Reform Initiatives Research Articles

A Study on the Performance of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Context of State-Owned Enterprise Reform: The Case of Ansteel and Benxi Steel

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission emphasizes that promoting the reorganization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can focus their advantageous resources, which plays a positive role in addressing issues such as the uneven distribution of state-owned capital, inefficient resource allocation, and homogenized development. This paper, set against the backdrop of SOE reform and central enterprise reorganization, uses the merger and reorganization event of Ansteel Group and Benxi Steel Group as a case study to investigate how central enterprise reorganization can improve the performance of central enterprises, based on the theory of synergistic effects. The study finds that under the theory of synergistic effects, after the reorganization of Ansteel Group and Benxi Steel Group, the operational, financial, and managerial synergistic effects of Ansteel Group continue to be realized, thereby enhancing the performance level of Ansteel Group. This paper aims to demonstrate the improvement of enterprise performance through central enterprise reorganization and calls on other central enterprises to actively respond to the national requirements for mergers and reorganizations, offering suggestions for subsequent reorganizations of central enterprises.

Parliament as a Workplace: Dilemmas of Vernacularisation and Professionalisation

<p>In this article, we engage with recent calls to research parliaments as gendered workplaces, which build on earlier international discursive turn and institutional reform initiatives towards gender-sensitive parliaments. Our engagement explores this workplace framing and how well it translates across pluralised, global parliamentary paradigms. We develop our arguments with a special focus on the Indian parliament as a gendered institution. Viewing the parliament as a gendered workplace through an intersectional lens, we show how gender dynamics and institutional configurations of power are embedded in class, race, and caste inequalities but can shift over time through reflexive challenges. We organise our discussion through two approaches to studying parliaments as workplaces—vernacular and professional—to argue that paying attention to these approaches critically can contribute to sensitising the workplace debate to a more capacious, theoretically nuanced reading of parliaments as more gender-sensitive, gender-inclusive, and gender-responsive representative institutions. In outlining the case for paying attention to the vernacular critically, we ask whether such an understanding can help to effectively bridge local and global understandings of parliaments as workplaces and institutionalise them. In studying professionalisation, we examine the paradox that professionalisation could lead to the depoliticisation of parliaments, which might affect the nature of gender-sensitivity that is being institutionalised. This analysis thus brings together institutional, postcolonial, and intersectional strands of work to think anew about gender-equal political practices in representative bodies.</p>

Do Green Finance Policies Inhibit the Financialization of Manufacturing Enterprises? Empirical Evidence Based on a Quasi-Natural Experiment with the “Green Credit Guidelines”

Against the background of the increasing financialization of manufacturing enterprises, whether green financial policies can inhibit the financialization of manufacturing enterprises is a major practical issue worth exploring. It can help government departments to guide the sustainable development of the real economy of enterprises, effectively curbing the trend of over-financialization of enterprises, thus preventing potential systemic risks and safeguarding the sustainable development of the economy. Because the green credit guidelines function as a more mature development of green financial policies, this paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2005 to 2022 as the research sample, adopts the propensity score matching and double difference method, and constructs a quasi-natural experiment with the “Green Credit Guidelines” as the policy shock to analyze the multiple impact effects of green financial policies on the financialization of manufacturing enterprises. The results of the study show that (1) green finance policy has a significant inhibiting effect on the financialization of manufacturing enterprises; (2) due to the different motives of manufacturing enterprises in holding financial assets, green finance policy has a more significant inhibiting effect on the long-term financialization of “substitution”; (3) state-owned enterprises (SOEs) bear more social responsibilities and have credit advantages. Green finance policy has a more obvious inhibiting effect on the financialization of non-state-owned manufacturing enterprises; (4) major shareholders can play a better supervisory role in enterprises with high equity concentrations, so green finance policy has a more significant inhibiting effect on the financialization of manufacturing enterprises with low equity concentrations; (5) financing constraints have a masking effect in green finance policy and enterprise financialization. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following targeted recommendations. For the governmental level: first, to establish a sound manufacturing credit system; second, to focus on enterprise-financing constraints. For the enterprise level: first, to optimize the asset structure to promote transformation; second, to deepen the mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises.

