Foreign Buyers Research Articles

Monitoring the presence of chloramphenicol and nitrofuran metabolites in cultured prawn, shrimp and feed in the Southwest coastal region of Bangladesh

Presence of nitrofuran and chloramphenicol in farmed prawn and shrimp is a major concern in the export sector of Bangladesh. Rejections of consignments by the foreign buyers have been recurrent for the last couple of years due to detection of these banned antibiotics. The increasingly complex requirements for food safety assurance and traceability set by major export markets represent a threat to the trade of this significant sector. In this study, the status and trends of the presence of nitrofuran and chloramphenicol in freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man) and marine shrimp Penaeus monodon (Fabricius) and in their feeds in the Southwest coastal region of Bangladesh were investigated. The prawn/shrimp farmers, feed manufacturers and feed sellers were interviewed with well structured pre-tested Questionnaires. Antibiotic residues present in the animal muscles, feeds and feed ingredients were detected using LC–MS–MS by the Fish Inspection and Quality Control Wing of the Department of Fisheries. The study reveals that farmers did not deliberately use those banned antibiotics, but these chemicals were detected in many M. rosenbergii and P. monodon samples in 2008, 2009 and 2010, in both fresh muscles, pre-export and post-export consignments. The percentage of contamination with this banned antibiotics in M. rosenbergii samples were 17.74%, 22.89%, 13.60% and in P. monodon samples were 12.65%, 15.79%, 11.85% in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. Antibiotic residue data of 2008, 2009 and 2010 showed: (i) contamination of nitrofuran and chloramphenicol was more in M. rosenbergii than P. monodon; (ii) among four nitrofuran metabolites, nitrofurazone was found more frequently but in smaller quantities in 2009 and 2010; (iii) contamination of nitrofuran metabolites was more in prawns fed with commercial feed than those with home-made feed; and (iv) there has been a decreasing trend of the presence of nitrofuran and chloramphenicol in prawn and shrimp of Bangladesh.

Socio-Business Consideration of Garment Workers in Bangladesh: A Statistical Review

RMG sector is the most influential economic contributory sector in Bangladesh. Fifty percent and more revenue in GDP approximately are generated from this sector. Therefore, it is very much important to analyze the socio-business consideration of garment sector in Bangladesh. So far, since 80’s garment industries had been booming in Bangladesh. These types of industries face challenges and take the advantage over different opportunities throughout more than three decades. Here, this paper suggested that the socio-economic as well as the business-statistical review of the garment industries in Bangladesh by providing some field research. This paper attempted to provide an overview of the industry in monitoring, standard of living, mix assessment and compliance (which is provided by foreign buyers) aspects.

The ban on foreigners acquiring property rights on agricultural and forest land in Serbia and other region countries

In Serbia it is prescribed that foreign legal or natural persons could not become owners of agricultural land, while in Montenegro, Croatia and The Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina there is the ban for both agricultural and forest land. The aim of this paper is to show that such a ban creates an economic environment where an optimal allocation of agricultural and forest land as a production factor could not be achieved. The cost - benefit analysis shows that main gainers are domestic producers and buyers of land who are able to realize a monopoly profit, whereas sellers of land are at loss, getting a lower economic rent, as well as foreign buyers. A total loss of domestic sellers only is bigger than a total profit of buyers. In the end, it is being pointed to a relativity of the ban, in the sense of a possibility to easily get past the ban through provisions of the other norms. The conclusion points out that an eventual suspension of the ban would stimulate efficiency of domestic economies and an increase in the neto welfare.

Estimates of Unit Cost Reductions of the F-16 Fighter as a Result of U.S. Arms Export Production

Arms exports have increasingly become an attractive option for reducing escalating unit costs of new weapon systems to the United States Department of Defense. However, while there is no lack of conjecture, there is little data that show weapon system costs to the United States actually decrease when the same weapon is sold to a foreign buyer. The authors use the sale of the F-16 multi-role fighter aircraft to foreign nations as a case study to quantify the financial gains realized through learning and economies of scale attributed to export production. Using a rate-adjustment cost improvement analysis, the authors' case study shows the unit costs the United States Department of Defense would have incurred without the concurrent export production of F-16s. Estimates suggest that the production savings resulting from export production were in excess of the research, development, test, and evaluation costs of the F-16 for the period 1975 to 1991. The potential benefits associated with keeping the F-16 produ...

