The dynamic relationship between stock,bond and foreign exchange markets

This paper investigates whether the deviation of a currency from its fundamentally determined rate of return affects the relationship between interest rates and stock market yields. A time-varying transition probability, the Markov-switching vector autoregressive (MS-VAR) model, is utilized for this purpose. Wald and likelihood ratio tests are computed and used as model adequacy measures. In order to analyze the link between the variables, impulse–response functions are employed. A sticky price exchange rate model is used to show the fundamentally determined rate of return of currencies. States are defined as either overvalued or undervalued, depending on the position of the observed exchange rate compared to its fundamentally determined rate. The model is applied to four major currencies: the Australian Dollar, the Canadian Dollar, the Japanese Yen, and the British Pound. Transition between the states is linked to the risk-adjusted excess return (the Sharpe ratio) of the debt and equity markets of the respective currencies in order to understand whether over- and undervaluation is connected to the returns in these markets. The results provide evidence that the relationship between economic fundamentals and nominal exchange rates are subject to change depending on the over- or undervaluation of the currencies relative to their fundamentally determined rate of return. An extension of this result shows that the Sharpe ratios of debt and equity investments in the currencies influence the evolution of the transitional dynamics of the exchange rates’ deviation from their fundamental values.     

A weekly diary study on the buffering role of social support in the relationship between job insecurity and employee performance

In this article, the authors used a within‐person design to examine the relationship between job insecurity and employee in‐role and extra‐role performance, and the buffering role of time‐varying work‐based support (i.e., supervisor and colleague support) in this relationship. Weekly diary data gathered over the course of three weeks from 56 employees confronted with organizational restructuring and analyzed with a hierarchical linear modeling approach showed that weekly fluctuations in job insecurity negatively predicted week‐level in‐role performance. As predicted, supervisor support moderated the intra‐individual relationship between job insecurity and in‐role performance, so that employees' in‐role performance suffered less from feeling job insecurity during weeks in which they received more support from their supervisor. No relationship between job insecurity and extra‐role performance was observed. This within‐person study contributes to research on job insecurity that has primarily focused on inter‐individual differences in job insecurity and their associations with job performance. Theoretical and practical implications for human resource management are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Perceived insecurity in the public space: personal,social and environmental variables

Perceived insecurity in the public space: Personal, social and environmental variables. This paper explores perception of insecurity among the users of Barcelona’s public space. It describes the results of a research aimed to determine the key variables for the understanding of subjective insecurity. Structural equation models have been applied for this purpose. Results show low relative indices of causality for environmental variables, whereas those related to space representation, residential satisfaction and urban identity, social support and personal competences offer high predictive potential. It is concluded that insecurity perceptions in the public space are therefore strongly linked to social interaction processes and to the social construction of insecurity. Other results, like the influence of gender or age, are consistent with previous findings.     

Budgeting for research and development: a dynamic financial simulation approach

The research and development (R&D) budgeting decision is crucial for at least two reasons: if too much is spent, short-term financial stability is at risk, while, if the budget is too small, long-term competitiveness is threatened. Nevertheless, many enterprises simply extrapolate the past without further reflection.This paper presents a computer-based dynamic stochastic simulation model that allows one to assess the impact of alternative R&D budgeting policies on corporate development. The core decisions to be evaluated concern timing and funding of investments in R&D. Our approach substantially expands earlier work by Brockhoff (R&D Manage. 19 (1989) 265). In particular, it distinguishes between product and process innovation, considers market dynamics related to technical progress via a modifiable S-curve, integrates marketing, and takes into account essential financial aspects. As a result, our model is closer to reality than previous ones. A sample application with real company data illustrates its potential usage.     

