Maintaining cost and ruin probability

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Specialized funds such as charitable trusts do not attach much value to consumption, instead, they pursue to maintain a satisfactory level of...     

KfW/ZEW CO2 Panel: Vermeiden oder kaufen – Deutsche Unternehmen im Emissionshandel

The European Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) is the first large-scale and inter-regional trading scheme for greenhouse gas emissions. It is seen as the central instrument of European climate policy. After a first testing-phase (2005–2007), the second trading period of the EU-ETS had started in 2008, with stronger incentives for investment in low-carbon technologies and carbon dioxide abatement. However, there is hardly any evidence how emissions trading fares in practice. The KfW/ZEW CO₂ Barometer shows that trading of emission permits is actively used by 75 percent of German companies, but the price-signals that stem from the EU-ETS were relatively weak so far—too weak to set strong incentives for carbon dioxide emission reductions on the company-level. Also in the case of the ‘clean development mechanism’ (CDM) which was introduced to promote emission reductions in developing counties, there is need for further development.     

A Retrospective Evaluation of European Financial Management (1995–2008)

We provide a retrospective evaluation of European Financial Management (EFM) from 1995 to 2008. In 14 years, EFM has published a total of 333 articles, with 564 authors from 299 academic and non-academic institutions. The authors and institutions represent 26 different countries. Two interesting results emerge from this analysis. First, although EFM is a young finance journal, it has achieved a highly respectable status among all finance journals. In fact, EFM has surpassed a number of well-established finance journals in its research impact. Second, consistent with its mission, EFM has published articles whose authors have European affiliations and research content. Nonetheless, we find that EFM is the publication outlet of authors outside the European region as well. The rising readership and variety of articles published suggest that EFM is a general finance journal that has done very well in serving the interests of the finance profession for the last 14 years.     

The influence of variability and strategy of service supply chains on performance

This paper aims to empirically examine how customer-induced variability, process variability, supply chain strategy, and business performance interrelate in a service firm context. Quantitative data were collected via a questionnaire-based survey. A total of 376 organizations responded and 313 responses were usable. This represents an adjusted response rate of 10.43 %. The survey results were analyzed by factor analysis, ANOVA, and regression models. The results provided the basis for testing the proposed model. They indicated a positive association between customer-induced variability and process variability. Since firms have different levels of variability, each firm will have a different strategic focus. The emphasis of that strategy will, in turn, result in greater flexibility and customer satisfaction. More specifically, firms with high and low levels of variabilities are suggested to focus on the cost- and flexibility-oriented strategies, respectively.     

Would a North-South Free Trade Agreement Hurt Unskilled Labor in the North?

I present a simple model to examine the impact of international outsourcing on the welfare of skilled and unskilled labor. In this model, specialized business services are to facilitate manufacturing production, creating additional welfare gains in the presence of positive production externalities. Policies that favor the business service sector contribute to the development of a larger bundle of specialized business services, generating more welfare gains to not only skilled but also unskilled labor. Thus, a country’s unskilled labor is not necessarily worse off with open trade if the country is prosperous in business service provisions.     

Value Creation in Brand Alliances: A Dynamic Conceptualization

The objective of this article is to conceptualize the value creation process in brand alliances using a dynamic approach, based upon the literature on strategic alliances and inter organizational relationships, to explain the importance of organizational components in brand alliances. The research question is to identify the key components which allow the creation and sustaining of value: context, actors, objectives, behaviors, resources, and governance mechanisms, internal and external conditions affecting the value creation process. Then the framework is applied in case studies of brand alliances in the food market. We show that the impact of these components depends on the nature of the organizations involved, on market conditions and on the manner resources and governance mechanisms are combined together.     

Evaluating the Tourism Potential of Public Museums in Hangzhou: A Supply-Side Perspective

This is a qualitative study to evaluate the tourism potential of public museums from a supply-side perspective. Nine specialized public museums in Hangzhou were evaluated based on six criteria: cultural, physical, product, experiential, marketing, and leadership. The overall tourism potential was rated as moderate for the museums in Hangzhou. Poor accessibility, isolation from tourism nodes, lack of complementarity with peripheral attractions, and limited carrying capacity impair the museums' appeal to tourists. The local government's proactive intention to develop cultural tourism and the innovative marketing efforts adopted by a few museums certainly help to enhance the museums' tourism potential.     

Effect of Consumption Emotion on Hotel and Resort Spa Experience

Very few studies focus on the behavior of hotel and resort spa customers in China. Hence, this research proposes a model for testing the impact of spa service quality, positive and negative consumption emotions, and hedonic and utilitarian perceived value on the behavioral intentions to visit a spa. The valid sample comprised 487 customers of five-star hotel/resort spas in China. Data were obtained from the self-administered survey answered by respondents constituting the sample. This study identified the vital function of consumption emotion, especially positive emotion dimension. The results indicated the mediating influence of positive emotion on connecting service quality and creating the perceived value of consumers as well as behavioral intention in the hotel and resort spa context.     

Exploring Alternative Lifestyle Segmentation Schemes for Travel Volunteers

The decrease in occupational segregation between the genders indicates a need to reposition traditionally gender-based customer services. This study examines advertising effectiveness in terms of the gender of the chef endorser in restaurant advertisements, and also explores the influence of respondents' gender stereotypes and respondents' genders on perceived effectiveness. We used the chef's gender as the independent variable, the effectiveness of the advertising as the dependent variable, and the respondents' chef gender stereotypes and genders as the moderating variables. Using consumers as respondents, an experimental design was conducted which varied the gender (female vs. male) of the chefs. We prepared a questionnaire with a sample size of 422 to investigate the consumer's perception of the adverts' effectiveness. The results indicated better endorsement effectiveness with a middle-aged male chef, rather than a middle-aged/young female chef. Furthermore, it was found that the respondents' genders could further moderate the perception of the advertising.     

Can hedge funds time market liquidity?

We explore a new dimension of fund managers' timing ability by examining whether they can time market liquidity through adjusting their portfolios' market exposure as aggregate liquidity conditions change. Using a large sample of hedge funds, we find strong evidence of liquidity timing. A bootstrap analysis suggests that top-ranked liquidity timers cannot be attributed to pure luck. In out-of-sample tests, top liquidity timers outperform bottom timers by 4.0–5.5% annually on a risk-adjusted basis. We also find that it is important to distinguish liquidity timing from liquidity reaction, which primarily relies on public information. Our results are robust to alternative explanations, hedge fund data biases, and the use of alternative timing models, risk factors, and liquidity measures. The findings highlight the importance of understanding and incorporating market liquidity conditions in investment decision making.