Relationship stability, trust and relational risk in marketing channels: Evidence from China

This paper provides an integrated framework for examining effects of relationship stability and trust on relational risk and for exploring the moderating effects of guanxi on the relationships between trust and relational risk in marketing channels. The framework is tested with 225 dyads of questionnaires about buyer-supplier relationships in the Chinese household appliances sector. The results indicate that relationship length and dyadic solidarity can reduce the relational risk perceived by buyers through goodwill trust in their suppliers, but can increase the perceived relational risk through trust in their competence. Guanxi helps to weaken the positive relationship between a buyer's trust in suppliers' competence and its perceived relational risk, and dyadic solidarity can directly lower relational risk. This paper makes clear that buyers locked in a stable relationship will face relational risk, and it further identifies the specific variables which impact on the relational risk and the paths from which relational risk comes.     

Strategic currency hedging and global portfolio investments upside down

The literature on the convenience of currency hedging of international portfolio investments has not reached a final verdict. There are arguments for (Perold and Schulman [Perold, A.F. and Schulman, E.C. (1988). The free lunch in currency hedging: implications for investment policy and performance standards, Financial Analysts Journal, May/June Vol. 44, No. 3: 45-52]) and against (Froot [Froot, K. (1993). Currency hedging over long horizons. NBER Working Paper 4355.] and Campbell et al. [Campbell, J.Y., Viceira, L.M. and White, J.S. (2003). Foreign currency for long-term investors. The Economic Journal, Volume 113, Number 486, (March), pp. C1-C25(1)]). This paper analyzes the perspective of global investors based in emerging markets, for which hedging should imply increasing expected returns. The question thus is whether currency hedging is a “free lunch” in this case. No free lunch exists, as it turns out. Hard currencies act as natural hedges against global (and local) portfolio losses, since they tend to appreciate with respect to emerging market currencies when the world portfolio return is negative. Therefore, in this case currency hedging increases volatility—although also increasing expected returns. This result is likely to hold generally for relatively open economies with flexible exchange rate regimes.     

Linking multi-channel customer behavior with shopping motives: An empirical investigation of a German retailer

Operating multiple channels, in store as well as non-store, allows a retailer to cater to the different shopping motives of its customers. This research into the buying behavior of 525 customers of a multi-channel retailer that operates five channels in Germany shows that most customers use only one channel within a buying process, selecting the channel that best satisfies their shopping motives in each situation. Based on exploratory qualitative and quantitative research, this study identifies five shopping motives: “recreational orientation”, “convenience orientation”, “independence orientation”, “delivery-related risk aversion” and “product- and payment-related risk aversion”. In the majority of the store channels examined in this study (chain stores and bakeries), single-channel users primarily look to satisfy emotional and social needs. Single-channel users of non-store channels (catalogue and online-shop) look for convenience and strive for independence. Multi-channel users, who obtain their information from the online-shop and then make their purchase in the chain store, are combining the independence of online-shop information with the reduction of risks associated with buying products in the chain store. These findings can be used to develop recommendations for managing the individual channels.     

对避税天堂直接投资会被出具非标准审计意见吗？

企业避税降低会计信息质量,这可能引发审计师的关注。以2011—2018年我国A股上市公司为样本,实证检验了对避税天堂直接投资的企业是否更可能被出具非标准审计意见。研究发现：（1）对避税天堂直接投资的企业有更高的概率被出具非标准审计意见;（2）在企业国际避税动机更强、控股股东掏空可能性更大、利润转移能力更强的情况下,对避税天堂直接投资与非标准审计意见之间的正相关关系更显著。进一步研究还发现,企业当年被出具了非标准审计意见后,下一年度与避税天堂地区发生关联交易的规模显著减小,表明外部审计有助于抑制企业避税。以上研究丰富了对避税天堂投资的经济后果的文献,有助于理解避税天堂直接投资对会计信息质量的影响以及审计师是否关注避税天堂投资与会计信息质量的关系。     

存贷款利差定价分析

存贷款利差合理水平取决于违约率、损失率、流动性风险、资本缓冲与信贷类资产的比率,以及无风险基准利率。银行业内部管理水平不足和存贷款市场的总体失衡会导致利差水平扩大和提高。我国当前的存贷款利差水平相对于其合理水平而言过低,不仅不利于银行业长期健康发展,而且也对整个金融体系累积了巨大的体系性风险。     

Does it really pay to do better? Exploring the financial effects of changes in CSR ratings

Previous literature on the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance has focused mainly on the financial implications of a firm’s level of CSR without considering the potential effects on financial performance of variations in CSR rating. We try to fill this gap by studying whether variations in a firm’s CSR rating affect systematic risk, firm value, and portfolio performance. First, our results show that an increase in firms’ CSR efforts, as reflected by an increase in their CSR ratings, significantly reduces systematic risk. Second, a positive variation in CSR ratings significantly improves firm value. Finally, from a portfolio perspective, a strategy that consists of buying stocks that have experienced a CSR ratings increase and selling stocks that have experienced a CSR ratings decrease (or remain stable) leads to lower financial performance. Taken together, our findings provide new evidence and financial implications for firms and portfolio managers.     

Market risk disclosures,corporate governance structure and political connections: evidence from GCC firms

This paper investigates the joint effect of political connections, in the form of the royal family member on board, and corporate governance on the market risk disclosures of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) financial firms from 2007 to 2011. Previous research suggest that politically connected firms reduce the level of transparency in the GCC. However, we find that better corporate governance improves transparency and can be used as an effective tool in curbing the potentially adverse impact of politically connected board members on firms’ transparency. Our results have important implications for policy makers and can be generalized to other emerging markets.     

食品安全风险监测信息化

随着我国经济的不断发展,人们的生活水平不断提高,人们对食品安全的关注程度也越来越高。在本文当中,笔者结合自己的实际工作经验,阐述了当前阶段我国的现状,并以此为基础分析了当前阶段我国食品安全风险检测信息化所存在的问题,并总结了相关的解决策略。     

Is the cardholder an efficient alarm system to detect credit card incidents?

There is a growing tendency in credit card industry to increase the contribution of the smallest players, the cardholders, in the detection of card incidents. This article examines whether cardholders are efficient at detecting/communicating incidents of theft, loss or fraudulent use of their cards. The analysis focuses on whether they demonstrate enough speed of response to support a risk control subsystem by the issuer. The research follows a completely new approach showing how the issue can be handled by applying the concept of elasticity, a notion just recently exported from economics to the field of statistics by linking it with the reverse hazard rate. The issue is focused on the analysis of the characteristics of the elasticity function of the random variable that measures the delay of cardholders in reporting incidents. This study is illustrated with an application to a real data set of 1069 incidents.     

Optimal savings with taxable and tax-deferred accounts

We solve and estimate a life-cycle model with earnings risk and liquidity constraints in the presence of tax-deferred retirement accounts (TDAs). We explicitly consider two very different types of households (with TDAs): direct and indirect stockholders. The latter hold stocks only through TDAs and, consistent with the data, save considerably less than the former, who hold stocks both inside and outside these accounts. We find that TDAs promote higher wealth accumulation but only marginally higher net savings. Consumption increases mostly during retirement, as desired, but the effect is largest for those households with higher savings rates already.