Incentive Effects of Community Rating in Insurance Markets: Evidence from Massachusetts Automobile Insurance

Rate regulations in insurance markets often impose cross-subsidies in insurance premiums from low-risk consumers to high-risk consumers. This paper develops the hypothesis that premium cross-subsidies affect risk taking by insurance consumers, and tests this hypothesis by examining the marginal impact of premium subsidies and overcharges on future insurance costs. The empirical analysis uses 1990–2003 rating cell-level data from the Massachusetts automobile insurance market, in which regulation produced large cross-subsidies across cells. Consistent with the hypothesized effects, premium subsidies are found to be significantly related to higher future insurance costs, and the opposite effects are found for premium overcharges.     

Industry 4.0 and circular economy practices: A new era business strategies for environmental sustainability

Amid rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 and blockchain technology (BCT) are transforming circular economy (CE) practices and prevailing business models. Recognize the same; this study examines the role of blockchain technology in circular CE practices and their impact on eco-environmental performance, which influences organizational performance. The study collects data from 404 enterprises located in Chinese and Pakistani territories, involved in cross-border supply chain operations. Both countries' sample has great relevance due to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which possesses several positive fallouts in terms of technology spillovers across firms. Using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) modeling framework, this study provides three key findings. First, BCT significantly improves the circular economy practices (circular procurement, circular design, recycling, and remanufacturing). Second, CE practices help improve firms' environmental performance and stimulate their financial performance. Third, higher eco-environmental performance significantly boosts organizational performance. This study sets out the foundations for participating countries/firms that simultaneously achieve financial and sustainable goals by integrating blockchain technology in circular economy practices.     

“I know I can,but I don't fit”: Perceived fit,self-efficacy,and entrepreneurial intention

While extant literature generally suggests a positive relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention, several moderators have been identified – suggesting possible boundary conditions on that relationship. This paper introduces perceived person-entrepreneurship fit to entrepreneurship and shows that it moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Three studies are conducted which illuminate the utility of randomized experiments and methodological approaches to address limitations in the interpretation of empirical results. Studies 1 and 2 are randomized experiments to examine causality; Study 3 contains two correlational surveys to triangulate the results by examining whether the proposed effects withstand the influence of confounding variables in real-life. The findings indicate that when a strong perception of fit with entrepreneurship is achieved, entrepreneurial intention is strongly predicted by entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In contrast, if one perceives a low level of fit or no fit, entrepreneurial intention will be low, regardless of entrepreneurial self-efficacy.     

The Right to Rent: Active Resistance to Evolving Geographies of State Regulation

Drawing on recent qualitative research on the UK's Immigration Act 2016, this article sets out to explain the opposition of social housing professionals to the imposition of the Right to Rent. By locating this policy intervention within the evolving geographies of state regulation, it is possible to account for the mechanisms through which housing professionals can resist the extension of duties that were previously the remit of border agents and immigration officials. Synthesizing Bourdieu's critical sociology with Boltanski and Thevenot's sociology of critique helps explain not only the governmental underpinnings of contemporary immigration rhetoric, but also the forms of resistance for which housing professionals display a strong justification in exercising. The universal nature of ‘classification struggles’ within and beyond state institutions extends the relevance of this research to encompass most, if not all, welfarist regimes operating within actually existing neoliberal orders. The analysis of the findings of this research has wider implications that reach beyond housing and urban studies while immigration persists as one of the most significant contemporary political issues, almost without geographical exception, right across the globe.     

Data mining computer audit logs to detect computer misuse

All computers are vulnerable to misuse either by unauthorized users penetrating the system or by authorized users abusing their privileges. This paper describes the use of a data mining process to sift through large (gigabytes) computer audit log databases to detect potential improper accesses of sensitive data files by authorized users. Computer audit logs record information about what files were accessed by which users and when. The detection of computer misuse is important because computer misuse can be related to acts of computer fraud, information theft, software piracy, and violations of privacy, to name a few. The data mining process described in this paper can be applied to detect possible fraud in a wide variety of situations that share some common characteristics: first, a class of ‘sensitive’ files can be identified which may be subject to improper access; second, the selection of files by users is a random process; and third, the probability that a user-selected file is from the sensitive class should be the same for all members of a group of users. Examples of possible applications of the data mining process include detecting inappropriate accesses to classified files, celebrity files, financial accounts with high balances, and files known to have been improperly used. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Website and email adoption by Malaysian hotels

This research note addresses two limitations of Internet diffusion studies by highlighting the importance of multivariate statistical analysis and including the element of time. The results support findings on the positive relationship between two hotel characteristics – affiliation and category – with Internet adoption, but question findings on the relationship between hotel size and Internet adoption.