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The purpose of this study is to compare the production efficiencies and frontiers differences of oil-producing countries (OPCs) in four inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) in the international petroleum industry with the aim of providing such countries understanding of group characteristics that help maximize their supply interests.

The empirical analysis is based on 14 years of panel data covering the period from 2000 to 2013. In all 46 unique countries who are members of four IGOs relevant to the international petroleum industry are examined on individual and group bases. The authors use both metafrontier analysis and global frontier difference in examining the group average and group frontiers, respectively.

Groups with high inter and intra-group collaborations which ensure exchange of information, organizational learning and innovation tend to do better than groups with even higher hydro-carbon endowment. Additionally, hydro-carbon resource endowment may not be the solution to group inefficiency without higher endowment in human capital, economic stability, technology and infrastructure.

Choice of inter-governmental organizational membership should be based on the level of inter- and intra-group collaborations, human capital endowment among others and not mere historic links or even resource endowment.

This is among the few studies to compare and rank IGOs. Specifically, it is among the first studies to analyze the petroleum production efficiencies of IGOs involved in the international petroleum industry. This study assesses the performance differences among OPCs with the aim of identifying for OPCs the characteristics of inter-governmental groups that are beneficial to efficiency in upstream petroleum activities.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This paper investigates the global financial integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets, which is important for financial economists, global investors and policymakers.

The first step is to estimate a benchmark one-factor model and multifactor models over the entire sample period to obtain the time-invariant global integration estimates for the Gulf Cooperation Council markets. Because the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets may be time varying, the second step is to use 24-month rolling regressions to estimate the time-varying integration estimates. To explicitly test for structural breaks in global integration, this study applies a supremum Wald test to endogenously search for structural breaks.

Empirically, consistent evidence suggests that the Gulf Cooperation Council markets are increasingly integrated with international equity markets at different levels of financial development and from different regions. However, compared to other emerging and frontier markets, the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets is still relatively low, suggesting that these markets still offer significant diversification benefits for global investors.

This study contributes to the literature by systematically investigating the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets with monthly data (to account for the gradual information diffusion in international equity markets) and a longer sample period (to more robustly identify the trend in the global integration).

This chapter investigates the relative magnitude of the benefits of global diversification from the viewpoint of domestic investors in various countries by forming time-rolling efficient frontiers. To enhance feasibility of asset allocation strategies, the constraints of short-sales and over-weighting investments are taken into account. The empirical results suggest that local investors in less developed countries, particularly in Latin America, East Asia, and Southern Europe, comparatively benefit more from global diversification. Investors in the countries of civic-law origin tend to benefit more from global investment than the ones in the common-law states. Although the global market has become more integrated over the past decades, diversification benefits for domestic investors declined but did not vanish. The results of this chapter are useful for asset management professionals to determine target markets to promote the sales of international funds.

Tourism is a sector of activity, which has been witnessing the highest growth for several years despite recent events which have given rise to uncertainty. It is in this context that some may judge right at the outset highly optimistic that this paper proposes to highlight certain issues in support of the following questions. What kind of sustainable growth to anticipate for tourism? Which impacts are the present economic modifications bound to have (rise in petrol prices, impoverishment and inter‐regional differences in revenue, etc.)? What about the impact of calamities and major events on tourism‐related activities? Aren't these contingent variations as many barriers to the new frontiers of tourism? In light of this paper it is possible to define the barriers which will then form the new frontiers of tourism. A few simple recommendations can guide managerial implications.

“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise, the objective of competitiveness can exacerbate regional and social inequalities, by targeting efforts on zones of excellence where projects achieve greater returns (dynamic major cities, higher levels of general education, the most advanced projects, infrastructures with the heaviest traffic, and so on). If cohesion policy and the Lisbon Strategy come into conflict, it must be borne in mind that the former, for the moment, is founded on a rather more solid legal foundation than the latter” European Commission (2005, p. 9)Adaptation of Cohesion Policy to the Enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Gothenburg Objectives.

This study aims to investigate whether there are disparities in research and development (R&D) internationalization between latecomers from economy-level technological disparities and firms with ownership-specific technological capability differences in the wind turbine industry.

Employing econometric analysis based on patent indicators, the authors examine the patent data assigned by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to the technologically advanced economy and the technologically emerging economy.

This study finds that latecomers from technologically advanced economies behave with no difference from early leaders in terms of international co-invention (INCO) but do show differences in another indicator – native ownership of foreign inventors (NOFIs). Additionally, latecomers from economy-level technological disparity show significant differences both in both INCO and NOFI. These results indicate that the latecomers from technologically advanced economies not only possess the nature of latecomers which motivates them to seek knowledge from foreign economies but also benefit from their advanced home base, thereby prompting them to internationalize and access cost-effective R&D resources. Moreover, the results demonstrate that latecomers from technologically emerging economies are more prone to engage in R&D internationalization to augment their own home base compared with firms from advanced economy.

