Multinational Firm Growth and Sustainability Responses to Dynamics of Business Regulations in Host Market

Dynamics in business regulations measured by ease of doing business is a new approach that indicates countries’ business climate reforms toward suitability for investment growth. The present study took three variables from the ease of doing business data and evaluated them toward predictive power of FDI flow to 19 Sub-Saharan African countries by using fixed-effect model. Based on the analysis, the official time, procedures, costs, and minimum capitals in starting a business stage, enterprise registrations and official permissions of the firm establishment had a material effect on investment growth. Even though, on one side trade openness and the growing market size was seen as an opportunity, the deep-rooted corruption and landlocked was the trap for the smooth growth of firms in the region.

Pengaruh Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Dan Good Corporate Governance (GCG) Terhadap Tax Avoidance

This study aims to test the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and good corporate governance (GCG) on tax avoidance. The population in this study was a CGPI-winning company registered with IICG in 2018. The samples selected for use in the study were 15 companies that met the sample criteria. The study was analyzed using partial last square analysis (PLS). The results showed that CSR has a negative influence on tax avoidance. The higher the csr disclosure rate made by the company, the lower the value of CETR which means the level of tax avoidance is high. Meanwhile, good corporate governance has a significant positive influence on tax avoidance. This shows that good corporate governance then corporate tax avoidance will decrease, and the company will be able to run its business in accordance with applicable business regulations including fiscal regulations. This research is potentially relevant to academia, and management. This research provides empirical insight into two major concepts: agency and stakeholder theory issues in tax avoidance schemes.

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is an international, transdisciplinary, and interdisciplinary concept with political, economic, and social dimensions. Neoliberalism is a governing rationality based on market logic that protects free markets by reducing business regulations, restricting citizen and resident welfare state protections, and increasing welfare state discipline. This entails three dimensions: First, neoliberalism consists of economic governing principles to benefit free markets both globally and domestically to the advantage of corporations and economic elites. Second, this includes concurrent state governing principles to limit welfare state protections and impose disciplinary governance so service users will be individually responsible and take up precarious work. A third component is neoliberal governmentality—the ways neoliberalism shapes society’s members through the state to govern themselves as compliant market actors. Neoliberalism is at its core a political reasoning, organizing society around principles of market rationality, from governance structure to social institutions to individual behavior in which individuals should behave as responsible and accountable market actors. Among its central tenets are that individuals should behave as independent responsible market actors; the social welfare state should be downsized and delegated to lower levels of government; and public welfare should be privatized, marketized, and commodified. While neoliberal policy design sets public provision parameters, its signature tool is to govern through state public administration. New public managerialism is a common example, as is managerialism more generally; they both borrow business management principles and apply them to the management of all aspects of social services. Because of its prescriptive nature, there is concern that neoliberalism dictates practice, threatening professional authority of social workers and challenging the implicit trust the public puts in professions. Writ large, there are concerns about democracy itself as neoliberalism works against the will of the people and collective responses to social problems. Resistance to neoliberalism is growing and early examples are provided.

Global South tightens social media grip amid protests

Significance Civil society actors routinely use social media to spread content that fuels anti-government sentiment, to organise demonstrations and to document and amplify protest actions. Across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and South-east Asia, repressive governments are tightening controls over these platforms, most recently under the guise of tackling COVID-19-related disinformation. Impacts Most Middle Eastern states will intensify surveillance of online discourse. African governments will routinely ban and throttle social media and shut down the internet, primarily by pressuring telecoms firms. South-east Asian governments will control online activism through new laws on ‘fake news’ and lean on telecoms firms to comply. South Asian governments favour a combination of new laws on online content and business regulations to control social media activity.

Australia report foresees ageing workforce

Significance The central finding of the report is that an ageing population will create economic and budgetary challenges for the government in the coming decades as workforce participation and labour productivity decline. Impacts The global transition to cleaner energy will impact Australian coal exports more than it will create new economic opportunities. Declining tax revenues will make it difficult for government to maintain existing levels of public services. Reforms of business regulations and the taxation framework will be needed, with a greater focus on labour markets.

Democracy and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Indonesia

While recent work suggests democracy does cause growth, the channels through which this effect occurs remain unclear. Exploiting quasi-random variation in the timing of district-level political regime changes induced by the collapse of President Soeharto's government, we study the micro-level drivers of the democracy-growth relationship. Using Indonesian firm-level data, we find that democratization leads to an increase in firm productivity, a critical determinant of economic growth. Further, we find evidence of an improvement in the quality of local business regulations and the business environment for firms.

