Effects of aid for trade on extensive and intensive margins of greenfield FDI

Using a panel dataset of 105 developing countries for the period 2003–15, this paper assesses the effects of Aid for Trade (AfT) on greenfield FDI flows to the aid‐recipient countries. Particularly, this paper classifies the total dollar value of greenfield FDI flows to each recipient country in terms of four different layers: the extensive and intensive margins of projects as well as the extensive and intensive margins of source countries. Applying the system GMM estimator, this paper finds that AfT not only increases the dollar value of FDI flows to the recipient countries but also helps diversify the greenfield projects and source countries. In addition, this paper finds that AfT has a greater effect for greenfield FDI from donor (developed) countries than from non‐donor (developing) countries. Among the three components of AfT, aid for trade‐related infrastructure and aid for trade policy regulations are found to have positive links with greenfield FDI, irrespective of source‐country groups, yet their effects are larger for developed source countries. In contrast, aid for building productive capacity hinders greenfield FDI flows from non‐donor countries, while it promotes greenfield FDI from donor countries. We offer some explanations for this finding.     

Considering Technological Impacts When Selecting Food Suppliers: Comparing Retailers' Buying Behavior in the United States and Europe

Purpose: The research investigates the impact of emergent technologies, specifically supply-chain technology and food-production technology (i.e., genetically modified organisms [GMO]), on global food retailers' supplier decisions.

Methodology/approach: Qualitative research is conducted to examine technology-related vendor selection criteria of food retailers in 5 European countries comparing to those in the US.

Findings: Our findings show that global food retailers view supply-chain technology as a competitive advantage and is integrated as an important selection criteria; however, selection criteria differ for food-production technology between the United States and the European countries. European food retailers explicitly oppose food-production technology (GMO), while U.S. food retailers implicitly accept food-production technology. Emerging from this opposing view, global food retailers establish similar criteria for organic food (non-GMO) supplier selection: reliability, distance, consistent quality, and relationships with suppliers.

Research implications: Applying the supplier choice criteria framework (Lehmann and O'Shaughnessy 1982 Lehmann, D. R. and 'Shaughnessy, J. O. 1982. Decision criteria used in buying different categories of products. Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, 18: 9–14.  [Google Scholar]) to further analyze organic food suppliers, we find that reliability (adaptive criterion), distance (integrative criterion), consistent quality (performance criterion), and relationships with suppliers (economic criterion) are essential, but price is not.

Practical implications: This study suggests that to sustain competitiveness in the global food market, food suppliers not only need to ensure technological compatibility in supply-chain, but also adapt to the local food-production restriction (GMO) and organic food selection criteria preferences.

Originality/value/contribution: Supply-chain technology is strategically important and is adopted by global food retailers for competitive advantage; yet, there are dramatic differences regarding the acceptance of food production technology. This research contributes to the better understanding of how technologies exert significant and strategic weight in the food supplier selection process.     

Economic policy uncertainty and firm tax avoidance

We find strong evidence that firms reduce cash effective tax rate when economic policy uncertainty heightens. Firms also engage in more aggressive forms of tax avoidance including long-term tax planning or shelters. Cash holdings attenuate the negative effect of policy uncertainty on cash effective tax rate, especially for financially constrained firms. The cash tax savings are retained for reinvestments rather than dividend payouts. Our findings suggest that policy uncertainty exacerbates external financing frictions, which in turn induces precautionary motives of tax avoidance.     

Bank risk in uncertain times: Do credit rationing and revenue diversification matter?

We show that bank risk rises, particularly for larger banks and those with greater interest-sensitive liabilities, during times of economic policy uncertainty through two economic channels: “credit rationing” and “revenue diversification.” The credit rationing channel shows that economic policy uncertainty increases aggregate loan spreads, exacerbating both adverse selection and moral hazard problems leading to higher bank risk. The revenue diversification channel suggests that as economic policy uncertainty reduces bank profits from traditional interest-based products, banks diversify into other non-traditional activities, thereby increasing their instability. Overall, our findings highlight the impact of economic policy uncertainty on exacerbating bank risk.     

