Anticipating Long‐Term Stock Market Volatility

We investigate the relationship between long‐term US stock market risks and the macroeconomic environment using a two‐component GARCH‐MIDAS model. Our results show that macroeconomic variables are important determinants of the secular component of stock market volatility. Among the various macro variables in our dataset the term spread, housing starts, corporate profits and the unemployment rate have the highest predictive ability for long‐term stock market volatility. While the term spread and housing starts are leading variables with respect to stock market volatility, for industrial production and the unemployment rate expectations data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters regarding the future development are most informative. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corporate Environmental Strategies Towards Sustainable Development

Many companies have adopted some form of environmental programme to manage their relationship with nature. However, a company's environmental achievements tend to be disconnected from its general operations; consequently, these achievements are ineffective. The purpose of this article is to employ a conceptual approach to explore ways to compose effective corporate environmental strategies. From a resource perspective, the flow of material, knowledge and experiences, relationships, communication, and cooperation and control are discussed as strategy aspects central to an effective environmental strategy. Using these five strategy aspects we show how three different strategies with different contents and directions can be assembled. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

BALANCING ACTS: NPO-LEADERSHIP AND VOLUNTEERING

Volunteering is regarded as an increasingly important phenomenon and the 'employment' of volunteers as one of the typical traits of nonprofit organizations. However, the consequences of volunteering for everyday practices of NPO-leadership, i.e. the question of how non-paid employees are treated in settings where formal power is lacking, have so far not received the attention they deserve. Our paper discusses practices for leading without formal power by presenting findings from an empirical research project. Using a Grounded Theory approach, we identify five interrelated practices that question conventional notions of transformative or charismatic leadership.     

Choosing the “cargo” for Noah's Ark - Applying Weitzman's approach to Borana cattle in East Africa

If Noah had had the opportunity to select the animals he took on board his Ark, he would have had to choose between many species, breeds and types within breeds, all containing different genetic material. How could he have made the right choice and which would he have taken on board given the constraints he had to face? Those trying to save threatened livestock breeds within a tight conservation budget face similar questions. In this paper we assess how different types of Borana cattle, a culturally significant breed in East Africa, might be prioritized for conservation. By applying a cost-effectiveness analysis on the basis of Weitzman's approach we conclude that the highest priority should be given to the Ethiopian Borana type (EB) in Ethiopia. Noah, however, would also have been concerned about the problems of inbreeding and effective population size. To overcome this problem we suggest that, rather than loading just two animals, he should have loaded on board 1000 female and 100 male animals as a safe minimum. The minimum cost of conserving 1100 animals of the EB type with the participation of Ethiopian communities is calculated to be €7700 per year, mostly in the form of compensation payments to meet the opportunity costs of livestock-keepers that arise when maintaining the EB.     

Merger negotiations and the toehold puzzle

The substantial control premium typically observed in corporate takeovers makes a compelling case for acquiring target shares (a toehold) in the market prior to launching a bid. Moreover, auction theory suggests that toehold bidding may yield a competitive advantage over rival bidders. Nevertheless, with a sample exceeding 10,000 initial control bids for US public targets, we show that toehold bidding has declined steadily since the early 1980s and is now surprisingly rare. At the same time, the average toehold is large when it occurs (20%), and toeholds are the norm in hostile bids. To explain these puzzling observations, we develop and test a two-stage takeover model where attempted merger negotiations are followed by open auction. With optimal bidding, a toehold imposes a cost on target management, causing some targets to (rationally) reject merger negotiations. Optimal toeholds are therefore either zero (to avoid rejection costs) or greater than a threshold (so that toehold benefits offset rejection costs). The toehold threshold estimate averages 9% across initial bidders, reflecting in part the bidder's opportunity loss of a merger termination agreement. In the presence of market liquidity costs, a threshold of this size may well induce a broad range of bidders to select zero toehold. As predicted, the probability of toehold bidding decreases, and the toehold size increases, with the threshold estimate. The model also predicts a relatively high frequency of toehold bidding in hostile bids, as observed. Overall, our test results are consistent with rational bidder behavior with respect to the toehold decision.     

Organisational Control and the Self: Critiques and Normative Expectations

This article explores the normative assumptions about the self that are implicitly and explicitly embedded in critiques of organisational control. Two problematic aspects of control are examined – the capacity of some organisations to produce unquestioning commitment, and the elicitation of ‹false’ selves. Drawing on the work of Rom Harré, and some examples of organisational-self processes gone awry, I investigate the dynamics involved and how they violate the normative expectations that we hold regarding the self, particularly its moral autonomy and authenticity. The article concludes by arguing that, despite post-structuralist challenges, some notion of a ‹core’ or ‹real’ self still holds salience for employees negotiating their identities within regimes of control. The assumptions and expectations surrounding this aspect of self are also a pivotal element in the western intellectual tradition that promotes and enables critique.     

Some evidence on Ross' resolution irrelevancy hypothesis

This research attempts to discriminate empirically between the predictable events and resolution irrelevancy hypotheses as both pertain to abnormal stock price performance around regular and special proxy statement mailing dates and the related shareholder meeting dates. We find no evidence that these events result in the positive wealth effects suggested by the predictable events hypothesis. We do find evidence of increased idiosyncratic stock price volatility or information flow around special meeting proxy statement mailing dates and special meeting dates. Thus, our evidence supports the resolution irrelevancy hypothesis.     

Health care system redesign: a strategic management framework

The current health care environment can best be characterized as uncertain, unfamiliar, ambiguous, unexpected, untraveled, and amorphous. All administrators and managers are facing a tremendous challenge in managing available human, technological, materiel, and fiscal resources to accomplish their organization's mission. They must be able to assess organizational environments, identify strategies to align the organization and the environment, implement these strategies, and continuously evaluate the outcomes of those strategies. Therefore, health care administrators and managers must adopt a management perspective that is responsive, dynamic, comprehensive, systematic, and both process and outcome oriented. Such a perspective is strategic management.