Debt Financing and the Failure of Innovation Companies: The Application of the CHS Model in U.S. Stock Markets

This study aims to determine whether increasing a firm’s leverage significantly changes its level of bankruptcy risk in the innovative industry by using the CHS model [Campbell, J. Y., J. Hilscher, and J. Szilagyi. 2008. “In Search of Distress Risk.” The Journal of Finance 63 (6): 2899–2939] to test 395 American innovation companies. These companies are categorised into four groups based on their debt ratios and their performance on the NYSE and NASDAQ stock exchanges is analysed in three separate periods. The findings reveal that innovation companies with a higher debt level are no riskier than those with a lower debt level.     

Application of human resource management's universal model: An examination of people versus institutions as barriers of internationalization for SMEs in a small developing country

Although the importance of people and institutions has been highlighted in multinational enterprise studies, the association between people, institutions, and the internationalization of small to medium‐sized enterprise (SMEs) is an underexplored issue from the context of a small developing country. We examine theories subsumed under the Universal Model of human resource management (HRM) onto SMEs to study the hypothesized people and institutionally orientated barriers posed to SMEs’ internationalization. Using quantitative analysis, the impacts of the barriers on internationalization are highlighted with particular attention to employer attractiveness. Following extant literature review, this study has used primary data collected through questionnaires from 212 Bangladeshi SMEs. We developed and validated the partial least square‐based structural equation model (PLS‐SEM) to assess the impacts and successfully framed people versus institutional barriers as a second‐order hierarchical reflective model, which has not been done previously. Given their marginal significance over institutions, people‐oriented cultural barriers should be included as an extension of the Universal Model to study SME internationalization.     

Eco‐efficiency of high‐yielding variety rice cultivation after accounting for on‐farm environmental damage as an undesirable output: an empirical analysis from Bangladesh

This study computes the eco‐efficiency of high‐yielding variety (HYV) rice production by including an on‐farm environmental damage index (OFEDI) as an undesirable output using data envelopment analysis. It then identifies its determinants by applying an interval regression procedure on a sample of 317 farmers from north‐western Bangladesh. Results reveal that the mean level of the OFEDI‐adjusted production efficiency (i.e. eco‐efficiency) is 89 per cent, whereas ignoring OFEDI adjustment (i.e. with OFEDI = 0) reduces the mean level of efficiency to 69 per cent, implying that the production of undesirable output or on‐farm environmental damage induces an efficiency loss of 20 per cent with significant differences across regions. The proportion of farmers’ income from HYV rice agriculture, land ownership, extension services and socio‐environmental living standard are the significant determinants of improving eco‐efficiency. Policy implications include investments in extension services and land reform measures to increase land ownership, which will synergistically improve eco‐efficiency of HYV rice production in Bangladesh.     

Global Financial Crisis： Systemic Failure and the Underlying Knowledge Gap

Recently, global financial crisis or meltdown rocked the international financial market. This havoc was the result of the reckless use of financial derivatives that received spontaneous patronization from the financial whiz, but it is strange to discover that those proponents of market economy embarked on policy that was purely Keynesian in principle. The episode started in August 2007 with the collapse of subprime mortgage market and reached its climax during August 2008. Central banks in many countries of the western world intervened in the market to pump additional fund to give buoyancy in the credit market. The crisis encapsulated with the queer idea of financial instruments and multiple origins related to subprime mortgage left its trail in both developed and developing countries. Thus, an elaborate analysis of the causal link among various innovative instruments highlighting a mismatch between academic doctrine and real-life perspective and the inadequacy of the institutional arrangements supposed to tame the volatility of the market may be a useful guide to financial analysts and policy planners. The purpose of this paper is to highlight systemic gaps in the meltdown and redefine the contour of macroeconomics most appropriate to weather such catastrophe in the future.     

TRIBUTE: Trip-based urban transportation emissions model for municipalities

This research aims at developing modeling and scenario-comparison tools to explore the impacts of various transportation and land use planning policies on changing travel behavior and eventually greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A Trip-Based Urban Transportation Emissions (TRIBUTE) model is developed. Data required for TRIBUTE comes from household travel surveys and emissions inventories, which is a major advantage in cases where a detailed transportation network model is unavailable. TRIBUTE is composed of two main parts: a mode choice model and an emissions forecasting model. The mode choice model is responsible for estimating modal shares of alternative modes of travel in response to changes in personal, modal, and land use attributes. The emissions forecasting model translates the modal shares into vehicle kilometers traveled, and subsequently GHG emissions. TRIBUTE is a macroscopic model intended to assist municipalities evaluate alternative transportation and land use policy scenarios and eventually select the one(s) that help them meet their future GHG emission targets. This paper reports on the conceptual framework of the developed model and presents a case study.     

Is Price Transmission in the Indian Pulses Market Asymmetric?

Journal of Quantitative Economics - Pulses form an integral part of the Indian diet. In the recent past, the domestic wholesale-retail price differential has risen rapidly. The retail prices...     

The Role of Middle Class in Economic Development: What Do Cross‐Country Data Show?

This paper investigates the channels through which the middle class may matter for consumption growth. Using several different middle‐class measures and a panel of 105 developing countries spanning the period 1985–2013, we find that a larger middle class influences consumption growth primarily through higher levels of human capital accumulation. There is also a significant direct effect of middle‐class size on consumption growth, which is more pronounced in the latter half of the sample, the 2000–2013 period.     

Inclusive apparel shopping experiences for older consumers in China: product attributes and retail environment

ABSTRACT

The study explored apparel shopping experiences of older Chinese consumers, which integrate apparel product and retail environment aspects from an inclusive strategy perspective. Research questions include: What factors contribute to older Chinese consumers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction? What are the major implications of older consumers’ (dis)satisfying shopping experience? What role can fashion practitioners play to make the retail environment and apparel products more accessible to the aging segment? Critical Incident techniques were used for data collection at a community park in Beijing. A total of 151 usable critical incidents from 84 older Chinese informants (55 years and older) were included in the data analysis. Content analysis with deductive qualitative data analysis method was used. Findings suggest that the older Chinese consumers assess their shopping experiences largely based on shopping outcome achieved (product purchased). This is in contrast to the movement toward more experiential focus in the developed markets in the recent decades. A significant number of tangible product attributes (including design/styling, comfortability/fit, and material) and intangible attributes (such as price and product assortment) contributed to the older Chinese informants’ satisfying or dissatisfying shopping experience. Aspects related to retail environment, including retail atmospherics and service quality were also important, but to a lesser extent than product attributes. This study represents an early attempt to explore how the tangible and intangible aspects of product attributes and retail environment contribute to the aging Chinese consumer’s shopping experience. Findings of the Chinese older consumers’ utilitarian, rather than experiential focus in their shopping experience evaluation provide insights on this market segment and valuable implications are developed.     

Corporate Acquisitions and the Operating Performance of Malaysian Companies

We report improvements in long run operating performance for a sample of Malaysian companies that made acquisitions over the period 1988–1992. As the sample selected consists of acquisitions of private target companies, the analysis allows us to focus on the possibility of changes arising from non-disciplinary sources. The reported improvements do not appear to have been achieved by sacrificing the long-term viability of the combined firms in pursuit of shortterm objectives. However, as the target companies in the current study were previously privately-owned businesses, researchers and policy makers should be wary before generalising from these results.