Russian border regions in the economic corridor of China-Mongolia-Russia

The object of the paper are the border regions of Siberia as a part of the planned China-MongoliaRussia economic corridor in China’s foreign policy initiative “One Belt One Road”. The aim of the study is to reveal the nature of the interaction of these regions with the outside world to determine the ways of their development within a common economic space of the corridor. The study is based on the analysis of foreign investment flows to the border regions using macro- and microeconomic methods. The volume foreign capital goes mainly to mining, while other industries are dominated by small enterprises formed by foreign citizens, not corporations. In these areas, intermediary business prevails, which does not require increased human capital. China is gradually replacing other counter-partners in the use of natural resources, including mineral and forest ones. The problems of development of the border regions in common economic space of the corridor due to similar resource specialisation and weak development of the embedded economy have been identified. With the development of transit infrastructure, it is necessary to develop local industries integrated into large projects and capable of using this infrastructure to expand sales markets.

Research on Financing of Small and Micro Enterprises in Postepidemic Period: Based on Evolutionary Game and Numerical Simulation

Small and microenterprises are most affected during the COVID-19 epidemic period. Despite the government introducing many preferential policies, financing for small and microenterprises is still difficult. Based on evolutionary game theory and Matlab r2017b software, this paper discusses the causes of financing problems from two aspects. By taking loan amount, loan interest rate, guarantee value, and intermediary business income as variables, the research shows that banks not only pay attention to the comprehensive return of small and microenterprises but also pay more attention to the coverage of loan principal and interest by the value of collateral. Relying on collateral for credit is still the main way, and the lack of collateral causes financing difficulties of small and microenterprises. Accordingly, this paper puts forward the countermeasures and suggestions to improve the guarantee compensation mechanism and innovate the financing mode.

Government and Intermediary Business Engagement for Controlling Electronic Waste in Indonesia: A Sustainable Reverse Logistics Theory through Customer Value Chain Analysis

Environmental pollution caused by the improper processing of electronic waste, especially from mobile phones, has increased drastically. Governments in developing countries, including Indonesia, have not been ready to face this problem. Informal groups are reacting very fast, growing and spreading evenly in many places to profit through reverse logistics activities. They dominate the markets of used electronic products. Today, eradicating these groups is impossible due to poverty, low education, and unemployment problems. Competing with them is also useless. Therefore, this research aims to find an engagement model between government and intermediary businesses, both formal and informal, for a sustainable purpose. Before determining the model, we must understand the intermediary businesses’ expectations. Therefore, we interviewed eight respondents that represent each business group and used customer value chain analysis to map them. We found forty-one expectations. Seven are the most common but are difficult to realize since they contradict government regulations. To cope with the urgency of the current situation, we concluded that the government should engage directly with the needs of these businesses, and we recommend three models of engagement i.e., empowerment, collaboration, and involvement.

Growth Potential of the Market Force of Intermediary Structures

The aim of the study is to determine the extent and prospects development of market potential of intermediary structures using an example of waterway transport enterprises. Economic liberalization, development of international economic activity, fragmentation and distantness of suppliers and buyers as preconditions for development of intermediary business structures are determined. The main factors hindering the development of intermediary activities are identified, for instance, imperfect regulatory framework, insufficient intermediary’s professionalism, insecurity from intermediaries, low level of responsibility to counterparties, general distrust. Transport companies, in particular, the waterway transport enterprises, are identified as intermediaries that have a significant influence for development of individual economic agents and economic systems. Prospects for the development of sustainable mutually beneficial economic relations or the mutual benefit, the availability of effective information flow, a clear definition of roles, rights and obligations of the involved parties, mutual coordination of behaviour of intermediary structures and clients defined as the main conditions for development of effective interaction of intermediary structures of water transport and clients. In the matter of further studies, attention should be paid to improvement of strengthening mechanism for the responsibility of intermediary structures and clients.

Problems and prospects of development of intermediary business in Ukraine

The article deals with the problem of identification and search of the future-oriented directions of intermediary business development in Ukraine in the conditions of transformation processes in the national economy. The article describes the essence of trade and intermediary activity, outlines the main components and represents the content of trade and intermediary transactions. On the basis of the general analysis of theoretical and practical works on the implementation of trade and intermediary activities, the main problems that impede the development of intermediary business in Ukraine are identified. It is noted that it is expedient to use the formulated signs and principles for the organization of trade and intermediary activities. The prospects of using the newest marketing tools (neuromarketing) in the trade-intermediary business are described. It is noted that it is necessary to improve the normative base, that now inhibits the development of trade and intermediary activities.

Degree of Internationalization, Staff Localization and Bank’s Overseas Performance: Evidence from China's Top Four Banks

In international expansion, staff localization helps Chinese commercial banks to provide services to meet local needs. This paper explores the mediation effect of staff localization and refines the measurement of bank’s overseas performance, to reveal the transmit channel of how the degree of internationalization (DOI) affects bank’s overseas performance. With data from 2009 to 2015 of China’s top five banks as the sample to build a panel data model, the result suggests that staff localization fully mediates the relationship between DOI and bank’s overseas performance, and DOI exercises positive effect on the overseas performance of intermediary business, but no significant effect on the overseas performance of deposit/loan business. Implications and suggestions for bank’s overseas practice are discussed.

A Study on Costs, Risks and Competitiveness of Palm Oil Fruit Dealers’ Business in Malaysia

This exploratory study aims to describe the nature of palm oil intermediary business focusing on the costs structure,risks and competitive challenges. This study employs qualitative research design. Five fruit dealers (FD) are involvein the interview. The findings show that palm oil fruit dealer business requires enormous amount of cash andequipment investments during the start-up and growth stages. In addition, FDs must comply with specificrequirements to apply for the operating license. The risks are divided into non-controllable and controllable risks.The non-controllable risk refers to the external source of risks such as fresh fruit bunch (FFB) shrinkage due toweather factor, volatility of market price and inconsistent mills purchase decisions. Meanwhile, the controllable riskconsist of the probability of unripe FFB purchased from the smallholders. Furthermore, the finding indicates that thebusiness competitive structure is relatively intense due to strong bargaining power of buyers and sellers, high servicesubstitutability from nearby FDs, high rivalry among existing firms, and the need of special equipment. However, thethreat of new entrants is low due to the high entrance and exit barriers of the business. Finding of this studysuggested that agriculture intermediaries have important roles within the palm oil smallholders’ value chain.Therefore, this study disseminates preliminary insights on FDs’ business in terms of costs, risks and challenges.