Retail fairness: Exploring consumer perceptions of fairness towards retailers’ marketing tactics

The concept of fairness has received great attention in consumer behavior research lately. However, the focus of these studies has mainly been the understanding of fairness in terms of pricing rather than exploring the consumers’ perceptions of fairness itself. This study explores the consumers’ perceptions of fairness as an outcome of a retailer’s marketing tactics. Based on 36 in-depth interviews this study submits a conceptualization of retail fairness from the consumers’ point-of-view. The concept of retail fairness constitutes of three dimensions and nine sub-dimensions, expanding our knowledge of the construct. The study posits a crucial link between increased honesty, ethical, and moral behavior and the understanding of retail fairness. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Demand uncertainty: Exporting delays and exporting failures

This paper presents a model of trade that explains why firms wait to export and why many exporters fail. Firms face uncertain demands that are only realized after the firm enters the destination. The model retools the timing of the resolution of uncertainty found in models with heterogeneity of firm productivity. This retooling addresses several shortcomings. First, the imperfect correlation of demands reconciles the sales variation observed in and across destinations. Second, since demands for the firm's output are correlated across destinations, a firm can use previously realized demands to forecast unknown demands in untested destinations. The option to forecast demands causes firms to delay exporting in order to gather more information about foreign demand. Third, since uncertainty is resolved after entry, many firms enter a destination and then exit after learning that they cannot profit. This prediction reconciles the high rate of exit seen in the first years of exporting. Finally, when faced with multiple destinations to which they can export, many firms will choose to sequentially export in order to slowly learn more about its chances for success in untested markets.     

Assessing the impacts of oil price fluctuations on stock returns in emerging markets

This paper investigates the effects of oil price shocks on stock market returns in emerging countries. It differs from previous works in three main aspects: i) we distinguish three groups of countries, the largest net-oil importing countries, the moderately oil-dependent countries, and the largest net-oil exporting countries; ii) The potential influence of bullish and bearish market conditions on the causal relationship between oil and stock returns is controlled for in our analysis; iii) The empirical investigation is based on an analysis of long-term correlation and a conditional multifactor pricing model. Using data from twenty-five emerging countries, our results suggest that oil price risk is significantly priced in emerging markets, and that the oil impact is asymmetric with respect to market phases.     

Impacts of Trade Liberalisation Commitments on the Vietnamese Economy: A CGE Approach

This article quantifies the economic effects of tariff reduction following Vietnam's WTO accession. It differs from previous studies in several aspects. First, the model incorporates non‐standard features of the Vietnamese economy (e.g. changes in the domestic tax system). Second, the model divides Vietnamese households into 10 groups, allowing for the assessment of household welfare and income distribution. Third, the model has been run employing the most up‐to‐date database available. The major findings are summarised as follows. First, Vietnam as a whole would benefit from trade liberalisation. Second, the overall gain would be accompanied by a redistribution of income and a moderate increase in inequality between the rich and the poor. Third, concerning sectoral output, export‐oriented sectors, sectors with large shares of input in total imports, and those with increased domestic demands are likely to expand, whereas, in contrast, domestic‐oriented sectors are likely to contract. Measures to increase labour mobility, target disadvantaged groups and areas, and further liberalise service sectors are recommended as the recipe for effective utilisation of integration, as well as a more equitable pattern of growth.     

Managerial ownership and firm performance: Evidence from China's privatizations

We examine the relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance for a sample of Chinese State-owned enterprises (SOEs) privatized over the period 1992-2000. The results indicate that managerial ownership has a positive effect on firm performance. Although return on assets (ROA) and return on sales (ROS) decline post-privatization, firms with high managerial ownership and, specially, high CEO ownership, exhibit a smaller performance decline. The difference is highly significant, with or without controlling for residual state ownership and changes in the firm's operating environment. We also find that the influence on firm performance becomes less significant at higher levels of CEO ownership. In contrast, performance continues to increase with managerial ownership. This finding suggests that, beyond a certain point, the distribution of shares would be more effective if extended to the whole management team instead of being limited to the chief executive.     

Knowledge embeddedness and the transfer mechanisms in multinational corporations

This paper reports a qualitative study conducted at four Japanese subsidiaries in China and Vietnam about their process of international knowledge transfer. Building on the literatures concerning the diverse types and characteristics of knowledge in multinational corporations (MNCs), we explore the broad mechanisms adopted and locally generated by the host country subsidiaries for transferring the foreign knowledge and putting the locally embedded knowledge into practical use at the local settings. The findings indicated (1) the limitations of applying a standardized and universal set of knowledge transfer mechanisms without considering local idiosyncrasies and (2) the contributions of local agents and institutions throughout the process of local knowledge adaptation and development.     

Firm size,profitability, and savings in Canada

This paper explores the relationship between firm size, profitability, and corporate savings behavior in Canada. It shows that the long-run propensities to save out of profits are much the same for firms of all sizes, although foreign-owned firms generally retain more of their profits compared to domestic firms. Profitability has also been found to be largely independent of variations in firm size, although large foreign-owned firms generally earn higher profits than large domestic firms. The study also finds no evidence for the superiority of the “dividend effect” over the “retained effect”. It is suggested that the relatively high debt ratio experienced by small domestic firms might be better explained by the demand than the supply side of the markets for new equity.     

The Plausibility of Agriculture-Led Development

Within the context of a simple dynamic general equilibrium framework, the model proposed in this paper formally characterizes the path in which a successful transformation in agriculture as a result of an improvement in agricultural technology can conceivably help some developing countries raise rural income, which in turn boosts effective demand for domestically produced, labor-intensive manufactured goods. Consequently, the price of nontraded manufactures goes up, leading to higher production in this sector, and subsequently higher wages. In the longer run, higher wage levels would result in larger aggregate savings, which in turn finances the economy's industrialization.