The Road to the Winter Line in Italy: The Tale of Two Divisions

By late 1943, the British 8th Army had developed a strong learning and training culture, drawing from its battlefield experience. This essay will examine the evolution of this culture and its implementation across diverse units during its Italian campaign. The primary focus will be on the training and performance of the 8th Indian and 78th British divisions, focusing on the battles of October–December 1943. This analysis will consider the learning and training culture, along with the impact of ongoing reform initiatives within the British and Indian armies, and their relationship with strategic decisions made in London and New Delhi.

REMODELLING EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS IN NIGERIA BY PROVIDING RELEVANT SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS LEARNING (STEM).

Over the past thirty years, it is evident that there has been little change in the methodology of teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (STEM) in Nigeria. Consequently, Nigerian students have lagged, encountering difficulties in science and math proficiency. Despite national reform initiatives aimed at enhancing the situation, the absence of uniformity and a unified effort has resulted in negligible alterations in instructional methods. This research examined data from student and teacher programs conducted by State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). The focus was on two programs implemented over a two-year period: STEM Bootcamps for children and Teacher training initiatives. The results indicated that these programs successfully enhanced learning and forged a robust link to the real world. Even though it was their initial encounter with STEM pedagogy, both educators and students recognized its worth and found it advantageous in grasping the concepts addressed during the programs. These favorable outcomes sparked conversations about expanding the pilot programs and considering the ramifications for policy and future research.

On the Contribution of China's Market-oriented Reforms to Economic Growth

This paper will analyze the reasons and environment of China's market-oriented reform, and argue the fundamental motivation and necessity of China's market-oriented reform. After that, this paper will cite relevant data and researches to analyze the internal logic of socialist marketization, explain the operation mode of China's market-oriented reform, and prove the effect of market-oriented reform. Finally, according to the reform process, this paper will divide the socialist marketization reform into three parts for analysis: the initial grass-roots social market economy experiment, the subsequent gradual deepening of the marketization reform of township and village enterprises, and the comprehensive socialist marketization reform and comprehensive deepening. This paper will follow the above steps to argue the reasons for the success of China's socialist market economy reform. Combined with the above argumentation process, this paper will come to the view that China's market-oriented reform has made an important contribution to China's economy.

Performance Study on Reverse Mixed-Ownership Reform of Private Enterprises

Performance Study on Reverse Mixed-Ownership Reform of Private Enterprises

Mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises and executive compensation stickiness: Evidence from China

Optimization of executive compensation incentives is an important part of the reform of state-owned enterprises, but the existence of executive compensation stickiness weakens the effect of compensation incentives. Based on data of state-owned enterprises listed on the Chinese A-shares market over the 2013–2019 period, this paper evaluates the ownership reform, or mixed ownership, of state-owned enterprises by the shareholder ratio of non-state shareholders and the appointed directors, and examines the relationship between the mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises and the executive compensation stickiness. The study concludes with the following findings. The shareholder ratio of non-state shareholders has no significant impact on the executive compensation stickiness, whereas directors appointed by non-state shareholders significantly reduce the executive compensation stickiness. Compared to pure central enterprises, the inhibiting effect of the mixed ownership reform on the executive compensation stickiness is more significant in local state-owned enterprises. The inhibiting effect of the mixed ownership reform on the executive compensation stickiness is more significant when managerial power is restricted or regional marketization degree is low. This paper enriches and extends extant studies on the impact of ownership reform on executive compensation incentives from the perspective of executive compensation stickiness, and provides important empirical evidence for the enhanced relationship between reforms of state-owned enterprises and executive compensation.

