Search results

The “widening digital divide” has the status of fact in most discussions of the global distribution of information and communications technologies (ICTs), and that this divide is a problem is widely accepted. This paper challenges both assumptions. First, looking at various measures of the digital divide, there is a divide in per‐capita access to ICTs but developing countries show faster rates of growth in network development than developed countries. Moreover, when employing a per‐income measure of access, developing countries already “digitally leapfrog” the developed world. Second, the paper examines the prediction that disparities in absolute access to ICTs between countries will lead to reduced development prospects in poor countries. Past experience has shown that it is very difficult to make predictions of this type. The paper concludes that we may be posing the wrong policy questions when focusing on a “digital divide” as it is commonly understood.

M & T Chemicals have announced the appointment of Mr David Smith as Director of PCB Systems and as a member of the company's Board of Management. Mr Smith, who was formerly Sales and Marketing Director of Lea Ronal (UK) Ltd, has had more than seventeen years experience in the printed circuit industry.

Numerous articles contain recommendations as to how emerging countries can attract foreign direct investment on terms that are beneficial to both the investing firm and the host society but very few explore the conditions for firms from emerging countries to invest abroad. The purpose of this paper is twofold: the first is the documentation of the preferred locations of foreign affiliates for the largest financial groups headquartered in emerging countries; and, second, is to identify some of the determinants associated with the location-specific advantages of these host countries.

The analysis of the internationalization process of these groups is based on a list of top financial groups ranked by total assets. In the empirical section, the factors that explain the choice of these locations by multinational firms are categorized as resources seeking, market seeking, efficiency-seeking variables and cultural variables.

There is empirical evidence that institutions prefer to invest in foreign locations that minimize some dimensions of the culture. Other factors like the role of efficiency variables, i.e. trade efficiency, political risk and government effectiveness, in host countries also have a strong impact on the determinants of the internationalization process.

The paper puts forward a framework for analyzing determinants of foreign direct investment of multinational financial groups from emerging economies.

This study aims to extend Bowman's risk–return paradox to Asian emerging markets and explain its causes under the prospect theory.

The study is conducted on a cross-sectional sample of 4,609 firms across nine Asian emerging countries. The two stage least squares (2SLS) estimation technique is used to evaluate the three objectives of the study, i.e. Bowman's risk–return paradox, significance of firm-specific risk and prospect theory explanation of Bowman's paradox.

The authors challenge the two basic financial economics arguments that higher risk is rewarded with higher return, and firm-specific risk is diversifiable. The empirical findings confirm the negative impact of firm-specific and systematic risk on firm return, thus, corroborates the Bowman's explanation of risk–return trade-off. However, the authors did not find empirical evidence to support prospect theory's explanations of Bowman’s paradox in Asian emerging markets.

A holistic approach is adopted to analyze the various aspects of Bowman's paradox and its causes for the same time period, variables and sample. The authors also rectified several methodological limitations observed in previous studies, i.e. the use of same proxies for firm return and risk, endogeneity and survivorship issues. Furthermore, the findings of this study will enable managers to formulate critical viewpoint on firm-specific risk and systematic risk and take informed strategic decisions regarding optimum utilization of their firm's key resources in Asian emerging markets.