Quality of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Cost of Equity Capital: Lessons from China

This article explores the relationship between the quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and the cost of equity capital by analyzing the financial data and CSR reports of A-share listed firms in China from 2008 to 2014. The quality of the CSR disclosure is shown to be negatively related to the cost of equity capital of the listed firms. This negative correlation proves to be more prominent among firms of environmentally sensitive industries. Taking the ownership of the listed firms into consideration, it is further confirmed that the negative relationship between the CSR disclosure and the cost of equity capital is of higher significance for state-owned enterprises. Our findings also empirically demonstrate that the quality of CSR disclosure is more negatively related to the cost of equity capital among the large listed firms than the smaller ones.     

New development: A new COFOG for South Korea

The South Korean government's Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) is grounded in the System of National Accounts (SNA), rather than Government Finance Statistics (GFS). This article explains why a GFS-based classification might be beneficial to South Korea for the purposes of fiscal management and the comparison of government expenditures with other countries.     

Exploring heritage tourism performance improvement for making sustainable development strategies using the hybrid-modified MADM model

Industrial heritage tourism has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, strategies for improving the industrial heritage tourism development-related performances are still an underdeveloped research topic academically. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to explore the feasibility performance-improving strategies using a hybrid-modified multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) based on the DEMATEL technique in constructing the influential network relation map (INRM) and in determining the influential weights of DANP. Then, the modified VIKOR method is combined with the influential weights of DANP, performance gaps were identified, and then the most effective strategies for improving tourism development-related performance at industrial heritage sites can be generated using INRM. Finally, an empirical real case study of a rehabilitated gold-mining site of Taiwan is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the hybrid-modified MADM model. According to the results, the decision-makers should highly prioritize improving high-priority criteria such as ‘social usefulness’, ‘resource integration’, ‘destination policy and development’, ‘economic development’, ‘cultural links’, ‘cultural learning’, and ‘natural landscape resources’ in advance to successfully achieving the aspired performance levels. Additionally, this study suggests meaningful industrial heritage tourism performance improvement strategies that have been rehabilitated throughout the world.     

城市土地利用与交通相互作用（LUTI）研究进展与展望

研究目的:基于对国内外大量研究成果的梳理,对城市土地利用与交通相互作用(LUTI)的复杂机理展开系统回顾与述评,并尝试提出未来亟需重点关注的研究领域与方向。研究方法:文献资料法,对比分析法。研究结果:国内外实证研究领域及空间尺度表现出明显分异,部分研究结果亦呈现出差异化特征;国外热衷于引入多学科理论与方法构建LUTI一体化模型,而国内所引入的数学规划模型多停滞在理论分析与模拟层面,应用性相对有限,但近年来国内学者逐渐加强LUTI协调性评价,研究领域呈现出新特征。研究结论:全球可持续发展背景下,LUTI研究为实现城市土地利用与交通的协调发展提供了良好基础,未来应加强对LUTI模型方法与互馈机理的研究,并深入探讨现代交通发展对土地利用的影响机制,环境、社会因素亦应引起重视,国内学界则应注重本土性与应用性研究。     

Risk management in local authorities: An application of Schatzki's social site ontology

Prior research has devoted limited attention to studying changes in organisational risk management (RM) practices. This is despite continuous dissatisfaction from academics and practitioners with organisations' ability to manage risks. We draw on Schatzki's social site ontology to study RM practices of two New Zealand local authorities that both experienced (earthquake) risk events and whose RM practices could be expected to change. We extend recent research utilising Schatzki, by finding that practical intelligibility and general understanding mutually affect each other in the organising of practices. Further, we extend Nama and Lowe’s (2014) addition to Schatzki by highlighting the importance of including teleological structures and accounting devices into the mutually constitutive relationship between general understanding and affectivity. Finally, we contribute to RM literature by proposing that changing the general understanding (in addition to the mere implementation of RM tools) is an important way of making RM change fundamental and sustainable.     