The dimension,nature and distribution of economic insecurity in European countries: A multidimensional approach

Economic insecurity is a key well-being outcome because the anticipation of future economic distress reveals itself as a true threat to current well-being. Insecurity has been shown to affect quality of life and to change an individual’s consumption, fertility, labor supply and even political support decisions to mitigate risk. This paper provides evidence on the dimension, nature and distribution of economic insecurity for 27 European countries during a whole decade by using a multidimensional individual approach that considers both objective and subjective indicators. The young, the less educated and the unemployed living in households with dependent children have significantly higher levels of economic insecurity everywhere. However, insecurity affects the population in the middle class only in some countries but not in others, and the level of insecurity in liberal regimes is more linked to large income losses than elsewhere. The role of objective versus subjective dimensions is larger in post-transition Eastern European regimes than in long-standing capitalist countries.     

The relationship between social norm consensus,perceived similarity,and observer reactions to coworker theft

This research examines observers' reactions to coworker theft in a restaurant chain. This study focuses on the role of social information, such as the social norm consensus regarding the specific type of theft behavior, and on the perceived similarity between the observer and the perpetrator. In general, observers are less likely to label coworkers' behavior as theft when social norm consensus is low and when they perceive the perpetrator as similar to themselves. Also, observers are less likely to report and more likely to imitate the theft behavior of similar coworkers as the amount of consensus regarding the type of theft decreases. Analyses indicate that the relationship between similarity, reporting, and imitation of theft behavior is not mediated by the labeling of an event as theft. Implications for employee theft research and human resource management practice are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

我国区域经济社会发展的动力机制与图景展望

我国区域经济社会发展是以生态支撑力和民生保障力为依托,围绕产业结构调整和转变经济发展方式两大主轴,以投资驱动力、区际联动力、消费拉动力和文化资本力为动力的动态反馈调整系统,呈现出“美丽中国”、幸福中国和特色中国三大图景,以实现十八大报告中提出的到2020年“区域协调发展机制基本形成”的目标。     

The relationship between economic development and business ownership revisited

This paper revisits the two-equation model of Carree, van Stel, Thurik and Wennekers (2002) where deviations from the ‘equilibrium’ rate of business ownership play a central role in determining both the growth of business ownership and that of economic development. Two extensions of the original set-up are addressed: using longer time series of averaged data of 23 OECD countries (up to 2004) we can discriminate between different functional forms of the ‘equilibrium’ rate and we allow for different penalties for being above or under the ‘equilibrium’ rate. The additional data do not provide evidence of a superior statistical fit of a U-shaped ‘equilibrium’ relationship when compared to an L-shaped one. There appears to be a growth penalty for having too few business owners but not for having too many.     

The relationship between private investors and small firms: an agency theory approach

Many small firms in Sweden are characterized by a lack of equity capital. For several years measures to increase the equity capital have been discussed. In this discussion the private investors' market has received virtually no attention. This study presents some preliminary results of the private investors in Sweden.

The research in small firms financing is characterized by a lack of theoretical framework. One basic assumption in the study is that agency theory can provide an essential framework to explain the interaction between the private investor and entrepreneur. Twenty-five hypotheses generated from agency theory are formulated and tested on 62 small unlisted firms in Sweden. Multiple regression analysis is used for the causal analyses.

The empirical results in the study show inter alia that the geographic distance and the private investor's knowledge about the portfolio firm's transformation process seem to be the most influential factors for determining the private investor's involvement in the portfolio firms. It is also interesting to notice that none of the variables, frequency of contacts and the private investor's operational work in the portfolio firm affect the performance of the firm. Contrary to conventional wisdom, private investors do not add value to their portfolio firms through their interaction with the entrepreneurs.

The theoretical conclusion is that agency theory does not provide any satisfactory framework to explain the private investor - entrepreneur relationship. Some of the basic assumptions in agency theory seem to be invalid. A model for the relationship between private investors and entrepreneurs is developed in which four interaction strategies are identified. The model gives implications on two levels: the portfolio level and the individual case level.     

