Market Microstructure and Real Estate Returns

This paper examines the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market microstruc-ture and its relationship to stock returns. When compared with the general stock market, REIT stocks tend to have a lower level of institutional investor participation and are followed by fewer security analysts. In addition, REIT stocks that have a higher percentage of institutional investors or are followed by more security analysts tend to perform better than other REIT stocks. Our results seem to confirm Jensen's ( 1993 , p. 868) proposition that ownership structure (that is, who owns the firm's securities) affects the value of the firm. Our findings also have implications about the well documented phenomenon that the financial performance of Commingled Real Estate Funds (CREFs) is better than that of REITs.     

Optimal Comparable Selection and Weighting in Real Property Valuation: An Extension

Vandell (1991) recently developed a rigorous minimum variance technique for selecting and weighting comparables in real estate appraisal. This article extends Vandell's methodology in three areas: (1) an alternative objective function; (2) an approach that explicitly recognizes the non-negativity constraint on comparable weights; and, (3) a more robust comparable inclusion process. Using Vandell's data, we show how our methodology modifies Vandell's results.     

Clustering of cultural industries in Chinese cities

This study is the first empirical research on understanding the determinants of the concentration of cultural industries (CIs) in cities in China. What factors of the urban environment are important for attracting the location of CIs? How is the development of CIs in a city influenced by its neighbouring cities and its early development? To answer these questions, three types of spatial panel models – the spatial lag model, the spatial error model and the spatial dynamic panel model – are employed using the urban statistics for China from 2003 to 2009. Human capital, diversified industrial structure and transportation and communication infrastructure are significant factors contributing to the development of CIs. The empirical findings reveal the presence of positive spatial spillovers among cities, which suggests that promoting CIs in one city benefits other cities. Also, the evidence suggests the presence of temporal spillovers, implying that the early concentration of CIs in a city tends to attract more CIs in that city.     

Customer-sales employee encounters: a dyadic perspective

Although researchers have suggested that the performance of the salesperson during sales encounters is critical, many of the underlying mechanisms that govern the interaction between salespersons and customers are still unclear. In this research, we investigate sales encounters from a new approach based on the field of research of interpersonal perception. Results demonstrate that drivers of customer satisfaction may also be satisfying for the contact employee. Additionally, we find that customer satisfaction is not only determined by the customer’s own perceptions, but also by the perceptions of the employee. Similarly, employee satisfaction is driven by the customer’s perceptions. Finally, our study identifies that perceptions of employee performance and satisfaction do not only reflect the unique interaction between the customer and the employee, but also relatively stable characteristics of the employee.     

Legal and Institutional Determinants of Factoring in SMEs: Empirical Analysis across 25 European Countries

Weak protection of the rights of financiers intensifies agency problems in SME financing, inhibiting the optimal provision of credit necessary to grow and innovate. We use a survey data set of 4,348 SMEs from 25 European countries to analyze whether the use of factoring as a form of SME financing is less dependent on low quality of laws and institutions. We do so analyzing whether the use of factoring by SMEs differs across countries due to differences in the legal protection of creditors. Our findings indicate that firms operating in countries with legal environments that weakly protect the rights of creditors, with political instability or high enforcement costs, are more likely to use factoring. Managers of riskier and opaque companies operating in such inefficient environments can use the results of this study to better understand that there are suitable options to complement bank financing. Managers who seek loans can use the results to diversify their financing structure through the use of factoring. Since factoring can be used as a complement to bank loans or as a substitute for bank financing, it is important that policy makers take our results into account when revising policies concerning access to external financing.     

ECB monetary policy and commodity prices

We assess the impact of ECB monetary policy on global aggregate and sectoral commodity prices over 2001–2019. We employ an SVAR model and separately assess periods before and after the global financial crisis. Our key results indicate that contractionary monetary policy shocks have positive effects on commodity prices during both conventional and unconventional monetary policy periods, indicating the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy tools. The largest impact is documented on energy (fuel) and food commodities. Our results also suggest that the effect of ECB monetary policy on commodity prices transmits through the exchange rate channel, which influences European market demand.     

Emojis to conversion on social media

Emojis have become popular in online marketing communications. Marketers use emojis to humanize brand voice and elicit an emotional response from target audiences. However, little is known about how emojis are perceived and what kind of reactions they evoke. Therefore, this study aims to verify whether exposure to emojis leads to an increased intention to purchase and whether the use of emojis impacts campaign effectiveness in a real-life environment. In a theory build-up process, we draw upon the Dual Coding Theory and emotional contagion concept and develop seven hypotheses. We performed two data collection studies to test the hypothesized relations. The first study is based on a questionnaire (N = 318), while the second is based on experimental design in a real-life business environment. Surprisingly, we found that using emojis had a negative effect on purchase intention, while the effect was positive when mediated by positive affect. Emojis increased the effectiveness of marketing campaigns for hedonic products and strongly impacted the return on advertising spent. The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications in the observed domains, particularly about the type of products emojis are most effective in promoting, gender differences, and real-life consumer behaviour. This is the first study to use an experimental design in a real-life scenario to capture the role of emojis on campaign effectiveness and decipher the differences between genders and their perceptions of emojis. Theoretical and practical implications together with future prospects are discussed.     

Can corruption encourage clean technology transfer?

We study the impact of environmental regulation on the transfer of a clean technology where bureaucrats are needed for government intervention. In the absence of corruption, when environmental taxes are low, a technology transfer always takes place and it increases total outputs, but may lead to higher pollution levels. However, when corruption is possible, a firm with a dirty technology may choose to bribe a corruptible bureaucrat who will underreport the actual level of emissions, thereby hindering the transfer of clean technology. We show that a less strict anticorruption policy may lead to more bribing, but encourage technology transfers. Moreover, an environment-oriented government would set a deterrent environmental tax to reduce pollution, while an output-oriented government would set a minimum tax rate to eliminate corruption and induce technology transfers. However, a balanced government would tolerate corruption when the cost of bribing is low and the clean technology is sufficiently efficient.