Relative Performance Evaluation of Mutual Funds: A Non-Parametric Approach

We propose an alternative mutual fund performance index which addresses the benchmark problem and controls for economies of scale in managing mutual funds. We advance a new concept of 'return-cost' efficiency as another important element in evaluating portfolio management, in addition to the mean-variance efficiency concept. Our index based on a non-parametric estimation is shown to be similar to the Sharpe index with multiple slopes (or factors). We have shown that all fund categories, except income funds, have similar average efficiency scores after controlling for economies of scale. Most funds operate in increasing returns to scale and seem to be successful in holding mean-variance efficient portfolios, but unsuccessful in allocating transaction costs efficiently, evidenced by excessive turnovers and loads.     

The impact of attributions about life events on perceptions of foreign products: Contrasts in individualism and collectivism

An event important to a consumer that occurred in a foreign country may serve to affect perceptions about the products from the country. Life events represent important experiences or circumstances that tend to exert a major influence on the individual. This article examines how consumer attributions made about a life event occurring in a foreign country vary across individuals from individualist and collectivist cultures, which serve to moderate the impact of the event on product perceptions. The research literature on life events, attribution theory, and cross‐cultural differences are used to formulate propositions regarding the relationship between life‐event attributions and subsequent perceptions of products from the foreign country. Implications and research directions are provided. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

POST-MERGER PERFORMANCE AMONG HOMOGENEOUS FIRM SAMPLES

This paper analyzes the post-merger performance of acquiring firms. The sample is transformed to a few homogenized subsamples along the various critical dimensions of the merger event. Those clusters with high growth or active acquisitions, active utilization of debt capacity, and low liquidity showed performance superior to the market. The results provide support for the hypothesis of financial synergism or at least the hypothesis that aggressive growth strategies are rewarded by the market.     

中国房地产业重见曙光

2007年4季度以来，由于政府的严厉措施、尤其是货币供应的收紧，大多数城市的住房成交量有所下降。市场对于2008年过度紧缩的忧虑导致了近几个月房地产股的大跌。然而，近期的迹象表明，住房部门受到的约束正在放松。这种情况下，上海市场开始回暖，出现了量价齐升的局面。     

IS THE REAL INTEREST RATE REALLY UNSTABLE?

If nominal interest rates have a unit root, but inflation and inflation forecast errors do not, ex-ante real interest rates are argued to have a unit root and are therefore nonstationary. I show that empirical tests for nonstationarity of real interest rates using such a deductive method can be misleading when the stationary inflation forecast errors are large relative to the variation of nominal interest rates.     

AN EXAMINATION OF MERGER SYNERGISM

The empirical research discussed in this paper measures the synergistic effects of mergers on the stockholders of the acquiring and acquired firms. Synergism is defined as the incremental wealth to the shareholders of both merging firms due to the merger—net of any potential gains achievable through investors' personal diversification over the common stocks of the merging firms. Three types of mergers are identified and studied—nonconglomerate, conglomerate with increasing financial leverage, and conglomerate with decreasing financial leverage. The results indicate that these types of mergers are affected differently by the combination. Moreover, the evidence suggests operational and/or financial synergism.     

It's Not All Relative: The Effects of Mental and Physical Positioning of Comparative Prices on Absolute versus Relative Discount Assessment

In the context of three experiments, the authors examine the manner in which consumers compare a sale price to an explicit reference value. They find that a comparison of sale price to regular price may be more likely to involve an absolute (dollar amount) assessment, whereas a comparison of sale price to a competitor's price may be more likely to involve a relative (percent) assessment. The authors also find that vertical (i.e., columnar) placement of prices may result in a greater tendency to estimate discounts in relative terms. Conversely, horizontal (i.e., side-by-side) placement may result in a greater tendency to compute absolute numerical difference. The results provide important implications for retail managers in terms of framing and communicating price discounts.     

Frontline service employees’ customer-related social stressors, emotional exhaustion, and service recovery performance: customer orientation as a moderator

This study investigates the structural relationships among customer-related social stressors (disproportionate customer expectation, ambiguous customer expectation, disliked customers, and customers?? verbal aggression), emotional exhaustion, and service recovery performance, with customer orientation (CO) serving as a moderator between customer-related social stressors and emotional exhaustion as well as emotional exhaustion and service recovery performance. The study uses data collected from a survey of 1,014 frontline service employees in Korea??s tourism service sectors. The results indicate that customer-related social stressors positively influence emotional exhaustion; emotional exhaustion negatively influences service recovery performance; and CO acts as a moderator. CO moderates both the effects of customer-related social stressors on emotional exhaustion and those of emotional exhaustion on service recovery performance, by weakening the effects for higher CO employees. This study contributes to both theory and practice by combining the four constructs of customer-related social stressors, emotional exhaustion, service recovery performance, and CO in addition to examining their relationships while focusing on customer-related factors.