Contagion or Competition: Going Concern Audit Opinions for Real Estate Firms

We examine whether intra–industry information transfers from going–concern audit opinion announcements create contagion or competitive stock price reactions for other real estate firms operating in the same line of business. Using returns from publicly-traded land subdivision/development firms and Real Estate Investment Trusts, we find modest evidence supporting a competitive effect among rival firms as a result of another real estate firm announcing the receipt of a Going Concern Opinion (GCO) from its independent auditors.     

The Antecedents of Trust in Business-to-Business Financial Services

Purpose: To explore how satisfaction, communication, customization, competence, and shared values (as antecedents) influence trust in B2B financial services relationships, and to assist decision makers in this industry to manage long-term relationships with their clients.

Methodology/approach: Based on a literature review, five hypotheses were developed. The hypotheses were addressed by empirically evaluating a theoretical model based on data from both relationship managers and the clients of a leading South African B2B financial services provider. Regression analysis was used to assess the relationships in the relationship-manager sample, while structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the relationships in the client sample.

Findings: In the relationship-manager sample, satisfaction, competence, and shared values were found to be significant predictors of trust. However, in the client sample, all five of the hypothesized antecedents were found to contribute significantly to trust.

Originality/value/contribution: The major contribution of this study, for both marketing academics and practitioners, lies in the simultaneous consideration of the perceptions of both financial services providers as well as their clients. As far as it could be ascertained, this combination of both exchange partners (service providers and clients) in a single study has not been reported in a financial services context.     

International equities listed on the New York stock exchange: does type of issue or date of issue matter?

The initial short-term (21-day) and long-term (3-year) excess returns for foreign initial public offering (IPO) and seasoned equity offering (SEO) American depository receipts (ADRs) listed on the New York stock exchange from 1990 to 2009 are tested to determine differences in performance based on type of issue and date of issue for the decades of the 1990s and the 2000s. The overall sample outperformed the S&P 500 Index by over 5?% after the first 3?years of trading; however, SEO ADRs outperformed IPO ADRs by nearly 19?% (relative to the market index). Breaking IPO and SEO ADR returns down by decade of issue shows that those listed in the 2000s for both samples drastically outperformed those listed in the 1990s in the long term. Both samples of ADRs listed in the 2000s also significantly outperformed the S&P 500 index in the first 36?months of trading. In the short-term results, for the first 21?days of trading, the SEO ADRs significantly outperformed the market by 2.1?%, while IPO ADRs outperformed by 0.97?% (though not significant).     

The Brexit effect: the case of UK ADR performance one year later

In an unexpected outcome, UK voters decided that it was time to exit the European Union based on the results of a vote held on 23 June 2016. Studies of the affects and implication of Brexit include a study showing that the vote was met with a negative short-term wealth effect for UK American depository receipts (ADRs). This study examines the one-year anniversary holding period returns of these ADRs along with the British Pound and the FTSE 100 to discover any lingering effects from the historical vote. Results indicate that the one-year holding period returns for the ADRs averaged 5.8% for the year while the FTSE gained 4.8%, the S&P 500 gained 15.4% and the Pound lost 13.2% of its value.     

The Need for a Marketing Reform: The Wines of the Loire Region

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on how the French wine industry and, in particular, the wine-producing Loire region in France is affected by global and domestic factors. An overview of some of the vast regulations prevailing in the French wine industry that prohibit the wine producers to compete efficiently, especially with the wines from the “new world,” is provided. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis is used as the tool to study the competitiveness of the French wine industry in general and the Loire region in particular. The French wine industry is too fragmented and subjected to too many controls and, as a result thereof, is not flexible enough to respond to market opportunities. French wines have the unique blend of “historical intangibles” of romance and mystery that have been part and parcel of wine for many centuries. This advantage is no longer a major competitive advantage, and the time has come to make decisions on which of the vast range of regulations are worthwhile to maintain to contribute positively to the best interests of the French wine industry.     

