Why didn't Canada have a banking crisis in 2008 (or in 1930, or 1907, or …)?

The financial crisis of 2008 engulfed the banking system of the US and many large European countries. Canada was a notable exception. In this article we argue that the structure of financial systems is path‐dependent. The relative stability of the Canadian banks in the recent crisis compared to the US in our view reflected the original institutional foundations laid in place in the early nineteenth century in the two countries. The Canadian concentrated banking system that had evolved by the end of the twentieth century had absorbed the key sources of systemic risk—the mortgage market and investment banking—and was tightly regulated by one overarching regulator. In contrast, the relatively weak, fragmented, and crisis‐prone US banking system that had evolved since the early nineteenth century led to the rise of securities markets, investment banks, and money market mutual funds (the shadow banking system) combined with multiple competing regulatory authorities. The consequence was that the systemic risk that led to the crisis of 2007–8 was not contained.     

Choice Based on Goals

This article introduces a goal-based view of consumer choice in which (1) choice is influenced by three classes of goals (consumption goals, criterion goals, and process goals), (2) goals are cognitively represented, and (3) the impact of a goal on choice depends on its activation. For each class of goals, we discuss how goal activation is influenced by direct (subconscious) goal priming, by spreading activation from choice options, from other goals, and from the context, and by goal (non-)achievement. Opportunities for modeling goal-based choice, the integration of emotions in a theory of goal-based choice, and relationships with dual-process theories of decision making are discussed. An expanded version of this paper is available from the first author.     

Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Reporting Practices from an Emerging Mobile Telecommunications Market

This study examines corporate social responsibility reporting practices in the rapidly growing mobile telecommunications industry in Bangladesh. This industry sector is one of the fastest growing in the world making it an attractive global investment. Using content analysis we reviewed and analysed the annual reports of four major mobile companies between 2008 and 2011. The findings reveal that mobile telecommunications companies in Bangladesh disclose social and environmental responsibility information across a range of categories. We find that these mobile companies provide significant benefits to education and health in Bangladesh and that their focus on community and development disclosures are motivated in part by seeking to maintain legitimacy in an extremely competitive industry.     

World Leisure and Recreation Association International Position Statement on Leisure Education and Populations of Special Needs

Outdoor recreation may foster positive environmental views among participants and their nonparticipating household members, but little research has addressed this hypothesis at the household level. We address this gap with a case study evaluating both the individual-and household-level relationship between outdoor recreation and environmental views using the new ecological paradigm scale (NEP). Results suggest NEP relates positively to appreciative outdoor recreation participation and negatively to nonappreciative outdoor recreation participation for participants and their household members. Future research should focus on how household dynamics mediate the relationship between environmental views and outdoor recreation.     

An <Emphasis Type="Italic">ex ante</Emphasis> forecast on economically engineered bit rates for IPTV service via xDSL transports of internodal access

Concerning broadband IPTV service (of 12/24 MHz bandwidth) on a digital subscriber line (xDSL), an algorithm (plus a numerical spreadsheet) that computes the required, economically engineered bit rates (EEBRs) of associated (aggregated) traffic is developed. The EEBR is decided by user (residential/business) behavior at a wire center and is essential for economic design/implementation/expansion of xDSL infrastructure. Using an available set of (ex post) data on xDSL growth of services (collected over a period of semiannual terms) at a wire center, an ex ante forecast on EEBR is elucidated. An EEBR-based economic utilization of resources and connection admission control is indicated.     

后奥运时代期待世博精彩演绎——写在世博倒计时600天

北京奥运会带着全中国人的期许向世界交上了一份完美的答卷,与此同时,我们迎来了上海世博会倒计时600天。上海世博会能否成功接力北京奥运,在世博历史上写下辉煌的一笔?这同样将是一次中国形象的大检验。长达184天的会展期,让北京缓解交通压力、还以蓝天白云的有效之举,要在申城复制;世博园区的数百展馆,分布于市区黄浦江两岸的     

Investigating the Drivers of Innovation and New Product Success: A Comparison of Strategic Orientations*

The notion of producing innovations and achieving new product success has received a great deal of attention. Though many have investigated these effects in marketing and various fields within management, there has been little cross‐fertilization between fields of study to explain the basis for this superior performance. Though research has examined the resource‐based view (RBV) and market orientation individually, none has evaluated and compared their effect on firm innovation and new product success in one study. Furthermore, although empirical work has been conducted between market orientation and organizational learning, comparatively less research has been conducted to evaluate the relationship between organizational learning and the RBV to examine their combined effects on a firm's ability to innovate and succeed. Subsequently, the purpose of the present article is to investigate whether a focus on the customer (i.e., market orientation) or the firm (i.e., RBV) will drive the ability to (1) innovate within the firm and (2) succeed in terms of new product success, financial performance, market share, and customer value. The present article examines the relationship between organizational learning and the RBV and market orientation. It presents an empirically testable framework that investigates the relationship that RBV and market orientation have with performance outcomes. Data were collected from 249 senior executives. LISREL was applied to evaluate the relationships. Confirmatory factor analysis and related techniques were applied to assess the robustness of the measures used. Findings show that organizational learning is strongly associated with market orientation, which in turn impacts various performance outcomes including customer value. The RBV had a significant relationship with new product success. These results suggest that managers seeking innovation and new product success should focus less on the provision of customer value. Instead they should look toward developing their resources within the firm, including investing in human resources, to ultimately provide value to the firm. Findings indicate that this unique offering—innovations—will have an indirect effect on customer value and financial performance. In contrast, those in pursuit of positive financial performance and customer value should focus on the development of market orientation. Even though this will not necessarily lead to the development of innovative processes and new product success according to the present study, this approach may lead to a greater market share in the long term. This article reviews theoretical and managerial implications in more depth, providing an impetus for further research.     

An update on Bayesian updating

This paper reports an experiment in which subjects are asked to assess probabilities for unknown events, with treatments that vary the extremity of the prior information. Probabilities are elicited using a Becker–DeGroot–Marshak procedure that does not depend on assumptions about risk aversion. The focus is on the pattern of biases in information processing.     

Constructing and Testing Alternative Versions of the Fama–French and Carhart Models in the UK

This paper constructs and tests alternative versions of the Fama–French and Carhart models for the UK market with the purpose of providing guidance for researchers interested in asset pricing and event studies. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of such models, forming risk factors using approaches advanced in the recent literature including value‐weighted factor components and various decompositions of the risk factors. We also test whether such factor models can at least explain the returns of large firms. We find that versions of the four‐factor model using decomposed and value‐weighted factor components are able to explain the cross‐section of returns in large firms or in portfolios without extreme momentum exposures. However, we do not find that risk factors are consistently and reliably priced.     

Hotel Consortia: Their Activities,Structure and Growth

Consortia have grown to be a force within the hotel industry, and it is timely for features of their operation to be analysed. This article focuses on the range of consortia activities, on the rationales for company and independent hotels to become members of consortia as well as the relationships between consortia and their members. It concludes that the differences between corporate and independent members have important implications for consortia and that the limits of growth of hotel consortia or their activities have not yet been reached.