A note: Multi-machine scheduling with general position-based deterioration to minimize total load

The majority of the papers dealing with scheduling deteriorating jobs ignores general deterioration forms, and considers only special cases. Moreover, most of these papers consider deterioration, most of these papers consider deterioration based on job starting times, and only a few study position-based deterioration. Finally, very few researchers focus on the measure of total load, which becomes important in a setting of deterioration on multi-machines. In this note, we study general, non-decreasing, job-dependent and position-dependent deterioration function. The machine setting is parallel identical machines, and the objective function is total load. We introduce a polynomial time solution for this problem.     

Corporate reputations in UK biotechnology: an analysis of on‐line ‘company profile’ texts

Internet technology is creating a new corporate communications framework, which is affecting communication channels, corporate audiences, message content and form, communication feedback and corporate personae. Confronted with a complex communications environment, which is characterized by many conflicting views and highly sensitive topics, biotechnology companies have to transmit a clear and powerful message to their target audiences. This study analyses the projection of corporate images in the ‘company profile’ texts published on‐line by biotechnology firms in the UK.     

Performance and Employer Stock in 401(k) Plans

Participants in 401(k) retirement plans violate the basic principle of diversification by investing significant fractions of their savings in their employers'equity. This paper characterizes investors'active changes to their company stock investment over time by analyzing new inflows and transfers. The average investor seems to base active changes on salient information, paying attention to past returns, volatility, and business performance. Past returns, over a three-year horizon, predict higher inflow allocations and transfers, whereas volatility and business performance only have a weak effect. The sensitivity to past returns is asymmetric, with investors reacting more strongly to positive and above-S&P500 returns.     

Financial system,R&D intensity and comparative advantage

In this paper, we test whether financial system affects the export performance of R&D intensive industries. We consider four different dimensions of financial system: (1) financial development, (2) financial liberalization, (3) financial integration and (4) foreign banks. Our results show that financial development and financial integration increase exports relatively more in R&D intensive industries. These effects are highly robust. Financial liberalization and foreign banks do not have such effects. Our results also show that the positive effect of financial integration disappears when the quality of institutions and the level of financial development are low. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first study that examines the effects of different dimensions of financial system on exports through R&D channel.     

Familiarity Breeds Investment

Shareholders of a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) tendto live in the area which it serves, and an RBOC's customerstend to hold its shares rather than other RBOCs' equity. Thegeographic bias of the RBOC investors is closely related tothe general tendency of households' portfolios to be concentrated,of employees' tendency to own their employers' stocks in theirretirement accounts, and to the home country bias in the internationalarena. Together, these phenomena provide compeling evidencethat people invest in the familiar while often ignoring theprinciples of portfolio theory.     

Defined Contribution Pension Plans: Determinants of Participation and Contributions Rates

Records of 793,794 employees eligible to participate in 647 defined contribution pension plans are studied. About 71% of them choose to participate in the plans, and of the participants, 12% choose to contribute the maximum allowed, $10,500. The main findings are (other things equal) (1) participation rates, contributions and (most remarkably) savings rates increase with compensation; on average, a $10,000 increase in compensation is associated with a 3.7% higher participation probability and $900 higher contribution; (2) women’s participation probability is 6.5% higher than men’s and they contribute almost $500 more than men; (3) participation probabilities are similar for employees covered and not covered by DB plans, but those covered by DB plans contribute more to the DC plans; (4) the availability of a match by the employer increases employees’ participation and contributions; the effect is strongest for low-income employees; (v) participation rates, especially among low-income employees, are higher when company stock is an investable fund.

The Internationalization Process of Online SMEs in the U.K., U.S. and Australia

ABSTRACT

Starting from a modified version of the Cavusgil and Zou (1994) Cavusgil, S.T. and Zou, S. 1994. Marketing strategy-performance relationship: An investigation of the empirical link in export market ventures. Journal of Marketing, 58(1): 1–21. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] theoretical framework, in which the level of internationalization of online Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is considered as an aggregated indicator of the export marketing strategy and a measurement of export performance, this paper investigates the influence of a series of internal and external factors on the internationalization of online SMEs. It expands the empirical framework used by Luo et al. (2005) Luo, Y., Zhao, J.H. and Du, J. 2005. The internationalization speed of e-commerce companies: An empirical analysis. International Marketing Review, 22(6): 693–709. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] in an attempt to explain the internationalization of online SMEs by integrating both organizational and market factors, thus improving the explanatory power of internationalization models, and enhancing their applicability for professionals.