A behavioural explanation to the asymmetric volatility phenomenon: Evidence from market volatility index

This study examines how the behavioural explanations, in particular loss aversion, can be used to explain the asymmetric volatility phenomenon by investigating the relationship between stock market returns and changes in investor perceptions of risk measured by the volatility index. We study the behaviour of India volatility index vis‐à‐vis Hong Kong, Australia and UK volatility index, and provide a comprehensive comparative analysis. Using Bai‐Perron test, we identify structural breaks and volatility regimes in the time series of volatility index, and investigate the volatility index‐return relation during high, medium and low volatility periods. Regardless of volatility regimes, we find that volatility index moves in opposite direction in response to stock index returns, and contemporaneous return is the most dominating across the four markets. The negative relation is strongest for UK followed by Australia, Hong Kong and India. Second, volatility index reacts significantly different to positive and negative returns; negative return has higher impact on changes in volatility index than positive return across the markets over full‐sample and sub‐sample periods. The asymmetric effect is stronger in low volatility regime than in high and medium volatility periods for all the markets except UK. The strength of asymmetric effect is strongest for Hong Kong and weakest for India. Finally, negative returns have exponentially increasing effect and positive returns have exponentially decreasing effect on the changes in volatility index.     

Covariate and Idiosyncratic Shocks and Coping Strategies for Poor and Non-poor Rural Households in India

The objective of the paper is to track the association between different type of shocks experienced by rural households and corresponding coping strategies opted by them as they are, not only exposed to household-level and community level shocks, but also, lack effective risk management strategies which make them vulnerable to get into chronic poverty. A probit analysis has been used to articulate the comparative static distinction of risk management strategies between poor and non poor rural households using Additional Rural Incomes Survey/Rural Economic and Demographic Survey (ARIS/REDS) data surveyed by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in rural India across 17 states to get a comparative static analysis. Households, generally, withdraw savings, seek remittances from migrant family members, take loan from formal and informal lenders and sell their existing assets and participate in Government sponsored welfare based programs to control after effect of shocks. Comparatively non-poor rural households could build up safety net (precautionary measure) to cope with price rise and other sudden shocks. But, extremely poor, generally, if don’t get help from relatives or can’t borrow from informal sources, ultimately starve at the time of sudden shocks. The welfare based government programs fail to arrest this extreme situation of grief during the idiosyncratic shocks.

     

Benchmarking sustainable E-commerce enterprises based on evolving customer expectations amidst COVID-19 pandemic

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has seriously impacted the performance of all types of businesses. It has given a tremendous structural boost to e-commerce enterprises by forcing customers to online shopping over visiting physical stores. Moreover, customer expectations of the digital and operational capabilities of e-commerce firms are also increasing globally. Thus, it has become crucial for an e-commerce enterprise to reassess and realign its business practices to meet evolving customer needs and remain sustainable. This paper presents a comprehensive performance evaluation framework for e-commerce enterprises based on evolving customer expectations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework comprises seven primary criteria, which are further divided into 25 sub-criteria, including two sustainability factors, namely, environmental sustainability and carbon emissions. The evaluation approach is then practically demonstrated by analyzing the case of three Indian e-commerce firms. The results are obtained using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, namely, Fuzzy VIKOR, to capture the fuzziness of the inherent decision-making problem. Further, numerical analysis is conducted to evaluate and rank various e-commerce enterprises based on customer expectations and satisfaction benchmarks. The findings explain the most important criteria and sub-criteria for e-commerce businesses to ensure customer expectations along with their economic and environmental sustainability.     

Does modern endogenous growth theory adequately represent Allyn Young?

Endogenous growth theory is now fashionable. It seeks to explainwhy per capita income growth in capital abundant countries isoften faster than in capital poor countries and defies the operationof diminishing returns. This theory, which took off with Romerand Lucas, often makes Allyn Young's concept of increasing returnsand Marshall's distinction between internal and external economiesits starting point but considers their treatment of the subjectas not sufficiently rigorous. The modern endogenous growth theoriststhen claim to explain what they had in mind with greater clarity,rigour and depth. This paper argues that this is not the caseas these theorists actually misrepresent Young in importantways.     

