China is currently establishing a strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) to ensure its energy security. The stated government goal is to build up an SPR equivalent to the amount of 90 days of net oil imports by 2020. To build up an SPR needs a large amount of funds. How to determine the optimal...

The energy security situations of many oil-consuming countries have become worse because of greater uncertainty in the world market. This is especially true for developing countries such as China and India, which face greater risks because of their lack of strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs)....

China's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is currently being prepared. But how large the optimal stockpile size for China should be, what the best acquisition strategies are, how to release the reserve if a disruption occurs, and other related issues still need to be studied in detail. In this...

The US dollar is frequently used as the invoicing currency of international crude oil trading. Hence, the fluctuation in US dollar exchange rate is believed to underlie the volatility of crude oil price and especially its forecasting accuracy. Using econometric techniques including...

This paper studies the internationalisation of Chinese piano firms from a branding perspective. The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, it examines the interplay between the country of origin (COO) effect and international branding, and how COO affects the choice of branding strategies in...

Reputation is generally considered an asset, especially in e-commerce markets. Any reputation system, however, elicits strategic responses from the sellers. Using panel data on a large random sample of online sellers from China’s largest e-commerce platform, Taobao.com, we study how...

This research paper reviews the development of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) to the European Union since the global fnancial crisis, summarizes the apparent characteristics and causes behind that development, provides an in-depth analysis of the problems and deep rooted risks...

The 1996 Telecommunication Act introduces entry into an originally monopolistic U.S. local telephone industry. As competitors cherry pick rich, urban markets to enter, the Act calls for an explicit and pro-competitive subsidy policy to narrow the potential divide in telecom infrastructure. To...

We study how the financial constraints of agents affect the behavior of principals in the context of franchising. We develop an empirical model of franchising starting with a principal-agent framework that emphasizes the role of franchisees' collateral from an incentive perspective. We estimate...