Foreign-owned companies in the U.S.: malign or benign?

Investments, Foreign - United States

Value of intangibles arising from R&D activities

This paper develops an empirical approach using econometric techniques for panel data which aims to contribute to the reduction/elimination of the deviation between the book and market value of firms. Based on 20 of the firms with the largest number of patents granted between 1996 and 2006, the results show that: (i) the increase in the return on equity following from an increase in the share of investment in R&D is greater in the long run; (ii) there is a positive relationship between the results (and the value of firms) and R&D activities; (iii) by updating the additional periodical results generated by investment in R&D, the present value of the intangible asset can be determined.R&D, Financial information, Value of intangibles, Market value, Panel Data

Pension reform in small developing countries

The authors provide a framework in which small countries can assess the proper role for the state and the private sector in pension policy. Based on industrial organization theory and pension economics, this framework draws on experience in small countries. The authors identify how optimal pension policies can change in small countries (those with fewer than 1 million active contributors to pension funds), explore optimal pension reform design for small countries, and incorporate other stylized assumptions about small countries into the discussion: the relatively greater international mobility of labor and capital, the greater scarcity of human capital specialized in financial supervision and tax administration, fewer independent interests, and higher political volatility and risk over long time horizons. They conclude that: 1) For small countries the Chilean model should be modified to include greater reliance on international trade in financial services -- especially services that benefit from economies of scale and scope, such as collections, account processing, and benefit payments. Such an approach would require a greater harmonization of accounting and regulatory standards between small developing countries and the countries from which financial services are imported. 2) The unbundling of pension services is more advantageous in small than in large countries. 3) The collection of contributions and the payment of benefits (which are subject to substantial economies of scale for small countries) should be mandatorily unbundled from other pension services. 4) Those services should be provided separately to ensure competition in the selection of trustees and competitive investment management services. This type of pension system design may be preferable to having a foreign firm provide all pension services. 5) When other assumptions (such as susceptibility to large gross migration flows) are combined with the assumption of a small-country base, mandatory pension systems or fiscal incentives are found to be less effective in small than in large countries. Large countries have broader contribution bases and much smaller gross migration flows, making them demographically more stable. 6) The relatively greater international migration in small countries makes full funding of pension systems even more important in small than in large countries.Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Public Sector Economics&Finance

Dynamic process modelling for business engineering and information systems evaluation

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This research is concerned with the pre-implementation evaluation of investments in Information Systems (IS). IS evaluation is important as organisations need to assess the financial justifiability of business change proposals that include (but usually are not limited to) the introduction of IS applications. More specifically, this research addresses the problem of benefits assessment within IS evaluation. We contend that benefits assessment should not be performed at the level of the IS application, as most extant evaluation methods advocate. Instead, to study the dynamics and the interactions of the IS applications with their surrounding environment, we propose to adopt the business process as the analytic lens of evaluation and to assess the impacts of IS on organisational, rather than on technical, performance indicators. Drawing on these propositions, this research investigates the potential of dynamic process modelling (via discrete-event simulation) as a facilitator of IS evaluation. We argue that, in order to be effective evaluation tools, business process models should be able to explicitly incorporate the effects of IS introduction on business performance, an issue that is found to be under-researched in previous literature. The above findings serve as the central theme for the development of a design theory of IS evaluation by simulation. The theory provides prescriptive elements that refer both to the design products of the evaluation and the design process by which these products can come into reality. The theory draws on a set of kernel theories from the business engineering domain and proposes a set of meta-requirements that should be satisfied by business process models, a meta-design structure that meets these requirements, and a design method that provides guidance in applying the theoretical propositions in practice. The design theory is developed and empirically tested by means of two real-life case studies. The first study is used to complement the findings of a literature review and to drive the development of the design theory's components, while the second study is employed to validate and further enhance the theory's propositions. The research results support the arguments for simulation-assisted IS evaluation and demonstrate the contribution of the design theory to the field