Tourism development and planning: The Case of Kalkan, Antalya, Turkey

This paper uses findings from research undertaken in 2005 by the author and two colleagues to discuss the shift from a comprehensive-holistic and integrated tourism planning to a market-oriented and ad hoc mode. It also discusses the implications of weak local policies in the absence of comprehensive and integrative regional planning frameworks. The original research was on the development and conservation problems experienced in the small tourism town of Kalkan in Turkey after changes to the legal system abolishing certain restrictions on foreign purchases of real estate. The researchers conducted a rapid assessment of the problems and issues and made recommendations for the local development and conservation of historical and natural sites. The report containing recommendations was prepared following a formal request from one of the non-governmental organizations in Kalkan. Thus, the selection of Kalkan was not a matter of considered academic choice. That said, the situation in Kalkan to a certain extent offers a good example of local sensitivity and concern regarding macro-economic policies decided at a national scale. At the time of writing, the report was the first written text reporting on local impacts of market liberalization and deregulation in the real estate sector.

State condition, foreign influence and alternative models of market reforms in China, Russia and Eastern Europe

China, Russia and Eastern Europe can be considered the principal examples of a massive globalization in the last two decades. All expanded their use of market forces but in terms of growth rates only China is an obvious success story; Russia is a failure, while Eastern Europe's record is lackluster. The diverse experience of these countries indicates that whether globalization succeeds or fails is a function of the condition of the state. With a strong state, China was able to undertake a gradual pattern of reforms that allowed firms to thrive. Because in Russia the state almost collapsed, reforms followed a chaotic model, throwing firms into a two-decade period of no growth. With less severe but still major state crises, Eastern Europeans followed a radical approach which locked firms into a massive downturn followed by weak growth thereafter. These economic outcomes validate the theoretical argument in favor of gradual reforms advanced by the so-called evolutionary (Austrian) economics of Joseph Schumpeter. Each of the three models of reform produced a different final type of economic system. In China a ‘corporatist structure’ with an activist but impartial state has emerged. In Russia we find ‘industrial feudalism’ with regional fiefdoms sharing power with the state, while Eastern Europe established ‘imported capitalism’, with the majority of industry and banking sold to foreigners. Foreign investors were assisted by their states in gaining access to state assets in these countries. Where these foreign states encountered weak states, as in Eastern Europe, the bulk of capital was transferred to the respective foreign buyers. But this was not the case in China, where the state agency has actually strengthened. In Russia, foreign states proved no match in asset acquisitions for the so-called oligarchs that emerged as a substitute for the largely defunct local state. It follows from these experiences that successful globalization does not involve markets replacing states. Instead, such globalization requires that the expansion of markets has to be paralleled by the expansion of states.

