Firms In Developed Economies Research Articles

Corporate social performances of firms in select developed economies: A comparative study

Corporate Social Performances (CSP) has a determining role in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores of firms. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy scores in the ESG ratings can provide a measure of the CSP concerts of firms. We observe in this research, the mean differences in the CSR strategy scores and the ESG scores of firms in select developed economies such as; US, UK, Japan, and Australia, representing different geographical regions globally. Thomson Reuters ESG scores based on ten major parameters and over 400 company level indicators are used to empirically evidence the study. The initial data of average performances on ESG indicators of 939 firms considered for a period of five years from 2014 to 2018 is analyzed. The results imply that the mean differences in the CSR strategy scores are not significant, considering the developed economies, deliberated in the study. Along with that, we observe a significant mean difference in the ESG scores of Australian firms considered for the study, in comparison with the firms from other developed economies. And the study confirm that the CSR strategy scores are significant predictors of ESG performance scores of firms in the developed economies considered for study.

Board of director attributes and CSR engagement in emerging economy firms: Evidence from across Asia

This study investigates the relationship between the board of director attributes and corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement across a sample of Asian emerging economy firms. We find a statistically positive relationship between CSR engagement and several directors' attributes including their political influence, international experience, business expertise, other directorships held and independence from management. These empirical results indicate that while corporate governance recommendations designed for developed economy firms are relevant for emerging economy firms, additional director attributes are also important in encouraging CSR engagement in emerging economy firms given the divergent institutional and resource dependency issues they face.

Internet Business Practices Across the Globe: Lessons from Emerging Economies

Firms in emerging economies are rapidly becoming formidable competitors to long-established industry leaders from developed economies. In some cases, emerging-economy firms are acquiring developed-economy firms, such as the recent acquisitions of Jaguar by Tata Motors and Gateway by Acer. Aside from anecdotal reports of high-level corporate strategies adopted by certain emerging-economy firms, there is little scholarly evidence concerning the operational details of how emerging-economy firms are becoming competitive with developed-economy firms. A common explanation is labor cost or currency advantages in emerging economies. As emerging-economy firms also compete effectively in developed economies using developed-economy resources, this cannot be the entire explanation. We propose another explanation, based on dissimilar adaptation of the Internet to enable and reinforce business practices related to customer relationships and supply chain integration.This paper draws on original survey data from over 450 firms across 10 countries as well as case examples to illuminate three key ways that Internet business practices differ between developed- and emerging-economy firms. First, compared with developed-economy firms, emerging-economy firms place a relatively higher priority on using the Internet to achieve strong customer relationships via service and support. Second, emerging-economy firms place a relatively higher priority on using the Internet to integrate processes with suppliers than do developed-economy firms. Finally, emerging-economy firms are relatively more driven to adopt Internet business practices to expand existing markets and enter new markets, and accordingly report a relatively greater impact to international sales growth compared with developed-economy firms. Our findings suggest that managers in developed-economy firms would be wise to re-assess and re-evaluate their use of Internet business practices - in particular, in the areas of customer relationships and supply chain integration - to retain competitiveness in the dynamic global economy.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Gender Diversity: Insights from Asia Pacific

AbstractA growing body of empirical evidence suggests a positive link between boardroom gender diversity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in developed economy firms. However, there is a paucity of evidence regarding whether this relationship holds true for developing economy firms. Relying on stakeholder and institutional theory, this study examines for a positive link between board gender diversity and enhanced corporate social performance of firms across three Asia Pacific emerging economies (Malaysia, Pakistan, and Thailand). We find a significant relationship between board gender diversity and enhanced adoption of CSR in these emerging markets. Given that emerging societies and their environments are often the most vulnerable to unethical corporate practices, our finding that female directors can play a strategic role in enabling firms to ethically manage their social responsibilities and sustainable practices has important policy implications for regulators and stakeholders. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

An Elementary Theoretical Approach to the Smiling Curvee with Implications for Outsourcing Industrialisationn

This paper explores an economic model to interrogate the validity of the U-shaped curve (often called ‘smiling curve’) to describe sequential stages of a flow of a product from ‘upstream’ to ‘midstream’ and to ‘downstream, commonly used in the management and international business circle. These interdependent stages bear different costs and yield different returns. From the upstream enterprises’ viewpoint, to allow production to be undertaken by someone else in the less profitable midstream is a rational choice of ‘outsourcing’. Meanwhile, to join such a chain by firms in less developed economies seems to be an easy way to industrialise, hence the term of ‘outsourcing industrialisation’.Our findings indicate that the U shape is not as universal and fixed as one might think. For that end, we develop a theoretical model with empirical evidence from a range of industries. It becomes clear that a U-shaped smiling curve mainly exists in labour-intensive and technology-intensive industries where upstream and downstream firms are often more profitable. But in the capital-intensive sector, it is an inverted U shape that dominates the industry. An inverted U can also appear in the technology-intensive sector. In this context, the midstream, where developing economies are often located, is not necessarily disadvantageous in profit-making. This finding collides with common intuition regarding the capital-intensive sector. The implication is that firms in developing economies should engage outsourcing more in the capital-intensive sector despite their alleged lack of capital.Our findings enable us to have some new insight on industrial development strategies on both the firm and country levels in an increasingly globalising world.

EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT MODE ON FIRM PERFORMANCE IN EMERGING ECONOMY

Roles played by various modes of developing technological knowledge differ across emerging economy firms and developed economy firms. These modes are therefore expected to have different implication on performance of these two types of firms. Extant literature on technology management has developed theoretical insights on developed economy context but has hardly addressed the emerging economy context. Addressing this gap, this paper explores how different modes of technological knowledge development in emerging economies influence firm performance for an extended period of time. The multi-industry longitudinal study of 3026 manufacturing firms in India reveals: payoffs from investments in different modes of technological knowledge development occurs over an extended period of time, but are different in nature (positive vis-a-vis negative) at different points of time. The pattern of payoff depends on the dimensions of performance and on the mode of technological knowledge development. The research contribu...

Comparisons of Japanese Multinationals and Other Firms in Thailand’s Non-oil Manufacturing Industries

This study compares average labour productivity, capital intensity, wages, skill intensity, foreign labour dependence, and trade propensities in Japanese firms and other firms in Thai land's non-oil manufacturing industries in 1990. Firm-level analysis reveals that Japanese firms tend to be relatively capital intensive compared to all other firm groups, pay higher wages compared to local firms as do other foreign firms, be less skill intensive than firms from developed economies, and depend more on foreign workers than do local firms or other developed economy firms, though this dependence is even higher in developing economy firms. All firms with high foreign ownership shares had relatively large export propensities. However, there were few differences between local firms and foreign firms in labour produc tivity and import propensities. Results thus indicate that Japanese multinationals may not differ that much from other multinationals in many respects, despite obvious differences in corporate structures and practices.