housing prices and the savings of renters abstract this paper studies the effects of housing prices on the net worth of young households because prospective homeowners must accumulate down payments a change in housing prices can change their savings patterns theoretically the effect of increases in house prices on savings is ambiguous because households can increase their saving to afford the larger down payment or decrease their saving because they have chosen to delay or forego purchasing a house using data from the 1984 panel study of income dynamics 27 i show that empirically the effect of increased housing prices on saving is positive and quite large relative to the savings of young households young renter households living in cities with high housing prices have more net worth than those living in cities with lowering housing prices controlling for both the income of the households as well as the per capita income of the city in which they live

career management issues facing expatriates this research explores expatriate assignments from a career development perspective first the article examines the impact of five organization level career development programs and policies on expatriate effectiveness then it explores the impact of five individual level career management strategies on the success of expatriate transitions data from 118 expatriates in saudi arabia europe south america and japan are presented to examine these career development issues

targeted saving by renters for housing purchase in japan abstract this paper examines the extent to which wealth accumulation for housing purchase increases household savings and suppresses consumption the study employs an estimation method based on simultaneous equations with limited dependent variables developed by nelson and olson to examine the relationship between wealth accumulation and housing purchase plans using data relating to young japanese renters the estimation results provide evidence that young japanese households severely reduce their consumption by around 30 40 percent

expatriate performance appraisal in u s multinational firms this exploratory study examines empirically expatriate performance appraisal epa practices for u s multinational firms and assesses how such practices relate to the perceived accuracy of epas from a sample of u s multinationals the results suggest that a balanced set of raters from host and home countries and more frequent appraisals relate positively to perceived accuracy of epas the data suggest however that most respondent firms did not follow these practices in addition the use of standardized and customized epa evaluation forms relates negatively to perceived epa accuracy implications of these exploratory findings for research and practice are also discussed

best of both worlds how embeddedness fit in the host unit and the headquarters improve repatriate knowledge transfer knowledge transfer within multinational enterprises is a source of competitive advantage however we know little about repatriates role in reverse knowledge transfer upon their return to headquarters hq using an organizational embeddedness perspective we conceptualized how embeddedness fit individuals perceived match between their knowledge and skills and the job requirements during the expatriation assignment and upon repatriation predicts repatriate knowledge transfer to test the hypotheses we collected multi wave survey data from 129 repatriates and their supervisors and developed a repatriate knowledge transfer scale the results show that perceived organizational support from hq positively influences embeddedness fit both in the host unit during expatriation and in the hq upon repatriation further embeddedness fit in the hq upon repatriation has a direct effect while embeddedness fit in the host unit during expatriation has an indirect effect on repatriate knowledge transfer via increased communication frequency with the former host unit in addition we found that knowledge transfer is particularly pronounced for repatriates with both high levels of embeddedness fit in the hq upon repatriation and frequent communication with colleagues in their former host unit our results highlight the critical importance of helping expatriates increase their perceived embeddedness fit for reverse knowledge transfer to occur

a causal model of linkages among environmental dimensions macro organizational characteristics and performance an integrative model of relationships among environmental dimensions diversification strategy firm size structural divisionalization and economic performance was developed and tested using environmental and organizational data from 110 large manufacturing firms the results suggested that among those organizations 1 higher levels of environmental instability were associated with lower levels of divisionalization and diversification 2 strategy followed structure and 3 size did not mediate the strategy structure relationship furthermore both environmental instability and diversification were positively related to market determined performance and instability was negatively related to operating performance the results provided support for portions of each of three models the external control strategic management and inertial models

households saving in china china in recent years the world s largest and fastest growing economy also has national saving rates that are among the highest in the world this article considers a variety of statistical issues that cloud the measurement of aggregate and household saving in china it also provides new empirical evidence on the importance of intertemporal considerations in explaining the variation in household saving across china s provinces given china s size and its high saving rates it is not surprising that in recent year s considerable theoretical and empirical effort has been devoted to understanding its saving behavior this research can be divided into two broad strands the first emphasizes the relevance for china of traditional equilibrium theories of saving ranging from simple keynesian consumption saving functions to variants of the life cycle and permanent income hypotheses the second argues that equilibrium theories of saving are unlikely to be relevant in an economy in transition from plan to market instead disequilibrium factors especially shortages and rationing in goods and credit markets explain china s saving experience more broadly china s saving rate remains unusually high relative to international experience even after controlling for some of the determinants of saving

