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1 – 7 of 7Junmin Xu, Alvin Chung Man Leung, Wei Thoo Yue and Qin Su
A substantial amount of research has examined the firm value impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Nevertheless, the findings have been inconsistent, prompting…
Abstract
Purpose
A substantial amount of research has examined the firm value impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Nevertheless, the findings have been inconsistent, prompting researchers to identify contingencies under which the impact varies. This study examines how information technology (IT)-enabled knowledge capabilities moderate the relationship between CSR and firm value.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis on a sample of S&P 500 companies spanning from 2010 to 2017. We employed additional methods to test the robustness of the results, including the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator and the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method.
Findings
The results show that IT-enabled absorptive capability (IT-AC) and IT-enabled social integration capability (IT-SIC) positively moderate the CSR–value relationship. Further, their moderating effects vary in distinct ways when environmental dynamism changes, hinting at the distinct underlying rationales behind the moderating roles of IT-AC and IT-SIC.
Research limitations/implications
This study improves the understanding of the business value of CSR and IT. It has limitations in generalizability due to the use of secondary data.
Practical implications
This study provides practical guidelines to managers about how to strategically leverage IT resources for the creation of CSR value.
Social implications
Encouraging businesses to enhance their CSR efforts and uphold sustainability extends beyond our immediate benefit and impacts future generations as well. However, due to an imbalance between costs and returns, companies often refrain from being wholeheartedly devoted to CSR. Our insights on guiding companies to derive more value from CSR can inspire their greater investment in CSR. Meanwhile, companies can obtain additional returns from deployed IT.
Originality/value
This study extends the IT business value literature by revealing how IT generates firm value in the context of CSR. It also adds critical insights into the mixed findings in previous research regarding the CSR–firm value link. The study’s findings offer useful guidance on the strategic deployment and utilization of IT resources to facilitate the creation of CSR value.
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This paper aims to focus on the vocational and training behaviours of German corporations at their subsidiaries in the USA, China and India. Although all three countries are…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on the vocational and training behaviours of German corporations at their subsidiaries in the USA, China and India. Although all three countries are important markets for Germany, they are characterised by very different cultures, vocational education and training (VET) systems and employment systems. The transfer of the German VET system to other countries has been the topic of discussion and controversy.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors rely on interviews with local training experts of German subsidiaries to analyse VET activities. Their analysis is based on convergence (standardisation) versus divergence (localisation) theory borrowed from approaches in international management studies.
Findings
The findings indicate a “localisation” effect in all three nations. The similarities can be explained partially by the stronger focus on off-the-job trainings and greater preferences for academic careers.
Research limitations/implications
The study is a pilot study.
Practical implications
The transfer of the German VET system to other countries seems to be very difficult.
Originality/value
Beyond this general debate, the specialist literature pays virtually no attention to the training practices of German companies abroad. The authors have tried to fill this research gap.
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Doug Guthrie, Zhixing Xiao and Junmin Wang
In the spring of 1995, the Electronics Bureau of Shanghai [Shanghai Dianziju] changed its name to “Shanghai Electronics State-Owned Asset Management Company” [Shanghai dianzi…
Abstract
In the spring of 1995, the Electronics Bureau of Shanghai [Shanghai Dianziju] changed its name to “Shanghai Electronics State-Owned Asset Management Company” [Shanghai dianzi guoyou zichan jingying gongsi]. As one official in the former Bureau explained, it had changed its name and its function: It was no longer set up to “govern” or “manage” [guan] Shanghai's electronics sector; instead it was now an asset management company whose function was to manage the assets of the firms that it owned.1 At the time, the transformation seemed purely cosmetic. Calling itself an asset management company instead of a government bureau was one thing, but actually acting like an asset management company was quite another. Would firms under this former Bureau be any more productive as a result of the change? Would the work-life experiences of the people actually working in these firms change at all as a result?
Jun Wu, Yingli Pan and Qi Zhu
– The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants for currency internationalization and forecast the potential of RMB as an international reserve currency.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants for currency internationalization and forecast the potential of RMB as an international reserve currency.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper performs linear or non-linear regressions of the shares of eight major international reserve currencies as the reserve assets in global central banks on the macro economic and financial variables of their corresponding countries to identify the determinants for their international positions, and conducts an “counter-factual simulation” for the potential of RMB as an international reserve currency.
Findings
This paper finds that the economic size and the “network externalities” are the most important determinants for the international status of a reserve currency; that exchange rate volatility has negative impacts; the conditions for the RMB internationalization are basically available. The simulation for the potential of RMB as an international reserve currency reveals that the international role of RMB could surpass that of the Japanese Yen and the British Pound, and get close to Euro in the coming 15 years. Based on the empirical evidence, this paper suggests a promoting strategy for RMB internationalization.
Research limitations/implications
This paper has not taken the influence of economic systemic and political factors on the process of RMB internationalization into account.
