International handbook on privatization

Privatization has dominated industrial restructuring programs since the 1980s and continues to do so. This authoritative and accessible Handbook considers all aspects of this key issue, including the theory of privatization; privatization in transition, developed and developing economics; as well the economic regulation of privatized industries. The studies in this volume, introduced by international experts in the field 'presents evidence of the scope and effects of privatization, and consequently provide the basis for improving both policy formulation and implementation. However, they also emphasize that privatization is not an end in itself. It is argued that for privatization to be worthwhile and for lasting economic efficiency gains to be achieved, supporting reforms must accompany most privatization programs, particularly in the arenas of corporate governance and capital markets, product market competition, and state regulatory processes. Furthermore, several contributions demonstrate that the degree to which ownership and market liberalization can be usefully separated, and whether privatization without either competition or effective regulation is worthwhile, remain controversial issues. Furnishing the reader with a comprehensive and lively discussion of privatization in theory and practice, this Handbook will be the essential source of information for researchers in the field, and for a wide-ranging audience including public policy makers and specialists, development experts and agencies, international banks, public policy and regulation economists, and management consultants.

Volatility transmission between stock and bond markets

A two-factor no-arbitrage model is used to provide a theoretical link between stock and bond market volatility. While this model suggests that short-term interest rate volatility may, at least in part, drive both stock and bond market volatility, the empirical evidence suggests that past bond market volatility affects both markets and feeds back into short-term yield volatility. The empirical modelling goes on to examine the (time-varying) correlation structure between volatility in the stock and bond markets and finds that the sign of this correlation has reversed over the last 20 years. This has important implications far portfolio selection in financial markets. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

International technology collaboration for new product development

In recent years it has become increasingly common for companies to improve their competitiveness and find new markets by extending their operations through international new product development collaborations involving technology transfer. Technology development, cost reduction and market penetration are seen as the foci in such collaborative operations with the aim being to improve the competitive position of both partners. In this paper the case of technology transfer through collaborative new product development in the machine tool sector is used to provide a typical example of such partnerships. The research evidence on which the paper is based includes longitudinal case studies and questionnaire surveys of machine tool manufacturers in both countries. The specific case of a UK machine tool company and its Chinese partner is used to provide a specific example of the operational development of a successful collaboration. The paper concludes that a phased co-ordination of commercial, technical and strategic interactions between the two partners is essential for such collaborations to work. In particular, the need to transfer marketing know-how is emphasised, having been identified as an area of weakness among technology acquirers in China.

Evaluating service quality and customer satisfaction evaluation in an emerging markets

Developing economies offer tremendous potential for future growth and organizations appreciating these consumers’ requirements stand to reap considerable returns. However, compared with more developed economies published consumer studies are few. In particular, there is a dearth of service quality research and hardly any from Africa. Furthermore, the little available research tends to apply Western methodologies, which may not be entirely appropriate. This research investigates East African consumer perceptions of retail banking using an approach that takes account of the research context. Qualitative research was undertaken to define the relevant service attributes. Performance along these was then investigated through a survey with over 2000 respondents. Principal component analysis identifies 13 core service dimensions and multinomial logistic regression reveals which are the key drivers of customer satisfaction. Comparison of the results with studies from other regions confirms that established standardized research instruments are likely to miss or under-represent service attributes important in developing countries.

Measuring and assessing the effects and extent of international bond market integration

We review briefly the literature on international financial integration, especially as it pertains to bond market integration. This contextualizes the review we than provide of a number of papers contained in a special issue of this Journal. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Interdependence of international equity market volatility

This paper investigates whether equity market volatility in one major market is related to volatility elsewhere. This paper models the daily conditional volatility of equity market wide returns as a GARCH-(1,1) process. Such a model will capture the changing nature of the conditional variance through time. It is found that the correlation between the conditional variances of major equity markets has increased substantially over the last two decades. This supports work which has been undertaken on conditional mean returns which indicates there has been an increase in equity market integration.

