Modeling the Effects of Sponsorship-Linked Marketing: When Does Memory Matter?

The current study examined the mediating and moderating roles of sponsorship-linked marketing on the relationships among cognitive, affective, and behavioral sponsor evaluations. A panel of National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) fans (N = 249) participated in an online survey, and the survey included multi-item scales including sponsor-brand recognition, consumer perceptions of property-based articulation, sponsorship-themed advertising, sponsorship-themed promotion, sponsor attitude, and purchase intention. Visit to sponsors' exhibits experience was incorporated as a moderator. This study provides empirical support for the full mediating role of sponsorship-linked marketing efforts in leveraging high levels of sponsor brand recognition into more desirable brand outcomes.     

Professional communication in an applied tourism research community

This study addresses the amorphous nature and complexity of professional communication in an applied tourism research community. With empirical data from members of the Travel and Tourism Research Association, the study examines professional communication from the perspectives of academic versus practitioner members. Results of the study contribute to discussions on the two-community theory and utilization theories with respect to the production, dissemination and uptake of travel and tourism research. Practical implications of the study are discussed in relation to association planning and development, and to capacity-building in an applied tourism research community.     

Commentary: Has Australia (or Any Other Jurisdiction) ‘Adopted’ IFRS?1

This paper replies to a statement made in this journal that ‘Australia definitely adopts IFRSs’. We analyse and compare the several methods that jurisdictions can use to implement International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These include adopting the International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) process of setting standards, as well as various forms of standard‐by‐standard implementation. We conclude that the Australian method of implementation is different in major ways from those used in such countries as Israel and South Africa, which involve adopting the IASB's process. By contrast, Australia follows a multi‐step process of enrolling each new standard into a category still entitled ‘Australian Accounting Standards’. To refer to the Australian method as ‘adoption’ of IFRS might therefore mislead, even though Australian companies eventually comply with IFRS.     

Short Selling and the Weekend Effect in Nasdaq Stock Returns

We examine daily short selling of Nasdaq stocks to explore whether speculative short selling causes a significant portion of the weekend effect in returns. We identify a weekend effect in speculative short selling whereby it constitutes a larger percentage of trading volume on Mondays versus Fridays. We find an opposite effect in dealer short selling, consistent with market makers adding liquidity and stability. Our main finding is that speculative short selling does not explain an economically meaningful portion of the weekend effect in returns, even among the firms most that are most actively shorted. This finding contradicts some prior studies.     

Information and volatility links in the foreign exchange market

We apply the trading model of Fleming et al (1998 ). to a number of currency markets. The model posits that two markets can have common volatility structures as a result of receiving common information and from cross‐hedging activity where a position in one currency is used to hedge risk in a position taken in another. Our results imply that the model is effective in identifying common information flows and volatility spillovers in the currency markets and that some of these effects are lost when simply examining raw correlations. A series of specification tests of the 21 bivariate systems that are examined provides support for the trading model in the foreign exchange context.     

Measuring underlying economic activity

Recently, interest in the methodology of constructing coincident economic indicators has been revived by the work of Stock and Watson (1989b). They adopt the framework of the state space form and Kalman filter in which to construct an optimal estimate of an unobserved component. This is interpreted as corresponding to underlying economic activity derived from a set of observed indicator variables. In this paper we apply the Stock and Watson approach to the UK where the observed indicator variables are those that make up the Central Statistical Office (CSO) coincident indicator. The time series properties of the indicator variables are examined and three of the five variables are first difference stationary and are cointegrated, the remaining two are stationary in levels. We then construct two alternative measures of economic activity, each of which deals with the different orders of stationarity of the variables. The first uses the levels of the observed component variables that allows for the cointegrating relationship. The second imposes stationarity on the I(1) variables before the estimation by taking first differences. The levels index is viewed as the preferred specification as it allows for the long-run relationships between the variables and has a superior statistical fit. ©1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pension Fund Manager Tournaments and Attitudes Towards Corporate Characteristics

Abstract:  This paper explores the relationship between the tournament incentives of pension fund managers and the characteristics of equities they choose to hold. Using a comprehensive data set on pension fund portfolio holdings, we determine the intensity of fund manager tournaments by sorting pension funds into portfolios based on the number of concurrent managers each pension fund employs. We then investigate which corporate characteristics are preferred by each of these portfolios by estimating share selection models that include a range of corporate characteristics that are expected to shape the returns to investment in stocks over the short and long run. We find that the intensity of the tournament faced by fund managers plays a significant role in shaping preferences over corporate characteristics. Managers facing more intense tournaments exhibit significantly weaker preferences for attributes associated with long run payoffs, such as social performance and growth potential, and significantly stronger preferences for short term attributes, such as operational efficiency, when compared to managers that face weak or no tournament incentives.     

中国煤炭短缺局面短期内难有改观

短期困境凸显长期问题 据路透社报道，中国已有13个省区采取了限电措施。就我们所知，贵州、广东和广西三个南方省份的电力不足问题最为突出，南方电网领导层已请求中央政府寻求对策。通过与上市独立电力公司的讨论，我们得知，电煤库存水平已经大大低于正常水平。