Education practitioners’ epistemological beliefs and their understanding of evaluation: a preliminary study in Singapore

ABSTRACT In educational reform initiatives worldwide and in Singapore, educators are increasingly encouraged to take ownership of their work through involvement in practitioner inquiry and evaluation efforts to transform teaching and learning. Educators’ epistemological beliefs – their view of knowledge and knowing – play a critical role as they learn to become critical, reflective actors in the knowledge construction endeavour. This mixed-methods study investigates whether and how educators’ epistemological beliefs influence their understanding of programme evaluation as viewed through participants’ journey of learning to design a real-world evaluation study in the context of Masters-level coursework. Findings suggest that participants’ epistemological scale scores are associated with their learning outcomes as manifested in the quality of their evaluation plan. Specifically, participants with higher or lower scores show important differences in their view of evaluation and what a good evaluation requires, their relationship with knowledge about programme evaluation, the nature of challenges encountered in designing their evaluation plans, and how they navigate their challenges. Findings have implications for purposes and approaches of teacher professional learning and offer insights into the re-design of learning opportunities to transform educators’ epistemological beliefs in general and in relation to discipline-specific learning.

Research on the Development of Human Resource Management in Contemporary Chinese Enterprises

Over time, human resource management has evolved from a purely administrative function to a key business partner closely linked to an organization's strategy. This contemporary human resource management increasingly relies on technology, and these technology tools provide HR professionals with more data and insights to support more effective decision making. To improve their competitiveness, enterprises must fully tap the potential of human resources. At present, Chinese enterprises have some problems and deficiencies in human resource management, and it is urgent to analyze the root causes of the problems and actively reform the management system and measures according to the actual situation of enterprises. Therefore, this study will analyze the current situation of enterprise human resource management and put forward management strategies, which is of great significance for enterprise reform.

Identifying Problems of International Investment Law (IIL) and Evaluating the Focus of Reform Initiatives

The normative structure of international investment law is highly asymmetrical. Generally, current IIAs grant investors significant substantive and procedural rights, while States and affected communities often lack equivalent safeguard. In recent years, scholars have critcised and identified many problems including human rights concerns ingrained in the international investment law framework. The States and other stakeholders also raised many concerns regarding international investment agreements and investor-State dispute settlement. Moreover, there’s agreement on the need for comprehensive reform of IIL to make ISDS effective. Yet, issues with ISDS go beyond systemic flaws, also entrenched in substantive deficiencies in existing IIAs. Furthermore, the current legitimacy crisis provides a unique chance to amend the international IIAs comprehensively. However, the WGIII and ICSID reform initiative primarily focuses on procedural aspects of ISDS, avoiding substantive issues raised by various stakeholders. While procedural reforms are essential, resolving substantive issues is equally necessary.

Losing consent – the evolution of the danwei management policies from a Maoist perspective

ABSTRACT The danwei (work unit) system is a unique political and economic institution in China; inside a danwei, all aspects of workers’ activities are taken care of. The transformations of the danwei system’s management have long been a hot topic in academia. Many scholars have shared their views on understanding the transformations of the danwei’s management. However, very few of them have understood danwei’s management transformations from the perspective of Mao Zedong. Mao, as one of the most important founders of the danwei system, had conducted numerous studies on Marxist theories and Soviet practices of socialist enterprise management and had formed a unique understanding of how a genuine socialist enterprise operates. By setting up a triangular comparison model, this article compares Maoist thoughts on management with danwei’s management policies before and after 1978. This article concludes that, from a Maoist perspective, the pre-1978 danwei system had set up a management system in which workers drew their ‘self-generated consent’ through democratic mechanisms. In contrast, the post-1978 danwei management has abnegated most of the democratic mechanisms and replaced workers’ ‘self-generated consent’ with cadre-controlled ‘manufactured consent.’ The entire danwei system is gradually ‘losing its consent’ from the working class unless multiple reform initiatives take place in the future.