a needs driven approach to expatriate adjustment and career development a multiple mentoring perspective although effective in improving socialization development and retention in the us domestic context mentoring would likely benefit expatriates and their firms but it remains theoretically underdeveloped in the international context we develop a theory of international mentoring by integrating current perspectives on protean and boundaryless careers with the literature on mentoring and expatriates expatriates need multiple mentors to assist their adjustment and development during the pre departure expatriation and repatriation stages of international assignments we discuss both hierarchical and peer and formal and informal mentoring relationships to delineate which relationships best address specific expatriate needs international mentoring may improve expatriate adjustment development and retention and thus may affect outcomes of international strategy we conclude by discussing implications and avenues for future research

repatriating knowledge variables influencing the transfer process because of the strategic importance of organizational learning in a global economy the knowledge that repatriates acquire during international assignments is a valuable resource few multinational enterprises however actively harvest this knowledge and little quantitative empirical research on this topic exists to date we propose an original model and propositions that delineate the facilitative and inhibiting factors affecting repatriate knowledge transfer to work units we conclude with suggestions for future research and practical implications

price dispersion in the small and in the large evidence from an internet price comparison site this paper examines four million daily price observations for more than 1 000 consumer electronics products on the price comparison site http shopper com we find little support for the notion that prices on the internet are converging to the law of one price in addition observed levels of price dispersion vary systematically with the number of firms listing prices the difference between the two lowest prices the gap averages 23 per cent when two firms list prices and falls to 3 5 per cent in markets where 17 firms list prices these empirical results are an implication of a general clearinghouse model of equilibrium price dispersion

household savings and housing prices in china using phillips et al 2012 testing for multiple bubbles yale university bubble test and the ratio of monthly housing price to rent in china we cannot find that there were bubbles in the housing market for all provinces including urban and rural sectors during january 2000 to august 2011 but we found that there were housing bubbles for the 36 major cities during december 2004 to july 2011 by the panel provincial data during 1995 2010 in china we found that the bubbly housing price especially in the urban sector significantly raises the household saving rate in cities as well as nationwide after controlling for the life cycle and the other related factors based on the micro household data for six major cities in china in 2005 we also find that the increase in housing price and housing loans has significantly positive impacts on household saving even after controlling for other possible factors the empirical results here are consistent with the predictions of the speculative saving hypothesis

ceo successor characteristics and the choice of foreign market entry mode an empirical study based on the upper echelons theory this study of 126 ceo successions and 271 foreign market entry events examines the relationships between successor ceo characteristics and choice of entry mode results indicate that ceo position tenure throughput functional background and international experience are associated with full control entry modes additionally these relationships were observed in the subgroup of high performing firms but not in the low performing subgroup

the importance of international business to the strategic agenda of u s ceos the growth of international business ib and concerns about the relevance of ib research indicate the need for managerial input on the topic a survey of 108 u s ceos reveals that ib issues are an important part of their strategic agenda four types of ib issues are identified which reveal that american ceos appear to be taking a proactive stance regarding the international arena the ceos were also found to hold diverse perceptions of ib issues the implications of these findings are discussed

managing international interdependence ceo characteristics in a resource based framework this study s basic argument is that the level of a firm s international interdependence influences the pattern of ceo characteristics ideal for enabling a ceo to contribute to firm performance in

international attention and multinational enterprise performance this study examines the performance consequences of international attention defined as the extent to which headquarters executives in the multinational enterprise mne invest time and effort in activities communications and discussions aimed at improving their understanding of the global marketplace using detailed questionnaire and archival data on 135 mnes our analysis revealed three significant findings first international attention can be operationalized as a meta construct that consists of three interrelated and reinforcing dimensions second international attention has a curvilinear inverted u shape relationship with mne performance third the performance benefits of international attention increase with three categories of moderating factors the international assignment experience of top executives the independence of value adding activities across country locations and the degree of industry dynamism

