International Competitive Strategy Choices: Comparing Firms in China and India

The international business literature has yet to adequately explore international competitive strategy choices made by firms in developing countries. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the types of international competitive strategies followed by Chinese and Indian firms. Using firm-level primary data, the study analyzes factors that affect strategy choices and whether these factors differ between the two countries. The empirical results indicate that besides cost leadership strategies, firms have already developed international differentiation strategies and strategies combining cost and differentiation advantages (hybrid strategies). This confirms that firms from China and India are moving to international markets not only because of their low cost advantage but also because they are upgrading their capabilities to compete in the global market. The study highlights the fact that firms’ resources and capabilities influence firms’ propensity to choose a specific international competitive strategy and that the strategies can also differ in relation to the destination market. In general, the pursuit of well-articulated international competitive strategies (in particular differentiation strategy) is more common among Indian firms than among Chinese firms.

Believed belief: science/religion versus Sukuma magic

status: publishe

On the Edge: The Role of Food-based Safety Nets in Helping Vulnerable Households Manage Food Insecurity

social protection, food based safety nets, vulnerability, food insecurity

Endogenous Systemic Liquidity Risk

Traditionally, aggregate liquidity shocks are modelled as exogenous events. Extending our previous work (Cao & Illing, 2008), this paper analyses the adequate policy response to endogenous systemic liquidity risk. We analyse the feedback between lender of last resort policy and incentives of private banks, determining the aggregate amount of liquidity available. We show that imposing minimum liquidity standards for banks ex ante are a crucial requirement for sensible lender of last resort policy. In addition, we analyse the impact of equity requirements and narrow banking, in the sense that banks are required to hold sufficient liquid funds so as to pay out in all contingencies. We show that both policies are strictly inferior to imposing minimum liquidity standards ex ante combined with lender of last resort policy.liquidity risk, free-riding, narrow banking, lender of last resort

Revisiting the scientometric conceptualization of impact and its measurement

The development of scientometric indicators and methods for evaluative purposes, requires a multitude of assumptions, conventions, limitations, and caveats. Given this, we cannot permit ambiguities in the key concepts forming the basis of scientometric science itself, or research assessment exercises would rest on quicksand. This conceptual work attempts to spell out some principles leading to a clear definition of "impact" of research, and above all, of the appropriate scientometric indicator to measure it. The aim is to stimulate a discussion aimed at a definitive convergence on the meaning and measurement of a fundamental concept of the scientometric science

One decade of inflation targeting in the world : What do we know and what do we need to know?

One decade of inflation targeting in the world offers lessons on the design and implementation of inflation targeting, the conduct of monetary policy, and country performance under inflation targeting. This paper reviews briefly the main design features of 18 inflation targeting experiences, analyzes statistically if countries under inflation targeting are structurally different from non-inflation targeting industrial countries, and reviews existing evidence about the success of inflation targeting. The interaction of inflation targeting design features and the conduct of monetary policy during transition to low inflation are tackled next. The paper ends by focusing on unresolved issues on design and implementation of inflation targeting and their relation to the conduct of monetary policy – open issues that have to be addressed in the next decade of inflation targeting.

Molecular Disjunctions: Staking Claims at the Nanoscale

Nanoscience may be surrounded by controversy but is characterized by its absence. Evidence for this comes from the reconstruction of a peculiarly muted scientific "debate" regarding the claim that a single organic molecule may serve as a wire in electronic circuitry. Even though there are fundamentally different theoretical approaches, the debate remains entirely implicit. This is because the research in question is motivated by interest neither in a true representation of nature, nor simply in the invention of devices or production of new substances. As a place-oriented enterprise NanoTechnoScience consists mostly in the settlement and staking of claims on the nanoscale

Intersectionality as a Regulative Ideal

Appeals to intersectionality serve to remind us that social categories like race and gender cannot be adequately understood independently from each other. But what, exactly, is the intersectional thesis a thesis about? Answers to this question are remarkably diverse. Intersectionality is variously understood as a claim about the nature of social kinds, oppression, or experience ; about the limits of antidiscrimination law or identity politics ; or about the importance of fuzzy sets, multifactor analysis, or causal modeling in social science