The Development of Undergraduate International Business Practicums in Small Business Schools: An Experiential Learning Framework

The value of the inclusion of experiential learning opportunities in international business education has been well established in the literature. We set out to examine industry-identified skills and experiences that could lead to enhanced employability and early career performance. Through our extensive review of theory, empirical work, leading programs, practicum channels, and our own qualitative study, we proposed frameworks to help guide small business schools best structure their undergraduate international business experiential learning offerings. Specifically, we suggest the establishment of tracks or concentrations with supplemental skill focus, emphasis on foreign language proficiency, and requiring at least two international internship or service learning practicums, preferably abroad, that include mini-consulting projects, presentations, and deliverables.     

Islamic,socially responsible,and conventional market comovements: Evidence from stock indices

This article extends the literature on ethical investment risks, correlations, and comovements. Through a sample of 17 Islamic, socially responsible investment (SRI), and conventional stock indices, we investigate cointegration and dynamic correlations for the period 2005–2015. We also examine these stock indices’ responses to two major economic factors, namely, oil prices and market volatility. Our results show cointegration between Islamic, SRI and conventional stock indices, and comovements with mutual causalities. During crises, dynamic correlations tend to spike; however, quite a different pattern emerges during postcrisis periods when there is more variability in conditional covariances. Finally, we provide evidence that all three types of stock indices react positively to oil price changes, but negatively to global equity market volatility, albeit with different magnitudes. Overall, investors can obtain portfolio diversification benefits through SRI and Islamic stock indices, particularly in postcrisis periods.     

Pricing errors and estimates of risk premia in factor models

In this paper, we consider the effect of the theoretical pricing error in the arbitrage pricing model on estimates of risk premia implied by the model. Under arbitrage pricing, the pricing error satisfies a strong bounding condition where for an infinite set of assets, the sum of squared pricing errors is bounded. We characterize the pricing error in terms of orders of probability and estimate an expected returns model which allows for pricing errors less than order one in probability. The principal finding of the paper is that misspecification of the pricing error and misspecification of the factor structure has no effect on the bias or mean squared error of the dominant risk premium. This implies that an exact form of arbitrage pricing can be used to estimate risk premia.     

The Saving Gateway: Implications for Optimal Saving*

The Saving Gateway is a government saving initiative aiming to ‘kick‐start a saving habit among people on lower incomes’. Funds saved in a Saving Gateway account up to a monthly limit are matched by the government after two years at a rate of £0.50 per £1 saved. In this paper, a Saving Gateway account is embedded alongside an ordinary interest‐bearing account in a simple life‐cycle model of saving to assess the implications of the scheme for optimal saving. Among the findings are that, for agents with access to credit, the Saving Gateway is associated with a fall in saving during the life of the account and a rise in consumption. However, the scheme increases saving by the credit‐constrained. On their own, empirically plausible levels of habit formation in consumption preferences have too small an effect on saving to justify the scheme.     

The political economy of tourism in North Africa: Comparative perspectives

Tourism has become a salient sector in the economic‐development strategies of North Africa, despite the fact that the states of the region have met with varying degrees of success in their attempts to expand and develop their tourism sectors. This article adopts a political‐economy approach to the analysis of tourism in North Africa. Its aims are to highlight the main aspects of the region's political economy that have influenced outcomes in the tourism sector of each country, and then to explain the political dynamics that underlie the tourism sectors of the region. This article asserts that all North African states now have embraced tourism—albeit with varying amounts of enthusiasm—as a key economic industry. It examines the relationship between tourism and economic reform in the region, followed by the political dynamics of the sector, arguing that tourism is a very political affair, but for reasons different than in other sectors of the economy. It concludes with some observations on the strategic and developmental challenges that confront the development of tourism in North Africa. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Modeling the dynamics of strategic fit: a normative approach to strategic change

This study develops and tests a dynamic perspective on strategic fit. Drawing from contingency and resource‐based arguments in the strategy and organizational theory literatures, we propose a distinctive analytical approach to identify environmental and organizational contingencies that should predict changes in a firm's strategy and the performance implications of such changes. We test our model using extensive longitudinal data from over 4000 U.S. savings and loan institutions during a period when many S&Ls considered changing strategic direction. The findings support our model of dynamic strategic fit. Specifically, we find that (1) the timing, direction, and magnitude of strategic changes can be logically predicted based on differences in specific environmental forces and organizational resources, and (2) organizations that deviated from our model's prediction of dynamic strategic fit (i.e., changed more or changed less than our model prescribed) experienced negative performance consequences. We conclude by discussing the implications of our approach and findings for future research on strategic fit and strategic change. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Free ad(vice): internet influencers and disclosure regulation

Consumers rely on intermediaries (“influencers”) such as social media recommendations to provide information about products. The advice may be mixed with endorsement in a way that is unobservable to the follower, creating a trade‐off for influencers between the best advice and the most revenue. This article models the dynamic relationship between an influencer and a follower. The relationship evolves between periods of less and more revenue. The model can provide insight into policies such as the Federal Trade Commission's mandatory disclosure rules. An opt‐in policy may be superior: it deregulates influencers who are reaping the rewards of past good advice.     

How do crowd logistics platforms create value? An exploratory case study from China

ABSTRACT

Crowd logistics platforms play an important role in value creation, but the extant literature has not clarified how platforms create value. Consequently, this multiple case study identifies three main types of value creation capabilities for crowd logistics platforms: resource matching, operations management, and risk control. Additionally, the study demonstrates that these crowd logistics platform capabilities create value by providing the most accurate matches between resources and requests while also enhancing driver agility and compliance. Based on these findings, we present four propositions that extend our understanding of crowd logistics platforms’ value creation capabilities and the process through which these capabilities lead to value creation. The study also provides valuable insights for crowd logistics companies to improve their value creation capabilities.     

POLLUTION'S ROLE IN REDUCING URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

This paper surveys the recent literature exploring the consequences of urban pollution in the developing world for a city's productivity and resident quality of life. The environmental Kuznets curve literature predicts that developing nations will experience significant environmental degradation as a byproduct of economic development. In contrast, the recent literature that we review reverses this logic by arguing that geographic areas featuring lower levels of pollution will experience economic growth through improvements in health and human capital. In an economy where pollution reduces worker productivity, inhibits child development and repels the skilled from living in such an area, those cities featuring less pollution have a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining the skilled. Given the central role that human capital plays in urban economic growth, such cities will be more likely to achieve sustainable long‐term growth.     

The term structure of implied costs of equity capital

Review of Accounting Studies - We model and estimate the term structure of implied costs of equity capital (and implied risk premia) at the firm level for the years 1996–2015 from forward...