Factors Influencing Electronic Tax Compliance Of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Northern of Vietnam

The electronic tax service system - eTax in Vietnam is implemented as an administrative reform initiative of the tax industry to improve efficiency of the tax authorities. This research therefore sets out to examine the variables that impact firms’ compliance levels in the context of adopting electronic tax with a model that tests linear relationship between identified factors and tax compliance. Research data serving the study were collected from July to October 2023 from respondents working for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Northern Vietnam with 200 valid questionnaires. Research findings reveal a positive relationship between The level of electronic tax application (AE), Tax policy - tax inspection & examination (TPTI) and The level of tax compliance (TC). Moreover, the level of adoption of electronic tax is positively influenced by Perceived ease of use (PEOU), Perceived usefulness (PU) and Information techonology skills (IT). Based on the research results, the study proposes appropriate recommendations to enhance the management mechanism and improve the tax compliance level of the SMEs in Northern Vietnam.

Have China’s internal migrants been more settled since 2010? A contribution based on migrants’ age profiles

ABSTRACT This Research Note employs age data to assess whether China’s internal migrants have become more settled since 2010. The aim is to answer the crucial question of whether recent hukou reform initiatives have achieved their goals of improving migrant settlement. We extend a method from existing research that examines two key aspects of settlement – family togetherness and long-term stay of migrants – through analyzing age profiles of migrant stock. Specifically, by scrutinizing age data from the 2010 and 2020 censuses, we evaluate whether the child and elderly dependents of migrants are more engaged in migration and whether migrants growing old can better remain in the destinations. The results show that from 2010 to 2020, the age distribution of migrants became slightly more even across all age groups, yet it was still concentrated in young adults – the overall shape remained largely unchanged. This indicates a small improvement in settlement, which is unsatisfactory given the various hukou reform initiatives aimed at substantially increasing settlement opportunities in the last 10 years. Much greater efforts on hukou reform and support for migrants are needed. Furthermore, our research highlights the utility of age data in assessing the actual extent of migrant settlement, as opposed to the exclusive focus on settlement intentions, which are common in existing studies.

A Scoping Review and Assessment of the Area-Level Composite Measures That Estimate Social Determinants of Health Across the United States

Objectives: Evidence-informed population health initiatives often leverage data from various sources, such as epidemiologic surveillance data and administrative datasets. Recent interest has arisen in using area-level composite measures describing a community’s social risks to inform the development and implementation of health policies, including payment reform initiatives. Our objective was to capture the breadth of available area-level composite measures that describe social determinants of health (SDH) and have potential for application in population health and policy work. Methods: We conducted a scoping review of the scientific literature from 2010 to 2022 to identify multifactorial indices and rankings reflected in peer-reviewed literature that estimate SDH and that have publicly accessible data sources. We discovered several additional composite measures incidental to the scoping review process. Literature searches for each composite measure aimed to contextualize common applications in public health investigations. Results: From 491 studies, we identified 31 composite measures and categorized them into 8 domains: environmental conditions and pollution, opportunity and infrastructure, deprivation and well-being, COVID-19, rurality, food insecurity, emergency response and community resilience, and health. Composite measures are applied most often as an independent variable associated with disparities, risk factors, and/or outcomes affecting individuals, populations, communities, and health systems. Conclusions: Area-level composite measures describing SDH have been applied to wide-ranging population health work. Social risk indicators may enable policy makers, evaluators, and researchers to better assess community risks and needs, thereby facilitating the evidence-informed development, implementation, and study of initiatives that aim to improve population health.

전환기 슬로베니아 고등교육 개혁의 특징과 결과 연구

At the outset of Slovenia’s transition period, the urgent national task was to establish democracy, liberalism, and pluralistic values across all sectors. This comprehensive transition involved institutional reorganization in society, politics, education, and media, alongside reforms targeting the general public. Education emerged as a crucial tool for fostering and disseminating liberal democratic values, aiming to socialize individuals into understanding the moral, civic, and societal obligations of the new system. Slovenian school reform during this period was grounded in liberal democratic values, human rights, and knowledge. Initially, higher education reform lagged due to internal circumstances, with a focus on complementing previous socialist-era reforms rather than enacting substantive changes. However, upon Slovenia's accession to the European Union, a process of Europeanization swept across the nation, prompting the initiation of higher education reform aligned with the Bologna Process. Despite expectations, the Bologna Process encountered resistance in Slovenian higher education and yielded less favorable outcomes than anticipated. This study examines the foundational values of Slovenia’s educational reform for establishing a liberal democratic system and Europeanizing it, while also analyzing the controversies and results surrounding the ‘Bologna Process’, a key symbol of higher education globalization.

