rational household labor supply traditionally household behavior is derived from the maximization of a unique utility function in this paper we propose an alternative approach in which the household is modeled as a two member collectivity taking pareto efficient decisions the consequences of this assumption are analyzed in a three good model in which only total consumption and each member s labor supply are observable if the agents are assumed egoistic i e they are only concerned with their own leisure and consumption it is possible to derive falsifiable conditions upon household labor supplies from both a parametric and nonparametric viewpoint if alternatively agents are altruistic restrictions obtain in the nonparametric context useful interpretation stems from the comparison with the characterization of aggregate demand for a private good economy

does culture affect behavior and performance of firms the case of joint ventures in china this study applies a resource based view of the firm to analyze data from a sample of 898 joint venture firms in china including both joint ventures established by overseas chinese and by firms from western cultures it is hypothesized that culture could influence the timing of entry of joint ventures their investment preferences and performance anovas and regressions were conducted and the results suggest the impact of cultural as well as technological resources this paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings

european schemes for promoting renewables in liberalised markets abstract the paper describes possibilities and problems for penetration of supply systems based on renewable energy sources in liberalised markets the analysis is based on recent development in eu with different models for support of installations based on renewable energy these include feed in models with guaranteed minimum tariffs tender models for different bands of technologies and green certificates trading models with obligatory consumer quota the paper describes the market situation in selected european countries including germany the uk holland and denmark an eu directive from september 2001 has postponed the decision on a possible harmonisation of promotional models until at least 2005 in order to obtain more practical experience with the different support schemes a critical evaluation is given in this paper of the different models with proposals for a balanced development between environmental and trading concerns it is argued that too much emphasis is presently given to the side of free trade at the expense of long range planning for a sustainable energy development

determinants of import demand for non renewable energy petroleum products empirical evidence from nigeria abstract this study estimated determinants of import demand for refined petroleum products in nigeria for the period 1984 2013 it employed the autoregressive distributed lag ardl bounds test cointegration method and analysed both long run and short run determinants of import demand for total and specific petroleum products in the long run aggregate and sectoral incomes are significant determinants of import of refined kerosene further real effective exchange rate reer aggregate income gdp manufacturing sector s income domestic energy production dep and population growth rate pgr are drivers of import of refined motor spirit moreover reer dep and manufacturing sector s income are propellers of import of refined distillate fuel also reer and total output of petroleum products are major drivers of total import of refined petroleum products short run results show that previous period gdp pgr and manufacturing and service sectors incomes are determinants of import demand for refined kerosene moreover reer gdp previous pgr and manufacturing sector s income exert significant effects on the import of refined motor spirit further significant effects of reer dep previous pgr domestic output of the product and manufacturing and service sectors incomes on the import demand for distillate fuel were found policy implications of the foregoing are articulated in the paper

trends in household saving don t justify tax incentives to boost saving despite diverse trends in household saving in oecd countries many governments are introducing tax incentives designed to boost saving by particular groups such schemes have been justified by many trends including increasing income inequality ageing populations and greater cross border competition it is dangerous however to base policy on what is happening to aggregate household saving alone first personal saving should be viewed within a lifecycle context saving may look inadequate today but households may already have made plans to redress this in future second data on aggregate saving conceal significant differences between different household groups only disaggregation yields reliable inferences on which policy can be based in particular it is impossible to assess the consequences of demographic changes without analysis that distinguishes between different generations we reassess household saving by computing the evolution of lifetime profiles of consumption income and saving of different cohorts over time and then analyse the effect of demographic and other changes we find little evidence for the assertion that tax incentives to promote national saving are needed now to stave off a future drought in household saving

competition in global markets a case study of american and japanese competition in the british market the results of a three year study of the objectives strategies and organisation of american subsidiaries are presented their operations are compared against a matched sample of competitive british and japanese subsidiaries american subsidiaries were found to be less ambitious more orientated towards delivering short term profit performance and less adapted to local market conditions than their japanese competitors over the five year period only one in three u s subsidiaries exhibited successful profit and market performance against more than three out of four japanese subsidiaries

nigeria s energy policy inferences analysis and legal ethics toward re development the study critically assessed the various policy issues of sustainable energy development in nigeria the basic focus was to discuss and analyze some of the laws of the federation as it relates to the development of renewable energy in nigeria it surveyed the nation s energy policy statement and the vision 20 2020 of the federal government the renewable energy master plan developed by the joint efforts of the energy commission of nigeria and united nations development programs were also appraised the level of development and the index of renewable energy production as stated by the policy statement the vision 20 2020 and the renewable energy master plan were highlighted the study found some policy challenges which include weak government motivation lack of economic incentives multiple taxations non existent favorable customs and excise duty act to promote renewable energy technologies further to this some legal reforms which may aid the promotion of renewable energy development in nigeria and also make robust the nation s energy policy were proposed some of the laws that require amendment to promote renewable energy include the land use act environmental impact assessment decree and the investment laws of the federation of nigeria

