Uncovering neglected success factors in post-acquisition reverse capability transfer: Evidence from Chinese multinational corporations in Europe

Based on empirical evidence of four Chinese firms’ outward mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to European countries, this paper examines previously neglected key success factors in post-acquisition reverse capability transfer. We identified three such factors: home-country advantage, motivation-oriented complementary resources, and acquirers’ attractiveness, and argue that post-acquisition capability transfer is affected by not only the process factors that occur during the post-acquisition phase but also by pre-acquisition status factors. In this way, the paper enriches the process perspective of M&A, thereby contributing to the international M&A literature and to studies of multinational corporations (MNCs) from emerging economies.     

Creating a scale for assessing socially sustainable tourism

As destinations absorb ever increasing number of visitors, destination managers become progressively more concerned about the longer term viability of tourism from a resident's perspective. However, few studies have examined the application of real-time social sustainability within tourism, particularly how to measure impacts on social sustainability. This study outlines the development of a valid and reliable scale – the Scale of Social Sustainability (SSS) – for tourism that provides an assessment of social sustainability in destination settings. A 10-step procedure was developed drawing upon the related literature. A telephone poll-based survey generated 1839 valid responses from Hong Kong residents. Hong Kong's growing popularity as a destination provides a rich array of host–guest conflict situations. Dimensionality was identified using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Construct validity, reliability, and stability were assessed, and found good, showing that the scale could be used by other destinations worldwide. The theoretical and managerial implications of the scale are discussed, including options for annual surveys giving policy-makers alerts before situations worsen. Detailed host resident viewpoints and the large scale of the survey can help local residents be informed about tourism development and better involved in the policy formation process.     

Economies of Scope,Resource Relatedness,and the Dynamics of Corporate Diversification

Research summary: The dominant view has been that businesses that are more related to each other are more often combined within diversified firms. This study uses a dynamic model to demonstrate that, with inter‐temporal economies of scope, diversified firms are more likely to combine moderately related businesses than the most‐related businesses. That effect occurs because strong relatedness reduces redeployment costs and makes firms redeploy all resources to better performing businesses. The strength of that effect depends on inducements for redeployment measured as the current return advantage of one business over another business, volatilities of business returns, and correlation of those returns. This study develops hypotheses for those relationships and suggests empirical operationalizations, encouraging empiricists to retest the implications of relatedness for the dynamics of corporate diversification. Managerial summary: It is believed that diversified firms are more likely to combine more‐related businesses because relatedness enables sharing of resources between businesses. Indeed, a firm can apply knowledge created in one business to another business, avoiding costly duplication in knowledge development. Resource sharing also adds value when a firm offers several products, adding the convenience of one‐stop shopping and charging higher prices. However, resource sharing is not the only motivation for corporate diversification. In environments where profitability of businesses changes frequently, firms diversify by redeploying part of resources from an underperforming business to a better performing business. This study uses a dynamic model to demonstrate that, with that second motivation for corporate diversification, firms end up combining moderately related businesses rather than the most‐related businesses. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国城市集聚与扩散的转换规模及最优规模研究

以我国211个主要地级及地级以上城市为研究对象,其中包括除拉萨以外的30个省会城市、5个计划单列城市以及176个地级市.收集了1989-2003年及2000-2005年各城市的连续时间序列数据,构建了城市集聚与扩散的Panel-data模型,并运用该模型分别估算了各城市的相对规模收益和相对外部成本,然后通过收益与成本的对比分析,判断城市发展所处的阶段,找出城市以集聚为主向以扩散为主转换的城市规模.研究发现:目前,除上海市处于扩散阶段外,我国其它城市都处于以集聚为主的发展阶段,且在这些城市中,绝大部分城市的规模收益的增长速度要快于其外部成本.     

