Dialect connectedness and tunneling: evidence from China

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effects of dialect connectedness between the chairman and the chief executive officer (CEO) (DCCC) on the tunneling activities of controlling shareholders.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses abnormal related-party transactions (ARPT) as a proxy for tunneling activities and traces dialects of chairmen and CEOs based on the respective birthplace information. Baseline results are examined using a fixed-effects model. The results remain robust when using the instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching (PSM) technique, changing the measurement of tunneling and Heckman two-step selection model.FindingsThe results show that DCCC reduces tunneling activities. This negative association is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises and firms whose chairmen and CEOs work in the respective hometowns. DCCC restrains tunneling activities through mechanisms by establishing an informal supervisory effect on CEOs because the CEOs fear reputational damage and strengthening cooperation between chairmen and CEOs. Further analyses suggest that this negative association is more significant when chairmen and CEOs are non-controlling shareholders, but the association is weakened during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.Originality/valueAs dialect is a carrier of culture, this study's results imply that cultural proximity can replace formal mechanisms to enhance corporate governance.

A Reflection on the Nexus between South African Land Reform Struggles and the Unresolved National Question

The post-apartheid South African government continues to struggle with its transformation posture, including the quest to redress the racially based land inequalities that have plagued the country since its colonial past. The Covid-19 pandemic, the 2015 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements, and the July 2021 #FreeZuma violence have highlighted both the fragility and the resilience of South African political institutions. Since the formation of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-leaning and militant political party, in 2013, the South African land question has become more vociferously contested within government purview and in the public domain. Unresolved land issues have exposed the failure of the state to resolve one of its most sensitive national questions. We interrogate the land conflict and locate it within the broader national questions that have continued to haunt post-apartheid South Africa. Indeed, the South African land question must be understood holistically, and not solely as an agrarian question. Although the ANC-led government has implemented a land reform scheme under four pillars—land restitution, land redistribution, tenure security, and land development—there are still compelling cases of land hunger and conflict, as well as widespread confusion about the proposed land expropriation without compensation. Despite the rhetoric by government officials, we hold that the land debacle is a manifestation of a failing national question, state fragility, and an incomplete decolonisation process wherein the so-called "political power" held by the majority has not transformed into economic power and the effective redistribution of land to meet the targets of successive administrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of African Renaissance Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A Reflection on the Nexus between South African Land Reform Struggles and the Unresolved National Question

The post-apartheid South African government continues to struggle with its transformation posture, including the quest to redress the racially based land inequalities that have plagued the country since its colonial past. The Covid-19 pandemic, the 2015 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements, and the July 2021 #FreeZuma violence have highlighted both the fragility and the resilience of South African political institutions. Since the formation of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-leaning and militant political party, in 2013, the South African land question has become more vociferously contested within government purview and in the public domain. Unresolved land issues have exposed the failure of the state to resolve one of its most sensitive national questions. We interrogate the land conflict and locate it within the broader national questions that have continued to haunt post-apartheid South Africa. Indeed, the South African land question must be understood holistically, and not solely as an agrarian question. Although the ANC-led government has implemented a land reform scheme under four pillars—land restitution, land redistribution, tenure security, and land development—there are still compelling cases of land hunger and conflict, as well as widespread confusion about the proposed land expropriation without compensation. Despite the rhetoric by government officials, we hold that the land debacle is a manifestation of a failing national question, state fragility, and an incomplete decolonisation process wherein the so-called “political power” held by the majority has not transformed into economic power and the effective redistribution of land to meet the targets of successive administrations. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of African Renaissance Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The impact of land certification on cropland abandonment: evidence from rural China

Purpose>This study explores how the land tenure system helps in protecting land quantity during agricultural production by estimating the influence of land certification on cropland abandonment, its mechanisms and its heterogeneous effects among groups at the provincial, community and household levels.Design/methodology/approach>To deal with potential homogeneity concerns, the authors investigate the impact of land certification on the area of abandoned croplands using nationally representative panel data from the 2017 and 2019 China Rural Household Panel Survey on 15,000 households across 29 provinces and time-varying difference-in-differences and propensity score matching-difference-in-differences models.Findings>Land certification significantly contributes to the protection of land quantity during agricultural production, and it reduces the area of abandoned croplands by at least 4%. This effect is mainly achieved by improving soil fertility, promoting land transfer, increasing the availability of agricultural subsidies and raising agricultural income. However, while land certification benefits farmers in nonmajor grain-producing areas and western regions, in plain, remote and nonpolitically central villages, and farmers who have not undergone land transfer or land adjustment, it is not beneficial for others.Research limitations/implications>In the postepidemic era, food security based on the protection of the amount of cultivated land becomes increasingly important. It is realistic and inevitable to rationally use every inch of cultivated land and curb the cropland abandonment by strengthening land tenure system reform, especially in the case of the insecurity of land tenure.Practical implications>There are various factors affecting farmers' cropland abandonment, such as poor soil fertility, unavailable land transfer, too little agricultural subsidies and too low agricultural income, but the root cause is the insecurity of land tenure. Empirical evidence from rural China has shown that a clear definition and effective protection of property rights can help curb the cropland abandonment. Enhancing the land protection behavior of farmers through the reform of land certification and promoting the sustainable use of land are what the reform of land tenure system should be.Social implications>Cultivated land, as the material carrier and endowment basis of grain production, is of great importance to safeguarding national food security, especially in the postepidemic era. At the present stage, it is still necessary for most developing countries to strengthen the construction of land tenure system, to carry out land certification reform and to issue farmers with clearly defined and legally effective land certificates. Equally important, efforts also should be made to promote the diversified utilization of the achievements of the certification after the completion of land certification reform in China and other developing countries.Originality/value>Expropriation and occupation of croplands are essential in protecting land quantity during rapid urbanization, and so is reducing cropland abandonment during agricultural production;therefore, it deserves close attention. In this regard, this study estimates the impact of land certification on the area of abandoned croplands, examines its possible mechanisms and identifies its heterogeneous effects to test the applicability of the property rights theory in the Chinese context and enrich the relevant literature and provide Chinese evidence for other developing countries to strengthen the protection of land quantity, by deepening the reform of the land tenure system under different circumstances.

