Entry mode choice in China's regional distribution markets: Institution vs. transaction costs perspectives

In this paper, we investigate the entry mode choice of a leading Taiwanese food company in setting up regional distributors in China's 312 sales districts. Our study shows that, in entry mode decisions, the institutional factors are more important than transaction cost considerations. Both formal and informal institutions are considered. Formal institutions refer to government prescribed institutions (laws and regulations), while informal institutions refer to rules prescribed by the industry and the society. Both institutions are shown to affect the entry mode choices but one important type of institution, professional norms, is conspicuously missing in China. Professional norms exert peer pressures on the practitioners in the same profession, forcing their behaviors to conform to a common pattern. In the absence of professional norms, the roles of network ties and mimetic behaviors are heightened and they become a proxy for professional norms. As a foreign enterprise operating in China's local markets, the Taiwanese food company attained legitimacy by forming alliances with local wholesalers and by following its predecessors in selecting organization forms.     

Extending the “P” perspective: An institutional account of management research in Australia

In commenting Meyer’s article “Asian management research needs more self-confidence” in APJM (2006), Yang and Terjesen (Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 24(4):497–507, 2007) described ground realities in Australia that may have inhibited the development of a robust management research community. As an Australia-trained and Australia-based Asian management scholar, I extend the “P” perspective by exploring how the formal and informal institutions interact in shaping Australia-based scholars’ publication strategies and research performance. Reflecting on my experience in Australia, I argue that like in any other businesses, institutions matter in our business of research and publication. They matter because they can shape the local “rule of the game” within which a country’s or a region’s scholars conduct and publish their research. A full institutional account of the current state of management research in the Asia Pacific region requires a deeper understanding of both formal and informal local institutions. From such an institutional perspective, this commentary concentrates on why Australian management research lags behind that in the US and Europe and yet leads the Asia Pacific region.

External Debts,Institutions and Growth in SSA

The study investigates the impact of institutional quality on the external debt–growth nexus in SSA. Data from 36 SSA economies over the 1996–2013 periods were used. The results from the IV-System GMM imply that institutional quality has robust effects on the external debt–growth nexus. Thus, the impact of external debt on growth is through host nation’s institutional quality. However, the mediating effect of institutional quality on this nexus is up to a point. When a country is on the wrong side of the debt-laffer curve, external debt becomes irrelevant; and institutional quality can no longer help.     

How have global financial institutions responded to the challenges of the post-crisis era?

The study examines the largely unexplored effect of changes in the competitive landscape for large, global financial institutions on their ability to take risks, as well as deploy capital and labour in an efficient manner based on a novel measure of inefficiency. The analysis shows during 2001–2013 that inefficiency peaked during the 2008 crisis period and has fallen back to levels close to pre-crisis periods. The model also performs well in out-of-sample forecasts of the financial firms’ future market values. These results suggest that large financial firms have been adjusting to the ‘new normal’ of the post-crisis period and thus are able to use capital and labour more efficiently within the constraints of current market conditions. In addition, a non-linear pattern between inefficiency and a firm’s asset size suggests that there might be an optimal scale for such firms in the $450–650 billion range.     

多层次视角的新兴技术创新管理研究回顾与展望

新兴技术创新是近年来管理学研究的热点。为了更好地丰富新兴技术创新管理的研究理论、研究视角和研究方法,对新兴技术创新的内涵特征、理论视角、关键要素进行了评述,并扩展形成了多层次的新兴技术创新管理整合研究框架,归纳了较为完整的研究体系和脉络。最后,提出未来研究应当重点关注新兴技术创新的能力体系构建、开放式学习视角的引入以及新兴技术创新过程中的动态资源管理等,并进一步结合中国转型经济环境开展更有针对性的研究。     

工会经费管理的现状与对策探讨

当前,由于种种原因造成工会经费未能按国家规定落实到位,以及一些企事业单位拒缴工会经费或长期拖欠工会经费的问题较为严重。故而,本文对工会经费管理中存在的问题进行归纳,分析原因并从多个角度提出了解决问题的建议。     

行政事业单位内部控制评价探讨

内部控制评价是对内部控制质量的检验,是改进内部控制的依据.本文以《行政事业单位内部控制基本规范（试行）》为依据,构建了行政事业单位内部控制自我评价体系,提出了内部控制指数的定量评价算法,对发现单位内部控制缺陷进而完善单位内部控制制度具有一定的理论意义和实践意义.     

Measuring systemic importance of financial institutions: An extreme value theory approach

This paper proposes a set of market-based measures on the systemic importance of a financial institution or a group of financial institutions, each designed to capture different aspects of systemic importance of financial institutions. Multivariate extreme value theory approach is used to estimate these measures. Using six big Canadian banks as the proxy for Canadian banking sector, we apply these measures to identify systemically important banks in Canadian banking sector and major risk contributors from international financial institutions to Canadian banking sector. The empirical evidence reveals that (i) the top three banks, RBC Financial Group, TD Bank Financial Group, and Scotiabank, are more systemically important than other banks, while we also find that the size of a financial institution should not be considered as a proxy of systemic importance; (ii) compared to the European and Asian banks, the crashes of the U.S. banks, on average, are the most damaging to Canadian banking sector, while the risk contribution to the Canadian banking sector from Asian banks is quite lower than that from banks in the U.S. and euro area; (iii) the risk contribution to Canadian banking sector exhibits “home bias”, that is, cross-country risk contribution tends to be smaller than domestic risk contribution.     

Democratic revolutions as institutional innovation diffusion: Rapid adoption and survival of democracy

Recent ‘democratic revolutions’ in Islamic countries call for a re-consideration of transitions to and from democracy. Transitions to democracy have often been considered the outcome of socio-economic modernization and therefore slow and incremental processes. But as a recent study has made clear, in the last century, transitions to democracy have mainly occurred through rapid leaps rather than slow and incremental steps. Here, we therefore apply an innovation and systems perspective and consider transitions to democracy as processes of institutional, and therefore systemic, innovation adoption. We show that transitions to democracy starting before 1900 lasted for an average of 50 years and a median of 56 years, while transitions originating later took an average of 4.6 years and a median of 1.7 years. However, our results indicate that the survival time of democratic regimes is longer in cases where the transition periods have also been longer, suggesting that patience paid in previous democratizations. We identify a critical ‘consolidation-preparing’ transition period of 12 years. Our results also show that in cases where the transitions have not been made directly from autocracy to democracy, there are no main institutional paths towards democracy. Instead, democracy seems reachable from a variety of directions. This is in line with the analogy of diffusion of innovations at the nation systems level, for which assumptions are that potential adopter systems may vary in susceptibility over time. The adoption of the institutions of democracy therefore corresponds to the adoption of a new political communications standard for a nation, in this case the innovation of involving in principle all adult citizens on an equal basis.     

事业单位养老保险制度改革:基于公平的视角

公平是每个国家、社会和个人追求的目标,而目前事业单位养老保险制度改革试点方案,未能体现公平的原则。为了实现公平,今后事业单位养老保险制度改革要做到以下几点:用法律保障养老保险制度的公平;将机关和事业单位一同纳入养老保险制度改革的范围;基础养老金的计发比例要考虑受教育年限的因素;妥善解决老人、中人之间的养老待遇水平问题;以职业年金制度体现高素质人才的价值。