Expansionist Strategy Research Articles

The impact of supply chain revamping announcements on shareholder value

PurposeSupply chain revamping (SCR) is an important strategy for firms to improve their supply chain operations in a rapidly changing environment. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the impact of SCR on shareholder value.Design/methodology/approachBased on Signaling Theory and 184 SCR announcements published by US-listed firms from 2013 to 2018, this study employs event study methodology and empirically examines three issues: Antecedents of SCRs; Primary purposes and actions of SCRs; In addition to the impact of SCRs on shareholder value using stock returns, we also examined the factors that can influence the extent of stock returns.FindingsFirstly, our results indicate that SCRs are primarily driven by firms’ poor prior performance, CEO turnover and external control threats (ECTs). Secondly, the stock market favors SCRs aiming to meet customer needs and those accomplished through network remodel. However, the market reacts negatively to SCRs aiming at cutting costs, improving poor performance, and those implemented through network trim. Finally, the cross-sectional analysis indicates that shareholders prefer firms operating in more competitive or faster-growing industries and those adopting an expansionist strategy than those adopting a streamlining strategy.Originality/valueOur study provides managers with valuable insights into when firms can benefit from initiating SCRs not only by examining the purposes and actions of SCRs but also by examining the industry- and strategy-specific moderators. Our study illuminates the conditions under which SCR will positively affect shareholder value. Additionally, this study contributes to the existing literature by deepening the understanding of the impact of supply chain decisions on firm performance and identifying the marginal conditions under which the stock market will react positively to SCR announcements.

20세기 인구학에 비친 아시아-태평양에서의 냉전과 생명 정치

The primary goal of this paper is to examine the biopolitics of Asia-Pacific as a geographical area after the Second World War. The term Asia-Pacific is defined as the so-called free world, a cluster of non-communist states in the region. Turbulent political and economic years in Asia-Pacific drove America to take a deep interest in the region. America has increased its political and economic assistance in the region since 1945. This expansionist strategy resulted in the preponderance of American power in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and India. Thousands of American military forces, diplomats, missionaries, technical workers, businesspeople, and even travelers have visited Asia-Pacific over the years. I focus on a series of writings on demographic studies to investigate biopolitical ideas regarding the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, James A. Michener was a proponent of building Americans’ awareness of Asia. He explored many countries, met diverse people, and shared his experiences in his publications. He supported the goals of American foreign policy in the Cold War era, claimed that the importance of the Asia-Pacific region should not be underestimated, and reflected the demographic idea.

Rising tension in the Himalayas: A geospatial analysis of Chinese border incursions into India.

The China-India border is the longest disputed border in the world. The countries went to war in 1962 and there have been recurring border skirmishes ever since. Reports of Chinese incursions into Indian territory are now a frequent occurrence. This rising tension between the world's most populous countries not only poses risks for global security and the world economy, but also has a negative impact on the unique ecology of the Himalayas, because of the expanding military infrastructure. We have assembled a unique data set of the dates and locations of the major incursions over the past 15 years. We find that the conflict can be separated into two independent conflicts, the western and eastern sectors. The incursions in these sectors are statistically independent. However, major incidents do lead to an increased tension that persists for years all along the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC). This leads us to conclude that an agreement on the exact location of a limited number of contested regions, such as the Doklam plateau on the China-Bhutan border, has the potential to significantly defuse the conflict, and could potentially settle the dispute at a further date. Building on insights from game theory, we find that the Chinese incursions in the west are strategically planned and may aim for a more permanent control over specific contested areas. This finding is in agreement with other studies into the expansionist strategy of the current Chinese government.

Modelling transformational adaptation to climate change among crop farming systems in Romagna, Italy

