A note extending Grosskopf, Hayes, Taylor and Weber, “Anticipating the consequences of school reform: A new use of DEA”

The article cited in the current paper's title shows how to extend Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate future, as well as past and present, performance. This is accomplished by relaxing some of the constraints that reflect the presence of imposed regulations, and then re-computing the evaluations under these alternate conditions. We here extend this approach to account for “long-run” and “short-run” behaviors, and the related bodies of theory that play prominent roles in microeconomics.     

The Behavior of Bid–Ask Spreads and Volume in Options Markets during the Competition for Listings in 1999

In August 1999, U.S. exchanges began to compete directly for order flow in many options that had been exclusively listed on another exchange, shifting 37% of option volume to multiple‐listing status by the end of September. Effective and quoted bid–ask spreads decrease significantly after multiple listings with spreads generally maintaining their initial lower levels 1 year later. These results hold for both time series and pooled regressions and are robust. We reject that economies of scale in market making cause the decrease in spreads and support the view that interexchange competition reduces option transaction costs.     

Male eco‐fashion: a market reality

With the fashion industry striving for competitive advantage, eco‐fashions provide an opportunity to distinguish environmentally friendly products from other fashion products. However, the viability of these eco‐fashion brands is questionable. An exploratory study is conducted to explain men's differences, particularly, as clothing styles vary for men and women. The research examines if men's purchase intent would make a difference to the eco‐fashion industry. A random sample is collected to examine men's purchase intentions for eco‐clothing by product attributes, environmental concerns and sustainable behaviour. Partial least squares is used to empirically test the sample. A conceptual model is developed. It was found that there are four significant exogenous variables, environmental concern, sustainable pricing, sustainable behaviour and sustainable branding with a moderately strong, negatively signed coefficient path. Perceived consumer effectiveness and faith in others are not found to be significant moderators. This defined male segment makes several theoretical contributions as well as generating useful recommendations for marketing practitioners.     

‘An Empirical Investigation of the Relationships among a Consumer’s Personal Values, Ethical Ideology and Ethical Beliefs’

This study provides an additional partial test of the Hunt–Vitell theory [1986, Journal of Macromarketing, 8, 5–16; 1993, ‘The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Retrospective and Revision’, in N. C. Smith and J. A. Quelch (eds.), Ethics in Marketing (Irwin Inc., Homewood), pp. 775–784], within the consumer ethics context. Using structural equation modeling, the relationships among an individual’s personal values (conceptualized by the typology of Schwartz [1992, ‘Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries’, in M. P. Zanna (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 25, Academic Press, Orlando), pp. 1–65] ethical ideology and ethical beliefs are investigated. The validity of the model is assessed in a two-step procedure. First, a measurement model of constructs is tested for key validity dimensions. Next, the hypothesized causal relationships are examined in several path models, comparing no mediation, partial and complete mediation of ethical ideology. The empirical results indicate that individual differences in value priorities (resultant conservation and resultant self-enhancement) directly and indirectly (through idealism) influence the judgment of ethically questionable consumer practices. These findings may significantly contribute to the theoretical understanding of ethical decision-making.     

Small firm growth,access to capital markets and financial structure: Review of issues and an empirical investigation

This article investigates the financial structure of small firms with an emphasis on growth and access to capital markets. Neo-classical economic, life cycle, pecking order and agency theory perspectives are reviewed in order to formulate testable propositions concerning levels of long-term, short-term and total debt, and liquidity. Up-to-date financial data were collected from the U.K. Private+ database for a large sample comprising of both listed and unlisted small firms. Regression results indicate significant relationships between financial structure and profitability, asset structure, size, age and stock market flotation but not growth except when rapid and combined with lack of stock market flotation. Analysis of stock market flotation as an interactive dummy reveals major differences between listed and unlisted small firms. The results indicate that the variety of financial structures observed in practice may reflect rational trade-offs of various costs on the part of small firm owner-managers but that the over-reliance on internally available funds and the importance of collateral, in the case of unlisted small firms, are likely to be major constraints on economic growth.     

Developing,Communicating and Promoting Corporate Ethics Statements: A Longitudinal Analysis

This paper reports on the findings of the third in a series of surveys of large U.S.-based and multinational corporations on their ethics statements. Focusing on four types – values statement, corporate credo, code of ethics and Internet privacy policy – we find growth in the use of these statements over the last decade. We discuss the external communication of these statements, including the avenues that are now used for promotion and their intended audiences. The paper concludes with a number of research issues to be addressed.     

Real effects of collapsing exchange rate regimes: an application to Mexico

This paper examines the impact of collapsing fixed, permanently fixed, and flexible exchange rate regimes on real output. Much of the recent discussion of the causes of exchange rate regime collapses has focused on capital flows and export demands. In an environment in which such external shocks predominate, a flexible exchange rate is shown theoretically to produce lower output variability for a range of parameter values. A counterfactual exercise is performed using Mexican data. We find that had Mexico been on a flexible rate for the past two decades, the variance of real output would have been reduced by half.