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This study assesses the effect of an economy's business environment on the ability of firms to be part of a global value chain (GVC). With the use of a comprehensive firm-level dataset from the World Bank Enterprise Survey—and with a special focus on the countries of the Middle East and North Africa and East Asia and Pacific regions—the contribution of the paper is threefold: First, it provides a range of measures of the characteristics of firms that would identify a firm as likely to be integrated into a GVC. Second, it examines the association between an array of business environment variables—infrastructure; access to finance; fiscal policy; enforcement of contracts; ease of obtaining permits; extent of the informal sector; trade procedures; and firm and investor security—and the likelihood of a firm's being integrated into a GVC. Third, we examine these effects separately for small and large firms and for sectors with high and low tariffs. Our main findings show that, in general, the number of days that are required to pay taxes, the number of procedures that are necessary to register property, and the time to export and to import have a significantly negative association with the likelihood of a firm's integration into a GVC. More heterogeneity is observed at the regional level, at the firm size level, and for sectors with high versus low tariffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we hypothesize that acquisitions undertaken during low market cycles will exhibit better performance than other acquisitions for two key reasons: lower likelihood of overpayment due to hubris and ease in implementing restructuring initiatives such as retrenchment. We define performance as the cumulative abnormal returns surrounding the acquisition event and deploy a trend-based measure for market cycle. Based on an analysis of 115 acquisitions by Singapore firms between 1990 and 1999, we find strong support for the hypothesized relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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With the increase of cross-Strait economic activity, the interaction between Taiwanese business people and the Chinese government has gradually changed. As Taiwanese investment grew in volume, so did the number and frequency of contacts between the parties; a more institutionalised form regulating these contacts was established as a result. Nowadays Taiwanese businessmen have become an identifiable factor in Chinese governmental policy implementation; the process also has far-reaching implications. This paper argues that Taiwanese capital has become a Chinese governmental security asset and examines the importance of this factor when discussing conventional government/business interaction. This paper concludes that a superior national interest guides the warm welcome given by the Chinese government to Taiwanese businessmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutions across East Asia are in flux as a result of market pressures and political shifts. Some changes have been adaptive while others appear to erode institutional capacity. This framework article introduces the Special Issue, developing an analytic synthesis of scholarship on institutional capacity and change. We focus on the role of markets and firms in bringing about different types of institutional change, and the reconfiguration of state roles to meet new challenges. Accounts of institutional change increasingly focus on incremental institutional change and specify different endogenous processes through which it occurs. We show that changes in the way markets are structured, or market shifts, are important sources of institutional change in East Asia. Such market shifts operate in different ways and geographical scales. They can alter actor preferences with regard to institutional form, produce a shift in the relative political influence of different actors, and prompt institutional 'drift' – change in the functionality of institutions due to changed circumstances. Both states and firms play a role in these changes. As the case studies in the collection show, states and firms in the region have both reacted to contextual shifts in markets and proactively led institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of multinational enterprises originating in East Asian economies, especially over the last two decades, has attracted much academic interest on the internationalization patterns of these firms. In this introduction, we outline insights on analyzing the internationalization of East Asian firms in general and review the broad context of academic research on the internationalization of enterprises from mature industrial economies as well as emerging markets. To highlight the contributions of the articles in this issue, we describe the new evidence based on empirical findings from research presented in the individual articles and suggest implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claessens et al. (2000, Journal of Financial Economics 58(1–2), 81–112) show that corporate control is substantially enhanced by using pyramid structures and cross-holdings by firms in nine East Asian countries. Claessens et al. (1999, SSRN Working Paper; 2002, Journal of Finance 57(2), 2741–2771) provide empirical evidence regarding expropriation arising from the separation of cash flow from voting rights in Asian firms. Their analysis suggests a high degree of expropriation in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. We re-examine the problem of expropriation in Asian firms reported by earlier research. We explore firm-level governance-control structure interactions, and control-legal environment interaction for a set of Asian firms for which we are able to obtain relevant data for all the required variables. The major contribution of this paper is that it jointly examines ownership-control structure, firm-level governance and country-level legal protection available to external suppliers of capital. Using post-crisis data, we find a strong country effect in governance. In general, high control firms in countries with weak legal protection have lower firm-level governance scores in general. On the other hand, high control firms, in countries which have a stronger legal protection environment, signal their intention to not expropriate minority shareholders’ wealth by voluntarily adopting measures to strengthen their discipline and responsibility scores. Contrary to earlier findings, we do not find a relationship between control-ownership wedge and firm value. Furthermore, we do not find any relation between firm-level governance and firm value as measured by Tobin’s Q. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate the exchange rate exposure, indicating the effect of exchange rate movements on firm values, for a sample of 1,400 firms in seven East Asian countries. The exposure estimates based on various exchange rate variables, return horizons and a control variable are compared. A key result from our analysis is that the long term effect of exchange rate movements on firm values is greater than the short term effect. And we find very similar results from using other exchange rate variables such as the U.S. dollar exchange rate, etc. Second, we add exchange rate volatility as a control variable and find that the extent of exposure is not much changed. Third, we examine the changes in exposure to exchange rate volatility with an increase in return horizon. Consequently the ratio of firms with significant exposures increases with the return horizons. Interestingly, the increase of exposure with the return horizons is faster for exposure to volatility than for exposure to exchange rate itself. Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that the socalled "exposure puzzle" may be a matter of the methodology used to measure exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the long-term effect of the Asian financial crisis on corporate cash holdings in 8 East Asian countries. The Asian firms build up cash holdings by decreasing investment activities after the crisis. We find that the increase in cash holdings is not explained by changes in firm characteristics but by changes in the firms’ demand function for cash, which indicates that the crisis has systematically changed the firms’ cash-holding policies. Specifically, the firms’ increased sensitivity to cash flow volatility is one of the main factors explaining the higher level of their cash holdings in the postcrisis period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the question whether joint ventures or wholly owned subsidiaries are more likely to survive in the context of Japanese subsidiaries in China. The author suggests that the answer to this question depends on the time the subsidiary was established. Specifically, it is argued that joint ventures founded during the early stage of institutional reforms are more likely to survive than wholly owned subsidiaries set up at that time, and vice versa for subsidiaries established in the late phase of institutional reforms. The rationale for these propositions is that at the beginning of market-oriented reforms, contributions provided by local partners make shared ownership an optimal entry mode strategy, whereas a relatively stable regulatory framework in the late stage of institutional reforms enables the firm to realize benefits associated with sole ownership more efficiently. Empirical evidence supports both propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic reform in China has attracted growing attention from around the world owing to its significance for theory and practice. What has been largely missing in the literature is the temporal dimension, i.e., the changes over time in key variables such as organizational environment, firm strategic adaptations, and the performance implications. In this study, we investigate environment and strategic adaptations 12 years after Tan and Litschert examined these issues in 1990. Following a staged model, the study found that (1) organizational environment and firm strategic adaptations have co-evolved over time, (2) a new configuration has emerged and is related to improved performance, and (3) such a relationship is moderated by the stage during transition in which firms were founded. Specifically, firms founded since 1990 are more proactive and innovative than firms that had existed in the previous stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing private sector in the post-reform Vietnamese economy and its new forms of mobilisation have led to newly emergent social forces that have shaped internal state agendas and political deliberations. With a view to exploring the nature of institutional change in Vietnam, I argue that business associations have played a crucial intermediary role between the state and the private sector over past decades. These associations and the spaces of governance that they constitute are neither characteristic of autonomous actors as suggested by liberal theory nor a form of state corporatism. This paper adopts the “state-in-society” approach, which contends that the state and society should be considered through new governance spaces within the state. These spaces create institutional mechanisms for interaction between the government and business, and provide a framework for deliberative engagement between state and non-state actors. This framework will be tested through an examination of associations of small and medium enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City and their connections to the city authorities. I argue that business associations will be accommodated by the state and will coalesce with existing bureaucratic interests. This proposition contributes to the new research agenda that applies the state-in-society approach to post-socialist institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper evaluates the findings from a study of the expatriate staffing practices in twenty Australian business enterprises which have a physical presence in the East Asian business region. Results of the study suggest the need for expatriate staffing practices that, (a) use multiple selection techniques and