As the impact of climate change on the agricultural sector has begun to manifest itself in its severity, adaptation planning has come under scrutiny for favoring the preservation of status-quo conditions over more substantial changes. The uptake of transformational adaptations, involving a significant re-structuring of the agricultural system, is however hindered by a lack of assessment tools capable of quantifying the effects of these often more complex, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes. Agent-based models can simulate decision processes and multi-level feedbacks between system components and may therefore illustrate how transformational adaptations emerge and help identify cases where their implementation is necessary and desirable. We explore this modelling potential and aim to quantify (1) how climate change, farmer behavior and water policies may influence strategic adaptation decision-making at the farm-level, (2) the extent to which implemented adaptations represent transformations, and (3) their impact on farm structure and wider socio-ecological change. We investigate these aims through a case study of crop farming systems in the drought-prone historical region of Romagna (NE Italy), integrating insight from stakeholder interviews, local reports, spatially-explicit biophysical data and behavioral theory in the construction of an agent-based model. Results show that, on average, more than half of all implemented adaptations are transformations, thereby requiring important social and financial investments from farmers. The number of implemented transformations is highest in scenarios where drought risk perception among farmers is more widespread, notably in scenarios simulating drier climates, more adaptive behaviors and policies promoting greater water use efficiency. Under higher drought risk perception, farmers are motivated to explore a broader set of adaptations, including those outside of the trajectory determined by their farming strategy. This process particularly favors the implementation of transformational increases in farm size and irrigated area, eventually stimulating farmers to adopt an expansionist strategy. Regionally, these adaptations lead to the smallest decline in agricultural extent with fewest, yet highest profit-earning farmers, largely exacerbating presently occurring trends. Under policy scenarios simulating increased irrigation availability, fewer farmers initially experience drought and therefore perceive a drought risk. Consequently, fewer farmers undertake transformational adaptations and switch from a contractive to an expansive strategy, culminating in a relatively smaller and less profitable agricultural extent despite a larger farmer population. As transformative changes to farming strategy trigger farmers to engage in new path-dependencies, aims of water policies may therefore rebound into unintended effects, emphasizing the importance of accounting for transformational perspectives.

Political Theology of International Law: Methodological Facets and Borders

The article investigates the possibility of applying political theology as a specific methodological approach to international law. As the key theses of political theology were originally formulated by C. Schmitt in the context of national law acting in a homogeneous environment, political theology discourse in the modern philosophy of international law is mainly related to the universalist projects of global law based on an analogy with national law. The first of such strategies, the expansionist strategy, presupposes the construction of global order by the world hegemon. The second, the cosmopolitan strategy, assumes that international law can be built on the basis of an ongoing process of discussion of the global order foundations by the widest possible range of actors. Both of these strategies charm “eternal peace” and are nourished by a common messianic spirit and, therefore, are utopian. However, Schmitt’s international law legacy offers an atypical non-universalist and anti-messianic view on international law as a heterogeneous global legal order based on spatial concepts. Despite the fact that the application of political theology to this kind of order is difficult, it shall not be excluded for several reasons. The pluralistic structure of the heterogeneous order can be seen as a katechon that holds back the end of history. Finally, the political theology of international law can be applied to analyze the historical transformations of the international legal order.

Political activism as a determinant of strategic transfers: Evidence from an indian public works program

Abstract Are political activists preferentially targeted by politicians who engage in strategic transfers to bolster political support? This paper incorporates two distinctive rationales in a model of politically motivated strategic transfers: to mobilize support from the activists themselves, and to mobilize support from electors these activists have influence over. Using novel household data on ex ante political affiliation and jobs received subsequent to a large-scale decentralized workfare program in India, we find that activists are indeed preferentially targeted. Compared to inactive households, active households obtained 29% more days of work and 84% more payment from this program. We provide evidence supporting the use of transfers to leverage the influence of activists over the decision-making of other electors. Further, we find that non-affiliates received 21% more days and 56% more payment than loyalists, pointing to an expansionist strategy.

Annexation of Crimea and federalization of Donbas as the exemplification of hybrid warfare in Ukraine. Implications for Poland

In the article, the authors attempted to analyze the actions of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine. The research goal was to justify the hypothesis that in the case of Ukraine, the neo-imperial expansionist strategy in the post-Soviet area is implemented through the deconstruction of statehood as a result of a hybrid war. The authors try to answer the following questions: what consequences can such actions have for Poland and is there a real threat from Russia for the countries of Central Europe? As a result of the analysis, the authors managed to obtain affirmative answers to the above questions.

China’s ‘Going Global’ Policy: Transnational Production Subsidies Under the WTO SCM Agreement

ABSTRACT As China is increasingly ‘going global’, foreign direct investment under its Belt and Road Initiative is becoming heavily scrutinized. One of the concerns is that Chinese companies establishing themselves in third countries would be unfairly advantaged by the financing they receive under China’s expansionist strategy. This financing gives rise to a situation that had long been described as ‘unrealistic’, in which a government subsidizes a firm outside of its territory. When such a firm’s products are exported to third countries, could such financing be disciplined under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures? Should such financing, which enhances development in the receiving countries, be disciplined at all? The authors shed light on these issues and provide a preliminary guidance on how to structure this problem under international trade law.

