One picture is worth a thousand words, courtesy of Bloom and Van Reenen’s “Why Do Management Practices Differ Across Firms and Countries?” (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2010)
My earlier comments on this still-underrated piece here.
One picture is worth a thousand words, courtesy of Bloom and Van Reenen’s “Why Do Management Practices Differ Across Firms and Countries?” (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2010)
My earlier comments on this still-underrated piece here.
May 20 2016
President Obama and Governor Brown believe the science is settled and carbon emissions lead to droughts. Before we test the veracity of their beliefs, consider that many of the warmest places on Earth, such as rainforests, are both warm and wet. Further, some of the driest places on Earth, such as Antarctica and Siberi...
May 20 2016
Imagine an article on the "carried interest" tax loophole, entitled as follows: "Carried Interest tax treatment should not be changed, experts agree" And suppose that all of the experts were hedge fund billionaires. CNBC has a new article discussing "expert" opinion on Chinese steel exports. Here's the headline: ...
May 20 2016
One picture is worth a thousand words, courtesy of Bloom and Van Reenen's "Why Do Management Practices Differ Across Firms and Countries?" (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2010)My earlier comments on this still-underrated piece here.
READER COMMENTS
E. Harding
May 20 2016 at 1:21am
What’s going on with China in that graph?
ChrisA
May 20 2016 at 1:31am
My experience in working in multiple developing countries is that this is true – multi-nationals are usually have much more “capable” managers than local firms. But is this the cause or just the effect of their being more successful? For one thing – you don’t become a multi-national company unless you are successful. Which means that you have money to hire elite managers and you can also invest in training them better. But this came after the success, so it’s not clear that hiring elite managers actually causes the success. A good example is Apple – I can easily believe that their international managers are all very good – but I would argue their success comes almost invariably from the insights of Steve Jobs into consumer electronics, and is nothing to do with their international managers.
Lauren
May 20 2016 at 8:19am
Hi, E. Harding.
You asked
What’s going on clearly, in that graph on management, is that China is right next to and just below India–so, China is quite in line with other fast-developing countries in recent years regarding multinationals and management. China and India are also, somewhat surprisingly, both above Portugal, Brazil, and Greece–countries that have had dramatic setbacks since the 2008 financial crisis.
Why do you focus on China? Are you a fan of China? A detractor of China? Why single out China in the long list of countries in the graph? Are you asking why there is a lower percentage of multinationals in charge in China than in other countries? Please explain why you have singled out China.
David S
May 20 2016 at 8:35am
Re China, I think the point he was making was that China was an outlier with unusually poor international corporate management.
Perhaps attributable to party officials getting corporate governance roles based on connections rather than merit? I’d think that would be true of some of the other countries as well, though.
Lauren
May 21 2016 at 8:55am
Thanks, David S. That’s probably exactly what E. Harding was focusing on. I didn’t cotton to what the issue might be.
My apologies to E. Harding if I came down too hard.
Steve Sedio
May 21 2016 at 2:41pm
Multinational companies compete on a global scale. They have to be at least as good as the competition in each location (or they wouldn’t be there). Those combined skills, applied globally, can make you far more competitive.
If you look at the countries where the local companies do well, the competition is strong, requiring better management skills.
Elias Hakansson
May 22 2016 at 7:24pm
Yes, the market invariably selects for successful management wherever you are, but there’s no surprise why Northern Ireland scores higher than other businesses. It’s probably because of their tax policies for international corporations.
jon
May 24 2016 at 3:17am
The graphs a bit misleading. It’s based on a 1-5 scale, but it only shows 2.4 to 3.4.
Comments are closed.