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This paper aims to construct a scale for Jupsang leadership orientation (JSLO). We first provide a theoretical background for the concept of Jupsang, which originates from the ancient literature of Sun Tsu and Lao Tsu and the modern literature of Maoism and Deng Xiaoping in China. We used a grounded theory approach to obtain five dimensions of the Jupsang concept: agility orientation, innovation orientation, vigilant orientation, market awareness orientation, and visionary orientation. Items were generated through 12 in-depth interviews in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China and were included in a questionnaire, which we used to collect data from two large forums in Hong Kong, where 440 middle and senior executives from China attended. Using SPSS Version 25 and following the scale development procedures provided by Churchill and De Villis, we found the Jupsang scale reliable and valid. This paper contributes to providing a brand new scale for strategic leadership. Practically, it can enhance the relationship between a leader and his/her followers. Finally, we provided limitations and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The People's Republic of China has increasingly become an attractive location for foreign capital. The flow of foreign capital into mainland China includes the so-called northbound cash flow which is a colorful term that is often used to describe capital flowing into the mainland from Hong Kong. Two markets that have become an attractive destination for northbound cash flow is the Shanghai stock exchange and the Shenzhen stock exchange. This paper investigates the impact, if any, of northbound cash flows on investor sentiment for investors residing in mainland China. In other words, the paper attempts to ascertain whether the extent of northbound cash flows influences the extent to which mainland investors feel either bullish or bearish about the market. The research objective is addressed using quantitative models and focuses on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange. Research results indicate that northbound cash flows from Hong Kong significantly impacts investor sentiment in mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework has become popular for analyzing innovation dynamics and as a systematic approach to understanding the development of new technologies. This paper aims to identify the main drivers and issues faced by EdTech startups and the entrepreneurs' innovation role within Kazakhstan's entrepreneurial ecosystem using the TIS framework, but from the role of the entrepreneur as the main actor, as opposed to systems. This study offers relevant information for new entrepreneurs in the EdTech field aiming for similar goals and potentially facing similar challenges faced by current entrepreneurs in that country. Data were collected from an online survey and semi-structured interviews using a quasi-quantitative and qualitative approach. The main research findings include identifying critical categories of risks and success indicators for Kazakhstan's EdTech startup entrepreneurs, including the ability to attract foreign and local investments, risk management, monetization strategies, developing trends, and government support. A total of 30 companies were analyzed, with findings suggesting that the quality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem reflects the level of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between culture, history, government policies and the development of economic institutions. Specifically, the paper discusses the impact that history and culture, including the influence of Confucianism, have played in shaping the economic institutions of South Korea and the People's Republic of China. Research results indicate that culture, history and government policies all played a role in shaping the organizational structure of these two East Asian nations. However, China's economic landscape is dominated by small and medium-sized, family-oriented firms, particularly in the rural parts of the country. The South Korean economic landscape, on the other hand, is dominated by large conglomerate firms called Chaebols which are also dominated by one family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the present study was to analyze the internationalization and de-internationalization strategies of the Mexican airline Aeroméxico to establish a relationship between the two phenomena, the novelty of this paper being to study internationalization and de-internationalization together and not separately. To achieve the aim of this research, a qualitative case study approach was adopted, using secondary sources of information, and a model was developed to explain the relationship between the two types of policy. The results indicate that internal and external factors influenced the company's decisions in both respects. The main finding shows that internationalization and de-internationalization behaved together and that, under certain circumstances, this relationship became stronger and therefore the two became more dependent on each other. The main conclusion is that internationalization and de-internationalization are closely related since the latter was a consequence of the former. Recommendations for future research were included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet financial requirement for infrastructure development, the Public–Private Partnership (PPP) mechanism has been applied in a range of nations as a promising solution. However, unpredicted collapses that are linked to PPP applications have been experienced worldwide despite scientific protocols and concentrated efforts from engaged sectors. Numerous academic works have attempted to minimize PPP failures by exploring the area of risk management. However, there are limited efforts focusing on Southeast Asia. Previous studies in these markets have mainly identified risks, rather than in-depth analysis of root causes of failure, or proposing practical solution. This paper, by carrying out an evidence-based analysis of the Southeast Asia experience with an intensive focus on emerging markets, analyzes critical reasons and their underlying connections that result in PPP failure. Research outcomes also suggest using constructive strategies promoting a regulatory framework to diminish collapses that affect drivers and so enable the restoration of PPPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous researches were focused on assigned expatriates (AEs) and their cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) and their perks and incentives. Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) employees are self-made and mostly neglected pool of talent and mostly based from individual perspective. The purpose of this paper is to test the impact of perceived organizational support (POS) on CCA of SIEs employees mediated by career satisfaction (CS) of SIEs employees. We conducted mediation analysis on 124 SIEs working in USA, and result supported our proposed model. It shows that there is positive effect of POS on CCA and CS. And POS also shows positive indirect effect on CCA through CS. Further we discussed the implication and limitation of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship of investment done by domestic institutional investors (DII) and stock market returns. The paper covers a bigger definition of DII's, bifurcating them into four categories, (a) mutual fund, (b) venture capital fund, (c) financial institutions and (d) insurance companies who have invested in national stock exchange of India. The study uses CNX Nifty 50 to represent the stock market of India. ARDL bound testing cointegration model is applied to find the relationship between the Dependent variable (nifty 50) and Independent variables (mutual fund, venture capital fund, Indian financial institution and insurance companies) This analysis will help regulatory authorities to improvise on policy making on investment in stock market for insurance companies, financial institution, venture capital fund and mutual fund. The surge in domestic institutional equity inflows, will help to insulate the Indian equity market from the high velocity traders of overseas. This is the first study to undertake domestic institutional investors at a disintegrated level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of the existing literature has explicitly stated the positive effect of remittances on the development of the banking sector in an evolving market. Nevertheless, very little is known when an institution is taking into account the link between remittance flows and banking sector development. In this paper, the study draws data from 34 emerging economies within the SSA and employs a panel EGLS approach. We confirm a negative effect of remittance flows on banking sector development in the region. Besides, we also confirm that institutions affect banking sector development positively in the region. We recommend the need to develop and strengthen institutions to reduce the informal transfer of remittance in the region. Likewise, enhancing institutional infrastructure would boost the development of the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital accumulation is the first and foremost important factor to induce economic growth and development in a country. Yet, not every country in the world is bestowed with abundant capital. Thus, in this instance foreign direct investment (FDI) emerges as a good option to supply the necessary amount of capital to countries which are deprived of the necessary capital stock. Moreover, FDI, besides being a catalyst of economic development, is a significant means of transferring technology, knowledge, managerial know-how and constitutes new potentials to create employment opportunities, increase the production volume and enhance the foreign trade balance. Furthermore, the impact of FDI inflow on the economic growth is researched in this paper for Brazil by means of utilizing various econometric methods for the period of 1970–2017. According to the results of this study there is no positive causality between economic growth and FDI inflow in the short-run. Yet, there is a positive and significant causality between FDI inflow and economic growth in the long-run as well as this stems from the fact that investments lead to positive results gradually in the long-term which also means that investments shall be converted into production as much as possible. Moreover, the novelty of this paper is that it is one of the most up-to-date studies to research FDI – economic growth correlation on Brazil in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an increasing devotion to the gender balance on executive boards in China. There has been an assumption that increasing the proportion of women in the highest jobs will improve company performance and corporate governance. This research paper tests this assumption by studying a sample of 305 publicly listed healthcare companies in China in the period 2016–2019. We find that the choice of gender for board chair and CEO has a more impact on company performance than merely increasing the proportion of women on boards. Assessing the impact on company performance of different gender composition of board chairs and CEOs, we use an innovative approach to measure the relationship, using a proxy measurement in R&D, sales, and marketing expenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has been globalized much more than ever before and this process integrates the economies of countries. Moreover, one means of integrating the economies of countries is trade. In this instance, the export-led economic growth emerges as a considerable determinant. Export-led economic growth is beneficial for the countries since it facilitates the inflow of foreign exchange, increases production, creates new employment opportunities and enhances the overall commercial volume. In this study, the correlation between export-led economic growth is explored for Brazil. Therefore, according to the findings of this paper as well as econometric and statistical applications, there is a bi-directional causality in Brazil since 1960s between economic development and exports in the long-run (this could also be termed as feedback); furthermore, in the short-run, there is export-led economic growth. The novelty of this paper is that, it is one of the latest studies investigating export-led economic growth for Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main topic of this project is to assess the current situation of tourism in Lebanon and to identify and interpret the actual case of how tourism industry can benefit from economic development projects in Lebanon. The main problem that Lebanon is incapable to properly use natural and cultural assets inspite of very rich potentials. In order to analyze the situation, we conducted a study through conducting a survey as data collection methods. We basically want to develop on a theory that was