Michael Carney, Saul Estrin, Zhixiang Liang and Daniel Shapiro
This study aims to advance an international political economy (IPE) perspective that geo-political events can have long-lasting imprint effects on countries and their firms. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to advance an international political economy (IPE) perspective that geo-political events can have long-lasting imprint effects on countries and their firms. The study also aims to explore the idea that shared political history and geography combine to create specific structural conditions that shape the international competitiveness of all firms in a region. In particular, the authors consider whether the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which asserted American influence in the Western Hemisphere, contributed to the creation of institutional structures across Latin America (LA) affecting the strategies of all firms to this day. The authors also illustrate the IPE perspective using the example of the contemporary international competitiveness of LA business groups.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors illustrate the IPE perspective using the example of the contemporary international competitiveness of LA business groups. The exploratory framework of this study leads to a proposition about the export performance of Latin American business group affiliates. The authors use firm-level performance data for 32,000 firms across emerging economies to explore the proposition empirically while controlling for alternative explanations. To do this, the authors draw on the World Bank Economic Surveys.
Findings
The authors derive a proposition that argues the Monroe Doctrine has had a long-run imprint effect on economic policymaking in LA, resulting in a common, persistent and negative impact on the international competitiveness of firms. The authors find strong and consistent evidence that in terms of export performance, all Latin American firms export less and group affiliates do not outperform independent firms, This finding contrasts with the results for all the other emerging market regions around the world.
Research limitations/implications
The main contribution of this study has been to suggest the potential importance of shared regional geopolitical history and geography in explaining firm-level outcomes. However, this study is preliminary and introductory, although the authors seek to control for alternative country-specific explanations of the results. The analysis considers the effects of one particular IPE phenomenon, the Monroe Doctrine, in one particular location: LA. Future work should seek to contrast LA with other geopolitical security and alternative IPE structures. They might also address the time dimension from a historical perspective: is imprinting in LA driven by the length of the Monroe Doctrine arrangements?
Practical implications
The most important managerial learning point concerns the relevance of geography and political economy factors for multinational enterprises strategy formation. There is widespread understanding that context is an important determinant of subsidiaries’ performance, and that strategies need to be constructed to take account of country-specific characteristics, most importantly, in emerging economies and institutional arrangements. This paper proposes that managers also need to take account of IPE structures, including security arrangements, and to consider the resulting regional as well as national context.
Social implications
The analysis suggests that not only the performance of firms, including emblematic firms, but also the socially beneficial spillovers that might be generated from them, are contingent on the regional as well as national characteristics. Thus, business groups in most emerging economies are found to yield better performance and to provide higher levels of social impact, including concerning ESG goals. However, the findings of this study suggest that the former is not true for LA, which, the authors argue, is a consequence of imprinting as a result of the Monroe Doctrine. Further work is needed to establish whether the latter effect is also not true, but if that is the case, then regionally specific policies may be required to address the resulting corporate social shortfalls.
Originality/value
The core idea is that geo-political events can have long-lasting imprint effects on countries and their firms: that shared political history and geography create specific structural conditions that shape the international competitiveness of all firms in a region. The authors explore this concept with reference to the Monroe Doctrine, asking whether its assertion of US influence across the Americas contributed to the creation of institutional structures across LA affecting the strategies of all firms to this day.
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Xiaoxing Liang and Zhixiang Zhou
With the rapid economic growth and urbanization development, regional environmental problems have attracted increasing attention. The study on analyzing cities’ capacity on…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rapid economic growth and urbanization development, regional environmental problems have attracted increasing attention. The study on analyzing cities’ capacity on resource utilization and environmental protection is practically significant because of the industrial agglomeration in an urban area. This study aims to measure environmental efficiency of urban industrial water utilization by comparing input, output and undesirable outputs variables of cities.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper combines data envelopment analysis basic approach with regression to discover the environmental efficiency score of cities and their influence factors. A set of slack-based measure (SBM) model is constructed for calculating the environmental efficiency score by considering both desirable and unendurable outputs.
Findings
This paper analyzes the industrial water utilization efficiency for China from the city level by evaluating the performance for up to 200 mainland Chinese cities during 2012–2016 under SBM model. Then, 2C Tobit regression is used to measure the determining factors of industrial water utilization efficiency from the angle of natural, social, municipal and industrial structure factors. The empirical study results show huge room for improvement in industrial water utilization in China, while the average citizen efficiency scores maintain a level of about 0.5.
Originality/value
Significant differences exist in the regional efficiency in different cities in China. Per capita GDP, a total length of drainage pipe and whether the area is coastal or not have significant positive impacts on the water utilization efficiency, while the proportion of secondary industry to GDP has a significant negative influence. Specific recommendations are proposed based on the local industrial water utilization efficiency scores, such as improving urban infrastructure and adopting a more flexible water pricing system.
