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We examine the role played by subsidiaries' human resource (HR) practices in the development of subsidiaries' knowledge stocks (defined as human and social capital) and the association of such knowledge stocks with knowledge transfer from subsidiaries to headquarters in multinational corporations (MNCs). Drawing on a survey of 151 Australian subsidiary senior executives of U.S., German, and Japanese MNCs, our findings suggest that the role of subsidiaries' HR practices lies in nurturing ties between a subsidiary and its external stakeholders and in accumulating knowledge of strategic importance not only for the subsidiary but also for its headquarters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prospective, cohort survey of 540 mid-adolescent students was conducted to identify personal, family and social correlates of alcohol use. A structured questionnaire recorded alcohol involvement, other substance use, perceived parental alcohol use and related factors, alcohol-related attitudes and beliefs, psychological well-being, social and peer behaviours, and school conduct problems. Participants drank on 17.5 days in the past 3 months; on a typical drinking day they consumed 4.7 units, with 28.5% reported drinking six or more units. More frequent drinking was independently correlated with being male, perceiving that parents encouraged drinking, drinking without parental knowledge, drinking to alter mood, buying alcoholic beverages, spending more time with friends who drink, perceiving social pressure to drink, and being excluded from school and truanting. Parental discouragement for alcohol was related to more frequent drinking in females and less frequent drinking in males. Drinking more intensively was associated with use of cannabis, parental encouragement to drink, spending more time with friends who drink, school exclusion, and being in trouble with teachers. These results highlight multidimensional correlates of drinking during mid-adolescence and underline the importance of addressing personal, family, peer, and school conduct factors in school-based alcohol education programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross cultural literature has suggested China has a business culture based on family networks or guanxi connections underpinned by strong Confucian ethics. We argue that Chinese business may have distinctly national cultural attributes (that international businesses ignore at their peril) but we reassess the continuing significance of these historical cultural concepts. We query whether a system of networks consolidated during fifty years of state-owned enterprises can still have application on the considerably larger scale of multinational corporate business of today’s China. Interview data collected from Australian expatriates in China in 2001 is used to assess the relevance of guanxi for effective international operations in China from the perspective of Australian expatriate managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]