Privatisation and Stock Market Efficiency: The British Experience

We present evidence that with its emphasis on wide-share-ownership the British privatisation program created heavy involvement of small investors in privatised stocks. Using standard market efficiency tests and maximum likelihood estimates of stationary fractional ARIMA models, we show that the pricing of privatised stocks in the London Stock Exchange was indeed inefficient, unlike the rest of the market. Together, these two pieces of evidence suggest that small investors, behaving like noise-traders, may be generating this inefficiency. Yet, we cannot rule out alternative explanations.     

Unpacked and packed fluid milk consumption patterns and preferences in Turkey

The objective of this study is to investigate unpacked and packed fluid milk consumption patterns and preferences among Turkish households by using cross‐sectional survey data from 18,278 households. Based on the data, 47.8% of the households consume unpacked milk, 29.3% consume sterilized milk, and 7.9% consume pasteurized fluid milk at least once a month. Results of the multinomial logit model for fluid milk consumption behavior suggest that unpacked fluid milk preference is related positively to household size, income and age of the household head, and negatively to education level of the household head and status of the household wife. Similarly, pasteurized and sterilized fluid milk preferences are related positively to income and the education level of the household head, and negatively to household size and age of the household head. Results from these analyses are used to suggest techniques for marketing fluid milk products to specific segments of the consumer population.     

Analysis of Visitor Decision Making System When Visiting Natural Recreation Sites by Multinomial Logit Model

Multinomial Logit Model has analyzed the relationship between the frequency of visits to recreation areas and the motivational factors affecting the visits. Kastro Environment Preserving Site that is located in the Black Sea coast of Marmara region in Turkey, has been chosen as the site for this study. Kastro bay is a natural park that is visited only for recreational visits. The study has been conducted on a photogenic study group due to the proximity factor of Kastro bay close to Istanbul. Kastro bay is a popular recreational park due to its characteristic advantages such as a 200 m wide and approximately 2.5 km long beach and with its high quality vegetation. The vegetation type includes ash tree, oak tree, black pine, sand lily etc. Kastro bay is also the site for the Mediterranean seals (Monachus-monachus) which are at the level of extinction. Approximately 50,000 visitors visit the region during the months of July and August. It has been concluded that there is high direct correlation between the frequency of visits and the motivational factors. It has been determined that the visits are mostly based on the sea and the ecological tourism.Jel: O13, Q20, Q26, Q51, Q56, Q57     

Environmental policies,national culture,and stock price crash risk: Evidence from renewable energy firms

This study investigates the impact of country‐level environmental performance and national culture on the stock price crash risk of renewable energy firms. Employing a large sample of 626 renewable energy firms across 31 countries, we find a significant nonlinear relationship between country‐level environmental performance and crash risk. National culture dimensions are found to strongly predict the crash risk of renewable energy firms, particularly after the global financial crisis. On the contrary, national culture dimensions and environmental policies are observed to not exert any significance in explaining the crash risk of fossil fuel firms. Our results are robust with respect to alternative measures of stock price crash risk and the endogeneity of national culture dimensions. Overall, the findings of this paper contribute to the environmental economics literature by providing new evidence regarding the role of societal and environmental factors in explaining the stock price crash risk of energy firms.     

Deforestation, corruption, and private ownership in the forest sector

One of the remedies launched in combating corruption in the forest sector is privatization of state forests (and private forest ownership). We hypothesized that privatization could reduce deforestation through reducing corruption. We found a statistically significant strong positive relation between corruption and deforestation for the period between 1995 and 2008 by using two different corruption indices and panel data, a highly statistically significant negative correlation between private forest ownership and corruption across countries by using univariate and multivariate models for three different corruption indices, and a highly statistically significant negative correlation between private forest ownership and deforestation across countries by using univariate and multivariate models.     