Are Business Regulations Improving Economic Growth? Case Study between ASEAN and European Union

Economic activities require a transparent regulatory and policy environment that is accessible to all levels of society. This study aims to explain the impact of ease of doing business on economic growth in both ASEAN and the European Union since doing business indicators applied globally. Gross Domestic Product is used as a proxy variable for economic growth as Gross Domestic Product is an indicator to measure economic growth. This study uses a descriptive quantitative research model and uses multiple regressions to determine the effect of ease of doing business on economic growth in ASEAN and the European Union by comparing the result of each ASEAN and European Union. In this study it was found that in ASEAN, there are four indicators of doing business have significant impact to economic growth, while in the European Union five indicators have significant impact to economic growth.

Linking Business Environment Reform with Gender and Inclusion: A Study of Business Licensing Reform in Indonesia

Business environment reform (BER) targets inadequate business regulations. It is intended to remove constraints to business investment, enabling growth and job creation, and create opportunities for international business to contribute to and benefit from this growth. However, there is a lack of detailed knowledge of the impact of BER on gender and inclusion (G&I). While a review of existing literature suggests that in general, there is no direct link between BER and G&I, indirect links are likely through the influence of BER on firm performance. Outcomes will be influenced by the differential ways in which women-led firms experience the business environment when compared to their male counterparts, with disparities based on how they are treated under the law, as well as structural and sociocultural factors. The fact that in many countries, female-led firms are fewer and smaller than those of their male counterparts, and may operate in different sectors, also affects these dynamics. This research offers new insights through an in-depth analysis of the impact of the Pelayanan Terpadu Satu Pintu (PTSP) or one-stop shop business licensing reform in 2009 on firm performance in Indonesia, and how these impacts vary based on the gender of firm leadership. The results find that on average, firms benefited from improved business performance (sales), as a direct or indirect effect of this reform, as well as an increase in the number of medium and large-scale firms. Outside Jakarta (Bali, Banten, Lampung), women-led firms experienced a small but significant benefit relative to male-led firms, related to both sales and the number of medium and large-scale firms they run. In Jakarta, women-led firms continued to lag behind men and there were no significant effects on employment, and this held across province and gender. These findings are based on an analysis of the PTSP reform using data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES), a survey of small, medium and large firms (i.e. with more than four employees) which took place in Indonesia between 2009 and 2015.

Longitudinal Tracking of Vape Shop Compliance With State Business Regulations Within Southern California Ethnic Neighborhoods During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The overall aim of this study is to examine vape shop business operations during COVID-19 among a cohort of 88 vape shops in the Greater Los Angeles area in Southern California, located in ethnically diverse communities. A total of six web- and/or phone-based assessments were conducted over a 12-week period (April 1, 2020–June 10, 2020), extending from the mandated closure of nonessential businesses (Stage 1; Assessments 1–3) to the reopening of nonessential sectors (Stage 2; Assessments 4–6), to evaluate business operations (open and closure statuses). The proportion of vape shops found to be noncompliant with the Governor’s executive order (i.e., open) during Stage 1 gradually increased from 54 (61.4%) at Assessment 1 (week of April 1, 2020) to 58 (65.9%) at Assessment 3 (week of April 29, 2020). Moreover, vape shops located in Hispanic/Latino and Korean/Asian communities (vs. those in non-Hispanic White and African American communities) were more likely to stay open both during and after the shutdown at Assessments 1 and 6. More specifically, vape shops located in Hispanic/Latino communities were significantly more likely to offer walk-in service during Assessment 1 (during the shutdown), and vape shops in Hispanic/Latino and Korean/Asian were significantly more likely to offer walk-in service during Assessment 6 (after the re-opening). This study demonstrates high rates of noncompliance with shutdown orders among vape shops located in ethnic communities, thus suggesting higher contextual risk factors of COVID-19 exposure among certain ethnic communities.

The Impact of Business Environment Reforms on Poverty, Gender and Inclusion

This rapid review synthesises the literature from academic, policy, and knowledge institution sources on how business environment reforms in middle-income countries impacts on poverty, gender and inclusion. Although, there is limited evidence on the direct impact of business environment reforms on poverty, gender, and inclusion, this review illustrates that there is evidence of indirect effects of such reforms. Business environment reform (BER) targets inadequate business regulations and institutions, in order to remove constraints to business investment and expansion, enabling growth and job creation, as well as new opportunities for international business to contribute to and benefit from this growth. However, there is a lack of detailed knowledge of the impact of BER on gender and inclusion (G&I) outcomes, in terms of the potential to remove institutional barriers which exclude formerly marginalised groups from business opportunities, in ways that promote equal access to resources, opportunities, benefits, and services. The literature shows how the business environment affects women in business, and how women’s experiences of a given business environment can be different from those of men. This is the result of disparities in how they are treated under the law, but also based on structural and sociocultural factors which influence how men and women behave in a given business environment and the barriers they face.