Practical implications
RMB internationalization promotion should follow the strategy of “stably create RMB international demand in the initial period and dramatically release the RMB overseas supply in the latter period” in the coming 15 years.
Originality/value
The conclusions and policy implications are from the results of the empirical analysis on the 45-year historical experience on the eight main international currencies.
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Marisa Siddivò and Alessandra De Chiara
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that synergy between firms and local institutions may lead to success even in an economic environment which cannot offer competitive…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that synergy between firms and local institutions may lead to success even in an economic environment which cannot offer competitive advantages to high tech industrial clustering. However, the condition for such a complex result is convergence between cluster‐based regional development policy, the related industry national strategy and the central government preferential policy for less developed areas.
Design/methodology/approach
The experiences selected as case studies are the Xi'an National Civil Aerospace Base in Shaanxi Province (China) and CampaniAerospace in Campania region (Italy). As information was gathered both through policy documents (China and Italy) and direct interviews to cluster's stakeholders (Italy), the outcome is, according to the criteria suggested by Eisenhardt and Yin, a qualitative research. Comparing economic data provided by the respective countries' Statistical Offices, the authors assessed that Shaanxi Province and the Campania region share a “peripheral” position within their respective national context. Starting from this, the authors analyzed the formal documents which reported the experience of the two clusters.
Findings
The finding is that the outcome (the status of cluster which is assumed as “a value in itself”) of the convergence between firms' will to gain agglomeration advantages and the policymakers' plan to redress interregional economic disparities is definitely not an efficiency‐driven process. In the high tech sectors which are very sensitive to the increasing competition for technology on the international market, the pursuit of efficiency may, on the contrary, be dissipated.
Originality/value
As attested by the comparative literature, aims and performance of industrial clusters differ in accordance with the stage of economic development as well as the institutional and regulatory framework. The paper demonstrates, however, that in the take‐off stage, it is the position occupied by the host region within the national context which determines the behaviour of the actors concerned as well as the outcome of their commitment.
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Ahsan Haghgoei, Alireza Irajpour and Nasser Hamidi
This paper aims to develop a multi-objective problem for scheduling the operations of trucks entering and exiting cross-docks where the number of unloaded or loaded products by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a multi-objective problem for scheduling the operations of trucks entering and exiting cross-docks where the number of unloaded or loaded products by trucks is fuzzy logistic. The first objective function minimizes the maximum time to receive the products. The second objective function minimizes the emission cost of trucks. Finally, the third objective function minimizes the number of trucks assigned to the entrance and exit doors.
Design/methodology/approach
Two steps are implemented to validate and modify the proposed model. In the first step, two random numerical examples in small dimensions were solved by GAMS software with min-max objective function as well as genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization. In the second step, due to the increasing dimensions of the problem and computational complexity, the problem in question is part of the NP-Hard problem, and therefore multi-objective meta-heuristic algorithms are used along with validation and parameter adjustment.
Findings
Therefore, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and non-dominated ranking genetic algorithm (NRGA) are used to solve 30 random problems in high dimensions. Then, the algorithms were ranked using the TOPSIS method for each problem according to the results obtained from the evaluation criteria. The analysis of the results confirms the applicability of the proposed model and solution methods.
Originality/value
This paper proposes mathematical model of truck scheduling for a real problem, including cross-docks that play an essential role in supply chains, as they could reduce order delivery time, inventory holding costs and shipping costs. To solve the proposed multi-objective mathematical model, as the problem is NP-hard, multi-objective meta-heuristic algorithms are used along with validation and parameter adjustment. Therefore, NSGA-II and NRGA are used to solve 30 random problems in high dimensions.
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Fangyi Jiao, Dongchao Zhang and Xiyue Zheng
This paper analyzes and discusses the fundamental role of new urbanization in the construction of a new development pattern based on the specific practice of China’s new…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyzes and discusses the fundamental role of new urbanization in the construction of a new development pattern based on the specific practice of China’s new urbanization construction, combining the classical Marxist ideas in urbanization and the theory of the industrial capital circulation, and proposes to remove blockages in the domestic and international circulations through developing new urbanization and construct a new development pattern with the domestic circulation as the mainstay and the domestic and international circulations promoting each other, thereby achieving high-quality national economic operation.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the theory of industrial capital circulation, this paper elucidates the general process of domestic and international economic circulations, critically examines the bottlenecks and challenges in economic circulation, and emphasizes the mechanisms through which new urbanization contributes to the formation of a new development pattern.
Findings
The people-centered new urbanization can effectively release domestic demand, optimize investment supply, and stabilize market participants’ expectations, linking the national economic circulation from production to consumption and alleviating supply and demand mismatches, which has a fundamental role in building the new development pattern.
Originality/value
We should focus on creating a comprehensive domestic demand system based on counties while fostering a unified domestic market led by urban clusters and metropolitan areas to stabilize and enhance the expectations of both domestic and international market participants.
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