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He Li, Zhixiang Yu, Chuanjie Zhang and Zhuang Zhang
The paper aims to investigate the determinants of China’s daily intervention in the foreign exchange market since the 2005 reform aimed at moving the Renminbi (RMB) exchange rate…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate the determinants of China’s daily intervention in the foreign exchange market since the 2005 reform aimed at moving the Renminbi (RMB) exchange rate regime towards greater flexibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses bivariate probit models to test whether China’s intervention decision is driven by three sets of factors, comprising Model I (basic model), Model II and Model III.
Findings
Evidence from the models suggests that medium-term Chinese interventions tend to be leaning-against-the-wind, whereas long-term interventions are leaning-with-the-wind. Furthermore, by analyzing exchange rate volatility, this paper finds that intervention is used by the Chinese central bank to ensure that there are no big swings in the RMB exchange rate.
Originality/value
The paper will be of value to other researchers attempting to understand the policy of the central bank and, in particular, the factors that can lead to interventions during periods of financial crisis.
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Jie Wu, Chu Wang and Zhixiang Zhou
The purpose of this paper is to improve the accuracy of evaluation efficiency by constructing parallel structures considering the main components of industrial pollutants, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the accuracy of evaluation efficiency by constructing parallel structures considering the main components of industrial pollutants, and then to consider some external influence factors to eliminate random errors.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, data transformation has been used to deal with undesirable output, and a model with a parallel structure based on the three-stage data envelopment analysis model to calculate the efficiency scores of different division in pollution treatment has been composed.
Findings
The analysis shows that the external environmental factors and random factors of the economy and society greatly affect the efficiency of industrial pollutant treatment; moreover, there is an imbalance between regions in China in the treatment of industrial pollutants.
Originality/value
Optimal improvement requires each province to take targeted measures to improve its efficiency of pollutant treatment measures, which are tailored to specific situations and determined by efficiency analysis in this paper.
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Meiqiang Wang, Yingwen Chen and Zhixiang Zhou
The purpose of this paper is to examine the industrial production efficiency, pollution treatment efficiency, total factor energy efficiency and water efficiency in China with the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the industrial production efficiency, pollution treatment efficiency, total factor energy efficiency and water efficiency in China with the consideration of technological innovation. This study also explores the distribution proportion of technological innovation between industrial production substage and pollution treatment substage.
Design/methodology/approach
A nonparametric method, data envelopment analysis (DEA), is used as the model foundation of this study. Specifically, a novel two-stage range-adjusted measure (RAM-DEA) with shared inputs is constructed to analyze the China’s industrial system. In this study, the panel data of 30 provinces from 2008 to 2015 are used.
Findings
This study found that although the current environmental regulation reduced the efficiency of industrial production, it could significantly improve the pollution treatment level. However, the lack of pollution treatment capacity was still an obstacle for development of China's industrial system. Compared with the total factor energy efficiency, the total factor water efficiency had more room for improvement. The optimal distribution of technological innovation in the two substages performed little change and the distribution roughly followed the “three-seven principle”.
Practical implications
More attention should be paid to improve the pollution treatment level and total factor water efficiency. And more R&D expenditure should be used in the industrial production substage in the eastern coastal areas, while in the inland areas, more R&D expenditure should be used in the pollution treatment substage.
Originality/value
This study proposed a model to environmental efficiency score with considering interval data under two-stage evaluation structure, which could strengthen the theory and expand the application scope of DEA approach.
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Zhixiang Song, Fei Guo, Ying Liu, Songtao Hu, Xiangfeng Liu and Yuming Wang
This paper aims to present the slip/no-slip design in two-dimensional water-lubricated tilting pad thrust bearings (TPTBs) considering the turbulence effect and shifting of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the slip/no-slip design in two-dimensional water-lubricated tilting pad thrust bearings (TPTBs) considering the turbulence effect and shifting of pressure centers.
Design/methodology/approach
A numerical model is established to analyze the slip condition and the effect of turbulence according to a Reynolds number defined in terms of the slip condition. Simulations are carried out for eccentrically and centrally pivoted bearings and the influence of different slip parameters is discussed.
Findings
A considerable enhancement in load capacity, as well as a reduction in friction, can be achieved by heterogeneous slip/no-slip surface designs for lubricated sliding contacts, especially for near parallel pad configurations. The optimized design largely depends on the pivot position. The load capacity increases by 174 per cent for eccentrically pivoted bearings and 159 per cent for centrally pivoted bearings for a suitable design. When slip zone locates at the middle of the radial direction or close to the inner edge, the performance of the TPTB is better.