sources, (b) understand and communicate the expatriate role clearly, (c) provide systematic training for the role and its environment, (d) acknowledge different performance expectations, (e) are career focused for the individual and the organization, (f) ensure effective compensation and, finally, (g) enrich the role to ensure appropriate decision-making authority and organizational learning. Implications of the factor constructs identified would confirm the need for a stage-interdependent perspective to expatriate appointments: that is, recognizing that each stage of an expatriate appointment, i.e., prior to, during and following an appointment, is effectively linked to each of the respective stages. In addition, that the expatriate appointment is matched to a firm's international business strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most striking features of the economic development that has occurred in the East Asian region has been the influential role of the state in directing its course. Vietnam is also following this well-worn path of state-led developmentalism. The principal contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, we place the Vietnamese experience in comparative historical and conceptual perspective. It is suggested that the structure of the Vietnamese state itself and the distinctive nature of the policies it has undertaken are reflections of the country's traumatic recent history and the fact that its leadership is notionally “communist.” Our second contribution is to detail some of the more important aspects of this process. We provide two case studies which focus on the role of state-owned enterprises and decentralisation initiatives which demonstrate that, despite the frequently ad hoc and contingent nature of the developmental project and an absence of the sort of state capacity that distinguished the likes of Japan in its heyday, the Vietnamese government is overseeing economic development in creative and surprisingly effective ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A model of cultural control is developed and contrasted with the more familiar bureaucratic control model. This model is used to explain processes of strategic adaptation as observed in Japanese cultural control and American bureaucratic control firms. A discussion of the strategic costs and benefits to the organization associated with each type of control is then presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study attempts to examine those effects and relationships of various performance measuring dimensions using the balanced scorecard conceptual framework on travel agencies under different strategic orientations in Taiwan. A three-stage research design is adopted to explore a valid and reliable e-commerce strategy performance measuring model for travel agencies. The research also uses the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to further empirically build up e-commerce cost leadership and differentiation strategy performance measurement models. The theoretical model identifies an underlying variable construct, dimensions, and their associated attributes which combine the traditional subjective or objective measures with operating measures of e-commerce strategy performances. According to this research, Taiwanese travel agencies consider five financial, three customer, four internal process, and three innovation and learning perspective indicators of performance measurement that also have cause-and-effect relationships among themselves under two different strategies. Finally, this paper proposes two optimal models that match the essential needs of e-commerce cost leadership and differentiation strategic development and overcomes the traditional performance measuring shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese economic reform process has engendered significant changes in the structure and management of work organizations. Central to the process has been the corporatization of the danwei, or state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This paper examines the progress made in the current round of state-enterprise corporate reform based on the Modern Enterprise and Group Company systems, and extends this to discuss the major social consequences of such large-scale enterprise restructuring. Drawing on interview data from eight large SOEs in the steel industry, we assess the extent to which the aims of reducing government interference in the running of SOEs, developing a sense of enterprise, and achieving cost reductions and productivity improvements through large-scale workforce reductions can be achieved in the present reform-induced climate of labour unrest and incipient political instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the arguments regarding whether the development of township and village enterprises (TVEs) has been successful and whether TVEs can preserve their advantages and become a successful "third sector." After examining TVEs in three areas, this paper finds that TVE productivity growth has resulted from input augmentation, technological progress, and technical efficiency Through a comparison with state-owned enterprises (SOEs). TVEs are found to be more efficient in terms of relative productive efficiency. Furthermore, as the level of urbanization in China is still low, the TVEs can and should continue to develop in order to both pursue urbanization and absorb the abundant surplus labor in rural areas. Thus this paper argues that the transitional role that the TVEs have played will not diminish soon. However, along with the changes in the macroeconomic environment in China. TVEs still need more market-oriented reforms, such as ownership reform, to allow their development to be sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse a detailed panel dataset on Indonesian manufacturing firms to characterise the exports puzzle: the surprising absence of export-led growth after the massive currency devaluation during the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis. Our results show that, consistent with trade theory predictions following better terms of