Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization

Quality & Quantity - Saturation has attained widespread acceptance as a methodological principle in qualitative research. It is commonly taken to indicate that, on the basis of the data that...     

Latency and liquidity provision in a limit order book

We use a recent, high-quality data set from Nasdaq to perform an empirical analysis of order flow in a limit order book before and after the arrival of a market order. For each of the stocks that we study, we identify a sequence of distinct phases across which the net flow of orders differs considerably. We note that some of our results are consistent with the widely reported phenomenon of stimulated refill, but that others are not. We therefore propose alternative mechanical and strategic motivations for the behaviour that we observe. Based on our findings, we argue that strategic liquidity providers consider both adverse selection and expected waiting costs when deciding how to act.     

Public–private partnerships and collective action in high value fruit and vegetable supply chains

Accessing developed country food markets entails meeting stringent food safety requirements. Food retailers impose protocols relating to pesticide residues, field and pack house operations, and traceability. To enable smallholders to remain competitive in such a system, new institutional arrangements are required. In particular, public–private partnerships can play a key role in creating farm to fork linkages that can satisfy market demands for food safety, while retaining smallholders in the supply chain. Furthermore, organized producer groups monitoring their own food safety standards through collective action often become attractive to buyers who are looking for ways to ensure traceability and reduce transaction costs. This paper compares the ways in which small producers of fruits and vegetables in Kenya and India have coped with increased demands for food safety from their main export markets.     

Europäische Sanierung durch den europäischen Zusammenschluss? Mitteleuropa und Paneuropa

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Farm households' participation in rural non-farm employment in post-war Rwanda: Drivers and policy implications

Despite the post-war government's unprecedented efforts to stimulate growth of the rural non-farm (RNF) sector in Rwanda, evidence suggests that participation in this sector remains low compared with other developing and transition economies. This study investigates the micro and meso-level factors defining farm household's capacity and incentives to participate in RNF employment in the post-war Rwanda. Based on the household's time allocation theory, this study employs household survey data collected in Gisagara District in a double-hurdle regression. The results reveal that female-headedness, labour availability, education, social networks, access to finance and rural towns increase the probability of participating in RNF activities, whereas for participating households, the time allocated to RNF activities tends to decrease with age, land productivity, distance to market and dispersed settlements. The article concludes with key implications for rural development policies such as basic education and umudugudu settlements.     

Global integration strategies of small and medium multinationals: Evidence from Taiwan

This study replicates and extends Birkinshaw et al.’s (1995) model of the predictors of business unit integration of large Western multinational corporations (MNCs). Our study investigates the global integration strategies of Taiwanese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) competing in the global information technology (IT) industry. It confirms the importance of some structural forces (i.e. economies of scale and standard market demands) in the global integration strategies of Taiwanese SMEs thereby expanding the applicability of existent internationalization theories developed primarily in the context of large Western MNCs to non-Western SMEs. This study finds three results that add new knowledge to the current SME literature and provides managerial implications. First, it finds a negative relationship between competitive actions and business unit integration. Second, it finds that in the optimally globalized IT industry there is no direct effect of business unit integration on performance. Third, it finds a direct effect of differential comparative advantage on performance.     

Optimal capital structure: A multi-period programming model for use in financial planning

This paper describes a multi-period, chance constrained mathematical programming model to compute for each period, the firm's optimal debt to equity ratio and the optimal maturity distribution of its debt. The model assumes that the firm's objective is to maximize total value of the firm, and that the firm operates in a world of uncertainty, with corporate income taxes and bankruptcy costs. Finally, the actual coupon rate paid by the firm which is commensurate to the risk of default is endogenously determined by the model.