Identifying and analysing the drivers of heterogeneity among ecosystem builder accelerators

In response to convergent and dynamic market developments, established firms use corporate accelerators to open their innovation processes to start‐ups. Among different accelerator themes, the ecosystem builder theme introduced by recent research plays a crucial role in furthering our understanding of the heterogeneity of accelerators due to its broad objectives. By interviewing 20 leading experts from 16 German corporate accelerators, we first identify heterogeneity among different ecosystem builder accelerators based on the differences in the process of selection, business support, and graduation. Second, we further structure the observed heterogeneity by depicting five different ecosystem builder accelerator types instead of a single ecosystem builder theme. These ecosystem builder accelerator types show important differences and similarities in terms of strategies, design elements, and processes within each of the process steps. Our findings hold meaningful research and managerial implications by providing (1) a consistent and systematic conceptual understanding about ecosystem builder accelerators, their strategies, design elements, and processes and (2) guidance to design and position ecosystem builder accelerators with regard to a long‐term corporate strategy.     

A bootstrap-based comparison of portfolio insurance strategies

This study presents a systematic comparison of portfolio insurance strategies. We implement a bootstrap-based hypothesis test to assess statistical significance of the differences in a variety of downside-oriented risk and performance measures for pairs of portfolio insurance strategies. Our comparison of different strategies considers the following distinguishing characteristics: static versus dynamic protection; initial wealth versus cumulated wealth protection; model-based versus model-free protection; and strong floor compliance versus probabilistic floor compliance. Our results indicate that the classical portfolio insurance strategies synthetic put and constant proportion portfolio insurance (CPPI) provide superior downside protection compared to a simple stop-loss trading rule and also exhibit a higher risk-adjusted performance in many cases (dependent on the applied performance measure). Analyzing recently developed strategies, neither the TIPP strategy (as an ‘improved’ CPPI strategy) nor the dynamic VaR-strategy provides significant improvements over the more traditional portfolio insurance strategies.     

Europas künftige Rentenkluft

There is a significant variation in demographic development among European Union (EU) member states. Using the UN’s Population Prospects, we examine how different retirement ages in selected EU countries would lead to comparable relations between the working-age population and pensioners in the future. In the coming decades, it seems that the French would be able to take retirement roughly four years earlier than Germans. There is, therefore, no apparent economic justification for the suggested alignment of retirement ages in accordance with the current German regulation, as is sometimes suggested. Even the EU Commission has prioritised life expectancy in its recommendations for greater sustainability in the pension system, despite the fact that it is an insufficient indicator.     

A pricing‐error rule on share distribution in equity joint ventures: The Bayesian approach

Equity joint ventures (EJVs) are a popular governance mode of inter‐firm cooperation that has attracted substantial research attention. The literature, however, still lacks a precise rule for the parents to follow in splitting the equity shares of an EJV, although share distribution is critical to almost all aspects of the co‐ownership relationship. In this study, we fill this literature gap by taking the Bayesian approach to draw a pricing‐error rule on share distribution in EJVs. More specifically, we contend that equity participation by two firms in an EJV allows profit sharing to correct for the errors that they might commit in pricing their inputs to the EJV. For profit sharing to fully nullify such pricing errors, the shares of an EJV must be split between the parent firms in a percentage combination that matches the relative sizes of their pricing errors. Because pricing errors are observable only afterward, share distribution in EJVs resembles a Bayesian process, in which the partners keep updating their estimates on pricing errors to adjust share distribution to a percentage combination that could best nullify their pricing errors. Thus, the eventual outcome of share adjustment is EJV buyout, in that the partner whose pricing errors remain substantial buys out the shares of the other whose pricing errors have become tolerable.     

Watch What You Say: Job Applicants’ Justice Perceptions From Initial Organizational Correspondence

Although it is a common practice for organizations to communicate with job seekers following application submission, little is known about how applicants react to this correspondence. Drawing from recruitment and organizational justice theories, we explore the possibility that specific correspondence content influences job seekers’ fairness perceptions. Data collected from 119 actual job applicants indicated that providing relevant information about the recruitment process (information adequacy) positively related to informational and interpersonal justice perceptions. However, delivering this information in an interpersonally sensitive manner (information sensitivity) had a stronger impact on interpersonal justice perceptions. Finally, post hoc analyses suggested that incorporating specific content delivered in initial job applicant correspondence could allow recruiting organizations to develop practical, cost‐effective strategies for enhancing job seekers’ fairness perceptions following their application submission. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Active risk management and loan contract terms: Evidence from rated microfinance institutions

The aim of this article is to test the relationship among organizational architecture, joint liabilities contracts, and loan conditions. Based on a sample of 135 MFIs rated between 2003 and 2008, the study shows that solidarity lending and a decentralized credit decision have no significant influence on loan conditions. Being a village bank lender is significantly associated with higher interest rates charged, higher outreach, lower depth of outreach, and higher transaction costs. Results seem to highlight the existence of a trade-off between outreach and the average loan size per borrower when MFIs decentralize credit decisions or establish joint liability contracts.     

ÉTUDE COMPARATIVE DES PERFORMANCES DES INSTITUTIONS DE MICROFINANCE D’AFRIQUE SUB‐SAHARIENNE SELON LEUR STATUT LÉGAL

RESUME 1 : Cet article vérifie l’existence d’une différence de performance selon le statut juridique des institutions de microfinance d’Afrique Sub‐saharienne. Une analyse multi‐variée de la variance (MANOVA) permet d’étudier un échantillon de 94 IMF entre 2001 et 2005. Les résultats suggèrent que les coopératives sont plus efficientes et financièrement plus efficaces que les Organisations Non Gouvernementales (ONG) et les sociétés privées. Aucune différence significative de qualité de portefeuille selon le statut juridique n’est trouvée. Par ailleurs, nous ne trouvons pas de différence significative de rentabilité et de viabilité entre les sociétés privées et les ONG. Cependant, alors que les transactions effectuées sont plus intenses dans les coopératives, la portée (nombre d’emprunteurs actifs) semble plus importante dans les sociétés privées.     

Predictability of Financial Crises: Lessons from Sweden for Other Countries

The predictability of financial crises is widely regarded as low. However, skills linked to market psychology (behavioral finance) and the understanding of history and macrofinancial aggregates have been insufficiently integrated in the forecasting and risk management of financial institutions. Traditional financial modeling can no longer be applied as nicely as in the past. In Sweden, the financial crises of the early 1990s and in the latter part of the past decade were caused by overconfidence, control illusion, and herd mentality—but also by shortcomings in management and corporate governance. There is no evidence that these two serious Swedish banking crises were not foreseeable. The general question is when and under which circumstances financial decision-makers and authorities should listen to the usual minority of warning voices. One conclusion is that economists should be more “in house-oriented,” and top managers should heed their professional opinions. Conclusions from this paper can also be drawn for China, India, and other emerging markets both when it comes to financial deregulation policy and government debt risks in deregulated financial markets.