Communication of Private Information and the Valuation of Initial Public Offerings in Singapore

This study examines a sample of 108 initial public offerings in Singapore between 1987 and 1993, and documents the effects of four channels of entrepreneurial communication, that is, retained ownership, audited report, auditor choice and underwriter choice on the valuation of new issues. Our results indicate that retained ownership and book value of equity are significantly and positively associated with the valuation of initial public offerings in Singapore. Underwriter choice and auditor choice are not significant in explaining the valuation of initial public offerings. Issues listed on the Main Board are valued higher than those on Sesdaq (Stock Exchange of Singapore Dealing and Automated Quotation). Firms choosing the auction system are valued higher than those choosing the fixed system.
This paper provides evidence on the valuation of new issues in an emerging market in the Asia-Pacific region. The results are of interest to investors, investment bankers and companies seeking a listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange. We provide some insights on how new issues in the Singapore market are valued.     

Biosecurity risk and peri‐urban landholders – using a stakeholder consultative approach to build a risk communication strategy

This article presents a straightforward and highly participatory methodology for addressing government agencies’ concerns with effective communication strategies for biosecurity when stakeholders are diverse and there is uncertainty about their levels of knowledge. The case study was among peri‐urban landholders in an area where serious animal disease infestation has occurred within the last 10 years. Initially we engaged stakeholders in a consultative process that included establishing a stakeholder influence and interest map for both weeds and animal diseases. This was followed with a mental model approach involving surveys and in‐depth interviews. We elicited information about landholders’ knowledge, practices, values and beliefs regarding biosecurity risk. Our consultative process generated examples that indicate that effective risk communication relies on establishing and affirming mutual levels of trust and credibility between landholders and agencies. While this finding is not surprising, we argue that attention to stakeholder consultative processes is central to overcoming barriers to changing practices and building awareness. Secondly, our data confirmed that while smaller landholders were the initial target for the communication, all landholders represented a similar level of biosecurity risk. Therefore, our approach was critical in overcoming external assumptions about particular actors. Finally, our data pointed to the need to develop a whole of landscape approach to biosecurity risk communication strategy in consultation with local stakeholders.     

The effects of schematic memory on imaginal information processing: An empirical assessment

The relationship between verbal and nonverbal modes of processing consumer information was examined in an investigation of schematic processing, a predominantly verbal mode, and visual imagery, a nonverbal method of information processing. It was found that individuals with a schema for a marketing event exhibited both a higher incidence and greater vividness of imagery during retrieval than did subjects without a schema. No differences were observed in either the frequency or clarity of images related to actions of varying degrees of abstraction in the event schema. These results indicate interdependence between schematic and imaginal processing consistent with the Cyclical Processing Model (Hampson and Morris 1979). A number of implications, both methodological and strategic, are developed from the observed relationship between imaginal and schematic information processing.     

“The sweetest songs”—Ethical framing in fundraising through the agency of service users/contributors to tell their own stories

Much of the discussion on the ethics of the framing of service users in fundraising and marketing materials focuses on the ethical dilemma of whether the means of using negative framing and negatively-framed images—which it is argued are more effective at raising money—justify that end if they cause harm by stereotyping and “othering” the people so framed, rob them of their dignity, and fail to engage people in long-term solutions. Attempts to find the right balance between these two ethical poles have proved elusive. This paper posits a new ethical solution by removing these two poles from the equation and making the ethicality of fundraising frames contingent on the voice and agency of service users/contributors to tell their own stories and contribute to their own framing: as the Niger proverb says, “a song sounds sweeter from the author's mouth.”