previously discussed and that will need further examination. This paper aims to review how Lebanon plans to review its resource management for improving tourism. our objectives are to study Beirut's rich ancient history in a wat to demonstrate that. The study conducted in Tyre, also showing similar goals, was used a reference study. The main objective of this study is to find out how tourism is viewed in Beirut and if the citizens actually are in favor of valorizing u resources or not. Therefore, the research also want to assess if it succeeded or failed overall. Today, any coastal Lebanese City, including Tyre or Beirut faces a problem in properly managing it natural or cultural resources. Therefore, cities like Tyre Saida, Jbeil and Beirut, have not utilized their resources optimally (irrespective if natural or cultural), have had records of possessing incorrect and deeply rooted values and setbacks in human capital. The literature has been formal. Aside from 2 MBA projects on economic development and tourism movement correlations were demonstrated with these two variables. One project, focusing on Tyre, whereas the second concentrating on Beirut we were able to come up with tangible examples on how resource management in Lebanon was practiced (or its absence). The selected data collection and research design points out to a mixed qualitative and quantitative research methodology, utilizing surveying as the main means of gathering information. This explains the 15 unstructured interviews and the 32 questionnaires we collected during our fat finding phase. In order to examine the current situation, in the way that the central authorities in Beirut view the valuation of our heritage as a way to improve tourism (and ultimately to improve our GDP), our study demonstrates through our findings collected both unstructured from interviews and structured surveys that a much larger population wants us to preserve our heritage as a means of improving economic development. As such, the study utilized mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods through distributing structured questionnaires and unstructured interviews. Provided our selected data collection methods, our results provided a better understanding of how tourism can be sustainable in Beirut, and how it can be beneficial to our GDP in the long run. Results showed that sustainable tourism development in Lebanon is highly dependent on the presence of all necessary resources. This can be related to the tourist profile types the city wishes to attract. However, Lebanon lacks proper administrative management and organization of its scarce resources. All results emphasized on the importance of human capital in the development of any tourist destination. These findings certainly will hold true in any other city in the region. And, to date, Lebanon has a deficient central administration unable to properly use our scarce resources (energy, fuel, water, etc.). Consequently, we as Lebanese must benefit from our rich human capital on the long-term, complete sustainable economic growth through and improving the tourism industry (in Beirut or elsewhere). Because Beirut city lacked the vision once it accepted the destruction of BEY 194, we lost a unique chance to valorize a unique heritage, giving us a chance to attract tourists, following the real estate developers' and SOLIDERE's barbaric acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper will be addressing the investigation of the impact of the political incidents on the stock market return in Saudi Arabia. It was generated from previous inquiries that needed clarifications. Yet, from previous explorations, it became clear that an examination of this case should be conducted using a cause and effect research, relying on statistical analysis, was necessary. As a result, an experimental framework, using the positivist approach, sought to develop clarifications of the issue at hand. The tested data was collected between 2000 and 2014. They represented the closing figures on the last day of each month. Dummy variables were used to determine the effect of political turmoil on stock market behavior using regression analysis. The findings indicated that the Saudi Government attempted to control political unrest by giving subsidies, thus prevent inconsistency in political events. Finally, the study increases understanding of the stock market behavior of the decision makers in order for them to predict any changes, where preventive measures against the risk involved in stock market behavior can be taken by the authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing tide of global interest in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013. The initiative has brought in its wake enormous opportunities for creating economic development infrastructure, strengthening open regionalism and accelerating the pace of trade and investment in nearly 70 countries including 27 Muslim countries. Although a large number of finance options for the BRI projects have been highlighted in literature, the strategic role of Islamic finance has not been adequately explored. This paper bridges the knowledge gap by examining the strategic role of Islamic finance in the context of the BRI. Based on an empirical study, the authors explore the dimensions of Islamic finance in attracting investments in BRI projects and test the psychometric properties of the underlying dimensions. The authors discuss important managerial implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates team performance effectiveness in the relation to team members' Knowledge, Skills and Ability (KSA) in the context of an Arab country, namely Jordan. The study also examines if differences exist between its results and the results of other studies conducted in Western societies to contribute to the development of comparative research in the area of teamwork KSAs and team performance effectiveness. The study utilized Uhl‐Bien and Graen "Work Unit Effectiveness (WUE)" survey and Stevens and Campion KSA test. Data were collected from ninety‐nine (99) employees comprising twenty teams (20) in a Hygiene paper manufacturing company. The study offers practical implications for human resource management professionals for employing the best practice in evaluating teams' performance effectiveness and measuring teams' Knowledge, skills and ability in order to reconsider their training plans, selection and recruitment processes. This is the first study that adopts valid instruments of measurement, that are used and