Time is money: An empirical investigation of delivery behavior in the U.S. T‐Bond futures market

This paper analyzes the delivery behavior observed in the CBOT T‐Bond futures market over the period spanning 1985–2016 in order to assess how timing decisions were made, and whether these decisions were optimal. During that period, delivery was generally deferred to the last possible moment, but early delivery episodes were also observed regularly. A regression model identifying the determinants of early exercise over the last three decades is proposed, along with a case‐by‐case analysis of specific delivery patterns. Finally, the optimality of the observed delivery strategies is assessed a posteriori.     

Race,competition, and institutional change in J.R. Commons

This article examines the contribution of J.R. Commons to race relations, competition, and institutional change. One result of our study is that, in his analysis of institutional dynamics in the United States, Commons’ rejection of laissez-faire is derived from a racist analytical framework: the “superior races” should be protected from the “inferior races”. Another result is that Commons adopts a neo-Lamarckian framework which takes education as the basis for the assimilation of “inferior races”. This article then shows that policies often defended as progressives, as education policies, may be derived from racist foundations. The final remarks single out the ambiguous connection between race and culture revealed by Commons’ approach.     

Book Reviews

This paper describes and explains the use of political risk assessment techniques in Jordanian multinational corporations (MNCs). A multi‐method approach to collect data was followed. A self‐report questionnaire was delivered by hand to the general managers of all Jordanian MNCs which were identified as operating internationally. Semi‐structured interviews were used as a means of elaborating on the findings from the questionnaire. The study identified the extensive use of heuristic political risk assessment techniques (due to their flexibility, simplicity and low cost). Scientific techniques, on the other hand, were used by only a minority of MNCs. As has been the case in earlier studies, flexibility, simplicity and cost considerations were all found to be influential in this regard. However, the study also found that key decision‐makers in Jordanian MNCs believe that official data are subject to censorship and are therefore not reliable. This undermines the efficiency of using highly sophisticated scientific techniques. Since there are a number of other countries in the Middle East – and elsewhere – in which these considerations also apply, this finding has important implications for international businesses which operate in these countries, whatever their home country.     

SHIFTING SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF METRO AREAS

This paper reviews traditional theoretic arguments for metro size distribution as an outcome of technical characteristics of production and the nature of demand for commodities and compares theoretical expectations with actual population growth experience in metro areas. Rigorous comparisons of actual with expected growth, however, are very difficult due to problems in making operational definitions of "place", "intermediate size" and "metropolitan". Despite these practical difficulties the actual record of growth by size class is reviewed for the U.S. since 1900 and for the countries of the European Community since 1950. The theoretical distribution is computed from the frequency distribution deduced by Losch which is calibrated to discrete size intervals according to Zipf and compared with actual distributions for U.S. counties, U.S. Standard Metropolitan Areas and EEC Functional Urban Regions. On the basis of these multiple comparisons it is concluded that somewhere perhaps as early as the 1940s and certainly by 1970 there was a strong shift in favor of intermediate size areas, but that by the early 1980s that this shift was weakening with indications of a lag in the adjustment in Europe compared with the U.S.     

Strategic partnerships,social capital and innovation: accounting for social alliance innovation

This paper focuses on innovation in the context of business–non‐governmental organization (NGO) partnerships for corporate social responsibility (CSR). While different aspects of business–NGO partnerships have been studied, the role of innovation and its potential implications for partnership outcomes have so far not been systematically explored. The paper defines innovation in simple and concrete terms and synthesizes from the literature what can be considered as critical ingredients to foster social alliance innovation. The paper posits in turn that these ingredients correspond closely to the conception of social capital and offers a consolidated framework that helps in probing around these ingredients and social capital in accounting for innovative partnership outcomes. The empirical part consists of a comparative analysis of six case studies of business–NGO collaboration in the context of CSR in the United Kingdom. The evidence presented makes it clear that strategic partnerships are more readily capable of innovation and that social capital as an umbrella concept is very promising in explaining the differential success and performance of social alliances and central to understanding the dynamics of social alliance innovation and value creation.     

Evolution of control of cross-listed companies

There are two theories on the determinants of the control structure of the firm. The first theory postulates that the control structure is determined by company-specific characteristics. The second theory emphasises the importance of institutional characteristics in shaping this structure. In this paper, we test the validity of both theories in the context of a cross-listing, which causes a change to the company's legal environment. We find that the initial control structure, risk and size determine the control structure post cross-listing and that cross-listing on better quality markets facilitates the evolution of control towards more dispersed control. To conclude, company characteristics have a greater impact than country characteristics on the company's decision to cross-list and are also better at explaining the change in the control structure post cross-listing.     

Characteristics of random responders in a financial risk-tolerance questionnaire

Journal of Financial Services Marketing - The possibility of random response occurring, which can result in Type II errors, is possible whenever a financial risk-tolerance questionnaire is...     

CSR and banking soundness: A causal perspective

This is the first study to examine the relationship between sustainability and soundness in banking as part of an integrated reporting approach. We consider 12 major European banks over the period 2006–2016. To test the relationship, two indexes were constructed, the sustainable performance index, which attempts to measure sustainability, and the banking soundness index, which measures bank soundness. The results show a bidirectional causality between sustainability and banking soundness. More specifically, soundness encourages banks to engage in sustainable development activities, while the implementation of a sustainable development approach has a negative effect on banking soundness. Our research contributes to the literature on this topic in two ways. First, we propose a new method for measuring banking soundness based on a Bayesian approach. This approach allows us to study a large number of criteria and allows us to determine proactively the importance and the contribution of different determinants in achieving soundness. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to study the relationship between bank soundness and sustainability.