Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between export performance and firm size.

Analysing a large sample of firms in the Vietnamese manufacturing sector, the authors employ a quantile regression approach to asses whether or not the relationship between exporting and firm size is dependent upon the extent of exporting that firms already undertake.

The authors find that increased firm size leads to higher export volumes. However, in sharp contrast to literature that largely focuses on considering a linear relationship between these two variables, the authors further find that the positive relationship becomes weaker as the extent of exporting activity increases.

In contrast to the earlier literature, a key novelty of the approach is that the authors obtain new insights in terms of establishing a nonlinear relationship between firm size and export performance in the case of Vietnamese manufacturing.

Gives an in depth view of the strategies pursued by the world’s leading chief executive officers in an attempt to provide guidance to new chief executives of today. Considers the marketing strategies employed, together with the organizational structures used and looks at the universal concepts that can be applied to any product. Uses anecdotal evidence to formulate a number of theories which can be used to compare your company with the best in the world. Presents initial survival strategies and then looks at ways companies can broaden their boundaries through manipulation and choice. Covers a huge variety of case studies and examples together with a substantial question and answer section.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of a multifaceted negative Russian export shock of 2014 on the exports Estonian firms that exported non-embargoed goods to Russia.

The dataset covers all the Estonian exporters that exported non-embargoed goods to Russia in 2013 and the empirical analysis uses a difference-in-difference method in combination with the coarsened exact matching method to account for heterogeneities between the treatment and control groups.

The empirical findings show that wholesalers affected were generally able to show better export performance after the negative shock than direct exporters were. The trade performance after the shock was lower for both wholesalers and direct exporters that had lower initial productivity levels.

As a novelty, this study simultaneously addresses several firm heterogeneities to illustrate how the trade effects of a negative export shock differ between firms with different key characteristics, including between wholesalers and direct exporters.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

This study delves into the determinants and praxis of derivative hedging instruments (DHIs) usage of Malta, a small island state. Empirical evidence is also provided in relation to the impact of DHI usage and the adoption of a hedge accounting (HA) model in entities’ financial statements. A mixed methodology design is deployed involving: (1) a series of statistical models and tests and (2) seven semi-structured interviews with senior professionals.

The data collected comprise proxy variable values collected from the financial statements of 568 firm-years from 107 Maltese entities between the years 2009 and 2014. Greater likelihood of financial distress, decreasing investment efficiency and increased levels of gearing, are identified as being significant determinants for the use of DHIs. Although DHI usage is low in comparison to larger states, it has been increasing over the period under study.

HA is evidenced to be less popular in Malta, but the study evidences correlation between certain DHIs and HA usage. The quantitative statistical model results in evidence with no significant earnings volatility (EV) or cash flow volatility (CFV) reduction effects through the application of HA. Albeit, the study finds a significant CFV reduction effect emanating from DHI usage, but no corresponding EV reduction effect.

Better education and dissemination of the HA treatment by auditors and regulatory bodies could help propagate the HA treatment, potentially enhancing the EV reduction effectiveness of DHI use. This research provides empirical evidence to substantiate the rationale behind utilising DHIs in smaller island states, especially when coupled with a sound risk management culture.

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.

The President of the Board of Agriculture has introduced in the House of Commons his long‐promised Bill for preventing the sale of butter containing large amounts of water, and the proposed measure appears to have been received with general approval on both sides of the House.

With the view of obtaining reliable first‐hand information as to the nature and efficacy of the food laws in Great Britain, France, and Germany, Mr. ROBERT ALLEN, the Secretary of the Pure Food Commission of Kentucky, has recently visited London, Paris, and Berlin. He has now published a report, containing a number of facts and conclusions of very considerable interest and importance, which, we presume, will be laid before the great Congress of Food Experts to be held on the occasion of the forthcoming exposition at St. Louis. Mr. ALLEN severely criticises the British system, and calls particular attention to the evils attending our feeble legislation, and still more feeble administrative methods. The criticisms are severe, but they are just. Great Britain, says Mr. ALLEN, is par excellence the dumping‐ground for adulterated, sophisticated, and impoverished foods of all kinds. France, Germany, and America, he observes, have added a superstructure to their Tariff walls in the shape of standards of purity for imported food‐products, while through Great Britain's open door are thrust the greater part of the bad goods which would be now rejected in the three countries above referred to. Whatever views may be held as to the imposition of Tariffs no sane person will deny the importance of instituting some kind of effective control over the quality of imported food products, and, while it may be admitted that an attempt—all too restricted in its nature—has been made in the Food Act of 1899 to deal with the matter, it certainly cannot be said that any really effective official control of the kind indicated is at present in existence in the British Isles. We agree with Mr. ALLEN'S statement that our food laws are inadequate and that, such as they are, those laws are poorly enforced, or not enforced at all. It is also true that there are no “standards” or “limits” in regard to the composition and quality of food products “except loose and low standards for butter and milk,” and we are compelled to admit that with the exception of the British Analytical Control there exists no organisation—either official or voluntary —which can be said to concern itself in a comprehensive and effective manner with the all‐important subject of the nature and quality of the food supply of the people. In the United States, and in some of those European countries which are entitled to call themselves civilised, the pure food question has been studied carefully and seriously in recent years—with the result that legislation and administrative machinery of far superior types to ours are rapidly being introduced. With us adulteration, sophistication, and the supply of inferior goods are still commonly regarded as matters to be treated in a sort of joking spirit, even by persons whose education and position are such as to make their adoption of so foolish an attitude most astonishing to those who have given even but slight attention to the subject. Lethargy, carelessness, and a species of feeble frivolity appear to be growing among us to such an extent as to threaten to become dangerous in a national sense. We should be thankful for outspoken criticism—if only for the bracing effect it ought to produce.

From a recently published letter addressed to a well‐known firm of whisky manufacturers by Mr. JOHN LETHIBY, Assistant Secretary to the Local Government Board, it is plain that the Board decline to entertain the suggestion that the Government should take steps to compel manufacturers of whisky to apply correct descriptions to their products. The adoption of this attitude by the Board might have been anticipated, but the grounds upon which the Board appear to have taken it up are not in reality such as will afford an adequate defence of their position, as the negative evidence given before the Select Committee on Food Products Adulteration and yielded by the reports of Public Analysts is beside the mark. The introduction of a governmental control of the nature suggested is not only undesirable but impracticable. It is undesirable because such a control must be compulsory and is bound to be unfair. It would be relegated to a Government Department, and of necessity, therefore, in the result it would be in the hands of an individual—the head of the Department—and subject entirely to the ideas and the unavoidable prejudices of one person. It is impracticable because no Government or Government Department could afford to take up a position involving the recommendation of particular products and the condemnation of others. No Government could take upon itself the onus of deciding questions of quality as distinguished from questions merely involving nature and substance. A system of control, in order to be effective and valuable alike to the public and the honest manufacturer, must be voluntary in its nature in so far as the manufacturer is concerned, and must be carried out by an independent and authoritative body entirely free from governmental trammels, and possessing full liberty to give or withhold its approbation or guarantee.