tested in other international studies, to examine the relation between teams performance in light of individuals' KSA in a non‐Western context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational justice is found to act as an impetus that eventually triggers certain behaviors. As such, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship among dimensions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational organizational justice with "instigated workplace incivility" (equity perspective) in the tourism industry. The study also considered the interactive roles of Islamic work ethics (IWE) and trust in the leader (TIL). Data were collected from the employees working in different hotels (n = 363). Three dimensions of organizational justice had a statistically significant impact on IWI, while informational justice had an insignificant effect. Results also revealed that IWE and TIL do affect the hypothesized relationships. The study is a step toward understanding the importance of organizational justice in the tourism industry which can apply across transnational boundaries in the Islamic nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to explain how new cash management practices can be used to address institutional complexity in Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and which are the effects on the organizational form. Based on a case study, cash pooling reveals to be an effective response for dealing with the financial crisis, even if shifting the complexity at an organizational level. Indeed, the MNE selected had to manage a centralized and decentralized organizational structure since the financial solution could not be adopted for all subsidiaries. The study shows that cash pooling can act as an organizational response only if a constant dialogue with subsidiaries is ensured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the research on luxury brands has been conducted across rich Western countries. The resulting models may reflect socio-economic and cultural attributes of these countries that do not exist elsewhere. This paper proposes a model suitable for emerging countries that are asserting themselves on the global stage thanks to globalization. This proposed model will be used to pursue a comprehensive scholary study across Sri Lanka. The main attributes of studies in luxury consumption research include consumers' attitude, identity, personality, mindset, values, social influence, and financial power. Our proposed model combines these attributes along with personal cultural orientation. The exogenous factors of this model are Self-identity, Experiential Value, Consumption Value, Individual Difference, Social Influence, Consumption Type. The endogenous factors are Brand Consciousness, Brand Love, and Attitude Toward Luxury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boston Consulting Group's Growth – Share Matrix (BCG Matrix) in its original format is a simple 2 × 2 matrix which establishes the correlation between Market Growth Rate and Relative Market Share of different firms and classify them into four categories as 'Dogs', 'Question Marks (?)', 'Cash Cows', and 'Stars'. This research paper's objectives are two-fold: First, to test whether there is a statistically significant correlation between Market Growth Rate and Relative Market Share of the Market Leader and its 'nearest' rival/'follower', and if so, to classify them accordingly and test their natures of risk – aversion; and Second, to formulate a BCG Index (BCGI) by means of two statistically correlated variables for estimating their respective BCG Index Areas (BCGIA) to perform a comparative analysis. In order to serve the purposes, an empirical time – series study of 20 years has been conducted on Wal-Mart and Amazon; the leader and its closest follower in the Wholesale market segment since they are ranked First and Fifth respectively in terms of revenue as per Fortune Global 500 list1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that affect the decision of university female students to start a business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Most of the existing research focuses on exploring the challenges female entrepreneurs face after they start a business, but no research has investigated the challenges they encounter before they start a business. A total of 507 responses were collected from six universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Findings show that knowledge about starting a business is the most influential factor that motivates female students to establish their own business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision making of innovation comes to the fore as sufficient justification for achieving competitiveness in a context of ever-increasing rivalry. In this formulation, decision makers are likely to form mental frames and sense-making processes in order to access complex interactions of external and organizational ingredients and make strategic decisions of innovation alternatives (service innovation, process innovation, ancillary innovation). This paper examines environmental factors that may explain managers' strategic choice of a specific type of innovation in service sector organizations located in Qatar and Greece from the viewpoint of the managers' distinct national cultures resulting in different attitudes and values. This research work examines several main-effect propositions regarding managers' perspective chosen innovation alternatives, depending on the external forces (service need, diversity of need, increase in population, and influence of context) are dealing with. We illustrate the main effect by looking at surface manifestations of managerial decisions of innovation as outward expressions of distinct characteristics lying deeper in each national culture of origin: Qatari managers prefer service innovations more than Greek managers do. Furthermore, this article reports on the findings of an exploratory study comparing national differences in innovation selection decision between Qatari and Greek top managers that develop a number of interaction effects. To confirm our propositions we gathered experimental data from 118 Greek top managers and 61 Qatari top managers. A multilevel regression analysis was used to examine and assess the relative impacts of the environmental forces on innovation strategic decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blake and Mouton's seminal work on leadership style has attracted researchers and been subjected to both praise and criticism from different frontiers. Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid (BMMG) is a two-dimensional model where the "concern for production" is plotted along the horizontal axis (X-axis) and the "concern for people" is plotted along the vertical axis (Y-axis) for a firm/organization. Clearly, BMMG model was established with reference to a microeconomic perspective in mind. This research paper's objectives are two-fold: First; to formulate a Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid Index (BMMGI) consisting of two proxy independent variables for "concern for production" and "concern for people," respectively, in a macroeconomic perspective, and second; to individually compare between the estimated and actual results of Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid Index Area (BMMGIA), calculate the deviation between the two, if any, for each sample observation by applying extrapolation and classify the countries according to the regression results. In order to serve these purposes, empirical analysis has been performed across 11 European countries for the time period of 10 years (2008–2017). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of FIIs and DIIs activities on volatility of Indian stock market. This study also examined the causal relationship between FIIs and DIIs. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study uses Nifty, Nifty Next 50, BSE Sensex, and BSE 100 to represent Indian stock market. Ganger Causality test is used to see causal relationship between FIIs and DIIs. TGARCH model is used to check volatility of Indian stock market. Practical implication: This will also help investors to make investment decisions, especially investing in these indices as they will be able to forecast effect of recent news and historical volatility of returns. Originality/value: This paper will be useful to investors investing in these four major indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of the paper is to present the research results on the impact that the value ascribed to human resources (HRs) as a strategic competitive factor of a company and the structure of FDI may exert on the advancement level of organizational leadership practices (as one of the HRM subfunctions) in multinational companies (MNCs). The structure of FDI covered: legal form of the foreign entities, type of investment, i.e., brownfield vs. greenfield, and four indices, i.e., internationalization index (II), geographical spread index (GSI), country's economic development index (EDC), and culture distance index (CDI). The research sample was composed of 200 headquarters of MNCs located in Poland. All in all, three variables seem to have the most visible impact on the activities in the area of organizational leadership development practices, i.e., ownership structure, centralization vs. decentralization practices and cultural distance. Less important, but identifiable influences come from the GS index, EDC index and the smallest one from II index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature on entrepreneurs' decision logic has either focused on effectuation or causation, lacking comparison and analysis of logics when founders come from different institutional environments. This paper presents an exploratory study examining the behaviors, beliefs, and decisions of entrepreneurs (all typical drivers for new market entries), considering those institutional differences. Research was based on the comparison of two case studies of young software companies, one from Brazil and one from Germany, each founded by two entrepreneurs with similar academic and professional backgrounds. Results indicate that apparently, business environment affects founders' decision logics with much more strength than the institutional environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to investigate relationships between development policy, SMEs, total factor productivity, and total output in Thailand. By comparing the trends in total factor productivity growth of industrialized economies (i.e. OECD, Korea), this study aims to showcase the importance of total factor productivity progress in Thailand, thereby enabling useful policy decisions. The study employs annual time series data for 1975-2016 retrieved from the World Development Indicator. Results of the study show that manufacturing and development policy lead to total factor productivity growth in the short-run in Thailand. Findings of the study suggest that manufacturing (i.e. product innovation) and development policy (i.e. tax incentive) are positively related to total factor productivity growth in the short-run and economic development in the long-run. These capacities are determined by the same set of conditions that are closely linked to the state of total factor productivity and development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A classic model of international entries—the Uppsala model—postulated that firms enter foreign countries in increasing order of psychic distance between the home and the host country to minimize the risk of failure. A question that was left unanswered was whether this sequence of entry results in any performance benefits. Literature on the impact of psychic distance, or its components like culture distance, on the performance of foreign operations abounds but the order of entry that is critical to the Uppsala model remains conspicuously absent. This paper presents an analysis of foreign country entries and exits by the U.S. multinationals in the manufacturing and service sectors since 1965. Companies that enter foreign countries in increasing order of culture distance do gain a significant performance advantage over those who do not. Changes over time and across industry sectors are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to construct and validate a tool that measures the knowledge strategies in software organizations in India. The knowledge strategies discussed in this paper are based on the characteristics of organizational learning typology, which are classified as consolidators, transformers and co-inventors. This tool measures the extent to which the software organizations practice the consolidator strategy, transformer strategy, and co-inventor strategy. Data were collected from 39 software companies in India. The tool was tested for psychometric properties such as unidimensionality, validity, and reliability. These properties of the tool are at a very acceptable level in view of the confirmatory fit index (CFI), Bentler