Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Economic Growth? Evidence from a Threshold Regression Analysis

Using threshold regression techniques developed by Caner and Hansen(2004),this paper examines whether the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth is dependent upon different absorptive capacities. There are three absorptive capacities, namely, initial GDP, human capital and the volume of trade, that are used as threshold variables in our paper. The empirical analysis shows that FDI alone plays an ambiguous role in contributing to economic growth based on a sample of 62 countries covering the period from 1975 through 2000. Under the threshold regression, we find that initial GDP and human capital are important factors in explaining FDI. FDI is found to have a positive and significant impact on growth when host countries have better levels of initial GDP and human capital.

Computation-Performance Optimization of Convolutional Neural Networks with Redundant Kernel Removal

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are widely employed in modern computer vision algorithms, where the input image is convolved iteratively by many kernels to extract the knowledge behind it. However, with the depth of convolutional layers getting deeper and deeper in recent years, the enormous computational complexity makes it difficult to be deployed on embedded systems with limited hardware resources. In this paper, we propose two computation-performance optimization methods to reduce the redundant convolution kernels of a CNN with performance and architecture constraints, and apply it to a network for super resolution (SR). Using PSNR drop compared to the original network as the performance criterion, our method can get the optimal PSNR under a certain computation budget constraint. On the other hand, our method is also capable of minimizing the computation required under a given PSNR drop.Comment: This paper was accepted by 2018 The International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS

Asymmetric Exchange Rate Exposure and Industry Characteristics : Evidence from Japanese Data

This paper investigates the asymmetric effects of exchange rate exposure on Japanese stock returns at the industry level.Using the asymmetric correlation test of Hong et al.(2007), we examine five major currencies against the yen and thirty-three Japanese sectoral stock returns.Signi ficant asymmetric responses in stock returns to exchange rate changes are found in the pharmaceutical, real estate, and air transportation industries.These findings are consistent with the pricing-to-market and hysteretic behavior for the pharmaceutical and air transportation industries and with the hedging behavior for the real estate industry.The results for the threshold models confirm that the asymmetric exposures are based on industry characteristics.exchange rate exposure, asymmetric correlation, threshold model

Factores en el acoso cibernético: el modelo de actitud-influencia social-eficacia

This study examines the correlation between risk perception, knowledge, social influence, self-efficacy, and cyber bullying behavior from the perspective of the attitude-social influence-efficacy model. The samples in this survey are adolescents who have had cyber bullying behavior or have witnessed their peers’ cyber bullying behavior. The results showed that attitude towards cyber bullying affected cyber bullying intention, and that intention also influenced cyber bullying behavior. Social influence also had an impact on cyber bullying intention and cyber bullying behavior. In fact, intention was a mediator between attitude and behavior, as well as between social influence and behavior. Este estudio examina la correlación entre la percepción de riesgo, el conocimiento, la influencia social, la autoeficacia y el comportamiento del acoso cibernético desde la perspectiva del modelo de influencia social. Las muestras en esta encuesta son adolescentes que han tenido un comportamiento de acoso cibernético o han presenciado el comportamiento de acoso cibernético de sus compañeros. Los resultados mostraron que la actitud hacia el acoso cibernético afectó la intención de acoso cibernético, y esa intención también influyó en el comportamiento del acoso cibernético. La influencia social también tuvo un impacto en la intención de acoso cibernético y el comportamiento de acoso cibernético. De hecho, la intención era un mediador entre la actitud y el comportamiento, así como entre la influencia social y el comportamiento

Absorptive Capacity And MNC Knowledge Transfer: The Organizational Behavior Perspective

Many previous studies on internal knowledge transfer in multinational corporations (MNCs) have indicated that organizational absorptive capacity (AC) has a significant effect on knowledge transfer, but few scholars have dwelt on employee absorptive capacity. Employee AC is fundamental to organizational AC. Therefore, employee AC is an important management issue. From an organizational behavior perspective, this study attempted to explore whether employees personality traits, job characteristics and organizational environment had an impact on their absorptive capacity, hoping to develop a new research direction for the AC research realm

The Effect Of Blog Trustworthiness, Product Attitude, And Blog Involvement On Purchase Intention

Consumers value the advice of others when they are shopping online. Therefore, some high pageview bloggers could have a great influence on a consumer’s shopping decision. Blog marketing is a new communication tool. “Blog trustworthiness”, “product attitude” and “blog involvement” were the three independent variables used in this study to investigate the aspect of purchase intention. This study found that blog involvement had a significant influence on purchase intention. This result contributes concrete suggestions to enterprises when they are dealing with blog marketing

From OEM Supplier To A Global Leading Company

Firms in developing countries generally have lower technological and marketing capabilities compared to firms in developed countries. Joining OEM alliances can help firms with fewer capabilities to learn from their partners and then upgrade their technological capabilities. In this kind of scenario, learning firms in OEM alliances are usually from developing countries, and they play the role of suppliers; on the other hand, teaching firms are usually from developed countries and play the role of buyers. Although OEM alliances provide a platform for acquiring, transferring and creating knowledge, few suppliers can sufficiently upgrade their technological capabilities to reach a higher level and develop marketing capabilities in order to complete in the global market. Therefore, it is an important issue to know how an OEM supplier from developing countries can become a leading firm in the global market. In this study, we choose Giant Bicycles to explore this issue. We conduct a case study to explore the growth of Giant Bicycles from an OEM supplier to a leading company in the bicycle industry

Comparison of Spatial Interpolation Techniques Using Visualization and Quantitative Assessment

Spatial interpolation has been widely and commonly used in many studies to create surface data based on a set of sampled points, such as soil properties, temperature, and precipitation. Currently, there are many commercial Geographic Information System (GIS) or statistics software offering spatial interpolation functions, such as inverse distance weighted (IDW), kriging, spline, and others. To date, there is no “rule of thumb” on the most appropriate spatial interpolation techniques for certain situations, though general suggestions have been published. Many studies rely on quantitative assessment to determine the performance of spatial interpolation techniques. Most quantitative assessment methods provide a numeric index for the overall performance of an interpolated surface. Although it is objective and convenient, there are many facts or trends not captured by quantitative assessments. This study used 2D visualization and 3D visualization to identify trends not evident in quantitative assessment. This study also presented a special case, a closed system in which all interpolated surfaces should sum up to 100%, to demonstrate the interaction between interpolated surfaces that were created separately and independently