trade, entry into export markets increased dramatically. In conflict with the same predictions, however, many pre-crisis exporters quit exporting. Thus stagnant export growth cannot be attributable to a lack of entrepreneurial ambition or activity amongst would-be exporters. Rather, it apparently resulted from constraints prohibiting continued exporting by pre-crisis exporters. Managerial reports of perceived constraints reveal little about why so many firms ceased exporting. However, ‘better’ firms, as proxied by foreign ownership, involvement in research and development, or investment in training, were more likely to continue exporting post-crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the vehicles that Korean firms use when the firms manage earnings. We partitioned our sample into low, mid and high accrual sub-samples based on discretionary accruals. Low accrual firms are defined as income-decreasing firms whereas the high accrual firms are considered income increasing firms in this study. We decomposed accounting earnings into cash from operations and various components of accruals in a systematic way. Next we examined the types of accruals individual firms use when the respective firms increase reported earnings. The empirical results of the study indicate that there are clear discrepancies in the earnings management vehicles firm use when the firms manage earnings depending on the directions of earnings management. More specifically, income-increasing firms frequently employ non-cash revenues including asset-disposal gains. Income-decreasing firms employ non-cash expenses including bad-debt expenses and asset-disposal losses. Firms also tend to use current accruals but to a limited extent as current accruals entail cash flow implications in the following years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to empirically examine the determinants that influence the investment decisions of firms in East Asia, a region that propelled its growth through a predominantly export-led industrialization strategy. Empirical results suggest that a firm's cash flow, representing internal funding capability, have significantly positive relationship on firm investment decisions in all the sample countries in the region. In addition, the study found that export expansion led to increasing internal funding capability, which had a positive influence on the firm's investment decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that China's rural enterprises are currently undergoing a second phase in transformation. In contrast to the first-phase transformation, which involved shifts in user rights, the second phase has been characterized by the transfer of asset rights from the collectives to local corporate leaders. The process was accelerated particularly after the Chinese Communist Party's Fifteenth National Congress which opened the door for diversified forms of public ownership. The argument is supported by a case study conducted in an enterprise in Daqiuzhuang in rural Tianjin. The case clearly shows that toward the end of the first phase. the enterprise transformed itself from a collectively-owned entity into a share-holding system. Yet, the asset ownership was not tied to shares. Since September 1997, however, this ownership has been tied to shares, remaining nominally public, as the majority of the shares remain under control of the local community, the enterprise, and other cooperative enterprises. In essence we see a dramatic increase of shares controlled by corporate leaders in the new ownership structure, as they serve as representatives of the community and enterprise shares and own a substantial portion of the individual shares. It is argued that the ultimate objective of this transformation is to move the control of enterprise assets into the hands of corporate leaders We also speculate, based on available information, that this phenomenon is not idiosyncratic to Daqiuzhuang but is rather a nationwide trend currently under way in China's rural enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effects of competition on bank risk taking behaviour in four South East Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam). Our main finding is that competition does not increase bank risk-taking behaviour and the results appear robust to different model specifications, estimation approaches and variable construction. We also find that concentration is inversely related to bank risk whereas regulatory restrictions positively influence bank risk-taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of latecomer firms from East Asia in high-technology sectors is one of the most striking phenomena of world economy in the past decades. However, while most literature focuses on the catch-up of Korea and Taiwan, we know relatively little about the practices in China, especially the firm-level experiences. Based on in-depth case analyses of three Chinese ICT firms from exploratory and evolutionary perspectives, we attempt to locate the window of opportunity for Chinese ICT firms to catch up with forerunners and identify strategies they employed to seize the window of opportunity. Our research findings suggest that paradigm shifts provided these latecomers with an opportunity to penetrate the market and universal standards or new technologies from other domains serve as the window of opportunity for latecomers to surpass forerunners. This study also reveals that technology-market combination as well as other strategies including niche market proposition, service innovation, collaborative R&D and leveraging complementary technologies can be utilized as effective approaches to realize catch-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that better informed insights into the benefits and repercussions of the form of development of East Asian economies could be obtained when the theoretical perspectives from two different bodies of literature are employed collectively. If the concepts from the discipline of political economy - specifically the body of literature dealing with the developmental state now commonly deployed in analyses of East Asian