Pricing continuously sampled Asian options with perturbation method

This article explores the price of continuously sampled Asian options. For geometric Asian options, we present pricing formulas for both backward‐starting and forward‐starting cases. For arithmetic Asian options, we demonstrate that the governing partial differential equation (PDE) cannot be transformed into a heat equation with constant coefficients; therefore, these options do not have a closed‐form solution of the Black–Scholes type, that is, the solution is not given in terms of the cumulative normal distribution function. We then solve the PDE with a perturbation method and obtain an analytical solution in a series form. Numerical results show that as compared with Zhang's ( 2001 ) highly accurate numerical results, the series converges very quickly and gives a good approximate value that is more accurate than any other approximate method in the literature, at least for the options tested in this article. Graphical results determine that the solution converges globally very quickly especially near the origin, which is the area in which most of the traded Asian options fall. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 23:535–560, 2003     

B‐TO‐B E‐COMMERCE: A CONTENT ANALYTICAL ASSESSMENT OF MOTOR CARRIER WEBSITES

An Internet presence is a critical early component in the process of building towards a fully operational and unified e‐commerce strategy. E‐commerce has significantly impacted logistics/supply chain strategies and the development and implementation of a website have become key issues for many firms within the transportation industry. This study provides an overview of website content within the motor carrier industry. Content analysis was used to assess the site design, informational content, and the interactive content of 152 motor carrier websites, and to compare the features offered on the Top 100 motor carrier firm websites with those offered on the sites of smaller carrier firms.     

Does brand name imprinting in memory increase brand information retention?

This article introduces and explores the concept of brand name imprinting. Brand name imprinting is the process of creating and strengthening the brand name node in the brand memory network through brand name exposure. Brand name imprinting at a time prior to the presentation of specific brand information is posited to improve the retention of that information by strengthening the association between the brand name and brand information. The effect is proposed to be automatic and independent of other known means to strengthen memory associations (e.g., level of attention, cognitive elaboration, stimuli vividness, and stimuli distinctiveness). This research also proposes that brand names with neutral meaning better facilitate the imprinting effect, because they do not carry perceptual baggage that can interfere with the creation of new brand name–information associations. An experiment involving brand name imprinting and the learning of brand information supports these assertions. Implications for communication strategy and brand name selection are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Eliminating the Barriers to Employment Equity in the Canadian Workplace

Have employment equity programs achieved the goal of equity for women in the workplace? We argue that they have not because gender stereotypes still persist. In fact, they may have created resentment and antagonism towards successful women and employment equity initiatives. Arguments are developed for the Canadian government to create a self-regulating system, in which the government plays a role of educator as opposed to monitor.     

Does direct foreign investment affect domestic credit constraints?

Firms in developing countries cite credit constraints as one of their primary obstacles to investment. Direct foreign investment may ease credit constraints by bringing in scarce capital. Alternatively, if foreign firms borrow heavily from domestic banks, they may crowd local firms out of domestic capital markets. Using firm data from the Ivory Coast, we test whether: (1) domestic firms are more credit constrained than foreign firms, and (2) whether borrowing by foreign firms exacerbates domestic firm credit constraints. Results provide support for both hypotheses. We also find that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less financially constrained than other domestic enterprises.     

Policy Issues Raised by For-Profit Spinoffs from Professional Associations: An Evaluation of a Recent AICPA Initiative

This paper provides an evaluation of the spinoff of a for-profit company from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), a nonprofit professional association. The evaluation is based on a review of the literature on public policy issues surrounding organizational conversions from nonprofit to for-profit legal status. Many criticisms of this for-profit spinoff were voiced by professional leaders and accounting regulators, and we demonstrate that these criticisms are grounded in widely recognized policy principles relating to nonprofit conversions. The public policy issues raised by this study have implications for the governance of professional associations in all disciplines.     

Comparable Worth and Factor Point Pay Analysis in State Government

This study examines how factor point systems have treated state government jobs, which are held disproportionately by women, minorities, and union members. The findings indicate that female jobs may gain from comparable worth pay proposals, but the gains are dissipated in actual pay; unionized and minority workers tend to lose both proposed and actual pay; and the dispersion of points and pay is narrowed for jobs covered by collective bargaining agreements     

The catholic work ethic

In a recent Commentary in The International Executive (1992), Rüdiger Pieper complained that some, if not many of the (American) teachers in the new European business training institutes and schools knew relatively little about the cultures for which they were making management proposals. Further, the proposals themselves, based as they often were on American research, could not, he rightly felt, be directly applied to a business problem regardless of context. One could extend that observation to other business activities, including attitudes toward work. In particular, it would be useful to consider the “work ethic,” as it applies to Americans working abroad, and inquire about how it might affect international executives when they come to America.     

The Lowry Model Revisited: Incorporating a Multizonal Input-Output Model into an Urban Land Use Allocation Model

This paper formulates a new generation of Lowry-style models that combine a multizonal input-output model and an urban land use allocation model. Three different types of models are proposed: 1) an unconstrained model, 2) a primal of a linear programming approach that includes land supply constraints, and 3) a modified dual of the linear programming approach that allocates land based on additional conditions of economic efficiency. The modified dual formulation improves upon the limitations of Lowry models and their derivatives. First, the proposed model has sound theoretical underpinnings that incorporate the production theory of input-output models and the behavioral theory of optimization models. Second, the proposed model allocates land on the basis of economic efficiency by imposing a procedure that equalizes shadow prices. And third, the proposed model is an optimization model that fully accounts for the spatial and sectoral relationships of multiplier effects determining land use demand.     

Business Strategy and Poverty Alleviation

Currently, entrepreneurs and corporations overwhelmingly do not view the alleviation of global poverty as a strategic priority. Yet business activity can have a negative as well as a positive effect on each distinctive form of poverty. In order to reduce poverty, entrepreneurs have to find ways of limiting the negative aspects. This might be achieved by deliberately augmenting strategies so that they can achieve a synthesis, in partnership with governments and NGO’s. Alan E. Singer is a reader in strategy at the university of Canterbury. He was the 2004/5 Aram chair of Business Ethics at Gonzaga. He is author of Strategy as Rationality (Avebury), Co editor (with Pat Werhane) of Business Ethics in Theory and Practice (Kluwer) and editor of Business Ethics and Strategy (Ashgate, forthcoming). He has written journal articles on many aspects of strategy and decision making and has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Ethics (to 2003), Human Systems Management, Journal of International Entrepreneurship, African Journal of Business Ethics and the Journal of Economic Development and Business Policy.