Financial development,portfolio investments and the real economy in Africa

According to the conservative view, capital flows enhance economic growth. Focussing on Africa’s real economy, this study investigates the linkage between portfolio investments and real sector growth, and whether financial sector development strengthens this association. The study covers 30 countries over the period 1990–2017. We adopt the Lewbel instrumental variable general method of moments (IV-GMM) two-step robust estimator, which relies on heteroscedasticity for identification, while dealing with instrument insufficiency, unavailability, endogeneity and omitted variable bias. We found that portfolio equity has no growth impact on Africa’s real sector. Debt flows deter the growth of the overall real sector as well as the manufacturing and industrial sectors, but have no impact on agriculture and service growth. We found that financial development does strengthen the positive association between capital flows and economic growth, but this is dependent on the type of sector and portfolio investment, as well as on the degree of financial development. We control for known determinants of economic growth.     

The relationship between quality management and new product development: evidence from China

Research suggests that organizations involved in new product development (NPD) can adopt quality management (QM) systems to optimize their NPD processes and thereby build their NPD competence. This paper contributes to a further understanding of the link between QM and NPD by investigating why and how more effective QM can promote and assist NPD. Based on taxonomy of QM practices, we examine the differences between the effects of infrastructure quality management practices (IQMP) and core quality management practices (CQMP) on a firm’s NPD capability and NPD performance. We also incorporate NPD practices in a conceptual model, to examine the integration effects of QM practices and NPD practices. The results show that IQMP significantly promotes NPD capability, while the influence of CQMP on NPD capability is relatively insignificant. Furthermore, our results indicate that the integration of design and manufacturing has a significant negative influence on NPD capability. Our findings highlight the significant role NPD capability plays in explaining the link between QM practices and NPD performance. Our findings also suggest to practitioners that they should integrate QM with other technology management practices in order to optimize their NPD processes.     

The relationship between tourism development and multidimensional poverty reduction: A decoupling analysis

Quality & Quantity - Despite the importance of tourism for poverty relief, limited studies have investigated the relationship between tourism development and multidimensional poverty reduction....     

Understanding the relationship between experiencing workplace cyberbullying,employee mental strain and job satisfaction: a dysempowerment approach

Although the literature on traditional workplace bullying is advancing rapidly, currently investigations addressing workplace cyberbullying are sparse. To counter this, we present three connected research studies framed within dysempowerment theory (Kane, K., & Montgomery, K. (1998). A framework for understanding dysempowerment in organizations. Human Resource Management, 37, 263–275.) which examine the relationship between volume and intensity of cyberbullying experience and individual mental strain and job satisfaction; whether the impact is more negative as compared to traditional bullying; and whether state negative affectivity (NA) and interpersonal justice mediate the relationship. Additionally, we also considered the impact of witnessing cyberbullying acts on individual outcomes. A total sample comprised 331 UK university employees across academic, administrative, research, management and technical roles. Overall, significant relationships between cyberbullying exposure and outcomes emerged, with cyberbullying exposure displaying a stronger negative relationship with job satisfaction when compared to offline bullying. Analysis supported an indirect effect between cyberbullying acts and outcomes via NA and between cyberbullying acts and job satisfaction via interpersonal justice. No support for a serial multiple mediation model of experiencing cyberbullying to justice to NA to outcome was found. Further, perceived intensity of cyberbullying acts and witnessing cyberbullying acts did not significantly relate to negative outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.     

Segregation and Tiebout sorting: The link between place-based investments and neighborhood tipping

Segregation has been a recurring social concern throughout human history. While much progress has been made to our understanding of the mechanisms driving segregation, work to date has ignored the role played by location-specific amenities. Nonetheless, policy remedies for reducing group inequity often involve place-based investments in minority communities. In this paper, we introduce an exogenous location-specific public good into a model of group segregation. We characterize the equilibria of the model and derive the comparative statics of improvements to the local public goods. We show that the dynamics of neighborhood tipping depend on the levels of public goods. We also show that investments in low-public good communities can actually increase segregation.     

