Picking Your Tick: Toward a New Theory of Stock Splits

Thanks to stock splits, the average nominal share price has been amazingly stable in the United States. The average NYSE share price has fluctuated within the $30 to $40 range since the late 1930s—a period in which most consumer prices have increased by a factor of 10 and the S&P index has risen over 1,500%. Why has this nominal price been so stable when every other price has increased so much? And why do typical stock prices vary so greatly among different countries? For example, the median nominal stock price ranges from about $2 in Hong Kong and $7 in the U.K., to $103 in France and over $600 in Switzerland. The author's recent research suggests that typical stock prices vary across countries in ways that reflect primarily differences in how markets in each country set their “tick” rules—the rules governing the minimum price variation that can occur in a stock (in the U.S., for example, the tick was recently reduced from $1/8 to $1/16). Companies, on average, appear to respond to the resulting differences in tick size by adjusting the number of their shares outstanding so that the tick size relative to the nominal share price remains relatively constant. In fact, a tick size equal to about 25 basis points of the median share price “appears to be a universal norm” across global markets. This article explores how and why a company might wish to affect the relative tick size for its stock by splitting—and, in so doing, it suggests a “new theory” of stock splits. The theory also suggests that the optimal tick size for any given company will vary according to its size, visibility, and riskiness.     

Models for individual adoption of eCommerce,eBanking and eGovernment in Spain

This paper analyzes the adoption patterns of selected internet services such as eCommerce, eBanking and eGovernment in Spain. High quality official data from the Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households (ICT-H) of the National Institute of Statistics are used. The dataset is a cross section of 16,209 individuals for 2016. Theoretical demand models, grounded in a standard neoclassical utility maximization framework, are adapted to these services. Logistic regression techniques allow quantifying the impact of the socioeconomic characteristics of the individual on the adoption of each service. The resulting models are statistically significant and with a high predictive power. Age, education and levels of internet and computer skills are all significant in explaining the adoption of any of the three services; as are gender and income, but just for eCommerce and eBanking. Interestingly, the level of trust in internet is only significant to explain participation in eCommerce. Finally, policy recommendations are suggested, highlighting the desirability of using specific measures for the different socio-demographic groups and income strata.     

ISO 9000/1994, ISO 9001/2000 and TQM: The performance debate revisited

The debate about the impact of ISO 9000/1994 on performance has been waging since its inception. While there is a general agreement regarding the positive impact of TQM on performance, there has been less agreement among the academics about the impact of ISO 9000/1994. Perhaps in response to such debate, the new ISO 9001/2000 has appeared purporting to be more in line with the TQM philosophy. As of now, how this 2000 version actually affects performance is yet to be explored. In this study, we compare the implementation of ISO 9000/1994 and ISO 9001/2000 as representing two different efforts to implement quality management practices. We evaluate its impact on company performance with a sample of 713 Spanish industrial companies. We also examine if the 2000 version of ISO is taking us closer to the implementation of TQM. Further, we depart from the past studies methodologically by considering performance as a formative construct rather than a reflective construct. Based on the mean and covariance structural (MACS) analyses, we conclude that ISO 9001/2000 certified companies do not perform noticeably better than ISO 9000/1994 or non-certified companies. However, we find that ISO 9001/2000 certified companies apply TQM at a higher level than ISO 9000/1994 certified companies, but whether they actually perform better is less clear.     

Wage inequality,segregation by skill and the price of capital in an assignment model

Some pieces of empirical evidence suggest that in the U.S., from the 1970s to the 1990s, (i) wage inequality between-plants rose much more than wage inequality within-plants and (ii) there was an increase in the segregation of workers by skill into separate plants. This paper presents a frictionless assignment model in which these two features can be explained simultaneously as the result of the decline in the relative price of capital. Additional implications of the model regarding the skill premium and the dispersion in labor productivity across plants are also consistent with the empirical evidence. The model permits to consider changes in the skill distribution too. Combining these changes with falling capital prices provides a more comprehensive view of the overall trend of wage inequality and of workers' segregation by skill in the data, and it helps explaining some episodes of decreasing wage inequality.     

坚持自主创新打造国际知名酵母品牌

安琪酵母股份有限公司(以下简称安琪酵母)是国家重点高新技术企业和上市公司,主要从事酵母、酵母衍生物研究和产品制造,为用户提供面包酵母、酿酒酵母、酵母抽提物、酵母营养保健品、生物饲料添加剂等系列产品和技术服务.     

