Abstract. Many pension schemes mandated by governments have accumulated large reserves. The management of these funds has a direct effect on financial sustainability and potential benefit levels. It also has important indirect effects on the overall economy when the funds are large. Part I of this study surveys some of the available cross-country evidence on publicly-managed pension reserves. We find that publicly-managed pension funds (i) are often used to achieve objectives other than providing pensions (ii) are difficult to insulate from political interference and (iii) tend to earn poor rates of return relative to relevant indices. These findings are consistent across countries of all types, but returns are especially dismal in countries with poor governance. The experience to date suggests that the rationale for prefunding have been seriously undermined by public management of pension reserves. Countries

How does organizational slack affect firm performance? Organization theory posits that slack, despite its costs, has a positive impact on firm performance. In contrast, agency theory suggests that slack breeds inefficiency and inhibits performance. The empirical evidence, largely from developed economies, has been inconclusive. Moreover, little effort has been made to empirically test whether such an impact (positive or negative) is linear or curvilinear. This article joins the debate by extending empirical work to the largely unexplored context of economic transitions. Specifically, two studies, based on survey and archival data (N = 57 and 1532 firms, respectively), are undertaken in China’s emerging economy. Our results suggest (1) that organization theory generates stronger predictions when dealing with unabsorbed slack, and (2) that agency theory yields stronger validity when focusing on absorbed slack. Furthermore, we also find that the impact of slack on performance is curvilinear, which resembles inverse U-shaped curves. Overall, our findings call for a contingency perspective to specify the nature of slack when discussing its impact on firm performance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. How does organizational slack affect firm performance? Organization theorists typically argue that, despite its costs, slack buffers a firm’s technical core from environmental turbulence, and thus enhances its performance (Cyert and March, 1963; Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978; Thompson, 1967). In contrast, agency theorists often suggest that slack is a source of agency problems, which breeds inefficiency, inhibits risk-taking, and hurts performance (Fama, 1980; Jensen and Meckling, 1976). At present, evidence based on these two perspectives is still inconclusive, and the debate therefore calls for more conceptual and empirical probes. One aspect that unites virtually all empirical

This manuscript is a part of the first author’s doctoral thesis. We would like to thank the editor John Solcum and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Their comments were valuable and helped us in improving the paper. We also would like to thank Asli Arikan, Ilgaz Arikan, Jay Barney,

Indonesia has been severely hurt by the recent economic crisis, which has been accompanied by social tensions. Still, there are reasons to be optimistic about Indonesia's future. The economic crisis may have bottomed out and the difficult transition to democracy has started. For a sustainable long-term recovery, it is essential that Indonesia is able to attract FDI inflows, and manages to achieve a reasonably equal spatial development of growth. Unfortunately, there is a possible contradiction between FDI and even regional development since FDI tends to locate in concentrated clusters. This paper discusses some requirements for 2 a long-term recovery of Indonesia, which special focus on FDI and an even spatial development. Indonesia has during the last two years witnessed an economic crisis that is without comparison for over 30 years. Since the outbreak of the crisis in September, 1997, Indonesia's GDP has fallen by about 15%; the share of population under the poverty line has increased substantially; unemployment rates are high and large parts of the financial and business

utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the Institute.

rē-for´m v.t. & i. 1. make (institution, procedure etc.) better by removal or abandonment of imperfections, faults or errors pe´nsion n. 1. periodic payment made on retirement or above specified age

This study focuses on examining the influence of firm-specific and environmental characteristics on the marketing performance of International Joint Ventures (IJV) in Thailand. Studied is the influence of these characteristics on overall performance perceptions, economic performance and strategic marketing output performance objectives. The data for the study were collected from a self-administered mail survey in Thailand. The critical determinants of IJV marketing performance in Thailand were identified as the adaptation of marketing mix strategy, market characteristics and the IJV’s market orientation.

We offer a simple model of policymaking emphasizing socialization and limits on human cognition to explicate mechanisms of change in emergent (as opposed to established) institutions. Emergent institutions are more susceptible to change, and their opponents may use frames or existing reference points to illustrate inconsistency with prevailing notions of legitimacy. Broader institutional structures and specific organizational characteristics moderate pressure for change. This perspective has novel implications for strategy and policy design.

in the globalizing world economy: lessons from Singapore’s regionalization programme Henry Wai-chung Yeung Abstract The recent 1997- 98 Asian economic crisis has thrown Asia’s divergent pathways to development into serious question. Protagonists of neoliberalism argue that their agenda is now becoming a global orthodoxy when several ailing Asian economies have accepted IMF packages which come with neoliberal economic programmes. Drawing on lessons from Singapore’s regionalization programme, this article contends that it is far too early to conclude that Asian developmental states are giving up their governance of domestic economies. Instead, there is evidence that these Asian developmental states are re-regulating their domestic economies to ride out of the economic crisis. The article �rst starts with the debate between neoliberalism and state developmentalism in our understanding of global political economy. It then examines the political economy of Singapore’s regionalization programme through which Singapore-based transnational corporations are strongly encouraged by the state to regionalize their operations, followed by a critical discussion of the impact of the recent Asian economic crisis on the re-regulation of the regionalization programme by the state in Singapore. Some lessons for Asian emerging economies are suggested in the concluding section. Keywords Globalization; neoliberalism; state intervention; Singapore; foreign investment; Asian economic crisis

Central de Venezuela. 3 LEARNING AND INNOVATION (L&I) PATHS IN EAST ASIA Developing countries that have achieved satisfactory levels of macro-economic stability should now decide what steps must be taken after “getting the basics right. ” Furthermore, given the knowledge-intensive nature of modern economies and the preeminence of learning processes in building competitive assets, companies in developing countries should master the processes of knowledge accumulation to guarantee the continuous enhancement of technological, organizational, and institutional capabilities. A closer look at the