Spanish Cinema Roundup

The seventh annual edition of Spanish Film Screenings took place in the capital on June 18–20, 2012. Intended as the major professional event for the promotion of Spanish film, Madrid de cine (as it is also known) is organized by FAPAE (the producers’ association), ICAA (the film academy), and other bodies including the Madrid tourist authority. Sixty-six foreign buyers and twenty-four representatives of the international press (including your correspondent) were treated to meetings with Spanish sales agents and film crews and screenings of forty-three recent titles. In a uniquely Spanish touch, there was also a padrino, or godfather, for the event. Enrique Urbizu (director of No Rest for the Wicked, the most recent feature to gain the best film award at the Goyas or Spanish Oscars) gave an evocative and informative talk on ‘‘The Light of Madrid’’ high above the city in the tower of the Cibeles Palace. The location was emblematic for more than one reason. While the Cibeles statue in front of the palace is a famous symbol of the city, the huge building itself was recently transformed from central post office to town hall at ruinous expense. Coming as it did just days after Spain was granted a humiliating bailout (known significantly in Spanish as rescate—rescue) by the European Central Bank, Spanish Film Screenings provided a rare opportunity not only to take the commercial pulse of a national cinema, but also to ask what the future of such a mid-sized industry (and nation) might be at a time of unprecedented fiscal crisis. The Spanish case thus holds clues for the future of film elsewhere in Europe and beyond. At first things seemed surprisingly positive. A FAPAE report on 2011 suggested that, out of a total of 199 features made that year (the fourth-highest figure in Europe), the number of titles screened abroad had increased (by twentyone percent), as had the number of countries in which they were seen (by fifteen percent). In Mexico alone distribution had risen to thirty-six titles, higher than ever before. An award was presented to Agustin Almodovar, producer of The Skin I Live In, as the film with greatest international impact: to date it had been sold to forty-two countries and seen by 4.2 million people. In private interview, however, Pedro Perez, the head of the producers’ association, was more cautious. Spanish cinema had always been in crisis; and he hoped that his country, the first to go into recession, would also be the first to come out of it. But there were three new problems. Firstly, a change in the market meant that, in this current transitional period, box-office receipts were down but it was as yet unknown how to monetize new windows such as video-on-demand and Internet (the rate of piracy in Spain remains among the highest in the world). Such uncertainty damaged small businesses like Spanish production companies above all. Secondly, the very visible economic crisis in Spain cast a shadow over the industry. Thirdly, a recent change in government from the Socialists to the right-wing People’s Party had brought with it a shift in funding policy from state subsidies to fiscal incentives. The latter would prove insufficient to fund features, unless they were raised enough to reassure private investors, an initiative that might well be vetoed by the European Union on anti-competition grounds. Enrique Urbizu, Agustin Almodovar, and Pedro Perez at the Spanish Film Screenings awards ceremony Courtesy of FAPAE.

Deal structure decision in the global market for divested assets

We find that the deal structure decision to engage in a foreign asset purchase instead of acquiring a foreign target's equity is more likely when bidders are smaller, the bidder's proportion of foreign sales-to-total sales is higher and the target is in an unrelated industry. In addition, bidders tend to execute asset purchase transactions rather than acquiring a foreign target's equity when the target's corresponding country has a relatively favorable rating for rule of law, control of corruption, political stability and absence of violence, regulatory quality and economic freedom. We also find that bidders engaging in asset purchase transactions experience significantly more favorable valuation effects than those that acquire the equity of target firms.

How foreign firms curtail local supplier opportunism in China: Detailed contracts, centralized control, and relational governance

An ongoing debate in the interfirm exchange literature concerns whether economic and social governance mechanisms function as substitutes or complements. We advance a more nuanced approach to examining how detailed contracts and centralized control interact with relational governance differentially in curbing local supplier opportunism in emerging markets. We suggest that where legal institutions are weak, detailed contracts are ineffective in containing partner opportunism in contractually specified areas. Under such circumstances, relational governance provides a proxy for legal institutions to ensure contract execution. Meanwhile, relational governance serves as an alternative mechanism to centralized control for ensuring contingency adaptations. Based on a sample of 168 foreign buyer–local supplier exchanges in China, we find that relational governance complements detailed contracts but substitutes for centralized control in curtailing opportunism. Therefore foreign firms must be cautious in their combinative use of social and economic mechanisms in governing exchanges with local suppliers in emerging markets.

