Investment Project Valuation: A New Equity Perspective

We suggest a new approach to calculating a project's net present value, termed the displaced equity method. Based on a straightforward formula, it analyzes a project partially financed with debt from the perspective that every year the amount of outstanding debt displaces an equivalent amount of equity that otherwise would be tied up in the project. Although they represent distinct shareholders' perspectives, the displaced equity method and the equity residual method yield identical net present values and internal rates of return. Every year, the project's value calculated with the displaced equity method is equal to the sum of the project's debt and equity values. In practice, when the schedule of expected outstanding debt amounts is known, using the displaced equity method is an easy way to estimate the project's net present value.     

Judgemental Overconfidence, Self-Monitoring, and Trading Performance in an Experimental Financial Market

We measure the degree of overconfidence in judgement (in the form of miscalibration, i.e. the tendency to overestimate the precision of one's information) and self-monitoring (a form of attentiveness to social cues) of 245 participants and also observe their behaviour in an experimental financial market under asymmetric information. Miscalibrated traders, underestimating the conditional uncertainty about the asset value, are expected to be especially vulnerable to the winner's curse. High self-monitors are expected to behave strategically and achieve superior results. Our empirical results show that miscalibration reduces and self-monitoring enhances trading performance. The effect of the psychological variables is strong for men but non-existent for women.     

Hedge funds versus private equity funds as shareholder activists in Germany — differences in value creation

We investigate the valuation effects of German firms targeted by hedge funds and by private equity investors. We argue that both types of investors differ from other blockholders by their strong motivation and ability to actively engage and reduce agency costs. Consequently, we find positive abnormal returns following a change in ownership structure. However, these effects differ markedly between both investors, as proxy variables for agency costs only explain the market reaction for our private equity subsample. We conclude that private equity funds seem to be more successful at creating shareholder value, which could be due to their longer-term perspective and a higher adaptability to the surrounding corporate governance system.     

Perceptions of high‐involvement work practices and burnout: the mediating role of job demands

This study examined the impact of perceived high‐involvement work practices on job demands (role conflict, role overload and role ambiguity) and burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation). The study was conducted in a Canadian general hospital. Findings from structural equation modelling (N = 545) revealed that perceived HIWPs were significantly and negatively related to job demands and burnout. Role conflict and role overload have a significant positive association with emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. Finally, role conflict and role overload partially mediate the relationship between perceived HIWPs and burnout. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings for our understanding of how HIWPs influence the job demands and burnout of employees.     

Estimating the effect of a retraining program on the re-employment rate of displaced workers

In this article, we estimate the effects of a French retraining program on the re-employment rate of displaced workers by matching techniques. This program, called ‘Conventions de conversion’, was intended to improve re-employment prospects of displaced workers by proposing them retraining and job seeking assistance for a period of 6 months beginning just after the dismissal. Our empirical analysis is based upon non-experimental data collected by the French Ministry of Labour. Matching estimates show that this program succeeded in increasing the employment rate of trainees by approximately 6 points of percentage in the medium-term, namely in the 2nd and 3rd years after the date of entry into the program. This improvement is essentially due to an increase of their re-employment rate in regular jobs, namely jobs under long-term labour contracts.     

The creation of complicity a semiotic analysis of an advertising campaign for Black & White whisky

A qualitative pre-test study, employing the structured semiotic methodology of Greimas and the Paris school, was conducted on four print advertisements conceived for a Black & White whisky campaign, and this article presents the major findings. Both the content and expression of the advertisements are examined, in terms of elementary oppositions, of narrative organization, of cultural values, and of linguistic and plastic manifestations. Finally, the ironic quality of the enunciation, playing on cultural stereotypes, is shown to demonstrate an equivalence between the ‘author’ of the campaign and the target public envisaged.     

An engineering approach to LSE modelling of experience curves in the electricity supply industry

This review is a supplement to the paper by Sharp and Price (1990) and should be regarded as an alternative engineering approach to the modelling and forecasting of experience, or learning, curves. It highlights the problems associated with accurately defining a model to time series that show a combination of a continuous trend and a cyclical component, as detected by the authors in the Sharp and Price data. The authors give a number of alternative perspectives of the same time series, in this case average thermal efficiency data from the U.K. electricity supply industry, with the corresponding conclusions associated with each approach. Particular attention is drawn to the use of the “time constant learning curve” quoted by Sharp and Price which the authors show is a reasonable predictor of the average thermal efficiency. However, a tremendous improvement results from selecting the “ripple” model as a thermal efficiency predictor.     

The use of co-nomination to identify expert participants for Technology Foresight

The United Kingdom has been carrying out a major exercise in the field of Technology Foresight, involving fifteen panels engaged in wide consultation about the future of their areas. The objectives of the Programme are to help set priorities for publicly funded science and technology and to create new working partnerships between science and industry. The paper describes the process by which members of the panels, and those whom they subsequently consulted, were identified. A survey-based technique known as co-nomination was employed, whereby respondents were asked to identify suitable participants and at the same time to profile their own expertise. The process was repeated with those nominated. The patterns of expertise thus revealed are themselves of interest and are used to construct a map of the inter-relationship between the fields covered by the panels.