barriers to knowledge seeking within mnc teams which differences matter most do international or non international differences between members matter most for multinational corporation mnc teams we consider two types of international differences arising from geographic locations and national origins and two types of non international differences arising from structural affiliations and demographic attributes examining the barriers to knowledge seeking between mnc team members we argue that whether international or non international differences create greater barriers depends on whether they are position based or person based using the social relations model to analyze 13 616 dyadic interactions among 2090 members of 289 teams in a large mnc we find that for both international and non international differences those that are position based i e geographic and structural differences created greater barriers than those that are person based i e nationality and demographic differences in addition familiarity from a prior team reduced the barriers created by international and non international differences that are position based more than those that are person based we discuss the implications of our study for understanding the micro foundations of knowledge flows in mncs

investigation into transmission options for cross border power trading in asean power grid this work is a feasibility study of high voltage ac hvac and high voltage dc hvdc transmission option for the association of southeast asian nations asean power grid apg interconnections an optimal power flow a minimum cost power generation model is developed in the matpower simulation platform to perform this analysis electricity generation and consumption data are taken from the latest power development plans of individual asean countries for the evaluation of optimal cross border power flow through the interconnections results show that apg can enhance power generation from countries with abundant renewable resources to meet the growing demand at load centers in the asean member nations an annual cost is used as the output matrix for this study the analysis results reveal that in some interconnections implementing hvdc link instead of currently planned hvac could be economically beneficial for the apg the findings in this paper would serve as valuable references for the apg planners

uncertainty risk and the financial crisis of 2008 the distinction between uncertainty and risk originally drawn by frank knight and john maynard keynes in the 1920s remains fundamentally important today in the presence of uncertainty market actors and economic policy makers substitute other methods of decision making for rational calculation specifically actors decisions are rooted in social conventions drawing from innovations in financial markets and deliberations among top american monetary authorities in the years before the 2008 crisis we show how economic actors and policy makers live in worlds of risk and uncertainty in that world social conventions deserve much greater attention than conventional ipe analyses accords them such conventions must be part of our toolkit as we seek to understand the preferences and strategies of economic and political actors

wage norms capital accumulation and unemployment a post keynesian view the paper presents a post keynesian view of unemployment it argues first that the effective labour demand need not be downward sloping with respect to real wages and aggregate demand need not be downward sloping with respect to inflation second that there is a broad case for unemployment hysteresis understood as endogeneity of the non accelerating inflation rate of unemployment nairu based on social norms in wage bargaining and on the supply side effects of capital accumulation and third that much as keynes argued capital investment rather than labour market institutions is the key variable to explain changes in aggregate unemployment performance across countries and over time overall the paper advocates a keynesian view of the nairu where effective demand determines unemployment in the short run and the deviation of actual unemployment from the nairu determines the change in inflation in the medium term the nairu is endogenous and follows actual unemployment copyright 2011 oxford university press

experiential knowledge and cost in the internationalization process using a behavioral approach this study identifies and delineates components of experiential knowledge in the internationalization process three hypotheses are developed and tested they center ar

foreign entry cultural barriers and learning this paper examines the longevity of foreign entries hypotheses are developed on the mode start ups vs acquisitions and ownership structure wholly owned vs joint ventures in relation to cultural distance the hypotheses are tested within a framework of organizational learning using data on 225 entries that 13 dutch firms carried out from 1966 onwards results show that the presence of cultural barriers punctuates an organization s learning cultural distance is a prominent factor in foreign entry whenever this involves another firm requiring the firm to engage in double layered acculturation we also identify locational paths of learning the longevity of acquisitions is positively influenced by prior entries of the firm in the same country similarly the longevity of foreign entries in which the firm has a majority stake improves whenever the expanding firm engaged in prior entries in the same country and in other countries in the same cultural block

the liability of foreignness in capital markets sources and remedies the accelerating pace of global capital market integration has provided new opportunities for firms to raise capital abroad through global debt issues cross listings and initial public offerings in foreign stock exchanges however existing empirical evidence suggests that foreign firms tend to be at a disadvantage compared with domestic firms and they often suffer from investors home bias the objective of this paper is to understand why firms are facing problems when accessing capital in foreign markets and possible mechanisms that can help to mitigate these problems it expands the liability of foreignness lof research beyond the product market domain to include liabilities faced by firms attempting to secure resources in foreign capital markets we identify key differences between product and capital markets related to information environment time structure of transactions and linkages between buyers and sellers we analyze institutional distance information asymmetry unfamiliarity and cultural differences as the main sources of capital market lof cmlof we suggest possible mechanisms that managers can employ to mitigate cmlof and overcome investors home bias bonding signaling organizational isomorphism and reputational endorsements we also outline directions for further theoretical and empirical development of the cmlof research

