Research in the Canadian Food Marketing Supply Chain System Post-1986

Economists have taken over the world. That's been a very negative factor because we have gone completely out of balance. I would hope that another trend, one that is broader, more humanistic and open to human beings rather than simply interested in maximizing shareholder value, will redress the balance. (Mintzberg 2002)     

The value line enigma (1965–1978): A case study of performance evaluation issues

The performance of Value Line Investment Survey recommendations made between 1965 and 1978 is evaluated by applying a future benchmark technique. The future benchmark technique avoids selection bias problems associated with using historic benchmarks as well as known difficulties of using Capital Asset Pricing Model benchmarks. Potential problems (implicit in the technique) are discussed and resolved within the conduct of the experiment. Results indicate statistically significant abnormal performance when future benchmarks are computed using a market model.     

Intradaily Patterns in the Korean Index Futures Market

This paper extends the research on intraday patterns in stock and futures exchanges into the Korean market. Similar patterns to those found previously in the heavily investigated Western markets are observed, despite the differing microstructures, institutional framework and time zones between East and West. In addition, we investigate the effect of the Asian financial crisis on intraday variables. In the Korean market, both volume and volatility were found to be consistently higher at the start of the trading day during the crisis, presumably due to a rapid reaction to overnight news.     

Why Does Government Preserve Lame Ducks?

The paradoxical behaviour of governments in preserving patently outmoded methods of production has previously been explained by the concentration of benefits from intervention compared with the diffusion of the costs, and by unwillingness to lose votes in marginal constituencies. Laurence Copeland, at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, suggests that the probable visibility of the 'finger on the button' is a more likely cause of the preservation of economic wildlife and calls for a policy of industrial disengagement by the Government to complement its financial strategy.     

A real-world way to manage real options

Each corporate growth project is an option, in the sense that managers face choices--push ahead or pull back--along the way. Yet many companies hesitate to apply options theory to initiatives such as R&D and geographic expansion, partly because these "real" options are highly complex. In this article, the authors make the case that the complexity of real options can be eased through the use of a binomial valuation model. Many of the problems with real-options analysis stem from the use of the Black-Scholes-Merton model, which isn't suited to real options. Binomial models, by contrast, are simpler mathematically, and you can tinker with a binomial model until it closely reflects the project you wish to value. Suppose your company is considering investing in a new plant. To use the binomial model, you must create an "event tree" to figure out the full range of possible values for the plant during the project's lifetime--next year, at the end of the design phase, upon completion. Then you work backward from the value at completion, factoring in the various investments, to determine the value of the project today. These calculations provide you with numbers for all the possible future values of the option at the various points where a decision needs to be made on whether to continue with the project. The authors also address another criticism of real options: that gaps often arise between theoretical and realized values of options of all types. Such gaps may be largely the result of managers exercising options at the wrong time. To improve the way it manages its real options, a company can look out for the decision trigger points that correspond to the nodes on a binomial decision tree. The trigger points should not only tell managers when they need to decide on exercise but also specify rules governing the exercise decisions.