Introduction Japanese convenience-store (CVS) chain retailers have grown by establishing store networks. In fact, Seven-Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart continuingly have opened about 1000 new stores per year. The reason for the rapid growth of their store-networks is that a key aspect of a chain retailer’s marketing strategy is the number of stores its needs to reach its customers (Srinivasan et al. 2013). In particular, CVS chain retailers seek to open new stores and obtain spatial dominance in a particular geographical area, which is called “area-dominance strategy,” so they can save on logistical costs, increase consumer proximity and loyalty, and prevent rival from opening new stores in the area (Ogawa 2004, Tamura 2014, Nishida 2014). Thus, a retailer’s decision of how to expand store-network in a given regional market is important to improve its sales. However, little attention has been paid to this problem in Japanese academic research. This study attempts to explain the influence of entry of rivals on a focal retailer’s store-network in regional markets of Japanese CVS industry. Especially, the author focuses on the regional competition between a focal retailer who is the first entrant and rivals who are late entrants in the region. First, we review prior research, and then propose hypotheses about the influence of entry of rivals, the degree of dominance of a focal retailer, and entry of rivals in multiple regions, on the number of the focal retailer stores. This is followed by an empirical analysis with panel data. Last, we discuss some implications and direction for future research. Literature Review and Proposed Hypothesis Entry of rival stores Prior research suggests that the existence of rival chain stores in the same market decreases the store-revenue of the focal retailer (Erickson et al. 2013, Nishida 2014).When rival retailers open the large number of new stores in a regional market, the focal retailer may be taken away their business of existing stores and latent new stores, so the focal retailer will be forced to close existing stores and slow down the pace of opening new stores. Then, we propose following hypothesis: H1: In a regional market, the higher the number of net increase of rival stores is, the lower the net increase of focal retailer stores is. Dominance of the focal retailer According to prior research, CVS chain retailers benefit from area-dominance (opening own stores aggressively in a given region), because it enables retailers to reduce their distribution and promotion cost, increase consumer loyalty and their power against manufactures (Ogawa 2004, Tamura 2014, Nishida 2014). If the focal retailer has already established a high density store-network, and had strong relationships with its customers and manufactures in the regional market, they will be less likely to suffer from entry of rival chain stores, and they will be able to continue expanding their store-network. These arguments lead to: H2: In a regional market, the higher the degree of dominance of the focal retailer is, the smaller the negative effect of entry of rival stores is. Entry of rival stores in multi-market Though H1 and H2 do not consider multi-market competition among chain retailers, this macro-level competition may have a great impact on their competitive action in a given region (Chen 1996). When a rival entries to multiple regions simultaneously where the focal retailer has already operated, the focal retailer will delay its decision making and competitive responses, so the impact of entry of rival will be larger (Poter 1980, Ferrir 2001, Boyd and Bresser 2008). Therefore, we propose following hypotheses: H3a: The higher the number of regions which rival entry is, the bigger the negative effect of entry of rival chain stores is. H3b: The higher the number of net increase of rival stores across the regions is, the bigger the negative effect of entry of rival chain stores is. Methodology To test the proposed hypotheses (see FIGURE 1), we collected panel data from the Census of CVS Market, which includes the number of stores of Japanese CVS chain retailers in each prefecture. Due to the restriction of data availability, we treated prefectures as the unit of regional market, and focused on the cases that Lawson was the first entrant, and Seven-Eleven and Family-Mart ware the later entrants in prefectures. Accordingly, the sample was limited in space to 17 prefectures, and limited in time to the period from the year that Seven-Eleven or Family-Mart opened their stores for the first time to 2014. Results We tested the hypotheses using panel date analysis by fixed effects model. The estimated results are shown in FIGURE 2. Regarding our hypotheses H1, involving the negative effect of rival entry on the focal retailer’s store-network, is not supported. However, the interaction of “the dominance of the focal retailer” with “rival entry” and the interaction of “rival entry in multiple regions” with “rival entry” are significant, although their signs of coefficients differ depending on whether the rival is seven-eleven or family-mart. Thus, hypotheses H2 and H3b are supported in part. Implication and Future Research Our findings have several important implications. First, our empirical results suggest that the effect of rival entry on a focal retailer’s store-network depends on (1) rival’s position in CVS industry, (2) the focal retailer’s dominance, and (3) rival’s multiple entry. Second, when a rival has a superior position than the focal retailer, dominance advantage of the focal retailer increases the negative effect of rival entry, which is contrary to our expectation. This implies that enhancement of the density of own store-network will cause cannibalization, so each store of a focal retailer may be highly vulnerable to entry by a rival who has superior competitive position (i.e. Seven-Eleven). Finally, multiple entry by a rival in superior position reinforces the negative effect of their entry on expansion of the focal retailer’s store-network in the regional market. Though this study was a rare attempt to explain regional competition among Japanese CVS chain retailers empirically, it did not include the prefectures that Seven-Eleven and Family-Mart were the first entrants. This may limit generality of the empirical results, hence it is valuable to take this problem into consideration in future research.

