金融服务、外资政策调整与企业出口——基于中国微观数据的验证

基于金融服务是制造业的重要中间品投入,本文研究我国金融服务业外资政策动态变化对下游企业出口行为的影响。理论上,金融服务业外资准入放松有助于提升金融服务中间品的技术和管理水平,直接效果是有助于提升出口企业使用金融服务的多样化和便捷化,促进企业出口。本文采用国家发改委公布的《外商投资产业指导目录》,首次度量了我国金融服务业外资准入政策的动态变化,并使用投入产出表将其与我国制造业企业数据进行上下游关联,有效检验了金融服务业外资政策调整对下游制造业企业出口的作用。结果表明:金融服务业外资政策调整放开有助于提高下游制造业企业出口倾向和收益,存在出口促进作用;管理效率高、出口非技术密集型及资本密集型产品的企业出口对金融服务业外资政策调整的反应更为灵敏;金融服务业外资政策调整放开通过缓解企业融资约束促进企业出口。本文研究显示我国金融服务业外资政策调整放开是推动我国贸易提升的一个重要支撑点。     

Valuing the Potential Transformation of Banks into Financial Service Conglomerates: Evidence from the Citigroup Merger

The merger between Citicorp and Travelers Group on April 6, 1998 could have emitted two relevant signals for firms that provide financial services. The first signal is the endorsement by two prominent financial institutions that benefits from cross‐selling of bank services with insurance services, brokerage services, and other financial services can be realized. The second signal is that regulators will allow the combination of commercial banking with insurance underwriting and full‐service brokerage, paving a path for similar combinations in the future. We document a favorable share price response for commercial banks, insurance companies, and brokerage firms, which supports the argument that the merger sets a precedent for other combinations between banks and nonbank financial services that will facilitate cross‐selling and efficiencies.     

Attraction of marketing and sales professionals in the financial services industry: An analysis of pre-, during and post-financial crisis job postings

Attracting talent is key to a successful sales force, and financial services firms have long used online recruiting to achieve this. However, little is known about how firms attract financial services marketing and sales professionals. In this study, we present a content analysis of job postings for sales and marketing positions in the financial services industry that were posted before, during and after the financial crisis of 2008. Specifically, job postings in the United Kingdom and United States in 2006, 2009 and 2013 were examined. Implications for financial services firms are discussed.     

Why are some modes of acquisition more profitable? A study of the credit card industry

A key challenge in financial services marketing is attracting good customers to the firm. For most financial services firms, including credit card firms, a good customer is also a profitable customer. Managers would like to use marketing tactics that attract the most profitable customers while closely monitoring and perhaps limiting expenditures on marketing tactics that tend to attract relatively less profitable customers. Therefore, managers need to understand the relative effectiveness of different modes of new account acquisition and the impact that the various modes of acquisition may have on overall account profitability. To date, there have been very few studies that have calculated individual level customer profitability and then investigated the relationship between new customer acquisition source and customer profitability. That is, how do modes of acquisition differ in their ability to attract profitable customers? We answer this question using a proprietary and novel data set from the credit card industry. Of the four modes of acquisition used in this industry, we find that Internet and direct mail efforts generate more profitable customers than telemarketing and direct selling. We provide possible explanations for these findings. Our work adds to the growing literature in customer relationship management and our results have important managerial implications for resource allocation among acquisition strategies.     

Information technology and financial services consolidation

This paper examines the interaction of information technology and the current consolidation in the financial services industry. It suggests that an important reason for financial service firms to consolidate and not outsource their information technology may be to retain the strategic option to be more diversified firms that offer both financial and information services in the future.     

Financial Structure,Acquisition Opportunities,and Firm Locations

This paper investigates the relation between firms' locations and their corporate finance decisions. We develop a model where being located within an industry cluster increases opportunities to make acquisitions, and to facilitate those acquisitions, firms within clusters maintain more financial slack. Consistent with our model we find that firms located within industry clusters make more acquisitions, and have lower debt ratios and larger cash balances than their industry peers located outside clusters. We also document that firms in high‐tech cities and growing cities maintain more financial slack. Overall, the evidence suggests that growth opportunities influence firms' financial decisions.     

Broker-client contact and client satisfaction: Are client attitudes towards brokers bullish and bearish with the stock market?

The rapidly changing financial services industry requires an intimate understanding of broker clients in order for brokerage firms to increase and maintain a client base. This study uses a questionnaire in order to determine what clients felt were brokers' strengths and weaknesses in attaining client satisfaction. The results of the survey indicate that clients' perceptions of brokers' honesty, aptitude, knowledge and service to its customers are main determinants of client satisfaction. The overall responses during the bull market and the bear market show little change in client attitudes towards brokers.     

E-Finance: An Introduction

E-finance is defined as “The provision of financial services and markets using electronic communication and computation”. In this paper we outline research issues related to e-finance that we believe set the stage for further work in this field. Three areas are focused on. These are the use of electronic payments systems, the operations of financial services firms and the operation of financial markets. A number of research issues are raised. For example, is the widespread use of paper-based checks efficient? Will the financial services industry be fundamentally changed by the advent of the Internet? Why have there been such large differences in changes to market microstructure across different financial markets?     

