Hedge funds and financial stability: Regulating prime brokers will mitigate systemic risks

We review key characteristics of the hedge fund industry, and identify conditions under which this sector can pose a threat to financial stability. Direct regulation of hedge funds that increases transparency does not appear feasible, may create a moral-hazard problem, and may reduce market liquidity. Indirect regulation by prime brokers and market discipline by creditors, counterparties, and investors have been effective in limiting the risks from the hedge fund sector. To reduce systemic risks, more regulation of prime brokers is warranted to avoid competitive dynamics from undermining counterparty risk management practices.     

Bondholder Wealth Effects in Mergers and Acquisitions: New Evidence from the 1980s and 1990s

We examine the wealth effects of mergers and acquisitions on target and acquiring firm bondholders in the 1980s and 1990s. Consistent with a coinsurance effect, below investment grade target bonds earn significantly positive announcement period returns. By contrast, acquiring firm bonds earn negative announcement period returns. Additionally, target bonds have significantly larger returns when the target's rating is below the acquirer's, when the combination is anticipated to decrease target risk or leverage, and when the target's maturity is shorter than the acquirer's. Finally, we find that target and acquirer announcement period bond returns are significantly larger in the 1990s.     

Issues in Growing a Family Business: A Strategic Human Resource Model

The conceptual literature on family businesses suggests that family businesses have difficulty managing their human resources, especially when it concerns a family member or the transition from the founder to the successor. The authors empirically examined the assumptions raised in the conceptual literature regarding whether family businesses were experiencing human resource problems in growing their business and what factors enabled or constrained the ability of their businesses to grow. The authors used in-depth interviewing to collect data in order to emphasize the depth of the issue. Using content analysis with subject matter experts coding the data, the authors sought to mine the richness of data. Finally, the authors analyzed the data using Elliot Jaques' Stratified Systems Theory as a model to examine the strategic human resource issues and to draw some tentative conclusions.     

Metagame analysis of competitive strategy

The need for effective competitive strategy planning for a firm's survival and growth has long been recognized to be important. The identification and selection of good, or robust, market strategies must be based on the anticipation of the likely strategies of significant competitors, who should ideally be visualized as undergoing a similar process of assessing their own and other's goals and probable strategies. This paper reviews and evaluates the traditional economic and game theoretic approaches to competitive strategy analysis and presents an application of metagame analysis—an approach which has not previously been used in the strategic business environment. This approach, which appears to have some significant advantages over both economic and game theoretic approaches has been utilized and evaluated in a business firm (Dutta and King, forthcoming). An illustration of its use, which is based on a real-world application, is discussed.     

The Ethics of Professorial Book Selling: Morality, Money and "Black Market" Books

This study used experimental and correlational techniques to examine perceptions that university faculty hold regarding the practice of professorial selling of examination textbooks to wholesalers. Faculty members (n = 236) from 14 universities and community colleges and a wide variety of academic disciplines responded to a web-based survey. We presented hypothetical selling situations to respondents with manipulated variables consisting of solicitation status (unsolicited versus solicited) and use of money (for faculty or for student activities). Both main effects and the interaction effect were significant such that respondents perceived it to be more ethical to sell an examination book when the book was unsolicited and when the money was being used to fund student activities. The variable most correlated with faculty members' beliefs that book selling is ethical and the faculty members' self-reports of whether or not they have engaged in bookselling was how widespread the practice appeared to be on campus. About 30 percent of faculty members sold textbooks over the past year at a dollar value of about $80 per professor. About 38 percent of respondents reported they believed the practice to be generally ethical. Implications for business ethics theory, students' moral development, and advancement of on-campus codes of ethics policies are discussed along with avenues for future research.     

Tourist Perceptions of Event–Sponsor Brand Fit and Sponsor Brand Attitude

Sponsorships play an increasingly important role in the viability of events, including those targeted at tourists, and sponsors typically seek to build a rapport between their brands and the event attendees. The extent to which the event-related imagery benefits the sponsor brand will depend on the alignment between the sponsor brand and the event. In addressing this issue this study examines the mediating role of event–sponsor fit between visitor event-liking, self-sponsor congruity, and sponsor brand favorability. Interviews were conducted with 1215 attendees at the 2010 Taipei International Flora Exhibition and formed a basis for hypothesis testing. An examination of three sponsor brands over nine surveys concluded that event–sponsor fit consistently mediates the effect of event-liking and self-sponsor congruity on brand favorability. Results confirmed that event organizers and sponsors can benefit from the use of perceived fit as a means of shaping brand attitudes when they sponsor art- and/or social-related events.     

Electronic decision aids: Integration of a consumer perspective

Merchants and manufacturers are rapidly adopting electronic decision aids to help sell a variety of merchandise. These systems provide product information or recommendations based on input from the consumer and affect the way consumers process information. A conceptual framework, based on information processing theory and three strategic consumer difference variables — goal orientation, autonomy, and expertise — is presented. Based on these differences, propositions are derived to guide design of effective electronic decision aids.

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Zusammenfassung Elektronische Entscheidungshilfen: Die Miteinbeziehung der Perspektive des Verbrauchers Händler un Hersteller verwenden in wachsendem Ma\e elektronische Entscheidungshilfen beim Verkauf einer Vielzahl von Waren. Solche Hilfen stellen Produktinformation bereit und liefern Empfehlungen auch aufgrund solcher Dateneingaben, die von der Verbraucherseite kommen, und sie beeinflussen die Art und Weise, wie die Konsumenten Information verarbeiten. Der Beitrag liefert einen begrifflichen Rahmen, der auf der Theorie der Informationsverarbeitung und auf drei Konsumentenvariablen — Zielorientierung, Autonomie und Kompetenz — aufbaut. Auf dieser Grundlage werden Vorschläge für die Gestaltung wirksamer elektronischer Entscheidungshilfen abgeleitet.

     

Discrimination and development? Immigration,urbanisation and sustainable livelihoods in Johannesburg

Through its analysis of new survey data and interviews coupled with participant observation, this article examines how official and popular responses to international migration and urbanisation may undermine Johannesburg's efforts to build a prosperous, safe and inclusive city. Working from the position that international migration is an inexorable response to regional economic inequality, it illustrates how ignorance, xenophobia and legal discrimination are preventing significant numbers of foreign migrants from productively integrating into Johannesburg's politics, economy and communities. It concludes that, in an era of migration, building inclusive and sustainable cities means finding creative ways to combat discrimination based on nationality, even when such exclusion is legally, politically, and socially mandated. Doing otherwise tacitly endorses human rights abuses, social fragmentation, inequitable growth and insecurity.