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This study examines short‐term stock price reactions to announcements of equity rights offerings in Singapore between 1983 and 2003 and investigates whether economic factors lead to different price reactions. The results show that the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) associated with rights issues differ significantly across economic conditions at the time of issuance. Rights issues typically result in significantly large positive CARs during periods of economic growth but small positive but insignificant CARs during economic downturns. The CARs vary positively with Tobin’s q‐ratios, which indicate the availability of positive net present value investment opportunities of the firms issuing the rights. Our major finding is that the price reaction of Singapore firms to equity rights offerings is sensitive to economic conditions at the time of the rights issues.

The paper investigates the relationship between China’s net direct foreign investment position and economic development and the investment development path (IDP) theory introduced by Dunning (1981). Using annual data for the period 1979 to 2005 and a fourth order single variable polynomial function we demonstrate that form of the IDP for China and conclude that China entered stage 3 of the path postulated by the IDP theory. By analyzing key factors which have impacted FDI inflows and outflows we find that certain idiosyncratic characteristics of Chinese companies and institutional factors may limit the significant increase in the multinationalization of Chinese firms which would be required for the country to move along the IDP.

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.

The World Health Organization estimated that in 1999 roughly one-third of the world's population lacked access to essential medicines that would have saved or improved their lives. Our analysis focuses on how pharmaceutical product patents restrict access to essential medicines in developing countries. It is well established that pharmaceutical product patents provide little incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines designed to treat diseases prevalent in developing countries or to market in developing countries those patented medicines developed to treat diseases prevalent in developed countries. Economists have developed theoretical models showing that these incentives could be changed if (1) developing countries provided intellectual property protection for new pharmaceutical innovations and (2) an international regulatory framework were established to facilitate pharmaceutical companies setting lower prices in developing countries and higher prices in developed countries for patented medicines. We develop an index of property rights in pharmaceutical innovations covering 129 countries from 1960 to 2005. It shows that in 1960 only a handful of countries provided significant protection for pharmaceutical innovations, but by 2005 over 95 percent of countries in our sample provided significant statutory protections. However, an international framework to allow pharmaceutical companies to price discriminate has not been put in place. We conclude that international price discrimination mechanisms, compulsory patent licenses, and regional patent buyouts are not viable mechanisms for providing access to essential medicines to patients in developing countries. Global patent buyouts are more likely to achieve this goal, as they are not founded on an impractical separation of pharmaceutical markets in developing and developed countries and they provide critical incentives to develop new essential medicines.

This chapter provides a selective survey of the theoretical and empirical literature to date on the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and measures of innovation and international technology transfer. The chapter discusses the empirical implications of theoretical work, assesses the theoretical work based on the evidence available, and identifies some gaps in the existing literature.

Since innovation is often at the heart of firm success and national growth, the relationship between the country-level factors that either encourage or discourage firm innovation and the subsequent effects on international marketing need to be better understood. Rapid changes in communication and the global competitive environment require that the traditional models for international business be reconsidered. In so doing, we evaluate the relationship between a country's patent protection regimes and firm innovation. We consider whether strong patent rights lead to increased or decreased innovation for firms competing in Developed, Developing, and Least Developed countries. Implications are explored for how individual firms, countries, and the international community can support public policy for encouraging and improving innovation and its diffusion. Finally, the managerial and international marketing implications of these relationships will be examined.

This study aims to examine how property rights, financial liberalization and the control of corruption at the country level influence the inward and outward global engagement of domestic firms from developing countries. The author also examines whether firms with certain resource endowments such as human capital or technological capabilities are better positioned to globalize as the aforementioned institutional factors evolve.

Using a sample of 18,365 firms from 57 developing countries and multilevel modeling, the author shows that institutional factors are related to inward and outward global engagement.

The author finds that firms with human capital are more likely to move outward in the presence of lower levels of corruption. Domestic firms possessing technological capabilities are more likely to engage inward as financial liberalization eases the access to capital.

Many existing studies that have investigated the impact of institutional factors on internationalization by developing country firms have bundled different institutions together therefore sacrificing a focus on the effect of specific institutions on these firm decisions. While the author knows that institutions matter for developing country firm globalization, there is limited research on which institutions matter. There is also a debate on how institutions matter for developing country firms. The study sheds light on these aspects. The author also uses hierarchical linear modelling and uses both country- and firm-level variables.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.