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Der Markt für Milchprodukte stellt mit seiner Größe ein bedeutendes Potenzial für pflanzliche Alternativen wie Hafermilch dar. In diesen Markt hineinzuwachsen und Kuhmilch teilweise zu verdrängen erscheint in Anbetracht des wachsenden Trends der Reduktion tierischer Produkte derweilen realistisch. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird eine Kommunikationskampagne entwi-ckelt, die sich direkt an die Konsumenten von Kuhmilch richtet und sie davon überzeugen soll, teilweise oder vollständig auf Hafermilch umzusteigen. Herausfordernd ist dabei, das habituelle Kaufverhalten der Kuhmilchkonsumenten zu durchbrechen. Sekundärforschung, ein Fokus-gruppeninterview sowie eine Online-Befragung legen nahe, dass eine Kampagne am Ort des Kaufes der Produkte am meisten Erfolg verspricht. Das dortige gewohnte Umfeld muss mit Kaufanreizen ausgestattet werden, um das habituelle Kaufverhalten zu durchbrechen. Außerdem sollte die Werbung an die Motive der Kuhmilchkonsumenten appellieren und sie dazu bringen, das gewohnte Verhalten bewusst zu kontrollieren. Weiterhin sollten Influencer in die Kampagne intergiert werden, da Hafermilch besonders häufig durch Empfehlung von Freunden gekauft wird. Überzeugend wirken auch verständlich aufbereitete Produktinformationen sowie die Be-tonung von Convenience und Modernität der Hafermilch.
Currently, our market economy as embedded in a capitalist system does not account for the sustainability of the environment on which scarce resources it relies beyond their market value. The environmental throughput in the form of CO2 emissions as a consequence of the energy consumed by the market for its economic growth is considered an externality for which the market does not account. This has led to a situation of overshooting the Earth’s environmental capacity to the extent that our human society risks collapse within this century. This paper researches the question of how our mainstream economic theory must change to ensure a sustainable way of life for the current and future generations under the environmental boundaries.
According to mainstream economic theory, a price on externalities like CO2 emissions lowers their consumption, and substitutes are found. Although this might reduce CO2 emissions, it does not prevent other environmental damages, like biodiversity loss. The price of the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is currently calculated by governing bodies via Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) which in this paper is represented by the work of William Nordhaus and his Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy (DICE) model.
Contrary to the neoclassical economic theory we research the transdisciplinary field of ecological economics, represented by Kate Raworth and her Doughnut model. This paper explores the shortcomings of mainstream economic theory to develop economic thinking beyond the management of scarce resources in a limited market economy towards the sustainable management of our planetary household and its species well-being. The research method in this paper is the analysis of secondary sources, more specifically academic literature, reports, journalistic articles, and results of climate models.
It is concluded that ecological economics sufficiently extends mainstream economic theory around environmental accountability to constrain economic growth and mitigate harm to the Earth’s system. IAM modelling is highly arbitrary and must be seen as one of many tools of political-environmental decision making. A high carbon emissions price is nonetheless required to reduce carbon emissions. The question, if the political mainstream adopts the principles of ecological economics fast enough to avert the worst climate consequences, remains unanswered. The current level of green policy implementation is not analysed.
Abstract
Research on the practice of revitalization strategies in developed countries is
growing, but there are still relatively few examinations of specific strikes conducted
in connection with such strategies. This thesis would like to fill this gap.
Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s and Hickey’s (2004) conceptualization of the
comprehensive campaign as a multifaceted approach, one that has notably been
utilized in the SEIU’s ‘Justice for Janitors’ campaign, this thesis examines how
both the IG BAU and the FNV-Bondgenoten have made use of elements of this
approach in strike action. Analyzing data obtained through expert interviews,
published documents and newspaper reports, I argue that both trade unions have
shown that it is possible to pursue industrial action even with reduced membership
density, while using elements of organizing.