Bonett Coefficient, and Cronbach's alpha, which are above the recommended minimum values. Descriptive statistics were tested to quantify the extent to which knowledge strategies were being practiced across the software companies in India. ANOVA was performed to see the role of organization size and age in view of knowledge strategies. Significant differences were observed in knowledge strategies based on the organization's size and age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to find out whether, and which, strategic patterns in international business-as represented by two strategies: product differentiation and product complementarity- drive countries' bilateral trade flows. Using a modified version of the gravity model along with features of Porter's National Competitiveness theory (1990), this paper investigates which of the two major trade theories-inter-industry or intra-industry-prevails in the different regions of the world during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Results show that trade transactions were most statistically influenced by product complementarity in the 1970s, but then switched to product differentiation in the 1980s and 1990s, most probably due to the increasing role of globalization. Most regions experienced a product differentiation pattern over all three decades, except for South Asia, Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East (the latter three only in the 1970s), which show a pattern of product complementarity. The estimation of certain pertinent regional blocs reveals that EU, ASEAN, SADC, and APEC seem to create trade, while ECOWAS, GCC, SAARC, and MERCOSUR seem to have insignificant results. Interesting policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the relationship between technology and organizational strategy over the past 45 years and offers a conceptual framework for assessing the role of technology under alternative strategic environments. This review emphasizes the progression of the role of technology as process supporter to process enabler to process leader. The paper also presents an assessment of the rewards and risks of the use of information and information technology (IT) as a strategic competitive platform across market conditions. The unique challenge for nonprofits and public sector organizations is co-aligning technology and strategy under different environment circumstances to aggressively use information and IT as an impetus for citizen support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In organizational settings, employees learn mainly through performing their jobs am by attending training programs. Empirical evidences that compare on the types and extent of learning occur from these two methods, however are lacking and thus worthwhile examining. Hence, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted among one hundred seventy-five employees from various firms in Malaysia. This paper reports findings from the survey which addresses two main research questions: (1) What are the differences and similarities in learning outcomes of job experiences arid formal training programs? and (2) Which method is superior? The respondents were asked to rate, using a five-point scale, five learning outcomes attributable to formal training programs and job experiences: recognition, job knowledge, communication and interpersonal skills, job quantity and quality, and independence and flexibility. The mean rating shows communication and interpersonal skills as the first-ranked learning outcome from both methods. On the other hand, recognition was ranked the lowest. T-test results indicate a significant overall superiority of job experiences over formal training programs. These and other findings imply important considerations in designing job and training in organizations. This paper calls upon organizations as Well as individual employees to re-examine their approaches to workplace learning in order to obtain a synergetic learning impact from both job experiences and formal training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brand architecture may be understood in reference to an integrated approach of a firm directed towards the design and management of its brand portfolio. Broadly, brand architecture is concerned with the pedigree of brands of a firm, role of specific brands and the relationship between sub-brands. In particular, brand architecture may be considered as the way a company organizes, manages, and markets their brands. Different business strategies require different brand architectures. The paper discusses the relevance of hierarchy of brands, and the role of brand audit to manage the brand portfolio of a firm. The discussion in the paper also delineates the steps involved in architecting a brand in a firm from the managerial perspective. doi:10.1300/J482v12n03_03 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper empirically explores the relationship between the identity and concentration of different block holders and firm value for 89 industrial and service firms listed at the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) over the period 1998-2001. The paper examines the role of block holders (institutional investors who are not on the board of directors, the institutional investors who are on the board of directors, the ownership of the board of directors, and the financial policy of the firm, such as the capital structure) in controlling the managerial actions which leads, on average, to better firm valuation in the emerging market of Jordan. The paper employs a simple regression and the piecewise regression specification methodology. The results of our simple regression shows a significant and positive relationship between the ownership of the board of directors and firm value. Also, the paper found a positive and significant relationship between firm value and ownership by institutional investors whether or not they are on the board of directors. However, there is no significant relationship between ownership by management and firm value. The results of the piecewise regression analysis indicate a positive and significant relationship among the ownership of securities above 25% by the board of directors, institutional investors on the board of directors, the institutional investors not on the board of directors, and firm value. There is no significant relationship between the above-mentioned ownership and firm value for ownership below 25%. The results also indicate a significant and negative relationship between