What drives international portfolio flows?

Understanding what drives international portfolio flows has important policy implications for countries wishing to exert some control on the size, direction and volatility of the flows. This paper empirically assesses the relative contribution of common (push) and country-specific (pull) factors to the variation of bond and equity flows from the US to 55 other countries. Using a Bayesian dynamic latent factor model, we find that more than 80% of the variation in bond and equity flows is due to push factors from the US to other countries. Hence global economic forces seem to prevail over domestic economic forces in explaining movements in international portfolio flows. The dynamics of push and pull factors can be partially explained by US and foreign economic fundamentals

Recursive and discursive model of and for entrepreneurial action

This paper proposes a model of entrepreneurial action that integrates three distinct elements. First, it brings together action and time to articulate a recursive relationship between perception and action, mediated by consequences. Second, it brings together action and context to ground the entrepreneur’s perceptions and actions in a mesh of social orders and practices. Third, it articulates the content of perceptions and actions as discursive entries and exits in a social language game of giving and asking for reasons. We discuss a number of implications for a systematic understanding of different manifestations of entrepreneurship

Postcolonial leadership between the sovereign and the beast

There is a crisis in leadership throughout the world, but the focus of this article will be on the crisis in postcolonial Africa. How is this crisis constructed within the politics of the global village? The leadership crisis in Africa is often portrayed by Western-influenced media as leaders being beasts if they do not comply with the wishes and dictates of Western capital, or characterised as puppets of Western capital, a puppet of the Western sovereign. Is there a way beyond these characterisations, or is it a political necessity to divide the world into friends and enemies, as Carl Schmitt would like us to believe? Taking Derrida into consideration, a way will be sought beyond this characterisation. Derrida�s ideas concerning the sovereign will pose the question: can leadership move beyond being either a puppet of a Western sovereign or being the beast of darkest Africa? The article will argue that the political gathering into a collective will not be destroyed if this distinction disappears, although the distinction will be ruined. Yet, these ruins will be the place for the possibility of something other, an impossible possibility � the madness of the impossible possible, or the madness of holy folly and the hope and dream of leadership still to come.Intradisciplinary and/orinterdisciplinary implications: The article addresses the postcolonial context, specifically of Africa, but not limited to Africa. It challenges traditional theories on leadership and proposes a hermeneutical approach to interpreting and understanding leadership.</p

Emerson Electric's Chuck Knight and Team: Efficiency isn't Everything, it's the Only Thing

A look into Emerson and its leaders