Abstract:
The VW emissions scandal uncovered significant deficiencies in the sustainability
performance of numerous automotive producers. This raised the question,
whether sustainability reporting still reflects the real-life sustainability performance
in the automotive industry. If sustainability reporting was transparent and honest,
the tone of the reports should have been a more critical one in recent years. To
test this, a quantitative and a qualitative study were conducted. While in the
quantitative study, it was analyzed in which way automotive producers present
themselves in their sustainability reports, the qualitative study focused on their
real-life sustainability deficiencies. The results suggest that on an industry level,
sustainability reporting widely fails as an indicator of real-life sustainability. All
companies presented their sustainability actions in a highly positive way, although
more than two thirds of them were involved in sustainability scandals. However,
this result cannot be exactly confirmed on a company level. While the average
relationships are weak, they still rather suggest that those companies which
present themselves in the most positive way tend to perform the best and vice
versa. Since this only reflects the relative differences in the companies’ selfpresentation,
it hardly contradicts the main finding of the study: Sustainability
Reporting as it is used in today’s automotive industry rather serves embellishment
than transparency purposes.
This research aims to contribute to the field of sensory marketing for tourist destinations as perceived by tourists from Poland and from China who visited Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, China. It explores and applies the theoretical background related to tourism marketing, sensory experiences, sensory marketing in a cross-cultural context. Furthermore, it especially focuses and gives insights regarding tourist sensory impressions and their impact on destination loyalty. The importance and role of sensory impressions in destination loyalty is emphasized by current research in the fields of tourism, marketing and culture, and supported by an interdisciplinary view of the role of sensory experiences in tourism and of senses in experiential aspects. The cultural management approach highlights the importance of minding the country of origin in marketing processes. A two-step exploratory study was conducted among the Polish and Chinese traveler groups who have visited Chengdu and their sensory experiences were measured. The findings suggest that sensory experiences significantly impact destination loyalty in both traveler groups, especially in gustatory and visual experiences. Moreover, the country of origin is significant in two sensory groups, visual and auditory, and their impact on loyalty is stronger among the Polish group.
A Deep Reinforcement Learning Agent Using Multiple Assets Financial Signals for Portfolio Management
(2019)
In this study, we investigated possible applications of reinforcement learning in the area of portfolio management. Aa specific topology of reinforcement learning is choosen to study the feasibility, Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), to train neural networks to perform trade in an environment simulated real world trading. The results show that the DDPG agent is able to learn price pattern and perform profitable trades. In single stock backtest, the DDPG is able to generate an annual return of 7%. While in multiple stocks backtest, DDPG agent can generate an annual return of 12%.
Startup incubation at universities is becoming increasingly important due to their ability to promote entrepreneurship among students and to increase the chance of survival of the created ventures. Moreover, due to the typically longer years of work experience of MBA students relative to other students, MBA students represent a key segment that such programs should target as previous research has shown that experience is a success factor in startup founders. However, there is little research in available literature on how to design startup incubation programs to maximize the participation and success of MBA students.
In this thesis, startup incubation programs at some leading universities around the world is surveyed. The goal is to come up with a framework inspired by the traits, internal or eco-system based, common to the successful university-based startup incubators. By evaluating these success factors with the preferences of MBA students, the thesis proposes certain services or processes that should be considered to design a university-based incubation program for MBA students. The result will be useful to university managers seeking to build an enduring entrepreneurial ecosystem and improve the entrepreneurial support services at their universities, especially for MBA students.
The thesis is composed of two aspects: first and foremost, desk research is conducted to catalogue the support services that are available to student entrepreneurs at some leading university-based startup incubators around the world. Secondly, a case study of part-time MBA students at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) is conducted through a survey and series of interviews. The study reveals several interesting results:
• All the studied startup incubators offer comparable basic services including, mentorship, workspace, seminars, funding, network, etc. The key difference is how those services are provisioned and the extent to which they use specific services to differentiate themselves.
• The universities place entrepreneurship at a center stage with the involvement of the universities’ top management and several institutions within and outside the universities, i.e., they build entrepreneurial ecosystems, rather than isolated startup incubation programs.
• The universities leverage their relative strengths or situation in their entrepreneurial support services e.g., technologically oriented universities such as MIT, Technion, NUS and TUM, focus on creating an environment where more innovation is created and on technology commercialization, Stanford University offers remarkable access to Silicon Valley, SETsquared partnership raises the profile of its members by creating critical mass in a regional alliance.
• Stanford University and MIT have diverse programs that give students multiple entry points to the ecosystems and allow the students’ experience to be easily customizable according to their needs.