The information technology intensive society rapidly moves from manufacturing industry to information technology industry. This paradigm of Robot is depending on intelligent Robot instead of labor. The conventional Robot worked through environmental variation and shift of job. This Robot is unactively response to men's mandate. And, this Robot have had iterative jobs through manipulation of men. But, this intelligent Robot have new technology through society paradigm shift. The outstanding feature of this Robot is perception function and cognition, mobility and manipulation. The definition of original Robot means forceful and tedious, slavery job. This is from robota, robotnick of the Czech Republic. Karel Capek, a playwriter of the Czech Republic use of this letter at 'Rossum's Universal Robots'.

The study aims to investigate the dual effects of corruption control on economic growth in relationship with the stock market and trade openness in developing countries. The study used difference S-GMM method on the dynamic panel data model in the period (2002-2017) with data collected from the World Bank. The study discovers the dominant impacts of corruption control in the relationship with the stock market on economic growth. At the same time, the study also confirms the overwhelming impact of corruption control in the relationship between trade openness and economic growth in the developing countries. In addition, the study shows that inefficient stock markets in developing countries will not promote economic growth. Meanwhile, the long-standing credit market has a positive impact on economic growth. With the strong development of stock market and trade openness in the period (2002-2017), control on corruption in developing countries does not get better in time with the increase in demand. The findings of this study suggest a number of solutions to strengthen corruption control, leading to the increased efficiency on the stock market and as well as encouraging the positive effects of trade openness to contribute to promoting economic growth in developing countries.

The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of growth opportunities on capital structure and dividend policy in Indonesia. The study employs panel data of companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange that distribute dividends from 2007 to 2017. Fixed and random effect regression models are used. Findings based on growth opportunities on capital structure and dividend policy in Indonesia are in line with the existing theory (i.e., contracting theory). Growth opportunities have a significant negative correlation with debt ratio and dividend yield, which suggests that firms with high growth opportunities are discouraged to generate debt to resolve underinvestment and asset-substitution problem. Firms with more investment opportunities tend to adopt a low dividend payout policy because the cash flows will be used up for investment. The positive impact of firm size on leverage is due to the low bankruptcy risk and cost of a large company. Profitability has a positive impact on the dividend policy because profitable companies can reserve larger free cash flows and, thus, pay higher dividends. The positive influence of ownership on leverage is interpreted by the unwillingness of majority stockholders to commit to equity financing in order to avoid reducing the ownership and preserve control of the company.