analysis of uncertainty as opposed to risk an experimental approach the paper illustrates the scope for enhancing the conceptual apparatus used by agricultural economists to analyse decision making under conditions of uncertainty selected empirical results from experiments on student subjects from three universities are reported three issues are considered first the reasons for choice and the understanding of a choice problem are examined second attitudes towards different levels of uncertainty are measured third the possibility that apparently non normative psychological factors influence choice is explored the paper serves to illustrate and support a number of methodological points the major points are that a risk uncertainty distinction is useful contrary to the aging conventional wisdom of economic theory that laboratory experiments can potentially provide data of use to agricultural economists and that predictive models of choice under uncertainty may be more accurate if they take account of psychological variables which influence the decision making processes of human subjects

the role of past performance in export ventures a short term reactive approach this paper employs organizational learning theory to examine the short term effect of past export performance and internal management and external market forces on marketing strategy adaptation and current export performance results from a survey of over 500 export managers indicate that current period performance improvement in terms of performance achievement export intensity and performance satisfaction in the current year is influenced by the firm s commitment to exporting further the authors found that while performance satisfaction feeds performance improvement in the following year both the previous year s export intensity and export performance achievement produce a negative impact on current period performance improvement more importantly the level of development in the export market facilitates marketing strategy adaptation in the short term as does export intensity in the previous year however satisfaction with previous year performance negatively influences the degree of distribution adaptation implications for international business researchers and practitioners are also discussed

organic interdependence uncertainty and economic analysis this paper examines the effect of john maynard keynes s organic view of interdependence on his treatment of induction probability and expectations it argues that while organic interdependence is compatible with rational induction and prediction in some circumstances as it must be if there is to be a foundation for economic analysis it is not normally compatible with the existence of a rational foundation for expectation of future yield from capital assets this is not destructive of economic analysis however because keynes assumes most agents respond irrationally and conventionally rather than rationally and capriciously to fundamental uncertainty copyright 1989 by royal economic society

local knowledge transfer and performance implications for alliance formation in asia foreign firms in host country environments frequently face location based disadvantages this study proposes three means channels of overcoming local knowledge disadvantages based on a sample of 558 japanese joint ventures jvs located in southeast and east asia we find that partnering with local firms the first channel can be a primary strategy for accessing local knowledge and improving jv performance jv experience in the host country the second channel also mitigates local knowledge disadvantages and leads to increased jv performance the third channel the foreign parent s host country experience leads to increased performance in the absence of a local partner however when a jv is formed with a local partner increased parent experience in the host country leads to decreased performance suggesting that the need for a local partner declines as parent experience in a host country increases

financialised internationalisation and structural hierarchies a mixed method study of exchange rate determination in emerging economies this paper conducts an extensive mixed method study of exchange rate determination in the brazilian foreign exchange market it combines semi structured interviews with foreign exchange market participants in brazil and london and advanced time series econometrics in line with post keynesian theory and critical realist ontology the interviews uncover the context specific expectations and underlying processes and structures that condition exchange rate dynamics in brazil and emerging economies more generally the results point to important structural changes in brazil s financial integration in the form of currency internationalisation and financialisation moreover they show that this internationalisation has been mediated through a structured and hierarchic international monetary system which fundamentally distinguishes exchange rate drivers in emerging economies from those in developed ones

ambiguity and uncertainty in ellsberg and shackle this paper argues that the similarities between ellsberg s and shackle s frameworks for discussing the limits of the probabilistic approach to decision theory are more important than usually admitted the paper discusses the grounds on which the ambiguity surrounding the decision maker in ellsberg s urn experiments can be deemed analogous to the uncertainty faced by shackle s entrepreneur taking crucial decisions the two authors insights are assessed and special attention is paid to the criteria for decision under uncertainty they put forward the paper establishes a link between ellsberg s and shackle s perspectives and the non additive probability approach of gilboa and schmeidler an approach that offers an alternative to standard probability calculus which can be of use to analyse both ambiguity and uncertainty the comparison between ellsberg and shackle draws on an interpretation of keynes s treatise on probability emphasising keynes s rejection of both well defined probability functions and maximisation as a guide to human conduct it is shown that keynes s viewpoint implies a reconsideration of the boundaries of probability theory that is in the same vein of ellsberg s and shackle s concern in the years of the consolidation of savage s new probabilistic mainstream copyright the author 2009 published by oxford university press on behalf of the cambridge political economy society all rights reserved oxford university press

