Does ownership of an end-of-life product affect design for environment?

Circulative use of resources is a crucial concept for a modern capitalist economy. Faced with peaking-out of material resources and shortage of landfill capacity in the long run, human beings are required to promote efficient reuse and recycling of end-of-life products (ELPs). One of the methods to advance efficient reuse and recycling is rental or lease of products. Product service is also a similar idea. All these imply, in some sense, a change of ownership of a product and an ELP; ownership of an ELP as well as a product belongs to producers instead of households. It is often said that such a change of ownership promotes design for environment (DfE) or eco-design, contributing to circulative use of resources. This paper examines whether ownership of an ELP affects DfE by means of à la Sraffian type of equilibrium model. I show that there are two routes to DfE, namely via a reduction of the amount of an ELP and enhancement of quality of a secondary material. I also show that DfE effects do not appear under certain conditions, even if the ownership of an ELP is transferred to producers.     

Does globalisation affect the shadow economy?

We investigate the impact of globalisation on the shadow economy using panel data for 119 countries. Our evidence suggests that globalisation matters in mitigating shadow development. More specifically, we find that political globalisation reduces the shadow economy, whereas economic and social globalisations have limited statistical support after controlling for important factors that affect the size of the shadow economy. Overall, these results are robust after accounting for an alternative measure of the shadow economy, outliers, endogeneity and alternative model specifications.     

Does transparency influence the ethical behavior of salespeople?

This study introduces the concept of perceived salesperson transparency to the sales literature. It addresses how recent technological developments impact traditional agency theory concerns, while simultaneously creating a conceptual definition of perceived transparency for application on an individual level. Salesperson perceptions regarding managerial use of behavioral information obtained through technological means are empirically found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between managerial access to such information and the likelihood of unethical salesperson behavior. It concludes that salesperson ethical behavior is not influenced by management's ability to obtain behaviorally relevant information, but rather by the use of this information. Further, it is found that the mediating influence of use of information accessed via technology is itself moderated by the salesperson's job performance.     

Does bank efficiency affect the bank lending channel in China?

This work examines the impact of bank efficiency on the bank lending channel in China. Using a sample of 148 Chinese banks over the period 2006–2017, we investigate how the reaction of the loan supply to monetary policy actions depends on a bank's efficiency. We find limited evidence that bank efficiency hampers the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission. In addition, bank efficiency does favor the transmission of monetary policy for banks with low loan-to-deposit ratios. These results suggest that bank efficiency may influence the bank lending channel in certain cases.     

Does trade size restriction affect trading behavior? Evidence from Indian single stock futures market

Algorithmic traders use their advantage of speed to execute a large number of small-sized trades in a very short time. In the presence of a minimum trading unit (MTU) restriction, they are forced to trade at the smallest possible sizes, often restricted by the MTU. Using a novel data set of single stock futures market obtained from the National Stock Exchange of India, we show that the MTU restriction acts as a binding constraint for traders while optimizing trade sizes. Contrary to expectation, we find weak evidence that liquidity is positively impacted by the contract size revision.     

Does service intangibility affect entrepreneurial orientation?

Service firms face a unique set of challenges in their internationalization and foreign market growth. Their services' characteristics, particularly intangibility, constrain the options available to them for growth. When such firms are services International New Ventures (INVs), their challenges are combined with those related to rapid internationalization and growth. This research investigates how service intangibility and the typical challenges of INVs relate to the firms' Entrepreneurial Orientation and their foreign market growth. The findings show that indeed service intangibility has a relationship with firm proactiveness, risk-taking, and innovativeness; and that not all elements of Entrepreneurial Orientation have a positive impact on growth.     

Does governing law affect bond spreads?

Controlling for bond and issuer characteristics, bond spreads are expected to be equal across different legal jurisdictions, and differences are expected to disappear through arbitrage. However, an analysis of 490 U.S. dollar–denominated bonds issued by 53 emerging market sovereigns during 1990–2015 reveals that after the financial crisis of 2008, launch spreads of sovereign bonds issued under U.K. law have been higher than those issued under U.S. law, by 130 basis points for BB+ bonds and 175 basis points for B− bonds. This effect was not significant for investment grade bonds. On average, bonds issued under U.K. law had weaker ratings and shorter tenors post-crisis. The post-crisis impact of governing law on sovereign bond spreads is not explained by collective action clauses, or first-time bond issuances. Instead, the difference seems to be related to the perception that U.S. law offers stronger investor protection, and that the investor base for bonds issued under U.S. law is larger than that for bonds issued under U.K. law. The difference in spreads persists in the secondary market even after 180 days, perhaps because of the lack of liquidity, as investors tend to buy and hold these more attractive bonds on a longer-term basis.     