Bank market power and revenue diversification: Evidence from selected ASEAN countries

This paper examines the association between bank market power and revenue diversification using a sample of 153 commercial banks from five Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam). We find a non-linear relationship between bank market power and revenue diversification, where at lower degrees of market power (in loan and deposit markets) banks concentrate on revenue diversification. In contrast, those with greater market power focus more on traditional interest-based products. Our findings also indicate that credit losses experienced earlier, during and after the Asian financial crisis have encouraged ASEAN banks to diversify into non-traditional activities to compensate for their excessive losses. When the markets recovered and loan demand increased, however, traditional interest-based business has become more important. These results remain consistent across all models providing robust results.     

The Power of Promoting Healthy Brands: Familiarity in Healthy Product Decision Making

This research investigates consumer decision making and brand commitment for brands promoted as “healthy.” The authors examine the relationship of brand familiarity to brand credibility, brand quality, purchase intentions, and brand commitment. The findings indicate that familiarity can help increase purchase intentions and brand commitment for healthy brands with low credibility. However, to go beyond a transactional exchange to one that is relational in nature, familiarity, credibility, and quality are all crucial for fostering brand commitment.     

Eating Their Feelings: Examining Emotional Eating in At-Risk Groups in the United States

Emotional eating affects many individuals and can lead to food overconsumption. The present research provides a theoretical foundation for examining the influence of food advertising, social norms, and related mediating influences on emotional eating. Insight offered through interviews with emotional eaters and an emotional eating conceptual model demonstrate that emotional eating is heavily influenced by food advertising, which can incite desire and ruminative thoughts about food. Additionally, emotional eaters may enlist prefactuals in the form of hedonic rationalizations to justify unhealthy eating behavior. Evidence from this research also suggests that individuals who emotionally eat may be doing so because such behavior has been learned. Finally, despite regulatory and policy efforts to create more informed consumers by providing nutrient content information on labels and packaging, emotional eaters possess little motivation to process this information. Implications for public policy and social marketing initiatives are discussed.     

Fear advertisements: influencing consumers to make better health decisions

From a goal-theoretic framework, this paper proposes that fear-based framing of health messages can lead to positive decision intentions, thus helping consumers make better future health-related choices. Across two experiments, findings demonstrate that the type of advertisement (fear versus hope) and food prime (indulgent versus non-indulgent) interact to determine goal-related choice focus – such as subsequent indulgence intention or intention to implement an exercise health goal. Research implications include the suggestion that if marketers properly execute fear-primed promotional messages with non-indulgent food offerings, they can satisfy the notion that ‘One good health decision can lead to another.’     

The Effects of the Global Financial Crisis on Supply Chain Members in Non‐BRIC Emerging Markets

The global economic crises that began in 2008 had profound effects on the supply chains of many multinational firms across all industries including altering some fundamental supply chain characteristics. This study discusses the effects of the crises on lower‐level supply chain members in the context of the textile and garment industry in emerging markets. The fieldwork for this research and the integration of new United Nations data provide evidence for the vulnerability of those supply chain members that provide only commoditized basic services that do not depend on talent skills or resource availability. Most of these, less sophisticated supply chain members are located in non‐BRIC emerging economies, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Haiti, Honduras, and so on. We present a framework that is transferable across industries. The framework is useful for managers when evaluating the feasibility and reliability of different suppliers from emerging and developing countries in particular. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Home Care Providers in Queensland: Exploratory Data Analysis Using My Aged Care Platform

The My Aged Care website, established by the Australian Government, is the starting point for aged care consumers and carers to find information on aged care providers. Using information published on this platform, we compile a unique dataset of 588 approved home care providers in Queensland. This article presents a brief introduction to this dataset, including how they are extracted and what variables are available. We propose some current and future applications of this data with a focus on how it can contribute to evidence-based policymaking in Australia.