• The case study showed an improved entrepreneurial self-efficacy (self-confidence) among the MBA students during the period of their MBA studies. Of equal significance, the study also showed a higher degree of improvement among final year students compared to first-year students of the two-year program. This could hint towards a modular design of startup incubation programs for MBA students, with more advanced activities left for the later part of the program.
• The survey revealed the preference of MBA students for a strong network, availability of mentors and coaches, and access to funding at their startup incubation center. A revelation which further strengthens the case for creating ecosystems.
This study investigates the relationship between selected internal and external
factors and German small- and medium-sized enterprises’ technology transfer
activities. The research features a comprehensive analysis on the relationship
between different modes of foreign operations and intensity of transferred
technology including a detailed review of channels, means and drivers of
technology transfer. The research model is based on a sample of 164 so called
‘Hidden Champions’ from Germany and identifies a positive relationship for
number of employees and firm age on the mode of operation. However, annual
revenues and Research & Development intensity of the German small- and
medium-sized enterprises have not been found to have a significant impact.
Firms with higher firm age, are assumed to have superior international
experience and are thus risk-taking with regard to entering foreign markets.
Additionally, other variables such as host-country networks, a firm’s degree of
product differentiation, political and business environment and host-country
location of FDI are investigated. The paper concludes with a discussion about
implications for decisionmakers on both sides.
The performance of Indian economy is significantly influenced by the agriculture sector. The contributions made by this sector in national income, international trade and employment are key indicators of how the country is developing. As agriculture in India is mainly a rural area activity it offers opportunities to work for the rural men and women. Although the participation of female workers is more than the participation of male workers, the constraints faced by female workers are more. In addition to taking care of their households they are also working on farms. This multidimensional role signifies the importance of women in the sector. Their participation is affected by their access to resources and their performance is affected by factors like environment, harmful farming techniques and traditional mind-sets along with necessary resources. By closely studying the trends in agricultural performance and women participation, this study tries to connect the two aspects together to present the way forward for women in agriculture. The issues and challenges faced by rural women in terms of participation factors are discussed using secondary data and literature study. With the help of case studies, the opportunities and new roles of women are studied. The primary objective is to focus on how women workers are advancing their lives through agriculture and benefitting environment around them. Improved access to resources, new technology in farming and improved access to education along with enabling government schemes that empower the women participation are seen to be leading to a better and brighter future for women in agriculture.
Demokratische Instrumente auf der kommunalen Ebene, insbesondere Bürgerentscheide in Personalangelegenheiten - zur Abwahl von Bürgermeistern. Zahlenmäßige Vollerfassung aus den letzten 30 Jahren und Betrachtung der Auswirkungen auf Gemeinde, Bürger und Bürgermeister. Blick nach Baden-Württemberg und Bayern, sowie zum Recall in die USA, Erarbeitung möglicher Stellschrauben in der Politik
The Portuguese water supply and sanitation sector has witnessed over the last 40 years a steady improvement in levels of coverage and in the general quality of services provided. This evolution has been hailed by international organizations as the "Portuguese miracle". Yet, this qualification is restricted to the results achieved during the period marked by the liberalisation of the sector. In 1993, a water sector reform led by the central government started a number of processes towards commercialization, corporatization and liberalization of the Portuguese water sector. In 2007, a major financial crisis started in the United States of America and spread across the world. In the European Union, and in particular in Portugal and other peripheral countries, the crisis meant the enforcement of neoliberal shock therapy for almost five years after the so-called sovereign debt crises. The social impacts were devastating and provision and access to public services were restricted. This paper concentrates on assessing the links between the neoliberalisation of the Portuguese water sector and the situation of access to water and sanitation services in the aftermath of the deep crisis. The analysis focus on typical dimensions of neoliberalisation in this sector and empirically tries to assess how and to what extent these processes impact on the political and human rights goal of progressive universal access to these services in a context of austerity politics. It is argued that neoliberalisation processes both increase and hinder access to the services. In fact, by expanding networks under an environmental paradigm and improving consumer rights, neoliberalisation delivered on increasing levels of access with improved quality, yet consistently rising water prices coupled with policy loopholes and institutional blindness to the distributional impacts of that trend lead to the imposition of inequitable burdens on low-income households. Recent policy initiatives to relief the financial burden on low-income households seem weak and difficult to implement since they do not break away from the basic principles guiding water policy (user-pays principle, polluter pays principle and full-cost recovery from water charges).
