The relationship between multinationality and performance: Knowledge-intensive vs. capital-intensive service micro-multinational enterprises

This research explores the relationship between multinationality and firm performance (M-P) in the context of micro-multinational enterprises (mMNEs) within the service sector. We examine the moderating effects of industry characteristics using a data set of 1082 Spanish service mMNEs over an eight-year period. The empirical results provide statistical evidence that knowledge-intensive service mMNEs exhibit an inverted U-shaped M-P relationship, while capital-intensive service mMNEs present a U-shaped relationship. Our findings demonstrate that knowledge-intensive service mMNEs increase their performance in the initial stage of multinationality, encounter a threshold of internationalization at relatively low levels of multinationality and have a propensity to over-internationalize. By comparison, capital-intensive service mMNEs experience negative performance effects at low levels of multinationality and positive ones as they further internationalize. Given that their operations are scale-sensitive, they tend to expand internationally by concentrating their operations in few foreign markets as a means to overcome the liabilities of internationalization and smallness. We contribute to the literatures on multinationality research in the service sector and on SME internationalization by showing that the effects of multinationality on the performance of mMNEs depend on industry characteristics and that such contextual factors provide a better understanding of the M-P relationship.     

Competition in the stock market with asymmetric information

We build a game theoretical model to examine how the level of information advantage of insiders and the competition between insiders and sophisticated investors affect stock price movements and traders’ trading strategies and profits. We show that the competition between insiders and sophisticated investors can reduce the losses of less sophisticated investors, and thus alleviates the disadvantaged position of the less sophisticated investors. Further, traders’ profits are affected by the accuracy of insiders’ private information, and the number of days that insiders have obtained the information in advance. These findings show the importance of information transparency and the role of sophisticated investors in limiting insiders’ trading advantages and mitigating the expropriation of investors by insiders.     

“安倍经济学”与“李克强经济学”孰优孰劣

在外界看来,"安倍经济学"喜迎东风,"李究竟哪一种发展模式能够真正实现经济持续健康发展的神话?然而,哪一种发展模式更加适应本国国情,真正能实现国富民强?     

Liquidity,information, strategic trading in an electronic order book: New insights from the European carbon markets

The electronic limit order book (LOB hereafter) has rapidly become the primary way of trading European carbon assets over the 4 years of the EU ETS programme (2008–2012). In this first attempt of examining the informational content of an electronic order book, we evidence that order flow imbalances have a moderate capacity to predict short term price changes. However, we find that both LOB slope and immediacy costs help to forecast quote improvements and volatility in the next 30 min. Further, we explain why informed trading is highly influential and show that it consists in mixing order splitting strategies and posting fleeting orders once the asymmetric information is reduced (Rosu, 2009). Overall, the consolidated status of the order book mirrors a high level of market uncertainty and a low degree of informational efficiency. In this way, strategic trading can in itself explain some of order book properties, independently of the degree of traders’ sophistication and market competition.     

Exploring the elements of consumer nostalgia in retailing: Evidence from a content analysis of retailer collages

This article focuses on consumer nostalgia in the retailing environment to identify the types of nostalgic memories evoked by remembering a retailer and the elements associated with such nostalgic memories. A projective technique involving collage construction enabled informants to reflect their feelings about, memories of, experiences with, or relationships with a retailer that they have selected. The findings uncovered three distinct types of retailer-related consumer nostalgic memories and six elements that comprise retailer-related consumer nostalgic memories. The findings of the study offer a comprehensive understanding of retailer consumer nostalgia. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Contractual signaling,relationship-specific investment and exclusive agreements

I analyze a model of hold-up with asymmetric information at the contracting stage. The asymmetry of information concerns the value of trade with external parties. I show that contractual signaling and efficiency of investment can conflict if only quantity is contractible. This conflict generates inefficient equilibria in terms of investment. Contracting on exclusivity in addition to quantity resolves the conflict and consequently eliminates the inefficiency of investment.     

组织员工授权知觉与员工服务质量关系探析——基于典型相关分析

以国家会议中心各部门的一线服务人员及其所服务的客户作为主要调查对象，259份有效问卷作为样本，利用SPSS20.0对调查结果进行典型相关分析，探析了员工授权知觉与服务质量的关系。结果表明：组织员工授权知觉和员工服务质量之间存在正相关关系，员工对自己工作能力的信心强度和对自己是否拥有工作自主权与独立权的感知程度更能有效的影响到客户对员工服务质量的评价，在提高员工授权知觉的情况下，员工的服务质量会得到提高，并凸显在服务的效率和可靠性这两方面。对一线服务员工进行适当的放权，使其授权知觉水平提高，有利于增强员工自信心，树立员工的责任感和价值感，提高员工服务工作的效率及可信赖性。     

Herding behavior in the Pakistan stock exchange: Some new insights

This study attempts to examine the presence of herding behavior in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The novel contribution of this paper is that it investigates the herding phenomenon from a large number of facets such as herding of firms towards market, herding of firms towards industry portfolios, herding of industry portfolios towards market, herding in mostly traded stocks and in large and small stocks, and herding in the crisis period. For this purpose, we use the herding behavior model of Christie and Huang (1995) on the daily closing prices data of 609 firms listed on the PSX from January 2004 to December 2013. Results show that individual firms do not herd towards market index, except when the market experiences a negative return of 5%. However, when we sort firms into small and large groups based on median market capitalization, results indicate that large firms show herding behavior in extreme market movements. Further, we find that firms in several industries herd towards their industry portfolios. However, we find weak evidence of industry portfolios herding towards the market. We also segregate the impact of financial crisis of 2008 from normal times. These findings support results of our baseline estimation.     

CEO继任模式与战略变革研究评述

CEO作为公司战略决策制定和执行的核心人物,其继任模式对战略变革的影响一直是学术界关注的热点课题。本文回顾CEO继任研究发展及CEO继任模式与战略变革关系的研究。     

A study of the efficiency of the Chinese clean energy stock market and its correlation with the crude oil market based on an asymmetric multifractal scaling behavior analysis

We examine the multifractal scaling behavior and market efficiency of China’s clean energy stock indexes using an asymmetric multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (A-MFDFA) and then investigate the tail correlation between this index and the crude oil market via an asymmetric multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis (A-MFDCCA). First, we reveal that the overall, upward and downward trends of the clean energy stock indexes all have significant multifractal characteristics. The clean energy stock market is far from efficient regardless of whether the fluctuations are small or large. In addition, both upward and downward fluctuations exhibit considerable asymmetry. The significant gap between the downward and overall trends indicates that the downward trend following small-scale fluctuations implies weaker efficiency for investors. Furthermore,based on the sliding market deficiency measure (MDM),we find that the change in efficiency in the three trends significantly depends on the length of the window. In the short term, there is no significant efficiency difference among these three trends; however, in the long term, the asymmetry in the upward and downward trends has gradually increased,especially after December 2018. The results demonstrate that bear markets can offer considerably more opportunities for obtaining excess profits. Finally, we reveal that the cross-correlation between the trends of crude oil prices and low-carbon indexes exhibits significant multifractal characteristics. When the crude oil market is in a bull market or the low-carbon energy market is in a bear market, especially in a larger-scale fluctuation, investors should pay attention to the long-term influence of the counterparty market and carry out a hedging operation to avoid risks.