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) to finance new ventures

In an initial coin offering (ICO), new ventures raise capital by selling tokens to a crowd of investors. Often, this token is a cryptocurrency, a digital medium of value exchange based on the distributed ledger technology. Both the number of ICOs and the amount of capital raised have exploded since 2017. Despite attracting significant attention from ventures, investors, and policy makers, little is known about the dynamics of ICOs. This initial study therefore assesses the determinants of the amount raised in 423 ICOs. Drawing on signaling theory, the study explores the role of signaling ventures' technological capabilities in ICOs. The results show that technical white papers and high-quality source codes increase the amount raised, while patents are not associated with increased amounts of funding. Exploring further determinants of the amount raised, the results indicate that some of the underlying mechanisms in ICOs resemble those found in prior research into entrepreneurial finance, while others are unique to the ICO context. The study's implications are multifold and discussed in detail. Importantly, the results enable investors to more accurately understand crucial determinants of the amount raised (e.g., technical white papers, source code quality, token supply, Ethereum-standard). This reduces the considerable uncertainty that investors face when investing in ICOs and enables more informed decision-making.     

Heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimators for spatial autoregressive models

In the presence of heteroskedasticity, conventional test statistics based on the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator lead to incorrect inference results for the linear regression model. Given that heteroskedasticity is common in cross-sectional data, the test statistics based on various forms of heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrices (HCCMs) have been developed in the literature. In contrast to the standard linear regression model, heteroskedasticity is a more serious problem for spatial econometric models, generally causing inconsistent extremum estimators of model coefficients. This paper investigates the finite sample properties of the heteroskedasticity-robust generalized method of moments estimator (RGMME) for a spatial econometric model with an unknown form of heteroskedasticity. In particular, it develops various HCCM-type corrections to improve the finite sample properties of the RGMME and the conventional Wald test. The Monte Carlo results indicate that the HCCM-type corrections can produce more accurate results for inference on model parameters and the impact effects estimates in small samples.     

ALICE: Composite leading indicators for euro area inflation cycles

This paper develops Area-wide Leading Inflation CyclE (ALICE) indicators with the aim to provide early signals for turning points in the euro area headline and core inflation cycles. The headline (core) ALICE leads the reference cycle by three (four) months and the lead times extend to five (nine) months based on longer-leading series. Both ALICE indicators signalled turning points in the inflation cycles ex post and also performed well in a simulated real-time exercise. Moreover, in particular the headline ALICE also appeared to be useful for quantitative forecasting of the direction and level of inflation.     

An Exploratory analysis of flight delay propagation in China

Delay propagation is the flight departure delay caused by the arrival delay of pre-segment flight. Chinese airline market has suffered very poor on-time performance (OTP) in recent years. It is, however, unclear whether delay propagation prevails as one major source for such problem. This study first aims to empirically quantify delay propagation in the Chinese airline market. Specifically, we shed light on heterogenous levels of delay propagations across different airports and airlines. Then, the distinct delay propagation patterns in China are also discussed and compared with other developed airline markets (e.g., the US and Europe). Our estimation is based on OTP data for over 12 million Chinese flights covering the 2015–2017 period. Specifically, it is found that 10 min arrival delay of pre-segment flight within 1 hr before the departure lead to an average of 7.49 mins delay propagation for subsequent departure flight. Arrival delay of earlier pre-segments (1–2 and 2–3 hr before the departure) leads to much less delay propagation, due to longer ground buffer. Chinese airlines arrange longer ground and flight buffer than that of the US airlines to prevent the delay propagation from accumulating along the subsequent flights in a day. Thus, unlike the US market, delay propagation is not the major reason for poor OTP in China. In addition, delay propagation is less prevailing at the Chinese hub airport. This is because China has relied on point-to-point network, which does not require sophisticated schedule coordination. And the local passengers at these Chinese hub airports have higher time value such that the Chinese airlines also try to improve OTP at these hub airports to better serve these lucrative but time-sensitive local passengers. Unlike the European LCCs, Spring Airlines, the largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in China, outperforms major full-service carriers (FSCs) in controlling delay propagation. This finding may also apply to other Northeast Asian LCCs sharing common operational characteristics as Spring Airlines. Last, we find that airlines purposely tolerate moderate departure delays of up to 15 min, which is the threshold that defines delays, no matter whether the pre-segment flight arrives late or on-time. The relevant policy and managerial implications are also discussed.     

Beyond classical van Westendorp: Assessing price sensitivity for variants of algae-based meat substitutes

Food product innovations are characterized by high flop rates. In an early development stage, manifold product formulations seem feasible. To determine the most promising product option, market research can help, but is frequently considered too costly and complex. We assess the applicability of the van Westendorp approach, an inexpensive and simple method, for guiding early product design and pricing decisions for novel foods. Findings from a between-subject experiment for meat substitutes consisting of different shares of micro-algae indicate that micro-algae, while a cost driver, has little effect on price preferences. Implications for novel food product design, market research, and retailing are discussed.