Salesperson cooperation: The influence of relational, task, organizational, and personal factors

Salesperson cooperation has become a crucial issue for the overall performance of most sales organizations. The authors examine the antecedents of task-specific, cooperative behaviors of salespersons toward other salespeople working in the same organization. The main theses of the study are that (1) the four major antecedent categories of factors—relational, task, organizational, and personal— constitute, collectively, the primary determinants of salesperson cooperation and (2) each antecedent category exerts, independently, significant influence on the cooperative behaviors of salespersons. The results support the main theses and provide useful insights for sales managers attempting to foster cooperation among salespeople. The relative impact of each antecedent category, as well as the effects of specific variables within each, is discussed. Cengiz Yilmaz is an assistant professor of marketing at Gebze Institute of Technology, Turkey. He obtained his Ph.D. in marketing from Texas Tech University in 1999. His research interests focus on sales management, distribution channels and relationship marketing, and strategic issues concerning intra- and interfirm aspects in marketing systems and their links with business performance. His research has been published in various conference proceedings. Shelby D. Hunt is the J. B. Hoskins and P. W. Horn Professor of Marketing at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. A past editor of theJournal of Marketing (1985–1987), he is the author ofModern Marketing Theory: Critical Issues in the Philosophy of Marketing Science (South-Western, 1991) andA General Theory of Competition: Resources, Competences, Productivity, Economic Growth (Sage Publications, 2000). He has written numerous articles on competitive theory, macromarketing, ethics, channels of distribution, philosophy of science, and marketing theory. Three of hisJournal of Marketing articles, “The Nature and Scope of Marketing” (1976), “General Theories and Fundamental Explananda of Marketing” (1983), and “The Comparative Advantage Theory of Competition” (1995) (with Robert M. Morgan) won the Harold H. Maynard Award for the “best article on marketing theory.” His 1985Journal of Business Research article with Lawrence B. Chonko, “Ethics and Marketing Management,” received the 2000 Elsevier Science Exceptional Quality and High Scholarly Impact Award. His 1989 article, “Reification and Realism in Marketing: In Defense of Reason,” won theJournal of Macromarketing Charles C. Slater Award. For his contributions to theory and science in marketing, he received the 1986 Paul D. Converse Award from the American Marketing Association, the 1987 Outstanding Marketing Educator Award from the Academy of Marketing Science, and the 1992 American Marketing Association/Richard D. Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator Award.     

The liability of foreignness reconsidered: New insights from the alternative research context of transforming economies

Institutional theory has been increasingly used to decipher implications of the liability of being a foreign firm. Earlier studies have argued that multinational corporations bear social costs arising from lack of legitimacy and thus need to engage in isomorphism to increase their likelihood of survival. Drawing on insights gained from transforming economies, this study reconsiders the espoused relationships among legitimacy, local isomorphism, and overcoming the liability of foreignness. We argue that idiosyncrasies of transforming economies could engender (1) varying levels of need for gaining legitimacy of local constituents and (2) alternative ways other than local isomorphism for gaining legitimacy from local institutional actors.     

Capital accumulation and regulation

This paper sets up a dynamic model that analyzes a bank's capital decision and the impact of this decision on her default risk and lending that affects aggregate output in the economy under regulation. The model shows that even though capital regulation may reduce the default risk of the bank, it may lead to credit crunch, hence the ensuing decline in output in the real sector. Furthermore, it appears that the risk-based capital requirement changes the composition of both liability and asset of the bank's balance sheet.     

Moderation of an ideological party

It is a common fear in many countries that ideological parties will come to power through elections but will implement extreme policies. Many countries cope with this problem by overriding the election results when such parties are elected. We demonstrate that the alternative approach of containing these parties within the democratic system is more effective. We show that, as the probability of state's intervention in the next elections increases, an ideological party implements a more extreme policy in equilibrium. This hurts the median voter. Our main result shows that from the median voter's perspective, the optimal intervention scheme can be implemented by committing not to intervene and adjusting election times appropriately. That is, elections are a better incentive mechanism than the threat of a coup.