economies - are used in combination with concepts from the literature on business history based on the work of Alfred Chandler, the reasons for the rise and fall of major enterprises in East Asia can be better understood. A case study of enterprise and economic development in Malaysia is presented to substantiate this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how chain store performance is affected by a store manager promotion program that considers inventory management-related indicators such as inventory loss and inventory turnover. The study was conducted using data from the largest 3C (computers, communications, and consumer electronics) chain store company in Taiwan. It is found that average store profitability and efficiency improve after implementing the manager promotion program. The result suggests that the promotion program induced store managers to exert greater efforts towards inventory management and thus improves store performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam has emerged as the world's second largest producer of coffee. The benefits of this expanding coffee economy are substantial but not universal; their distribution follows ethnic lines despite government commitment to equalize welfare. Focusing on Dak Lak Province in Vietnam's Central Highlands, we investigate this commercial transformation and the ''competition for coffee space'' that it has occasioned. Combined ethnohistory and household income analyses suggest markedly different benefits between native and non-native ethnic groups, despite generally larger landholdings among the former. We interpret these finding through the conceptual lens of in-situ development-induced displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the wealth impact for Japanese and US firms that announce nonequity strategic alliances. We find that on average, both Japanese and US shareholders benefit from the formation of international alliances. We also find that shareholders earn larger abnormal returns in these alliances when the partnering firms are relatively small in size, have higher growth opportunities, or are less profitable. We show that both Japanese and US partnering firms display significant improvements in operating performance over the three-year period subsequent to the formation of international alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of earnings announcements of Chinese firms in the fiscal years 1994-1999, covering the periods before and after the introduction of a regulation to stagger the release of annual reports, we reassess the relation between earnings news and the timing of earnings announcements. We find that even though the reporting lag has significantly shortened as a result of the regulation, the pattern whereby good news is announced earlier than bad news persists. We then examine the behavior of stock prices before earnings announcements and find some indication of information leakage. These findings suggest that the regulation had the expected effect of reducing reporting delay and earnings release clustering. Yet, it did not appear to reduce the extent of the pre-announcement leakage of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which investigated how labor disputes have been differentially affected by the interplay of organizational characteristics, institutional structure, work conditions as well as the characteristics of labor force by country origin of East-Asian-owned firms and location of industry in China. Critical issue on labor unrest; Data and methods; Frequency of labor disputes.

The study explores the traits and influences on global business ethics practiced by Taiwanese enterprises in East Asia in order to provide those enterprises with a ready guide to contemporaneous standards of ethical management overseas and, in particular, in East Asia. The study randomly sampled 1496 Taiwanese enterprises in Mainland China, Vietnam and Indonesia. One questionnaire per enterprise was answered by Taiwanese owners or senior administrators. Some 375 valid responses, or 25% of the sample, were returned. Taiwanese enterprises in East Asia were found to be ethically inclined in respect of their local environments and generic human rights, though one-third of participants identified themselves as "ethically lax". The study identified various influences on global business ethics viz. personnel localization, employment partnership, marketing ethics and the competitiveness of Taiwanese enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the incentive structures embodied in different systems of corporate governance produce firms in East Asia. Inclinations toward the development of capabilities and strategic assets; Cultivation of alternative governance institutions alongside existing relational institutions; Demands for transparency and accountability in managerial firms.

The structures of business in the East Asian `miracle' economies have been explained by culturists in relation to pre-modern belief systems, and more recently by institutionalists in relation to pre-modern traditions and emerging `institutional environments'. Each school of thought thaws selectively on the work of Max Weber. While the latter school's account carries a higher face validity than the former, it is argued that both are at best partial, are often misleading and, at worse, serve to legitimate, rather than critically analyze, the activities of East Asian business elites. In locating business structures firmly in society-wide belief systems or institutional environments, both approaches tend to give deterministic accounts which deny a role for human agency, and which neglect the importance of interests, power and ideology in the design and maintenance of business structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the forms and enterprise structure of the business organizations in East Asia. Differences in the patterns of development of enterprise relations; Importance of 'societal effect' in structuring business organizations; Issues involved in the standardization of the unit of analysis for comparing forms of business organizations.