Vol. 5(7) July 2012
Economic Globalization, Trade Gap and the Role of China
Wei Hao*, Huang Haoji1 and Wang Xi2
. School of Economics and Business Administration, Beijing Normal University, 19
Xinjiekou Wai Street, Beijing, P.R. CHINA
2. School of International Business, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing
100083, P.R. CHINA
* weihao9989@163.com
This paper analyzes the foreign trade gap between 36 countries and regions and the
role China played from 1978 to 2007. The study finds that the absolute gap among
those countries increases but the relative gap decreases, the gap between the developing
and the developed decreases, the inter-regional gap of the developed is bigger than
the developing. The risk of foreign trade gap between the countries decreases. China
has played a significant role in the expansion of foreign trade gaps between countries
and regions. So it is necessary for China to change the model of foreign trade.
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Global Food Crisis: Policy Lapses or Market Failure?
Ojha Ruby
PG Dept. of Economics, SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate, Mumbai 400 020, INDIA
ojha.ruby@gmail.com
It is said that markets are ruthless. In a brutal world of capitalist agriculture,
some people are making alternative uses of food and are even destroying that because
prices are too low andothers are dying of hunger and literally eating dirt because
food prices are too high. In some countries the starving masses are going to the
streets and becoming militants out of desperation when they find it impossible to
feed their hungry children. Skyrocketing food prices are threatening stability of
many governments around the world. International food prices remain volatile and
high with the 2011 annual index 24 percent higher than its average in 2010. Prices
of certain foods remain dangerously high in many countries, leaving millions of
people at risk of malnutrition and hunger. As per “Price Volatility in Food
and Agricultural Markets: Policy Responses” (2 June 2011) estimates, numbers
of hungry people in the world rose from 820 million in 2007 to more than a billion
in 2009. Though the numbers of hungry people have since dropped to about 900 million
but these events have increased the number of chronically under-nourished, even
during periods of relatively normal prices and low volatility.
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Motivation as a Strategy to enhance Organizational Productivity
Singh Satyendra Kumar
Saipem India Projects Limited, Elegance Tower, 6th floor, Jasola District Centre,
Off Mathura Road, New Delhi-110025, INDIA
sty_singh@yahoo.com
An organization can enhance its productivity without any substantial cost addition
if it can motivate its people to contribute their best to accomplishing organizational
tasks. This requires planning and implementing the motivation strategy effectively
and successfully. If the motivation strategy can be formulated and implemented effectively
and successfully, then it results into more work given the same inputs thus increasing
the productivity of the organization. However, this is one of the most challenging
tasks for the managers of an organization. This is because they have to first identify
the factors which can motivate the people. For this they have to understand the
behaviour of the people at the work as work behaviour of the people is a clear indicator
of what needs they try to satisfy in work place. This study deals with various work
behaviours of the employees of an organization and how those behaviours are related
with needs of the people which they try to satisfy through their work; and different
motivation strategies in different situations.
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Challenges in Strategic Decision Making and the Corresponding Solution Approaches
Weng Marc Lim
School of Business, Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria 3145, AUSTRALIA
lim.weng.marc@monash.edu
Understanding and mastering the skill of making good strategic decisions for firms
has become increasingly important in the modern global economy. In a rapidly globalizing
modern economy, expectations of firms from their employees are no longer limited
to a functionally fluent specialization – accounting or marketing.3 In fact, there
is an increased importance to understand and master the skill of making good strategic
decisions. According to Hambrick and Fedrickson17, strategic decisions are actions
carried out by firms to realize its goals and objectives. Nevertheless, strategic
decisions are not made effortlessly and are often accompanied by derailing challenges
– good techniques are required to manage these challenges. Accordingly, the aim
of this paper is to address the challenges facing firms when making strategic decisions
and how these challenges are managed with relevant supporting empirical evidences.
The articulation of arguments in the paper will focus on strategic decision challenges
that firms face externally and internally using empirical evidences from real life
cases and news reports.
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Business Prospects of German SMEs in China after the Economic Crisis
Hecker Sebastian
University of Pecs, Department of Business Administration, Rákóczi út 80, 7622,
Pécs, HUNGARY
hecker.seb@gmail.com
Due to the rapid change of the economical environment in China and especially in
the context after the economic crisis research questions became evident on how German
small and medium sized enterprises (SME) that have set up their firms in China in
the past evaluate their future within the Chinese market. Therefore a study has
been conducted where German SMEs in China have been asked to give an estimation
on their future business environment e.g. their future sales environment, their
future legal and public environment and their future internal operations in China.
The study results draw a very positive picture on the future Chinese business environment.
In many aspects the German SMEs assess the prospects to be more appealing than they
are today. Especially in terms of their own company development German SME expect
high growth rates. Regarding the economic crisis no major drawbacks can be detected.
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Case Study:
Korean Importers’ Evaluations of Exporters’ Marketing Practices
Ha Jungbok
Pyeongtack University, Department of Business Administration, 111 Yongi-dong, Pyeogntaek-si,
Gyeonggi-do, 450-407, SOUTH KOREA
jbha@ptu.ac.kr
As the growth of the international trade becomes one of the major global trends,
the relationship between buyers and sellers is considered as fundamental importance
for both parties. However, most of the research in international trade has been
focused on the seller (exporter) side rather than buyer (importer) side. Since the
marketing has always recognized the importance of customers’ needs and wants, it
is natural thing for marketers to think of the buyer’s side along with the seller’s
side and also modern international marketing emphasizes the importance of understanding
and satisfying overseas customers’ needs for success in global markets. This study
examined Korean importers’ concerns on their exporters’ marketing practices. A sample
of 120 Korean trading companies was surveyed on their U.S., Japan, and European
exporters’ marketing practices and several valuable implications were drawn.