ceo international experience effects on strategic change and firm performance despite the growing importance of ceos international experience ie we have yet to gain sufficient insights into its conceptualization and effect on firm outcomes based on prior research and work experience models we suggest a new framework for measuring ie including three components length of time number of countries and cultural distance along with their interactions drawing upon social and cognitive learning theories we explore the impact of ceos ie on two outcomes strategic change and firm performance we argue that ie components affect the two outcomes by enhancing executives international knowledge and general competencies while international knowledge may affect firm performance directly general competencies may affect firm performance both directly and indirectly through strategic change using a sample of 387 new ceos we found that time abroad had a positive effect on strategic change and firm performance while number of countries and cultural distance positively moderated these relationships additionally we also found that these components affected firm performance both directly and mediated through strategic change our findings have important theoretical implications for the conceptualization and impact of ceos ie and practical implications for executive development and promotion

international experience in the executive suite the path to prosperity attention is increasingly focused on the potential individual career and firm level benefits of international experience for upper level executives this research examines the relationships between ceo international experience ceo tenure firm internationalization succession events and corporate financial performance results indicate a significant interactive effect between ceo tenure and outside succession on ceo international experience in addition to a relationship with ceo international experience there are two additional interactive effects in the examination of corporate financial performance 1 ceo international experience and the degree of firm internationalization and 2 ceo international experience and ceo succession these interactive effects are evident in accounting and market indicators of corporate financial performance copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

nonlinear influences of stressors on general adjustment the case of japanese expatriates and their spouses integrating research on parental demands learning and expatriate adjustment we examine potential nonlinear influences of two stressors parental demands and perceived culture novelty on general adjustment of expatriates and their spouses using a sample of 170 matched pairs of japanese expatriates and spouses assigned to the us we found a quadratic effect of parental demands and a cubic effect of cultural novelty on spouse general adjustment but not on expatriate general adjustment implications and directions for future research are discussed

expatriate assignments and intra organizational career success implications for individuals and organizations anecdotal accounts and reports in the popular press often suggest that international assignments are critical for employees who seek to move up the career ladder more quickly nevertheless previous research on repatriation indicates that many former expatriates feel that their overseas assignments have harmed rather than helped their careers relatively little research though has sought to understand how expatriate assignments might be related to career success this paper then presents a conceptual model describing the relationship between expatriate assignments and intra organizational career success specifically theories of career mobility are used to develop a framework for outlining the factors likely to determine whether expatriate assignments help or hinder the advancement of employees who have worked as international assignees the model also indicates that repatriate career success influences an organization s ability to retain its current repatriates and recruit future expatriates some implications of this research and directions for future research are discussed as well

dual career expatriates expectations adjustment and satisfaction with international relocation dual career expatriate couples present a challenging set of problems for international human resource managers the results of a survey of husbands and wives in expatriate dual career couples are analyzed relative to 1 differences between the expatriates and their trailing spouses 2 differences between male and female led dual career couples 3 differences between dual career couples opinions prior to expatriation and upon repatriation the results of the study indicate dual career couples have relatively consistent concerns and expectations prior to expatriation and upon repatriation to their home country the significant differences observed were between male led dual career couples prior to expatriation when compared to male led dual career couples upon repatriation in addition the dual career expatriate respondents did not feel the mnc that transferred them overseas provided adequate training or social support during the international assignment

the impact of journals and authors on international business research a citational analysis of jibs articles in this paper we use citational analysis to examine the influence of individuals and disciplines on international business research we collected citational data over the ten year period 1984 to 1993 from every issue of the journal of international business studies we found that management economics marketing and finance disciplines have had significant influence on international business research and identified researchers such as dunning porter vernon casson rugman and hofstede as having made significant contributions to international business research

empirical evidence of recurring international compensation problems the expansion of international business necessitates an increased number of employees based in foreign markets these expatriates nationals and third country nationals represent unique and complex compensation problems this article addresses five of the recurring compensation problems reported by members of the society for human resource management international shrmi in a recent survey

