Davide Castellani and Laura Viganò
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role that weather shocks can play in the livestock mortality microinsurance take-up when the insured risk has a prevalent covariant…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role that weather shocks can play in the livestock mortality microinsurance take-up when the insured risk has a prevalent covariant component.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consists of 360 rural Ethiopian households. Data were collected in a panel-structure at the end of three agricultural seasons (2011-2013). In the questionnaire, a specific section on insurance was meant to collect information on the farmer’s willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a set of insurance products, including livestock mortality insurance. Two OLS regression models and a quantile regression model were employed to estimate the impact of weather anomalies on the WTP for the insurance product.
Findings
The authors find that weather anomalies contribute to changes in the WTP to a large extent. Negative (positive) changes in precipitation (temperature) anomalies can lead to more than a 30 percent reduction in the WTP. This general finding is complemented with the analysis of the conditional distribution of the WTP, which shows that other elements can prevail for low values of the conditional distribution. In this case, the WTP seems to be represented more by the interviewee’s age and basic knowledge of insurance, and village fixed-effects. Basic knowledge of insurance, in particular, can increase WTP by about 60 percent.
Practical implications
This paper has straightforward implications from a policy perspective. It suggests that farmers would prefer an insurance premium that follows the changes in the systemic component. On the contrary, insurance as well as reinsurance companies are usually reluctant to frequently revise their premiums. Financial education programs, farmer-driven design, trust building, and bundling insurance with other financial and non-financial products can increase the value proposition perceived by the farmers. From a marketing perspective, the overall findings suggest that continuous fine-tuning of the contract, transparency, and targeted information campaigns can contribute to increase and stabilize potential customers’ WTP.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that considers the impact of weather shocks on the WTP for a livestock mortality insurance product. Livestock is one of the most strategic assets of poor rural households in Africa. This study contributes to the theoretical and empirical literature on the determinants of weather insurance take-up in developing countries and, in particular, the role of spatiotemporal adverse selection and basis risk (e.g. Jensen et al., 2016).
Details
Keywords
Barbara Francioni, Alessandro Pagano and Davide Castellani
The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic and updated assessment of studies on key exporting stimuli for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to propose a research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic and updated assessment of studies on key exporting stimuli for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to propose a research agenda on this topic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a review of empirical articles on SMEs’ exporting stimuli and outline future research directions based on key emerging drivers.
Findings
Research on SMEs’ exporting drivers focuses mainly on human resources’ competences, skills and subjective characteristics and on the role of relevant network actors (customers, intermediaries).
Originality/value
This paper provides an original contribution with regard to updating the framework on export drivers by Leonidou et al. (2007), highlighting an emerging research perspective based on internal/external network dimensions and proposing future research directions on internal individual and organisational actors and on new external network actors.
Details
Keywords
Jinlong Gu, Yong Yang and Roger Strange
This paper aims to link location choice and ownership structure to the debate on the multinationality–performance relationship.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to link location choice and ownership structure to the debate on the multinationality–performance relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on a panel data set that covers 1,321 emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) and includes 4,227 observations from 44 emerging economies between 2004 and, 2013.
Findings
The empirical results find that multinationality has a positive effect on EMNEs’ performance, and that this positive effect is larger for their investments in developed countries than in developing countries. The study also finds that this positive effect of foreign operation in developed countries switch to negative at higher levels of multinationality for privately owned EMNEs than for state-owned EMNEs.
Originality/value
This paper provides new empirical evidence to support an institutional perspective of the internationalisation of EMNEs that are investing in developed countries, contributing to the multinationality-performance literature, highlighting the importance of foreign direct investment location decision and ownership structure.
Details
Keywords
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how shocks suffered by rural households in Ethiopia influence their decision to borrow and the source of credit.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how shocks suffered by rural households in Ethiopia influence their decision to borrow and the source of credit.
Design/methodology/approach
First, suppose a household faces a set of four borrowing alternatives: only formal borrowing, only informal borrowing, both formal and informal borrowing, and non-borrowing. Second, the paper assumes that the random component is independently and identically distributed in accordance with the extreme value distribution. These assumptions lead to the multinomial logit model. The paper estimates the model using data from a survey of 350 rural households in Southern Ethiopia.
Findings
The paper finds that shocks are important factors in explaining both the decision to borrow and the source of credit. In particular, negative shocks that affect household's assets, such as the seizing of farmland and theft, or human capital, such as the death of the family head, reduce the probability of borrowing from formal lenders or from both formal and informal lenders at the same time. The study supports only to some extent the assumption that informal credit contributes to smooth consumption. Last, networking effect is very significant and demonstrates how the two markets interact.
Research limitations/implications
A model that would consider dynamic consumption patterns would have been more appropriate. In fact, one of the limitations of the study is the reliance on a cross-section analysis and the data is limited to just one village. Further research would extend the data set geographically and across time.