a four nation study of thee relationship between marketing effectiveness corporate culture corporate values and market orientation the aim of this study was to establish the ways in which senior executives in four countries which shared a common language united kingdom united states australia and new zealand characterized both their firm s marketing effectiveness and corporate culture and beliefs results give support to those theorists who advance cultural specificity as the primary moderator of top managerial attitudes but also emphasise that the best predictor of marketing effectiveness is similar in all four nations the primacy of the importance of people and with quality

standardization preferences a function of national culture work interdependence and local embeddedness both theoretical and empirical studies of professional service employee standardization preferences are relatively scarce using responses from 398 employees of an international public relations firm this study finds that employees from high power distance high uncertainty avoidance and high context cultures prefer greater standardization whereas employees from high individualism cultures prefer less standardization additionally work interdependence is positively associated with standardization preferences whereas local embeddedness is negatively associated with standardization preferences

the effect of the governance environment on marketing channel behaviors the diamond industries in the u s china and hong kong international differences in how market exchanges are conducted e g the mode of entry level of ownership and conflict resolution have been attributed mainly to national culture and cultural distance however the cultural arguments cannot explain why economies countries with similar cultural backgrounds e g hong kong and china exhibit differences in exchange arrangements thus the cultural arguments provide little strategic guidance to multinational corporations mncs in international marketing we propose that in addition to culture the governance environment in a country namely the political economic and social institutions that facilitate or constrain the choice of governance mechanisms influences the way organizations conduct market exchanges this important factor heretofore has been ignored specifically we introduce a typology of rule based and relation based governance environment to explain how the environment affects marketing channel behaviors such as barriers to entry channel exclusivity information access trust and dispute resolution we analyze the diamond industry in the rule based governance environment in the u s and in the relation based governance environment in china and using the diamond industry in hong kong as a validation to develop theoretical propositions and strategic implications for mncs

household saving micro theories and micro facts in this survey we review the recent theoretical and empirical literature on household saving and consumption the discussion is structured around a list of motives for saving and how well the standard theory captures these motives we show that almost all of the motives for saving that have been suggested in the informal saving literature can be captured in the standard optimizing model particular attention is given to recent work on the precautionary motive and its implications for saving and consumption behavior we also discuss the behavioral or psychological approach that eschews the use of standard optimization techniques and focuses instead on direct consideration on saving we provide a section on facts who save and how much we then discuss informally the recent decline in the u s saving rate and whether the theory is of much use in understanding this and other changes in aggregate saving rates over time we do not find any convincing explanation for the change in saving rates we also discuss some analyses of saving behavior over the life cycle addressing such questions as whether households save enough for retirement and whether the consumption patterns of older households can be rationalized within a simple life cycle model we also review a great number of studies of the consumption euler equations based on our analysis of the studies cited we conclude that there is still mixed evidence that consumption is excessively sensitive to income we also examine in depth the recent empirical literature on the precautionary motive we conclude that although some households do seem to have a significant precautionary motive at some points in their life cycle this motive is not so strong empirically as some investigators suggest

prior conditions and early international commitment the mediating role of domestic mindset our study investigates why some firms engage in low international commitments such as exports in the early phases of internationalization whereas others leapfrog the internationalization process and start with high international commitments in the form of foreign direct investment fdi process models of internationalization propose that firms start with low commitment activities and gradually increase their commitments to international markets however recent empirical evidence has shown that many firms make high international commitments from the start our findings suggest that domestic resources and competitive action propensity affect early international commitments indirectly through domestic mindsets a domestic mindset refers to the knowledge structures of the top management team prior to starting international activities based on their managerial experience and learning in domestic markets our results suggest that knowledge and learning gained in domestic markets through diverse resource and competitive activities may be crucial in early international commitments

the choice between joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary an institutional perspective the study of foreign entry mode choice has been based almost exclusively on transaction cost theory this theory focuses mainly on the impacts of firm and industry specific factors on the choice of entry mode taking the effects of country specific contextual factors as constant or less important in contrast the institutional perspective emphasizes the importance of the influence of both institutional forces embedded in national environments and decision makers cognitive constraints on the founding conditions of new ventures still this theoretical perspective has yet to provide insights into how institutional factors influence the choice of foreign entry mode the primary goal of the present study is to provide a unifying theoretical framework to examine this relationship we synthesize transaction cost and institutional perspectives to analyze a sample of 364 japanese overseas subsidiaries our results support the notion that institutional theory provides incremental explanatory power of foreign entry mode choice in addition to transaction cost theory in particular we found that multinational enterprises tend to conform to the regulative settings of the host country environment the normative pressures imposed by the local people and the cognitive mindsets as bounded by counterparts and multinational enterprises own entry patterns when making foreign entry mode choices

