An investigation of factors affecting the visits of online crowdsourcing and labor platforms

Nowadays, the economic activities have become increasingly digital since hundreds of millions of Internet users are using crowdsourcing platforms either to work at an online job as workers, or as a model of problem-solving and production as requesters. This growing workforce makes it necessary from the perspective of the online platforms, to fully understand the business dimensions of this emerging and innovative “online labor” phenomenon, which can rapidly change the future of work and work organization in the online world. This paper aims to investigate and analyze the visits of online labor platforms that offer crowdsourcing and crowdfunding services. Using websites’ metrics data drawn from Alexa for the time period 2012-2016 the paper uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Fixed Effects (FE) regression analysis to examine correlations between visits and website characteristics. The research shows that the sessions of an online labor marketplace website from mobile devices have an increasing trend to be positively correlated to the quality mechanisms a website deploys as well as on location-dependent factors. The results are expected to provide insights on how the online labor website characteristics affect their traffic and thus inform about their evolution and improvement.     

Value at risk models for volatile emerging markets equity portfolios

This paper investigates the issue of market risk quantification for emerging and developed market equity portfolios. A very wide spectrum of popular and widely used in practice Value at Risk (VaR) models are evaluated and compared with Extreme Value Theory (EVT) and adaptive filtered models, during normal, crises, and post-crises periods. The results are interesting and indicate that despite the documented differences between emerging and developed markets, the most successful VaR models are common for both asset classes. Furthermore, in the case of the (fatter tailed) emerging market equity portfolios, most VaR models turn out to yield conservative risk forecasts, in contrast to developed market equity portfolios, where most models underestimate the realized VaR. VaR estimation during periods of financial turmoil seems to be a difficult task, particularly in the case of emerging markets and especially for the higher loss quantiles. VaR models seem to be affected less by crises periods in the case of developed markets. The performance of the parametric (non-parametric) VaR models improves (deteriorates) during post-crises periods due to the inclusion of extreme events in the estimation sample.     

Seasonality patterns in dry bulk shipping spot and time charter freight rates

This paper investigates the nature of seasonality (deterministic and/or stochastic) in dry bulk freight rates, and measures and compares it across freight rates of different vessel sizes (Capesize, Panamax and Handysize), contract duration (spot, 1-year and 3-year time charters) and market conditions (peaks and troughs). Although, there is no evidence of stochastic seasonality, deterministic seasonality in freight rates is found to be varying from −18.2% to 15.3% in individual months within a year. Spot rates for larger vessels exhibit higher seasonal fluctuations compared to smaller vessels, although differences in seasonal fluctuations between sectors are eliminated as the contract duration increases. Also, for each vessel size, the seasonality declines as the contract duration rises. Asymmetries in seasonal fluctuations in freight rates over different market conditions are attributed to the high and low elasticities of supply expected under the respective market conditions. The results have implications for tactical shipping operations such as timing of dry-docking, chartering strategies and switching between freight markets.     

Predicting European Takeover Targets

This article extends the Palepu (1986) acquisition likelihood model by incorporating measures of a technical nature, e.g. momentum, trading volume as well as a measure of market sentiment. We use the proposed model to predict takeover targets in a large sample of European and cross‐border merger and acquisition deals and validate its performance on an in‐ and out‐of‐sample basis. The robustness of the proposed model is investigated across several dimensions. In addition we explore the ability of the model to form the basis of successful takeover timing investment strategies. The results of our empirical analysis suggest that the proposed model predicts European takeover targets with relatively high accuracy and is able to determine portfolios that earn significant returns which are not explained by conventional risk factors.     

Hedging against bunker price fluctuations using petroleum futures contracts: constant versus time-varying hedge ratios

The effectiveness of hedging marine bunker price fluctuations in Rotterdam, Singapore and Houston is examined using different crude oil and petroleum future contracts traded at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London. Using both constant and dynamic hedge ratios, it is found that in and out-of-sample hedging effectiveness is different across regional bunker markets. The most effective futures instruments for out of sample hedging of spot bunker prices in Rotterdam and Singapore are the IPE crude oil futures, while for Houston it is the gas oil futures. Differences in hedging effectiveness across regional markets are attributed to the varying regional supply and demand factors in each market. In comparison to other markets, the cross-market hedging effectiveness investigated in the bunker market is low.     

Construal-level mind-sets and the perceived validity of marketing claims

Prior research shows that the repetition of unfamiliar statements increases their subjective truthfulness. The present research shows that truth ratings can also be increased without repetition. Several different manipulations of low-construal-level mind-sets increased the perceived validity of a wide variety of marketing claims across a broad spectrum of products and industries. Mismatched construals reduced this effect. The results suggest that concrete construals enhance truth ratings when consumers focus on their intuitive feelings and impressions but not when they process marketing claims analytically.     

Seasonality patterns in tanker spot freight rate markets

The aim of this paper is to investigate the existence and nature of seasonality (deterministic or stochastic) in tanker freight markets and measure and compare it across sub-sectors and under different market conditions (expansionary and contractionary) for the period January 1978 to December 1996. The existence of stochastic seasonality is rejected for all freight series while results on deterministic seasonality indicate increases in rates in November and December and decreases in rates from January to April. Seasonality is found to be varying across markets depending on vessel size and market condition. Seasonality comparisons under different market conditions, an issue investigated for the first time in the econometrics literature using Markov Switching models, reveal that seasonal rate movements are more pronounced when the market is recovering compared to smaller changes when the market is falling. This is well in line with the low and high elasticity of supply expected in expansionary and contractionary periods of shipping markets. The results have implications for tactical shipping operations such as budget planning, timing of dry-docking, vessel speed adjustments and repositioning. As expected, the out-of-sample forecasting performance of these Markov Regime Switching models is lacking somewhat, a result which is thought to be a consequence of having to predict ‘states’ simultaneously with mean values.     

A model of trust and compliance in franchise relationships

Despite the danger of franchisee non-compliance as a severe impediment to overall franchise operation and performance, there is currently minimal understanding of the key factors that lead to these behaviors. Using a foundation of relational exchange theory, we construct and test a model that demonstrates how two distinct forms of trust, based upon perceptions of franchisor integrity and franchisor competence, are critical to explaining the roles that relational conflict and satisfaction play in influencing franchisee compliance. Implications of these findings are then demonstrated to have compelling relevance to the effective management of franchise systems.     

Toward Understanding Persuasion Expressions: The Activation of Attitudes

In response to sales representatives’ closing expressions, consumers’ stored attitudes are activated spontaneously from memory and influence product evaluations. Studies 1a and 1b examined the levels of favorability associated with several persuasive expressions. Study 2 then examined whether a sales representative's use of a more (Authority) or a less (Scarcity) favorable persuasive expression would affect consumers’ subsequent product and advertisement evaluations. The expressions were found to work differently depending upon two moderator variables: Need for Cognition and argument quality. The effect of Scarcity heightened subsequent product evaluation as Need for Cognition decreased, whereas the effect of Authority heightened subsequent product evaluation as Need for Cognition increased. The Scarcity statement did not affect product evaluations given strong or weak message claims in the advertisement, whereas the Authority statement produced more favorable product evaluations given strong versus weak messages claims. Cognitive response analyses and mediation patterns also indicated that the two persuasive expressions were distinct based upon individuals’ Need for Cognition. Implications for both sales representatives and consumers are drawn from these findings.