Marco Chi Keung Lau

Job search on the internet and its outcome

Purpose – This paper aims to estimate the impact of job search on the internet on the probability of re‐employment and the duration of unemployment spells.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses national panel datasets from Germany (SOEP 2003‐2007) and South Korea (KLIPS 1996‐2006) to estimate probit and Hausman‐Taylor IV models of the impact of job search on the internet on the probability of re‐employment. The study also explores duration analysis with the aim of estimating the impact of internet job search on the duration of unemployment.Findings – In Germany and South Korea job seekers who used the internet had a 7.1 and 12.7 percentage point higher probability, respectively, of being re‐employed in the next 12 months. Furthermore, job seekers who used the internet had a shorter duration of unemployment in both Germany and South Korea.Practical implications – Over the past decade, internet penetration rates and use of the internet in job search have risen sharply across the world. The internet ha...

New evidence of regional income divergence in post-reform Russia

This article investigates regional income convergence in Russia during 2000–2008. We test the hypothesis in which income divergence across regions of the country should give place to income convergence as the country moves toward free market economy with strong market institutions. The study contributes to the existing literature by using the exponential smooth autoregressive Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) unit root test in a panel setup, a novel econometric technique, which encompasses cross sectional dependence. Results show strong evidence of on-going regional income divergence in post-reform period.

Determinants of firm competitiveness: case of the Turkish textile and apparel industry

This article explores different determinants of competitiveness in the booming textile and apparel industry of Turkey. By using focus groups, survey data, and explanatory factor analysis, we have identified 27 competitive items grouped into eight constructs. According to Turkish managers, the competitiveness of textile and apparel firm is heavily determined by product differentiation, efforts across foreign markets, and availability of government incentives. In contrast to existing studies, we find little evidence that networking in different forms, such as close relationship politicians and state employees, clustering, and participating in the industry associations, have a major impact on a firm competitiveness.

Trade barriers and market integration in textile sector: evidence from post-reform Russia

This paper is about tests for trade barriers and market integration in Russian textile sector. The study contributes to the existing literature on internal market integration, examining the extent of such integration in textile sector in the transitional economy of Russia. We find fairly strong evidence of market integration in textile sector for most regions over 2002–2009. Our findings suggest that the internal market in Russia is quite efficient, and, hence, anticipated WTO accession can benefit the consumers of textile products.

Macro Explanatory Factors of Turkish Tourism Companies' Stock Returns

ABSTRACT This study examines whether the stock prices of Turkish tourism companies respond to growth in eight macro-economic variables namely, consumer price index, imports, exchange rate, consumer confidence index, oil price, money supply, foreign tourist arrivals, and monthly stock market return. By applying the Granger causality procedure, we find that growth in the consumer confidence index and imports could Granger cause tourism companies’ stock returns among eight macro factors in Turkey during the 2005 to 2013 period. After considering the structural break that occurred in 2007, the pre-break results indicate that the consumer confidence index, exchange rate, and foreign tourist arrivals could Granger cause tourism stock returns. However, the results in the post-structural break period reveal that only growths in oil prices and imports are significant.

Explorative versus Exploitative Alliances: Evidence from the Glass Industry in China

How do firms learn from their alliance partners? Do alliance learning outcomes vary among different types of alliances? Are the learning differentials contingent upon contextual factors in an emerging economy? To address these important questions, this study empirically delineates the nature of explorative and exploitative alliances, examines how they affect product and process innovations, and investigates how such effects vary in different contexts. Using a sample of 220 Chinese firms in the glass industry, we use the structural equation modeling procedure to analyze the data. We find that explorative alliances have a stronger impact on both product and process innovations than do exploitative alliances, product, and process innovations are positively related to both market and efficiency performance, and environmental turbulence enhances the impact of product and process innovations. Our findings provide implications for choosing between explorative and exploitative alliances in line with alliance objectives and firms’ resources, and environmental contexts.