intrafamiliar consumption and saving under altruism and wealth considerations this paper introduces a non cooperative and dynamic framework of intrafamiliar decisions where the partners obtain utility from own consumption account for the partner s benefit from consumption altruism and appreciate wealth stationary wealth and thus stationary consumption decreases with respect to altruism under cooperation but increases in the subgame perfect equilibrium in linear markov perfect strategies moreover non cooperation reduces savings and altruism mitigates this effect however altruism is an imperfect substitute for commitment and of course for cooperation because open loop strategies although independent of altruism result in greater wealth

nationality and subsidiary ownership patterns in multinational corporations this paper examines the notion that the multinational s nationality influences its foreign subsidiary ownership decisions it identifies theoretically meaningful constructs to represent nationality and examines under carefully controlled conditions their influence on subsidiary ownership preferences in american and european multinationals the paper concludes that there are indeed significant differences in ownership preferences among various nationalities that can be explained using cultural as well as economic variables but that these differences may become weaker in larger multinationals

choice of foreign market entry mode impact of ownership location and internalization factors firms interested in servicing foreign markets face a difficult decision with regards to the choice of an entry mode the options available to a firm include exporting licensing joint venture and sole venture several factors that determine the choice of a specific foreign market entry mode have been identified in previous literature these factors can be classified into three categories ownership advantages of a firm location advantages of a market and internalization advantages of integrating transactions this study examines the independent and joint influences of these factors on the choice of an entry mode multinomial logistic regression model is employed to test the hypothesized effects

nonlinear strategies in dynamic duopolistic competition with sticky prices abstract we discuss nonlinear strategies in an infinite horizon duopoly game with sticky prices where firms maximize their discounted sum of profit we construct a stationary feedback equilibrium without guessing value functions and feedback strategies that solve the hamilton jacobi equation for this purpose we study the auxiliary equation that is derived from the hamilton jacobi equation we show that the domain of the state space plays an crucial role in characterizing feedback equilibria and discuss several implications of this observation in particular we find that when the upper bound of the state space is not very high previously unknown feedback equilibria emerge

bargaining and distribution in marriage the standard economic model of the family is a common preference model that assumes that a family maximizes a single utility function and implies that family behavior is independent of which individuals receive income or control resources in recent years this model has been challenged by game theoretic models of marriage that do not impose pooling and are therefore consistent with empirical evidence that income controlled by husbands and wives does have different effects on family behavior in this paper the authors review a number of simple bargaining models and relevant empirical evidence and discuss their implications for distribution within marriage

host market government corruption and the equity based foreign entry strategies of multinational enterprises while extant theory suggests that the pervasiveness of host market government corruption should influence the equity ownership decisions of foreign investing multinational enterprises mnes empirical research has produced inconclusive results we leverage insights from transaction cost economics to advance an uncertainty oriented framework which can be used to explain the impact of host market government corruption on the equity based entry strategies of mnes we disaggregate government corruption into two distinct components grand corruption and petty corruption we propose that grand and petty corruption precipitate different types of uncertainty environmental and behavioral which motivate mnes to vary their equity based foreign entry strategies entry mode and partnering hypotheses pertaining to the entry strategies of mnes under conditions of more pervasive grand and petty corruption are developed and tested with a sample of 643 japanese investments in 30 countries between 2004 and 2007 we find that the main effect of grand corruption and the interaction between grand and petty corruption significantly impact a mne s entry mode further while more pervasive grand corruption increases the likelihood that a mne will engage in a joint venture investment with a host country partner we find that an increase in petty corruption heightens a mne s preference to invest with a home country partner

the impact of culture on the strategy of multinational enterprises does national origin affect ownership decisions this paper tests the proposition that national origin affects the strategies of multinational enterprises by looking at the determinants of the choice they make between entering the united states through partially versus wholly owned subsidiaries we pool entries into the united states made by firms based in two countries japan and finland which differ both in their cultural characteristics and in their cultural distance to the united states after carefully controlling for the known firm and industry level determinants of subsidiary ownership strategies we find that cultural distance between the home base of the investor and the target country or perhaps political risk exerts a powerful influence on ownership of subsidiaries but cultural characteristics of the home base do not

assessing the effects of culture on managerial attitudes a three culture test cross cultural studies are inherently difficult because the typical research design fails to differentiate cultural from other environmental influences the present study uses a research design that attempts to isolate the influence of culture japanese chinese and mexican managers their ethnic american counterparts and anglo americans are used to test the model results indicate unique persistent cultural characteristics with the cultural effect varying among the three groups of managers

