Internet shopping and internet banking in sequence: An explanatory case study

Adoption of Internet banking often follows on from usage of Internet shopping, but policies to increase Internet banking use typically ignore this ordering. This article presents a case study that underscores this sequence of Internet service adoption and identifies factors that shape the propensity to use the Internet for shopping and banking. Application of bivariate probit regression techniques to data sourced from a survey of 259 respondents in Athens, Greece, and estimation of marginal effects of the determinants of Internet banking use conditioned on the determinants of Internet shopping use illustrate that ignoring the sequence of Internet service use can lead to incorrect policy recommendations. This article contributes to the literature by theorising the underlying causal mechanisms of Internet banking adoption and presenting supporting evidence via a sequential modelling approach. We find that personal capacity is an important determinant of Internet banking use in a standard, non-sequential approach but it has no significant effect when the model is sequential. Our results suggest that policymakers should emphasise usefulness attributes of Internet banking when attempting to increase Internet banking usage by people who already use the Internet for shopping.     

Wavelet timescales and conditional relationship between higher-order systematic co-moments and portfolio returns

This paper investigates the association between portfolio returns and higher-order systematic co-moments at different timescales obtained through wavelet multi-scaling, a technique that decomposes a given return series into timescales enabling investigation at different return intervals. In Australian industry portfolios, the relative risk positions indicated by systematic co-moments at some timescales are different from those revealed in daily returns. A strong positive (negative) linear association between beta and portfolio return and co-kurtosis and portfolio return in the up (down) market is observed in daily returns and at different timescales. The beta risk is priced in the up and down markets. Co-kurtosis is not priced when the beta is in the pricing model. Co-skewness appears to be priced at a relatively high timescale and this is observed only after the up and down separation of market returns.     

Audit committee financial expertise and properties of analyst earnings forecasts

An important role of financial accounting information is to aid financial statement users in forming expectations about the firm's future earnings. Prior research finds that accounting financial expertise of the audit committee is associated with higher financial reporting quality. We extend this literature by examining the association between audit committee financial expertise and analysts' ability to anticipate future earnings. We find a significant association between accounting financial expertise on the audit committee and analyst earnings forecasts that are more accurate and less dispersed. In contrast, we do not find a significant association between non-accounting financial expertise (i.e., supervisory expertise) and forecast accuracy or forecast dispersion. These findings contribute to our understanding of the benefits of accounting expertise in audit committees by demonstrating an association between accounting financial expertise and improvements in analyst earnings forecasts.     

Business and University Technical Research Cooperation: Some Important Issues

As their product life cycles continue to shorten even further, high-tech firms can be expected to seek more external product research and development assistance. At the same time, as university budgets tighten, aggressive universities will seek more industry funds. These trends lead Don Snyder and David Blevins to predict more business–university cooperation. A nationwide U.S. survey indicates that universities that successfully attract industry funds promote both their willingness and capability to develop new commercial products. They do not insist on a minimum project size and are willing to delay publication of research results. There are, however, some ethical issues that need resolution. Commercial laboratories operated on a for-profit basis have questioned such ventures, citing unfair competition and an inappropriate interpretation of the role of universities.     

Subjective beliefs and economic preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Experimental Economics - The COVID-19 pandemic presents a remarkable opportunity to put to work all of the research that has been undertaken in past decades on the elicitation and structural...     

Stop tank abuse

Large volumes of fluids are processed or stored in tanks of all shapes and sizes and occupy a major portion of the landscape within our chemical plants and refineries. These tanks serve the industry very well but occasionally they suffer from improper design or abusive conditions and failures occur.     

Double devaluations: Class,value and the rise of the right in the Global North

This article builds on the contributions of anthropologists of Europe in discovering, tracing and explaining the neo-nationalist ascendancy of the last 20 years. It picks up on earlier publications to make a succinct case for a decidedly anthropological class analysis of this worldwide and world-shaking phenomenon, with a view mainly on Europe and the United States. It suggests the usefulness of a notion of ‘double devaluation’ in understanding and explaining recent rightward shifts in popular politics in the Global North, encompassing both rural and urban spaces.     

Valuation effects of earnings management on hotel firm value

This study investigates the valuation effects of earnings quality on a hotel’s firm value between 1991 and 2017. A unique perspective from the financial crisis period is utilized to explore the changes further when hotel firms face financial distress. We adopt the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method in this study. Generalized Least Squares (GLS) regression and Petersen’s Clustered Standard Error Model to confirm the validity of results. Seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) analysis is adopted to compare the impact of the financial crisis on subsamples of low and high Altman Z-scores and subsamples of non-Big-4 and Big-4 firms. Substantial evidence supports our assertion that increased discretionary accruals and earnings management bring down earnings quality and, in turn, decrease a hotel’s firm value. Results reinforce that the 2008 financial crisis had an impact on the relationship between earnings management and hotel firm value. The negative effect that discretionary accruals and earnings management have on hotel firm value is mitigated for hotel firms with low credit strength or not audited by one of the Big-4 firms. Stockholders of hotel firms should be aware of the impact and enforce additional measures to control earnings management activities during a financial crisis.