Does corporate hedging affect firm valuation? Evidence from the IPO market

Focusing on the IPO market, we examine the influence of corporate hedging on firm valuation. Consistent with the argument that hedging reduces information asymmetry, we find that hedging IPO firms are associated with lower price revisions and underwriting fees. More important, hedging reduces IPO underpricing, especially for informationally opaque firms. This provides strong evidence that corporate hedging increases firm valuation. We also show that corporate hedging lowers aftermarket idiosyncratic volatility, enhances aftermarket liquidity, and improves the long-term performance of IPO firms. We use both an instrumental variable approach and a regulation change on derivatives supply to address endogeneity concerns.     

Does the inflation rate affect the performance of the stock market? The case of Egypt

The intention of this paper is to examine the impact of the inflation rate on the performance of the Egyptian stock market. Particular attention is paid to the effects of the rate of inflation on various stock market performance variables, in terms of market activity and market liquidity. From the co-integration analysis through error correction mechanisms (ECM), significant long-run and short-run relationships between the variables are found, implying that the inflation rate has had an impact upon the Egyptian stock market performance generally.     

Does the Euro affect the dynamic relation between stock market liquidity and the business cycle?

Does Eurozone equity market liquidity affect economic growth? If so, how does the Euro currency affect the dynamic relationship between growth and stock market liquidity (macro-liquidity relation) of the Eurozone? We address these questions using data from ten Eurozone countries and the UK. The findings document the predictability role of liquidity proxies on economic growth, suggesting that stock market liquidity influences economic growth. The results reveal that liquidity increases substantially after a structural break realized around the Euro's introduction in Europe, and in all countries except Portugal we find that liquidity improvement coincides with higher growth. During periods of high exchange-rate volatility between currencies (which tend to be periods of high uncertainty and economic convergence), growth becomes highly affected by stock market liquidity movements.     

Longing for the past and embracing the new: Does nostalgia increase new product adoption?

Existing research has mostly focused on the salutary impact of nostalgia on nostalgia-related products (e.g., childhood products, classic brands). The current research examines whether this effect can extend to nostalgia-unrelated products: new products. We demonstrate that nostalgia fosters social support, which in turn encourages consumers to adopt new products, and this effect is weakened when individuals have independent self-construal. Three studies provide support for these predictions. Study 1 revealed that nostalgia increases new product adoption. Study 2 demonstrated that this positive effect of nostalgia on new product adoption is mediated by social support. Study 3 showed that this salutary effect occurs only when consumers’ interdependent self is activated. The marketing implications of these findings are discussed.

     

Does new product growth accelerate across technology generations?

The academic literature on the growth acceleration of new products presents a paradox. On the one hand, the diffusion literature concludes that more recently introduced products show faster diffusion than older ones. On the other hand, technology generation literature argues that growth rate, at least as measured by diffusion parameters, remains constant across generations. We resolve this apparent paradox by testing whether growth acceleration occurs across technology generations while controlling for the passing of time. We check acceleration across 39 distinct technology generations in 12 product markets. The results show that intergeneration acceleration occurs in time to takeoff but not with respect to diffusion parameters (i.e., p and q). We show that takeoff acceleration is mostly driven by technology vintage (i.e., the passage of time) rather than generational shifts. Thus, time is a factor that accelerates early growth, but generational shifts do not. This result also holds when controlling for the effects of market vintage when the market is either business-to-business or business-to-consumer as well as when the technology is process- or product-based.     

Sad but smiling? How the combination of happy victim images and sad message appeals increase prosocial behavior

Marketing Letters - The present research examines how a combination of a happy (vs. sad) victim image and a strong sad message appeal can promote prosocial behavior. The underlying reason is that...     

Does the decision to issue public debt affect firm valuation? Russian evidence

This paper examines the association between firm valuation and the sources of debt financing. In particular, using a sample of 353 firms, we test whether the decision to issue bonds affects the firm's stock market performance in the emerging Russian markets. Our results indicate that public debt financing may have a negative effect on the firm's market valuation. After controlling for the differences in firm-specific characteristics and addressing potential endogeneity issues, we document that the firms which rely on public debt underperform relative to firms with other sources of debt financing in terms of stock market valuation.     

