Short-Sale Restrictions and Price Clustering: Evidence from SEC Rule 201

We provide a novel test of information-based theories of price clustering by examining trade, order, and the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) quote price clustering during periods when information is removed from the market. We use a natural experiment of short-sale restrictions resulting from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 201 to more effectively determine the impact of information on price clustering. We find evidence of increased price clustering for trades, orders, and NBBO prices during short-sale restrictions. Overall, our findings indicate that short-sale restrictions harm the price discovery process and lead to a reduction in market efficiency.     

Focusing the catastrophic illness debate.

Unlike other aspects of the American health experience, there is a current void of information on expensive illness experiences. This paper is designed to fill this void and prrsents an analysis of the incidence and cost of catastrophic illness in the United States. Catastrophic illness is defined as an illness episode for which a person incurs $5,000 or more of medical expenses in a calendar year. This information is used to provide a framework for focusing the debate about catastrophic and national health insurance.     

The influence of relative values of outside director stock options on firm strategic risk from a multiagent perspective

Prior work has examined the effects of absolute levels of outside director stock option grants on risk behavior without recognizing that relative stock option values could differentially affect risk taking. Drawing from the house money effect perspective, we extend this literature by examining how positive deviation from prior outside director option grants values influences firm strategic risk. Additionally we draw from the behavioral agency model and the power literature to develop a multiagent contingency framework suggesting the effect of positive director pay deviation depends on the incentives and power of CEOs reflected in CEO stock ownership and CEO duality, respectively. Our empirical results indicate positive pay deviation has a positive effect on firm risk taking while high ownership and duality independently and jointly weaken this base relationship. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A social network supported CAI model for tacit knowledge acquisition

Freehand sketching is one of the most important and commonly used methods of generating and sharing budding ideas during the conceptual development portion of the preliminary phase of design. To develop one’s skills, prolonged practice, acquiring instant feedback and suggestions while practicing are invaluable. The two key and indispensable parts of learning draftsmanship are viewing and commenting on large numbers of free hand sketches. However, due to insufficient educational resources, instructors must spend most of their time engaged in class-room teaching, reducing the time allotted for one-on-one discussion and specialized assistance. Furthermore, the lack of sketch grading criteria can prevent students from developing proper insights into the essentials of sketching. As a result, students neither receive personalized feedback nor acquire adequate training in critiquing freehand sketching skills. These factors decrease learning effectiveness and negatively impact learning motivation. In order to solve this problem, this research has created a discussion platform on Facebook that utilizes the learning characteristics essential to developing proficiency in freehand sketching. It includes practice, observation, and comments. It has been found that this cultivates the subjects’ ability to judge freehand sketch quality and increases learning motivation and effectiveness through the process of peer-assessment. After participating in the one-semester teaching experiment, the abilities of the experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group, demonstrating that the online sketch discussion platform has a significant impact on freehand sketch learning.     

Determinants of Relationship Quality and Loyalty in Personalized Services

The study adopts a relationship perspective to examine and better understand customers' interactions with service firms' contact personnel, physical environment and customer environment and their influence on the relationship quality, that is trust and satisfaction, and consequently loyalty. The conceptual model, which integrates relational and evaluative perspectives, is validated in the Asian context of personalized service through findings from a survey of 325 respondents. The findings at the aggregate level indicate that while the physical environment is an important determinant of both trust and satisfaction in personalized service encounters, the customer environment influences only satisfaction but not trust. Service contact personnel's friendliness and knowledge of customers strongly influence relationship quality; while expertise, similarity and disclosure influence trust but not satisfaction. Both relationship trust and satisfaction were found to significantly influence loyalty to the service provider. At the disaggregate level, trust was found to be a stronger predictor of loyalty for high-end service providers while satisfaction was a stronger predictor of loyalty for low-end service providers. The implications for high-end and low-end service providers to enhance loyalty by strategically leveraging on key customer-firm antecedents of relationship trust and satisfaction are discussed.     

The role of program fairness in asymmetrical channel relationships

Managing distributor compliance with manufacturer-initiated programs is critical to both program success and relationship enhancement. This study examines how a manufacturer might better motivate distributors with varying levels of dependence. Previous research suggests that two variables influence distributor compliance: economic incentives and dependence dynamics. Drawing from fairness heuristic theory, this study extends previous research by investigating the role of fairness in affecting compliance and long-term relationships. The authors observe the contingent effect of fairness along various levels of distributor dependence. In the context of a naturally occurring program, the authors collect data from a focal manufacturer's distribution channel and find that (1) fairness perceptions have significant impacts on both compliance and relational outcomes, (2) the efficacy of program fairness declines as distributor dependence increases, and (3) distributor dependence increases the effect of economic incentives on compliance. The authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.