Multinationals' diversification and the risk-return trade-off

This paper advances a theoretical rationale to explain Bowman's paradox (1980) that firms with high returns can have low risk. Here we draw on the rich body of international management research and argue that global market diversification, which provides firms with three distinct options and opportunities over domestic firms, can explain the high return-low risk profile. We also argue that no strong theoretical rationale exists in support of either related or unrelated product diversification generating such a favorable risk-return profile. By integrating both the product and the global market dimension of diversification into our analyses and by controlling for the industry effect, this paper sheds new light on the relationship between corporate diversification and the risk-return tradeoff. The results of this research, which are based on the diversification experiences of 125 multinationals, reveal the strikingly important, though so far overlooked, role that global market diversification plays in the joint management of corporate risk and return. Global market diversification here reflects both the multiplicity of international market areas in which a firm operates and the distribution pattern of a firm's industries across these multiple areas.     

External Economies of Scale and Optimal Plant Location

This paper departs from earlier work on location theory by introducing external economies of scale into the Weber–Moses location model. It is shown that under Cournot–Nash competition, when external economies prevail, constant returns to scale at the firm level is not a sufficient condition for ensuring the invariance of the firm's optimal location with respect to a change in market demand, regardless of whether or not free entry is allowed. Moreover, when free entry is allowed and the production function exhibits decreasing returns to scale, but with very strong external economies, the optimal location moves towards or away from the market as demand increases according to whether the demand function is convex or concave. These results are different significantly from the conventional wisdom.     

Hypothetical Bias in Risk Preferences as a Driver of Hypothetical Bias in Willingness to Pay: Experimental Evidence

This study provides new insight on the established issue of elicitation bias in hypothetical choice settings. In particular, using an experiment that elicits real and hypothetical willingness to pay for the protection of otters, we provide evidence that the observed bias is driven by those who are both uncertain about their value and exhibit hypothetical bias in risk attitudes. This finding provides a reason why calibration approaches based on follow-up certainty questions have proven useful, but also suggests a degree of caution in applying the approach. Our results favour combining uncertainty calibration with CVM-X in which hypothetical bias in risk attitudes is also taken account to correct for hypothetical bias in WTP.     

Innovation,Imitation and Intellectual Property Rights in Developing Countries

This paper sets up a vertically related market model in which imitation and innovation are endogenously determined to study the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on less‐developed countries. It shows how a less‐developed country switches from imitation to innovation as it develops. It is also found that the relationship between IPR protection and economic development is U ‐shaped. The IPR protection tends to go down and then go up as income rises. This finding also conforms with that in the empirical literature on IPR protection.     

The Dividend Pricing Model: New Evidence from the Korean Housing Market

It is generally conceded that dividend pricing models are poor predictors of asset prices. This finding is sometimes attributed to excess volatility or to a dividend process manipulated by firm managers. In this paper, we present rather powerful panel tests of the dividend pricing relation using a unique data set in which dividends are set by market forces independent of managers' preferences. We rely on observations on the market for condominium dwellings in Korea—perhaps the only market in which information on dividends and prices is publicly and continuously available to consumers and investors. We extend the “dividend-price ratio model” to panels of housing returns and rents differentiated by type and location. We find broad support for the dividend pricing model during periods both before and after the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997–1998, suggesting that the market for housing assets in Korea has been remarkably efficient. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Hong Kong-Singapore International Real Estate Research Symposium, August 2004, Hong Kong and the meeting of the Hong Kong Economic Association, January 2005. We are grateful for the comments of Ashok Bardhan, Yuming Fu, Chinmoy Ghosh, Lok Sang Ho, Charles Ka Yui Leung, Sau Kim Lum and Seow Eng Ong. Son's research was supported by the Konkuk University and Hwang's research was supported by the National University of Singapore.     

Research on the mutual relations between ISP and ASP efficiency changes for the sustainable growth of the Internet industry

Innovations in Internet networks and applications are equally important. However, there is controversy in the literature regarding whether it is network or application innovation that leads to the development and innovation of Internet industries. In this study, the mutual relations of Internet service providers’ (ISP) and application service providers’ efficiency changes are analysed empirically using a Granger causality test. Over the entire period of 1998–2011, efficiency changes of web service companies positively Granger-cause those of ISPs and vice versa. In the case of VoIP and streaming services, however, efficiency changes of VoIP and streaming services Granger-cause those of ISPs during the former half period, whereas those of ISPs negatively Granger-cause efficiency changes of streaming services during the latter half. As services that require heavy data traffic and QoS guarantees are launched, a policy that promotes virtuous circulation between ISPs and application service providers (ASPs) is necessary for the development of all Internet-related industries.     

First-class airline travelers’ tendency to seek uniqueness: how does it influence their purchase of expensive tickets?

This study explored first-class airline travelers’ need for uniqueness and its impact on their ticket purchase intentions. More specifically, the study investigated the roles of the three subdimensions of the need for uniqueness (i.e. creative choice, unpopular choice, and similarity avoidance) in the formation of travelers’ attitudes toward first-class flights. Consumer attitudes toward first-class flights are hypothesized to increase status value, first-class attachment, and willingness to pay a premium. Based on theoretical relationships between conceptual constructs, the study proposed and tested a model using data from 202 first-class passengers in the United States. The results indicated that all three dimensions of the need for uniqueness positively affect airline travelers’ attitudes toward first-class flights and thus enhanced outcome variables. Furthermore, it was found that materialism moderated the relationship between status value and first-class attachment.     

Effects of tempo and familiarity of background music on message processing in TV advertising: A resource‐matching perspective

This article examines effects of tempo and familiarity of background music in TV advertising. Based on the resource‐matching rationale stating that processing of a message is maximized when the resources demanded by the processing task match those people are able to make available, the authors predict an inverted‐U‐shaped relationship between the tempo and message recall. The prediction is fully supported when familiar music is used, but not when unfamiliar music is used in the background. Possible explanations of the results are offered and their implications are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Using the credit spread as an option-risk factor: Size and value effects in CAPM

This paper takes an option-theoretic approach to explain why pricing anomalies are observed when traditional CAPM is used. By extending CAPM to incorporate the option-risk factor of stocks, we show that stockholders’ limited liability can explain Fama and French’s size and value effects. We use bonds’ excess credit spread as a proxy for stocks’ default risk to control for the changing non-diversifiable option-risk characteristic of stocks. Because sensitivity to the excess credit spread becomes smaller as size increases and as value decreases, excess credit spread explains the CAPM anomalies in a fashion similar to the Fama–French factors. While the excess credit spread is significant in explaining Fama and French’s size and value effects, adding the Fama–French factors does not improve the performance of our model. Our revised model resembles conditional CAPM, but it offers a more intuitive explanation for the size and value effects.