As modificações geradas no âmbito das decisões de políticas econômicas nacionais das últimas décadas atentaram para o papel da estabilidade macroeconômica no desempenho das economias de mercado. O controle da inflação constitui-se no objetivo primordial das autoridades monetárias que, a partir dos anos 1990, encontraram na adoção de metas de inflação um modo mais eficiente para atingir a estabilidade de preços. Segundo a literatura convencional contemporânea, os resultados do regime de metas de inflação em economias avançadas e emergentes garantem, diretamente, uma redução dos níveis e da volatilidade das taxas de inflação, uma ancoragem das expectativas inflacionárias e menores custos da desinflação em termos do produto. Entretanto, acredita-se que a intensidade e os impactos desses efeitos podem ser diferenciados ou comprometidos quando aplicados à realidade dos países emergentes. Fundamentadas nas visões críticas das implicações do regime de metas de inflação à evolução das economias emergentes, as discussões teóricas visaram expor as definições gerais do regime de metas de inflação e as questões estruturais da dinâmica macroeconômica dos mercados emergentes. Constatou-se que a preponderância dos mecanismos de transmissão da taxa de câmbio sobre a inflação, os desequilíbrios ficais, financeiros e externos, e as características de vulnerabilidade e instabilidade macroeconômicas dos países emergentes podem dificultar o funcionamento do regime de metas de inflação. Essencialmente, a avaliação empírica dos efeitos de metas de inflação sobre o desempenho macroeconômico dos países emergentes evidenciou que, além deste regime não apresentar relevância estatística na explicação das taxas de inflação, de crescimento do produto e de juros, os movimentos da economia internacional parecem definir as condições de estabilidade macroeconômica nessas economias. Portanto, concluiu-se que a implementação de metas de inflação não melhorou nem piorou o desempenho macroeconômico dos países emergentes que adotaram este regime a partir dos anos 1990. Tal resultado contribui no debate atual sobre a dimensão das políticas de estabilidade de preços e, em especial, os efeitos de metas de inflação em economias emergentes. / The modifications generated in the scope of national economy policy decisions in the last decades had attempted for the role of macroeconomic stability in the performance of market economies. The control of inflation consisted in the monetary authorities’ primary objective that, from the 1990 years, had found in the adoption of inflation target a more efficient way to reach the price stability. According to conventional literature contemporary, the results of inflation targeting in the advanced and emerging economies guarantee directly a reduction of the level and the volatility in the inflation rates, an anchorage inflationary expectations and lesser costs of disinflation at the product. However, one gives credit that the intensity and the impacts of effects can be differentiated or biased when applied to reality of emerging countries. Based in the critical views of inflation target implications to emerging economies evolution, the theoretical quarrels had aimed at to display the inflation target general definitions and the structural matters of emerging market macroeconomic dynamic. One evidenced that the predominance of the exchange pass through inflation, the external, financial and fiscal disturbs, and the macroeconomic vulnerability and instability characteristics of emerging countries can difficult inflation target working. Essentially, the empirical evaluation of the inflation targeting effects on the macroeconomic performance of emerging countries demonstrated that, beyond this regime not to present statistics relevance in the inflation rates, growth product and interest rates explanation, the movements of the international economy seem to define the conditions of macroeconomic stability in these economies. Therefore, one concluded that the implementation of inflation target did not improve nor got worse the macroeconomic performance of the inflation targeting emergent countries from 1990s. Such result contributes in the current debate on the prices stability policies and, in special, the effect of inflation target in emergent economies.