g e moore and j m keynes a missing chapter in the history of the expected utility model in his posthumous essay my early beliefs john maynard keynes outlined his mental history in the dozen years before the war and asserted their importance to his later life yet despite keynes s assertion of the importance of this part of his mental history to who he was and what he did in 1938 the year the essay was written and two years after he published the general theory there is virtually no treatment in the history of economic thought of this period of his life or of its impact on his economic theory the purpose of this essay is to treat an episode of that period of his life which has particular analytical importance and to suggest some ways in which it might contribute to a clearer understanding of his later work in economics the episode in keynes s early life which the essay examines is his role in g e moore s changing opinion about the importance of rules in ethics in his classic principia ethica 1903 moore had originally asserted that obeying certain rules is a necessary part of ethically correct behavior but in his ethics 1912 he makes exactly the opposite argument saying that individuals are always justified in judging a case for themselves and are under no obligation to follow general rules of conduct in the parlance of modern philosophy moore switched from a rule utilitarian argument to an act utilitarian argument the first four sections of the essay detail the role which keynes played in moore s change of heart the final section discusses how the episode affects our understanding of keynes s work in economics

decarbonization scenarios for the eu and mena power system considering spatial distribution and short term dynamics of renewable generation we use the multi scale power system model limes eu to explore coordinated long term expansion pathways for renewable energy re generation long distance transmission and storage capacities for the power sector of the europe and middle east north africa mena regions that lead to a low emission power system we show that ambitious emission reduction targets can be achieved at moderate costs by a nearly complete switch to re sources until 2050 if transmission and storage capacities are expanded adequately limiting transmission capacities to current levels leads to higher storage requirements higher curtailments and to an increase in temporal and spatial electricity price variations results show an escalation of electricity prices if emission reductions exceed a critical value adequate expansion of transmission and storage capacities shift this threshold from 70 to 90 emission reductions in 2050 relative to 2010

is there redemption for conventions this article explores the concept of convention in the social sciences it presents the two major neo humean philosophical approaches to convention and challenges their intuitive appeal and research implications the weaknesses of these approaches are examined and a new direction is suggested for the study of convention the paper goes on to develop a framework for the analysis of conventions using the notion of the exemplar introduced by thomas kuhn an illustration of this alternative approach is provided using the example of the wage relation copyright 2005 oxford university press

renewable energy and policy options in an integrated asean electricity market quantitative assessments and policy implications abstract energy market integration emi in the asean region is a promising solution to relieve the current immobilization of its renewable energy resources and would serve the fast increasing demand for electricity in the region emi could be further extended with coordinated policies in carbon pricing renewable energy portfolio standards rps and feed in tariffs fit in the asean countries using a linear dynamic programming model this study quantitatively assesses the impacts of emi and the above mentioned policies on the development of renewable energy in the power generation sector of the region and the carbon emissions reduction achievable with these policies according to our results emi is expected to significantly promote the adoption of renewable energy along with emi fit appears to be more cost effective than rps and is recommended for the asean region albeit political barriers for policy coordination among the countries might be a practical concern in addition an rps of 30 electricity from renewable sources by 2030 which is considered politically a low hanging fruit would achieve moderate improvements in carbon emissions reductions and renewable energy development while incurring negligible increases in the total cost of electricity

determinants of cross national knowledge transfer and its effect on firm innovation this study examines the determinants of international knowledge flow from a resource based perspective it evaluates the impact of cross national knowledge transfer on firm innovative performance based on 56 027 us patents owned by 53 selected firms in the us based pharmaceutical industry the results suggest that innovative performance is a curvilinear function of the international knowledge content used by a firm to innovate as hypothesized it was found that at 1 low and moderate levels of international knowledge content a firm s strategy to transfer international knowledge improves its innovative performance and at 2 higher levels of international knowledge content there are diminishing marginal returns to transferring knowledge from overseas

