flexibility—whereby a plant can produce more than one kind of product—is an attractive antidote to this risk. In this article, we discuss better and worse ways to embrace mix flexibility. To begin, senior executives need to answer two key questions: How do we create flexible plants? And how do we go from flexible plants to a cost-effective flexible network? Successful companies will not blindly apply the same flexibility tactic throughout their business: they will tailor the Four Ps—product design, process design, production technology, and people—to fit the different characteristics of different tiers in their production chains. Successful companies will not sacrifice cost at the altar of flexibility: they will create cost-effective flexible networks by strategically configuring partially flexible networks in a way that delivers almost all the benefits of totally flexible networks.     

THE DECOUPLING OF EMERGING ECONOMIES: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL PUZZLE

With the growing importance of the emerging economies (EEs) in the international scene, a lively debate has begun on whether the national economic cycles are converging or the cycles of EEs and advanced economies (AEs) are becoming disconnected, the so-called ‘hypothesis of decoupling of EEs from the AEs’. Given the important practical implications that decoupling could have, for example, on the definition of national and international economic policies and on business strategies aimed at investment diversification and risk management, the question kindles not only the interest of academics but also policymakers and practitioners are very interested in the issue. The decoupling question has been long debated in different circles and from different points of view. This survey aims to retrace the steps of this debate and to provide some suggestions for future empirical researches.     

GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: A SURVEY OF DRIVERS AND MEASURES

Global value chains (GVCs) emerged as the paradigm for the international organization of production. For most goods and services production is nowadays vertically fragmented across different countries and this reality gave rise to a significant new strand of research in international trade. This article starts by discussing the major driving forces of GVCs in recent decades. Next, it surveys the main measures of GVCs, accounting for their different scopes and required data sets. The article highlights the timing of the contributions to the literature, signalling their sequential nature and the trend toward more accurate and data‐demanding indicators.     

Teaching International Business as an Opportunity to Develop Cultural Sensitivity

Business program graduates are expected to perform with cultural sensitivity in international and intercultural professional environments. In order to support student development of the necessary mindset, a variety of assignments and activities have been integrated into the undergraduate International Business (IB) course. This article describes several types of exercises that can be used by anyone teaching this course or one where cultural sensitivity is an important component. No quantitative data are presented, nor are any claims made to the efficacy of these assignments. But student comments point to increased cultural sensitivity and a better understanding of the issues of globalization.     

跨国公司资金管理策略与我国的对策

跨国公司全球化运作,要求跨国公司在全球范围内安排资金、人力和物力等企业资源,其中,对跨国公司的资金管理成了跨国公司各项业务的首要,是跨国公司管理的核心。为了有效推动公司全球战略的实施,跨国公司制定了严密的资金管理目标、策略,同时对资金管理技术也做了较为全面的规划。面对跨国公司全球资金管理策略,中国必须采取相应措施,在利用好外资的同时,防止外资运动对我国经济的不良影响。     

全球语境下中国电影的低龄化探索之路

放眼于当今的全球化语境之下,中国电影无论作为一种艺术形式也好,影像语言也罢,抑或只作为意识形态或国家的文化产业出现,怎样充分发挥影视元素的全球化传播交流功能,提升中国电影的文化传播价值,是中国电影不得不面对和急需解决的问题。事实证实,对年少时纯真意境的表现和渲染无疑是在全球化语境下发展中国电影的一个切入点。本文通过一些案例,指明中国电影要做的,就是打破内容上单纯的低龄化趋势,突破选材的低龄化限制,超越传统意义上低龄化影片的单一教育功能,使低龄化成为推动中国电影在全球化语境下乘风破浪的一面风帆。