SOME ASPECTS REGARDING THE PERFORMANCE INDICATORS USED IN THE MANAGEMENT OF A COMPANY

To assess the economic performance of an enterprise four indicators are commonly used: return on investment, residual income, economic value added and profitability of sales. The performance analysis is a constituent of any managerial control system. Strategic planning and control decisions require information on how different subunits of the enterprise worked. To be efficient, performance indicators and remuneration have to motivate the managers and the employees from all enterprise levels and to make sustained efforts to implement strategies and to attain business objectives.performance, profitability, economic value added, investments

EVALUATING IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULES FOR INVESTMENTS IN STRATEGIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES: FRAMEWORK AND APPLICATION TO EDI

We develop a framework based on "project networks" and net present value analysis in order to help managers evaluate investments in infrastructural and strategic information systems that require significant amounts of time and money to implement. The framework, which we term "value networks", supports decomposition of investment projects into separate increments, offers a means to represent crucial dependencies that affect the creation of IT business value, and provides a basis for developing a measurement methodology which can be used from the planning through the implementation stages. This enables the user to identify the implications of choosing among different implementation schedules. We illustrate these ideas by examining how our framework can used to evaluate investments in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Cash Management Systems (CMS).Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Focus Issue on Legacy Information Systems and Business Process Change:On the Integrated Design and Evaluation of Business Processes and Information Systems

The role of information systems in influencing and enabling organisational design is widely acknowledged. Yet limited attention is paid to the theoretical legitimacy and conceptual basis of IS-enabled organisational change i.e., business engineering. In this paper we review business engineering\u27s reference disciplines critically: process-based organisational design, IS development, and IS evaluation. Findings from a case study of business engineering provide empirical support to the theoretical analysis. Synthesis of the conclusions of the review and the case study lead to a number of propositions and potential avenues for further research into the theoretically attractive and practically important field of aligning the design of organisational structures with the design of Information Systems intended to support them

Analyzing markets for electronic communications services in emerging economies - the case of Romania

Despite the rapid and complex development of the Romanian electronic communications markets after the full sector liberalization in 2003, local literature often evaluates the development of the Romanian markets in a simplistic manner, by solely comparing the penetration of electronic communication services in Romania with the penetration rates in other European Union countries. The widespread appeal of this assessment method is explained by the availability and accuracy of penetration data in the official statistics as well as by the traditional use of this method before liberalization. This paper argues that assessing the development of electronic communications markets solely by comparing penetration rates entails a number of deficiencies, especially when this method is used to compare emerging economies (such as Romania) against developed economies (such as mature EU 15 countries). In such cases the use of the penetration rates comparison method could lead the regulator into designing ineffecte competitive remedies and service providers into making ineffective strategic investments. Starting from this critical analysis, the paper proposes an alternative method for the evaluation of the development of electronic communications markets in emerging economies, using Romania as a case-study. The proposed method complements the penetration rates comparison by two additional qualitative criteria: intensity of competition, measured by the number of competitors and structure of market shares, and the consumer welfare generated by markets, measured by the indicators of service quality and price levels. In the case of Romania, the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative market indicators recommended by our method yields a different conclusion than the one obtained using the penetration comparison method. While the penetration comparison method labels the electronic communications markets in Romania as underdeveloped in comparison with mature European Union markets, the alternative method proposed by tis paper proves that in the last 7 years of competition, Romanian markets have largely recovered their extensive development handicap, while they are more advanced than most European Union mature markets in terms of competition quality and market dynamicsElectronic communications, penetration rates, service bundles, competitive markets, extensive market development, qualitative market development

China and the Evolution of the Present Climate Regime

The recent events that followed the US decision not to comply with the Kyoto Protocol seem to drastically undermine the effectiveness of the Protocol in controlling GHG emissions. Therefore, it is important to explore whether there are economic factors and policy strategies that might help the US to modify its current policy and move back to the Kyoto-Bonn agreement. For example, can an increased participation of developing countries induce the US to effectively participate in the effort to reduce GHG emissions? Is a single emission trading market the appropriate policy framework to increase participation in the Kyoto-Bonn agreement? This paper addresses the above questions by analysing whether the participation of China in the cooperative effort to control GHG emissions can provide adequate incentives for the US to move back to the Kyoto process and eventually ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This paper analyses three different climate regimes in which China could be involved and assesses the participation incentives for the major world countries and regions in these three regimes.Agreements, Climate, Incentives, Negotiations, Policy