Kill a brand, keep a customer

Most brands don't make much money. Year after year, businesses generate 80% to 90% of their profits from less than 20% of their brands. Yet most companies tend to ignore loss-making brands, unaware of the hidden costs they incur. That's because executives believe it's easy to erase a brand; they have only to stop investing in it, they assume, and it will die a natural death. But they're wrong. When companies drop brands clumsily, they antagonize loyal customers: Research shows that seven times out of eight, when firms merge two brands, the market share of the new brand never reaches the combined share of the two original ones. It doesn't have to be that way. Smart companies use a four-step process to kill brands methodically. First, CEOs make the case for rationalization by getting groups of senior executives to conduct joint audits of the brand portfolio. These audits make the need to prune brands apparent throughout the organization. In the next stage, executives need to decide how many brands will be retained, which they do either by setting broad parameters that all brands must meet or by identifying the brands they need in order to cater to all the customer segments in their markets. Third, executives must dispose of the brands they've decided to drop, deciding in each case whether it is appropriate to merge, sell, milk, or just eliminate the brand outright. Finally, it's critical that executives invest the resources they've freed to grow the brands they've retained. Done right, dropping brands will result in a company poised for new growth from the source where it's likely to be found--its profitable brands.     

Leveraging a call-put ratio as a trading signal

We examine whether a put-call ratio, derived from a unique set of market data, can be used to predict directional moves in asset prices during various market conditions between March 2005 and December 2012. Our findings show: (1) specific market participant's options trading volume is a predecessor to asset price movements, and (2) portfolios based on the put-call ratio adjusted for four factors Carhart model and transaction costs exhibit abnormal excess returns.     

Preparing a research proposal for a student research dissertation: a pedagogic note

When students are required to engage in research of one kind or another and to produce dissertations – whether as a substantial component of a research degree or as a lesser component in a taught degree – the research proposal is a crucial pedagogic mechanism. But whilst textbooks give guidance on the preparation of such a proposal they rarely provide an illustration of what a proposal might look like. This short note attempts to overcome this lack. It provides a fictitious proposal of a fictitious project in a form that may well be required of accounting and finance students. The note also provides some discussion about the process of construction of the proposal and then undertakes a brief auto-critique of the proposal itself. The note is intended, principally, to be used with students to help them in the construction of their own research proposals.     

Making a Drama Out of a Crisis a Dramaturgical Perspective on the New Technology Controversy

The introduction of new technology often leads to strong public concerns about potential hazards. There are situations where unfounded concerns obstruct highly beneficial developments, but, equally, there are situations where unintended consequences of new technology are overlooked and individuals are harmed. Clearly there are advantages in improving the dialogue between those introducing the technology and those who could be affected by it.

This article uses dramaturgical analysis to explore the interactions between actors in a real life case study, the introduction of a hydrogen refuelling facility in London. Dramaturgical analysis in the traditions of Burke and Goffman explores interactions from the perspective of impression management. The thesis is that the fronts that actors use must relate to the settings they find themselves in, and this matching of front with setting constrains what can credibly be communicated in any situation. This research provides insights into the differences between the front necessary for credibility within an organisation and the fronts necessary for credibility in communicating with the public. It demonstrates how communication can be blocked by the situations actors find themselves in and conflict can emerge as a substitute for effective communication.     

客户转账时填错卡号的法律责任分析

本文从案例分析入手,剖析了填错卡号错汇款项纠纷案件的法律风险及各方当事人应承担的法律责任,认为不当得利第三人对汇错款项既无财产所有权又无存款债权,无权要求汇入行偿还不当得利,汇入行根据汇款人申请办理退汇手续,完全符合法律规定,法院对本汇兑纠纷案件的审理出现认定事实和适用法律错误。作者探讨了错误汇款法律救济的有关途径,阐述了此类案件对国家、社会、银行、公民等多元主体的法治启示,特别在当代银行业实现数字化、信息化并与国际接轨的背景下,本案例的探讨对依法维护汇款人、银行、收款人的合法利益具有积极的现实意义。     

Naturoids: From a dream to a paradox

The human ambition to reproduce natural objects and processes has a long history, and ranges from pure dreams to actual design: from Icarus's wings to modern-day robotics and bioengineering. The concept of naturoid has been introduced in the last decade or so, for referring to man's attempts to reproduce natural phenomena. The development of naturoids may be viewed as a special class of technological activity, distinct from the general class of technology. The concept of naturoid should be useful for methodological research aimed at finding possible common rules, potentialities and constraints characterizing the human effort to reproduce natural objects.Tacitly, many designers think that the continuing improvement of a naturoid consists in its ever-growing overlap with the natural instance, and that the holy grail, as it were, is the complete reconstruction of a natural object of process, from its external appearance to its inner workings. This paper tries to show that a naturoid is always the result of a reduction of the complexity of natural objects, due to an unavoidable multiple selection strategy. Nevertheless, the reproduction process implies that naturoids take on their own new complexity, resulting in a transfiguration of the natural exemplars and their performances, leading to a true innovation explosion. As a matter of fact, the core performances of contemporary naturoids improve, but, paradoxically, the more a naturoid develops, the further away it moves from its natural counterpart. Therefore, naturoids will more and more affect our relationships with advanced technologies and with nature, but in ways quite beyond our predictive capabilities.     