measuring the degree of internationalization of a firm in spite of both positivistic and instrumental research the reliability of measuring the degree of internationalization of a firm remains speculative we collected data on nine attributes of seventy four american manufacturing mncs alpha factor and frequency analyses revealed a linear combination of five variables with a reliability coefficient of 79 as a measure of the degree of internationalization of a firm we discuss the statistical and conceptual properties of the scale and their implications for content and construct validity

the determinants of household saving in china a dynamic panel analysis of provincial data in this paper we conduct a dynamic panel analysis of the determinants of the household saving rate in china using a life cycle model and panel data on chinese provinces for the 1995 2004 period from china s household survey we find that china s household saving rate has been high and rising and that the main determinants of variations over time and over space therein are the lagged saving rate the income growth rate in many cases the real interest rate and in some cases the inflation rate however we find that the variables relating to the age structure of the population have the expected impact on the household saving rate in only one of the four samples these results provide mixed support for the life cycle hypothesis as well as the permanent income hypothesis are consistent with the existence of inertia or persistence and imply that china s household saving rate will remain high for some time to come

the role of international assignees social capital in creating inter unit intellectual capital a cross level model we conceptualize international assignees as informational boundary spanners between multinational enterprise units and develop a cross level model that explores how assignees social capital translates into inter unit intellectual capital first as knowledge brokers assignees create inter unit intellectual capital by linking their home and host unit social capital thereby enabling cross unit access to previously unconnected knowledge resources second as knowledge transmitters assignees host unit social capital facilitates their creation of individual intellectual capital which in turn translates into inter unit intellectual capital we conclude that individual social capital needs to be explicitly transferred to the organizational level to have a sustained effect on inter unit intellectual capital

outside in global demand heterogeneity and dynamic capabilities of multinational enterprises we conceptualize the dynamic capabilities of multinational enterprises mnes as learning and adaptation capabilities that address the pressure of global integration and local responsiveness complementing the extant literature on dynamic capabilities which is focused on the supply side our study draws attention to the demand side influences especially in terms of global demand heterogeneity we propose that global demand heterogeneity provides pressures and opportunities for mnes to learn and adapt and thus positively relates to the development of mne dynamic capabilities however external sources per se may be insufficient firm specific advantages particularly human capital at the managerial and employee levels facilitate the internalization of external knowledge and pressure into the development of dynamic capabilities an empirical study of chinese multinational service firms strongly supports these arguments

an assessment of the measurement of performance in international business research a sizeable body of international business ib research is devoted to building knowledge about the determinants of organizational performance a key precursor to accurately diagnosing why some organizations succeed in the international marketplace while others struggle is operationalizing performance appropriately yet to date no systematic investigation has considered how well ib research measures performance we examine the measurement of performance in 96 articles published in the academy of management journal administrative science quarterly journal of marketing journal of marketing research journal of international business studies management science organization science a nd thestrategic management journal between 1995 and 2005 the findings reveal that most studies do not measure performance in a manner that captures the multifaceted nature of the construct we describe the implications of these results and offer suggestions for improving future practice journal of international business studies 2008 39 1064 1080

managing knowledge transfer in mncs the impact of headquarters control mechanisms in this paper we explore the impact of organisational mechanisms on inter unit knowledge flows in multinational corporations mncs a comprehensive model based on agency theory and socialisation theory is tested on a sample of 134 finnish and chinese mnc subsidiaries our findings indicate that mncs can influence inter unit knowledge transfer by specifying the objectives of the subsidiary and by utilising corporate socialisation mechanisms however we found no support for the hypothesised impact of management compensation systems and the use of expatriate managers on the extent of knowledge transfers from foreign subsidiaries to other parts of the mnc

managing the learning and transfer of global management competence antecedents and outcomes of japanese repatriation effectiveness this study examines predictors that lead to effective individual learning of global management competencies on expatriate assignments and the transfer i e the application of those competencies in new assignments upon repatriation a structural equation model based on data from 305 japanese repatriates identifies linkages from organizational support intercultural personality characteristics self adjustment and repatriation policies to outcomes of global competency learning and transfer which in turn lead to heightened job motivation and performance