This research aimed to explore the influence of the institutional context on the growth-potential of new businesses in South Africa. The purpose of this study is to highlight the major responsibility of bureaucracy to enable high-growth entrepreneurship in emerging economies by building a favourable economic, social and legal environment, known as the institutional context.An adapted research model was defined through an extensive literature review of prior studies in the fields of both institutional theory and entrepreneurship theory. An online survey was administered to many South African entrepreneurs via a number of databases across the country. The responses were then collected and analysed by means of a multiple regression analysis to test the six hypotheses of the research model.The results revealed that all the identified institutional factors were found to have significant influences on high-growth entrepreneurship in the intended directions, while access to technology was found to have the largest influence, and the regulatory framework also contributed substantially. This implies that the bureaucracy of the country has to consider all the identified factors when attempting to design a supportive institutional environment to stimulate high-growth entrepreneurship. However, the greatest results will be achieved by focusing specifically on the access to an extensive technological infrastructure and an effective regulatory framework. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Student Number: 9305986E School of Accountancy Faculty of Commerca, Law and Management / Academic and commercial interest in the corporate governance practices of publicly listed companies has increased significantly in the past five to ten years. High-profile corporate failures such as Enron and Worldcom have heightened the interest in corporate governance practices. This research study's primary aim is to explore the contribution of board structure to company performance in South Africa. The majority of prior corporate governance literature has centered and focused on the relationship between board structure and company performance where performance is measured in terms of traditional measures. This research study follows the themes of Mitchell Williams, which diverges from this prior body of literature in two primary ways; first the relationship between board structure and company performance is investigated where performance is defined by intellectual capital performance and second unlike the majority of prior literature that utilised data from the United States, data was collected and analysed from a sample of South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第24162号 / 経博第656号 / 新制||経||301(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 黒澤 隆文, 准教授 IVINGS Steven, 教授 渡邊 純子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

This study is motivated by the need to improve the understanding of international entrepreneurship (IE) in emerging economies. Thus, the researcher conducted an in-depth case study of four Nigerian firms to investigate how divergent institutional conditions influence the processes of IE from emerging economies to developed economies. The findings of the study depict how entrepreneurial activity from emerging economies to developed economies can involve many sub-activities and processes to achieve opportunity identification, development, and exploitation. This process which appears disruptive is significantly supported through resource acquisition and development. However, this process of IE is heavily shaped by the institutional conditions of the international entrepreneur’s host and home markets. The institutional environment impeded growth and entrepreneurial aspirations while simultaneously facilitating access to resources, reducing risks and providing legitimacy to the firms. These simultaneous effects of institutions constrained strategic choices of the entrepreneurs and by so doing, shaped the means and processes by which they identify and execute international opportunities. The major contributions of this thesis include the validation of New Institutional Economics (NIE) framework for the examination of IE processes and empirical evidence demonstrating how entrepreneurial activity from emerging economies to developed economies can involve many sub-activities and processes to achieve opportunity identification, development, and exploitation. Also, the study guides emerging economy managers and entrepreneurs on ways to effectively manage their liabilities of smallness and foreignness. Lastly, the study provides some policy recommendations to facilitate the development of a conducive environment for entrepreneurship and IE to flourish in Nigeria.

Yes / Purpose: Despite the potential of social media in emerging markets (EMs), only few studies published in high quality information systems (IS) journals that have addressed issues related to social media in the context of EMs. This study aims to analyse existing research related to social media published in high quality IS journals for exploring initial research trends, emerging themes, limitations and future research directions in the context of emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted systematic review of 22 articles on social media, which were published in the “Senior Scholars Basket of IS Journals and Information Systems Frontiers” from 1997 to 2017. Manual literature search approach (i.e. screening through table of contents of each journal) was employed to identify relevant articles. The content of relevant articles was systematically analysed and synthesised along with keyword analysis to understand research trends on social media related issues in the emerging markets context. Findings: The study identified four major themes from existing research on the social media in the context of emerging markets, namely: 1) Social media frameworks; 2) Social media and consumers; 3) Social media and organisations; and 4) Social media and society with majority of the studies focusing on consumers. Single Subject was found as the major limitation with studies analysed focusing on single platform/country/domain hindering the generalizability whereas including new exogenous variable to improve the validity of existing studies emerged as main future research direction. Originality/value: This study conducted literature review on social media in EMs, which has not been undertaken yet. Moreover, it employed manual search (an effort and time intensive approach) to overcome the shortcomings of keyword search to identify, locate, select and analyse the social media literature in the context of emerging markets.