the uncertain foundations of the welfare state abstract the welfare state is often portrayed as provider of insurance against uncertainties in knight s 1921 sense of the term which would be refused or underinsured on private markets this image conflicts with the standard economic model of risk exchange founded on the subjective interpretation of probability which predicts that all individual uncertainties will be insured by private markets our aim in this paper is to explain why this prediction fails and building on contributions to decision theory that take seriously the idea of knightian uncertainty to show why social insurance may be justified

the economic consequences of reduced uk military expenditure the last few years have seen a variety of proposals for uk disarmament for a re orientation of defence policy towards a less expensive non nuclear stance more commen surate with britain s present economic position in the world unfortunately these proposals become suddenly coy and tentative as they approach the economic implications of their programme in complete contrast to the detailed quantitative calculations they pro vide for other aspects the alternative defence commission 1983 and prins 1983 are typical examples of this the difficulties this lacuna creates are illustrated by the ordeal the labour party faced in the 1983 election campaign they advocated it appears a reduc tion of british defence expenditure which now accounts for just over 5 of gdp to about the european average of around 3 5 but they proved unable to counter the claim of the conservative defence secretary mr heseltine that this policy would cost 400 000 jobs 1 the hesitancy with which proponents of reductions in military expenditure approach the economic consequences is surprising given the near unanimity in the technical litera ture two major studies in the uk eiu 1963 and brown 1964 studies in the us leontief 1965 and a recent survey kennedy 1983 all indicate that disarmament represents an economic opportunity rather than an economic problem nonetheless the tenor of the recent policy literature suggests that it would be useful to provide a detailed assessment of the economic consequences of a reduction in uk military expenditure from 5 to 3 5 of gdp since the results obtained below are broadly in line with those of the studies cited above the contribution of this paper does not lie in the novelty of its conclusion rather it provides a detailed quantitative review of the economic issues cur rently involved in a transition to lower levels of military expenditure since there is a wide literature already available which provides arguments to suggest that such a transition could provide real security benefits the strategic aspects will only be mentioned in passing d smith 1980 and alternative defence commission 1983 provide detail on this

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 source of optimality in action it is well known that the nature of the information set and the axioms of rational choice are critical in determining the type of ranking on which agents are held to act in economic theory this paper argues that the concept of the optimising agent is also sensitive to the conception of the relation between a ranking of options facing an agent and concrete action what is termed the realisation process three conceptions of the realisation process are examined which are seen to lead to three quite distinct views on the role of agency the enabling conditions under which the concept of the optimising agent may be legitimately applied and the resulting domain of application of optimisation

organizational learning and diversification employing concepts of lateral and longitudinal learning we examined the dissolution of 462 expansions of dutch firms both acquisitions and new ventures we interpreted the endurance of an expansi

codetermination and the modern theory of the firm a property rights analysis during the postwar period state sponsored codetermination programs have become increasingly important and by now are firmly established in most countries of western europe conventional wisdom suggests that this growth of reform legislation is part of a broad social movement designed to advance industrial democracy and enlarge the power of labor to influence corporate policy certainly there is no doubt that significant institutional change has taken place but since reorganization has been motivated more by political considerations than by any fundamental rethinking of the theory of the firm questions still exist concerning the effects the new system may have on economic behavior there are in fact serious doubts about the efficiency of mandatory codetermination various writers have suggested that the type of codetermination legislation found in europe may force firms to adopt organizational structure that would not be selected voluntarily by wealthwhen workers finance firm specific investments they supply one part of the total capital stock needed by the firm for production it is arguable then that worker investors should be regarded as equity holders and be granted control and income rights in the enterprise this article seeks to explain the property rights structure that such a codetermined firm must possess to be efficient and to determine the conditions under which this organizational form is likely to emerge under a voluntary contracting process compared to a legally mandated codetermined firm of the european type the voluntary variant shows clear superiority specifically it tends to promote productivity enhancing incentives relatively lower transaction costs and a more rational allocation of risk special thanks go to armen alchian who has provided encouragement advice and key ideas concerning the nature of the firm the article was written during my residence at the center for the study of the new institutional economics university of the saarland west germany 1985 financial assistance was received from the deutsche forschungsgemeinschaft and is gratefully acknowledged