Dysfunctional executive behavior: What can organizations do?

Much has been made of dysfunctional executive behavior in recent years. As such, the purpose of this article is to assist organizations in the design of executive work. To better construct a work environment that diminishes self-serving and unethical behavior, we propose that organizations structure an executive's work around three factors: the accountability environment, managerial discretion, and relationship composition. These factors are used to describe how organizations can better design executives’ work so as to promote more desirable executive behavior. We describe how these factors should be calibrated, as well as how they affect each other.     

How can the word “NEW” evoke consumers' experiences of novelty and interest?

This paper examines the role advertising cues play in inducing subjective perceptions of product novelty and how they can evoke consumer interest toward an advertisement. Specifically, it uses behavioral and psychophysiological measures to: (1) investigate the effect of novelty cues on consumers’ subjective appraisal of novelty; (2) demonstrate that novelty cues may evoke the emotion of interest; and (3) differentiate the effect of the emotion of interest on liking and arousal. Across two experimental studies, we demonstrated that simply adding the word “new” in an advertisement increases behavioral (i.e., viewing duration) and psychophysiological responses (i.e., cardiac activity) of interest. However, the word “new” did not evoke liking and arousal. This suggests that novelty cues in an advertisement will make the consumers perceive the product to be novel and further evoke consumer interest.     

Does economic globalisation affect income inequality? A meta-analysis

A large volume of econometric literature has studied the impact of economic globalisation on income inequality around the world. However, reported econometric estimates vary substantially, which makes it difficult to draw valid conclusions. This paper presents a quantitative summary and analysis of existing estimates regarding the globalisation–inequality relationship. We use a new data set consisting of 1,254 observations from 123 primary studies. By applying meta-analysis and meta-regression methods, we obtain several main findings. First, globalisation has a (small-to-moderate) inequality-increasing effect. Second, while the effect of trade globalisation is small, financial globalisation shows a more sizeable and significantly stronger inequality-increasing impact. Third, we find an average inequality-increasing impact of globalisation in both advanced and developing countries. Fourth, education and technology moderate the impact of globalisation on income inequality.     

Does health reform affect self-employment? Evidence from Massachusetts

This paper evaluates whether the implementation of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law affected the decision of taxpayers to be self-employed, using both difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods on a panel of tax returns that spans 1999–2010. Though tenuous, our results suggest that the reform led to a decline in the rate of taxpayers earning a majority of income from self-employment. In addition, it appears to have had a positive impact on earning some self-employment income among joint filers and earning the majority of income from self-employment among older taxpayers, but these were offset by negative impacts on single filers and taxpayers age 35–49.     

Does the world real interest rate affect the real exchange rate? The South East Asian experience

Abstract

We analyze the consequences of US real interest rate rises on the real exchange rate (RER) in a two-good overlapping generations model of a semi-small open economy. The equilibrium RER depreciates (appreciates) when the world interest rate increases in a debtor (creditor) country. We then study empirically the reaction of the RER in a set of South East Asian (SEA) countries to shocks in US real interest rates. The results support the conclusions of the theory model at least for Singapore, Thailand and South Korea during the period 1980 – 2001. This points towards world interest rate shocks as possible trigger factors for exchange rate crises during the adjustment process towards the new equilibrium.     

Social interaction via new social media: (How) can interactions on Twitter affect effectual thinking and behavior?

Social interaction plays a central role in effectuation processes, yet we know little about the implications for effectuation when an entrepreneur interacts via particular channels such as social media. To address this gap, our paper uses an inductive, theory-building methodology to develop propositions regarding how effectuation processes are impacted when entrepreneurs adopt Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging platform that can facilitate a marked increase in interaction. We posit that Twitter-based interaction can trigger effectual cognitions, but that high levels of interaction via this medium can lead to effectual churn. We also posit that there is one factor, perceived time affordability, that predicts the level of social interaction in which an entrepreneur engages via Twitter. Further, we propose two factors that moderate the consequences of social interaction through Twitter. These factors are community orientation and community norm adherence. Implications for our understanding of effectuation, of social interaction, and of the impact of social media on entrepreneurial firms are discussed.