Manufacturing Sectoral Growth in the USA and Japan: Relevance to SMEs, Organizational Innovations, and Recent Economic Growth

Although economic growth is inherently linked with the structure and nature of SMEs (e.g. their number, industry concentration, size, degree of outsourcing, etc), as this has been shown in the existing literature, OIs, more generally, are the context in which SMEs operate and hence OIs ought to be more closely examined in order to further understand the complex process of economic growth and the particular impact of SMEs on the latter. In this paper, a detailed comparison of the growth of manufacturing sectors in the USA and Japan is used as an indirect way to demonstrate the following proposition. Although SMEs have played a positive role in the postwar economic Japanese miracle, they are not a sufficient force for a sustainable economic growth, as the recent protracted recession in Japan shows. It is only when technological innovations and in particular OIs take place in the economy that this type of growth is possible, as this is also demonstrated in the recent American prolonged economic growth.organizational innovations, disembodied technology, firms, economic growth, historical review

The Impact of Large Firms in Promoting Economic Growth, Exports and Regional Integration: A Chandlerian Perspective with Emphasis on East Asia

Chandler’s work is well known. He has amply demonstrated that large firms played a huge role in the economic take-off and development of countries such as Germany and especially the USA. In this paper his thesis is extended to the whole world, by considering various countries, economically integrated regions, their exports and economic achievement. The largest firms in the world are examined in this context. Chandler’s thesis is thus confirmed with this analysis and some quantitative evidence is provided in that respect. In particular, Korea’s position is quite strong in the region of East Asia following Japan’s leadership. This paper also demonstrates that SMEs role in economic development without the presence of large firms would be rather limited. Last but not least, integration seems to take place even without the existence of formal agreements due to the presence of large firms.Largest 2000 firms; national exports; Chandler; regression

The Australian Dollar's Long-Term Fluctuations and Trend: The Commodity Prices-cum-Economic Cycles Hypothesis

The Australian dollar’s exchange rate (mainly in relation to the American dollar) has received a considerable attention in research and several models have been proposed to explain its trend and fluctuations. Thus, as a conclusion of this research we can say that this commodity currency very much depends on the terms of trade which in turn depend on commodity prices. The present paper is based on this conclusion and hence proposes the possibility that the Australian dollar’s behavior is overwhelmingly explained by a handful of cycles of mainly harmonic frequencies. Using the principles of Fourier analysis, a simple regression provides considerable evidence about the existence of these cycles. In addition, and as important, a search into the commodity realm demonstrates that these cycles are for example related to various cycles of mining and producing minerals. If the proposition of the present paper is true, we have a very simple yet substantial explanation of the long term trend and fluctuations of the Australian dollar exchange rate and probably of exchange rates of many other commodity currencies.Australian dollar, Fourier, cycles, minerals

The Huddle/Tangle Hypothesis of Regional Integration: The Case of the European Union and Its Enlargement

Regional integration can be a process that resembles that of a huddle/tangle. Some countries might be more prone or keen or able to integrate than others; however there is no guarantee that this process will be smooth through time. On the contrary, integrating countries seem to hover and spin around some main stronger economically countries and form a tangle. Was there a pattern of integration for the various stages of new countries joining the EU? Was the initial momentum created by the founding countries a situation that has never changed during the last 40 years or so? Is there any tendency for sub-integration, especially for some specific groups of countries? This paper focuses on national exports as a tool of evidence that joining the EU is not a solution to long term economic growth unless a strategy is adopted to counteract the inherent tendencies of the huddle/tangle process. Various methods will be used to bring this evidence forward and answer the questions above.regional integration, exports, core, clusters

Leading Manufacturing Sectors in the USA and Japan During 1899-1937 and Organizational Innovations: Embeddedness for Corporate Strategy

Organizational innovations (OIs) such as scientific management, integration of mass production and mass distribution, and particular types of corporate governance played a preponderant role in the economic development of the USA during the period 1880s to 1920s. To provide some further evidence of this role, historical data analyzed by Kuznets (1971) are scrutinized in this paper by calculating total factor productivity (TFP) for manufacturing sectors in the USA, and the impact of OIs on leading sectors is briefly explored in the light of these TFPs. Thus this paper provides quantitative evidence that leading sectors are linked with OIs during the examined period. In the light of this evidence the following proposition is made: leading sectors and OIs can be considered as a process of ‘embeddedness’ (Granovetter, 1985) for corporate strategy, governance, and leadership.manufacturing sectors, USA, Japan, embeddedness, corporate strategy