infrastructure investments for power trade and transmission in asean 2 costs benefits long term contracts and prioritized developments abstract this study establishes a systemic approach in assessing the feasibility of power infrastructure investment for gms and apg in the asean 2 asean plus china and india region it aims to identify the financial and finance related institutional barriers of implementing such a regional power interconnection a whole system simulation model is built to assess the financial viability as well as commercial viability which imply bankability for financiers and profitability for investors respectively of new transmission projects under the optimized pattern of power trade it also determines the optimized planning of new transmission capacities according to our results the existing development plan of power transmission infrastructure in the region so called apg appears to stand as a financially and commercially viable plan however there is room for improvement in the planning in terms of timing routes and capacity of the cross border transmission lines and the gms related projects should be prioritized

keynes s critiques of moore philosophical foundations of keynes s economics this paper analyzes three of john maynard keynes s unpublished apostles papers ethics in relation to conduct miscellanea ethica and egoism and the philosophical discussion in the first chapters of the treatise on probability it argues that keynes s philosophical development before and in the treatise can be understood as an effort to make sense of the concept of intuition specifically it is argued that keynes abandoned a two fold view of intuition in the early papers for a two tier epistimology of acquaintance and knowledge in the treatise only to return to the two fold view later in the general theory copyright 1991 by oxford university press

behind methodological individualism methodological individualism has become a more fashionable slogan for economistsin recent years in specific terms we are being urged to accept a doctrine within whichall explanations of social phenomena have to be couched in terms of statements aboutindividuals however the term has a wide and sometimes ambiguous usage and is beingemployed as a packaging for all kinds of methodological and theoretical prescriptions forexample it has been regarded as a commandment that thou shalt where possible placemacroeconomic statements on firm microeconomic foundations e g blaug 1980 or aninjunction against reckless aggregation particularly in regard to welfare criteria orsocial welfare functions e g kirzner 1980 littlechild 1978 or as an inspiration forrecent theoretical developments in economics with pro market policy conclusions e g furubotn and pejovich 1974 one of the further problems in discussing this topic is that often the term methodo logical individualism carries an ideological charge indeed by both advocates and itsopponents it is too frequently confused with individualism of a political variety however the connection between political and methodological individualism is merely assumed bythese supporters or critics or supported by cursory argument it is never demonstratedwith any rigour although there is a lack of uniformity in the use of the label it is argued here that the keyelement in the classic statements of methodological individualism is a refusal to examinethe institutional or other forces which are involved in the moulding of individual pref erences and purposes we are thus confronted with a remarkable optimism about thepossibility of explanation of social phenomena in terms of individuals but an extremereluctance to give even partial explanations of individual behaviour in social or evenpsychological terms this refusal is both dogmatic and as will be argued below unaccept able on analytical grounds this reduction of explanation and thereby causality solely to individuals has a furtherimplication the explanation of social phenomena proceeds even by a circuitous route

customer involvement and service firm internationalization performance an integrative framework to overcome the costs of doing business abroad researchers have suggested either legitimacy or efficiency based solutions however both types of solutions still treat host country customers as external to the theory we highlight the role of customers in the international professional business service setting and argue that customer involvement is positively related to the perceived internationalization performance of multinational corporations mncs mncs with managers who perceive higher legitimacy pressures and greater needs for local knowledge tend to undertake greater efforts to build customer involvement furthermore we develop a configuration framework between perceived strategic needs and mncs capabilities specifically mncs that match relational capability with legitimacy needs and absorptive capacity with knowledge needs are more likely to engage in customer involvement our survey of 175 chinese mncs provides evidence that customer involvement is positively related to perceived internationalization performance when mncs relational capabilities are stronger the positive relationship between legitimacy pressure and customer involvement increases by contrast mncs with greater perceived market ambiguity improve customer involvement only when they have stronger absorptive capacity we conclude that mncs may simultaneously reduce legitimacy and efficiency costs through customer involvement after considering the fit between perceived environmental pressures and firm capabilities

