Competing on the edge: Implications of network position for internationalizing small- and medium-sized enterprises

Three generic competitive strategies attributed to internationalizing SMEs of targeting niches, differentiating products and leveraging networks fail to adequately explain how SMEs win customers in other countries against both large and small competitors. This study distinguishes competitive strategy (how firms compete) from competitive advantage, and from competitive engagements where firms deploy their competitive advantages to win customers within business network relationships. By abductively reasoning from the competitive engagements entered into by the internationalizing SMEs from the Fleet Management Systems industry segment in New Zealand, we show that these firms often compete with foreign rivals by using their position on the edge of a business network to leverage information asymmetries across structural holes. We contribute by integrating this conception of internationalizing SME competitive strategy with the business network foundations of the Uppsala internationalization process model.     

Spillovers in Exchange Rates and the Effects of Global Shocks on Emerging Market Currencies

This paper provides an investigation into the spillover effects of exchange rate returns and volatility for developed and emerging market currencies, using data from 1997 to 2011. The results suggest that spillovers in exchange rate returns have increased steadily over time, in moderate reaction to economic events. In contrast, spillovers in total observed volatility (measured by squared returns) react more strongly to economic events, and this transmission has remained at a relatively high level since the global financial crisis. Furthermore, over the course of time, global shocks would appear to account for a larger proportion of aggregate exchange rate volatility (and the relative importance of domestic shocks has declined). The paper also considers whether the increase in volatility spillover is due to sudden shocks, or whether it is due to changes in the stochastic trend of the underlying volatility process. The results suggests that in most cases, this increase is due to sudden shocks, however, in certain instances country‐specific events may perpetuate changes to the trend of the underlying volatility spillover.     

全球价值链形成的动力系统及运行机制研究

全球价值链的形成可以归因于条件系统、动力系统和组织系统。全球价值链的动力系统主要包括促进全球价值链形成的各种动力及其各自在系统中所处的地位和相互作用关系。文章从力学和经济学的双重视角分析了全球价值链形成的动力机制,研究结论显示：全球价值链的形成必须依赖于一定强度的链接力。市场需求是全球价值链形成的动力引擎,一旦引擎启动后,就衍生出一对推动力与离散力。比较优势、规模经济、专业化经济是推动力的来源,而运输成本、协调成本及制度成本的增加构成了离散力的主要来源。     

全球化背景下产业集群的升级——以浙江慈溪、义乌、桐乡典型产业集群为例

产业集群为企业和区域提供了强大的竞争力,但产业集群本身面临着升级的问题。在全球化背景下,产业集群应在全球价值链中从低往高爬升。文章通过实证方法,以浙江省慈溪小家电、义乌小商品、桐乡毛衫三个典型产业集群为例,分析了我国产业集群在全球价值链中从制造、设计到自创品牌的动态升级过程。     

新时期农民工回流问题研究

当前,受全球金融危机的影响,我国出现了近几十年来罕见的农民工回流现象。文章运用CES经济增长模型对新形势下农民工回流问题进行实证分析,发现城市产出水平、城市工资水平、资本价格、农村收入、农村劳动力外出打工付出的成本、城市失业劳动力总量等是影响农民工回流的主要因素,并提出了解决农民工回流问题的针对性措施。     

Performative global finance: bridging micro and macro approaches with a stratified perspective

Theories of performativity can enhance the study of global finance. Taking everyday financial practices seriously, they emphasise the potentially structuring effects and disciplinary nature of finance, and foreground the performative role of economics, financial models, and formulas. It has remained largely overlooked to date that the literature on the performativity of finance can be divided into two distinct approaches. ‘Microperformativity’ is the more actor-oriented approach, beginning its analysis with the exploration of agencements and their practices, or the examination of the social history of mathematical formulas in finance. ‘Macroperformativity’, in contrast, takes its point of departure from the social structure of finance itself, often in relation to national, international, or global power structures. Neither approach provides for an intermediary concept that more explicitly links the micro and macro level. Nor does either approach give adequate analytical consideration to social conflicts and power struggles. To fill these gaps, the paper applies poststructural hegemony theory to reconceptualise performativity as an articulatory logic which accounts for the transition of a particularity towards a universality within a framework of stratified hegemony. Framed accordingly, the concept of performativity accounts more strongly for the social and political processes, ruptures, contestations and contradictions in global finance.     

Global and Euro Imbalances： China and Germany

We analyze global and euro area imbalances by focusing on China and Germany as large surplus and creditor countries. In the 2000s, domestic reforms expanded the effective labor force, restrained wages, shifted income toward profits and increased corporate saving. As a result, the Chinese and German current account surpluses widened, and that of Germany has proven more persistent, with subdued domestic investment. China is an early-stage creditor, holding a short equity position and a longposition in safe debt. Germany＇s balanced net debt and equity claims mark it as a mature creditor thatprovides insurance to the rest of the world. China pays to lay off equity risk, while Germany, by contrast, harvests a moderate yield on its net claims. In both economies, the shortfall of the net international investment position from cumulated current account surpluses arises from exchange rate changes, asymmetric valuation gains, and, in Germany＇s case, credit losses.     

Consumer engagement with brands on social network sites: A cross-cultural comparison of China and the USA

To advance theoretical understanding of consumer engagement on social media, this cross-cultural study evaluates how culture influences consumers’ engagement levels and activities on brand pages of social network sites. It further evaluates the underlying motivations and engagement mechanisms in two culturally distinct countries, China and the USA. Specifically, social media dependency, parasocial interaction, and community identification are examined as the key antecedents of consumer-brand engagement. The results confirm the effects of the proposed antecedents and reveal both cultural differences and similarities between Chinese and American consumers’ engagement with brand pages on social network sites.     

地勘单位在国际资源配置中的重要作用

后危机时代中,我国工业化、城镇化和农业现代化的同步推进与欧债危机、美债危机引发的全球经济衰退交织在一起,使大宗商品价格大幅震荡下行,矿产勘查投资也受其关联影响。在此背景下,作为专业从事矿产资源勘查与开发的地勘单位,如何凭借其专业技术等传统优势,利用两种资源、两个市场为我国经济安全提供资源保障,在经济的周期性波动中参与全球资源配置,是需要重点考虑的问题。