An econometric analysis of international tourism demand in Hong Kong : a cointegration and error correction approach

The purpose of this study is to develop econometric models to better understand the economic factors affecting inbound tourist flows from each of six origin countries that contribute to Hong Kong’s international tourism demand. To this end, we test alternative cointegration and error correction approaches to examine the economic determinants of tourist flows to Hong Kong, and to produce accurate econometric forecasts of inbound tourism demand. Our empirical findings show that permanent income is the most significant determinant of tourism demand in all models. The variables of own price, weighted substitute prices, trade volume, the share price index (as an indicator of changes in wealth in origin countries), and a dummy variable representing the Beijing incident (1989) are also found to be important determinants for some origin countries. The average long-run income and own price elasticity was measured at 2.66 and – 1.02, respectively. It was hypothesised that permanent income is a better explanatory variable of long-haul tourism demand than current income. A novel approach (grid search process) has been used to empirically derive the weights to be attached to the lagged income variable for estimating permanent income. The results indicate that permanent income, estimated with empirically determined relatively small weighting factors, was capable of producing better results than the current income variable in explaining long-haul tourism demand. This finding suggests that the use of current income in previous empirical tourism demand studies may have produced inaccurate results. The share price index, as a measure of wealth, was also found to be significant in two models. Studies of tourism demand rarely include wealth as an explanatory forecasting long-haul tourism demand. However, finding a satisfactory proxy for wealth common to different countries is problematic. This study indicates with the ECM (Error Correction Models) based on the Engle-Granger (1987) approach produce more accurate forecasts than ECM based on Pesaran and Shin (1998) and Johansen (1988, 1991, 1995) approaches for all of the long-haul markets and Japan. Overall, ECM produce better forecasts than the OLS, ARIMA and NAÏVE models, indicating the superiority of the application of a cointegration approach for tourism demand forecasting. The results show that permanent income is the most important explanatory variable for tourism demand from all countries but there are substantial variations between countries with the long-run elasticity ranging between 1.1 for the U.S. and 5.3 for U.K. Price is the next most important variable with the long-run elasticities ranging between -0.8 for Japan and -1.3 for Germany and short-run elasticities ranging between – 0.14 for Germany and -0.7 for Taiwan. The fastest growing market is Mainland China. The findings have implications for policies and strategies on investment, marketing promotion and pricing.

Antecedents and consequences of new product development and international new product rollout timeliness:an examination of mediating and moderating influences

The study examined the relationships between antecedents, timeliness in NPD and INPR, and consequences. A conceptual framework was tested using 232 new products from South Korean firms. The hypothesized relationships among the constructs in the model were evaluated by multiple regression and hierarchal regression analyses using SPSS 12 as well as by structural equation modelling (SEM) using SIMPLIS LISREL. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out using SIMPLIS LISREL. In the direct relationships, cross-functional linkages and marketing synergy exhibited a statistically significant effect on NPD timeliness. The results also supported the influences of the HQ-subsidiary/agent relationship and NPD timeliness on INPR timeliness as well as INPR timeliness on performance. In the mediating effect tests, marketing proficiency significantly accounts for the relationships between cross-functional linkages and NPD timeliness, between marketing synergy and NPD timeliness, and between the HQ-subsidiary/agent relationship and INPR timeliness. Technical proficiency also mediates the effect of the HQ-subsidiary/agent relationship on INPR timeliness. The influence of NPD timeliness on new product performance in target markets is attributed to INPR timeliness. As for the results of the external environmentals and standardization influences, competitive intensity moderates the relationship between NPD timeliness and new product performance. Technology change also moderates the relationship between cross-functional linkages and NPD timeliness and between timeliness in NPD and INPR and performance. Standardization has a moderating role on the relationship between NPD timeliness and INPR timeliness. This study presents the answers to research questions which concern what factors are predictors of criterion variables, how antecedents influence timeliness in NPD and INPR and when the direct relationships in the INPR process are strengthened.

Beyond securitisation : Western Mediterranean international relations from a security perspective 1989-2002

Following the end of the Cold War and the ensuing changes to the international landscape, thinking about security has tended to become more discursive and interpretative in nature. What counts as security has increasingly derived from security discourses (that is, 'securitisation') and uncertainty about the multi-faceted future facing various countries and regions. Within this post-Cold War discourse, the Western Mediterranean has emerged as a region fraught with latent and manifest threats in the economic, political, societal and military sectors. Improved access to EU markets for Maghrebi exports; the security of energy supplies to the EU from Algeria and Libya; lack of democracy and the advance of political Islam; the flow of northward migration and worries about law and order in France, Italy and Spain; the growth in military expenditure and weapons proliferation in the Maghreb; all have been central to the securitisation agenda. However, this agenda has often lacked credibility especially when inter-linkages have purportedly been established between economic underdevelopment and political instability, between the advance of political Islam and the threat to energy supplies, or between immigration and the threat to national identity. Such inter-sectoral linkages distract from the credibility of those 'securitisation instances' which correspond to reality; the former linkages have often been exploited by extremist politicians in south-west European countries as well as by regimes in the Maghreb to advance their respective interests. Thus, securitisation may defeat its main purpose; it may generate responses out of keeping with the aims proclaimed at the outset, aims centred on the countering of real threats and the ensuring of greater stability.