ownership by the CEO below 5% and firm value. Therefore, it seems that low ownership by management does not give them incentives to work for the interest of shareholders. Dividends are still positively and significantly related to firm value. Leverage is significantly and positively related to firm value when we relate ownership to institutional investors not on the board of directors and firm value. This might imply that creditors work as complementary monitors of value along with institutional investors who are not on the board of directors. The paper concludes that block holders are important monitors of firm value especially if they own large amounts of securities to justify the high cost of monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrorism is likely to continue well into the future, presenting a new type of risk for companies that engage in international business transactions. Worldwide, government policymakers have introduced a variety of security measures to contain terrorism while trying not to reduce/distract global trade and investment. For international business (IB) scholars, this opens a new field of inquiry. This paper outlines different streams of research relative to terrorism, related security measures, and international business. Suggestions are made regarding the unique role that multinational enterprises can play in abating terrorism, for example, by taking steps to reduce global poverty and hatred, directly negotiating with terrorists, and developing new technology to counter terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improvement of safety programs is of significant importance to the economy of countries that move toward a global perspective. The objective of Experience Modification Ratings (EMR) is to encourage employers, through management incentives, to reduce the frequency and severity of work-related injuries. The insurance industry uses EMR to assess premiums. A U.S. national survey was conducted to investigate EMR determinants. EMR and its average (AEMR) are hypothesized to vary inversely with the number of training hours, number of safety audits, the company's annual revenue, and the annual cost of safety training per employee. The empirical findings indicated the number of training hours was significant while revenue was highly significant. This paper offers practical and policy implications with respect to these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a conceptual model of innovation and the results of the questionnaire among Surinamese firms to see the implications of this model. This article tests the model in the developing country of Suriname to see how it might encourage technological innovation. The model describes three alternative paths to innovation: nature, nurture, or a hybrid. A survey of local firms indicates that the overall technological innovation achievement of these firms in Suriname is weak as are government policies toward an innovative and competitive Surinamese economy. The article proposes a hybrid path combining nature and nurture for Suriname to achieve technological advancement. This hybrid path requires that the government change its politics, technology policy, and focus, as well as enhancing the innovative nature of the companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic-speaking countries represent an important region that currently has made limited progress in quality management development. This paper briefly reviews some of the relevant geopolitical and economic factors before considering the adoption of quality management practices including the ISO 9000 series and Total Quality Management. Some factors in the adoption of quality management trends are outlined. The limited literature available on quality management in this region is reviewed. The case of Sudan is considered in more detail. General conclusions are drawn and suggestions presented as to how the Arabic-speaking countries should advance their practice in quality management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines diversification and corporate performance relationship in the framework of agency theory. Contrary to most of the findings from Western developed countries and emerging markets, the study reports a statistically significant U-shape relationship. The finding is also inconsistent with the notion that managerial discretion contributes to the diversification decision and results in discount firm value. The robustness test confirms these results after controlling for other firm level variables. These conclusions suggest that the understanding in Western literature about diversification performance provided by the agency theory may not be automatically applicable to the case of China's companies, and a highly diversified corporate practice could still be beneficial in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kraljic matrix has received large-scale adoption, especially in Western Europe, as a tool for developing differentiated purchasing strategies. However, it is not clear whether the Kraljic matrix could be applied by companies operating in remote conditions in a country or region where the logistics infrastructure is not well developed. This paper reports on a literature study that is aimed at identifying the necessary adaptations to the Kraljic matrix when applied under remote conditions. Based on an action research project within the State Oil Company of Suriname, the usefulness of the adapted Kraljic approach has been explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, the management of the multinational subsidiary has emerged as a distinctive field of investigation for international business researchers. As multinationals are confronted with the simultaneous need for global standardization and local adaptation, subsidiaries may differ in the scope of their operations, the extent of responsibilities they take, the importance of the markets they serve, their level of competence and their organizational characteristics. These developments manifest themselves very decisively in the emergence of a range of different mandates that subsidiaries can assume in the wider context of MNE strategy. The main purpose of this paper is to present a broad review of the approaches toward the differentiated roles played by these MNE dispersed subunits. Our "role categorization" distinguishes among four key blocks of typologies, arguing that they elaborate on different perspectives that inform on subsidiaries' strategic and organizational issues, leading consequently