Do investor expectations affect sell-side analysts’ forecast bias and forecast accuracy?

We examine the association between investor expectations and its components and sell-side analysts’ short-run quarterly earnings forecast bias and forecast accuracy. To measure investor expectations, we use the Index of Consumer Expectations survey and decompose it into the “fundamental” component related to underlying economic factors (FUND) and the “sentiment” component unrelated to underlying economic factors (SENT). We find that analysts are the most optimistic and the least accurate when SENT is higher. Management long-horizon earnings forecasts attenuate the effects of SENT on forecast optimism and forecast accuracy. Analysts are also the most accurate when FUND is higher. Last, the market places more weight on unexpected earnings when SENT is high. These findings suggest that analysts are affected by investor sentiment and the market reacts more strongly to unexpected earnings when analyst forecasts are the least accurate. The last result potentially explains why prior research (for example, Baker and Wurgler, The Journal of Finance 61:1645–1680, 2006) finds an association between investor sentiment and cross-sectional stock returns.     

International Marketing Channels for Brazilian Beef: Comparison between Russia and the United Kingdom

This article compares the Russian and British marketing channels for Brazilian beef distribution. The results show that the framework hereby developed aids understanding of the differences and the reasons for the organizational form of these channels. The findings also show that there is a difference in the way these channels are organized to seek efficiency in their business transactions. Institutional environment attributes are able to influence the distinction between channels in terms of transaction efficiency.     

The role of corruption and risk aversion in entrepreneurial intentions

The literature on entrepreneurship has suggested that an individual’s entrepreneurial intention depends on three types of factor: personal characteristics, the individual’s expertise and professional background, and external factors. Our study investigates how corruption, an external factor, and risk aversion, a personal characteristic, may simultaneously affect individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions. With data on 76 203 individuals in 53 countries, our estimation results indicate that risk aversion decreases the individual’s probability of having an entrepreneurial intention by 6.67 percentage points. In addition, an increase in 1 SD in the perceived level of corruption in a country decreases the individual’s probability of having an entrepreneurial intention by 0.96 percentage points.     

Marktstruktur und Preisverhalten in der österreichischen Industrie

Summary Being part of a larger investigation concerning forms and intensity of competition in the Austrian economy this paper deals with the characteristics of market structure and pricing behaviour in the industrial sector. Mainly based on a detailed questionnaire this study is representative for the group of larger Austrian industrial enterprises (sales of more than 100 Mill. AS) which produced more than two thirds of total industrial ouput. According to this study the dominant market structure of the Austrian industry is that of a close oligopoly. The subjective estimation of the price elasticity of demand by the firms participating in our survey was generally very pessimistic, being the lower the larger the market share of the respective firm.The most common principle of price formation for new products in the Austrian industry is a system of flexible full cost pricing, meaning cost orientation plus variable profit margins. Our study also shows that a large majority (60% resp. 80%) of the enterprises under investgation use discount, i.e. price differentiation in their pricing policies. These aspects indicate that-in line with marginalistic theories — demand situations obviously exercise a substantial influence on pricing behaviour. Considering the causes for price changes, however, cost oriented influences were clearly dominating. This stresses the great importance of the Austrian pricecontrol mechanism, the Paritätische Kommission, the institutionalized form of incomes policy in Austria.An econometric analysis of the process of price formation in the Austrian industry showed that the main factors of price changes were changes in labour costs and in international price levels, especially in the level of export prices. Our investigation also dealt with the question, whether differences in market-structure result in different, responses to demand fluctuations. Considering both the concepts of actual and potential competition it can be shown that enerprises in a more competitive situation react towards changes in demand conditions in a more stabilizing way that monopolistic firms: The reduce prices earlier in recession and they react to boom periods by expanding their capacities rather than by raising prices. Market structure and the intensity of competition thus seem to influence the position of the Phillips-curve in an economy.     

Antikritisches zu »stadien und typen der industrialisierung«

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Antikritisches zu ?stadien und typen der industrialisierung?

     

The West African middle belt: Land use patterns and development problems

The West African Middle Belt is an area of limited resources, low population density and a severe agricultural climate. Many reasons have been given for the poor state of agriculture in this region, but a look at the agricultural communities of tropical Africa clearly shows that land use cannot be explained by physical and environmental factors alone. For this reason, decision makers must increasingly take into account socioeconomic factors when making policy decisions for development in these peripheral zones.     

Building relationships through dialogic communication: organizations,stakeholders, and computer-mediated communication

Online media are integral to daily life, and while many organizations use them to reach broad audiences, others still appear to be uncomfortable with online media because they do not understand how to maximize their potential to interact effectively with stakeholders. Numerous organizations use online media for one-way communication to disseminate information, despite the affordances of the media platforms for two-way, dialogic communication. This article draws on two dominant interpersonal theories of computer-mediated communication—social information processing theory and the hyperpersonal model—to propose dialogic strategies that organizations can use to improve their online communication with their stakeholders. We illustrate the application of these principles through three stages of relationship building: initiating/experimenting, intensifying, and integrating/bonding. The article integrates the applications within an overall dialogic communication strategy, and provides organizations and practitioners with a model with which they can engage stakeholders with dialogic methods via social media.