Global value chains in Africa and development of opportunities by poor landholders

Abstract

In an effort to help address severe levels of poverty, multinational firms are increasingly seeking to include African smallholders in their global value chains (GVCs). Despite efforts of multinationals to provide such opportunities, the number of successful inclusions remains limited. We draw from the entrepreneurship domain to approach this important issue from an opportunity perspective. At the heart of our effort to develop a greater theoretical understanding is the insight that opportunities can both be discovered and created by smallholders. The key implication of this insight is that multinationals will gain more from their efforts to include small landholders in their GVCs if they adapt their value chain systems in ways that also accommodate joint creation of opportunities with smallholders rather than expect that all smallholders adapt to the systems developed by the large global firms for their large suppliers.     

Corporate Performance: Does Ownership Matter? A Comparison of Foreign- and Domestic-Owned Firms in Greece and Portugal

The paper investigates whether multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in Portugal and Greece perform differently than domestic firms. Departures from normality of firms’ profitability motivated the use of quantile regression. The results suggest that ownership ties do not make a significant difference with respect to performance of firms in Portugal. Results are similar for firms in Greece. Only when firms in the upper quantiles of gross profits are compared, MNCs are found to significantly perform better than domestic firms. MNCs have to compensate for their liability of foreigness that in spite of their technological advantages they cannot persistently outperform domestic rivals.JEL Classifications: F23, L10, L60, C21     

Employee Loyalty: An Examination

This article presents and examines four different reconstructions of Ronald Duska’s argument for the thesis that employees’ loyalty to their employers is misguided. One of them is the reconstruction presented by John Corvino in this journal. The remaining three revolve around, respectively, employers’ failure to reciprocate employees’ (attempts at) loyalty, the commercial character of employment, and the instrumental character of employment. The result of the examination is that the argument does not withstand scrutiny in any of the four reconstructions. The failure of Duska’s argument, however, does not mean that employee loyalty is justified, because the burden of proof is on the defenders of the loyalty. Moreover, a different argument, which is also presented in the article, shows that the loyalty of most present-day employees to their employers is bound to be significantly limited, because of the radical changeability of corporations with publicly traded stock.     

The impact of financing decisions on the security returns of real estate corporations

This research investigates the valuation impact of financing decisions on the common stock of real estate corporations. We compare the results of our study with the results of similar studies in the corporate finance literature to test whether the response to security offerings by real estate firms differs systematically from the response to offerings by industrial and utility firms. The results of this study indicate a generally favorable price response to straight bond announcements, and unfavorable responses to common stock, convertible bonds, and lines of credit announcements.     

Organizing for knowledge flows within MNCs

This paper conceptualizes the multinational corporation (MNC) as a network of knowledge flows and argues that, within the same MNC, subsidiary strategic roles can be expected to differ in terms of the extent and directionality of knowledge flows between a focal subsidiary and the rest of the corporation. Building on this framework, the paper hypothesizes and empirically tests for systematic associations between a subsidiary's knowledge-flow based strategic role and the systems and processes linking the subsidiary to the rest of the corporation. The empirical data, collected from 359 subsidiaries of major US, Japanese, and European MNCs (i) provide strong support to the notion of differentiated knowledge flow roles as well as differentiated systems and processes within MNCs, and (ii) suggest that innovation by foreign subsidiaries is more typically the result of autonomous initiative by the subsidiaries rather than strategic directives issued from corporate headquarters.     

How would the introduction of an EU-wide formula apportionment affect the distribution and size of the corporate tax base? An analysis based on German multinationals

This paper analyses the effects of introducing a common EU tax base with formula apportionment on the size of the EU-wide tax base and on the distribution of the tax base between the EU member countries. We use a combined dataset of Deutsche Bundesbank's Foreign Direct Investment data (MiDi) and corporate balance sheet data (Ustan and Hoppenstedt) for the tax base estimations. The data are used to construct (i) a separate accounting and (ii) a formula apportionment tax base for the firms in the sample. Our results suggest that due to border crossing loss offset, the EU-wide corporate tax base represented by our data sample shrinks significantly. Smaller countries which are usually considered to attract book profits under the current system, i.e. Ireland and the Netherlands, tend to lose a larger part of their tax base than larger countries like Germany, Italy, France or Great Britain. However, these results should be evaluated in light of the limitations of the data used in this study since our analysis is based on German FDI data only. Furthermore, the calculations do not take into account behavioral responses of companies caused by such a system change. JEL Code: F23 · H25 This paper represents the authors' personal opinions and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Deutsche Bundesbank or its staff. We thank Heinz Herrmann, Jana Kremer, Alfons Weichenrieder, and the participants of the Deutsche Bundesbank FDI Workshop held on September 13, 2005, in Frankfurt for their valuable comments. We are also indebted to George Zodrow and two anonymous referees. The usual disclaimer applies. An erratum to this article can be found at     

制度创新:中国企业实现自主创新的根本

中国经济正在快速成长,但中国企业自主创新能力不强,技术落后,利润微薄,提高自主创新能力刻不容缓。中国企业当前自主创新能力不强的主要原因在于制度安排上不能“保证实施创新活动的行为主体应该得到的最低限度的补偿或好处”。真正建立激励自主创新的知识产权保护制度,是保障中国企业实现自主创新最重要的外部制度创新。而建立以能力为本位的人力资源开发与管理制度,实现“能力主义管理”,则是中国企业实现自主创新必须进行的内部制度创新。     

跨国公司与经济发展——兼论中国的跨国公司战略

本文以跨国公司与经济增长之间的逻辑关系为论述的主线 ,分析了经济全球化条件下跨国公司在世界经济发展和各国经济增长中的地位和作用。本文认为 ,跨国公司是世界经济发展的主导力量 ,直接体现着一个国家的经济实力和国际竞争力 ;我国要实现现代化建设战略目标 ,必须进一步引进跨国公司投资 ,同时鼓励我国企业“走出去” ,更好地利用国内外市场和资源。在此基础上 ,本文提出了我国引进跨国公司投资战略和我国企业对外投资战略。     

中国上市公司引入独立董事制度的若干思考

从公司代理成本、董事会结构缺陷、国有股集中和家族式经营四个方面，论证中国上市公司引入独立董事的动因及其相应的作用，并阐述了引入独立董事制度带来的与监事会职能冲突和难以真正独立的两大障碍，并通过职能细分和维持中立两种途径提出解决方案。     

控制能力、代理成本与独立审计的公司治理效应——中国民营上市公司的经验证据

以近几年中国民营上市公司为样本,实证分析实际控制人控制能力、代理成本、会计师事务所选择及其治理效应,可以发现实际控制人控制能力越强的公司越倾向于选择曾经被监管机构赋予专项复核资格的会计师事务所。通过两阶段回归发现,市场对聘请此类会计师事务所作出了正面评价,而且此类会计师事务所对大股东占用上市公司资金具有监督和抑制作用。