A Study on the Impact of Mixed Reform on the Financial Performance of State-Owned Enterprises

The concept of mixed ownership reform was first put forward in the 1990s, and has been developed and strengthened year by year. Its main purpose is to stimulate the internal vitality of enterprises by introducing the combination of non-state-owned capital and state-owned capital, and optimize the management mechanism through the implementation of mixed ownership reform, so as to promote economic development and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. This reform process not only contributes to innovation and efficiency within the company, but also lays a solid foundation for the long-term development of the company. Yunnan Baiyao Co., Ltd. is a well-known pharmaceutical enterprise, which has a significant influence and market position in the national pharmaceutical industry, and is also a key enterprise in the early adoption of mixed reform in China. Therefore, it is of great reference value and significance to analyze and study the financial performance of Yunnan Baiyao after the mixed reform. At present, the country is vigorously promoting the mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises. Based on this background, this paper, by analyzing the financial performance of enterprises and applying relevant theories involved, makes a detailed case analysis of the development status of Yunnan Baiyao after the mixed reform, with a view to providing some suggestions for similar enterprises or other enterprises with the intention of mixed reform.

Investor Obligations: Transformative and Regressive Impacts of the Business and Human Rights Framework

Abstract The business and human rights (BHR) framework has regularly been considered the superior legal regime of corporate accountability for business-related human rights abuses, which must be both protected from and incorporated into investment treaties. However, investment treaties have surpassed the BHR framework in an important respect: certain investment treaties impose strict international legal obligations, including human rights-related obligations, directly on investors, thereby going beyond the normatively ambiguous corporate responsibility to respect. Investment treaty reform initiatives, including those seeking to align investment treaties with the BHR agenda, should, therefore, take care to avoid inadvertently undoing this advance towards investors’ legal accountability.

Eliminate Structural Injustices or Perpetuate Them: Indigenous Peoples and Transitional Justice in the Criminal Court System of Taiwan

ABSTRACT∞ In 2017, Taiwan’s government proposed reforms to the Indigenous Specialized Criminal Court (ISC) within its criminal court system (court system). Situated within the contemporary theoretical framework of transitional justice, this article explores the theoretical significance of these reforms and examines their actual state of implementation. Firstly, the article points out that the court system has led to structural injustices like the erasure of culture and socio-economic disadvantages for indigenous peoples, highlighting the limitations of the conventional transitional justice model in addressing these injustices. As a response, the ISC reform adopts strategies that differ from the conventional model. The article then attempts to develop an enhanced transitional justice model that includes structural injustices within its scope and explains the ISC reform initiatives and their inherent transitional justice significance. Finally, by evaluating the implementation status of the ISC reform, the article elucidates its theoretical implications and the feedback it offers to contemporary theoretical debates.

Preface: 2nd International Conference on Portfolios, Economy and Enterprise Reform (PEER 2024)

This book collects papers selected from the 2024 2nd International Conference on Portfolios, Economy and Enterprise Reform (PEER 2024), which was successfully held in Kobe, Japan from March 16-17, 2024. PEER 2024 welcomes researchers, experts, economist, and industry professionals to an open forum where advances in the fields of portfolios, risk management, financial security, regional economic, marketing, business management, and enterprise reform can be shared and examined. The conference is an ideal platform for keeping up with advances and changes to a consistently morphing field. Leading researchers and industry experts from around the globe will be presenting the latest studies through papers and oral presentations. PEER 2024 invites scholars and researchers all over the world to discuss the state-of-the-art and the development of the financial technology. The conference set up a variety of activities such as general report, session report, poster exchanging, technical exhibition and technological innovation contest. This conference provided delegates with a good opportunity to exchange new ideas, establish research and/or business contacts, and establish potential partnerships for global partnerships. With best regards, Organizing Committees of PEER Kobe, Japan