La estrategia de expansionismo hegemónico iraní en Siria y Afganistán

En las últimas décadas, Irán ha puesto en marcha un ambicioso programa de política exterior en el cual uno de sus objetivos fundamentales es promover su expansionismo hegemónico a lo largo de zonas de especial interés regional. Este artículo investiga la agenda desarrollada por Irán en Afganistán y Siria, en medio de dos guerras y contextos territoriales diferentes. A pesar de las diferencias, este trabajo evidencia los elementos comunes de su estrategia expansionista en Asia central y Medio Oriente. Esta estrategia se basa en el rechazo de la intervención de EE. UU. y sus aliados, y la reivindicación de un régimen político-religioso islámico. En los casos analizados, Irán ha mezclado el apoyo político y militar con la ayuda económica y el fortalecimiento de lazos comerciales con estos países.

Shiite Geopolitics Contemporary Shiite Geopolitical Theories and Terms

Ideological doctrinal theories were developed specifically for Shiite geopolitics as the basis for the implementation of the Iranian expansionist strategy and attempts to make the Iranian sectarian project successful by controlling the countries located in its vital area. In the first decade of the Islamic revolution, Shiite geopolitical theories were based on Iran's outing its geographical borders and turning it into the axis of the Islamic world. Thus, Tehran took a liberty of reaching out to social, cultural and sectarian components in other countries with the aim of building Muslim Shiite regimes under the leadership of Iran.
 The paper examines the manifestation of the return of geopolitics in the 21st century, in particular, the Iranian Shiite geopolitics. The expansion of Shiite political Islam, especially after the Iranian role demonstrated the terrorist-armed aspect of sectarianism.

Російське воєнно-стратегічне мислення через призму національної стратегічної культури

The military-strategic thinking of the leadership of theRussian Federation, first of all, is focused on achieving the geostrategic goals of theRussian Federation. The geostrategic ofRussiais the fundamental basis of the state’s foreign policy. It ensures the development of the main line of behavior of theRussian Federationin the international arena and the direct implementation of it in life with the aim of realizing Russian national interests. The formation and implementation of foreign, military and security policies of theRussian Federationare significantly influenced by the characteristics of the modern strategic culture of the country. Russian strategic goals are inherently declarative in nature, while the main efforts are focused on achieving tactical goals in the maelstrom of current, not always predictable and controlled situational changes. In theRussian Federation, technologies of controlling the reflection of the enemy (geopolitical opponent) are being actively improved. In the practice of the Russian government implementing geo-strategic plans in the foreign and military-political sphere, it is typical to pursue a policy of dual goals and standards and use a complementary model of indirect (hybrid) influence on the processes occurring in the system of international relations. A feature of this complementary model is that it is based on the comprehensive implementation of strategic plans, at the same time, at all levels of the system of foreign and military policy ofRussia. This system is a single integrated state-management mechanism, the subsystems of which are organically interconnected and complementary, united by a single functioning algorithm. The main purpose of the complementary model is to ensure favorable for theRussian Federationinfluence on the international and military-political situation, promotion and protection of national interests on the world stage. In the future, it is advisable to carry out applied research on the process of the application by the Russian side of the technologies for managing the reflection of the enemy in the geopolitical struggle. In addition, focus on the development of effective mechanisms to protect national sovereignty and the interests of Ukraine from the expansionist strategies of more powerful geopolitical actors (in particular, the Russian Federation), they implement non-military means of war.

ISIS-K: deadly nuisance or strategic threat?

ABSTRACTIn 2014, an affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria emerged in Afghanistan. Wilayat Khorasan, or ISIS-K, intends to secure Afghanistan to legitimize the Islamic State’s caliphate across the ‘Khorasan Province’ including portions of Central Asia, China, Iran, the Indian Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. While the group’s intent is clear, its capability confounds analysts. The authors argue that Wilayat Khorasan is likely the Islamic State’s most viable and lethal regional affiliate based on an expansionist military strategy. This is designed to enable the group’s encirclement of Jalalabad City in Nangarhar Province and is foundational to its expanded operational reach, regionalization, and lethality. Since 2016, the US-led Coalition’s counter-terrorism strategy has disrupted ISIS-K’s critical requirements and prevented external attacks. Yet, raids and strikes alone will not defeat ISIS-K. They must be calibrated against an institution-building approach that legitimizes Afghanistan’s government and redresses grievances that ISIS-K exploits to resolve.

Charlemagne’s Health in ‘Old Age’: Did It Affect Carolingian Military Strategy?