transforming the nigerian power sector for sustainable development abstract nigeria has been plagued with acute power shortages due to poor performance of its power sector several policies and reforms have been implemented by the government to address the poor performance of the power generation transmission and distribution sectors of the electricity industry also various strategies were employed by the government which includes encouraging private sector participation diversification of the energy generation sources and promoting energy efficiency for sustainable development in addition the government has spent billions of dollars since 2001 in the construction of new power generation facilities transmission lines and distribution centers to boost the power supply it has deregulated the generation and distribution sectors to encourage private sector participation and empowers the energy commission of nigeria to embark on programs and strategies that can boost energy generation from renewable sources this paper examined the country s energy sources and the power sector reforms adopted by the government the paper also outlined some recommendations based on reforms implemented by other countries with similar resources to nigeria which yielded positive results

determinants of the share of equity sought in cross border acquisitions the extent of ownership in foreign market entry is an important topic in the entry mode literature yet the determinants of the share of ownership sought in cross border acquisitions cbas have not received much research attention drawing on multiple theoretical explanations we develop and test hypotheses on factors influencing the share of equity sought by foreign firms in cbas findings based on a sample of cbas by us firms show that the share of equity sought is influenced by many factors including the cost of valuing local firm assets difficulty in integrating local firm managers in culturally distant countries the cost of separating desired assets from the rest of the local firm and the cost of resource commitment under exogenous uncertainty

wealth seeking reconsidered abstract if individuals are interested in their relative wealth position they engage in contests for wealth this leads to a steady state with overaccumulation in a simple growth model it is shown that if some individuals are engaged in wealth seeking activity but others are not the latter might benefit however wealth seeking is not welfare enhancing under usual assumptions concerning production technology the steady state equilibrium is characterized by a marginal productivity of capital that is below the steady state rate of time preference and by emergence of a class structure

explaining ijv survival in a transitional economy through social exchange and knowledge based perspectives in this study we combine social exchange and knowledge based perspectives to develop a general path model of ijv survival we further refine our expectations by considering the transitional economic context of our study and the somewhat unique managerial values resulting from the legacy of marxist ideology results from structural equation modeling suggest that an imbalance in the management control structure between the parents leads to parental conflict and an increased likelihood of ijv failure an imbalance in the ownership control structure however had no influence on conflict or survival in general support from the foreign parent is positively related to ijv learning and ijv survival however higher levels of technical support provided by the foreign parent to the ijv reduced the level of parental conflict whereas management support had no effect on conflict our results suggest some dilemmas for firms pursuing ijvs in transitional economies although the foreign parent often contributes critical resources to the ijv providing it with bargaining power and a high level of influence an imbalance in management control between the partners may ultimately be detrimental to ijv survival copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

performance and survival of joint ventures with non conventional ownership structures the international joint venture jv literature has focused on two parent jvs formed between one foreign and one local firm yet other types of jvs exist this paper identifies four distinct forms of jvs based on the jv partners nationality and equity affiliation these are i jvs that are formed between affiliated home country based firms ii jvs that are formed between unaffiliated home country based firmsl iii jvs that are formed between home country based and local firms and iv jvs that are formed between home country and third country based firms our analysis of 737 japanese jvs in asia demonstrates that the conventionally assumed form of jv represented only 30 percent of the total further each of the four jv forms significantly differed in terms of incidence performance and survival likelihood

on relative wealth effects and the optimality of growth abstract we present a model of endogenous growth in which a desire for social status lead individuals to care about their relative wealth the growth rate of the economy is socially optimal if the status motive is sufficiently important but the presence of status seeking may also lead to excessive growth

transaction cost determinants and ownership based entry mode choice a meta analytical review entry mode choice is a critical ingredient of international entry strategies and has been voluminously examined in the field the findings however are very mixed especially with respect to transaction cost related factors in determining the ownership based entry mode choice this study conducted a meta analysis to quantitatively summarize the literature and empirically generalize more conclusive findings based on the 106 effect sizes of 38 empirical studies the meta analysis shows that the findings of the existing studies are moderated to varying degrees by both study setting factors and statistical artifacts although the combined overall effects of transaction cost based determinants are consistent with the predictions of transaction cost economics we extensively discuss the implications of meta analytical results especially moderating effects of location country of origin industry type and statistical artifacts highlight the measurement adequacy equivalence and multidimensionality of transaction cost determinants and present our suggestions to improve theoretical inquiries and empirical verifications on entry mode choice

