Evidence on the cross-country transmission of monetary shocks

The international transmission of monetary shocks between the US and Canada is explored. Focusing on real variables such as consumption, investment, employment, and the bilateral trade balance, along with measures of US and Canadian money, the empirical analysis examines the impact of a monetary shock in one country on real activity in both countries. The long-run analysis provides evidence of cointegration among the variables and suggests that money plays an important role in the equilibrium relationships between the two countries. Variance decompositions and impulse response functions reveal interesting avenues of real transmission in the short run. The short-run analysis provides strong evidence that US monetary shocks affect real activity in both the USA and Canada. The analysis also indicates that Canadian monetary disturbances affect Canadian and US real activity, and that many of these effects are similar in magnitude to the effects of US monetary shocks. The importance of the nominal exchange-rate regime is also discussed.     

Portfolio performance with controlled variables in the Singapore Stock Market

Recently, many stock return ‘anomalies’ have been identified. This leads to increasing agreement among researchers that these anomalies are relevant to enhancing investment performance. This study examines the existence of stock return anomalies on the Stock Exchange of Singapore in the period 1979–87, using a behavioural approach. The results reveal that the impact of anomalies on stock returns is unstable, with the direction of the impact determined by the strength of the stock market. This phenomenon and other observed anomalies may be partially explained by investors' psychology.     

Exploring adoption difficulties in mobile banking services

Factors associated with adopting and resisting mobile banking technologies were investigated among university students in Taiwan. Adoption factors included the belief that mobile banking helps fulfill personal banking needs, provides location-free conveniences, and is cost effective. The primary factors associated with resistance included concerns over system configuration security and basic fees for mobile banking web connections. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contingent work in the UK and Sweden: evidence from the construction industry

This article explores the use of contingent forms of employment in two diverse country contexts—the UK and Sweden—and investigates the influence of changing regulatory and economic conditions over a period that covers the current economic downturn. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data for the construction sector, the article addresses three questions. How do employers balance their flexibility preferences in the context of regulatory constraints? How has the global recession influenced employer behaviour? And to what extent can the Swedish experience be explained by convergence on other country models? While the UK employment model encourages employers to externalise the risk of unpredictable market conditions through the use of contingent contracts, the more supportive welfare regime in Sweden underpins a resilient preference of employers for open‐ended employment contracts. Ongoing changes in labour market regulation pose challenges to the strongly regulated Swedish model, yet we find only a shared direction of travel with the UK rather than convergence in the use of contingent employment.     

Quality-Labeled Vegetable Consumption in Malaysia: Factors Affecting Attitude and Purchase Intent

The rising rate of foodborne diseases has caused not just consumers but also food producers to become increasingly concerned about food safety. As a result, the government of Malaysia, together with relevant bodies, have introduced quality-assurance agencies to certify food products that are produced, processed, and handled with methods that are acknowledged by the certification agencies as clean and safe for consumption. This study aims to identify the factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior toward quality-labeled vegetables. A survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire and distributed randomly to consumers in public places in the Klang Valley. Four hundred and sixteen respondents were approached. The results indicate that most of the respondents are aware of food quality labels. Using factor analysis, four latent factors that influence consumer attitude toward quality-labeled vegetables were identified, and the importance of quality attributes (sensory, health, safety, and social attributes) in shaping those attitudes was also shown.     

Billion Dollar Baby: Local Foods and U.S. Grocery

This study reviews consumer purchasing of locally produced foods in retail grocery stores. A U.S. sample of 590 consumers was drawn via an online survey, with structural equation modeling used to assess hypothesized relationships of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention to purchase, extent of purchase, and the moderating effects of shopping channel type. Results from structural model testing suggested that all hypothesized relationships except that of purchase intention and extent of purchase were found to be significant, with group differences existing between supercenters/warehouses and farmers’ market shopping channels. Implications and future research directions are provided.     

The Case for Secondary Buyouts as Exit Channel

Do private equity firms have a clear pecking order when deciding on exit channels for their portfolio companies? Are secondary buyouts—that is, sales to other PE firms—always an exit of last resort? And are there company‐ or market‐related factors that have a clear and predictable influence on decisions to pursue secondary buyouts? Using a proprietary dataset of over 1,100 leveraged buyouts that exited in North America or Europe between 1995 and 2008, the authors attempt to answer these questions by analyzing the returns associated with public, private, and secondary (or “financial”) exits. Based on their analysis of the realized returns, there is no clear pecking order of exit types. Secondary buyouts deliver rates of return that are the equal of those achieved through public exits. In addition, the authors assess the relationship between the likelihood of choosing a financial exit and certain company‐related as well as market‐related factors. Portfolio companies with greater debt capacity are more likely to be sold in secondary buyouts. Furthermore, increases in both the liquidity of debt markets and the amount of undrawn capital commitments to the private equity industry increase the probability of exit through secondary buyouts.