An investigation of problem-solving support and relaxation motivations on e-WOM

As a consequence of greater computer-mediated consumer-to-consumer communication within the firm's marketing communications, there has been a growing need to understand these digital interactions more explicitly. That is, we still know little about the exact extrinsic and intrinsic motivations that drive electronic word-of-mouth. The purpose of the paper is to better understand why members within community-based websites develop a need to exchange and/or develop a social bond within the community. Questionnaire data were gathered from 147 members of an online beauty forum in Australia. The findings highlight that those members seeking problem-solving support in combination with elements of relaxation will be more inclined to exchange with other community members and develop a social bond within that community. Marketing managers can capitalise these findings by strengthening problem-solving support systems and creating environments where community members can also relax and unwind to increase the exchange between members and also increase the social bonds within the community.     

Portfolio Selection and Optimization with Higher Moments: Evidence from the Indian Stock Market

The Markowitz portfolio optimization model, popularly known as the Mean-Variance model, assumes that stockreturns follow normal distribution. But when stock returns do not follow normal distribution, this model wouldbe inadequate as it would prescribe sub-optimal portfolios. Stock market literature often deliberates that stock returns are non-normal. In such context the Markowitz model would not be sufficient to estimate the portfolio risks. The purpose of this paper is to expand the original Markowitz portfolio theory (mean-variance) via adding the higher order moments like skewness (third moment about the mean) and kurtosis (fourth moment about the mean) in the return characteristics. The research paper investigates the impact of including higher moments using multi-objective programming model for portfolio stock selection and optimization. The empirical results indicate that the inclusion of higher moments had a considerable impact in estimating the returns behavior of portfolios. The portfolios optimized using all the four moments, generated higher returns for the given level of risk in comparison to the returns of the Markowitz model during the study period 2000–2011. The results of this study would be immensely useful to fund managers, portfolio managers and investors as it would help them in understanding the Indian stock market behavior better and also in selecting alternative portfolio selection models.     

Unveiling Contemporaneous Relations Between Jump Risk and Cross Section of Stock Returns

This study analyzes the impact of time varying jump risk on aggregate returns. We, in particular, examine the pricing of jump size and intensity components in the cross section of stock returns for four Asian markets. We use stochastic volatility model with jumps to estimate jump size and intensity. Fama–MacBeth regression results indicate that both jump size and intensity have statistically significant effect on expected returns. A one standard deviation increase in jump intensity beta lowers the expected annual returns by 1% for Japan, 2% for China, 5% for India, and 7% for South Korea. The results are consistent even after controlling for the Fama and French three factors, firm size, and liquidity proxies.     

Responsible cronyism in transition: understanding changing attitudes to business corruption in Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Existing research on corruption in Asian business has focused on issues of causation, manifestation and impact, but with little attention paid to how corrupt practices evolve over time. Despite two decades of empirical evidence of changing work values among Asian managers, we know little as to how, why and to what extent this affects their corollary attitudes and behaviours towards corruption. Focusing on ‘responsible’ cronyism – as indicative of pressures to adapt current crony practices – we pursue an interview-based investigation in the emerging economy of Myanmar. Findings uncovered significant heterogeneity in participant perspectives towards responsible cronyism, seen variously as a West-East hybrid progression, a reversion to traditional Burmese values and an instrumental negotiation tool. Implications for how we understand changing attitudes to corruption in Myanmar (and emerging Asia) for both theory and practice, along with future research directions are discussed.