No / Purpose: Using arguments from the regulatory focus and upper echelons theories, this paper aims to examine the impact of a chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) regulatory foci (i.e. promotion and prevention focus) on small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) level of innovativeness and how these relationships are jointly moderated by intense competition. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis draws on survey data gathered from 257 SMEs in Ghana. Findings: The study findings indicate that a CEO’s level of promotion focus positively affects the firm’s engagement in innovation, while a CEO’s prevention focus is negatively associated with the firm’s innovativeness. The positive association between a CEO’s promotion focus and a firm’s innovativeness is enhanced under conditions of intense competition. Additionally, the negative relationship between prevention focus and firm-level innovativeness is attenuated under intense competition. Research limitations/implications: This study relied on a single informant and also used subjective measures for the dependent variable. As such, individual respondents might have biased perspectives on firm-level product innovativeness. Future studies may use multiple informants to examine the causal links of the variables. Practical implications: The study’s findings provide managers with a deeper understanding of how to achieve superior firm-level product innovation. The understanding of this issue can promote the development and maintenance of further entrepreneurial ventures in emerging economies. Originality/value: The paper has a strong theoretical value as it pioneers research on the effect of CEOs’ regulatory foci on firm-level innovativeness in competitive environments.

No / This study applies a new multi-focal actor-centered institution-theoretic approach to examine the association between executive pay and the recruitment of social elites to the board of directors in developing countries. We use a sample of 119 initial public offerings (IPOs) from 17 African stock markets to model this relationship. The results suggest that a higher proportion of elites on the board is associated with lower executive pay. This is moderated by institutional quality; that is, lower institutional quality is associated with more directors drawn from social elites and with higher pay, while the opposite is true in higher-institutional-quality environments. Our findings confirm the importance of the social environment within which governance is embedded.

Yes / Using panel data of 1,080 multinational corporations (MNCs) from the United States, we examine the effects of environmental sustainability practices on the degree of firms’ offshoring activities. In addition, we disaggregate offshoring activities into their core components depending on whether or not the firm buys (inputs) or sells (outputs) and/or owns assets in a given country and examine the extent to which sustainability practices influence the different components of offshoring decisions. The results indicate that sustainability practices significantly affect offshoring activities of MNCs. In particular, we found that sustainable business practices matter when the firm sells goods or owns assets in the given host nation. Additionally, the results show that the sustainability–degree of the internationalization relationship is crucial for MNCs that have offshoring activities in advanced economies relative to those firms that have activities in emerging markets. Our results are robust to alternative explanations.

This study examines the challenges of organisational transformation in emerging economies with special reference to Zimbabwe. It is an inductive study using grounded theory, rooted in case study methodology, based on Eisenhardt's (1989) eight steps of building theory from case study research. A longitudinal multiple case study design is used to capture transformation experiences of four companies (covering four business sectors) spanning from 1980 to 2000. Fourteen constructs from the within-case analysis form the basis of data collection and these are refined through cross-case analysis. Nine themes and sixteen challenges emerge from the study. The challenges and themes are used to identify points of convergence and divergence. Issues that trigger organisational transformation are spotted and best practices explored. Ultimately, the nine emerging themes are crystallized into seven. Both the emerging model - the Madzivire Transformation Model (MaTra) - and the elaborated model - the Madzivire Collaborative Transformation Model (MaCoTra) - are constructed from the seven themes. MaCoTra is a refinement of MaTra with the following differentiating features: * The metaphor of choruses signifies the centrality of collaboration from an African perspective; * MaCoTra reflects non-linear and linear linkages between choruses; * Choruses depict the significance of songs in African bonding; * A personal commitment to transformation calls for collective bonding around values, visions, missions and strategies; * MaCoTra is a remarkable departure from steps, phases and stages espoused in most Western change literature; * MaCoTra's philosophical base is Ubuntu - `I am because we are'- focusing on independence and interdependence; * Change interventions may be through individual or multiple MaCoTra choruses; * The organisational song connects all organisational members in a choir of transformation. MaCoTra addresses the sixteen challenges and exceedingly covers challenges cited in enfolding literature. MaCoTra was tested in and outside the study sample. I assert that MaCoTra is usable in Zimbabwean companies and may be generalized through replication studies in Africa and other emerging economies. Areas of further study towards the achievement of more generalisability of the theory/model are suggested. This study addresses the existing knowledge gap and prescribes the Madzivire Collaborative Transformation Model - MaCoTra - for companies in emerging economies. / Business Management / D.B.L.