Ties that bind in business ethics: Social contracts and why they matter

How should bankers respond to challenges about whether to separate stock analysis from the other financial functions of financial services companies, or whether to maintain relationships with socially discredited customers? We wrote a book recently, Ties That Bind (Donaldson and Dunfee, 1999), out of our conviction that answering many of these questions requires a new approach to business ethics, one that exposes the implicit understandings or “contracts” that bind industries, companies, and economic systems into communities. In this article we unpack the fundamental elements of our approach called Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) and demonstrate how the theory can be applied to a particular question currently asked in the financial services industry, namely, “How should accounting firms and banking institutions deal with the increasing criticism alleging that new forms of conflict of interest impair the objectivity of auditors and security analysts.”     

Short selling threat and real activity manipulation: Evidence from a natural experiment

In this paper, we investigate whether and how short selling threat affects real activity manipulation. Using a regulatory experiment (Regulation SHO) that removes short selling restrictions on randomly selected pilot firms, we find that real activity manipulation is significantly reduced for pilot firms in response to increased short selling threat during the experiment period. The reduction effect is stronger for pilot firms with a transparent financial reporting strategy, a high level of negative financial reporting sentiment, and bad news. Our finding confirms short sellers' monitoring effect on opportunistic behavior, even for real activity manipulation that is difficult to detect.     

Financial industry lobbying and shareholder litigation outcomes: implications for managers and regulators

We examine the relationship between financial firm corporate lobbying, shareholder-based litigation outcomes, and firm value. We show that political lobbying lowers federal class action securities litigation likelihood for public financial institutions. Secondly, lobbying firms experience a higher likelihood of having litigation dismissed, and the average settlement amount is significantly lower for lobbying institutions. In addition, shortly after a litigation announcement, lobbying firms experience significantly higher cumulative abnormal returns (CARs), compared to non-lobbying firms. Finally, we show that lobbying firms have higher long-run buy-and-hold abnormal stock returns (BHARs) following lobbying activities. Our results link financial institution lobbying activity with improved legal outcomes and relatively higher firm value. While lobbying improves financial firm value, our results also imply that lobbying creates a disadvantage for non-lobbying firms within the industry. Our results provide insights, not only to corporate managers, but to regulators and policymakers interested in the impact of lobbying on the efficacy and objectivity of regulation and enforcement in the financial services industry.     

服务业全要素生产率研究——基于丝绸之路经济带数据

基于考虑人力资本的非参数 Malmquist 指数法,测算中国丝绸之路经济带沿线九省市2003~2012年服务业全要素生产率(TFP )变动情况,从技术进步与技术效率两方面考量服务业 TFP 。结果发现,丝绸之路沿线九省市服务业 TFP 的增长主要源于技术进步的贡献,而技术效率却在恶化,同时人力资本对技术进步和技术效率均具有正向贡献。结果表明：交通基础设施、对外开放和财政金融支持都对服务业TFP 的增长具有显著正向促进作用。鉴此,应强化交通基础设施建设,实现道路互通;深化对外开放,推动贸易畅通;增强财政金融支持力度,推进货币流通。     

Which financial stocks did short sellers target in the subprime crisis?

Tracing the SEC ban on the short selling of financial stocks in September 2008, this paper investigates whether such selling activity before the 2008 short ban reflected financial companies’ risk exposure in the subprime crisis. Evidence suggests that short sellers sold short stocks that had the greatest asset and insolvency risk exposures, and that the short selling of financial firms’ stocks was not significantly greater than that of non-financial firms after we match them on firm size and insolvency risk. When the short ban was in effect, the market quality of financial stocks without subprime assets exposure had deteriorated to a larger degree than that of financial companies with subprime assets exposure. The findings imply that such a regulation may mute the market disciplining effects of investors and may also be seen as a counterweight to any perceived macro or systemic risk reduction benefits resulting from such a ban.     

Worldwide reach of short selling regulations

We characterize legality and incidence of short selling in a worldwide, multimarket framework. Home country short selling restrictions curtail home market stock borrowing by 45% and reduce short selling of the country's American Depository Receipts (ADRs) by 68% due to regulatory reach. Also, the 2008 US ban on short selling of financial firms reduced borrowing in foreign locations. These findings are robust to controls for option availability, enforcement, returns, firm size, trading volume, dividends, ADR level, volatility, days-to-cover, and industry sector. Further, we show that investor conduct resulting from adherence to professional standards is a more powerful mechanism of regulatory reach than intergovernment cooperation.     

