Social network design for inducing effort

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - Many companies create and manage communities where consumers observe and exchange information about the effort exerted by other consumers. Such communities...     

Role of complementarities in technology adoption: The case of DVD players

This paper estimates complementarities between DVD player adoption and availability of content on DVD. We use household level quasi-panel data on adoption decisions of 47,893 unique households; monthly data on the availability of movies for rental on DVD at 140 different local regions, and monthly data on the number of movies released on DVD nationally. We focus on an early period after the technology launch (2000–2001), and estimate statistically and economically significant complementarities.     

Socio-Economic Effects of Agri-Tourism on Local Communities in Turkey: The Case of Aglasun

This research aims to investigate the main socio-economic effects of agri-tourism on local community of Aglasun village in Burdur, Turkey. The study tries to give a perspective on the development of agri-tourism in Turkey and has a purpose of focusing on the social and economical dynamics of the host-guest encounters by pointing out the linkage between agriculture and tourism as a growing importance among tourism scholars. According to the interview results, economic benefits of agri-tourism have not been observed yet, since it is a new type of development in the region. Some dimensions of social effects such as tourist contact and cultural exchange are more observable than the others such as eating&drinking habits or clothing habits. Since there is not not any fully developed agri-touristic village in Turkey, the study is going to focus on the future expectations, long term benefits and perceptions on agri-tourism.     

INTEREST RATE CORRIDOR,LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT,AND THE OVERNIGHT SPREAD

We analyze the determinants of the overnight spread (the spread between the Borsa Istanbul overnight repo interest rate and the average funding rate of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey [CBRT]) using data from both the conventional and the new monetary policy episodes. We empirically document that the overnight spread has recently been influenced by various factors that are directly or closely related to the liquidity policy of the CBRT. (JEL E43, E52, C24)     

Is market learning the missing link between family involvement – firm performance relationship? A resource-based perspective

Drawing on previous literature on proposing that there exists a positive relationship between family involvement and firm performance, this study refines the explanatory role of market learning in explaining the relationship between family involvement and firm performance to be conditional to firm age and environmental turbulence. The data from 344 small-medium enterprises show that family involvement is positively related to market exploitation while family involvement is negatively related to market exploration as family firms age. Also, we provide empirical evidence that family involvement is positively related to firm performance in turbulent environments through market exploration irrespective of the firm’s age. Conversely, family involvement is positively related to firm performance through market exploitation in less turbulent environments irrespective of firm age. This study provides empirical evidence of the market exploration and exploitation capabilities may be the capabilities that glue family involvement to firm performance.     

CASE STUDY: BUS FLEET REPLACEMENT

Parallel replacement analysis is concerned with determining minimum cost replacement schedules for a group of assets that are economically interdependent and operate in parallel. That is, keep and replace decisions are required for each asset among a group of assets over a specified horizon. The assets are economically linked through economies of scale or budgeting constraints. One application of parallel replacement analysis is fleet replacement. We recently studied the operations, including fleet replacement policies, for a city transit bus operator in Europe. Key factors in their replacement decisions included the ability to choose from multiple manufacturers, purchase price, and government regulations. We explore these and other factors, by solving a heterogeneous replacement problem with fixed costs, budgeting constraints, and demand constraints. Through extensive sensitivity analysis we analyze the impact of various parameters on decisions, in terms of the choice of replacement assets, as well as the optimal time to retain assets. Additionally, we provide motivation for future research in this application area, which is important for many cities.     

Corporate Social and Financial Performance Re-Examined: Industry Effects in a Linear Mixed Model Analysis

In this research, we shed new light on the empirical link between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) via the application of empirical models and methods new to the CSP?CCFP literature. Applying advanced financial models to a uniquely constructed panel dataset, we demonstrate that a significant overall CSP?CCFP relationship exists and that this relationship is, in part, conditioned on firms?? industry-specific context. To accommodate the estimation of time-invariant industry and industry-interaction effects, we estimate linear mixed models in our test of the CSP?CCFP relationship. Our results show both a significant overall CSP effect as well as significant industry effects between CSP and CFP. In conflict with expectations, the unweighted average effect of CSP on CFP is negative. Our industry analysis, however, shows that in over 17% of the industries in our sample, the effect of CSP on CFP for socially responsible firms is positive. We also examine the multidimensional nature of the CSP construct in an industry context by exploring the CSP dimension?Cindustry nexus and identify dimensions of social performance that are associated with either better or worse financial performance. Our results confirm the existence of disparate CSP dimension?Cindustry effects on CFP, thus our results provide important and actionable information to decision makers considering whether and how to commit corporate resources to social performance.     

A new country risk index for emerging markets: A stochastic dominance approach

An optimal weighting scheme is proposed to construct economic, political and financial risk indices in emerging markets using an approach that relies on consistent tests for stochastic dominance efficiency. These tests are considered for a given risk index with respect to all possible indices constructed from a set of individual risk factors. The test statistics and the estimators are computed using mixed integer programming methods. We derive an economic, political and financial risk ranking of emerging countries. Finally, an overall risk index is constructed. One main result is that the financial risk is the leading contributor to sovereign risk in emerging markets followed by the economic and political risks.     

Do Small‐Group Health Insurance Regulations Influence Small Business Size?

State small‐group health insurance reforms, implemented in the 1990s, aimed at controlling the variability of health insurance premiums and to improve access to health insurance. These reforms only affected firms within a specific size range, and as a result, they may have affected the size of small firms around the legislative threshold and may also have affected the propensity of small firms to offer health insurance. We examine the relationship between small‐group reform and firm size and find evidence that small firms just below the regulatory threshold that were offering health insurance grew in order to bypass reforms.     

Access to Finance by Small and Medium Enterprises: a Cross‐Country Analysis with A New Data Set

Access to finance has always been a challenge for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but the need to address this issue became more pronounced after the global financial crisis, as SMEs are perceived as engines of growth and job creation. However, lack of consistent indicators for SME finance at the country level restricts cross‐country analyses. The present paper introduces a supply‐side data set to fill this gap, and provides the first set of analyses with this new data set. Global SME lending volume is predicted as $US10tn, 70% of which is in high‐income OECD countries. On average, SME loans constitute 13 and 3% of GDP in developed and developing countries, respectively.