Preferences regarding external information sources: a conjoint analysis of visitors to Sardinia,Italy

Utilizing a conjoint analysis approach, this study aims to examine the relative importance of external information sources for female and male international and domestic travelers utilizing data collected from 719 tourists traveling to Sardinia (Italy). Overall, findings reveal that traditional word-of-mouth (i.e. family and friends), online review sites (e.g. TripAdvisor), and the online search engines are the most important external information sources for both domestic and international travelers. However, differences in importance tourists assign to each external source exist based on type of travel (domestic versus international) and gender (male versus female). For example, while traditional word-of-mouth, online review sites, and search engines are the three most important sources for domestic male travelers, the third most important information source for domestic female travelers is found to be printed tour guides. Contributions to the current body of knowledge and managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for further research are provided.     

Shareholder Heterogeneity and Conflicting Goals: Strategic Investments in the Japanese Electronics Industry

This article investigates the effects of the changing institutional environment on strategic orientations of Japanese electronics firms during the 1990s. We examine the effects of three different types of shareholders on strategic directions of their invested firms. The first one, foreign portfolio investors, characterizes the emerging influence that pressed for change in corporate strategies. The two domestic shareholders, corporate investors and financial institutions, represent the conventional forces for continuity. Between the two domestic forces, though, while corporate investors attempted to maintain status quo, financial institutions have shifted towards market‐oriented behaviour of investment. Specifically, we explore: (1) the influence of each type of shareholder on a firm's diversification strategy and capital commitment; and (2) the moderating effects of firm performance on the relationships between ownership structure and strategic choices. The results suggest that foreign investors prefer the focused product portfolio and conservative capital commitment. They also prefer the reduction of capital investment when the financial performance of their invested firms is poor. Domestic financial institutions are now similarly sensitive to the performance of their invested firms when those firms make strategic investments. By contrast, domestic corporate shareholders remain indifferent to performance, while they aim to maintain relational business ties with invested firms.     

Ownership structure, family control, and acquisition decisions

We investigate how ownership and family control influence the decision to take part in M&As as an acquirer or as an acquired company in a sample of 777 large Continental European companies in the period 1998-2008. We find that ownership is negatively correlated with the probability of launching a takeover bid, and family firms are less likely to make acquisitions, especially when the stake held by the family is not large enough to assure the persistence of family control. On the passive side of M&A deals, the effect of the largest shareholders' ownership on the decision to accept an acquisition proposal depends non-linearly on the voting rights they hold, and family control reduces the probability of being acquired by an unrelated party. We do not find evidence that family-controlled firms destroy wealth when they acquire other companies. Finally, we document that ownership and family control, while being negatively correlated with M&A activity, are not negatively correlated with growth in firm size.     

A note on the existence of CAPM equilibria with homogeneous cumulative prospect theory preferences

This note identifies and fixes a minor gap in Proposition 1 in Barberis and Huang (Am Econ Rev 98(5):2066–2100, 2008). Assuming homogeneous cumulative prospect theory decision makers, we show that CAPM is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition that must hold in equilibrium. We support our results with numerical examples where security prices become negative.     

The “Young” Consumer Perception of Functional Foods in Italy

We analysed the role of acceptance of functional foods (FFs) focusing on the preferences expressed by three distinct groups of young Italian consumers. FFs represent an innovation both in terms of technology and marketing for Italian food companies, and the segment of young consumers would appear especially interested in them. Our results showed that a different cultural education, hence the degree of knowledge cumulated by young consumers, is a key element in the preference for, and perception of FFs. This implies the need to identify differentiated marketing strategies for firms seeking to reach this segment of FF demand in Italy.     

The Random Walk Hypothesis in the Spanish Stock Market: 1980–1992

In this paper we test the random walk hypothesis in the Spanish stock market using disaggregated daily data base spanning the period January 1980 to December 1992. We find that daily returns are strongly correlated and nonlinear dependent. Furthermore, using the variance-ratio test, that is robust to heteroscedasticity, the results suggest that the rejection of the random walk hypothesis cannot be attributed completely to the effects of time varying volatilities. In this sense, the price changes can be potentially predictable over, at least, short time spans.     

Convergence of inflation: A necessary prerequisite for EMU?

This article assesses the rationale for inflation convergence as a major criterion for the passage to the final stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). A simple two-country model is developed to examine the effects of the change in regime under different hypotheses concerning agents' expectations. The results suggest that, in the absence of convergence, the move to EMU is likely to produce spillover effects from the high-inflation to the low-inflation country. The latter, therefore, has a strong incentive to request strict convergence criteria for inflation before moving to EMU.     

Projection of input–output tables by means of mathematical programming based on the hypothesis of stable structural evolution

The high costs involved in the construction of input–output tables (IOTs) using survey methods, makes the development of mathematical projection techniques attractive. An adjustment and projection method of IOTs, based on mathematical programming techniques, is proposed here. The flexibility and ability to include information on elements and aggregates is one of this method's main advantages over alternative adjustment methods. Among the information included in the adjustment, the most relevant is related to the evolution hypothesis of the production structure under stable conditions. This leads to the inclusion of intervals for coefficients. A set of adjusted tables, consistent with their own internal structure, is obtained after an interactive and iterative process that reconciles all information sources. A projection of IOTs in Spain for the period 1995–1998 is undertaken to examine the accuracy of the method.     

Gram–Charlier densities: a multivariate approach

This paper introduces a new family of multivariate distributions based on Gram–Charlier and Edgeworth expansions. This family encompasses many of the univariate semi-non-parametric densities proposed in financial econometrics as marginal of its different formulations. Within this family, we focus on the analysis of the specifications that guarantee positivity to obtain well-defined multivariate semi-non-parametric densities. We compare two different multivariate distributions of the family with the multivariate Edgeworth–Sargan, Normal, Student's t and skewed Student's t in an in- and out-of-sample framework for financial returns data. Our results show that the proposed specifications provide a reasonably good performance, and would therefore be of interest for applications involving the modelling and forecasting of heavy-tailed distributions.     

Managerial bias in anticipated images of competing shopping areas

Several dimensions of consumer retail patronage decisions that affect the firm's marketing program are investigated. In particular, the focus of the research extends previous research in the area to investigate the images held by consumers of shopping malls rather than individual stores. Second, the ability of store managers to accurately predict the image held by consumers both of their own shopping area and of a competitor's shopping area is investigated. This is designed to evaluate the ability of managers to predict consumer perceptions irrespective of their own beliefs. Finally, differences in the perceptions of two potential market segments are compared. Manager ability to differentiate between segments is noted. The implications for marketing programming decisions and the contribution the research makes to the body of literature on image measurement are discussed.