During the first thirty-three years of his reign as king of the Franks, i.e., prior to his coronation as emperor on Christmas day 800, Charlemagne, scholars generally agree, pursued a successful long-term offensive and expansionist strategy. This strategy was aimed at conquering large swaths of erstwhile imperial territory in the west and bringing under Carolingian rule a wide variety of peoples, who either themselves or their regional predecessors previously had not been subject to Frankish regnum.1 For a very long time, scholars took the position that Charlemagne continued to pursue this expansionist strategy throughout the imperial years, i.e., from his coronation on Christmas Day 800 until his final illness in later January 814. For example, Louis Halphen observed: “comme empereur, Charles poursuit, sans plus, l’oeuvre entamée avant l’an 800.”2 F. L. Ganshof, who also wrote several studies treating Charlemagne’s army, was in lock step with Halphen and observed: “As emperor, Charlemagne pursued the political and military course he had been following before 25 December 800.”3

Far Eastern Promises: The Failed Expedition of the Hudson’s Bay Company in Kamchatka and Eastern Siberia (1919–1925)

This article is devoted to the attempt of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) to create a new fur trading empire in Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka during and after the Civil War (1919–1925). It was one of the most controversial and substantial attempts by a foreign company to do business in Soviet Russia, and therefore is a unique case study for understanding the relationship between the young USSR and foreign business. The Kamchatka expedition is often understood as a case of the HBC’s naive and poor judgment of the political risks involved. However, this article argues for a broader understanding of the expedition, one that takes into account specific business strategies, geo-economic Arctic developments, and the historical conditions in which trade in the area had unfolded in the decades leading up to the First World War. Concerning the last point, American traders based in Nome and Alaska had successfully traded in the Kamchatka area and set up a system in which they provided supplies to native and Russian communities in the Far East in return for furs (either by barter or for legal tender). Importantly, the system made inhabitants of the area dependent upon these supplies. The HBC’s endeavor in Kamchatka was an attempt to take over and continue these lucrative operations, but it also suited its expansionist business strategy elsewhere. From the early twentieth century, the HBC had been setting up new trade posts in the Canadian Arctic in a response to suffocating competition in mainland Canada. As such, the Kamchatka operation seemed like a logical extension of this expansionist strategy. In addition, doing business in the high north led private business to form specific expectations: state presence in the area was feeble, regardless of its political allegiance. The article, then, explores the fortunes of the company in Siberia. It shows that the company easily adapted to local conditions by successfully contracting local middlemen. It also shows that the difficulties of operating in the area were not only caused by underestimation of the political risks, but also because the company suffered from enormous logistical problems: it also had trouble adapting to the environmental circumstances, despite its experience in remote territories. The eventual restoration of territorial integrity initially brought about cooperation between the USSR and the HBC, illustrating that the USSR was aware of the pressing need to supply the area, even though such a policy was at odds with the state monopoly on trade. The cooperation ended with the withdrawal of the HBC, as it considered trade conditions too unpredictable.

The Russian Federation’s neo-imperial expansionist strategy for the Post-Soviet region discussed using the example of the Russo-Georgian conflict of 2008

The Russian Federation’s neo-imperial expansionist strategy for the Post-Soviet region discussed using the example of the Russo-Georgian conflict of 2008

Gambling for more: casinos as a development strategy for a shrinking Korean region

A South Korean former coal mining region, Gangwon Province, faced with a severe economic downturn and rapid out-migration, chose to develop a casino to revive its economy and to stabilise its shrinking population. More than a decade on, in spite of some positives from this expansionist strategy, population decline continues with no fundamental change to the relative economic position of the region. Using information from interviews, site visits, company reports and other relevant sources, this paper examines the impacts of the casino development on the region. The paper concludes that a development strategy with a well-designed institutional structure can ensure long term flow of benefits to the region, but a successful project is insufficient to arrest economic and population decline if the key issues are of national origin. A planning paradigm that takes into account national regional strategies, institutions that ensure benefits remain in the region and locally sustainable programmes are required.

