Prominence and consumer search

This article examines the implications of “prominence” in search markets. We model prominence by supposing that the prominent firm will be sampled first by all consumers. If there are no systematic quality differences among firms, we find that the prominent firm will charge a lower price than its less prominent rivals. Making a firm prominent will typically lead to higher industry profit but lower consumer surplus and welfare. The model is extended by introducing heterogeneous product qualities, in which case the firm with the highest‐quality product has the greatest incentive to become prominent, and making it prominent will boost industry profit, consumer surplus, and welfare.     

The value impact of strategic intent on firms engaged in information systems outsourcing

While information systems outsourcing has been on the rise in recent years, empirical evidence about whether IS outsourcing is value creating for shareholders is limited. Little is known about what factors influence the relation between information systems outsourcing and firm value. This study examines the effect of information systems outsourcing announcements on firm value by analyzing whether equity market reactions are associated with the management's strategic intent for outsourcing and firm characteristics of the outsourcing firm. After examining 103 IS outsourcing announcements made during the period from 1996 to 2003, results suggest that value is created for firms outsourcing with short-term operational intent rather than for longer term strategic reasons. In addition, the increase in firm value from an IS outsourcing announcement is positively associated with the firm's operating asset efficiency and the firm being in a service industry.     

Then And Now——How The Global Financial Crisis Will Affect Chinese Outbound investment

1. The future of outbound M＆A for Chinese enterprises
The background
As we read in the press lately, China＇s trade surplus and foreign-exchange reserves have fuelled its growing overseas M＆A activities over the last several years. Most commentators believe that this outbound activity will continue to increase. Some recent reports suggest, however, that since the current financial crisis began, there has been a slow down in China outbound M＆A activities,     

Filipino ethnic entrepreneurship: An integrated review and propositions

With a large percentage of its population as overseas workers or emigrants, a number now in the millions and likely grow even larger, an examination is appropriate of the entrepreneurial challenges and opportunities faced by emigrants from the Philippines. This study explores the factors that shape entrepreneurship among emigrants in general and, in particular, among Filipinos in the United States of America. Integrating literature from a variety of sources relating to the migration of Filipinos and the creation and management of new ventures by ethnic entrepreneurs in the United States, it proposes a general model of ethnic entrepreneurship, develops propositions relating to the propensity of Filipino emigrants to establish entrepreneurial ventures, and concludes with suggestions for future research.     

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson

Books reviewed in this issue:

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  The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

       

Conservatism, growth, and return on investment

Return on Investment (ROI) is widely regarded as a key measure of firm profitability. The accounting literature has long recognized that ROI will generally not reflect economic profitability, as determined by the internal rate of return (IRR) of a firm’s investment projects. In particular, it has been noted that accounting conservatism may result in an upward bias of ROI, relative to the underlying IRR. We examine both theoretically and empirically the behavior of ROI as a function of two variables: past growth in new investments and accounting conservatism. Higher growth is shown to result in lower levels of ROI provided the accounting is conservative, while the opposite is generally true for liberal accounting policies. Conversely, more conservative accounting will increase ROI provided growth in new investments has been “moderate” over the relevant horizon, while the opposite is true if new investments grew at sufficiently high rates. Taken together, we find that conservatism and growth are “substitutes” in their joint impact on ROI.     

Some evidence on the international inequality of real interest rates

This paper undertakes econometric tests of the hypothesis that ex-ante real interest rates are equal across countries with highly integrated capital markets. The issue is of practical importance because the violation of real rate equality is a necessary condition for monetary policy to influence the open economy through the real interest rate channel. Although an empirical literature concerning real rate equality already exists, previous investigators have focused on pre-tax real rates. This paper contributes to the literature by attempting to incorporate the effects of taxation into the analysis.