Reinventing the wheel? A critical view of demand-chain management

Demand–supply alignment as a means for value creation in the marketplace is not a new concept either in the marketing or supply chain management literature. Recent developments in demand chain management (DCM) revamp this issue, which is particularly critical for today's firms. DCM studies, however, remain isolated from wider academic debates and are unclear on the processes required for the demand–supply alignment inside the firm, incurring the risk of becoming irrelevant. Through a systematic literature review and qualitative content analysis, we leveraged the existing knowledge on interfaces between intra-firm departments to identify the dimensions of demand–supply alignment and map the drivers, enablers and consequences of implementing such an alignment. These outcomes, together with theoretical perspectives, are used to improve the idea of DCM, ground theoretical reflections on the concept and suggest avenues for research. This study should interest researchers and practitioners willing to adopt the DCM strategy.     

Cash Limits,Hospital Prescribing and Shrinking Medical Jurisdiction

In recent years substantial research effort has been applied to the study of the introduction of accounting logics into medical practice, but little of that effort has been applied to the area of the prescribing of medicines, especially in the hospital setting. This paper uses the sociology of the professions as a lens to analyse how policy and managerial initiatives promoting cost and budgetary concerns have affected medical jurisdiction and prescribing practice within the setting of Scottish acute hospitals. The findings suggest that the introduction of accounting logic is shrinking medical jurisdiction and stratifying the profession within the hospital setting.     

Calibration of a nonlinear feedback option pricing model

We consider the option pricing model proposed by Mancino and Ogawa, where the implementation of dynamic hedging strategies has a feedback impact on the price process of the underlying asset. We present numerical results showing that the smile and skewness patterns of implied volatility can actually be reproduced as a consequence of dynamical hedging. The simulations are performed using a suitable semi-implicit finite difference method. Moreover, we perform a calibration of the nonlinear model to market data and we compare it with more popular models, such as the Black–Scholes formula, the Jump-Diffusion model and Heston's model. In judging the alternative models, we consider the following issues: (i) the consistency of the implied structural parameters with the times-series data; (ii) out-of-sample pricing; and (iii) parameter uniformity across different moneyness and maturity classes. Overall, nonlinear feedback due to hedging strategies can, at least in part, contribute to the explanation from a theoretical and quantitative point of view of the strong pricing biases of the Black–Scholes formula, although stochastic volatility effects are more important in this regard.     

Private equity performance under extreme regulation

This study investigates the impact of excessive regulation on private equity (PE) returns and firm performance. History shows that extreme regulation and prohibition reduce the supply of capital and raise returns (e.g., as with drugs and diamonds). However, for value-added investors such as PE funds, extreme regulation also reduces the quality of capital and fund involvement. The net effect on returns is therefore ambiguous and heretofore not studied. With a new unique dataset, this paper empirically examines the performance of PE investments in Italy when leveraged buyouts are strictly regulated. The data show that extreme regulation reduces not only the supply of capital, but also PE returns and firm performance, as well as the likelihood of an IPO exit.     

Firm heterogeneity in modelling foreign direct investment location decisions

This article investigates the probability of the FDI location decisions of multinational enterprises using a mixed logit panel data model, which is the most flexible discrete choice model. We employ a three-level data set, which includes over 1100 FDI location decisions into 13 alternative Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) over an 11-year period. Our empirical results on the effect of host country, industry and firm characteristics on the probability of undertaking FDI in a particular location are significant and consistent with the predictions of our theoretical model.     

Does democracy affect taxation and government spending? Evidence from developing countries

Focusing on developing countries in three geographical areas (South-East Asia, Latin America and European Union), we explore the relation between political variables and tax revenue, public spending and their structure. We build a new dataset for the 1990–2005 period with fiscal, political and socio-economic variables. Since democracy is a complex and multidimensional concept, we measure it using two variables, the political strength of democratic institutions, and the protection of civil liberties. We perform three sets of estimates: (i) cross-country pooled OLS regressions with region fixed effects, (ii) country fixed effects regressions and (iii) region specific regressions with country fixed effects. While the first model delivers some significant correlations between political variables and tax items, when controlling for country fixed effects we find that tax revenue and tax composition are in general not significantly correlated with the strength of democratic institutions and the protection of civil liberties. The only exceptions are indirect, trade and property taxes. A similar result applies to public spending, with the exception of defense expenditure. Overall, our findings cast some doubt on the exact public policy channels through which political institutions affect economic development.     

Is education important in assessing the impact of institutions on economic growth in emerging economies?

ABSTRACT

In this article, we empirically revise the hypothesis that institutions cause economic growth for emerging countries starting from a theoretical model. Our sample consists of 21 countries covering different zones: European Emerging, Asia Pacific Emerging, Latin America, Middle-East and Africa while the status advanced versus secondary emerging countries based on FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) classification is accounted for. The period analysed is 1995–2014. The methodology is based on System GMM estimator of Arellano-Bover and Blundell-Bond for dynamic panel data. Empirical findings suggest that only variables such as voice and accountability and government effectiveness have a significant positive impact on economic growth rates of the analysed countries. In the presence of control variables, i.e. trade and government final consumption, results are robust. Results remain robust for countries that have a high level of government expenditure on tertiary education which proves the role of education in assessing the impact of institutions on economic growth.     

A Nested logit approach to modelling the location of foreign direct investment in the Central and Eastern European Countries

This paper applies the Nested logit model to a three-level dataset in order to examine the factors explaining foreign investment location decisions into 13 Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) over an eleven-year period between 1997 and 2007. The three-level dataset allows firm, industry and country factors to simultaneously determine the firm-level investment location decisions. The Nested logit model partially relaxes the assumption of the independence from irrelevant alternatives and tests if national boundaries affect the choice of investment location of multinational enterprises in the CEECs. In addition, the Heteroskedastic Extreme Value model is used to help identify an appropriate nesting structure. Empirical results show that the responsiveness of the firms' decision regarding where to locate capital in the CEECs to country-level variables differs both across sectors and across firms of different sizes and profitability.     

Roaming in the Mobile Internet

With the acquisition of UMTS licenses Mobile Operators (MOs), have often been obliged to deploy 3G network infrastructures covering at least a given percentage of users by a given date. This paper discusses the rationale for imposing these minimum coverage requirements by regulatory bodies. To that end, a model is built, which studies the incentives for MOs to compete for market share and over coverage within an unregulated environment where MOs are assumed to be free to enter sharing agreements and to negotiate a reciprocal roaming charge. Within this framework, it is first shown that MOs would deploy their infrastructure to guarantee the coverage of the entire territory (population), but they would avoid any network duplication in order to maximize rents from roaming revenues. It is then discussed whether a minimum coverage requirement is the best policy to reduce these excess rents, or whether alternative measures could be adopted which could serve other goals as well, such as the avoidance of network duplication.     

Banks' business strategy and environmental effectiveness: The monitoring role of the board of directors and the managerial incentives

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how banks' climate strategies affect environmental performance. To extend this line of research, the carbon disclosure of worldwide banks is examined. In particular, we focus on specific governance strategies: board of director monitoring and managerial incentives. Panel data are employed on a sample taken from 330 bank-year observations in the period after the financial crisis. The results show an increase in environmental performance through the implementation of managerial incentives related to climate change, associated with the highest level of responsibility of the board of directors. Overall, the present study contributes to both the academic literature and corporate governance, highlighting the importance of banks' business strategy on climate change risks and opportunities with respect to environmental performance goals.