两起网上银行服务纠纷判例及其启示

基本案情案例一:2005年5月,杨某在北京某银行开立个人银行结算账户存折及借记卡,并设置个人密码。同日,杨某申请银行开通了该借记卡的网上银行对外转账功能,并签署《网上银行使用协议书》,其中约定:“用户必须妥善保管本人网上银行登     

Role of monetary policy in a New Keynesian economy: a note from a laboratory experiment

This paper discusses an experimental study on the role of monetary policy within a New Keynesian macroeconomic framework. The novelty of this article is that each subject was asked to forecast both the inflation rate and output gap at the same time one period ahead, which is an improvement over the existing literature. We find that if both the expected inflation rate and expected output gap is incorporated in the monetary policy rule then inflation can be anchored and stabilized more efficiently.     

扎实工作热情服务做好注册会计师后续教育培训工作

一、具体做法 (一)制定培训规划,明确培训目标,完善培训制度 我们根据全省注册会计师行业发展情况和经济建设的需要,先后制定了《山东省注册会计师事业发展"九五"计划和2010年远景规划》(以下简称《规划》)、《山东省注册会计师后续教育培训规定》、《山东省注册会计师后续教育培训工作管理办法》、《山东省注册会计师后续教育培训工作奖励办法》、《山东省注册会计师后续教育培训兼职教师管理办法》,明确了我省今后一个较长时期内注册会计师培训工作的目标,并对培训工作的组织和管理做出了具体规定和要求,如奖励办法中规定,凡获得后续教育培训工作先进单位的事务所,按获奖单位上缴团体会费的5%,另加500元人民币进行奖励.     

The idea of a collaborative competition - a case study

This paper examines the idea of an online collaborative competition for solutions to environmental and social problems. It asks three basic questions: What is a collaborative competition? In what sense are collaborative competitions collaborative? And in view of the social and environmental goals of the competitions, are they a contribution to sustainability practice? Prepared by a conceptual analysis, partly drawing on the arguments for extended peer review in post-normal science, and based on the in-depth analysis of one collaborative competition, it is argued that the idea of a collaborative competition is innovative and suggestive; however, in practice there is only weak evidence for collaboration - the competitive element clearly prevails. The innovation, in practice, is a new way of making visible and thereby promoting social and environmental ideas. There is some evidence for collaborative spirit, but there is only limited evidence that arguments for extended peer review apply. The design of the online collaborative competition might not promote collaboration as well as it could. Therefore, the paper ends with a discussion of possibilities for changing the design of the competition.     

Pricing a Heterogeneous Portfolio Based on a Demand Function

Abstract

Consider a portfolio containing number of risk classes. Each class has its own demand function, which determines the number of insureds in this class as a function of the premium. The insurer determines the premiums based on the number of insureds in each class. The “market” reacts by updating the number of the policyholders, then the insurer updates the premium, and so on. We show that this process has an equilibrium point, and then we characterize this point.     

On a class of loans with a systematic amortisation schedule

Abstract

In this paper we show that a single set of formulas will characterise a wide range of standard loans. This makes it possible to describe these loans in a compact manner and facilitates the design of computer programs calculating their characteristics. The characterisation includes the entire amortisation schedule before and after tax and the duration and convexity measures.     

Developing a health care strategy: a results-based approach

In today's corporate environment, health care managers will be evaluated on performance--and forward-thinking companies are already quantifying their health care success. How this performance is defined and measured will differ from company to company, but shaping the definition and aligning it with the overall business strategy ensures success.     

Valuation of a Developmental Drug as a Real Option

Valuing a capital investment as a real option (or series of options) has advantages over standard DCF valuation when the investment creates the future flexibility to delay, abandon, or expand an element of the project based on the resolution of a major source of uncertainty. The uncertainty is generally dealt with using a “volatility” term that aims to reflect the variability in the future value of the underlying asset. But there are certain situations in which the uncertainty has a second dimension. For example, drugs in development can be abandoned either because of bad technical outcomes (the drug doesn't work) or unfavorable resolutions of market risk (though the drug works, its market potential turns out to be too limited). In an article published earlier in this journal, the authors illustrated the valuation of an early‐stage pharma R&D investment using a real options approach in which the market and technical risks were folded together into the volatility parameter. In this article, the authors explain why they have concluded that this is an incorrect approach and then show how to handle market and technical risk as two separate dimensions of risk in valuing an R&D program. The potential use of this technique extends beyond pharma and biotech R&D to any situation in which the outcome of an important uncertainty is independent of the resolution of market risk associated with the underlying asset.     

Transforming a conservative company--one laugh at a time.

You wouldn't think of Brady Corporation as an obvious place in which to find a fun culture. This traditional Midwestern company, a manufacturer of industrial signs and other identification products, didn't even allow employees to have coffee at their desks until 1989. But when Katherine Hudson became CEO in 1994, she and her executive team determined that injecting some fun into the company's serious culture could create positive effects within the organization and contribute to increased performance and sales. In this article, Hudson distills her approach to overhauling Brady's culture into six principles of serious fun: More people than you might think are comfortable having fun at work; used with an awareness of cultural sensitivities, fun and laughter really are well-understood international languages; humor can help companies get through tough times; fun can be embodied in formal programs; spontaneous efforts at humor can also be effective; and encouraging fun should begin at the top. She richly illustrates each principle with examples. At Brady, getting people to loosen up and enjoy themselves has fostered a company esprit de corps and greater team camaraderie. It has started conversations that have sparked innovation, helped to memorably convey corporate messages to employees, and increased productivity by reducing stress, among other benefits. And the company has doubled its sales and almost tripled its net income and market capitalization over the past seven years. Brady's experience suggests that promoting fun within the workplace can lead not only to a robust corporate culture but also to improved business performance.