A Comparative Study of the Influence of Ethnocentrism on Foreign Product Evaluation and Purchase Intention between Korea and Japan

A Comparative Study of the Influence of Ethnocentrism on Foreign Product Evaluation and Purchase Intention between Korea and Japan

Consumer Ethnocentricity within the Environment of Economic Crisis

The purpose of this study is to examine consumer tendencies within the economic crisis, to examine consumer ethnocentrism (CE) among CEE consumers and its character and influence on buying domestic and foreign products. Based on broad existing theoretical and empirical knowledge, we constructed measures for this research derived from existing literature. The hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling. The analyzed sample consisted of 199 Czech respondents. The results confirm effect of CE on buying behavior as well as national identity influence on CE. In the Czech context, CE significantly and positively influenced domestic purchase behavior. Alternatively, there was only a marginal influence of CE supported its negative effect on foreign purchase behavior. Cosmopolitanism did not affect CE in the Czech context. Therefore, the research findings suggest a prevalent influence of CE on buying behavior under conditions of economic crisis. The paper concentrates on ignored area that was very hard hit by economic crisis in Central and Eastern Europe. The findings provide useful information to marketing specialists in designing their marketing strategies for local “made-in” communication campaigns. In addition, implications for retailers to evaluate their merchandise assortment portfolio are implied from the findings. We build on the positive influence of CE on buying behavior of domestic products versus foreign, and infer preference for freshness and quality of goods. This suggest implications for public policy implications related to local job creation and employment, especially within the area of small local producers, self-employment, development of local agriculture, as well as countryside maintenance. This issue seems to gain more importance and attention given the nature of the global economic crisis for consumers, producers, retailers and government. Potentially, there appears to be significant carryover effect related to the present and future integration processes of the CEE economies.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.23.3.1932

The China— Raw Materials Case and Its Impact (or Lack Thereof). on U.S. Downstream Industries

The recent rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization in the China--Raw Materials (1) case have important legal, economic, and policy implications for China and other WTO members. My presentation introduces the special features of this case and discusses its potential impact (or lack thereof) on U.S. downstream industries, using Midwest companies as examples. The discussion seeks to elucidate the complexity confronting the world trading system. THE CHINA--RAW MATERIALS CASE (2) Background China--Raw Materials is a WTO dispute brought by the United States, the European Union, and Mexico against China in 2009. At issue were tariff and nontariff measures adopted by China to restrict the export of nine types of raw materials (bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide, silicon metal, yellow phosphorus, and zinc). The complainants challenged these measures as inconsistent with the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and of China's Accession Protocol (the Protocol). (3) China defended its measures by invoking GATT Article XX(g), which excuses measures relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources, and Article XX(b), which allows measures necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life or health. China's defense was rejected by the WTO judiciary. The WTO judiciary made two key findings. First, it found that China's export duties breached China's obligation to eliminate export duties under Paragraph 11.3 of the Protocol, and that China may not invoke GATT Article XX to justify this breach because there is no textual link between Paragraph 11.3 and the GATT provision. Second, it found that China's export restrictions violated GATT Article XI: 1, which prohibits all quantitative restrictions on imports and exports, and that the violation cannot be excused by the environmental exceptions under Article XX(b) or (g) because China failed to demonstrate that it has similarly restricted domestic consumption. Implications for China's Industrial and Environmental Policies The WTO rulings have serious implications for China's industrial and environmental policies. For years, China has overexploited its natural resources at the expense of environmental degradation and resource depletion. With only limited natural resources, China nonetheless has been exporting raw materials at cut-rate prices, driving out foreign competition and making itself a major supplier to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, rapid industrialization at home has increased domestic demand for raw materials tremendously. Realizing that China badly needs to conserve exhaustible natural resources and protect the environment, but not wanting to hinder development of domestic downstream industries, the government has resorted to export restrictions to reduce foreign consumption without simultaneously curbing domestic consumption. This policy, however, can no longer be pursued. Under the WTO rulings, China must treat domestic and foreign users evenhandedly in the distribution of its resource products. Domestic industries may not be given preference over foreign purchasers with respect to access to China's raw materials. If for whatever reason China is unable to implement proper environmental standards in the production of raw materials, resulting in subsidization of its domestic industries with low-priced resources, then it must do the same for foreign buyers, while bearing the consequences of environmental degradation at home. It is important to understand that China's predicament stems from its special commitment to eliminate export duties. Currently, GATT rules prohibit quantitative restrictions on exports, but permit the use of export tariffs. Since tariff and nontariff measures can achieve the same effect of limiting exports, the WTO discipline on export restrictions has been rendered largely ineffective. …