why do international assignees stay an organizational embeddedness perspective we apply an organizational embeddedness perspective to examine international assignees retention with the organization specifically we hypothesize that assignees social ties within and their perceived fit with the host unit positively relate to two sacrifices on leaving the organization their firm specific learning during the assignment and their perceived career prospects in the organization perceived career prospects are expected to predict subsequent retention moderated by firm specific learning these hypotheses are tested using a sample of 143 inpatriates in 10 german multinationals with retention measured 2 and 4 years later we show that inpatriates trusting ties with hq staff and their fit with the hq positively relate to their firm specific learning and their perceived career prospects and that the latter predicts their retention 2 and 4 years later perceived career prospects mediate the direct relationship between inpatriates fit with the hq and inpatriate retention and the indirect relationship between inpatriates trusting ties with hq staff and their retention furthermore inpatriates firm specific learning mitigates the effect of perceived career prospects on retention decisions 2 years later we contribute to the organizational embeddedness careers and international business literatures by explaining when and how facets of organizational embeddedness relate to assignee retention

the gatekeeper s optimal fee structure when sellers can price discriminate abstract this article investigates a monopoly gatekeeper s optimal fee structure under the premise that sellers can charge two prices one price is for subscribers and the other is for non subscribers the gatekeeper s optimal fee structure attains the social optimal allocation

bank net worth asset prices and economic activity abstract a dynamic general equilibrium model is proposed to study the interactions between the banking sector asset prices and aggregate economic activity a durable asset serves as a productive input and as a collateral for loans the propagation mechanism of a negative productivity shock is enhanced and prolonged through the interaction of credit constraints and asset prices where the bank loan and the investment are squeezed by a higher bank capital asset ratio for lending and at the same time a stricter collateral requirement for borrowing the model explains why banking crises often coincide with depression in the asset markets the results also bear policy implications for the debates over regulatory bank capital adequacy and credit control policies

qualified immigrants success exploring the motivation to migrate and to integrate high quality employees with international experience bring valuable advantages to internationally operating organizations the growing number and importance of immigrants and particularly qualified university educated immigrants deserves more attention from international business practitioners and scholars the market for highly qualified people within mncs is increasingly becoming international and ever more of them have migrated to a new country to advance their career such employees can be a source of competitive advantage for international firms we use qualitative research with qualified immigrants qis in france to argue that the success of qis depends in large part on their motivation to integrate into their host country which is largely explained by their motivation to migrate from the qualitative data we derive four different types of qualified migrant and suggest that the type will determine the success of the immigrant within and outside the organization the relationship between the motivation to migrate and the motivation to integrate is moderated by met expectations and organizational integration policies such that the effects of these in turn vary with type recognition of the types of qi and the moderating factors will be valuable for practitioners as well as opening up research avenues for scholars

when yankee comes home factors related to expatriate and spouse repatriation adjustment this study examined anticipatory and in country individual job organizational and non work variables and their relationship with work interaction and general repatriation adjustment for u s managers the study also examined anticipatory and in country individual and non work variables and their relationship with interaction and general repatriation adjustment for the spouses of the managers who were married age total time overseas social status and housing conditions were generally related to all facets of repatriation adjustment for both expatriates and spouses practical and research implications are explored

revisiting repatriation concerns organizational support versus career and contextual influences this paper reviews and integrates two perspectives on repatriate retention a traditional one which suggests that the main determinant of repatriate retention is the availability of repatriation support programs and an emerging one which focuses on individual career activism in a changing employment context results of a study of 133 expatriates from 14 mncs indicate that both views contribute to our understanding of repatriate retention building on the results of our study we put forward a framework to guide future research

understanding the retirement consumption puzzle through the lens of food consumption fuzzy regression discontinuity evidence from urban china abstract this paper provides an understanding of the widely documented retirement consumption puzzle from the perspective of food consumption exploiting the mandatory retirement age cut off for public sector male employees in urban china to obtain a source of exogenous variation in their retirement status this paper identifies the causal impacts of retirement on four major aspects of their food consumption food expenditure time spent in food acquisition the quantity and quality of food consumed based on data from the china health and nutrition survey our fuzzy regression discontinuity analysis finds that consistent with the retirement consumption puzzle retirement reduces elderly males total food expenditure by 49 55 however retirement barely changes the quantity of food they consume measured by total calorie intakes further analysis suggests that elderly males substitute time for money in food acquisition upon retirement which helps to reconcile the differential impacts of retirement on food expenditure and food consumption finally retirement greatly changes elderly males diet structure they consume significantly less food with animal origins and thus less fat and protein and more grains and thus more carbohydrate upon retirement which undermines their diet balance by the standards provided by the chinese nutrition association