diagnosing measurement equivalence in cross national research many researchers have pointed out that it is necessary to ensure measurement equivalence in cross national comparative research three aspects of measurement equivalence translation metric and calibration equivalence are necessary to establish the cross national reliability and validity of items used to measure theoretical constructs this paper discusses these issues and proposes two recently developed empirical techniques multiple group lisrel and optimal scaling for use in diagnosing cross national measurement equivalence these techniques are illustrated by reanalysis of a pioneering u s and japanese study the two techniques yield convergent results indicating measurement equivalence for some but not all ordinal level items under consideration the findings demonstrate that the proposed methods are useful diagnostic tools for exploring measurement equivalence several suggestions for reducing the likelihood of problems with measurement equivalence and a number of methods for dealing with items where lack of equivalence persists are also discussed

the microfoundations project in general equilibrium theory the author 1 argues that the long lived microfoundations project based on general equilibrium models has come to an end and 2 shows that non walrasian models intended to provide microfoundations for macroeconomics are inadequate the arguments are derived from the sonnenschein mantel debreu smd demonstration of the arbitrariness of aggregate excess demands in general equilibrium models of the walrasian arrow debreu mckenzie type the issues raised have significance for the proper method of modeling macroeconomic phenomena for instance the smd results have led a growing number of general equilibrium theorists to make assumptions concerning macroeconomic structure in order to analyze other regularities at the macro level these points validate the position that systematic macroeconomic phenomena are intrinsically macroeconomic copyright 1994 by oxford university press

the division of labor need not imply regional specialization the regional specialization of economic activities is generally deemed desirable for three reasons 1 the law of comparative advantage 2 localized economies of scale and 3 knowledge spillovers taking a methodological individualist perspective we claim that 1 the law of comparative advantage while valid for individuals and firms does not necessarily imply regional specialization when regions are viewed as consisting of heterogeneous individuals 2 localized economies of scale are seldom specific to one industry and external in all but the regional level and 3 the study of knowledge spillovers is inconclusive and would benefit from a more disaggregated perspective

national capital city location and subsidiary portfolio expansion the negative effect of geographic distance to the capital city at inception on the speed of subsequent investments a multinational enterprise develops its subsidiary portfolio by investing in new foreign markets and subsequently pursuing further investments within these host countries we find that firms which locate their first equity investment closer to the national capital city can subsequently expand their subsidiary portfolio within the host country at a higher speed this effect is particularly strong in emerging economies further analyses of various contingencies support the robustness of our findings we discuss different theoretical mechanisms which could cause these effects in particular face to face interactions with governmental actors and opportunities to develop political connections our research contributes to the literature on internationalization processes by analyzing how the initial location choice affects the development of the subsidiary portfolio

how firms grow clustering as a dynamic model of internationalization this paper provides a methodology for identifying the dynamics of international firm expansion demonstrating systematic evidence of both toe in the water and concentrated bursts of internationalization by us multinational enterprises we use the methodology of statistical process control to analyze initial investments in host countries and develop a numerical measure of temporal clustering or bunching using this measure we identify two distinct patterns of growth whereas some firms cluster their investments over time others do not cluster their investments for firms that cluster three types of clustering strategy are identified concentrating hibernating and hybrid arguments based on internal firm architecture experience and learning are advanced to explain these findings

das maynard keynes problem one of the classic questions in the history of ideas first arose one hundred years ago in germany reading adam smith s two great works the theory of moral sentiments and the wealth of nations late 19th century german economists were struck by an apparent puzzle how could the theorist who made sympathy the mainspring of human action in the first book argue in the second that calculating self interest was the primary motive force thus arose das adam smith problem how could one reconcile the advocate of sympathy with the advocate of self interest the history of the attempts to answer this question is instructive in many ways it is instructive in part as a lesson in the fertility of the history of economic thought as a source of ideas a o hirschman is an outstanding example of an original and creative theorist who has come to fresh insights on the basis of his research on the question see hirschman 1977 1986 the history is also instructive in pointing out the indeterminate nature of the solution to the problem despite the stature of the scholars who have worked in the field and the high quality of their work one must ultimately accept that we shall never know the true answer to the question smith left few papers and the context of his thought is itself a puzzle for us careful reconstruction of the unfolding social cultural and philosophical worlds that smith inhabited would certainly be hallmarks of any acceptable answer to the question but authorities on each of these background areas themselves disagree about what was happening in the worlds in which smith lived reasonable persons must agree to disagree about the answer to the question

