The effect of distribution channels on mutual fund flows

The Morningstar fund rating has been reported to affect mutual fund flows in the US markets. This paper finds that flow patterns in Finnish bank-managed funds are significantly different from the patterns in the US. Specifically, non-bank funds attract flows in a manner similar to the US markets, that is Morningstar ratings affect fund flows. In contrast, Finnish bank-managed funds do not exhibit the same relationship between star ratings and flows. The results suggest that in Finland, five-star Morningstar ratings are not regarded as highly as in the US, where good performance attracts significantly higher flows. More significantly, our findings demonstrate the importance of banks' distribution channels in the Finnish financial market.     

Coping with work‐family conflicts in the global career context

In order to increase our understanding of the work‐family conflicts experienced by global careerists and their families and the related coping strategies they adopt to address them, managers with long‐term global careers were interviewed. The results indicate that the challenging nature of their jobs means global careerists face not only time‐based and strain‐based work‐family conflicts but also mobility‐based conflicts, a category added in order to fully capture the work‐family conflicts faced. Managers were found mainly to use active problem‐solving strategies alongside family‐level coping strategies, though, in addition, emotional coping, avoidance, and reappraisal strategies were in evidence. ©2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.