Accessing marketing channels in emerging markets: the case of small-scale cooperatives in central Mexico

Small-scale producers in emerging markets have a particularly difficult time accessing the same marketing channels which are available to their larger counterparts. Cooperatives are an oft-recommended solution, allowing members to collectively mimic the advantages of larger producers. In this study, we explore whether or not cooperatives in Mexico demonstrate these expectations. Using depth interviews of seven farm and non-farm rural cooperatives, we find that participation in export channels is extremely limited and that the patterns of market access can be explained in part by differences in vision, quality of leadership, and cultural influences. Leaders are also generally underprepared for the business environment which they attempt to access, suggesting that educational initiatives which build business capacity be developed. Foreign buyers attempting to work with cooperatives (and possibly other small businesses) in emerging markets ought to account for the different foundations and expectations of their transaction partners.

The visions and strategies of the GCC countries from the perspective of reforms: the case of Qatar

The countries of the Arab Gulf have witnessed a wave of production of ‘national’ strategies and ‘vision’ initiatives, most of which have been developed by foreign firms and consultants, and many of which were drafted in English. Two examples of these that form the basis of analysis of this article are the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV) issued in 2008 and followed up by the Qatar National Developmental Strategy 2011–2016 (QNDS) in 2011. Neither document was subjected to public referendum, and many of those directly involved in Qatar's central planning were unable even to obtain copies until after publication in final form. Both are problematic for reason of vague or undefined terms, lack of concrete goals, as well as any explicit mention of political development in the country. Even more serious is the question of citizenship, where the huge expatriate populations and permanent residence concessions granted on the basis of ownership of real estate threaten to undermine Arab Qatari identity – a situation aggravated further when English was made the official language of instruction in education and a primary language of administration. This latter development also had the effect of dwindling participation of Qatari citizens in the labour force – already low at 14% in 2001 – to a mere 6% in 2009. The article examines four major deficiencies inherent in Qatar in light of the QNV and QNDS: economic–productive, labour force, political and security. Of these, mention of the political deficiency is conspicuously absent from both documents (where there is not a single mention of terms such as ‘democracy’, ‘citizenship’ or ‘elections’) and both the labour force and economic–productive deficiencies are addressed in terms more relevant and favourable to foreign concerns than those of native Qataris. In the final analysis, both the QNV and QNDS are reflective of Qatar's severe demographic anomaly where the number of Qatari citizens was estimated to be only 230,000 out of a total population of 1.64 million in 2010; and official policy in terms of both the labour market and the granting of permanent residence on the basis of unregulated foreign purchases of real estate and investment only serves to perpetuate an already precarious situation. If Qatar is unable to restructure and reform its policies to the benefit of the indigenous Arab population, the matter of identity and the future character of the country threaten to be matters of serious doubt by the end date of the QNV in 2030, if not well before then.

Taiwan Air Force Logistics System of Research Governance

Taiwan Air Force attempts to dress the century into the military logistics fleet management information governance challenges and solutions for the problem, I explore the Department of Defense and the Air Force General Command of the face when the United States, China, Taiwan triangular relationship and interaction development, I Taiwan, F100, F104 old multi-session retreat, an opportunity to the international situation easy to help the world's consumption of the United States, IDF130 French Mirage 2000 aircraft with 60 U.S. F16A / B fighters, 150. 1979 to 1996 while the Air Force replacement of old aircraft and the Army a total of 340 aircraft and five companies. Up to five kinds of aircraft types, there are cross-generational, cross-type, cross-border differences, and my task, repair, supplies, etc. have a direct long-term implications. Was the need to actively seek foreign buyers, so the secret meaning to contact the French Mirage 2000 fighter procurement, Taiwan also has four planes incompatible and independent logistics system? At this point the core operation of the Air Force logistics management, and supply sources and the implementation of cross-system benefits, there are still logistical bar code conversion, how to face the army in 1990, the Air Force effective governance, effective logistics to enhance the Air Force repair capability to ensure air superiority over the Taiwan Strait security and integration of armed forces combat capability. We provide this experience for the successful teaching of business management related discussions to enhance the graduate student's thinking and decision-making capacity.

