This issue presents five articles that focus on firm performance in efficiency and mobile industry and the development of China in terms of new market and new relationship. The first article, “How does CEO Power Affect Innovation Efficiency?” by Peng-hua Qiao and Anna Fung examines the effects of a chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) power on technical innovation efficiency with a stochastic frontier method. The firms used in the study are Chinese small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) covering the years 2007 to 2013. Their results indicate that various aspects of CEO power including prestige, ownership, and structure significantly enhance the technical innovation efficiency of these SMEs.
The second article, “Efficiency of Chinese Banks: A Survey and Suggested Directions for Future Research,” by Jingyi Jia reviews prior research studies that examine efficiency of Chinese banks. The article summarizes the methodologies used on these efficiency studies and explains the relationship between efficiency and its correlates. The results of past studies are analyzed and discussed along with their implications. In addition, several future research directions are suggested and presented.
The third article, “China-Africa Relations: What Lies Beneath?” by Mlambo, Kushamba, and Simawu analyzes the different perspectives on China–Africa relationships and the rationale behind their relationship. They also survey the major political and economic issues around the China–Africa relations that are considered relevant and important to the China–Africa relationship. Implications are discussed for future development of the China–Africa relationship.
The fourth article, “Size and Growth of Mobile Phone Firms in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan,” by Chih-Ping Yu investigates firms in the Chinese contemporary mobile phone industry in the Greater China area to examine their asset growth. Data are collected from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ), comprising firms from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan. The results indicate that the growth process of some firms was no longer random, rejecting Gibrat’s law, implying that the growth of mobile phone firms is likely associated with horizontal competition among firms.
The last article by Fung, Ko, Ling, and Yau provides a brief update on the development of the two largest offshore Renminbi (RMB) markets, namely, the Dim Sum bond market and the Formosa bond market. Most of the Dim Sum bonds in this market are not rated with a relatively short maturity of two to three years. Hong Kong is the first and the largest offshore RMB market. The Formosa bonds in Taiwan, which is the second largest offshore RMB bond market, are mostly rated resulting from market demand and have a longer maturity, mostly three to five years. Various challenges such as currency risk and opportunities are discussed.