COPENHAGEN,CANCÚN AND THE LIMITS OF GLOBAL WELFARE ECONOMICS

The rise of a global welfare economics directed at the environmental challenges facing our planet represents a new policy phenomenon. This paper examines the most ambitious attempt so far to put such economics into practice via the Kyoto Protocol and more specifically the Clean Development Mechanism of the Protocol. The Copenhagen and Cancún climate change conferences have put an end to hopes of the Protocol serving as an effective tool in the mitigation of global warming. This failure of the new global welfare economics is the result of flawed principles, not just defective implementation.     

Can banks default overnight? Modelling endogenous contagion on the O/N interbank market

We propose a new model of the liquidity-driven banking system focusing on overnight interbank loans. This significant branch of the interbank market is commonly neglected in the banking system modelling and systemic risk analysis. We construct a model where banks are allowed to use both the interbank and the securities markets to manage their liquidity demand and supply as driven by prudential requirements in a volatile environment. The network of interbank loans is dynamic and simulated every day. We show how the intrasystem cash fluctuations alone, without any external shocks, may lead to systemic defaults, and what may be a symptom of the self-organized criticality of the system. We also analyze the impact of different prudential regulations and market conditions on the interbank market resilience. We confirm that the central bank’s asset purchase programmes, limiting the declines in government bond prices, can successfully stabilize banks’ liquidity demands. The model can be used to analyze the interbank market impact of macroprudential tools.     

Community entrepreneurship - cases and conceptualization *

As starting and managing a small business means both social and economic risk taking so is building a robust community a social as well as an economic endeavour. Such a community is a most vital context for entrepreneurship. If located in a remote area and if the environment is hostile cooperation is stimulated between firms and other community groups. Their success is especially ascribed to qualified community entrepreneurship, i.e. personal and innovative ways of building support for local autonomous entrepreneurs. An integrative approach to local economic development is illustrated by two successful, albeit contrasting, Swedish cases.

The cases are reviewed with the help of a conceptual framework that particularly points out the importance of local and global networking in both community and autonomous entrepreneurship. In a mixed economy such networks must be carefully managed and encompass linkages on, beside the market, institutional and political arenas. The very role of the community entrepreneur is to bridge these different settings through alert leadership, if required organized as a team.     

The development of political skill and political capital by global leaders through global assignments

The purpose of this paper is to explain how developing global leaders through global assignments (i.e. in the form of expatriation and inpatriation) may lead to their acquisition of valuable political skill and political capital. First, using the theoretical frame of political influence theory, the benefit of political skill is explained relative to the development and augmentation of global leaders' capital portfolio during global assignments. Second, a distinction between social capital and political capital, as the integral components of global leader's capital portfolio, is made. In conclusion, the value of acquiring political skill and building human, cultural, social and political capital by global leaders is discussed separately for expatriate and inpatriate assignments.     

Flexpatriate assignments: a neglected issue in global staffing

The demands of managing international assignments are major considerations within strategic IHRM theory and most frequently considered within long-term employment choices between parent-country expatriates or host-country nationals. Yet recent studies from the Centre for Research into the Management of Expatriation (CReME) (Harris, ; Petrovic, ) have highlighted the frequency of alternative types of international assignment, which they classify as ‘short-term’, ‘commuter’ and ‘frequent flyer’ assignments, which are now a regular part of global business life. This paper reports on a case study of one Austrian multinational organization and highlights management issues in terms of incidence, purpose, management and personal impact for assignments involving frequent travel without relocation (flexible expatriation) compared with traditional expatriate assignments. It begins by reviewing the emphasis on expatriate assignment before presenting evidence regarding the extent of alternative forms of international assignment. The research method and background to the study are then discussed before the findings are presented and discussed.     

Going global,feeling small: an examination of managers' reactions to global restructuring in a multinational organisation

This paper is concerned with examining the reactions of managers to the process of global restructuring in a large, multinational food-processing company. Much extant research concerning globalisation has focused on the wider economic, political and social outcomes. Perhaps surprisingly, relatively little attention has been given to how globalisation is experienced inside organisations. This paper examines how country-level managers have been affected by the move to a new global structure in their organisation. We present evidence of these managers feeling disempowered by global reorganisation and of a largely negative impact on their feelings towards the organisation they work for.     

Disorder in the Risk Order

Abstract

This paper studies the difference in global equity portfolios allocated by the criterion of minimizing the risk by using two different risk measures, the standard deviation and the conditional value at risk. An empirical analysis is performed on a comprehensive stock exchange database. The main hypothesis of the present work is that the choice of risk measure has crucial importance in portfolio optimisation, especially in those situations when the stock markets are extremely volatile and the return distributions are non-normal. The rationale behind establishing minimum-risk portfolios is to keep track of the highest possible risk reduction benefits from international diversification.     

Values and the Social Responsibility of Global Business

ABSTRACT

Business is widely viewed as one of the major institutions in society. It has assumed a socially responsible role for itself that has given rise to two competing paradigms, social philanthropy and corporate citizenship. Business, however, has not fulfilled its social responsibility particularly well. One reason is that business does not seem to have understood the interplay between individual-level, culture-level and corporate-level values nor the implications of national differences in culture-level value priorities. Some recent developments in cross-cultural psychology offer a useful paradigm for understanding this interplay and resolving any conflicts which result from the attempts of global business to implement socially responsible policies.     

Managing invasive alien species with professional and hobby farmers: Insights from ecological-economic modelling

Biosecurity is a great challenge to policy-makers globally. Biosecurity policies aim to either prevent invasions before they occur or to eradicate and/or effectively manage the invasive species and diseases once an invasion has occurred. Such policies have traditionally been directed towards professional producers in natural resource based sectors, including agriculture. Given the wide scope of issues threatened by invasive species and diseases, it is important to account for several types of stakeholders that are involved. We investigate the problem of an invasive insect pest feeding on an agricultural crop with heterogeneous producers: profit-oriented professional farmers and utility-oriented hobby farmers. We start from an ecological-economic model conceptually similar to the one developed by Eiswerth and Johnson [Eiswerth, M.E. and Johnson, W.S., 2002. Managing nonindigenous invasive species: insights from dynamic analysis. Environmental and Resource Economics 23, 319-342.] and extend it in three ways. First, we make explicit the relationship between the invaded state carrying capacity and farmers' planting decisions. Second, we add another producer type into the framework and hence account for the existence of both professional and hobby farmers. Third, we provide a theoretical contribution by discussing two alternative types of equilibria. We also apply the model to an empirical case to extract a number of stylised facts and in particular to assess: a) under which circumstances the invasion is likely to be not controllable; and b) how extending control policies to hobby farmers could affect both types of producers.