Research limitations/implications
The simplification of slip effect on the turbulence (definition of Reynolds number) can only describe the trend of the increasing turbulence due to slip condition. The accurate turbulence expression considering the boundary slip needs further explorations.
Originality/value
The shifting of pressure center due to the slip/no-slip design for TPTBs is investigated in this study. The turbulence effect and influence of slip parameters is discussed for large water-lubricated bearings.
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Zhixiang Chen and Bhaba R. Sarker
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of learning effect and demand uncertainty on aggregate production planning (APP), provide practitioners with some important…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of learning effect and demand uncertainty on aggregate production planning (APP), provide practitioners with some important managerial implications for improving production planning and productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
Motivated by the background of one labour-intensive manufacturing firm – a mosquito expellant factory – an APP model considering workforce learning effect and demand uncertainty is established. Numerical example and comparison with other two models without considering learning and uncertainty of demand are conducted.
Findings
The result shows that taking into account the uncertain demand and learning effect can reduce total production cost and increase flexibility of APP.
Practical implications
Managerial implications are provided for practitioners with four propositions on improving workforce learning effect, i.e. emphasizing employee training, combing individual and organizational learning and reduction of forgetting effect.
Originality/value
This paper has practice value in improving APP in labor-intensive manufacturing.
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Jie Wu, Wanting Zhang and Zhixiang Zhou
The purpose of this paper is to study where to place industrial solid waste treatment centers among the 16 prefecture-level cities under its jurisdiction.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study where to place industrial solid waste treatment centers among the 16 prefecture-level cities under its jurisdiction.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts the cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, with the industrial land price and average annual salary per capita as inputs, while coverage, total transportation distance, number of industrial enterprises and total amount of industrial solid waste are used as outputs.
Findings
Based on the spatial efficiency scores calculated by using the new presented models, the authors find that the most efficient construction site are Chizhou, Chuzhou, Suzhou and Bengbu. That is quite different from the results obtained by using traditional approach.
Originality/value
This paper evaluates the spatial efficiency by using combinations of the four locations as the decision-making units of the DEA model, which could be used as an objective way to allocate limited resource. In addition to the resource allocation of the industrial solid waste treatment center, the method in this paper can also be applied to other spatial aspects of resource allocation.
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Guangcheng Xu and Zhixiang Zhou
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Chinese commercial banks efficiency based on different non-performing loans in the process. Moreover, we identified the difference among…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Chinese commercial banks efficiency based on different non-performing loans in the process. Moreover, we identified the difference among different types of banks (state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks and city commercial banks) and different operation stages (deposit producing sub-stage, profit earning sub-stage and overall stage).
Design/methodology/approach
Assurance region (AR) restrictions are combined with a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The efficiency scores of 26 Chinese commercial banks (listed banks) are analyzed by a two-stage AR-DEA model in the study period of 2013–2017.
Findings
The results show that state-owned commercial banks had better performance than joint-stock commercial banks and city commercial banks over the five-year study period. The development of Internet finance has positive impact on deposit producing sub-stage and insignificant non-homogeneity existed among the different groups in the circumstances of considering different non-performing loans.
Practical implications
The research findings provide practical insights that help bank managers find the defects in operation process, which need to be improved.
Originality/value
Previous studies viewed non-performing loans as an integrated whole variable. The paper divides non-performing loans into three categories based on the risk and investigates the effect of different types of loans on bank efficiency scores.
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Jie Wu, Qingsong Liu and Zhixiang Zhou
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the profit efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) based on predicted future information to solve the lag problem of improvement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the profit efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) based on predicted future information to solve the lag problem of improvement benchmarks given by the traditional profit efficiency model.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes a two-step profit efficiency evaluation method. The first step predicts the future input and output information of DMUs through the past time-series data, obtaining a likely production possibility set (PPS) and profit frontier for the next period. The second step calculates DMUs' profit efficiency based on the predictions obtained in the first step and provides predictive benchmarking for DMUs.
Findings
The empirical results show that the proposed method yields good solutions for the lag problem of benchmarks given in ex-post evaluation, enabling bank managers to use predicted future information to achieve better improvement. Besides, compared with the technical efficiency measure, profit efficiency can better reflect the financial situation of DMUs and give the specific gap between the evaluated and optimal DMU.
Practical implications
For bank managers, the authors' new technique is advantageous for grasping the initiative of development because this technique accounts for the future development of the whole industry and sets forward-looking targets. These advantages can help banks improve in a more favorable direction and improve the asset management ability of banks.
Originality/value
This paper combines the data envelopment analysis (DEA) profit efficiency model with performance prediction and proposes a new two-step profit efficiency model, filling a gap in previous studies.