to distinctive contributions regarding the investigation and evaluation of MNE activities. The major objective of the review is to capture the main characteristics of the different approaches and to identify and discuss the scope of the concepts underlined behind them. Similarities and points of divergence among the typologies are furthermore discussed. The review provides a basis for further directions of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a survey of consumers in four emerging economies: Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Peru, and India. Results suggest that the purchase decision is influenced by factors directly related to the product or service such as price and quality and factors indirectly related to the product or service such as advertising and brand reputation. These business strategy factors were linked to marketing strategy factors such as price orientation, independence, and brand consciousness. In this sense, a firm's marketing perspective can be viewed as the basis for its competitive strategy. This link between strategies at the business and marketing levels is analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is the concept that plays an important role for the countries in macro as well as micro perspective. In this paper, a fuzzy logic based assessment framework is proposed to measure the sustainable development level of the countries. The proposed model is constructed by analyzing the shortages and favorable parts of existing sustainability measurement approaches. Contrary to existing approaches that divide sustainable development (SD) into hierarchical parts, it evaluates SD at indicator level. The model uses fuzzy logic due to its capacity to handling vague situations. The proposed framework consists of four steps. The initial step determines the indicators to measure the sustainability. Subsequently, a factor analysis is conducted to reduce the number of indicators and obtain mutually exclusive groups of indicator. In the second step, the weights of the previously formed indicator groups are determined in accordance with the opinions of the experts. In the third step, performance scores of the countries are measured from the indicator values. In the fourth step, the countries are compared according to their performance scores and to the weights of indicators. The proposed model is applied to evaluate the relative position of Turkey in SD perspective. The effects of improvements in some SD dimensions on the position of three countries selected are also investigated. Developed as such, the model will guide the policy makers in identifying and prioritizing the most urgent problems that need to be solved in order to obtain improvement in tile relative positions of the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an export model which acts as an assessment tool to examine the readiness of a country to export ICT. Based on ASEP's eReadiness Model, indicators were revisited and the model was downsized to a firm's level in order to measure the e-readiness of firms to export ICT. Export-related indicators were derived from a study conducted by SRI International that quantifies the value of the country's readiness to export ICT by calculating the aggregate of all exporting firms' e-readiness and export competitiveness. The results obtained from redefining the ASEP E-Readiness model and modifying it to incorporate export indicators have resulted in the development of ASEP Export model that represents the readiness index for countries to export ICT. doi:10.1300/J482v12n03_02 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the linkage between strategic variables and the export performance of firms in the United Stales, Germany, and Japan. R&D Intensity, Capital Intensity, Average Collection Period, Debt Leverage, and Labor Productivity are used as measures of strategic variables. R&D intensity and Labor Productivity are found to have a strong and positive association with export performance in all three countries. Capital intensity and average collection period also have significant relationship with export performance in the United States and Japan, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the difference in global equity portfolios allocated by the criterion of minimizing the risk by using two different risk measures, the standard deviation and the conditional value at risk. An empirical analysis is performed on a comprehensive stock exchange database. The main hypothesis of the present work is that the choice of risk measure has crucial importance in portfolio optimisation, especially in those situations when the stock markets are extremely volatile and the return distributions are non-normal. The rationale behind establishing minimum-risk portfolios is to keep track of the highest possible risk reduction benefits from international diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper re-examines a hypothesis that multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries in Poland make a significant contribution to host country competitiveness by raising overall export performance. Multiple indicators based on UNCTAD methodology are used by the authors to analyze Poland's export competitiveness and link this competitiveness to MNE subsidiaries export propensity and innovativeness. They find a confirmation of the positive impact of MNEs on the Polish export sector that has substantially strengthened the country's capacity to compete in world markets and speeded up the transition process to the market-led system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various papers published within the issue, including one on Chinese banking from the perspective of central bank control, one on human trafficking in India and Great Britain, and another on the role of company motivation in adopting e-marketing technologies in the Malaysian manufacturing sector.

The article discusses various papers published within the issue including one by André de Waal and colleagues on reorganizing the Vietnam's banking sector, another that explores the relationship between foreign automobile manufacturers and their respective dealers in Kuwait, and another by Sapna Poti and colleagues that summarizes the relevant enterprise resource planning (ERP) literature.

The article introduces several papers related to management, including an article that investigates the link between tax competition and foreign capital flow in Europe and another one which studies the difference in global equity portfolios.