The Long Term Fate of Korea and Other “Small” Economies in East Asia: Economic Development, Integration Issues, and Political Power

In this paper it is argued that Korea and other countries in East Asia like Korea have a particular fate quite predictable in the long run in terms of economic growth and political dependency unless economic integration takes place in a particular direction. Thus the presence of the potentially giant China makes things “difficult” for “Korean” countries (e.g Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and even Japan). This fate is not coloured with optimism unless some measures are taken that ensure a particular way of integration in East Asia. It is not unique that a giant economy is the centre of economic activities for the wider region. Unlike the European Union which does not contain any giant member in its process of integration, the USA could be the closest good example of how neighbouring countries have evolved next to this giant. In East Asia the situation is not similar to that of the USA at the moment, but in this paper there is a set of propositions and arguments that predict the fate of “Korean” economies next to a potentially giant China. Several methods will be used to demonstrate the validity of these propositions (mathematical model, cluster and scale analyses, and so on). Various strategies will be examined in the context of the propositions. It will be demonstrated that the short term and long term strategies that countries such as Korea and Thailand in isolation might have to follow are not necessarily consistent unless an overall strategy of regional integration takes place.long term integration; fusion; exports; policies

Trade Reforms and the Survival of the Passenger Motor Vehicle Industry in Australia

The Passenger Motor Vehicle (PMV) industry in Australia experienced extensive trade reforms in the late 1980s which were expected to promote a competitive PMV industry. This paper tests the hypotheses that decreasing protection have had a significant effect on production, imports, exports, labour productivity and organizational innovations (A1); and this effect is particularly evident since 1988 (A2). We have used cointegration analysis to test the hypothesis (A1) and the Chow test for (A2). Our study confirms our two hypotheses.passenger motor vehicle industry, trade reform, labour productivity, organizational innovations

Korean Augmented Production Function: The Role Of Services And Other Factors In Korea¡¯S Economic Growth Of Industries

It is well known that economic growth and services have a positive association. In particular, the more developed an economy is, the higher the share of the services sector. While most research has focused on service output, this study also examines services as input. Recently, the need for taking services a separate input in the production function has come to the fore. Therefore, the OECD productivity manual generalizes the KLEM model to KLEMS (capital-labor-energy-materials-services) model by including the services as an input. We use KLEMS data in this study. In addition, we augmented the standard production function with other variables such as the inventory to sales ratio, R&D to sales ratio, education expenditure to sales ratio, and the debt to sales ratio. The findings are encouraging and lead us to formulate some important conclusions; for example, after the 1998 Financial Crisis, the Korean economy has increased in efficiency and this is partly due to an increased importance of services as both output and input.Services, Manufacturing, Production Function, Korean Industries, Financial Crisis, Panel Data

The Impact of Unilateral and Regional Trade Liberalisation on the Intra-ASEAN 5 Founding Nations' Exports and Export-GDP Nexus

This paper is differentiated from most previous studies in that it uses intra-ASEAN's (of the 5 founding counties) historical data and it assesses both exports and the export-GDP nexus by isolating the following three different historical policy interventions: the introduction of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) in 1977, the unilateral liberalisation following the severe recession of the mid-1980s and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) formation in 1992. Our findings indicate that the ASEAN-5 countries' economies are moving together through time and emerged as a powerful integrated area as a consequence of all of the above three interventions. Unilateral liberalisation and ASEAN regionalism are complementary with each other. The ASEAN's story is unique and relies on both outward orientation and positive aspects of regionalism.EASEAN-5, Exports, Export-GDP nexus, Trade Liberalisation, Intervention Time Series, Integration

The Consequences of Trade Liberalisation on the Australian Passenger Motor Vehicle Industry

This paper is an appraisal of the impact of Australian trade liberalization measures on imports, exports, productivity, and internal demand of the passenger motor vehicle industry. There is clear evidence that this liberalization has increased the volume of trade, imports, exports, and productivity, but reduced the locally produced cars for internal consumption. Various models are constructed and applied. Thus, this paper is an application of the bounds testing procedure based on the ARDL approach to cointegration and the comparison of the latter with the OLS and Johansen’s cointegration methods in the contexts of small samples.Trade liberalization, Australian Passenger motor vehicle industry, ARDL approach