商业模式与企业绩效：研究现状与发展

本文通过对现有关于商业模式与企业绩效关系研究的梳理和总结可以看出,商业模式是企业绩效差异的重要因素之一,商业模式创新成功会使企业绩效得到极大的改善和提升。文章总结了商业模型领域的研究现状,并进一步提出了未来研究的方向和方法的改进。     

Retirement and social security: the roles of self-fulfilling expectations and educational investments

Countries with higher implicit taxes on continued work are associated with lower labor force participation rates of the elderly. This paper constructs a politico-economic model that accounts for this feature based on multiple, self-fulfilling expectations of agents. In this model, agents are identical at birth and can become skilled (or remain unskilled) through educational investment. When agents hold expectations of larger social security benefits, it provides a disincentive to engage in educational investment, thereby resulting in an unskilled majority. In turn, this unskilled majority supports larger social security benefits, which induces the retirement of the elderly and thus results in a lower labor force participation rate. The opposite applies when agents have expectations of smaller social security benefits in their old age.     

Physician location and distribution: a social systems approach

A social systems model of the health services system serving the state of Indiana is presented. The model specifies the causal relationships hypothesized as existing among a set of social, demographic and economic variables known to be related to the supply of health manpower and facilities. Inclusion of feedback into the model as well as lagged values of physician supply variables permits the examination of the dynamic behavior of the social system over time. Estimates of the model parameters are based on data obtained from the U.S. census, the American Medical Association's physician distribution series and the annual guide issue of Hospitals, the journal of the American Hospital Association.Methods for deriving the reduced form and the final form of the structural model are presented along with the reduced and final form equations. These equations provide valuable information for policy decisions regarding the likely consequences of changes in the structure of the population and in the supply of health manpower and facilities. The structural and reduced forms of the model have been used to examine the likely consequences of several proposed policies that would affect the delivery of health services in the state of Indiana.     

The triple-edged sword of sensitivity of sales,cash flows,and debt to investments: Venture survival and capital investments

Drawing on reliable financial performance data of 192,855 venture-year observations, representing a total of 66,174 ventures with 8.13% of the ventures failing (5380 ventures), we find that neither sales-investment sensitivity nor cash-flow-investment sensitivity is associated with venture survival. However, debt-investment sensitivity lowers the hazard of failure. Sales-investment sensitivity and debt-investment sensitivity under munificence and dynamism lower the hazard of failure. However, cash-flow-investment sensitivity at high levels of dynamism or munificence does not influence the hazard of failure. The effect sizes are small but nonetheless meaningful. The findings have implications for ventures attempting to match performance and capital structure with investment.     

The relationship between the firm's social media strategy and the consumers' engagement behavior in aviation

Social media platforms constitute a new frontline for brands to build relationships with their customers. Nevertheless, the literature on social media engagement behavior is unidimensional, as it focuses on customer engagement while neglecting the customer's influence on managerial decisions. The current paper goes a step further by applying the theory of the marketing firm (TMF). We investigated consumer-firm bilateral contingencies through three studies. The first study captures up to 60% of the variance in consumer responses given on Icelandair's Facebook page. The second study shows how customers engage with Icelandair's social media platforms. The third study illustrates the firm's social media strategy from a managerial perspective.     

The heterogeneous relationship between board social ties and corporate environmental responsibility in an emerging economy

Firms in emerging economies are faced with multiple, incompatible institutional forces in their environmental activities. Which of these forces will be dominant and instantiated within an organization is partly determined by the social relationships that a firm maintains with external actors. This paper investigates the relationship between board social ties and the level of environmental responsibility undertaken by firms in China, an emerging economy, by categorizing board social ties into three types in terms of the three isomorphic forces in the institutional field (coercive, normative and mimetic). Drawing on institutional and agency theories, using a sample of listed firms in environmentally sensitive industries, and a generalized least squares regression method, the results provide empirical evidence that ties that are linked to coercive and normative forces (i.e., political organizations and universities) are related to a higher level of environmental responsibility; however, those that are linked to mimetic forces (i.e., industrial peers) have a negative association with environmental responsibility, which is mitigated by CEO power. These findings suggest that the heterogeneous effects of board social ties on environmental responsibilities experienced by firms in a context of environmentalism are at an early stage.