Systemic circular business model application at the company,supply chain and society levels—A view into circular economy native and adopter companies

This study contributes to the conceptualization of a sustainable circular business model (CBM), the application of the circular economy (CE) by companies. The study utilized a three-level framework adapted from the CE literature with company (micro), supply chain (meso) and society (macro) levels. This multiple-case study in the textile industry included two types of companies operating in the CE: companies founded on the sustainable principles of a CE (natives) and companies transitioning to a CE from the linear economy (adopters). The findings show that the adopters emphasized long-term economic sustainability on a company level and implemented CE elements to varying degrees on all three levels. The natives pursued business decisions from environmental and social sustainability standpoints, and the three levels were integral in their systemic approach to a CE. The study highlights two key claims: established operational structures and economic volition hindered adopters in their systemic CE implementation, and an integral part of the CBM for natives was a proactive approach towards the society level.     

The effect of cultural and institutional factors on initiation,completion, and duration of cross-border acquisitions

We study the effect of cultural and institutional distances on the probability that a firm from an acquiring country announces an acquisition of a firm in a target country (initiation), the probability that an announced deal is completed (completion), and the average time it takes to complete an acquisition (duration). We find that culture plays a decisive role in deal initiation. Completion and duration of a deal is largely unaffected by the cross country cultural and institutional differences and depends on deal level characteristics. We find a higher probability for acquirers to hire Top-tier advisors when they initiate deals in countries with higher cultural differences. We also find that use of Top-tier advisors by acquirers increases the probability of completion of the deal.     

Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance

We review the financial economics-based research on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with an emphasis on corporate finance. In doing so we focus on the most debated and researched issues. Although a firm's ESG/CSR profile and activities are shown to be strongly related to the firm's market, leadership and owner characteristics as well its risk, performance and value, there still exist conflicting hypotheses and results that we show are not resolved, leading to continued questions and a need for more research.     

A picture is worth a thousand words: The role of a cover photograph on a travel agency’s online identity

Online travel agencies (OTAs) allow lodging businesses to select one cover photograph to represent itself on the OTA site. The cover photograph plays a crucial role for attracting customers’ attention from among alternatives, and lure viewers to view the webpage with detailed information. The present study investigates how the content of a business’ cover photograph on OTAs’ sites influences customers’ behavior when searching for information. The content of a cover photograph may fall within five categories according to attributes: façade, type of place, room amenities, scenery, and property amenities. Only façade and property amenities have positive impacts on customers’ viewing times of the webpages with the detailed information of businesses. In contrast, scenery has a negative influence on customers’ viewing times. The results of the study contribute, theoretically and methodologically, to OTAs’ knowledge base and can assist practitioners’ identification of effective cover photographs.     

在热电联产企业中精益成本管理的评价指标及应用对策

论文从热电联产企业的特征入手,通过对精益成本管理理论的研究,总结出热电联产企业精益成本管理的评价指标,并通过对指标的分析总结出精益成本管理在热电联产企业实际应用中的管理对策。     

Time-sensitive supply chain disruption recovery and resource sharing incentive strategy

Market demand is becoming increasingly time-sensitive in competitive environments. Hence, supply disruptions will have a more serious impact on the profits of supply chains. This study applies a Stackelberg competition between a single supplier and a single manufacturer in a time-sensitive supply chain in a cloud manufacturing environment. We aim to address the supplier’s production capacity recovery issues and the manufacturer’s incentive decision issues after supply disruption. We find that the supplier is in a weak position when the information is symmetrical. The manufacturer can encourage the supplier to shorten the recovery time by raising the unit wholesale price. When the supplier’s unit production cost remains unchanged but the unit wholesale price increases, the profit of the supplier first increases and then decreases. In addition, under the centralized decision-making setting, the optimal recovery time of the supplier is shorter and the optimal unit market price of the product is lower than that under decentralized decision-making. We further find that resource sharing can shorten the optimal recovery time, but it does not necessarily play an incentivizing role.     

大学生消费行为调查与分析

大学生是社会消费群体的重要组成部分,他们的消费行为特征受到越来越多人的关注。为了更好地了解大学生的具体消费行为,本文采取问卷调查的方式,以合肥师范学院在校大学生作为调查对象,进一步了解大学生的消费理念、方式以及水平、结构等。最后根据调查结果的数据分析,对大学生理性消费提出具体建议,以引导大学生树立正确的消费观念。     

How have the dependence structures between stock markets and economic factors changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?

This study investigates how the dependence structures between stock markets and economic factors have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic using the dynamic model averaging approach. A series of economic factors such as commodity markets, cryptocurrency, monetary policy, international capital flows, and market uncertainty indices are considered. We find that the importance of economic variables and the sign and size of their coefficients are significantly different from those before the COVID-19 pandemic. The stock markets are most influenced by economic factors during the COVID-19 outbreak.     

The effects of credit default swaps on corporate investment

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how credit default swaps (CDS) affect the corporate investment of the referenced entities. We document a significant reduction in corporate investment after CDS trading, a result that is robust to alternative model specifications and a set of endogeneity tests. Our findings of the increased firm risk and cost of capital support the costly external capital channel. The cross-sectional variations in CDS effects demonstrate that both reduced monitoring and the empty creditor problem might be the underlying forces driving the costly external capital channel. Our additional analysis implies that CDS trading is associated with an enhancement in investment efficiency for firms that are prone to overinvestment.     

Fintech and access to finance

This article surveys research on the effects of digitalization on access to finance. We focus the review on access through fintech. We review the growth of three main fintech technologies, fintech lending (incl. peer-to-peer lending), crowdfunding and initial coin offerings. We discuss existing evidence on how fintech affects access to finance for firms and investors and consider the regulatory challenges it poses. We incorporate the papers in this special issue, underlining their significant contributions to our understanding of the digitalization of finance and its effects. Finally, we discuss the challenges of research in the digital finance area and propose some new avenues for future research.