the experience factor in foreign market entry behavior of service firms the paper examines the effect of international experience on service firms selection of foreign markets and entry modes the investigation utilizes survey date from 151 united states based service firms results on market selection suggest that as their experience increases and becomes geographically more diversified service firms tend to choose markets that are culturally less similar to their home country on entry mode choice the paper departs from traditional linear conceptualizations and hypothesizes a u shaped relationship between experience and propensity for integrated entry modes results generally support the hypothesis the paper explains these findings and describes how service firms resemble and differ from manufacturing firms in their foreign market entry behavior

the effect of national culture on the choice of entry mode characteristics of national cultures have frequently been claimed to influence the selection of entry modes this article investigates this claim by developing a theoretical argument for why culture should influence the choice of entry two hypotheses are derived which relate culture to entry mode choice one focusing on the cultural distance between countries the other on attitudes towards uncertainty avoidance using a multinomial logit model and controlling for other effects the hypotheses are tested by analysing data on 228 entries into the united states market by acquisition wholly owned greenfield and joint venture empirical support for the effect of national culture on entry choice is found

sustainable energy development in nigeria current status and policy options abstract sustainable energy development focuses on maintaining the provision of energy in a manner that can enhance the short medium and long term economic development of a country the provision of sustainable energy requires the development and implementation of technologies that can improve the energy situation of a given country such as renewable energy energy efficient technologies and the proper use of conventional energy resources to achieve this effective energy policy options must be instigated that can adjust to changing circumstances in nigeria the development of sustainable clean modern energy is an immense challenge as is the proper use of the country s conventional energy resources this is as due to the lack of effective support policies and poor participation by the government in clean energy development the energy situation in nigeria could be improved by the provision of adequate energy policy options designed to augment existing energy policies this study critically reviews the current status of energy resources in nigeria and the associated policies important policies unavailable under current government strategies are proposed and prioritised based on their likelihood of success in short medium and long term among the most important policies based on priorities are policies to address crude oil theft complete deregulation of the petroleum subsectors utilisation of associated gases creation of favourable business climate for private investors increase attraction for foreign direct investment in clean energy technology renewable portfolio standards development introduction of tendering schemes use of efficient fuel stoves development of demand side bidding and energy efficiency standard law we believe that these proposed policy options could improve the sustainable development of nigeria s energy resources

renewable energy policy and electricity market reforms in china the article examines the potential effectiveness of the renewable energy policy in china and its regulatory law framework it frames the option of renewable energy technology within the background of the long lasting electricity problems that china has faced including serious supply shortages reliance on coal and severe environmental contamination its dual administrative and ownership system based on state and privately owned industry is discussed together with the market reform measures adopted in the sector current renewable energy policy is analysed and the scope of the 2005 renewable energy promotion law is investigated this is conducted within the context of the electricity sector reform that china adopted and its effects upon the prospects of encouraging as well as expanding the development of renewable energy this study draws upon primary information collected from interviews with stakeholders on the policy adequacy and identifies three main types of shortcomings that have interfered with a more successful expansion of renewable energy in china

an empirical comparison of soviet and american business negotiations fifty six soviet businesspeople and 160 american businesspeople participated in simulated intracultural one on one buyer seller negotiations all participants completed questionnaires after the negotiation sessions and six negotiators from each cultural group were videotaped during the interactions analysis of the questionnaire data indicated that soviet negotiators achieved higher individual profits when using a competitive approach in negotiations this result is in contrast to a more cooperative approach associated with higher profits for the american participants analysis of the videotapes suggests both similarities and differences in observed bargaining behaviors across the two cultural groups

the cultural relativity of organizational practices and theories this paper summarizes the author s recently published findings about differences in people s work related values among 50 countries in view of these differences ethnocen tric management theories those based on the value system of one particular country have become untenable this concept is illustrated for the fields of leadership organization and motivation a key issue for organization science is the influence of national cultures on introduction management twenty or even 10 years ago the existence of a relationship be management and tween management and national cultures was far from obvious to many and it national cultures may not be obvious to everyone even now in the 1950s and 60s the dominant be lief at least in europe and the u s was that management was something univer sal there were principles of sound management which existed regardless of na tional environments if national or local practice deviated from these principles it was time to change local practice in the future the universality of sound manage ment practices would lead to societies becoming more and more alike this ap plied even to the poor countries of the third world which would become rich as well and would be managed just like the rich countries also the differences be tween management in the first and second world capitalist and socialist would disappear in fact under the surface they were thought to be a lot smaller than was officially recognized this way of thinking which dominated the 1950s and 60s is known as the convergence hypothesis during the 1970s the belief in the unavoidable convergence of management prac tices waned it was too obviously in conflict with the reality we saw around us at the same time supranational organizations like the european common market which were founded very much on the convergence belief had to recognize the stubbornness of national differences even within existing nations regional dif ferences became more rather than less accentuated the welsh the flemish the basques the bangladeshi the quebecois defended their own identity and this was difficult to reconcile with a management philosophy of convergence it slowly became clear that national and even regional cultures do matter for management the national and regional differences are not disappearing they are here to stay in fact these differences may become one of the most crucial problems for man agement in particular for the management of multinational multicultural orga nizations whether public or private