expatriation repatriation and domestic geographical relocation an empirical investigation of adjustment to new job assignments this research examines the relative impact of six sets of factors on multiple indices of adjustment to new job assignments these six sets of factors include demographic variables indices of the internationalness of the job change e g whether the job changer is an expatriate repatriate or domestic geographical relocator job characteristics variables types and amount of career development assistance degree of change between successive job assignments and types of individual coping strategies employed by job changers data were collected from 459 job changers from twenty six countries the results highlight both the commonalities among expatriates repatriates and domestic geographical relocators in adjusting to new job assignments as well as the differences among them

repatriation of corporate executives an empirical study the effective management of corporate executives returning from foreign assignments has received little attention from academic researchers this study is based on questionnaires completed by members of the american society of personnel administration international aspi the focus of the study was directed at problems that occurred in repatriating executives programs used by corporations to repatriate returning executives and examines why programs have not been instituted by multinational corporations

a simple model of advertising and subscription fees abstract traditional and modern mass media such as television newspapers magazines and internet sites typically derive the bulk of their revenues from advertisements rather than subscriptions we present a simple model that explains this phenomenon

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

international knowledge brokerage and returnees entrepreneurial decisions based on the knowledge brokerage literature and the international entrepreneurship literature we investigate whether returnees international knowledge transfer affects their entrepreneurial decisions and the extent to which this relationship is contingent on perceived supportive policies for returnee entrepreneurship and returnees difficulties with cross cultural readjustment in their home countries analyzing first hand survey data we find a positive relationship between international knowledge transfer and returnees decisions to become entrepreneurs this positive relationship is strengthened by the perception of the home country s supportive policies for returnee entrepreneurship but is weakened by returnees perceived difficulties in readjusting to the local norms and culture in their home countries

toward a theoretical framework of repatriation adjustment although the increased internationalization of business has brought greater scholarly attention to the issue of adjustment to overseas assignments comparatively little research activity has been paid to the topic of adjustment back to the home country and home office repatriation adjustment in this article we argue that repatriation adjustment is sufficiently different from other forms of work adjustment e g domestic relocation and expatriate assignments to warrant separate theoretical and empirical investigation to facilitate this we propose an initial theoretical framework and set of derived propositions to guide and spark future research on this topic

nationality cultural distance and expatriate status effects on the managerial network in a multinational enterprise we study the role of three characteristics of international managers nationality cultural distance and expatriate status for their network ties a network analysis of cross subsidiary interactions among 457 managers in an mne demonstrates that managers form strong expressive ties with peers with smaller cultural distance and from the same status group however managers form strong instrumental ties with peers who are different on these background characteristics the implications for international management theory and practice are discussed

information gatekeepers on the internet and the competitiveness of homogeneous product markets we examine the equilibrium interaction between a market for price information controlled by a gatekeeper and the homogenous product market it serves the gatekeeper charges fees to firms that advertise prices on its internet site and to consumers who access the list of advertised prices gatekeeper profits are maximized in an equilibrium where a the product market exhibits price dispersion b access fees are sufficiently low that all consumers subscribe c advertising fees exceed socially optimal levels thus inducing partial firm participation and d advertised prices are below unadvertised prices introducing the market for information has ambiguous social welfare effects

precautionary saving of chinese and u s households we employ a model of precautionary saving to study why household saving rates are high in china and low in the united states the use of recursive preferences gives a convenient decomposition of saving into precautionary and nonprecautionary components over 80 of china s saving rate and nearly all u s saving arises from the precautionary motive the difference between u s and chinese household income growth rates is vastly more important than income risk for explaining the saving rates the key mechanism is that precautionary savers have target wealth to income ratios and rapid income growth necessitates high saving rates to maintain the ratio