Venture Capital in Japan: A Financial Instrument Supporting the Innovativeness of the Japanese Economy

Two factors: First, the relatively small number of new companies as well as the number of companies subject to liquidation over the year ("firm turnover") in Japan, and second, the insignificant prestige associated with the profession of entrepreneur do not foster growth in the dynamics of this form of financing ventures. The cited indicator for Japan in among the lowest in comparison with other highly developed countries1, while the profession of entrepreneur is not the foremost dream of college graduates. They would much rather prefer realizing their professional careers as members of the government bureaucracy or employees of a major corporation2. However, this mindset is slowly changing, if for no other reason then, in spite of popular conviction, because most small companies are not established during periods of prosperity, but near the end of the downward phase of the economic cycle. That is exactly the phase Japan has been dealing with for several years now. Young, creative people, recruited from the unemployed, are seeking self-employment, using all possible opportunities embedded in the "again starting up" machinery of the economy.Dwa czynniki: pierwszy - stosunkowo mała liczba nowych firm, a także firm likwidowanych w skali roku ("firm turnover") w Japonii oraz drugi - niewielki prestiż, jakim cieszy się zawód przedsiębiorcy, nie sprzyjają dynamizacji omawianej formy finansowania przedsięwzięć. Cytowany wskaźnik, dla Japonii należy do najniższych w porównaniu z innymi krajami wysoko rozwiniętymi (Grabowiecki 2000), zaś profesja przedsiębiorcy nie jest szczytem marzeń ludzi po studiach. Znacznie bardziej chcieliby oni swoją karierę zawodową realizować jako członkowie rządowej biurokracji lub pracownicy dużej korporacji (Corver 2008, s. 2). Ta świadomość ulega jednak stopniowej zmianie, chociażby dlatego, że wbrew popularnym przekonaniom, większość niewielkich przedsiębiorstw, powstaje nie w okresie prosperity, lecz pod koniec spadkowej fazy cyklu koniunkturalnego. Z taką fazą mamy do czynienia w Japonii od paru lat. Młodzi, kreatywni ludzie, rekrutujący się z bezrobotnych, poszukują samozatrudnienia, wykorzystują wszelakie szanse, tkwiące w "ruszającej na powrót" maszynerii gospodark (Yonekura, Lynskey 2003, s. 11)

The effects of the professionalization of hosting on service quality: towards quality standards and certifications within the short-term rental market

This paper explores how the increasing professionalization of the short-term rental market (previously dominated by individual hosts) fosters the implementation of formal quality standards in the sector. It is based on 36 in-depth interviews conducted with different stakeholders of the short-term rental industry in six European countries, namely, Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the UK, and at EU level. The article maps different initiatives that outline some quality standards for short-term rentals. We found first, that to implement quality standardisation, it is important to distinguish between private and professional hosts; and, second, that consensus must be reached on: (1) whether quality would be standardised at national or EU level; (2) which governing body should be responsible for quality certifications (e.g., governments or private institutions as in the case of ISO standards); and (3) identification of practices that should be certified (e.g., property facilities/amenities, size, health & safety protection, etc.)

FDI technology spillover and the productivity growth of China’s manufacturing sector

FDI, technology spillover channels, manufacturing sector, TFP, Malmquist productivity index, C33, O33, FDI, 技术溢出渠道, 制造业, 全要素生产率, Malmquist 生产率指数,

The Environmental Impact of FDI Inflow in the Transport Sector of OECD Countries and Policy Implications

This work investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflowing in the transport sector and its connected activities of storage and communication of 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission fromsectoral fuel combustion. To this purpose, an unbalanced dataset containing statistical information, all derived from different databases of various international organizations, for the 25 years between 1981 and 2005 is analysed through the use of the econometric technique of panel data. Apart from other evidence, the empirical result shows the existence of a negative relationship, although quantitatively very low, characterizing the cumulative effect of the considered type of FDI on CO2. This helps us to understand that the foreign investment flow arriving in the transport sector of the considered OECD receiving countries does not generate a dangerous detriment to the environment as can generally be expected. As a result, we argue in favour of those policy prescriptions suggesting its enforcement