towards achieving energy for sustainable development in nigeria the importance of energy availability in the economic growth social and political development of every nation cannot be overemphasized affordable and reliable energy availability is the precondition for sustainable development sustainable development calls for an efficient reliable and decentralized energy economy based on local and clean energy sources in which the price paid by the consumer will reflect the real cost of energy products to the economy there is clear evidence that nigeria is blessed with abundant resources of fossil fuels as well as renewable energy resources the major challenge is inefficient utilization of energy in the country there is no doubt that the present power crisis afflicting nigeria will persist unless the government diversifies her energy sources and adopt new available technologies to reduce energy wastages and save cost this study examines the perspective of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the making of strategies for a sustainable development in nigeria such strategies involve energy savings on the demand side efficiency improvements in the energy production and replacement of fossil fuels by various sources of renewable energy factors that need to be considered in the shift to its sustainable energy future are examined in this article

a meta analysis of the exchange hazards interfirm governance relationship an informal institutions perspective the existing literature is ambiguous on how exchange hazards influence interfirm governance drawing on institutional theory this study revisits this relationship by examining the moderating effects of national culture by meta analyzing 167 articles involving 38 183 interfirm relationships in 35 countries we found support for the moderating effects of three facets of national culture collectivism power distance and uncertainty avoidance we discuss the implications of the findings for theory and practice

national culture transaction costs and the choice between joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary transaction cost theory posits that culture plays a limited role in the choice between jv and wos in contrast research suggests that firms preferred level of ownership in their foreign subsidiaries is influenced primarily by cultural traits this study provides additional evidence in this ongoing debate by replicating hennart s transaction cost model of entry mode choice in two different national contexts japanese firms investing in the u s and the u s firms investing in japan the results suggest that the transaction cost explanation for the ownership choice holds in the both national contexts yet the propensity to choose jv or wos significantly varied between japanese and the u s firms

explaining the national cultural distance paradox past studies of the relationship between national cultural distance and entry mode choice have produced conflicting results some scholars find cultural distance associated with choosing wholly owned modes others find cultural distance linked to a preference for joint ventures in this paper we provide both theoretical and empirical evidence to explain the discrepant findings and thus help to resolve the national cultural distance paradox

social capital at the top effects of social similarity and status on ceo compensation this study explored the effects of social capital measured both absolutely and relatively on ceo compensation in a sample of 61 ceo compensation committee chairperson dyads we controlled for var

sustainable energy systems role of optimization modeling techniques in power generation and supply a review electricity is conceivably the most multipurpose energy carrier in modern global economy and therefore primarily linked to human and economic development energy sector reform is critical to sustainable energy development and includes reviewing and reforming subsidies establishing credible regulatory frameworks developing policy environments through regulatory interventions and creating market based approaches energy security has recently become an important policy driver and privatization of the electricity sector has secured energy supply and provided cheaper energy services in some countries in the short term but has led to contrary effects elsewhere due to increasing competition resulting in deferred investments in plant and infrastructure due to longer term uncertainties on the other hand global dependence on fossil fuels has led to the release of over 1100 gtco2 into the atmosphere since the mid 19th century currently energy related ghg emissions mainly from fossil fuel combustion for heat supply electricity generation and transport account for around 70 of total emissions including carbon dioxide methane and some traces of nitrous oxide this multitude of aspects play a role in societal debate in comparing electricity generating and supply options such as cost ghg emissions radiological and toxicological exposure occupational health and safety employment domestic energy security and social impressions energy systems engineering provides a methodological scientific framework to arrive at realistic integrated solutions to complex energy problems by adopting a holistic systems based approach especially at decision making and planning stage modeling and optimization found widespread applications in the study of physical and chemical systems production planning and scheduling systems location and transportation problems resource allocation in financial systems and engineering design this article reviews the literature on power and supply sector developments and analyzes the role of modeling and optimization in this sector as well as the future prospective of optimization modeling as a tool for sustainable energy systems

an analysis of the power sector performance in nigeria abstract rapid economic growth and sustainable development depends largely on the level of infrastructural development of a nation this reasonably suggests that a good knowledge of the performance of infrastructural services in an economy is vital and an essential requirement for policy directed at attaining sound and vibrant economic development drawing from above the study analyses the overall performance of the nigeria power electricity sector and presents some policy guidelines for achieving a world standard power market and sustainable development the study found that the nigeria power sector is underperforming and there is an urgent need for proper policy towards achieving a quality and continuous well functioning electricity market in the country the installed capacity of the power plants in nigeria currently stands at about 6000 mw with just about 40 of it is generated annually this greatly constrains the local industries from competing regionally and internationally and also undermines industrialisation and employment generation in the country

