A cross-country study of consumer innovativeness and technological service innovation

The current literature suggests that the concept of consumer innovativeness is universally applicable. Innovators are believed to be novelty seekers and risk takers independent of their national identity, and therefore to be attracted to similar characteristics of an innovation across most countries. However, research in intercultural marketing has shown that cultural norms and values have varying influences on the adoption of innovation, a finding that seems to contradict the assumption that the relationship between consumer innovativeness and adoption of innovation is universally uniform. This research investigates the effects of consumer innovativeness on attitude toward a service-based innovation across three European countries. The results of a multi-group structural equation modeling show that the relationship between consumer innovativeness and attitude toward innovation varies across the three dimensions of perceived novelty, perceived value, and perceived risk.     

Accidental,unprepared, and unsupported: clinical nurses becoming managers

To what extent have hospitals developed their skilled clinicians to perform the administrative and human resources (HR) manager role of the ward manager? We consider this research question through an analysis of an acute hospital called ‘The Hospital’ where the executive team is aiming to adopt a form of high-performance work system (HPWS). We focus primarily on explanations in terms of conditions, rather than the personalities of individual managers, which are most powerful in shaping their behaviour. There has long been a failure of hospitals (and other employing organisations) to develop fully the skills required by employees before they become line managers. Line managers are a critical link in the high-performance chain and this study illustrates that, despite their rhetoric, hospitals may still have much potential for implementing schemes to develop nurses further to prepare them for line-manager positions and to support them after they move into such roles. We infer from this study that such hospitals may not yet have completed the journey to having HPWS. Hence, there is still much scope for such hospitals to progress and enjoy the benefits that proponents claim for HPWS.     

The presence of an error term does not preclude causal inference in regression: a comment on Krause (2012)

A recent article by Krause (Qual Quant, doi:10.1007/s11135-012-9712-5, Krause (2012)) maintains that: (1) it is untenable to characterize the error term in multiple regression as simply an extraneous random influence on the outcome variable, because any amount of error implies the possibility of one or more omitted, relevant explanatory variables; and (2) the only way to guarantee the prevention of omitted variable bias and thereby justify causal interpretations of estimated coefficients is to construct fully specified models that completely eliminate the error term. The present commentary argues that such an extreme position is impractical and unnecessary, given the availability of specialized techniques for dealing with the primary statistical consequence of omitted variables, namely endogeneity, or the existence of correlations between included explanatory variables and the error term. In particular, the current article discusses the method of instrumental variable estimation, which can resolve the endogeneity problem in causal models where one or more relevant explanatory variables are excluded, thus allowing for accurate estimation of effects. An overview of recent methodological resources and software for conducting instrumental variables estimation is provided, with the aim of helping to place this crucial technique squarely in the statistical toolkit of applied researchers.     

A Note: The CSCE cheddar cheese cash and futures price long-term equilibrium relationship revisited

In the early 1990s, after four decades of relying on government mandated minimum price supports and public stockholding to achieve price risk management, the United States dairy industry is undertaking a shift to a market clearing equilibrium system. A potentially important component of this new structure is the development of an operational futures market for selected milk and dairy products. In June of 1993 the Coffee, Sugar, & Cocoa Exchange introduced a contract on Cheddar Cheese. As the production of cheese represents over one third of the use of raw milk in the United States, this contract has the potential of serving as an important price risk management tool. Using unit root and cointegration techniques, Fortenbery and Zapata studied the cheese cash-futures relationship over the period June 1993–July 1995. They reach the conclusion that the cash and futures markets, during the period of their analysis, had not established an economic equilibrium relationship. F&Z raise the important question as to whether the cheddar cheese market is in some sense “slow” to develop or whether there something fundamentally amiss. The work of F&Z provides an important initial step toward understanding the cash–futures relationship. This research revisits the existence of a cointegrating relation using a much longer time period and additional time-series statistical tests. The results of this study suggest that the data support the establishment of an equilibrium relationship in the cheese markets and therefore provide support for the use of the futures market as a price risk management tool by the dairy industry. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 19: 233–244, 1999     

Relation between franking credits and the market risk premium: a comment

Based on the Officer (1994) model, Gray and Hall (2006) derive a relation between franking credits and the market risk premium. On the basis of this relation, the authors show that traditional estimates of the value of franking credits imply dividend yields that are inconsistent with historical equity market data. This inconsistency arises from assumptions about the franking credit payout ratio and the value of franking credits retained. With less than a 100 per cent payout ratio some franking credits are retained within the firm. Assuming that the retained franking credits have no value leads to the inconsistency in dividend yields. Current practice in the application of Officer's model makes this assumption and, therefore, leads to inconsistent results. Gray and Hall suggest resolving the inconsistency by setting the value of all franking credits to zero. An alternative solution is to recognize that retained franking credits might have a positive value.     

A review of economic research into determinants of divorce

"This paper reviews econometric work on the determinants of divorce. There is a fair degree of agreement over some of the key variables. It seems well-established that the effect of male wage rates is negative while the effect of female wage rates is positive. Nonetheless, controversy still rages over the effect of legal changes. Further work is needed on this. Viewed as a scientific research programme, the study of the determinants of divorce needs access to a wider range of populations. The databases at present are primarily U.S. sample surveys."     

Individualism,Uncertainty Avoidance,and Earnings Momentum in International Markets

This study examines whether cultural dimensions such as individualism and uncertainty avoidance can explain the variation in the profitability of the earnings momentum strategies in international markets. Using the time‐varying cultural indices of Tang and Koveos (2008) for 30,383 firms from 41 countries over the period 1995–2008, we show that the level of individualism in a country is positively associated and the level of uncertainty avoidance is negatively associated with earnings momentum profits. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of a comprehensive set of control variables and alternative cultural metrics. The central message is that we emphasize the necessity to go beyond the assumption of perfect rationality and to account for innate differences among international investors to explain how accounting information is incorporated into stock prices. We recommend that cultural dimensions be included in cross‐country research to account for innate differences among international investors.