The impact of geographic diversification on export performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Two alternative diversification strategies—the geographic diversification of export sales and key market concentration—are extensively discussed in management, strategy, entrepreneurship, and economics literature. However, no conclusive evidence currently exists as to how either of these strategies affects the performance of international sales. This paper contributes to a better understanding of geographic diversification as a key dimension of the internationalization process for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In it, we analyze a comprehensive database of Polish exporters over a 3-year period to better understand the geographic diversification patterns of exporters. Based on this analysis, six propositions emerged from the export patterns examined and two viable strategies for exporting SMEs are identified: (1) concentrating on a single market and (2) a balanced approach aimed at targeting a small number of key markets, combined with a strategy of penetrating other markets. Implications for practice and future research are also discussed herein.     

Banking in the theory of finance

Banks are financial intermediaries that issue deposits and use the proceeds to purchase securities. This paper argues that when banking is competitive, these portfolio management activities in principle fall under the Modigliani-Miller theorem on the irrelevance of pure financing decisions. It follows that there is no need to control the deposit creation or security purchasing activities of banks to obtain a stable general equilibrium with respect to prices and real activity. In practice, however, banks are forcibly involved in the process by which a pure nominal commodity or unit of account is made to play the role of numeraire in a monetary system. The paper examines the nature of such a nominal commodity and how, through reserve requirements, banks get involved in making it a real economic good.     

Hostile bank takeover offers : Analysis and implications

A comparison of the financial characteristics of banks involved in hostile takeover bids with a control group of nonhostile bank mergers indicates: (1) hostile targets experience abnormal returns that are significantly greater than for the targets of nonhostile bank mergers; (2) hostile bidders experience negative abnormal returns that are insignificantly different than for bidders involved in nonhostile bank mergers; (3) hostile bank acquisition announcements produce positive net wealth effects which are larger than the wealth effects of nonhostile acquisitions; (4) a Logit regression model using financial ratios, stock price data, and ownership data is able to distinguish between hostile and nonhostile targets.     

Cultural myths: Clues to effective management

Managers represent one form of the modern-day hero. As such, they are expected to extoll those virtues that have permeated the heroic myths of the past. Among these virtues are courage, strength, self-sacrifice, and humility. Before these noble qualities can be put to work for the collective good, it is necessary for the manager to reach full emotional maturity by slaying two formidable dragons that reside within the psyche: self-serving narcissism and the fear of one's complementary nature, whether it be masculine or feminine.In concluding this article, I would like to leave the reader with a thought expressed by Joseph Campbell in his The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology: “Clearly, mythology is no toy for children. Nor is it a matter of archaic, merely scholarly concern, of no moment to modern men of action. For its symbols touch and release the deepest centers of motivation, moving literate and illiterate alike, moving mobs, moving civilizations.”     

Roger boisjoly and the challenger disaster: The ethical dimensions

This case study focuses on Roger Boisjoly's attempt to prevent the launch of the Challenger and subsequent quest to set the record straight despite negative consequences. Boisjoly's experiences before and after the Challenger disaster raise numerous ethical issues that are integral to any explanation of the disaster and applicable to other management situations. Underlying all these issues, however, is the problematic relationship between individual and organizational responsibility. In analyzing this fundamental issue, this paper has two objectives: first, to demonstrate the extent to which the ethical ambiguity that permeates the relationship between individual and organizational responsibility contributed to the Challenger disaster; second, to reclaim the meaning and importance of individual responsibility within the diluting context of large organizations.Russell P. Boisjoly is Associate Professor and Chairperson, Department of Finance at the University of Lowell where he specializes in Corporate Finance. His research focuses on applications of finance to regulated firms, especially in trucking and electric utility industries. He has published a number of articles on capital structure, mergers, bankruptcy prediction, and ethics.Ellen Foster Curtis is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Lowell where she specializes in Business Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Transportation. Her research focuses on labor relations, impacts of transportation deregulation, and ethical issues in business. She has published a number of articles on these topics, labor relations in the transportation industries, and ethics.Eugene Mellican is Chairperson of the Philosophy Department at the University of Lowell. He describes himself as a student of philosophy concentrating on issues in applied ethics.     

HOUSING AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN RUSSIA: ZHIVAGO'S LEGACY

The inadequacy of housing and its effect on the quality of lifego a long way toward explaining many aspects of Russian life,but little data has been available to determine how housingaffected the relative well-being of the citizenry. This paperpresents comprehensive data examining for the first time theeffect that seventy years of a socialist housing allocationscheme had on the distribution of income. It seems clear thathousing provided by the government or by employers has a valuethat can be measured to yield useful inferences about the distributionof income and wealth. This article shows that housing allocation had a progressiveeffect on the distribution of income in Russia. In addition,when the imputed value of housing is added to household income,the increase in income inequality that occurred in recent yearsis significantly reduced. The analysis concludes with a discussionof how housing policy could be used to address poverty concerns,an important aspect of the transition process.      

The Behavior of Interest Rates

The evidence in Fama and Bliss (1987) that forward interestrates forecast future spot interest rates for horizons beyonda year repeats in the out-of-sample 1986–2004 period.But the inference that this forecast power is due to mean reversionof the spot rate toward a constant expected value no longerseems valid. Instead, the predictability of the spot rate capturedby forward rates seems to be due to mean reversion toward atime-varying expected value that is subject to a sequence ofapparently permanent shocks that are on balance positive tomid-1981 and on balance negative thereafter.