improving households access to electricity and energy consumption pattern in nigeria renewable energy alternative abstract access to substantial quantity and quality energy infrastructures is essential to rapid and sustainable economic development access to modern energy services directly contributes to economic growth and poverty reduction through the creation of wealth no country can develop and sustain beyond subsistence means without having at least minimum access to energy services for the larger portion of its population the present study examines the households access to modern energy electricity services and pattern of energy consumption in nigeria it was found that the access to modern form of energy in the country is very low despite the country s abundant energy endowment greater proportions over 40 of nigerian households do not have access to electricity and still depend largely on traditional forms of energy e g firewood kerosene etc as energy sources however nigeria is abundantly endowed with renewable energy resources this can be significantly developed to generate modern and clean electricity to meet the yearning demand of its citizens without imposing serious hazard on the environment

the influence of culture on budget control practices in the usa and japan an empirical study this article reports the results of a study that hypothesized the influence of culture on six aspects of budget control practices in the united states and japan data were collected through questionnaires from 70 manufacturing companies in the united states and 149 such companies in japan results of data analyses indicate that the individualism collectivism dimension would seem to explain why the u s companies compared to the japanese companies tend to use communication and coordination more extensively build budget slack to a greater extent and use long term performance evaluations to a lesser extent the implications of the results for further research and practice are discussed

enhancing the obsolescing bargain theory a longitudinal study of foreign ownership of u s and european multinationals this research attempts to enhance the obsolescing bargain theory for manufacturing companies by statistically testing the effects of nine explanatory variables on the static and dynamic manifestations of bargaining success with longitudinal firm level data in order to highlight those effects it develops a conceptual framework that provides a broader context in which the primary variables operate it demonstrates that the obsolescing bargain took effect in india over a fifteen year period following restrictive legislation unlike previous research this study measures the effect of benefits received by multinationals from the host government in exchange for equity dilution american companies are found to retain a smaller share of their foreign ownership over time than british and other european multinationals some explanatory variables that have previously been found to influence level of foreign ownership static bargaining success are found to be less important or have a different effect in explaining proportion of foreign ownership retained dynamic bargaining success

an institutional approach to cross national distance cross national distance is a key concept in the field of management previous research has conceptualized and measured cross national differences mostly in terms of dyadic cultural distance and has used the euclidean approach to measuring it in contrast our goal is to disaggregate the construct of distance by proposing a set of multidimensional measures including economic financial political administrative cultural demographic knowledge and global connectedness as well as geographic distance we ground our analysis and choice of empirical dimensions on institutional theories of national business governance and innovation systems in order to overcome the methodological limitations of the euclidean approach we calculate dyadic distances using the mahalanobis method which is scale invariant and takes into consideration the variance covariance matrix we empirically analyze four different foreign expansion choices of us companies to illustrate the importance of disaggregating the distance construct and the usefulness of our distance calculations which we make freely available to managers and scholars

choice between non equity entry modes an organizational capability perspective many studies have examined the choice between different types of equity and non equity modes however none has focused on the choice between different types of non equity modes that service firms employ routinely this study develops a theoretical framework based on the organizational capability perspective to explain the choice between two non equity modes franchising and management service contracts while previous studies are based on the premise that foreign market entrants choose a mode equity or non equity that offers them most control given their particular circumstances the premise of this study is that foreign entrants choose a non equity mode that in addition offers effective transfer of the firm s capabilities to the host country venture

what s mine is yours the influence of male and female incomes on patterns of household expenditure this paper uses microdata from the 1992 statistics canada family expenditure survey to provide evidence that male and female incomes do not always exert identical influences on household expenditures the novelty of the paper lies in its demonstration that while incomes may be pooled for some categories of consumption e g housing the income pooling hypothesis must be rejected for others we also go beyond simply rejecting the pooling hypothesis to ask how male versus female income is used our results stress the on going importance of traditional gender roles for example we find that expenditures on child care increase only with women s incomes higher male income is not associated with higher expenditure on child care even when both spouses are full time full year paid workers

dynamic demand and noncompetitive intertemporal output adjustments abstract this paper integrates dynamics on the demand and on the supply side which are characteristic for many goods in particular fuels due to costly adjustments furthermore firms often pursue a quantity strategy and decide on output adjustments additional capacities etc instead of fixing prices e g opec moved from posting prices to adjusting output in 1986 this paper provides a corresponding framework surprisingly ignored in the literature and derives intertemporal market equilibria cooperative and noncooperative in open loop and in markov strategies the equilibrium in markov strategies is different mostly opposite to the much discussed sticky price models the qualitative properties are non trivial and some of them are even surprising e g increased demand sluggishness can raise supply