The Shareholder Wealth Effects of Target Firms of Foreign Buyers in the Korea Stock Market

The Shareholder Wealth Effects of Target Firms of Foreign Buyers in the Korea Stock Market

What determines the price of a racing horse?

This article uses the data of 10 auctions from the two largest Australian auction houses to study how a racing horse is priced. We ask whether bloodline is indeed a determining factor. We find that the track record of its parents and siblings are important factors in determining the price of a yearling. Moreover, more mature horses and those purchased by foreign buyers are generally more expensive. We also show that racing horses sold in the flagship auctions are associated with a significant premium.

The Impact of Status Orientations on Purchase Preference for Foreign Products in Vietnam, and Implications for Policy and Society

In this article, the authors examine the impact of status orientations on consumer purchase preferences for foreign products, an emerging disposition in Vietnam. Both qualitative (in-depth interviews and focus groups) and quantitative methods (survey with urban Vietnamese consumers) were employed in this investigation. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) provided empirical evidence for the positive influence of modern status orientation (MSO) on willingness to buy imported products. Traditional status orientation (TSO) was found not to be a predictor of willingness to buy. Consistent with the findings from literature, consumer ethnocentrism was negatively related to willingness to buy imported products. Implications for public policy and marketers pertaining to the emerging proclivity of status-seeking foreign purchase and the social motives underlying this phenomenon are provided.

Preferred - Habitat Investors and the US Term Structure of Real Rates

We estimate structurally a model of the term structure of interest rates that is consistent with no arbitrage but allows for demand pressures. The term structure in our model is determined through the interaction of risk-averse arbitrageurs and preferred-habitat investors with preferences for specific maturities. The model is estimated on US real rates during the 2000s and allows for two factors: one corresponding to the short rate and one to preferred - habitat demand. We find that the puzzling drop in long rates during 2004-05 (Greenspan conundrum) is driven by the demand factor. International reserves, foreign official holdings of longer-term US Treasuries may all be proxies for the preferred - habitat demand factor. For example, foreign purchases in the year to July 2004 appear to have lowered the ten-year rate by about 100 basis points. Foreign purchases have larger effects following periods when arbitrageurs have lost money.

A long‐term analysis of housing affordability in Malta

PurposeThe paper aims at analyzing trends and principal causes of developments in‐house prices in Malta over the past 26 years, with a specific focus on the issue of affordability. This focusing on the strong demand for home ownership and interest from foreign buyers, supply availability together with its relationship to the high vacancy rate existing. Also delved into include the distortions in the rental market, sustainable housing measures, housing densities and high‐rise developments. Finally, noted is the implication on the use of housing as an investment asset in relation to trading on Malta's Stock ExchangeDesign/methodology/approachA long‐term approach has been utilized to arrive at deductions. Comparisons undertaken taken mostly with small states.FindingsThe present global credit crunch can offer some relief with regard to housing affordability for first time Maltese home buyers. Updating of restricted home rentals can lead to an improved working for the Maltese property market, with some of the large proportion of vacant units being released onto the market.Research limitations/implicationsBased on data collected from National Statistics, together with data bases held in the practice of DHI Periti.Practical implicationsIt derives projections for likely future developments in this context and in the light of this discusses some policy options.Social implicationsAn improvement into the quality of life for Maltese households delved into, whilst providing measures for households not to fall below the poverty line also indicated.Originality/valueGives original views on projections for the housing affordability index, together with noting that a large vacant property market for the Mediterranean region possibly creates minimal damage to its proper functioning.