Bonded to the State: A Network Perspective on China\u27s Corporate Debt Market

A corporate bond market is thought to play an important role as a supplement to bank-oriented financial systems in emerging markets – functioning in effect as a “spare tire.” Yet bond markets typically rely upon a formal institutional foundation that is often lacking in developing economies. China’s corporate bond market is huge, yet scholarly analysis of it is relatively scarce and some of its elements remain poorly understood. In this paper, we use a network perspective to explore the formation, operation and function of the Chinese corporate bond market. Our effort begins by unpacking the complexities of the market’s structure and formal regulation, which have been shaped by a surprising degree of regulatory competition among the three central government ministries overseeing the issuance and trading of corporate debt instruments. Next, we analyze China’s corporate bond market as a network of relationships – relationships that invariably lead back to the state – and explore the consequences of the state-centric network on the pricing, rating, and default of corporate bonds. The latter have been governed by informal norms protecting issuers from default, but these norms are under considerable stress. We label these norms TBTF (too big to fail); TCTF (too connected to fail), and TMTF (too many Chinese bondholders to fail) and illustrate their operation and limitations with recent examples. The paper concludes by highlighting some key policy issues raised by our analysis, including the consequences of regulatory competition, the potential role of the bankruptcy system in handling issuer financial distress, and the inter-linkages between the corporate bond market and China’s rapidly expanding shadow banking system. State centricity has helped the Chinese corporate bond market grow exponentially, from virtually nonexistent fifteen years ago to the third largest in the world today. But state centricity has resulted in an institutionally fragile market. Several consequences of the market’s development along this path, such as concentration of risk in state-linked financial intermediaries, expansion of credit to local state-owned enterprises, growth in the shadow banking system, and the informal resolution of bond defaults, may undermine the spare tire function. The Chinese corporate bond market thus well illustrates both the accomplishments and the limitations of state capitalism

Network resources and services as means of information and communication between subjects of educational activity of higher educational institution

In an article on the basis of the thorough analysis of the psychological, pedagogical and methodological scientific sources, the basic definition investigated problem and the peculiarities of the structure and use of cloud-oriented information and analytical network tools, including administrative, corporate, educational, university website to perform scientific, educational and international activities of the university. The expediency and the ability to use network resources and cloud services as a means of information and communication interaction of educational activity of higher education. Determined that the official websites related to open web-based corporate information systems that operate in scientific institutions and universities. Outlined the educational function of the university website as an important tool to guide students in information and educational space. The basic requirements for the substantive content of the educational website developed eligibility criteria website usability standards for its content including: evaluation criteria interface; criteria for assessing the business logic; evaluation criteria information; evaluation criteria navigation; evaluation criteria homepage. Investigated the importance of creating their own educational websites for higher education institutions that reflect the level of information and communications interaction of learning activities and play a significant role in the development of open educational content and scientific environment of the University. The development of educational and scientific environment of higher educational institutions using cloud-oriented services, network resources, enables the combination of science and practice, integrating the process of training and scientific research, improved results and the level of organization of scientific, educational and international activities, and is defining trend of scientific and educational information networks and systems of open education and science

Nature and determinants of productivity growth of foreign subsidiaries in Central and East European countries

The paper examines the determinants of productivity growth in foreign manufacturing subsidiaries in five Central and East European (CEE) countries by analysing patterns of control, nature of firms' capabilities and firms' market orientation. Building on the so called 'developmental subsidiaries' perspective we show that productivity growth is determined jointly by corporate governance, production capability and market orientation variables. CEE subsidiaries have relatively strong autonomy over control of their business functions, but within a dominantly production oriented mandate. Majority foreign equity share has a significant and positive impact on subsidiaries' productivity growth. These results present very strong regional characteristic

Strategic Communication and the Stakeholder Concept: Merging Marketing Communication and PR

Corporate communication is a strategic endeavour of two major directions; market and non-market communication. Within this differentiation, marketing and communication/Public Relations usually operate separately with a major focus on stakeholder communication since scholars’ research provides evidence for its sustainable advantage. But with regard to different stakeholders’ requirements, the differentiation between market and non-market-related communication has diminished and a number of objectives have become both disciplines’ targets. This paper suggests an extension for the notion communication and introduces a strategic model merging both disciplines under the new function of Strategic Communication. Key Words: Corporate communication, strategic communication, stakeholder concept, unitary perception

Agglomeration Economies and Heterogeneity within Young Innovative Companies

This paper fits into a new trend in empirical studies on agglomeration economies paying explicit attention to heterogeneity within innovative companies. The paper represents micro-level research, and is based on 21 in-depth case studies in a selected sample of young, innovative companies in the Netherlands. The selection criteria for sampling are derived from resource-based theory, e.g. age, size, corporate position, engaged in services or manufacturing industry. The selected sectors include mechatronics, biotechnology, ICT services and engineering services. In an attempt to identify causal factors and to identify different clusters of companies, we make use of rough set analysis, a method that typically fits small samples and qualitative data. Our research focuses on the importance perceived by company managers of a range of agglomeration advantages for the functioning of the company and on the perceived space in which the company could function satisfactorily. Based on our empirical explorations and given the theoretical positions of the selected case-studies, we arrive at the following findings (1) there is a divide of young, innovative companies into two, namely those facing a high level of importance (in large cities), and those facing a limited importance. In addition, network-based companies that outsource most of their activities to other companies may be facing no importance at all, potentially representing a third category; (2) the strongest factor influencing importance of agglomeration economies is corporate position, e.g. being a corporate spin-off or subsidiary (or not); (3) the spatial influence of agglomeration advantages tends to be broader than large cities only, but there are differences between the individual advantages, e.g. those working in a larger area of central cities, suburban places and medium-sized cities at larger distances, and those exclusively working in large cities or the largest city. Examples of the latter are a pool of young, internationally oriented labour force and direct access to the most advanced telecommunication infrastructure and services. The paper discusses the research design and the empirical outcomes and proposes various new hypotheses to be tested in large scale research.

Middleware for managing a large, heterogeneous programmable network

The links between BTexact Technologies and the Department of Computing Science at University College London are becomingincreasingly beneficial for the development of the middleware area for the management of programmable networks. This paperdescribes the work that has been done to date, and outlines the plans for future research