Practical implications
The formal lenders are not willing to provide contingent loans, maybe because of a limited ability to assess and diversify risk. Besides, the available formal credit products are not proper to finance long term risk management strategies but pesticides, fertilizers and improved seeds that are entirely used in every agricultural cycle. In this regard, proper risk transfer strategies and instruments, as well as better tailored loan products, are needed in order to increase outreach into the rural areas.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that investigates how shocks influence the decision to borrow and the source of credit in Ethiopia.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to use the eclectic paradigm as a broad organizing framework to bring together two somewhat parallel international business (IB) literatures, one on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to use the eclectic paradigm as a broad organizing framework to bring together two somewhat parallel international business (IB) literatures, one on the development effects of multinational enterprise activity and the other on the internationalization of emerging market multinationals (EMNEs). The author does so to better understand how outward foreign investment shapes economic development in firms’ home countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Considering that the characteristics of foreign investment by EMNEs likely differ from that of their developed economy counterparts and that such characteristics may have unique development consequences, the author revisits one of IB’s overarching theories to rethink how ownership, location and internalization advantages take shape and stimulate diverse development outcomes.
Findings
My narrative review and conceptual analysis indicate that the eclectic paradigm is a valuable framework that can be used to shed light on underexplored phenomena and thereby inform important policy debates. The analysis suggests that unique characteristics of EMNE investment simultaneously have positive and negative development consequences in their home countries.
Practical implications
The author sets out a research agenda that revolves around six propositions that separately relate one of these three distinct characteristics of EMNE investment to two development outcomes, namely, spillovers and direct effects on home-country employment. My propositions suggest that important policy dilemmas potentially apply, in that each of the three characteristics positively affects one of the aspects of development, but negatively the other.
Originality/value
My research agenda presents international business scholars with new opportunities to build on a history of policymaking impact, now geared toward resolving society’s grand challenge of underdevelopment.
Details
Keywords
Denada Lica, Eleonora Di Maria and Valentina De Marchi
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how important is co-location of R&D and production for firms originated from high-cost countries and to provide evidence of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how important is co-location of R&D and production for firms originated from high-cost countries and to provide evidence of the relationship between the different strategies of location choices and co-location.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to investigate the relationship between R&D/design-production co-location and strategies of location choices for production, this paper uses a cluster analysis of 37 Italian firms that operate in fashion industry.
Findings
This article finds that co-location results in a dominant strategy for firms under the following conditions: high level of product customization, coordination difficulties between R&D and production, rapid change in production process technologies and product complexity difficult to be coded.
Research limitations/implications
This paper presents some limitations in that it focuses only on fashion industry without considering other sectors.
Practical implications
This paper has some managerial implication in that offers some insight on decision making in organization. In particular offers some insights of how important is having an internal R&D/design function rather than collaborating with external designers in order to achieve competitive advantage in terms of product quality, product design and also brand name reputation.
Originality/value
This paper suggests that the co-location of R&D and production may improve the firms' performance considering the need for constant interaction between the two units. Moreover, it suggests that the co-location of R&D and production both within and external (within the firms' region and/or within the country) to the firms might be important. Furthermore, larger firms in terms of turnover have a greater preference to locate the R&D function close to the production function.
Details
Keywords
While the current anti-globalisation wave is considered as a regional and cyclical relapse among Western countries, the new era of globalisation has shifted away from stagnant…
Abstract
Purpose
While the current anti-globalisation wave is considered as a regional and cyclical relapse among Western countries, the new era of globalisation has shifted away from stagnant developed economies towards the rising prosperity of emerging Asia, where it is attracting substantial global inward foreign direct investment (FDI). Focussing on Vietnam, the country that is seen as Asia’s next economic tiger, the question of how important intellectual properties (IP) protection is in the international competition for FDI inflows is still unsettled, especially on the under-researched topic of trademarks.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes on the business history approach, which allows rich evidence from the dynamic and evolving natures of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to drive the research process, so that international business scholars can test models rigorously. The evidence provided in this paper is essentially qualitative and combines trademark registrations data, with trade and FDI statistics between 1986 and 2016, also draws on companies’ archives, industry reports and related newspaper articles.
Findings
This paper provides the chronology of intellectual property right (IPR) legal landscapes and the dynamic co-evolution of trademarks and FDI inflows in Vietnam. Three trademark protection strategies for MNEs and their patterns here are addressed. The paper also argues that trademarks bring new insights and IP protection strategy for pharmaceutical MNEs for the case of Vietnam is as important in trademarks as it is in patents. In emerging markets with strong incentives for FDI such as Vietnam, MNEs are not necessarily put off by weak IPR, but rather create alternative strategies for dealing with the lack of IP protection in these emerging market settings.
Originality/value
This study challenges the stream of thoughts that view trademarks as a “neglected intangible asset” among different IPRs, while in fact, trademarks advance MNEs’ knowledge by ensuring competitiveness and long-run survival in emerging markets. This paper is among the first few attempts to look at pharmaceutical industry through the lens of trademarks, moving away from the traditional patent-focussed approach. It extends the understanding of OLI paradigm and highlights that MNEs need to possess Oa and Op advantages not only at the beginning of internationalisation process but rather evolving through the time to cope with imitation risks in the host country.