Identification of Greek Takeover Targets and Coherent Policy Implications

The main purpose of this paper is the identification of the characteristics of takeover targets in a small open economy like Greece, using the market for corporate control (MCC) hypothesis as theoretical background. Contrary to this hypothesis, the results indicate that the motives for merging or acquisition activities are basically of strategic character. Using a sample of 35 acquired and 105 non‐acquired firms, the sampling process was initially performed by a modified methodology of state‐based sampling, even if its nature cannot be recognized by the classical maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of logit model. Subsequently, taking into account the small size of the sample, we develop and use, in the logit context, the bootstrap MLE as an advanced alternative method for reducing inherit bias and inefficiency. The findings remain uniform supporting the strategic motives explanation in actual takeover activities, a fact that clearly illustrates the framework of merger policies followed by the Greek Competition Committee during the period under study.     

Impact of futures on comovements for UK cross-listed equities

This paper uses La Porta et al.'s [La Porta, R., De Silanes, F.L., Shleifer, A., Vishny, R.W., 1998. Law and finance. Journal of Political Economy 106 (6), 1113–1155] capital markets regulatory classification to analyse the impact of information contained in various futures contracts on the magnitude and persistence of volatility spillovers between markets. The focus here is to examine the impact of futures contracts on comovement between markets. We examine the behavior of foreign cross-listed shares that have listed in different regulatory environments. In particular, the paper analyses spillover effects between foreign cross-listings in tougher, similar and more lax regulatory environments with respect to the relevant domestic indices (FTSE100) and also with the home portfolios of cross-listed equities in the UK. We find that futures variables have a significant impact on the magnitude and persistence of volatility spillovers between markets.     

A case study investigating the impact of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on participation in two non-traditional English sports,Judo and Fencing

The hosting of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOPG) brought with it detailed legacy plans aiming to ‘Inspire a Generation’. The idea that hosting a sports mega-event will encourage the host population to engage in more physical activity is commonly used by governments to justify the large investments they make. The aim of this research paper was to investigate the impact that hosting the 2012 Games had on grass-root sports participation within the host nation. This paper focuses on two non-traditional English sports, Fencing and Judo and investigated the changes in mass sports participation. The membership rate analysis of our sample highlighted an overall increase in participation between 2007 and 2013, in both Judo and Fencing. The data gathered from the interviews with the head office staff at the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and local club coaches suggested that the grass-root participation programmes were the most effective way of increasing participation, rather than the reliance, solely on the inspiration effect from hosting the LOPG itself. The study highlighted the importance of strengthening communication between local voluntary clubs and the NGB, to ensure sports could promote themselves and capitalise on this global sporting phenomenon, which provided unprecedented media coverage and opportunities for these non-traditional sports. This case study provides initial results relating to the effect that a major international multi-sport event can have in the development of non-traditional sports in the host population, in terms of membership variations, participation programmes and organisational dynamics.     

Green Consumption Behavior Antecedents: Environmental Concern,Knowledge, and Beliefs

The present study adds to the evolving literature on green consumer behavior by examining through statistically robust methods the effect and interrelationships of the key constructs of environmental concern, consumer environmental knowledge, beliefs about biofuels, and behavioral intention (i.e., willingness to use and pay) in the context of biofuels. Data were collected through a survey of 1695 respondents. Hypotheses are based on a literature review and a pilot study, and the conceptual structural model developed is tested through structural equation modeling. Results show that concern for the environment has a positive and direct impact on environmental knowledge, beliefs, and behavioral intention. Also, demographics determine levels of concern for the environment and environmental knowledge. All constructs associate positively with one another delineating that the interdependencies between them are important when accounting for environmental behavior. Future research should validate present results with the use of cross‐cultural samples and investigate whether environmental concern increases due to social desirability response bias.     

The role of voluntary sport organisations in leveraging the London 2012 sport participation legacy

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to understand the perceptions of national Voluntary Sport Organisations (VSOs) managers towards a mega sports event and identify the components they felt enhanced or inhibited their organisations capacity to implement a sport participation legacy. London 2012 was the first Olympic Games to explicitly attempt to deliver this type of legacy, and an exploratory, online mixed-method survey examined the perceptions of 105 senior managers from 37 VSOs, post-event. Principal Component Analysis identified four distinct factors: ‘objectives, standards & resources’, ‘event capitalisation & opportunities’, ‘monitoring & evaluation’ and ‘club engagement & implementation’, explaining 51.5% of the variance. Also, relevant organisational characteristics such as sport type, funding and sport size were examined to investigate the influence this had on their capacity. From these findings, the main recommendations are that future mega sport event hosts should: 1) Engage and consult with multiple stakeholders to engender sustained sport participation. 2) Set clear and monitorable objectives. 3) Establish funding and support mechanisms relevant to each sport. 4) Engage non-competing sports in the leveraging process. 5) Finally, event organisers should try to ensure personnel consistency.     

The usefulness of Schwartz's ‘Values Theory’ in understanding consumer behaviour towards differentiated products

Abstract

The Values Theory adopts a generic framework whereby a set of values is employed across consumer decision-making contexts in a manner that makes no distinction among various product categories. The present study advances this theory by exhibiting the adaptation capability of the generic values instrument (the Portrait Value Questionnaire, PVQ), demonstrating that tailor-made PVQ versions can reflect consumers' motives towards differentiated products (i.e. organic foods). A questionnaire was completed by approximately 1000 households in each of eight EU countries (N?=?8171). The organic food-relevant PVQ was developed through a preliminary qualitative phase (i.e. a means-end chain analysis), and its factorial design was validated through CFA, showing high statistical performance. PVQ-based European clusters with strong self-transcendence values comprised large numbers of organic purchasers. Moreover, results point to the fact that when a circumplex taxonomy, such as the PVQ, is applied in a real context (i.e. organic food purchases), the situation-relevant value domains merge into new hierarchical dimensions in absolute respect of the original taxonomy. This conclusion points to PVQ's robustness in adaptability to different situations of human value perspective.     

Internet shopping and internet banking in sequence: An explanatory case study

Adoption of Internet banking often follows on from usage of Internet shopping, but policies to increase Internet banking use typically ignore this ordering. This article presents a case study that underscores this sequence of Internet service adoption and identifies factors that shape the propensity to use the Internet for shopping and banking. Application of bivariate probit regression techniques to data sourced from a survey of 259 respondents in Athens, Greece, and estimation of marginal effects of the determinants of Internet banking use conditioned on the determinants of Internet shopping use illustrate that ignoring the sequence of Internet service use can lead to incorrect policy recommendations. This article contributes to the literature by theorising the underlying causal mechanisms of Internet banking adoption and presenting supporting evidence via a sequential modelling approach. We find that personal capacity is an important determinant of Internet banking use in a standard, non-sequential approach but it has no significant effect when the model is sequential. Our results suggest that policymakers should emphasise usefulness attributes of Internet banking when attempting to increase Internet banking usage by people who already use the Internet for shopping.     

Real effective exchange rate and the constant elasticity of substitution assumption

The real effective exchange rate (REER) is an aggregation of several bilateral real exchange rates assuming constant elasticity of substitution (CES) between goods from different countries. We investigate the validity of the CES assumption by estimating manufacturing export equations for 56 countries over 26 years. Under the CES assumption, splitting the REER into two components should not increase the fit in an export equation and the coefficients on the two REERs should be equal. We reject both these implications and find that the export equations with two REERs—vs. OECD and vs. nonOECD countries—perform better than the traditional ones.