About twenty years back there was the huge dot-com bubble. More and more people got connected via the Internet and started to use the World Wide Web. Ten years later the idea for a new type of technology was introduced - namely the blockchain. While blockchain technology can be used in many different areas, it is widely known in the financial sector as the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin might be the most well-known cryptocurrency in the world and has gained popularity over the years.
In 2009, an individual or group of people, who has remained anonymous until today, with the name of Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin block aka the Genesis Block (block number 0) which granted 50 Bitcoins as a reward (Attaran & Gunasekaran 2019: 7). It was also the year of the first Bitcoin transaction between Nakamoto and the programmer Hal Finney which gave rise to the first Bitcoin exchange market (Peterson 2014 cited in Attaran & Gunasekaran 2019: 8). Then in 2010 there was the first purchase using Bitcoins. 10,000 Bitcoins were used to pay for two Papa John's pizzas (Wallace 2011 cited in Attaran & Gunasekaran 2019: 8).
Individuals and companies alike have started paying and trading with Bitcoin. Just with any other currency, Bitcoin has a monetary value that can increase or decrease. So when trading with Bitcoin, one needs to be aware that there are fluctuations in value that need to be reported for accounting and tax purposes which this master’s thesis will take a closer look at.
Goodwill accounting is one of the most controversial topics in the accounting field. New ideas and treatments are constantly emerging, providing the latest theoretical frontier knowledge for goodwill accounting.
Since 2001, under the impetus of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), countries around the world have revised their own generally accepted accounting standards, or just adopted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The international convergence of accounting standards has made great progress. Chinese GAAP was implemented in 2006 and achieved substantial convergence with IFRS, but there is a certain gap. This is because China's goodwill accounting starts late and the market economy is still underdeveloped. At the same time, China's special national conditions have also created differences with IFRS.
This paper uses the literature review method, data analysis method and case analysis method to analyze the similarities and differences between Chinese GAAP and IFRS in terms of goodwill requirements. This paper starts with the definition, initial measurement, subsequent measurement, and disclosure of goodwill. The paper introduces the origin of goodwill, the development of Chinese GAAP and IFRS’s goodwill provisions, and the general trend of convergence. Then this paper shows a detailed description of the timeline for the evolution of goodwill accounting requirements, selects PetroChina Co Ltd (under Chinese GAAP) and British Petroleum p.l.c (under IFRS) as two research objects to do the case analysis, and analyzes the similarities and differences of the requirements of goodwill. I find that there are differences in the method of merge, the type of merge, the measurement of negative goodwill, impairment timing, impairment test unit, measurement method, reversal provisions and so on. Finally, this paper proposes future developments for goodwill requirements in Chinese GAAP. The article believes that the difference in goodwill measurement mainly comes from the national economic levels, the company's equity systems, and the accounting standards. The accounting standards include the development of background differences, institutional mechanisms, government intervention, and accounting information. Based on the above analysis, the final part of this paper is to present the inadequacies and suggestions of the goodwill requirements of Chinese GAAP.
There are three innovations in the author’s study. First, former research on goodwill rarely compares Chinese GAAP and IFRS. This paper details the similarities and differences, and points out the problems in Chinese GAAP. The existing literature has studied the differences in accounting standards, but has not penetrated the area of differences in the goodwill accounting. Secondly, the paper conducted a case study. Two oil companies with similar positions in the same industry are selected, and the data of comparative analysis were extracted from the Chinese and foreign databases and the annual reports of listed companies. Thirdly, when studying the different requirements of goodwill between Chinese GAAP and IFRS, this paper combines Chinese and foreign pieces of literature and multiple financial reports, and carries out the historical development of goodwill requirements, which is more conducive to understanding the development of goodwill criteria.
With over one million people arriving in Germany to seek asylum since 2013, entering the labour market remains a key aspect for a successful integration process. In their attempt to attain employment, the recently arrived refugees face multiple challenges. One aspect that offers great potential to support them in finding suitable jobs and enhance their employability are Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs). This includes measures such as job-counselling, vocational training and direct placement in public or subsidised employment.