大型零售商整合渠道资源:动因与路径

当前,大量营销实践表明,稳固的营销渠道是大型零售商提高经营效率,获取市场竞争力的重要前提。本文主要运用交易成本、委托代理、企业战略、服务营销等理论进行分析,指出大型零售商企业整合渠道资源的动因是拓宽和构建稳固的营销渠道。同时,结合案例分析认为,大型零售商整合渠道资源的主要路径包括:与供应商建立战略联盟、委托制造商生产自有品牌产品、并购同行竞争者、通过特许加盟进行连锁经营、采取业态多元化策略、对消费者开展服务营销等。最后,就每种整合路径中存在的难点与关键进行了分析。     

Does Microelectronics Reduce Economies of Scale? A Case Study in the Turkish Chemical Industry

This paper delves into the question of how new technologies affect economies of scale at the empirical level. As theoretical studies are inconclusive, we introduce a case study in the Turkish chemical industry to observe the dynamics of the relationship between technology and economies of scale. By observing the changes in the sources of economies of scale, output and unit costs in our case study firms, we showed that while economies of product scale stayed stable, both economies of plant and firm scales increased in the chemical industry.     

新兴市场国家(地区)本币升值影响因素的国际经验比较

通过对经历或正在面临本币升值压力的主要新兴市场国家(地区)影响本币升值的因素进行国际经验比较分析,我们可以发现,在众多的影响因素中,贸易收支顺差、金融账户顺差和GDP增长率成为引发上述国家(地区)本币升值的主要因素。基于样本国家(地区)面板资料的实证研究为国际经验比较分析提供了证据。以上结论显然对于同样作为新兴市场国家,同时面临人民币升值压力的我国具有重要的借鉴意义。在我国应对人民币升值的政策中,应该优先考虑可能导致上述因素积极变化的政策的制定和实施。     

The emergence of zoning policy games in exurban jurisdictions: Informing collective action theory

Theoretical urban policy literature predicts the likelihood of free riding in the management of common goods such as forested open space; such outcome is often characterized as a Prisoner's Dilemma game. Numerous cases exist in which neighboring jurisdictions cooperate to maintain public goods, challenging the expected results, yet theoretical explanations of these cases have not been fully developed. In this paper, we use an agent-based model to explore how underlying micro-behaviors affect the payoffs obtained by two neighboring municipalities in a hypothetical exurban area. Payoffs are measured in terms of regional forested space and of local tax revenue at the end of the agent-based simulations; the municipalities affect these payoffs through their choice of residential zoning policies and the spillover effect between the neighboring jurisdictions. Zoning restrictions influence the conversion of farmland into residential subdivisions of different types, and consequently the location of heterogeneous residential households in the region. Developers and residents respond to the changing landscape characteristics, thus establishing a feedback between early and future land-use patterns. The structure of the simulated payoffs is analyzed using standard game theory. Our analysis shows that a variety of games, in addition to Prisoner's Dilemma, can emerge between the neighboring jurisdictions. Other games encourage coordination or subsidization, offering some explanations for the unexpected observations. The game realized in any given context depends on the initial characteristics of the landscape, the value given to the objectives each township seeks to maximize, and the income distribution of the population.     

旅游产业范围与地位的前提及其定性与定量解释

对于旅游及旅游产业的正确认识是探讨“旅游产业的范围与地位”这个论题的前提和基础。以此为切入点,首先提出需要将我国旅游中具有产业特性的部分整合构建旅游产业系统,以此为研究对象,探讨旅游的“纯经济”问题,夯实旅游产业的理论基础。基于此,从定性和定量的视角,在宏观和微观两个尺度上,对旅游产业的地位和范围的研究思路进行了探讨,指出：旅游产业的效益并非随着单纯范围的增大和地位的提高而提高,经济学中的利润最大化和范围经济理论、旅游卫星账户（TSA）和旅游产业供应链研究是科学判定旅游产业范围和地位的理性考量。     

Validation of a market orientation adoption scale in rural tourism enterprises. Relationship between the characteristics of the enterprise and extent of market orientation adoption

Market orientation (MO) is considered as a competitive strategy for the rural tourism sector. A MO adoption scale is proposed and validated for the rural tourism sector. Given the importance of MO, it is important to know the relationship between a firm's characteristics and MO adoption. This study makes a hierarchical segmentation to predict the behaviour of these firms when adopting the MO. Activity and category are the two characteristics that most effectively predict a firm's behaviour. The contribution made by this work is of interest given the new field of application achieved and which have implications for the professional sector.