Purpose: At a time when the distribution industry is dominated by capital and technology, win-win growth among businesses groups (BGs) in wholesale market is becoming a social issue. Therefore, through analysis of market growth, market concentration (MC) and market power (MP), we want to identify the structure of the wholesale market and the competitiveness of the BGs in terms of market share (MS), sales-profit ratio (SPR), and labor productivity (LP) to explore the possibility of win-win growth. Market situation: Wholesale and Retail sales ratio (W/S) continues to increase, which also means inefficiency in distribution channels or opportunities in wholesale markets. Wholesale sales have grown 8.3 percent annually over the past 15 years, while the number of companies and workers has declined since 2017, which is why some restructuring is believed to begin in the wholesale industry. In terms of MC and MP, the growth potential of SBG can be found in FCB, ARM, FBT and CME BTs. Methodology and data: Through ANOVA and Regression Analysis, the 2015 Economic Census Data of KOSTAT was analyzed. Results: The results of ANOVA show that statistically significant SBG has a larger MS than LBG. The SPR was not different among BGs. LP is higher for LBG than for other BGs. Regression results show that the employment weight (EW) and the company size (SC) have positive effects on the MS, but the company weight (CW) and employment size (SE) have negative effects. In the case of SPR, the CW is positive and the EW is negative. In addition, LP appears to be more positive as SC in the BGs is larger. Conclusions: Although there is sufficient potential for SBG in the wholesale market, there is a problem that needs to increase LP. Therefore, the SBG needs to restructure in terms of number of companies and SC to improve the efficiency of employment. In terms of MC and MP, the SBG looks for possibilities in FCB, ARM, FBT and CME BTs. In addition, SBG that seeks higher returns with human services rather than simple sales is found to be competitive in the HHG, MES and CME BTs.

The paper examines the dynamic relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity on the economic growth of the Philippines from 1995 to 2018 applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration, together with Granger causality test based on vector error correction model (VECM). The ARDL model indicated a long-run relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity on GDP growth. When the GDP per capita is the dependent variable there is weak cointegration. Also, the Johansen cointegration test confirmed the existence of long-run relationship of domestic credit and stock market liquidity both on GDP growth and GDP per capita. The VECM concludes a long-run causality running from domestic credit and stock market liquidity to GDP growth. At levels, domestic credit has significant short-run causal relationship with GDP growth. As for stock market liquidity at first lag, has significant short-run causal relationship with GDP growth. With regards to VECM for GDP per capita, domestic credit and stock market liquidity indicates no significant dynamic adjustment to a new equilibrium if a disturbance occurs in the whole system. At levels, the results indicated the presence of short-run causality from stock market liquidity and GDP per capita. The CUSUMSQ plot complements the findings of the CUSUM plot that the estimated models for GDP growth and GDP per capita were stable.

This study investigates the impact of Malaysia’s capital market and other key determinants on Economic Growth from the period of 1988 to 2012. The key determinants studied are foreign direct investment and real interest rate. This study also examines the long run and short run relationship between the economic growth and capital market, foreign direct investment, and real interest rate by using bound testing cointegration of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Error Correction Model (ECM) version of ARDL model. The empirical results of the study suggest that there is long- run cointegration among the capital market, foreign direct investment, real Interest rate and economic growth. The result also suggests that capital market and real interest rate have positive impact on economic growth in the short run and long run. Foreign direct investment does not show positive impact on economic growth in the short run but it does in the long run.

Purpose - The article studies aims to construct the center of economy in the upriver area of Chang Jiang, and has realistic significance probing into the contribution of insurance essential factor market to economic development on the contribution role of essential factor market of insurance in financial industry development to economic growth in Chongqing in both aspects of direct and indirect contribution by the way of demonstration analysis. Research data and methodology - The data are from Statistic Yearbook in Chongqing in 1997-2008.The conclusion shows that essential factor market of insurance development falls behind of economic growth in direct aspect; BBD, BLD and FIR could pull economic growth, but ID just restrain economic growth in Chongqing. Results -The estimate coefficient sigh of BDD, BLD, FIR are plus but ID is not, it is to say the increase of bank deposit dump could impel economic growth, which is accord with general thought. Conclusions - At last, the article Having Studied on the contribution role of essential factor market of insurance in financial industry development to economic growth in Chongqing by the way of demonstration analysis.