Wearables – a new chance for private insurance companies from the underwriting view

Wearables are small personal minicomputers for the registration of biometric and medical data. Using this information, the insurance industry hope to get new sales possibilities of new products. The underwriting procedure will be facilitated. The possibilities of these modern devices are presented and open questions are discussed. The future use of Big data offers different chances for the insurance industry.     

A comparative analysis of stock market cycles

In this article, we date the ‘recession’ and ‘expansion’ phases of 46 stock markets around the world from December 1994 to September 2013. We use the Harding and Pagan methodology to identify peaks and troughs in these stock market indices. This approach enables us to establish periods of synchronization between the markets based on the timing of peaks and troughs and to measure this synchronization by means of the Harding and Pagan statistic. We find that several recent world crisis episodes and simultaneous recoveries can be identified with this method. We also present evidence demonstrating an increase in the pro-cyclicality of stock markets around the world.     

Measuring customer value and satisfaction in services transactions,scale development,validation and cross‐cultural comparison

Customer value and customer satisfaction are pivotal but at the same time elusive concepts in services marketing theory. This paper focuses on discussing the relationship between these two concepts. We propose operationalization by developing and testing scales, especially operational indicators, for important dimensions and drivers of the services‐value construct. A multitrait‐multimethod design is used to test the robustness of the operationalization. Furthermore, a cross‐cultural data set is used to explore country influences using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models. Results indicate that the measurement construct is robust and useful in country‐comparative studies.     

Lag length selection and p -hacking in Granger causality testing: prevalence and performance of meta-regression models

The academic system incentivizes p-hacking, where researchers select estimates and statistics with statistically significant p-values for publication. We a     

Kidnap and ransom insurance: A strategically useful,often undiscussed,marketplace tool for international operations

With kidnaping rates rising, the disruptive forces of kidnaping threaten the stability and success of corporate investment projects and put stress on appropriate corporate governance response methodologies. While kidnaping targets vary considerably among countries where it frequently occurs, most often the goal of kidnapers is money from ransom payments. Financial consequences of a kidnap ransom payment can be severe for companies, and psychological damage can be lasting to employees and their families. Given the increasingly global nature of business and increasing expansion into less politically and legally stable emerging markets, kidnap, ransom, and extortion pose a problem for management of corporations wishing to take advantage of emerging market opportunities. Kidnap and Ransom (K&R) Insurance is a risk control technique used by about 75% of Fortune 500 companies, nongovernmental organizations, and an increasing percentage of small to medium sized companies. It is a bundled package policy that includes the purchase of an insurance policy to indemnify the company for the costs of kidnap, ransom, and extortion. Such policies can also provide protective consulting beforehand, provide crisis response and negotiation assistance, as well as psychological support services after the fact. In this paper, we describe the K&R policy, its history, other nonfinancial corporate benefits provided by K&R policies, and discuss its use by corporate managers for the benefit of corporate, financial, and personnel stability. It can also be used in course on managing international risk.     

An application of a new seasonal unit root test to inflation

In this paper, we apply the modified seasonal unit root test with seasonal level shifts at unknown time proposed by Popp (2007) to the G7 inflation rate. We also study the power properties of this test and generate critical values for a range of different break points and sample sizes. We find that there is a non-seasonal unit root in Canada's inflation rate, a semi-annual unit root in Germany's inflation rate, and no seasonal unit root at the annual frequency for any of the G7 countries.     

Gender Inequality and Growth in Europe

In this paper, we will briefly review the existing literature on the growth impacts of gender gaps and assess its relevance for the European situation. We will show that gender gaps in education in Europe are unlikely to play an important role for economic performance, but that gender gaps in employment appear to impose a significant efficiency cost in European countries where the gaps are large.     

Managing interdependencies in supplier networks

Building and managing a supplier base has been referred to in the literature as a key aspect of supplier management. Scholars have proposed a number of models aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of supplier network management, mainly based on a portfolio approach. In the IMP tradition of research, those models are often criticized as they ignore the interdependencies between the different existing dyadic relationships of a focal buyer company and its suppliers. Such interdependencies are the main focus of this paper, which has four objectives: (1) To analyze the types of relationships linking suppliers, (2) to understand the factors and dynamics underlying the creation and management of these relationships (3) to uncover existing links between buyer-supplier and supplier-supplier relationships, and (4) to clarify how different configurations of supplier relationship interactions impact on the performance of the actors involved. The paper discusses two empirical case studies, using the supplier networks of two focal buyer companies. We find that supplier interdependencies are mainly a by-product of the buyer-supplier dyads. Furthermore, the nature and dynamics of these dyads are a strong determinant of the scope and frequency of supplier connections and the corresponding effects on performance.     

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HIGH YIELD MARKET

After a period of virtually uninterrupted growth stretching from 1994 through the first half of 1998, the high yield market suffered a sudden, jarring setback that led to the widest credit spreads seen since 1991. With the global spread of the Asian flu in August, spreads became so wide that the market for new issues virtually ceased. The most frequently used word to describe conditions in the high yield market during this period was "carnage."
Then, in response to the Federal Reserve's series of rate cuts beginning in late September, the market staged a modest recovery that carried through the end of the year. Since then, the market has experienced several periods of alternating strength and weak ness, and new issuance has moderated relative to the record levels of a year ago. This article examines last year's volatile new issue environment and analyzes recent developments that can be expected to influence financing opportunities for corporate issuers in the near future.