Definition of innovation projects in small firms: A Spanish study

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are the main holders of the European economy and innovation projects are essential tools for SMEs to ensure their growth. A high percentage of innovation projects implemented by SMEs lacks planning and initial management, which causes the appearance of important problems for the SMEs survival. The authors have confirmed with a field study of 72 Spanish small firms that a lot of these problems arise from an incomplete project definition, so it is necessary to help SMEs to have a specific methodology that is appropriate to their own characteristics and projects. The statistical analysis shows how the project management knowledge helps to a better project definition, contributing to the project alignment with the company strategy. Also, it reveals other problems related to the project definition as planning, budget, market and financing. Of this analysis, it concludes that the definition phase supports the other phases and is essential in order to achieve project success. This paper presents an ‘integration model of factors’ that helps SMEs in the management of the definition phase of their innovation projects. This model relates the various areas of analysis needed to ensure their integration at the project definition. The relationships between the different model areas have been defined, showing the way to integrate the technical, economic and strategic outlooks of project objectives management in the definition phase of the project. This model has been implemented in 21 new innovation project definitions. The users' valuation has been very positive with a 90.4% of success and all of the model users are interested in implementing the model again in next projects. The main advantages highlighted were user‐friendliness, intuitive model and easy application.     

Environmental rationalities and the development state in East Asia: Prospects for a sustainability transition

This paper reviews what is known about recent trends in environmental governance among the newly industrializing countries of East Asia and the implications of these developments for a sustainability transition within the region. The conceptual starting point for the review is research that examines sustainability transitions within the framework of a multi-level perspective on system innovation. One of the challenges presented by this framework is that of understanding how existing political economies and governance structures promote stability or change in socio-technical regimes. By socio-technical regimes we mean the predominant organizational, social and technological configurations through which societal needs are constituted and met. In the case of the rapidly industrializing and urbanizing economies of East Asia, the trajectory of socio-technical regimes will have profound consequences for local, regional and global environments. Our review of trends in environmental governance as they relate to socio-technical regimes within the region traces a pattern of initial efforts to strengthen environmental regulatory regimes very much along the lines of the policy models of OECD economies. The degree to which these initial efforts have taken root varies from country to country in the region. What is beginning to emerge in several countries within the region, however, are a variety of policy and institutional innovations that hold promise for opening up spaces for change in socio-technical regimes, and for creating opportunities for new pathways of industrialization and urbanization to take hold that are less pollution, materials and energy-intensive.     

Pricing executive stock options under employment shocks

We obtain explicit expressions for the subjective, objective and market value of perpetual executive stock options (ESOs) under exogenous employment shocks driven by an independent Poisson process. Previously, we obtain the executive's optimal exercise policy from the subjective valuation that is necessary for the objective one, or fair value. The perpetual ESO is compared with the true finite maturity ESO finding that the approximation is reasonably good. To illustrate the usefulness of the objective valuation for accounting purposes, we analyze the statistical distribution of the fair value when there is uncertainty about the employment shock intensity. Finally, the role of ESOs in the design of executives’ incentives is also discussed.     

Short-Selling Prior to Earnings Announcements

This paper examines short‐sales transactions in the five days prior to earnings announcements of 913 Nasdaq‐listed firms. The tests provide evidence of informed trading in pre‐announcement short‐selling because they reveal that abnormal short‐selling is significantly linked to post‐announcement stock returns. Also, the tests indicate that short‐sellers typically are more active in stocks with low book‐to‐market valuations or low SUEs. The levels of pre‐announcement short‐selling, however, mostly appear to reflect firm‐specific information rather than these fundamental financial characteristics. We believe that these results should encourage financial market regulators to consider providing more extensive and timely disclosures of short‐selling to investors.     

An integrative model of destination brand equity and tourist satisfaction

This paper develops an integrative model that includes the dimensions of destination brand equity (i.e. awareness, image, quality and loyalty), as well as a key behavioural variable that is tourist satisfaction. In particular, our paper aims to contribute to the literature: (1) by examining the relationships between the dimensions of destination brand equity, which is not a deeply investigated issue so far; and (2) by adding tourist satisfaction, a key concept in loyalty formation, to the variables usually considered in destination brand equity models. The model was tested in two samples, national and international tourists visiting a destination in Spain, in order to also explore the role of the geographical and cultural distance between tourist and destination. Our results from a multi-group analysis indicate: (1) a robust link between “quality-satisfaction-loyalty” in both samples of tourists; (2) a chain of effects among awareness, image (separately considering the cognitive and affective dimensions) and perceived quality, although with the presence of some significant difference between both samples of tourists; and (3) a positive influence of cognitive image on affective image in both cases.