deficient foresight a troublesome theme in keynesian economics the fact that john maynard keynes had made a distinguished contribution to the theory of probability 1921 no doubt predisposed many of his readers to imbue with great significance his subsequent remarks on the related topic of uncertainty in economic decision making among those who have provided commentaries on his work there are those who have singled out this uncertainty theme not only for its special importance but also for its potential for analytical subversion the purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the ideas involved in this particular aspect of keynes work together with the lines of argument that have emerged from those commentators who have pursued it the result of this scrutiny will be to call into question the idea that there is anything peculiarly subversive in the analytical consequences of broaching problems of uncertainty in economic decision making i shall argue rather that as an analytical issue it is depending on how it is handled either innocuous or else quite indiscriminately destructive

is the firm an individual this paper shows how three new institutionalist theories try but ultimately fail to support the firm as individual thesis first marx hart s idea of property rights and coase williamson s notion of transaction costs are insufficient to substantiate the market firm dichotomy second hayek s constructionist view presents the firm as opposed to the market as a designed order no different from artifacts such as tables and cars third vanberg s constitutionalist theory also fails to support the firm as individual thesis the paper suggests that the consented goal notion is a fruitful ground upon which to build the firm as individual thesis

internal capital market controls and financial performance in multidivisional firms it is proposed that within the population of m form firms the control systems necessary to realize economic benefits from interrelationships between subunits o f a firm are incompatible with the systems necessary to realize benef its from an m form type internal capital market this hypothesis is t ested on 156 large u k firms questionnaire data are used to classif y the firms according to their internal control characteristics the findings provide tentative support for the hypothesis copyright 1988 by blackwell publishing ltd

comprehensive measurement of energy market integration in east asia an application of dynamic principal component analysis abstract the energy market integration emi in east asia has been carried out for over a decade despite the efforts exerted by countries in the region little has been known about the emi progress this paper innovatively applies the dynamic principal component analysis to measure the emi and its evolution in east asia between 1995 and 2011 the emi is measured by using information from all the five dimensions that have been identified in the literature 1 energy trade liberalisation 2 investment liberalisation 3 development of energy infrastructure and its associated institutional arrangements 4 domestic market openness and 5 energy pricing reform results show that although significant progress has been made for emi in east asia there are significant cross country disparities in different aspects moreover we show that further efforts towards emi in general should focus on liberalising national markets first then phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and finally liberalising investment regime since national market liberalisation is the least developed dimensions certain countries that lag behind in emi need to learn from either their past experiences or from other nations and focus their efforts on their relatively weak dimensions

a technical definition of uncertainty and the long run non neutrality of money ever since knight s 1921 seminal work some economists have drawn a distinction between uncertainty and risk in order to demonstrate that this difference has important implications for understanding the operations of an entrepreneurial economy lawson 1985 is the latest to discuss the need for the analysis of societal interaction 1 in an economic world where uncertainty as opposed to mathematical risk is a pervasive fact of life p 909 lawson correctly associates the concept of uncertainty with the situation where there is no basis whatever upon which to form any calculable probability uncertainty in this account arises when the probability relation is numerically indeterminate and non comparable to other probability relations 1985 p 914

experiential knowledge and costs in the internationalization process using a behavioral approach this study identifies and delineates components of experiential knowledge in the internationalization process three hypotheses are developed and tested they center around the lack of knowledge in the areas of foreign business foreign institutions and firm internationalization as well as the effect that this lack of knowledge has on managers perceived cost in the internationalization process with the help of a lisrel based structural model the three hypotheses are tested on a sample of 362 service firms the analysis shows that lack of internationalization knowledge has a strong impact on the lack of both business and institutionalization but there is no direct effect of lack of internationalization knowledge on perceived cost of internationalization

beyond rational expectations a constructive interpretation of keynes s analysis of behaviour under uncertainty this paper suggests that behavior under uncertainty depends not only on rational expectations but also the agent s evaluation of the adequacy of the available evidence on which the expectations are based it is argued that behavioral functions need to be augmented by a credence variable this proposition is derived from keynes s argument in the general theory that investment depends on both the most probable forecast and the state of confidence reflecting the distinction between probability and weight in his a treatise on probability the research implications of the proposed model are indicated copyright 1994 by royal economic society