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Case Study:
Innovative Business Development Model: The Diasporic Dimension
Pandit Nirali1* and Chari Vijaylaxmi2
1. Chimanbhai Patel Institute of Management and Research, Ahmedabad (Gujarat), INDIA
2. S.D. School of Commerce, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad (Gujarat), INDIA
*niralipandit@gmail.com
Business development model innovation is perceived as a way to not just grow profit
but also as a way to avert threats from competitors. Business development model
innovation is a natural evolution process, recognizing that change is inevitable
and is needed once a business model has run its planned course. Therefore, in pursuit
of growth, entrepreneurs make major structural changes, collapsing organizational
boundaries and leveraging resource procurement from abroad. For centuries, business
travelled abroad for many reasons that include availability of raw material (spice
trade), availability of technology, (industrial revolution), availability of labor
(continuous migrations) and more recently the availability of market demand (emerging
economies). Over and above all this was the migration of capital. This gave birth
to multinational corporations (MNCs). The MNCs were generally huge business conglomerates
which could easily entrench themselves in any market abroad. Later on, the MNC system
transformed into diversification of production activities, aboard. This large scale
MNC business dispersion is now being shifted to medium and small scale business
also. But the pattern of international business linkage at small and medium level
is far different from the joint venture, subsidiary, mergers, acquisition or franchisee
mode adopted by MNCs. The international business linkage follows a more informal
and dispersed model. The main factors which decide this innovative model is the
urge of Diaspora for business expansion because of easily available transportation
facilities, technology transfers, capital transfers, market accessibility, product
development, market intelligence, government regulations and promotions etc.
But more important than these are nonbusiness relations like availability of inside
information through family relations, techniques of dealing with government and
financial institution, cultural aspects and social networking. These business innovative
relations are going to have a significant impact on the growth of business through
factors that include cost reduction, strategic flexibility, focus and specialization,
advantage of being able to rapidly exploit new markets and product opportunities
and shared or reduced risk of capital investment. This is illustrated through a
case of a garment manufacturing unit’s business model in Surat Apparel Park.
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Case Study:
Emotional Intelligence and Occupational Stress among the Faculty Members of
Private Medical and Engineering Colleges of Uttar Pradesh: A Comparative Study
Singh Indoo* and Jha Ajeya
Department of Management Studies, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Majitar,
Rangpo, Sikkim, INDIA
*smit.indoo@gmail.com
Prior studies have revealed that emotional intelligence (EI) helps in managing the
stress in personal as well as professional life. But the scope of the earlier studies
was mostly limited to corporate sector and in the field of education they were limited
to the stress in the school teachers. This study tries to find the correlation between
emotional intelligence (EI) and occupational stress in the faculty members of privatestressful.
The purpose is also to see if there is any organizational and gender difference
in the two variables under study. Better stress management leads to better efficiency
in any field of work. Hence it can be assumed that if the faculty members have better
EI, they will feel less stressed and will eventually have better teaching performance
especially when we talk about private colleges where the demand and expectations
of the students, parents and management are very high. The present study revealed
a strong correlation between emotional intelligence and occupational stress of the
faculty members. It also revealed a significant difference in the EI of the medical
and engineering faculty members with latter having higher EI but the difference
in their occupational stress index (OSI) scores was insignificant. Gender wise difference
on the scores of OSI and EI was also not significant.
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The Impact of CSR Perception on Job Attitudes of Employees in India
Patel Nisha Vishnubhai
Department of Commerce and Business Management, Faculty of Commerce, The M.S. University
of Baroda, Baroda-390005, (Gujarat), INDIA
nisha_patel1405@yahoo.com
Corporate social responsibility is considered as voluntary behavior that contributes
to the society welfare. Corporations should not only concentrate on their economic
and business outcomes, but also give attention of their effect on the society and
environment. The expectations from organization are to improve their employees’
quality of life as well as the well being of employees’ families, local communities
and overall society.
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A Study on Investor’s perceptions towards Corporate Reporting
Practices in India
Nayak Keyur M.
Laxmi Institute of Management, Sarigam, P. O., Valsad – 396155 (Guj.), INDIA
Keyur.lims@lvs.co.in
The primary objective of this study is to investigate the perceptions of the investors
regarding the availability, adequacy and usefulness of information disclosed by
the companies listed on the stock exchange. A survey methodology was used involving
a selected sample of the investors, i.e. Salaried and Professional Investors, Analysts.
The corporate reporting disclosure practices and the satisfaction by the type of
investors is tested with the help of chi-square test in respect of the following
parameters viz. Disclosure of Information in Directors' Report, Disclosure of Risk
exposure of the company and Disclosure of information in the annual report and Corporate
governance report. The primary data had been collected in the Valsad District of
Gujarat State using structured questionnaire. Results demonstrated that users perceive
reported information as neither adequate nor relevant to investment decisions.
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