Seeing with the Pandemic: Social Reproduction in the Spotlight

[...]even as appreciation washes through, reproductive care workers are increasingly stepping out to say that garlands are not enough.1 This emergent public reckoning comes on the heels of an extended scholarly rethinking of capitalism, as a growing group of scholars argue that capitalism is always already embedded in gendered and racialized relations of extraction and expropriation.2 Especially generative has been Karl Marx's remarkable historical account of capitalism's origins in a process he dubbed "primitive accumulation. "3 Intent on forestalling moralistic justifications for the system's origins, Marx argued that elites used a combination of land expropriation and violent vagrancy policing to produce both the starter capital and the "free labor" needed to bring that capital to life. Since Rosa Luxemburg, scholars have expanded that account to challenge the more and teleological formulations contained in other parts of Marx's larger oeuvre.4 Rather than see primitive accumulation as focused exclusively on domestic processes and ownership relations, subsequent theorists have pointed to the transnational, racialized, colonial, and gendered processes that characterized its emergence, along with the persistence of these putatively time-limited processes throughout capitalism's existence.5 Prompted by the deep inequities of neoliberalism, David Harvey has argued that the present, in fact, is best understood as a new episode of primitive accumulation, which he names "accumulation by dispossession. The term social reproduction first emerged in the 1970s and 1980s in the writings of Wages for Housework and Marxist feminist theorists.7 Focused on the work it takes to make and remake people, "reproductive labor," these social reproduction theorists located an essential dynamic of capitalist accumulation in the production rather than the exploitation of labor power. Like other elements of primitive accumulation, one of the distinctive features of reproductive labor is that it is not "free labor" in the sense defined by Marx.9 A fundamental feature of the workings of capitalist labor, he argued, was that "the worker leaves the capitalist to whom he hires himself whenever he likes . . . but he cannot leave the whole class of purchasers . . . without renouncing his existence.

Wielding power in multiparty negotiations: the impact of communication medium and assertiveness

PurposeThe medium negotiators choose for communication will influence both process and outcome. To understand how medium influences power expression, this paper aims to compare value claiming by asymmetrically powerful negotiators, using face-to-face and computer-mediated messaging across two studies. Following up on long-standing conjectures from prominent coalition researchers, the authors also directly tested the role of the apex negotiator's personality in coalition formation and value expropriation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two laboratory experiments which manipulated communication medium (computer-mediated vs face-to-face) in three- and four-person bargaining. They also varied asymmetry of power so the apex negotiator either could not be left out of a winning coalition (Study 1) or could be (Study 2). The authors measured trait assertiveness along with multiple indicators of hard bargaining behavior.FindingsCommunicating using instant messages via a computer interface facilitated value claiming for powerful negotiators across both studies. Trait assertiveness correlated with hard bargaining behavior in both studies. An index of hard bargaining behavior mediated the effect of assertiveness on value expropriation but only in the context where the powerful negotiator held a genuine monopoly over coalitions.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the literature on multiparty negotiations by demonstrating persistent media effects on power utilization and by finally confirming the conjectures of prominent coalition researchers regarding personality. Though personality traits generate consistent effects on behavior, their influence on negotiation outcomes depends on the power structure. Negotiation theory needs to incorporate structural and situational factors in modelling effects of enduring traits. Negotiation research should move beyond a rigid focus on dyads.

Covid-19 in investment arbitration. A legal answer

During today’s situation of COVID-19, States take emergency measures which will be subject to investment arbitration claims sooner or later. The aim of this paper is to provide a possible solution to such cases where the State’s and the investor’s interests compete with each other. By analysing cases from the 21th century and applying my findings to hypothetical COVID-19 cases, a general answer on how to solve COVID-19 related investment disputes shall be given. © 2021, Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina. All rights reserved.

Revenue Identification in Attaining Consensus Estimates on Income Predictions: The Function of Ownership Concentration and Managerial Ownership Confirmation from Poland

Financial reliability, along with clearness of business transactions, is one of the mainstays of sustainability. In this research, I investigate whether enterprises expand discretionary revenue when their income before intentional shaping is marginally under the consensus on the income prediction provided by analysts. The innovation of the paper lies in taking into account the role of managerial ownership, ownership concentration, and higher proportions of institutional investors in this situation. Higher ownership concentration and greater percentage of institutional investors in equity were analysed while considering the expropriation hypothesis. In order to assess the concern of managerial ownership for revenue manipulation, I considered the alignment of interest hypothesis. In this research, I certified that enterprises expand discretionary revenue when their revenue and operating income prior to intentional shaping barely miss the consensus forecast. I found that the existence of managerial ownership curtailed the magnitudes of upward discretionary revenue when revenue prior to intentional shaping was marginally below the consensus on revenue. Greater ownership concentration and higher proportions of institutional investors were on the bound of the statistical trend to expand discretionary revenue when net earnings, before intentional shaping, were marginally below analysts’ forecasts.