Yoshi Takahashi

Firm resources and business performance in the Lao PDR

Purpose – Resource‐based view (RBV) has been a very well‐known theory to explain performance over the past decades. The purpose of this paper is to apply RBVs concept to investigate the resources of firms in Lao PDR that influence its business performance.Design/methodology/approach – Secondary data that are collected by Enterprises Baseline Survey in 2005 from Germany Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is used. For this purpose, samples of 388 firms in three sectors: manufacturing, trading, and service are used. The resources of firms include human resources (developed through education and training); intangible resources (reputation among customers obtained by investment in marketing and advertising); and tangible resources (physical resources with technology and business finance). By the regression methodology, this paper examines how the resources of the firm affect firm performance in the case of Lao PDR. The ranking of the important critical firm resources and firm performance is also identifie...

Export marketing assistance and early internationalizing firm performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contingent relationship between government marketing assistance for export and the performance of early internationalizing firms in a developing country’s low-tech industry. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employ hierarchical multiple regression based on the data obtained from Bangladesh, a south Asian developing country and a leading exporter of apparel products worldwide. The authors used a sample of 224 early internationalizing apparel firms to test the hypotheses. Findings – Research describes the relationship between export assistance and performance as direct. Recently, some researchers have suggested moderators between them. The authors argue that the relationship between the two is contingent on the level of export commitment. The authors find that neither informational nor experiential marketing assistance is directly related to export performance. The relationship between informational assistance and export performance is signif...

Self‐efficacy as a mediator of the relationships between learning and ethical behavior from human resource development in corporate social responsibility activity

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between learning and ethical behavior with mediation of self‐efficacy. The current study is distinguished from previous studies by its investigation of the relationships of three variables such as learning, self‐efficacy, and ethical behavior based on the four‐level model of Kirkpatrick and transfer of training by the application of the social cognitive theory of Bandura through the analysis of human resource development (HRD) in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity in local Thai firms. This study aims to encourage organizations to prepare and construct “ethical behavior” through CSR activity.Design/methodology/approach – Linear and multiple regression procedures were the basis of the analyses and a PASW statistics version 18 macro (syntax) was used.Findings – The major finding was that self‐efficacy mediated the relationship between learning (KSA change) and ethical behavior.Practical implications – The researchers believe that...

Improving post-assignment behavioral outcomes of expatriates: A Sri Lankan perspective

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between pre-departure human resource management practices (HRMPs) and post-assignment behavioral outcomes (PABOs) among Sri Lankan expatriates. Design/methodology/approach - – The study focuses on three research questions, namely, first, whether individual HRMPs reinforce desirable PABO consequences, second, whether this relationship would be strengthened when HRMPs are bundled together, and third, whether the purpose of an expatriate’s international assignment would affect the strength of the relationship between HRMPs and PABOs. A questionnaire method was employed to survey Sri Lankan repatriates, and 155 responses were analyzed using a hierarchical regression analysis. Findings - – The authors found that two HRMP types, namely, preparation and selection, significantly influenced job commitment, organizational commitment, and retention, both individually and when bundled. Practices such as recruitment, training, performance evaluation, and compensation, bundled with others, improved job and organizational commitment but not retention. Further, the specific task assigned to the expatriate affected the interaction between the HRMPs and their PABOs except retention. Practical implications - – As bundled HRMPs influence job and organizational commitment, organizations should attempt to combine several HRMPs. However, there may be a need to customize HRMPs to improving retention and address the development-driven purpose of assignments. Originality/value - – This study is amongst the first in the Sri Lankan context to emphasize the necessity of proactively managing expatriates’ PABOs before they relocate, using system and contingency approaches.

Factors mediating gender and firm performance in Lao micro, small, and medium sized enterprises

This study investigated firm resources, networks, and operation factors that mediate the relationship between the gender of entrepreneurs and firm performance in Lao micro, small, and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs). The sample consisted of 1,534 companies, made up of 896 male-headed firms and 638 female-headed firms, with 1 to 99 employees. By the use of ordered probit, binary logistic, and multiple linear regression models, the study examined whether male-headed firms outperformed those led by females through consideration of firm resources, networks, and operation factors. The findings showed that some firm resources and networks mediate the relationship between gender and firm performance and that male-headed firms outperformed female-headed ones. However, operation factors did not show any impact on the performance of male- and female-headed firms and there was no evidence of superior performance. This paper suggests policy implications for both policy implementers and policymakers that firm resources (human and tangible resources) and networks (network participation and Information Communication Technology adoption) should be emphasized because of their contribution to firm success. The paper also recommends the reduction and/or elimination of the gap between firms operated by male and female entrepreneurs.