The Japanese Colonial Medicine as Seen Through the Life of Fujita Tsuguakira

Fujita Tsuguakira was a man who established Jahyeuiwon, a governmental medical facility, during the Residency-General Period and took over the presidency of a committee in the Japanese Government-General of Chosun after Chosun was annexed to Japanese. In addition, he is a man well qualified to be placed on the top of the list when discussing the Japanese colonial medicine in Chosun, considering his personal history of getting evolved in the colonial rule of Taiwan for seven years as an army surgeon. He led the colonial medicine in Chosun for nine years before and after the Japanese annexation of Korea. He was engaged in almost all the areas related to the colonial medicine such as anti-cholera projects, Hansung Sanitation Union, Deahan Hospital, Chosun Chongdokbu Hospital, Jahyeuiwon, medical schools affiliated to the Japanese Government-General of Chosun. In all respects, his life was in sync with the expansionist strategies of Imperial Japan. Especially, his deeds in Chosun was an "active aid to the instructions" from Army Minister Terauchi Masatake " as Sato Kozo testifies. Fujita was chosen by the military, and so he faithfully served the role given from it. The rewards that he received form the military attest to this fact. He took the position of Surgeon General in Army Medical Service on September, 1912, the top place that an army surgeon could hold. The position was first given to the officer who worked outside Japan proper, and he was the only army surgeon with no doctorial degree to receive such title except for Ishiguro Tadanori who was the first army surgeon in Japan. To sum up, Fujita was not a "doctor" but a "military officer". His walk of life mainly lay in the role of an aider adjusted to the ups and downs and the speeds of the plans of Imperial Japan to invade the continent. Therefore, the Japanese colonial medicine controlled by such man as Fujita in Chosun was inevitably studded with the military things. As a chief in the army medicine, what was important to him was the hospitals for managing the armed troops and projects for preventing infectious disease that could threaten the military sanitation. As a result, the medical service for those under the colonial rule was naturally put on the back burner. This study was conducted mainly based on Fujita's memoirs called Army Surgeon General Fujita Tsuguakira (1943), and accordingly it would be not without limitations. However, as he is a man who cannot be put aside when discussing the Japanese colonial medicine in Chosun, the records by this study of his life and past activities are expected to give no small amount of contribution to these discussions.

Ressourcen-Extraktivismus oder Re-Industrialisierung?

Against the backdrop of the recent conflicts in the Ukraine and Syria the article examines Russia’s geopolitical strategy in the context of a “new world order”. Starting with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the beginning of capitalist reforms in the early 1990s the focus lies on the negotiation process of a new hegemonic consensus among the Russian elites represented by Vladimir Putin. Special attention is drawn to the role of the state and its key role stabilizing both social and power relations. Furthermore, the article analyses the expansionist strategies of Russian capital and its geopolitical interests, especially in the post-soviet space. The current financial and economic crisis has lead to conflicts among the elites on the resource-extractive mode of development and its one-sided dependency on natural resources. Therefore, the article highlights both the plans on import substitution and new integration process in the postsoviet space (Eurasian Union) asking whether these developments might contribute to a reconfiguration of Russia’s geopolitical role.

BEYOND SPACE AND TIME

This article examines the ‘deictic signature’ of the discourse worlds that are projected through representations of the Cold War and post-Cold War global security environments. I focus on the means by which US national security discourse creates ‘threat environments’ through historically specific renderings of the spatial configuration of global society and projections of the future. Specifically, I examine how the ‘powerhouse’ metaphor embedded within Henry Luce's conception of the ‘American Century', as well as the national security approach it implicated have reverberated within national security discourse at two moments of significant historical change: the inception of the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. I argue that the discourses marking both of these moments embed and project construals of geopolitical space and temporality which presuppose an atemporal and extraterritorial conception of US ‘national’ security interests. This conception, in turn, provides the rationale for an expansionist security strategy that focuses on shaping global society in ways that accord with US values and interests.

The Effectiveness of Leader Visits during the 2010 British General Election Campaign

Research Highlights and AbstractThis article showsThe impact of leader visits on local results in general election campaigns. The importance of party leaders in contemporary election campaigns. That leader visits impact vote share but not turnout. The extent to which incumbency plays an important part in leader visit effectiveness.The leaders of the three largest political parties in the UK spent a significant proportion of the 2010 general election campaign touring constituencies. However, the potential impact of such visits upon local party vote share and constituency turnout has remained relatively unstudied. This article, using original data collected in 2010, is the first to examine leader visits during UK election campaigns. The constituencies visited are typically marginal, and while Gordon Brown mostly limited his visits to Labour-held constituencies, the leaders of the other two parties ran more expansionist visit strategies. Exploring the ability of leader visits to affect turnout and vote share, the analysis shows that visits made no impact on local turnout, but the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats received a boost in vote share in constituencies when their leaders visited. Disaggregating this further, these boosts were received primarily in seats held by Labour prior to the election.