Insider trading returns and dividend signals

The literature shows that insider trading activities and dividends contain information content and serve as signals to firm value. If insider return is a proxy for information asymmetry, we should expect a positive relation between dividends and insider returns. Using a sample of unambiguous (good and bad) news concerning earnings and dividend announcements from Hong Kong firms, we show that information asymmetry is stronger for bad news firms with insider sales than good news firms with insider purchases. In addition, we improve the methodology of Khang and King [Khang, K., & King, T. H. D. (2006). Does dividend policy relate to cross-sectional variation in information asymmetry? Evidence from returns to insider trades. Financial Management, 35, 71–94] and provide evidence that dividend is a credible signal for measuring information asymmetry.     

Runaway system characterization and vent sizing based on diers methodology

This article reveals the diverse nature of runaway systems as well as some general trends. In addition, it also serves to point out the usefulness of such an apparatus in characterizing virtually unknown systems.     

Dividend preference of tradable‐share and non‐tradable‐share holders in Mainland China

Comprehensive data on corporate announcements of Chinese firms allows us to examine the preference for, and determinants of, cash and stock dividends. The results indicate that Chinese public investors prefer stock dividends over cash dividends, which are preferred by large state and legal person shareholders generally. Stock dividends, which do not require an explicit cash outflow from a firm, are found to be positively related to higher earnings, supporting the signalling hypothesis of dividend policy. In an imperfect market, these results have some implications for government regulation of financial markets.     

Price Volatility of Commercial and Residential Property

This article studies the relative volatility of commercial and residential property prices. Empirical evidence of commercial property prices being more volatile than the prices of residential property is presented. Models are built following that of Lucas. Theoretical statements are derived to show the exact conditions under which the observations arise. The cases of fixed supply and flexible supply are considered separately.     

Technical,allocative and economic efficiencies in swine production in Hawaii: a comparison of parametric and nonparametric approaches

Technical, allocative and economic efficiency measures arc derived for a sample of swine producers in Hawaii using the parametric stochastic efficiency decomposition technique and nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA). Efficiency measures obtained from the two frontiei approaches are compared. Firm-specific factors affecting productive efficiencies are also analyzed. Finally, swine producers, potential for reducing cost through improved efficiency is also examined. Under the specification of variable returns to scale (VRS), the mean technical, allocative and economic efficiency indices are 75.9%, 75.8% and 57.1%, respectively, for the parametric approach and 75.9%, 80.3% and 60.3% for DEA; while for the constant returns to scale (CRS) they are 74.5%, 73.9% and 54.7%, respectively, for the parametric approach and 64.3%, 71.4% and 45.7% for DEA. Thus the results from both approaches reveal considerable inefficiencies in swine production in Hawaii. The removal of potential outliers increases the technical efficiencies in the parametric approach anil allocative efficiencies in DEA, but, overall, contrary to popular belief, the results obtained from DEA are found to be more robust than those from the parametric approach. The estimated mean technical and economic efficiencies obtained from the parametric technique are higher than those from DEA for CRS models but quite similar for VRS models, while allocative efficiencies are generally higher in DEA. However, the efficiency rankings of the sample producers based on the two approaches are highly correlated, with the highest correlation being achieved for the technical efficiency rankings under CRS. Based on mean comparison and rank correlation analyses, the return to scale assumption is found to be crucial in assessing the similarities or differences in efficiency measures obtained from the two approaches. Analysis of the role of various firm-specific factors on productive efficiency shows that farm size has strong positive effects on efficiency levels. Similarly, farms producing market hogs arc-more efficient than those producing feeder pigs. Based on these results, by operating at the efficient frontier the sample swine producers would be able to reduce their production costs by 38-46% depending upon the method and returns to scale considered.     

New product adoption by pharmacists

The objective of this paper is to report a study into the new product buying behaviour of retail pharmacists in Britain and their ways of handling product and marketing information. The research was of an exploratory and qualitative nature, involving in‐depth personal interviews with a relatively small sample of 37 retail pharmacists within the Greater Manchester and Mersey area.

The results show that retail pharmacists in general are indifferent to and reluctant to accept new pharmaceutical products. Retail pharmacists normally are too busy to attend any professional meetings but those who do attend meetings regularly seem to be more innovative, which indicates the existence of opinion leadership in the pharmaceutical community.

With respect to the sources of information, commercial sources are useful for creating awareness, but personal channels are more influential in the later stages of the decision‐making process. Finally, the results indicate that lack of information and poor communications amongst retail pharmacists, physicians and manufacturers are possibly a major reason for new product failure. Using these findings the authors highlight important lessons which may apply to a wide range of product marketing. In particular the risks/opportunities of new product development and marketing are discussed.     

A comparative analysis of the market-based and accounting-based performance of diversifying and non-diversifying acquisitions in Hong Kong

This paper investigates the short-term return performance and long-term operating performance of 36 partial mergers in Hong Kong during the period 1984–1996. We first conduct an event-study to evaluate the short-term market performance of the target, the bidder and a simulated combined portfolio consisting of both firms involved in the acquisition. The second method provides long-term performance indicators based on composite indices created from key financial ratios. The results of the event-study indicate that there are immediate share price gains to the target, acquiring and combined firms around the time the acquisition is announced. However, the long-term accounting-based performance analysis does not show a significant improvement in the 2 years following the acquisition for both the target and acquiring firms. No correlation is found between the short-term returns and the long-term performance indicators. These findings support the more recent literature on the potential benefits of diversification, and the view that diversifying acquisitions perform better than related acquisitions.     

Rights Issues in the Chinese Stock Market: Evidence of Earnings Management

Using 665 rights offerings of Chinese firms, we demonstrate positive but diminishing price effects of successive announcements at the board meeting, the shareholders' meeting, the prospectus release date, and the ex‐rights date, but negative abnormal returns before the ex‐rights date. Public investors value the participation from shareholders of state and legal‐person shares in the rights offerings, which seem to be linked to the future firm performance. The results overall supports the hypothesis that Chinese company earnings are considerably manipulated in the rights issue process.     

Corporate Governance,Investment, and Firm Valuation in Asian Emerging Markets

We investigate the effects of corporate governance and family ownership on firm valuation through investment efficiency in Asian emerging markets. Using 3 years of time series data from the Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia corporate governance score for 10 Asian emerging markets, we find that good corporate governance leads to better or more efficient investment decisions and eventually to higher firm value. We also find that investors reward firms for improvement in corporate governance. The findings do not hold for Asian firms with a family or concentrated ownership structure. The results are not driven by changes in accounting standards in these markets.