Moving towards premium e-grocery management:multi-products sourcing capacity logistic and geodemographic marketing in emerging markets

CD

Changing consumer markets and marketing in China

China's enormous population and rapidly increasing consumer spending are attractive to many multinational corporations (MNCs) to supply products to the Chinese markets. Yet MNCs continue to struggle to find ways to serve this diverse and culturally unique market. This article reviews and integrates existing knowledge on Chinese consumers' responses to marketing efforts, and specifies and empirically tests several propositions. Chinese consumers are found to have higher brand consciousness, brand loyalty, lower price sensitivity for visible goods, and to be less responsive to sales promotions compared to Western consumers. We also find indications that the influence of face considerations (i.e., prestige earned in a social network) cause Chinese consumers to have higher emphasis on prestige in their channel choices and advertisement evaluations than Western consumers. By outlining these implications, our study can help MNCs better understand how Chinese consumers behave and that understanding can help MNCs adapt their marketing efforts.

International Human Resource Management in the Indian context

Introduction to "India Special Issue". The last two decades have seen several critical developments, such as globalization; liberalization of economies around the world; the growing economic significance of emerging markets; and the ever increasing movement of people around the world. Ironically, there is an obvious dearth of IHRM research and related publications on emerging markets. This special issue is designed to partially fill this space.

International human resource management

Over the last two decades, international human resource management (IHRM) has evolved into an important field of research, teaching and practice. Until recently the focus of IHRM was on how to best manage human resources (HRs) in the multinational enterprise; however, IHRM has now evolved to incorporate two more perspectives, cross-cultural HRM and comparative HRM. Significant developments are taking place in the corporate world which have serious implications for IHRM. These include globalization, increasing foreign direct investments into emerging markets, growing intensity of cross-border alliances, growth of multinationals from emerging markets (such as China and India), increasing movement of people around the globe and an increasing trend in business process outsourcing to new economies. This emerging global economic scenario is creating immense opportunities for IHRM students and researchers. International Human Resource Management brings together articles which highlight the historical evolution of IHRM, discuss the contemporary issues and make projections for further developments in the field. The articles have been selected and arranged into sections in a way to help the reader better understand the developments in the field from different perspectives.

Introducing International Accounting Standards to an emerging capital market:Relative familiarity and language effect in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of relative familiarity and language accessibility on the International Accounting Standards (IASs) disclosures when IASs are first introduced in an emerging capital market. The study focuses on the annual reports of listed non-financial companies in Egypt when IASs were first introduced. The method used applies a disclosure index measurement to a sample of listed company annual reports and evaluates relative compliance with IASs in relation to corporate characteristics. The results show that for relatively less familiar requirements of IASs, the extent of compliance is related to the type of audit firm used and to the presence of a specific statement of compliance with IASs. A lower degree of compliance with less familiar IASs disclosure is observed consistently across a range of company characteristics. Consideration of agency theory and capital need theory would lead to prior expectation of a distinction in disclosure practices between different categories of companies. The results were, therefore, counterintuitive to expectations where the regulations were unfamiliar or not available in the native language, indicating that new variables have to be considered and additional theoretical explanations have to be found in future disclosure studies on emerging capital markets. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Globalisation, markets and healthcare policy:redrawing the patient as consumer

Although the last two decades have seen the healthcare systems of most developed countries face pressure for major reform, the impact of this reform on the relationship between empowerment, consumerism and citizen’s rights has received limited research attention. Globalisation, Markets and Healthcare Policy sets out to redress this imbalance. This book explores the extent to which globalisation and commercialisation relate to current and emerging health policies. It also looks at the implications for citizens, patients and social rights, as well as how policy making interacts with the interests of global and European trade and economic policies. Topics discussed include: •How the impact of globalisation on health systems is apparent in the influence of international actors and European policies. •How the impact of globalisation is mediated by national priorities and policies and is therefore reflected in diverse influences. •How commercialisation of health is presented as benefiting citizens and patients but has the potential to undermine the aims and values inherent in health systems. •How the role of citizens' interests, social rights, patient’s rights and priorities of patient and public involvement need to be separated from commercialisation, choice and consumerism in health care. Essential reading for policy makers and students of public policy, politics, law and health services, Globalisation, Markets and Healthcare Policy will also appeal to those interested in patient involvement international healthcare, international relations, trans-national organisations and the EU.