Institutional investors' holdings surrounding equity rights offerings

We examine shareholding surrounding Swedish rights offerings using detailed information on the ownership in firms. We analyze shareholding levels and their changes for domestic and foreign institutional investors. As institutional holdings change, domestic institutions increase their holdings more than foreign institutions. Our examination of low and high buying activities by institutional investors surrounding rights offerings shows no stock picking ability, thus not supporting the “smart-money hypothesis” (Gibson et al., 2004). We also find that investor domicile influences firm value following the offering. Overall, foreign investors exhibit a strong and opposite directional reaction to adverse selection costs than domestic investors.     

Consumer Preferences for ‘Localness’ and Organic Food Production

While organic food is based on well-defined production criteria, the criteria for ‘local’ food are less clear. This study investigates the preferences and trade-offs of distinct consumer segments relative to organic production and several dimensions of local food (sales channel, size of company, and geographical location of animals used in the production). The analysis is based on a quantitative survey of 505 Danish consumers and a choice experiment involving beef salami. Data were analyzed in a principal component and a latent class analysis. We identify five consumer segments whose preferences for organic and local product attributes differed substantially. Most respondents considered geographical proximity in the raising of cattle to be the most important attribute and a third of the consumers were willing to pay a premium for organic salami. The segmentation provides more detailed information about stated consumer behavior than what is typically elicited when considering only average consumer behavior.     

The empowerment expectation–perception gap: An examination of three alternative models

Previous empowerment research has focused on subordinate perceptions of empowering leadership and its outcomes. Met‐expectations theory suggests that subordinate expectations of leader behaviours are essential in forming their a posteriori evaluations. To address the lack of investigation of individual expectations in the empowerment literature, in this study, we explore how subordinates' empowerment expectations and perceptions combine to influence their job satisfaction and psychological empowerment based on three alternative, theoretically derived met‐expectation models, namely, the disconfirmation model, the ideal‐point model, and the experiences‐only model. The results of a 2‐stage study of 114 respondents indicate that employees are more satisfied with their work when perceived empowerment exceeds expectations. However, both empowerment perceptions and expectations positively contribute to higher psychological empowerment. We then discuss implications and directions for future research.     

If It Works,I like It: Consumer Acceptance of Food-Related Nudging

Abstract

The aim of the current study is to investigate factors that influence consumer acceptance of food-related nudging. Previous studies indicate that perceived effectiveness may positively influence acceptance of nudging, while limited freedom of choice may reduce acceptance. On this basis, acceptance, perceived effectiveness and perceived limited freedom of choice were measured for 11 different food-related nudges in a national representative sample of 455 adults. Five of the nudges were variations of placement alteration, while six were variations of informational labeling. Perceived effectiveness was identified as a significant positive predictor for acceptance of all of the investigated nudges (p?<?0.001), while perceived limited freedom of choice decreased acceptance of all investigated nudges (p?≤?0.02). Perceived effectiveness was the strongest predictor for acceptance of all types of nudges (β-values from 0.55 to 0.75), yet perceived limited freedom of choice was also a significant factor (β-values from ?0.07 to ?0.23).     

Made in the World? Global Value Chains in the Midst of Rising Protectionism

Review of Industrial Organization - In the last decade, the concept of ‘global value chain’ (GVC) has become popular to describe the way firms fragment production into different stages...     

OPEC's Response to International Climate Agreements

This paper studies a game between a group of countries that have agreed to participate in an international climate agreement (the signatories) and OPEC. The purpose of the signatories is to design carbon taxes that maximize their total net income, given a goal on global carbon emissions. As a response to the climate agreement, OPEC imposes an oil tax on its member states that maximizes OPEC's profits. Within a numerical model we find the subgame-perfect equilibrium of a game in which each player chooses when to fix his decision variables. It is shown that in equilibrium the group of signatories chooses to be the leader and OPEC chooses to be the follower. It is demonstrated, however, that for both agents the order of move is of minor (numerical) importance. Hence, the players have limited incentives for strategic behaviour.     

Bioeconomic Analysis and Management

This article discusses bioeconomic analysis and different management strategies in fisheries. It reviews recent developments, which show the need to expand the analysis to multispecies fisheries and management. Significant gains can be made if the interdependencies between species and/or jointness in inputs for many fisheries are identified. Both common property resource management and individual transferable quotas (ITQs) can be fruitful strategies in different settings. The article suggests that there is scope for the development of a multiple use management approach of marine resources. Besides the aim of an efficient use of fish stocks, equal attention should be given to other values from aquatic ecosystems, like ecological services, biodiversity and recreation possibilities.     

The Global Competition for Wild Fish Resources between Livestock and Aquaculture

Aquaculture satisfies a growing global demand for fish but also consumes an increasing share of the world’s wild fish resources. This has led to a concern that increased aquaculture production poses a threat to the sustainability of capture fisheries. We use a shrinkage estimator to estimate fishmeal demand from countries with different make‐up of meat and farmed salmon production. Although we are not able to identify structural differences between these sectors, the empirical results show that fishmeal demand is price inelastic. Technological change, however, is reducing fishmeal usage in feeds, suggesting that strong demand pressure on pelagic fish resources targeted for fishmeal is a temporary phenomenon.     

Categorizing risks in seven large projects—Which risks do the projects focus on?

In a hierarchy of project objectives, strategic objectives will often be principally different from the operational ones. Operational objectives concern the project outputs/results, and strategic objectives concern the project goal and purpose. In this study, risks are categorized as risks to operational, long‐term, or short‐term strategic objectives, and, by studying a dataset of some 1,450 risk elements that make up the risk registers of seven large projects, we examine how operational and strategic risks are distributed in the projects. The study strongly indicates that risks to a project's strategic objectives rarely occur in the project's risk registers, though project success and failure stories indicate their importance.