Corporate Diversification, Ownership, and Solvency in China’s Property-Liability Insurance Companies

Solvency is the premise of the sustainable management of insurance companies. Among factors that affect the solvency of insurance companies, diversification strategy is one that cannot be ignored. To study the impact of diversification on the solvency of property-liability insurance companies and how diversification will influence companies with different ownership, this paper adopts the dynamic panel GMM model and the unbalanced panel data from 2009 to 2015. The analysis is from two dimensions: product diversification and geographic diversification. Empirical study shows that product diversification will increase the solvency of Chinese-funded property-liability insurance companies but reduce the solvency of foreign-funded ones. As for the impact of geographic diversification on solvency, the more geographically diversified the premium income of Chinese-funded property-liability insurance companies are, the lower their solvency will be. However, geographical expansion has no significant solvency-related impact on foreign-funded property-liability insurance companies in China.

STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF UKRAINE’S EXPORTS IN THE PANDEMIC PERIOD

Background. The erasing of the pandemic and its rapid spread all over the world has become a great challenge both for the global economics and for individual national economies. Analysis of recent research and publications. International organizations, including the WTO, IMF, FAO, are engaged in the actualization of the problem of levelingthe impact of the pandemic on the issue of debt, financial, food security. Scientists and practitioners are concerned about the consequences of the spread of COVID-19 for doing business and the ability to freely supply goods to foreign markets. However, the problem of transforming the structure of exports in the context of a pandemic remains poorly studied, controversial, and requires detailed consideration. The aim of the article is to study the transformation of the export structure, taking into account the geographic diversification of the supply of domestic goods and the adjustment of the commodity saturation of the country's export basket in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. Materials and methods. The study is based on the works of foreign and domestic scientists, materials of international and domestic organizations, enterprises data. In the process of preparing the article, the following methods were used: system-structural; statistical and graphic; abstract-logical. Results. The article contains investigation of the concept of transformationas an economic phenomenon, structural transformation of exports is considered as evolutionary and/or revolutionary change in the geographical vector of export development and/or optimization of the disproportion of the export basket under the influence of endogenous and exogenous determinants. The authors carried out the assessment of the structural transformationofthe economy according to the foreign economic approach, the transfor­mation of the geographical and commodity structure of exports; investigated the dynamics of the currency structure of receipts for goods; defined the determinants of changes in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods; made proposals for the further development of the structure of the domestic export basket; substantiated the need for anti-crisis post-pandemic development of exports. Conclusion. The pandemic became a catalyst for the problems of exporters, made them think about options for solving them through the formation of an anti-crisis policy and an immediate search for ways of anti-crisis post-pandemic development.

Inclusion of Condominium Units in Luxury Hotels as a Diversification Strategy: Property Performance Perspective

There is a new wave of mixed development where luxury hotels come with condominium units, though this type of diversification has gained scant attention. Prior hospitality literature on diversification strategies has mostly taken the firm-level approach and documented its impact on performance from various angles such as brand diversification, segment diversification, and geographic diversification, therefore leaving a void. In this work, we use the multilevel mixed effect model to examine 15,340 property-level data points from 2010 to 2019 for U.S. luxury hotels with and without condominium units. Our objective is to compare, at a property level, the performances of luxury hotels with condominium units with the performances of those not having condominium units and to determine whether the difference varies by hotel location. Our findings suggest that the Average Daily Rate (ADR), Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR), and Total Revenue per Available Rooms (TRevPAR) of luxury hotels with condominium units were significantly higher than those of hotels without condominium units. Significant moderating effect of location was found for Occupancy, ADR, Food and Beverage Revenue per Available Rooms (F&B RevPAR), and TRevPAR while no such effect was found for RevPAR and GOPPAR.

Industry life cycle, geographic diversification and performance of international new ventures

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how geographic diversification affects the performance of international new ventures. Design/methodology/approach This study develops hypotheses about the individual and joint effects of geographic diversification and industry life cycle on the performance of international new ventures. This paper also introduces industry technology characteristics as a contingent factor for the above relationships and tests the hypotheses on a large panel data set. Findings Based on the analyses of the strategies and performance of 699 listed Chinese international new ventures between 1991 and 2014, this study finds that the impact of geographic diversification on performance is contingent on the stage of the industry life cycle and that the moderating effect differs across high-technology and low-technology industries. The results suggest that it is fruitful for international new ventures in high-technology industries to undertake geographic diversification in earlier stages of the industry life cycle, but international new ventures in low-technology industries are better off undertaking geographic diversification during the later stages of the industry life cycle. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature on international entrepreneurship by identifying the industry life cycle conditions under which the learning advantages of international new ventures are effective and facilitate the achievement of better performance. This paper also shows that industry technology type matters for geographic diversification strategies of international new ventures.

Does the target market affect bank performance? Evidence from the geographic diversification of city commercial banks in China

After the opening up of the banking sector to domestic and foreign capitals which is approved by the Chinese government, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has permitted city commercial banks to diversify geographically. Since this deregulation in 2006, city commercial banks began to geographically diversify to occupy the market and acquire more financial resources. To examine the causal relationship between geographical diversification and bank performance, we construct an exogenous geographical diversification instrument using the gravity-deregulation model and a policy shock. We find that bank geographical diversification negatively affects bank performance. Moreover, we conduct some mechanism tests in the Chinese context. We find that the target market with several large- and medium-sized banks and a high level of local protectionism in the target market decreases the performance of city commercial banks. Finally, cross-sectional analyses show that the impact of geographical diversification on banks’ performance is more notable among city commercial banks that are younger, and have a lower capital adequacy ratio and a higher non-performing loan ratio.

Strategizing of Light Industry and Fashion Businesses in the Emerging-market countries

According to global forecasts, emerging-market countries have a more rapidly developing consumption rate than developed economies. Their global consumption share will continue to grow in the nearest future. Large industrial enterprises have the best competitive position to focus their products and services emerging-market countries because they have strong brands as well as high-quality customer service, hi-tech innovations and infrastructure. Such emerging-market countries as China, India, and Brazil provide strategic opportunities for long-term development. Successful expansion into the emerging-market countries profit margins, asset turnover, and geographic diversification in the long run. The research objective was to study the strategy development of light industry and fashion businesses in emerging-market countries. The paper introduces an in-depth OTSW-analysis of strategic opportunities and trends. The author emphasizes the role of fashion strategizing as an effective tool that makes it possible to take into account industrial characteristics. The research results can help to strategize the national brand “Made in Kuzbass” in emerging-market countries, thus contributing to the global image of Kuzbass.