This research explores the extent to which ALMPs meet the needs and aspirations of recently arrived refugees with regard to entering the labour market. By means of conducting interviews with members of the target group, this research aims to gain insights into the accessibility, relevance and overall suitability of ALMPs from the perspective of the study participants themselves.
The study shows that the participants ALMPs as relevant in terms of responding to their employment needs and aspirations. However, they perceive the accessible range of activation measures to be limited to a large degree. Certain activation measures were perceived as highly irrelevant, while some were even perceived to be obstructive to their pursuit of employment. Most notably, the participants felt supported by the employees of Public Employment Services (PES) when it comes to receiving short term training. However, when it comes to long-term training, they felt discouraged or even obstructed. This illustrated a perceived conflict between the participants' long-term aspirations, which included a focus on long-term development, and the PES’s emphasis on short-term arrangements and a quick path into employment.
In the contemporary era, large number of companies publish their business performance as a report on the Internet. To make them usable in larger numbers, these reports must be read and labeled. This is inefficient and expensive. This study supports this business need by automatically classifying four different categories of metadata of financial reports. For training of the used random forest classifier, an active and a passive learning strategy are contrasted. The results show a clear advantage of active learning for classifying whether a financial report contains consolidated enterprise data or not. For more complicated multi-class classifications, no advantage is shown so far under the applied active learning strategy, however, there is potential to develop an alternative more efficient strategy.
Adding value by offering complementary services in the consumer goods sector – a case study of Nike
(2016)
Kein Abstract verfügbar / No abstract available
Addressing Systemic Risk in Europe during Covid-19: policies, limitations, and challenges ahead
(2021)
This work examines the impacts which the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the stability of the European financial sector. Lockdowns, businesses unable to operate and uncertainty about how the pandemic would evolve fueled a sharp recession. From the lessons learned in the global financial crises and the Eurozone debt crises, there’s an increasing role of macroprudential policies, especially the regiments of the Basel III framework and the monetary policy toolkit. Alongside macroprudential regulation, the European Central Bank provided substantial monetary policy easing, for instance the release of capital buffers and other capital requirements, expanding the TLTRO III and Pandemic Emergency Program which facilitated monetary policy transmission. Authorities also deployed strong fiscal policies which encompassed from tax holidays to direct transfers to households and firms. The combination of fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policy was unprecedented and helped the economy during the shutdown moments. As a result, indicators of systemic risks in the banking sector during the pandemic remained relatively stable. Nevertheless, some challenges might emerge in the medium-term when policies are phased-out, namely the increasing size of non-performing loans and the sovereign doom-loop. Thus, in the final part of this text a stress test is conducted to evaluate the possible future impacts of the pandemic in the banking sector.
Abstract
The administrative cost of local government is an important indicator of the regional
competitiveness and creativity of modern society, it not only reveals the efficiency
and governance of the local government, but also relates to the regional economic
development and happiness of the civilian. With the continuous development of the
information age, loads of rent-seeking and corruption surfaces. The image of the local
government suffered tremendous trial, which emotionally turns the neutral word
“administrative cost” into a negative one. The issue of administrative cost is a puzzle
in the public administration academia; governments around the world are all
exploring ways to reduce the administrative cost. The issue is not exclusive but
criticized by the society which makes it the urgent affair in China. Since the reform
and open policy, the government has changed its functions, from “control-type
government” to “service-oriented government”, government no longer has hand in all
the aspects of social affairs, under the concept of “small government and big society”,
the social and political ecology is changing, on one hand the government is on a diet
that limits itself the public power and on the other hand it enhances the social power
which in turn increase the standard for the governance by the public. As for
service-oriented government nowadays, it canonizes civilian-oriented as well as the
pursuit of maximum profit, the goal of the government is to serve the civilian,
lowering the administrative cost and increasing the efficiency of the confined
economic resources could definitely benefit the civilian more, administrative cost is
somehow like an obstacle that blocks the way of increasing the administrative
efficiency. As for the Chinese government, lowering the administrative cost could
increase the administrative efficiency and improving the image of the government
simultaneously which helps to regain the public confidence and rebuild the
governmental prestige.
The article holds the broad sense that considers the administrative cost is made up of
both explicit and implicit cost. It uses data to analyze the issue of explicit cost and
uses cases to illustrate the implicit one. Later in the article, it makes the comparison
based on the cases of similar cities and also introduces the successful experience of
home and aboard. At last, it puts forward corresponding countermeasures to deal with
the issue combining with China’s reality. The article uses literature analysis and
comparative analysis, integrating inductive method with conductive method as well as
quantities method combining with qualitative method.
