Research Opportunities in Emerging Markets: an Inter-disciplinary Perspective from Marketing, Economics, and Psychology

Innovation as a Determinant of Growth in Outperforming Emerging Markets: An Analysis of South Korea

Emerging economies and their speed of growth, competitiveness, and resilience are of great interest globally due to the high potential investors see in them. Innovation is one of the factors recognized to be the common ground of significantly outperforming economies. Therefore, identifying innovation benchmarks and how they impact economic success is relevant for a more straightforward evaluation of innovation in a country. This research focuses on the quantitative parts of innovation. Firstly, governmental interference, knowledge flows and networks, cultural and societal preconditions, and openness towards change are identified as notably relevant innovation enhancing factors in South Korea through case study analyses. Then, an analysis of the impact of quantitative innovation factors on the GDP in South Korea is conducted. The impact of quantifiable innovation factors, identified through literature review, on the GDP as the benchmark for economic growth is tested from 1995 until 2018 through a linear, multiple least squares regression to identify significant relationships between the chosen variables. Two out of five selected quantitative innovation factors have a statistically significant impact on the economic growth in the used model. The number of researchers per million people and the patent grants of residents is identified to be impactful innovation benchmarks.

The Rise and Impact of COVID-19 in India

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which originated in the city of Wuhan, China, has quickly spread to various countries, with many cases having been reported worldwide. As of May 8th, 2020, in India, 56,342 positive cases have been reported. India, with a population of more than 1.34 billion-the second largest population in the world-will have difficulty in controlling the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 among its population. Multiple strategies would be highly necessary to handle the current outbreak; these include computational modeling, statistical tools, and quantitative analyses to control the spread as well as the rapid development of a new treatment. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India has raised awareness about the recent outbreak and has taken necessary actions to control the spread of COVID-19. The central and state governments are taking several measures and formulating several wartime protocols to achieve this goal. Moreover, the Indian government implemented a 55-days lockdown throughout the country that started on March 25th, 2020, to reduce the transmission of the virus. This outbreak is inextricably linked to the economy of the nation, as it has dramatically impeded industrial sectors because people worldwide are currently cautious about engaging in business in the affected regions.

Geographical diversification, firm size and profitability in Malaysia: A quantile regression approach

The relationship between geographical diversification (GDI) and profitability (ROA) has yielded mixed findings across various developed countries. This study re-examined the relationship using data of public firms listed on the main market of Bursa Malaysia for the period of 2010–2014 using quantile regression approach. The firms are categorised into small firms and large firms based on the firm size median value. The empirical results show that GDI affects ROA heterogeneously in various quantile levels of the ROA for all firms, small firms and large firms. GDI significantly (positive relationship) influences ROA in the middle quantile region (from quantile 0.25 to 0.75) for all firms, in the low quantile region (from quantile 0.1 to 0.5) for the sample of small firms and in the high quantile region (from quantile 0.5 to 0.9) for the sample of large firms. Therefore, GDI activities could benefit firms, provided that the activities are conducted wisely by taking into account the profitability levels of firms as well as the size of firms. This study contributes to literature on geographical diversification by providing empirical support in the context of an emerging market.