Excellence Revisited

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman's 1982 best-seller, In Search of Excellence, ignited the business book market and altered the managerial debate in companies throughout the world. Twenty years on, the book's contribution to business thinking is being re-evaluated.     

Strategies for regulating the global economy

Recent work in the science of cybernetics has identified four separate strategies for regulating complex systems composed of thinking participants. Using these strategies as a foundation, this article reviews the history of global development, summarizes current concerns, and then identifies several possible courses of action for regulating a global economy.     

The Role of Collateral in Entrepreneurial Finance

Abstract:  Previous research has suggested collateral has the role of sorting entrepreneurs either by observed risk or by private information. In order to test these roles, this paper develops a model which incorporates a signalling process (sorting by observed risk) into the design of an incentive-compatible menu of loan contracts which works as a self-selection mechanism (sorting by private information). It then tests this Sorting by Signalling and Self-Selection Model, using the 1998 US Survey of Small Business Finances. It reports for the first time that: high type entrepreneurs are more likely to pledge collateral and pay a lower interest rate; and entrepreneurs who transfer good signals enjoy better contracts than those transferring bad signals. These findings suggest that the Sorting by Signalling and Self-Selection Model sheds more light on entrepreneurial debt finance than either the sorting-by-observed-risk or the sorting-by-private information paradigms on their own.     

Investigating sources of unanticipated exposure in industry stock returns

This paper investigates the sources of both foreign exchange rate and interest rate exposure of industry level portfolios in the G7, decomposing exposure into cash flow and discount rate effects. Initial examination of the degree of exposure on industry returns produces results consistent with the prior literature: that there is little evidence of exchange rate exposure in most industries - the exchange rate exposure puzzle. However, rather than relying solely on the sensitivity of industry returns, we examine the cash flow sensitivity to foreign exchange exposure, of primary interest to firm managers. Critically, decomposing the exposure into cash flow and discount rate components unlocks the exact extent and nature of exposure. Our results show industries have significant cash flow and discount rate exposures. These exposures increase with the level of trade openness and the spread between permanent cash flow exposure and transitory discount rate exposure widens.     

Do analysts add value when they most can? Evidence from corporate spin‐offs

This article investigates how securities analysts help investors understand the value of diversification. By studying the research that analysts produce about companies that have announced corporate spin‐offs, we gain unique insights into how analysts portray diversified firms to the investment community. We find that while analysts' research about these companies is associated with improved forecast accuracy, the value of their research about the spun‐off subsidiaries is more limited. For both diversified firms and their spun‐off subsidiaries, analysts' research is more valuable when information asymmetry between the management of these entities and investors is higher. These findings contribute to the corporate strategy literature by shedding light on the roots of the diversification discount and by showing how analysts' research enables investors to overcome asymmetric information. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Britsch Guyana in 1878

Enkele dngen vóór het verschijnen dezer Aflevering gewordt ons nevensgaand artikel van den Hr. J. A. T. Cohen Stuart, die reeds vroeger zijne inzigten omtrent de immigratie-kwestie in dit Tijdschrift mededeelde, en wiens jarenlange ambtenaars-loopbaan als administrateur der financien in Suriname hem voorzeker allezins aanspraak geeft, mede gehoord te worden. Ofschoon zijne inzigten geheel van die van mr. S. van Praag verschillen, hebben wij, bij de welligt kort op handen zijnde afdoening van het Immigratieontwerp, om de zoo even gemelde reden gemcend aan het verlangen van den geachten inzender te kunnen toegeven, om ook zijne beschouwingen nog met dit No voor het publiek le brengen,-alzoo het audi et alteram partemgaarne, zooveel doenlijk, ook hier toepassende.