The innovation of the article lies in the empirical study more than the theoretical one.
In addition, the article keeps abreast of the times that analyses the great impact after
18th CPC National Congress so as to offer the public administration academia a latest
study.
Key words: government, administrative cost, countermeasure
ABSTRACT
The modern capitalist corporate food regime is driven by large agroindustries, commodification of nature, monoculture, chemical contamination, land grabbing, and is becoming ever more self-destructive for food producers, consumers, and the whole planet as our web of life. In order to correct and adjust Anthropocene made climate change again and to abandon the false transfer of power from MNC to the power of the people, only a global struggle in localized agroecology can be a solution. As finance-led capitalism has increasingly urged politicized confrontation with the dominance of neoliberalism and agribusiness, the people who are looking to their own pool of ideas in a form of resistance to the "supreme knowledge monoculture", have increased their process of sharing and transferring knowledge, also called diálogo de saberes. This dialog among different knowledges and ways of knowing brought along important 'emergences' from the radical-transformative approach of food sovereignty to its paradigm of agroecology under the struggle of La Via Campesina. This movement has been able to group farmers, landless people, rural proletarian, indigenous people, consumers and even researchers by understanding inclusive diversity as enrichment. Most strikingly, small-scale food producers from developing countries come together with small-scale food producers from the industrial countries, while it is actually the latter's “free trade” agreements and practices that slow out small peasantry in developing countries. Nevertheless, they find and choose common ground by focusing on similarities and joint challenges such as the need for locally controlled food systems and the combined and connected grassroots action against the international violence of power by the corporate food regime. As an example, this thesis reflects on the positive and critical experiences of the Cuban illustrative agroecology training methodology practiced for more than two decades now. The learning values are identified, analyzed and adapted to the current European process of scaling up and strengthening the agroecology training network in the European section of La Via Campesina, the European Coordination Via Campesina. Conclusively, the thesis contributes to the movement by linking and advancing European’s collective action by looking “up” to Cuba’s experiences in the sense of horizontal diálogo de saberes.
AI influencers - does it matter to consumers that their favourite influencer doesn't actually exist?
(2021)
This dissertation aims to explore the conflict over to a strategy on energy security in the European Union between 2007 and 2014 in order to answer the question, whose interests are materialised and how they are articulated in the conflict over energy security. With this aim, the present thesis takes up the central assumptions of the political ecology approach and extends these with insight of the scale debate. The chosen method enables an exploration of the ways in which societal and political power relations are articulated and the revelation of the environmental, social, and institutional dimensions of the dominant narrative of energy security in the EU. First, a theoretical framework is established. Second, the subject of analysis – the 2014 European Energy Security Strategy of the European Commission – and its historical context are introduced in order to unite the elements together in the analysis in chapter 3. The results show that, in particular, actors of the fossil-nuclear energy industry have been remarkably successful in materialising their interests in the Commission’s strategy on energy security. Fossil-nuclear based solutions to energy insecurity are dominant and contribute to the consolidation of a specific fossil society-nature relationship. In the conflict over energy security, a slight reformation of the spatial organisation of EU energy politics can be observed. The European Commission has successfully extended its institutional and regulatory competencies mainly within the Internal Energy Market. Nevertheless, no general substantial shift in the relevance of the various spatial scale levels of EU energy policy can be noticed. The sovereignty of national governments over energy policy remains unaffected within the EU. Furthermore, concerning European integration, the overall tendencies of a fragmentation and renationalisation of EU energy policy become apparent in this conflict over European energy security.
Abstract
This paper standing on the macro level, analyzes theoretically and empirically
whether bank-based or market-based financial structure is better for general R&D
intensity and business R&D intensity, and measures financial structure form
relative size, activity and efficiency of stock market to banks. Furthermore, the
empirical study includes data grouped by financial development, industrial
structure and government power. The purpose of this paper lies in proving
evidence for raising R&D intensity by enlarging financial market’s size, promoting
its activity and improving its efficiency. Meanwhile, by grouped analysis, this
paper tries to provide advices on ways of raising R&D intensity by optimizing
financial structure for countries in various financial conditions, with various
industrial structures or different degrees of government power.
