Current Strategic Actions of Russian Manufacturing Subsidiaries of Western Multinational Corporations

This article provides a critical analysis of the current strategic actions of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of Western multinational corporations. The authors retraced the content of strategic actions in various aspects of subsidiary management implemented during 2015–16 and the activities of strategists of different ranks. The authors found that some actions that multinational corporations in Russia implemented during 2014–16 represent standard strategic practices during downturns. In contrast, other strategic practices (facilities expansion against negative market dynamics and reluctance to change the system of permanent job contracts and abundant employee social benefits) generally contradict with the textbook solution for company strategies during downturns.     

Transaction Costs of Entrepreneurs as a Deterrent of Housing Construction Development in Russia

Nowadays realization process of investment and construction projects is not always effective because of imperfection of institutions regulating construction, high investment risks and, as a consequence, increase transaction costs. The facts of the objective existence of transaction costs in the economy, including housing construction, are researched in the article. We have determined that the transaction costs significantly affect the cost of construction, reduce profit entrepreneurs, and indirectly increase the shortage of housing in Russia. Such parts of modern economics as neoclassical economics and institutional economics are methodological basis of the paper. Logical, economic and legal （institutional）, socio-economic approaches were used during the research of transaction costs function. The authors used the complex of ideas and different methods of sociological and economic analysis that allowed deepening the importance of institutional state regulation of business activity in housing construction area. The classification of transaction costs creation was worked out; this model unlike well-known models considers the most important parts of transaction costs which really exist in business activity of construction companies nowadays; implementation of the model allows calculating and predicting this kind of costs in business. Recently Russian government returns to the questions about efficiency of production （increase of labor productivity, efficiency and profitability of production）, therefore attention to the reduction of transaction costs is going to increase profits and efficiency.     

Stale and Scale Effects in Markets-Based Accounting Research: Evidence from the Valuation of Dividends

Abstract

This study revisits prior research on the valuation of dividends in an accounting-based valuation framework. Using a battery of tests, we show that market value deflation is essential in market-based tests of dividend displacement and signalling because it controls for ‘stale’ information in addition to scale (size) differences across firms. For US firms, we show that after controlling for ‘stale’ information, the empirical association between dividends and market values switches from positive to negative. This switch is not explained by scale differences across firms. Further, we show that after controlling for staleness, the valuation of dividends remains positive for European firms. This result is explained by the relatively stronger association of dividends with future earnings in these settings (i.e. signalling). Lastly, our country-specific estimates of dividend valuation provide a potentially valuable index for studies aimed at examining the effects of accounting and securities regulation on information asymmetries in an international context.     

MARKET SELECTION OF FINANCIAL TRADING STRATEGIES: GLOBAL STABILITY

In this paper we analyze the long-run dynamics of the market selection process among simple trading strategies in an incomplete asset market with endogenous prices. We identify a unique surviving financial trading strategy. Investors following this strategy asymptotically gather total market wealth. This result generalizes findings by Blume and Easlcy (1992) to any complete or incomplete asset market.     

Optimal statistical decisions about some alternative financial models

We study Neyman–Pearson testing and Bayesian decision making based on observations of the price dynamics (_Xt:t∈[0,T])$(X_t:t\in [0,T])$ of a financial asset, when the hypothesis is the classical geometric Brownian motion with a given constant growth rate and the alternative is a different random diffusion process with a given, possibly price-dependent, growth rate. Examples of asset price observations are introduced and used throughout the paper to demonstrate the applicability of the theory. By a rigorous mathematical approach, we obtain exact formulae and bounds for the most common statistical characteristics of testing and decision making, such as the power of test (type II error probability), the Bayes factor and its moments (power divergences), and the Bayes risk or Bayes error. These bounds can be much more easily evaluated than the exact formulae themselves and, consequently, they are useful for practical applications. An important theoretical conclusion of this paper is that for the class of alternatives considered   neither the risk nor the errors converge to zero faster than exponentially in the observation time T$T$. We illustrate in concrete decision situations that the actual rate of convergence is well approximated by the bounds given in the paper.     

Combining GDSS and Gaming for Decision Support

Both gaming and group (decision) support systems (GDSS) are frequently used to support decision-making and policymaking in multi-actor settings. Despite the fact that there are a number of ways in which gaming and GDSS can be used in a complementary manner, there are only sporadic examples of their combined use. No systematic overview or framework exists in which GDSS are related to the functions of gaming or vice versa. In this article, we examine, why, how and for what purpose GDSS can be used to enrich and improve gaming simulation for decision support, and vice versa. In addition to a review of examples found in the literature, four games are discussed where we combined gaming and GDSS for complex decision making in a multi actor context: incodelta, a game about transportation corridors; infrastratego, a game about a liberalizing electricity market; containers a drift, a game about the planning of a container terminal, and; dubes, a game about sustainable urban renewal. Based on the literature and these four experiences, a classification is presented of (at least) four ways in which GDSS and gaming can be used in a complementary or even mutually corrective, manner: the use of GDSS for game design, for game evaluation, for game operation and the use of gaming for research, testing and training of GDSS.     

Perfecting the structure of the Russian food industry

Important problems and trends in the restructuring of major processing industries of the Russian Federation’s food complex at the current stage of creating an effective market economy are discussed.     

The Effects of Information Disclosure and Board Independence on IPO Discount*

This paper examines the effect of strategic information disclosure and corporate governance on the stock market performance of initial public offering (IPO) firms in France. It argues that information disclosure and board independence mitigate agency problems between the IPO firm and investors, thus reducing the IPO discount defined as the difference between the offer price and the intrinsic value of the firm. However, extensive disclosure may damage the firm's competitive advantage and lead to a curvilinear (an inverted U‐shape) relationship between information disclosure and the IPO discount. Further analysis suggests that it is not necessarily the quantity of information, but rather the type of information, that causes the IPO discount to increase with the amount of disclosure.     

ON THE EXISTENCE OF THE ENDOGENOUS MORTGAGE RATE PROCESS

The mortgage rate is a major factor in the refinancing decision. The refinancing behavior influences cash flow and, therefore, mortgage price. The prices of mortgage instruments drives the mortgage rates. We consider a problem of the existence of a dynamic mortgage rate process which resolves this circular dependence. The existence is proved by constructing a solution using a newly proposed level set method.