Estimating worldwide life satisfaction

Whilst studies of life satisfaction are becoming more common-place, their global coverage is far from complete. This paper develops a new database of life satisfaction scores for 178 countries, bringing together subjective well-being data from four surveys and using stepwise regression to estimate scores for nations where no subjective data are available. In doing so, we explore various factors that predict between-nation variation in subjective life satisfaction, building on Vemuri and Costanza's (Vemuri, A.W., & Costanza, R., 2006. The role of human, social, built, and natural capital in explaining life satisfaction at the country level: toward a National Well-Being Index (NWI). Ecological Economics, 58:119-133.) four capitals model. The main regression model explains 76% of variation in existing subjective scores; importantly, this includes poorer nations that had proven problematic in Vemuri and Costanza's (Vemuri, A.W., & Costanza, R., 2006. The role of human, social, built, and natural capital in explaining life satisfaction at the country level: toward a National Well-Being Index (NWI). Ecological Economics, 58:119-133.) study. Natural, human and socio-political capitals are all found to be strong predictors of life satisfaction. Built capital, operationalised as GDP, did not enter our regression model, being overshadowed by the human capital and socio-political capital factors that it inter-correlates with. The final database presents a stop-gap resource that, until robust surveys are carried out worldwide, allows comparisons of subjective life satisfaction between nations to be made with reasonable confidence.     

Race and attitude formation in HIV/Aids fear advertising

The study on which this article is based, examined whether fear appeal advertising increases the likelihood of adopting appropriate behavior and whether different racial groups perceive fear appeals pertaining to HIV/Aids communication differently. The extent of fear, attitude towards the advertisements, as well as threat and efficacy were also investigated to ascertain the influence of different levels of fear appeals.Social marketing programs address various pandemics and anti-social behavior, where citizens act in conflict with accepted social conduct. The use of fear as a motivation in advertising places emphasis on the severity of the threat. Marketing practitioners, believing the message is too difficult to implement, have questioned the use of fear appeal advertising messages.The findings of this study indicate differences among racial groups pertaining to levels of fear and attitude towards advertisements, as well as differences in threat and efficacy experienced after exposure to high fear appeals compared to other appeals.     

Hedge fund liquidity and performance: Evidence from the financial crisis

We investigate how share restrictions affect hedge fund performance in crisis and non-crisis periods. Consistent with prior research, we find that in the pre-crisis period more illiquid funds generate a share illiquidity premium compensating investors for limited liquidity. In the crisis period, this share illiquidity premium turns into an illiquidity discount. Hedge funds with more stringent share restrictions invest more heavily in illiquid assets. While share restrictions enable funds to manage illiquid assets effectively in the pre-crisis period, they seem insufficient to ensure effective management of illiquid portfolios in the crisis. In a crisis period, funds holding illiquid portfolios experience lower returns and alphas, also when share restrictions are controlled for. Funds with an asset–liability mismatch perform particularly poorly and experience the strongest outflows. Share restrictions are also a proxy for incentives as investors cannot immediately withdraw their money after poor performance. We show that higher incentive fees can offset the share illiquidity discount in the crisis period.     

Who Receives What? The Influence of the Donation Magnitude and Donation Recipient in Cause-Related Marketing

Cause-related marketing campaign structural elements (CSEs) are individual message components that are selected for campaigns and have the ability to influence consumer intentions and behavior. In this study, the impact of donation magnitude (small; large) and donation recipient (branded and well-known; branded and fictitious; unbranded and well-known) on the dependent variables of consumer attitude toward the offer, attitude toward the alliance, and participation intention is explored by means of a 2?×?3 between-subjects experiment. Despite significant differences in familiarity with and attitude toward the donation recipient, significant differences between groups in terms of the dependent variables were not found. The nature of the sample (Generation Y), their attitude toward helping others and charitable organizations, social exchange theory, and equity theory are explored in an attempt to clarify the lack of significant differences pertaining to the dependent variables.