Satisfaction drivers for Internet service technology among stock brokerage customers in Thailand

Many financial services firms are offering the Internet as a self-service technology (SST), for online stock trading, in an effort to increase effciency and give customers greater access. It is important to understand how this technology will influence customer satisfaction. This paper reports results of exploratory research to identify sources of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the service encounter in Thai stockbrokerage firms. Results show that customers and service providers determine sources of customer dis/satisfaction differently, depending on whether the service encounter is technology-based or interpersonal. Different customer profiles give rise to segmentation in response to the use of Internet technology in this industry.     

Financial inclusion,financial inclusion policy and Islamic finance

Using a qualitative analysis, the paper examines the links between financial inclusion and the Islamic financial services industry in Muslim countries. The findings show that, despite growth in the financial sector in many Muslim countries over the past few decades, many individuals and firms are still financially excluded. An analysis of the use of and access to financial services by adults and firms also shows that most Muslim countries lag behind other emerging economies in both respects, with a rate of financial inclusion of only 27%. Cost, distance, documentation, trust, and religious requirements are among the important obstacles. In addition, not surprisingly, the extent of Islamic microfinance is very limited, small by international standards; it accounts for a small proportion of microfinance, about 0.5% of global microfinance, and lacks a cost-efficient service model. This study suggests that Islamic instruments for redistributing income such as awqaf, qard-al-hassan, sadaqa, and zakah, can play a role in bringing more than 40 million people, who are financially excluded for religious reasons, into the formal financial system. The Islamic financial services industry has a long way to go in improving financial inclusion in many Muslim countries due to the scale needed and its relatively weak infrastructure.     

Valuation impact of Sarbanes–Oxley: Evidence from disclosure and governance within the financial services industry

The Sarbanes–Oxley (Sarbox) legislation aimed to reduce the opacity of financial statements and improve the integrity of financial reporting by enhancing corporate disclosure and governance practices. We estimate the valuation effects of Sarbox for firms in the financial services industry and find that, except for securities firms, these firms significantly benefited from its adoption. As hypothesized, these positive effects may be attributed to expected improvement in the transparency of the relatively opaque financial services firms.We find that the cross-sectional variation in the valuation effects can be explained by disclosure and governance characteristics. Several of the significant factors are supportive of a compliance cost hypothesis. In particular, we find that the effects were less favorable for firms with less independent audit committees, without a financial expert on the audit committee, with less financial statement footnote disclosures, with less involved CEOs, and if they were smaller. In addition, reflecting the value of stronger governance, more favorable effects occurred for firms with a greater degree of independence of the board and the board committees, when there is greater motivation and ability of board members to monitor the firm, and with a greater degree of institutional ownership. Lastly, we find the wealth effects of firms viewed as non-compliant are significantly lower than firms viewed as compliant, and the variation across the group of non-compliant firms is explained by disclosure and governance measures.     

An empirical investigation of the relative effect of trust and switching costs on service loyalty in the UK retail banking industry

The crisis in the UK financial services industry has led to retail banking customers treating transactions with growing scepticism. Retail banks are having to work very hard to regain customer trust. Despite recent research in marketing that acknowledges the importance of service loyalty to service firms, studies that have examined the relative effects of trust and the different types of switching costs on attitudinal and behavioural loyalty are scant. Therefore this article aims to build a model to examine the strength of the relationships between these constructs. Using survey data collected from a convenience sample of 290 retail banking customers in the United Kingdom, the article reveals that the main drivers of attitudinal loyalty are trust and relational switching costs. In contrast, the main drivers of behavioural loyalty are trust, relational switching costs and attitudinal loyalty. Interestingly, financial and procedural switching costs exert no significant effect on either attitudinal or behavioural loyalty. Trust and relational switching costs exert a stronger effect on attitudinal than behavioural loyalty.     

Financial reporting quality and outsourcing of accounting tasks: Evidence from small private firms

This study explores whether the financial reporting quality of small firms differs between firms that outsource accounting tasks and firms that perform these tasks internally. Using accruals quality as a measure for the financial reporting quality and a sample of small Finnish limited liability firms, we find that the quality among the firms is positively related to the decision of purchasing accounting services from an external service provider. This result is also economically significant. The evidence shows that outsourcing of accounting tasks such as the preparation of the statutory financial statements and longer outsourcing relationships increases reporting quality. However, outsourcing of additional tasks, such as payroll processing, does not result in higher quality. These findings are consistent with previous studies showing that small firms in general lack the resources and expertise to prepare high quality financial reports. We provide evidence of an important yet under-researched area of financial reporting quality among small firms.     

Short selling constraints and politically motivated negative information suppression

This study examines the effect of short selling constraints on politically motivated suppression of negative information. We use a unique setting in China, in which there are multiple exogenous changes in short selling constraints and firms have strong incentives to suppress negative information during politically sensitive periods. Results from Difference-in-Differences analyses and a regression discontinuity design show that removing short selling constraints can reduce politically motivated bad news suppression. Short selling can reduce negative information suppression through the channels of improved financial reporting quality, more voluntary disclosure from management, and more timely release of information by media. In addition, the effect of short selling on reducing bad news hoarding is more pronounced for more politically sensitive meetings and for state-owned firms located in regions with weaker market and institutional development.