Exploring the role of knowledge management practices on exports: A dynamic capabilities view

Drawing on dynamic capabilities view, this work provides empirical evidence on the role of knowledge management practices on export intensity in SMEs in a mature and global, non-high-tech industry. A quantitative study with structural equation modeling was carried out on a sample of 157 Spanish and Italian manufacturing companies in the ceramic tile industry. Our results suggest the existence of a mediating effect of dynamic capabilities on exports, hence the implementation of knowledge management practices is a necessary but not sufficient condition to improve exporting, requiring the existence of dynamic capabilities to reconfigure these capabilities. Findings highlight the relevance of knowledge practices to foster exports, providing new insights for managers dealing with dynamic capabilities in SMEs.     

西部地区投资效率、投资结构及其机制研究

当前,西部地区已进入投资高峰期,但主流观点认为与高投资相伴随的往往是低效率,如何确保大规模投资更好地拉升区域经济?这就需要提高投资效率。本文通过测算西部各省经济运行效率并与东部省份进行比较,分析西部地区投资动态效率及其形成机制。结果显示西部地区经济运行动态无效,并且西部各省资本配置效率逐渐趋同于较低水平,这些表明了西部地区整体和各省的投资产出效率都极低。分析其原因,主要是投资的行业结构及资金来源结构存在不合理性,因此西部地区若想有效促进经济社会持续发展,就必须将投资机制进行结构性调整。     

Pecking order as a dynamic leverage theory

Static tradeoff theories, which do not explicitly treat the impact of transaction costs, do not explain the policy of asymmetry between frequent small debt transactions and infrequent large equity transactions. Nor do these theories explain why the debt ratio is allowed to wander a considerable distance from its alleged static optimum, or how much of a distance should be tolerated. We offer a class of diffusion models that mimic this behaviour in a stochastic-dynamic framework and are designed to optimize a financing strategy using any static tradeoff theory as input. The models developed reveal the determinants of the size and frequency of equity transactions and the range of values over which leverage variations are tolerated in four generic scenarios. They also yield a new formulation of the cost of capital that recognizes stochastic transaction costs and a penalty for deviation from any static-optimal leverage. Our class of models augments the pecking order theory, provides a flexible quantitative framework for its implementation as a decision tool, and facilitates the formulation of additional hypotheses for its empirical validation. Symmetrically, our results show the importance of dynamic factors in designing and interpreting empirical tests of static tradeoff theories. The results presented have important implications for the role played by static tradeoff theories in a stochastic-dynamic framework. One such implication is that the static-optimal leverage has no direct effect on the firm's leverage policy in this setting. The target leverage for refinancing transactions is different from the static-optimal leverage, and the mean leverage is generally different from both. As a consequence, the latter cannot be used to estimate the former. Another implication is that even when the mean leverage equals the static optimum, mean reversion is not an optimal behaviour and therefore not a legitimate test for the existence of a static tradeoff in a dynamic context. Still another implication is that wide variations in leverage ratios cannot be interpreted as evidence of leverage indifference. It follows that the pecking order theory is consistent with static tradeoff theories and does not require the assumption of leverage indifference.     

Cash management using multi-stage stochastic programming

We consider a cash management problem where a company with a given financial endowment and given future cash flows minimizes the Conditional Value at Risk of final wealth using a lower bound for the expected terminal wealth. We formulate the optimization problem as a multi-stage stochastic linear program (SLP). The company can choose between a riskless asset (cash), several default- and option-free bonds, and an equity investment, and rebalances the portfolio at every stage. The uncertainty faced by the company is reflected in the development of interest rates and equity returns. Our model has two new features compared to the existing literature, which uses no-arbitrage interest rate models for the scenario generation. First, we explicitly estimate a function for the market price of risk and change the underlying probability measure. Second, we simulate scenarios for equity returns with moment-matching by an extension of the interest rate scenario tree.     

Pricing the Chicago Board of Trade T-Bond futures

The aim of this paper is to investigate the pricing of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Treasury-Bond futures. The difficulty in pricing it arises from its multiple inter-dependent embedded delivery options, which can be exercised at various times and dates during the delivery month. We consider a general Markov diffusion process model for stochastic interest rates and propose a pricing algorithm that can handle all the delivery rules embedded in the CBOT T-Bond futures. Our procedure combines dynamic programming, finite-elements approximation, and fixed-point evaluation. Numerical illustrations are provided under the one-factor Vasicek and Cox–Ingesoll–Ross models, and under the time in-homogeneous Hull–White model.     

金融契约理论:基于控制权视角的最新研究

如何构建有效的金融契约是经济转型过程中提升我国企业公司治理效率、保护投资者利益的关键.最近兴起的金融契约理论突破传统的现金流思路.从控制权视角考察企业内部控制权配置机制及时各利益主体行动策略的影响.论文从控制权视角出发,系统回顾了金融契约理论的相关成果,并指出了目前该领域研究存在的主要局限.本文研究将对我国企业融资决策、内部公司治理和外部资本市场金融创新等具有一定的实践启示.     

Is forest carbon sequestration at the expense of bioenergy and forest products cost-efficient in EU climate policy to 2050?

Forest management affects the quantity of CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere through carbon sequestration in standing biomass, carbon storage in forest products and production of bioenergy. The main question studied in this paper is whether forest carbon sequestration is worth increasing at the expense of bioenergy and forest products to achieve the EU emissions reduction target for 2050 in a cost-efficient manner. A dynamic cost minimisation model is used to find the optimal combination of carbon abatement strategies to meet annual emissions targets between 2010 and 2050. The results indicate that forest carbon sequestration is a low-cost abatement method. With sequestration, the net present costs of meeting EU carbon targets can be reduced by 23%.     

Spatial dynamic analysis of productivity growth of agri‐food companies

This study analyzes the spatial dynamics in productivity growth and its components for a sample of agri‐food companies in Murcia (Spain) over the period 2005–2014. We find that productivity growth of a company is related to productivity growth of neighboring companies, in both the short and long term. The marginal effects of the different factors on productivity growth are stronger in the short run rather than in the long run. Land characteristics and economic territorial conditions have the largest marginal effect on productivity growth and its components. This study contributes to the existing literature by including spatial interactions in the analysis of productivity growth.     

Stability or restructuring? Macroeconomic dynamics under soft budget constraint problems

In this paper, we examine how a decrease in firms’ productivity or the degree of financial market imperfection affects macroeconomic dynamics when the bank has an incentive to misallocate its credit. We develop a model that incorporates a soft budget constraint into a simplified version of Kiyotaki and Moore (1997) environment and show that soft budget constraint problems may arise if the economy becomes less productive or the financial market is less developed. Because of this shift in firms’ productivity, not only do more bad projects survive, but profitable new entrants are crowded out, so that, as in transition economies and Japan in the 1990s, the recession is not only prolonged, but also becomes more severe in the long term.     

大庆油田突发事件应急指挥管理系统建设探索

本文探讨利用油田现有的各种资源,搭建应急指挥平台,从而最大限度地降低大庆油田公司各类突发事件的发生概率,减少发生突发事件时所造成的经济损失和社会影响,确保油田生产生活秩序的平稳。