Broadening the concept of international entrepreneurship: ‘Consumers as International Entrepreneurs’

We integrate theories from international business, entrepreneurship, innovation, marketing and network economics to develop a four-part typology of ‘consumers as international entrepreneurs’. This broadens the concept of international entrepreneurship and complements the firm-level focus customary in research on international new ventures and entrepreneurs within those ventures. We develop our arguments in the context of the new economy and discuss areas for investigation in this emerging area of inquiry.     

Corporate Transparency and Green Management

How can firms support their customers’ collaborative, social responsibility initiatives – and especially pro-environmental, firm–customer collaborations? Does corporate transparency affect customers’ willingness to undertake pro-environmental collaborative programs? This study addresses these questions in relation to the US residential electricity market. It focuses on the impact of customers’ perceptions of the utility’s degree of transparency and on the willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior (PEB) related to electricity consumption. The responses of 1257 interviewees from US households to questions related to their electricity suppliers are analyzed through structural equation models (SEMs) using latent variables. Results show that customers’ perceptions of an electricity utility’s transparency affect their willingness to collaborate in environmental programs, and that the degree of perceived transparency of the utility is related to customers’ environmental awareness.     

WTO subsidy rules and tariff liberalization: evidence from accession of China

Countries increasingly rely on subsidies to assist their producers leading to concerns about their potential misuse. The WTO regulates its members’ subsidies by defining subsidies that are permissible, as well as by providing means to retaliate against subsidies of partner countries if these subsidies hurt one's interest. However, these subsidy rules might have an unintended effect. As both subsidies and tariffs are substitute instruments of protection, tighter subsidy rules might lead to a decrease in the pace of tariff liberalization. In this paper, we present first empirical evidence in support of this prediction. Using China's accession to the WTO in 2001 as a case study, we show that China's accession to the WTO was associated with a relative increase in its tariffs for products that faced a higher threat of retaliation against subsidies. More importantly, we also show that increases in tariff were larger in products with higher potential costs imposed by retaliation. Finally, we include several robustness tests as well as conduct two counterfactual exercises to verify that the results we obtain are indeed due to perceived threat of retaliation against subsidies.     

Effect of Internal Marketing on Hotels: Empirical Evidence for Internal Customers

Internal marketing is a concept where firms apply marketing tools to attract and retain the best employees that will later affect business performance in monetary and nonmonetary terms. This article deals with the effect of internal marketing in hotels on their performance, based upon data obtained from India. Researchers identified the constructs of internal marketing: interfunctional coordination and integration, job satisfaction, job security, empowerment, employee motivation, vision of the organization, quality of service, employee development, strategic reward, and senior leadership. Researchers analyzed the effects of these processes on interactive marketing and thereby business performance. This study seeks to help organizations design their own internal marketing plan by outlining the important elements necessary to improve the business performance of hotels.     

Antecedents and consequences of green innovation in the wine industry: the role of channel structure

In this study, we place green innovation in a broader technology development, commercialisation and distribution context to test hypotheses in three areas: (1) the internal vs external drivers of green innovation; (2) the effect of green innovation on business performance; and (3) the role of channel structures (the degree to which producers sell directly to consumers or businesses) in making green innovation more productive in terms of business performance. To test our hypotheses, data from an international survey among 123 wineries is used. Our results suggest that internal drivers, i.e. environmental management and quality management in particular, play a greater role than external drivers (e.g. government and regulatory pressures) on the adoption of green innovation strategies. Producing and using organic products and processes and recycling activities are found to have a significant direct positive impact on business performance. Our results also confirm the moderating effect of channel structures: the benefits of green innovation in terms of business performance are larger when firms use more direct sales channels (selling wine directly from the wine cellar to consumers and businesses).     

Pharmacy layout: What are consumers' perceptions?

The physical layout of a retail pharmacy can play a significant role in the development of the customers' perceptions which can have a positive (or negative) impact on its sales potential. Compared to most general merchandise stores, pharmacies are more concerned about safety and security issues due to the nature of their products. This paper will discuss these aspects as well as the physical and professional environments of retail pharmacies that influence the perceptions of customers and how these vary whether chain, independent, or hospital pharmacies.