measurement issues in cross national research substantive inference from cross national studies have important implications for theory e g because they reveal insights into generalizability and boundary conditions and managerial practice e g because they offer guidelines to mnc managers however few empirical studies attend to measurement issues involved in cross national research and still fewer recognize the risk of inferential errors that are likely to occur by overlooking measurement issues we discuss four measurement issues namely 1 standardized versus unstandardized coefficients 2 the impact of measurement error and unequal reliability 3 the overall error rate and simultaneous analysis and 4 construct equivalence using illustrate examples we demonstrate the nature of each of these problems the likely impact they can have on substantive conclusions and approaches for tackling these problems additionally we reanalyze a recently published three nation study by dubinsky michaels kotabe lim and moon 1992 to clarify these measurement concerns highlight a methodological approach and delineate the extent and severity of inferential errors our reanalysis shows that the interactive effects of these measurement issues are pervasive complex and unpredictable we close with implications for cross national research in general

adaptive learning in international business building on daniel levinthal s seminal theories on learning adaptation and innovation this article elucidates an adaptive view of organizational learning undertaken by multinational enterprises mnes levinthal s perspectives have tremendous implications for theorizing and examining processes pathways and mechanisms of dynamic learning for mnes competing in a complex environment this article extends these perspectives considering unique organizational traits and environmental characteristics facing mnes for a more nuanced understanding of contexts in which adaptive learning creates global competitive advantage discussion also includes levinthal s perspectives that are not yet adequately extended to but valuable for ib research such as learning mindfulness cognitive search organizational architecture for adaptation and co evolution with technological change we offer additional research questions as well as possible solutions to adaptive learning for international business

some remarks on uncertainty and economic analysis in an important paper lawson i 985 a discusses the conditions under which it is possible to carry out a coherent economic analysis of a system which is subject to fundamental uncertainty as opposed to mathematical risk the issue is crucial for although the fact of uncertainty can hardly be denied it seems to have been extraordinarily difficult to take this into account in formal economic theory it remains in coddington s i982 phrase a troublesome theme since the subject of uncertainty was broached by keynes and by knight in the interwar period the response by economists has fallen into two main categories those whose major interest has been pushing on with the technical analysis have simply ignored it apparently on operational grounds for example a remarkably frank modern statement of the position is to be found in lucas i98i as quoted by lawson i985a p gog on the other hand those economists who have wished to emphasise uncertainty notably shackle and the post keynesians have been rightly or wrongly accused of analytical nihilism coddington i983 p 6i and have certainly not yet provided an alternative theoretical framework which would be persuasive to the majority of the profession against this background lawson seeks to establish the view as he puts it i 985 a p 9 i o that economic analysis can be constructive whilst admitting that we know less about the future than is typically assumed lawson begins his discussion with a re examination of j m keynes early work on probability theory in the treatise on probability i973 b and on the perceived links 1 985 a p 914 between the treatise and keynes later treatment of uncertainty in the context of economics i973a pp 147 64 1973 d pp 109 23 1 given keynes seminal contributions to the literature we would agree that this focus is appropriate but we wish to argue in the present note that the discussion can be usefully extended by consideration of certain issues raised by keynes which are not emphasised in lawson s treatment particularly important in this context is the position which keynes reached on the basic difference in subject matter between the natural sciences and the so called moral sciences and hence on the appropriateness of what he had described in the treatise i973b pp 276 8 as the atomic and organic assumptions as applied to each this is an issue which has attracted the

the new keynesian view of aggregate demand some reflections from a classical sraffian standpoint the paper argues that the derivation of the aggregate demand curve in the new keynesian literature is insufficient to provide the theoretical ground for the use to which it is usually put namely as a theoretical basis for the claim that long run wage and price flexibility would push a capitalist economy to the full employment or natural level of output it is argued that the derivation solely on the basis of the propositions about optimising household consumption expenditures is insufficient to guarantee a decreasing aggregate demand function without circular reasoning this point is clarified by use of a very simple two commodity production model of long run steady states due to spaventa and nell to guarantee a decreasing aggregate demand function the new keynesian approach must invoke the kinds of propositions used in more traditional derivations propositions which themselves are in question on capital theoretic grounds

organizational learning about new international markets exploring the internal transfer of local market knowledge this study examines the transfer of local market knowledge within the diversified firm as its divisions expand into a new host country within the u s based corporations in our sample both the nature of local market knowledge itself and differences in organizational structures significantly influence the extent of internal knowledge transfer among divisions the results suggest that as firms expand into new international markets their organizational learning processes differ significantly