Export Assistance: The Way Back and Forward

Export assistance attracted many researchers during the last three decades. Considering the present realities and future possibilities in world trade, governments in many countries have increased their efforts to boost national exports. Researchers have investigated the impact of such assistance on export performance, at the national and/or firm level. Despite increased interest in this area, few attempts have been made to address the outcomes of such promotion at the firm level. The few studies which exist have not been very successful in establishing strong link between the two. In this chapter, we first provide a brief review of the evolution of export assistance literature by including and analyzing the studies since 1964. Then we summarize two existing review articles on export assistance literature which covered studies on the topic until 1991. Next we try to extend the review beyond this period to broaden our knowledge about current trends in the field. We critically examine empirical studies on the subject and eventually develop a new, extended model for the relationship between export assistance and firm performance. Finally, we conclude by giving suggestions for future research in the field.

Determining the applicability of feminist theories by examining the mediation and moderation effects on non‐economic performance in Lao micro, small, and medium‐sized enterprises

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of social feminist theory (SFT) and liberal feminist theory (LFT) to Lao micro, small, and medium‐sized enterprises (MSMEs) based on the results of mediation and moderation effects of the gender of entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approach – The sample consisted of 200 MSMEs. Analysis is based, first, on factor analysis to extract important factors and, second, multiple linear regression is used to empirically validate the feminist theories by examining the mediation effects and moderation effects regarding gender of entrepreneurs.Findings – The findings showed that not all feminist‐related factors mediate the relationship between gender and non‐economic performance whereas the gender of entrepreneurs moderates personal, social network, and skills factors and non‐economic performance but not family factor. Lastly, the compilation of the mediation and moderation results revealed that SFT is more applicable than LFT to Lao MSMEs.Researc...

Determinants of Subcontracting and Firm Performance in Lao PDR: Evidence from a Garment Industry Cluster

Subcontracting plays an important role in economic development and employment creation. It also has been regarded as the main source of efficiency and competitiveness. The main reasons of subcontracting relations are that large firms seek to gain lower labor cost advantage from small firms (dualistic and developmental approaches) and/or they can gain collective efficiency through cooperation in terms of technology, production and marketing (networks/clusters approach). The paper estimates subcontract offering and subcontract receiving firms and their impact on firm performance for Lao garment industry by using data from a field survey. We construct probit and multiple regression analyses to examine the hypotheses. The findings indicate that both unequal and equal relationships exist between clients and subcontractors. Large firms play the role in being clients while small firms tend to be subcontractors. Moreover, wages are not different among clients and subcontractors. This means that network/cluster type of subcontracting also exists in Lao garment industry.

Assessing Inequalities in Thai Education

Using data from Thailands Household Socioeconomic Survey, this paper measures the inequalities of Thai education in 2011. We utilize the Gini coefficients to estimate Thai educational inequalities from cumulative years of educational attainment which are between zero (no schooling) to twenty-one (doctoral level) years. The education Gini coefficient of the whole country is 0.349. At the provincial level, the Gini coefficients are in a range between 0.272 (Nonthaburi) and 0.521 (Mae hong son). The provinces located near the Bangkok metropolis have greater equality in education, except for Samut Sakhon, while the provinces in the northern part of Thailand have severe inequality in education, especially the border provinces. As for the effect of schooling on educational inequality, we found that at the regional level, average years of schooling was significantly and negatively associated with the educational inequality, except in the northern part of Thailand. The magnitudes of coefficients of average years of schooling in the northern and southern parts are twice that of the central part of Thailand. The policy implication of this paper is that the Thai government should pay attention to two points in adjusting the scope of distribution: reduce the number of people without schooling and extend the educational attainment of people with primary education to secondary education. At the regional level, the policy of education expansion for reducing educational inequality is workable only in central Thailand, the north, and the south. Governments should utilize different policies in each region. In addition, the Thai government should pay more attention to solving the social problems which contribute to the issue of educational inequality.

Testing Kirkpatrick' s Four-Level Hierarchy of Training Evaluation: Evidence from Thailand' s Automotive Industry

Several studies of training evaluation have failed to confirm the hierarchy relationship of reaction, learning, and behavior to results because of the difficulty of evaluating training. Furthermore, research in this area has tended to downplay the importance of level one (reaction) evaluation. In this study, we proposed investigating Kirkpatrick’s four-level hierarchy of training evaluation, focusing specifically on two types of reactions, affective and utility, to predict training outcomes. The results of this study expand our understanding of the progressive causal relationship of reaction, learning, and job behavior to results. In particular, this study highlighted the utility reactions in predicting training effectiveness. Implications and future research directions suggested by the results are also discussed.