This study extends the literature on R&D internationalization by introducing novel perspectives. It distinguishes some apparent distinctions of the tendency of R&D internationalization between latecomers under economy-level technological disparity as well as firms from ownership-specific technological capabilities differences. Additionally, this study disaggregates R&D internationalization into twin key dimensions: INCO and NOFI. These findings allow for a comprehensive understanding of the differences in the firm's R&D internationalization under economy-level technological disparities and ownership-specific technological differences. These findings offer valuable insights for decision-makers in navigating global innovation activities by highlighting the diverse economy-level technological advantages as well as ownership-specific advantages.

The purpose of this paper is to compare Chinese high-tech firms with other international firms in terms of quality capability and competence.

This study uses data from the GMRG fourth round survey and provides a method for differentiating and empirically measuring quality competence and capability using a sample of 343 plants in 17 countries in the high-tech manufacturing sector.

It is shown that the theory of performance frontiers can be used to explain differences in levels of investment in quality management, as well as competence and capability, in plants across regions with varying levels of economic development. Further, it is shown that plants in China provide an example of a special case in that they do not display the same characteristics as plants in other emerging economies.

The study is limited to the high-tech sector and is also constrained by the countries in which the GMRG data has been gathered.

Investment in quality management methods may not always result in discernible variance in quality indicators. In this study this has been shown to be the case in plants in the industrialized world, highlighting the importance of developing a requisite proficiency in innovation. For the plants in China leverage may lie in focussing on how and where resources are being invested, and how quality management is actually valued within a plant.

The study indicates that although some economies in the world may experience rapid growth this also needs to be tempered by a requisite investment in building human capability.

The evidence indicates that the plants in China in this study do not possess similar levels of quality competence and capability, and struggle to make investment in quality management alter outcomes.

This study aims to investigate the impact of sentiment shocks based on US investor sentiments, bearish and bullish market conditions. Earlier studies, though very few, only consider the effect of investor sentiments on stock returns of emerging frontier Asian (EFA) markets.

This study uses the application of regime switching model because of its capability to explore time-varying causality across different regimes unlike traditional linear models. The Markov regime switching model uses regime switching probabilities for capturing the potential asymmetries or non-linearity in a model, in this study’s case, thereby adjusting investor sentiments shocks to stock market returns.

The results of the Markov regime switching method suggests that US sentiment, bullish and bearish market shocks act as a main contributors for inducing variation in EFA stock market returns. The study’s non-parametric robustness results highlight an asymmetric relationship across the mean series, whereas a symmetric relationship across variance series. The study also reports Thailand as the most sensitive market to global sentiment shocks.

The sensitivity of the EFA markets to these global sentiment shocks highlights their sensitivity and implications for investors relying merely on returns correlation and spillover. These findings also suggest that spillover from developed to emerging and frontier equity markets only in the form of returns following traditional linear models may not be appropriate.

This paper supports the behavioral aspect of investors and resultant spillover from developed market sentiments to emerging and frontier market returns across international equity markets offering more rational justification for an irrational behavior.

The study’s motivation to use the application of regime switching models is because of its capability to explore time-varying causality across different regimes unlike traditional linear models. The Markov regime switching model uses regime switching probabilities for capturing the potential asymmetries or non-linearity in a model, in the study’s case, thereby adjusting investor sentiments shocks to stock market returns. It is also useful of the adjustment attributable to exogenous events.

The purpose of this study is to comprehend the efficiency levels of the Indian textile industry and also its sub-sectors in the light of changing global and national business environment. It is imperative to study the efficiency levels of textile industry for an emerging economy like India, where the industry contributes up to 13 per cent in export earnings, 10 per cent in total industrial production and 2 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP). The study holds an important place in the wake of phasing out of the quota regime existing under the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) and the rising competition being faced from countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.

The present study attempts to have an in-depth analysis of the efficiency levels in the Indian textile industry using meta-frontier data envelopment analysis, which is a non-parametric linear programming based frontier technique.

The findings highlight that the Indian textile industry is inefficient and has a huge scope of improvement in terms of efficiency. It also confirms the existence of different production functions among the sub-sectors of the industry. Among the different sub-sectors, the proximity of production frontier of readymade garments is the closest to meta-frontier followed by cotton and blended yarn, man-made fibre, cloth and others.

The findings bear strong implications for the policymakers in their attempt to regain the lost competitive position of the Indian textile industry and to enhance its contribution in the economy. As per the findings, policymakers should target the relatively inefficient sub-sectors of textile industry (cloth, man-made fibre, cotton and blended yarn) to infuse more efficiency in these sectors to enhance the market share of the Indian textile industry in the global textiles market.

The current study is a unique addition to the sparse literature on managing efficiencies in the textile industry, particularly of emerging economy like India. Looking at the methodological and geographical coverage of the previous work, it was found that no study has explored and analysed the efficiencies of the sub-sectors in the Indian textile industry using meta-frontier analysis. Therefore, this study will be the first of its kind which seeks to fill such gaps and intends to enrich the available literature.