On the basis of previous literature, this paper firstly describes typical
characteristics of business R&D which are distinguished from other investment
activities. Secondly, the mechanism of financial structure’s effects on business
R&D is analyzed, which contains three aspects: risk management, information
dissemination and corporate governance. It is concluded that market-based
financial structure has the ability to provide more capital for high-risky and
strong-innovative R&D activities. At last, from the perspective of industrial
structure and government power, the mechanism of financial structure’s effects on
overall R&D intensity is studied. It is concluded that market-based financial
structure is better for the development of high-tech industry, but government has
the power to control state-owned banks and policy banks aiming at support R&D
selectively.
In the empirical part, explained variables are general R&D intensity and business
An Empirical Study on the Impact of Financial Structure on R&D Intensity: Based on the Panel Data of 49 Countries
R&D intensity; explanatory variables are first-lagged R&D intensity, relative size,
activity and efficiency of stock market to bank; in order to ensure the validity of
models, control variables, economic development, human capital, industry
structure, government power and financial development, are added. The panel data
of this paper contains 49 countries from 2001 to 2010. Furthermore, the whole
sample is grouped respectively by the average value of financial development,
industrial structure and government power, which generates in total 6-group
dataset. As one-period lagged R&D intensity is treated as an explanatory variable,
the dataset has wider cross-section variables but shorter time-period, so Corrected
Two-step Difference GMM is used as the method of estimation for all models.
The conclusions are as follow. Firstly, a significant positive correlation between
one-period lagged R&D intensity and current R&D intensity, and business R&D
intensity’s correlation is stronger. Secondly, the relative size of stock market to
bank has positive effects on business R&D intensity, but no significant effects on
overall R&D, even slightly negative effects. However, the correlations are
different inside groups. Thirdly, significant positive correlations between relative
activity and overall R&D intensity or Business intensity are found for the whole
sample, but for groups, there are various correlations. At last, significant positive
correlations between relative efficiency and overall R&D intensity or Business
intensity are also found. However, for some groups, such as traditional industry
group and strong government power group, the correlation is negative.According
to the conclusions, four pieces of policy proposals are put forward.
In recent years, due to the rapid development of electronics and information technology in China, TMT (Technology, Media and Telecom) industry develops rapidly. In the meanwhile, the cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) activity also becomes active in China’s capital market. In this context, the performance of TMT industry in the cross-border M&A market is even more remarkable. From the perspective of TMT industry, this paper studies the cross-border M&A performance of Chinese TMT enterprises. Because few academic researches focus on cross-border M&A performance of specific industries, especially the emerging industries, this paper has both theoretical and practical significance.
This paper follows the study framework of "Theory - Model - Empirical - Conclusion". First, this paper summarizes former scholars’ theoretical research and empirical results in the field of cross-border M&A, emphasizing in aspects such as cross-border M&A motivations, TMT cross-border M&A motivations, and TMT industry M&A performance. Then, this paper describes the status quo and development trend of China's TMT industry and its cross-border M&A market. Based on the characteristics of China's TMT industry, this paper analyzes the theoretical economic effects of cross-border M&A. In the empirical study, this paper selects 70 cross-border M&A events of public TMT enterprises from 2014 to 2015. Based on the principle of financial analysis, this paper adds 11 financial indicators to the factor analysis and builds the comprehensive performance score models for four periods (1 year before cross-border M&A to 2 years after cross-border M&A) respectively. After get trajectory of sample firms’ performance, the “Difference Method” is used to test the cross-border M&A performance in the TMT industry.
According to on the empirical results, this paper comes to the following conclusions: (1) During the “window period” [(T-1), (T+2)], the average comprehensive performance score of sample enterprises shows a “U” shape change trajectory. (2) During the period [T, (T+1)], the performance of sample enterprises continued to decrease, which shows a poor performance of cross-border M&A. (3) Two years after the cross-border M&A, the enterprise performance began to rebound, but did not reach the pre-M&A level.
Finally, based on the actual situation of TMT industry in China, this paper puts forward specific suggestions, so as to promote the development of cross-border M&A market of TMT industry in China and the substantial help of M&A activities for TMT enterprises.