cultural diversity and the performance of multinational firms we test the hypothesis that culturally related international diversification will have a positive impact on firm performance and that the opposite will be true for culturally unrelated globalization cultural diversity for fortune 500 firms was used to predict performance over a ten year period 1985 1994 controlling for several organizational and industry characteristics regression tests using nine indicators of cultural diversity revealed no significant cultural effects alternate interpretations are offered

egalitarianism cultural distance and foreign direct investment a new approach this study addresses an apparent impasse in the research on organizations responses to cultural distance we posit that cross country differences in egalitarianism a cultural orientation manifested in intolerance for abuses of market and political power and support for protection of less powerful actors affect multinational firms choices of destinations for foreign direct investment fdi using historically motivated instrumental variables we observe that egalitarianism distance has a negative causal impact on fdi flows this effect is robust to a broad set of competing accounts including the effects of other cultural dimensions various features of the prevailing legal and regulatory regimes other features of the institutional environment economic development and time invariant unobserved characteristics of origin and host countries we further show that egalitarianism correlates in a conceptually compatible way with an array of organizational practices pertinent to firms interactions with nonfinancial stakeholders such that national differences in these egalitarianism related features may affect firms international expansion decisions

a tale of three countries italian spanish and swiss manufacturing operations in china in this paper the choice of joint venture versus wholly foreign owned enterprise wfoe made by italian spanish and swiss multinationals in china as shaped by the risk of dissipation of intangible assets is investigated probit estimates based on an entirely new firm level dataset constructed by the author show that wfoe is more likely to emerge when know how easily spills over namely for firms endowed with more intangible assets or belonging to high tech sectors in line with the theoretical expectations

manufacturer governance of foreign distributor relationships do relational norms enhance competitiveness in the export market research on international marketing channels accentuates the importance of relational norms and trust building activities between buyers and sellers indeed cultural and country differences may limit the use and effectiveness of traditional tools such as market incentives and authoritative control that govern the relationship between an exporting manufacturer and its foreign distributor consequently exporting manufacturers need to emphasize relationships with their foreign distributors this research finds evidence that supports both direct and indirect effects between the manufacturer s use of governance via relational norms and its competitiveness in the export market the indirect effect results from the mediating role of trust a finding that makes a key contribution to the understanding of the role of relational governance in cross border relationships

income and outcomes a structural model of intrahousehold allocation there is evidence from several sources that one cannot treat many person households as a single decision maker if this is the case then factors such as the relative incomes of the household members may affect the final allocation decisions made by the household we develop a method of identifying how incomes affect outcomes given conventional family expenditure data the basic assumption we make is that household decision processes lead to efficient outcomes we apply our method to a sample of canadian couples with no children we find that the final allocations of expenditures on each partner depend significantly on their relative incomes and ages and on the level of lifetime wealth

rural electrification in zambia a policy and institutional analysis abstract zambia is well endowed with hydropower and other energy resources which could facilitate production of electricity for both urban and rural areas of the country the country has an installed electricity generation capacity of 1786 mw and undeveloped hydropower potential of over 6000 mw in the last few years demand has been growing and it is anticipated to outstrip supply in 2008 the load growth is attributed to increased mining activities and development of the industrial base the country is also endowed with abundant natural resources such as arable land water minerals and wildlife with the available resource base electricity along with other social and economic infrastructure such as roads and telecommunications could facilitate increased economic activities in rural areas electricity could be used for crop irrigation agro processing small scale mining and to facilitate tourism however rural electrification re faces many challenges such as long distances from existing power stations to targeted rural areas low population densities high poverty levels and low skills availability these and other factors have contributed to continued low levels of access to electricity in rural areas of the country measures so far undertaken to facilitate access to electricity in rural areas of zambia include the adoption of a new national energy policy nep in 1994 with regard to the electricity sector and re in particular the nep was aimed at facilitating increased access by liberalising and restructuring the electricity market and promoting the use of low cost technologies and decentralised renewable energies to facilitate implementation of the new policy the government established a legal and institutional framework by enacting new legislation namely the electricity act and the energy regulation act in 1995 the electricity act provided for liberalisation and regulation of the electricity sector while the energy regulation act provided for the establishment of an independent regulator so as to stimulate private sector participation and efficiency in addition a rural electrification fund ref and associated administration mechanism was established in 1995 however re continued to experience many challenges in 2003 the government enacted the rural electrification act leading to the establishment of an agency dedicated to re this paper analyses the policy legal and institutional measures implemented in zambia and assesses their potential or effectiveness to tackle some of the challenges facing re in the country so as to increase access and affordability