Assessing volatility transmission between Brent and stocks in the major global oil producers and consumers – the multiscale robust quantile regression

This paper investigates the volatility transmission effect between Brent oil futures and stock markets in the major global oil producing and consuming countries – the U.S., Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. In that process, we employ a mixture of novel and elaborate methodologies – wavelet signal decomposing procedure, GARCH model with complex distribution and recently developed robust quantile regression. Our results indicate that the effect is stronger in short-term horizon than in midterm and long-term in most cases. The magnitude is much stronger in turbulent times, whereas in tranquil times, this effect is very weak. We find that Russian RTS index endures the strongest volatility transmission effect from oil market. Surprisingly, Saudi stock market does not suffer heavy spillover effect even in the periods of increased market unrest. In the U.S. and China, the effect is much stronger from stocks to oil than vice-versa, and this particularly applies for the U.S. case.

     

Environmental management and the “soft side” of organisations: Discovering the most relevant behavioural factors in green supply chains

Anchored in the resource‐based view theory, the objective of this research is to empirically analyse the behavioural factors affecting the green supply chain management (GCSM) performance in a fast‐growing emerging economy by taking an empirical data set of 101 responses from personnel in the mining sector. Behavioural factors in green supply chains are still a critical challenge—not yet a well‐explored academic subject—when the focus is on the mining industry of emerging economies like India; the lack of studies in this field could be a factor preventing the Indian mining industry becoming more green. In terms of methodology, original survey data were processed through AMOS 4.0, adopted for assessing the causal connection among the six constructs, that is, top management support, teamwork, workplace culture, resistance to change, green innovation, and green motivation. We further explore the input from the human side of GCSM by highlighting that top management support and green motivation are the most crucial behavioural factors that influence GCSM in the Indian mining sector. The study will be helpful for mining companies because it will enable them to identify the areas that require their attention for enhancing GCSM performance related to behavioural aspects.     

Did the global financial crisis alter the competitive conditions in the Indian banking industry?

This article addresses a pertinent research question: Did the global financial crisis alter the competitive conditions in the Indian banking industry? In order to find the answer of this research question, we applied a dynamic version of the non-structural Panzar-Rosse model on a unique unbalanced panel dataset of Indian banks spanning over the period from 1998/99 to 2015/16. The robust estimates of H-statistic computed on the basis of the generalized method of moments estimates of the elasticities of input prices show that (i) Indian banks earned their interest and total revenue under monopolistic competition throughout the whole of the sample period and (ii) the global financial crisis altered the competitive conditions in the banking industry, and market moved closer to perfect competition following the financial crisis, especially when interest-bearing activities were in focus.     

Consumer Resistance to Innovation in Services: Challenges and Barriers in the Internet of Things Era

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to be the next phase of the Internet revolution and to transform consumers’ service experience. It nevertheless raises challenges on innovation in services. Based on Ram and Sheth's ( 1989 ) theoretical framework, this work attempts to provide a better understanding of the barriers that lead to consumers’ resistance to smart services as an innovation. To this end, our research adopts an integrative framework that combines functional barriers, psychological barriers, and individual barriers to explain consumer resistance to smart services. Structural equation modeling was used to test this theoretical framework. Our research enriches the existing literature by (1) adapting Ram and Sheth's ( 1989 ) theoretical framework to the evolution of digital technologies (technological vulnerability barriers), (2) taking into account the ideological aspect of resistance (ideological barriers), and (3) considering dispositional variables (individual barriers). Moreover, it highlights the key role of skepticism toward IoT devices as a mediator between technological vulnerability barriers and individual barriers on the one hand and consumer resistance to smart services on the other.     

The clock is ticking on readmission penalties

Hospital leaders who are considering initiatives to reduce readmissions by improving discharge processes and postdischarge care should begin with five action steps: Ascertain the hospital's Medicare 30-day readmission rates from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012. Based on these numbers, estimate the potential readmission penalties the organization may face. Identify a clear strategy or program for the organization to reduce 30-day readmissions and avoid Medicare penalties. Determine the overall direct and indirect costs of this strategy or program. Calculate the potential ROI of the initiative.     

Linking new product alliances to stock returns and risk

Although firms widely engage in new product alliances, prior research has paid limited attention to their financial impact, especially, both stock returns and risk. In addition to the direct impact of product alliances, I have assessed how firm and alliance characteristics can moderate such effects. I have examined firm size and alliance type as moderators to the product alliance and stock performance relationship. Using a large database of 506 firms and 3714 new product alliances over 21 years, I estimate a random effects model. My findings are that new product alliances demonstrate an increase in stock returns and a decrease in stock risk. In addition, these effects are heterogeneous across firm size and alliance type. This research has implications for both new product alliances and marketing-finance interface literature.     

Currency equivalent monetary aggregates as leading indicators of inflation

This study examines whether the Currency Equivalent (CE) Monetary Aggregates proposed by [Hutt, 1963] and [Rotemberg et al., 1995] can perform better in predicting inflation as compared to their simple sum counterparts. The components of four official measures of monetary constructs - M1, M2, M3 and L1 - are used to construct monthly CE monetary aggregates for the period from April 1993 to June 2009. The empirical evidence indicates that the growth rate of CE aggregates has an edge over their sum counterparts in predicting inflation. Moreover, the predictive power of the growth rates of CE aggregates improves as the level of aggregation increases. These evidences suggest that observing the movements in the growth rates of weighted monetary aggregates can be a better option within the “multiple indicator approach” which is being currently practiced by the Reserve Bank of India.     

An investigation of the cross-national determinants of customer satisfaction

Many multinational corporations have implemented cross-national satisfaction measurement programs for tracking and benchmarking the satisfaction of their customers across their various markets. These companies measure satisfaction with the goal of maximizing customer loyalty and the financial benefits associated with loyalty. However, existing research comparing consumer satisfaction across nations is limited, with the few existing studies examining only a small number of countries or predictors of satisfaction, or a small group of consumers within a particular economic sector. To expand our knowledge of the determinants of cross-national variation in customer satisfaction, we study three sets of factors: cultural, socioeconomic and political-economic. We utilize a unique sample of cross-industry satisfaction data from 19 nations, including nearly 257,000 interviews of consumers. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that consumers in traditional societies have higher levels of satisfaction than those in secular-rational societies. Likewise, consumers in self-expressive societies have higher levels of customer satisfaction than those in societies with survival values. We also find that literacy rate, trade freedom, and business freedom have a positive effect on customer satisfaction while per capita gross domestic product has a negative effect on customer satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these findings for policymakers, multinational corporations, and researchers.     

IMF Conditionality and Country Ownership of Adjustment Programs

This article uses finance and agency theory to establish twokey propositions about International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalityand country ownership of IMF-supported adjustment programs.First, the authors propose that the conditionality attachedto these programs is justified. Second, the article hypothesizesthat country ownership of these programs is crucial for theirsuccess. Because IMF conditionality and country ownership areboth necessary, the challenge is designing conditionality thatmaximizes ownership while providing adequate safeguards forIMF lending. The article analyzes several recent proposals aimedat enhancing country ownership of policies contained in IMF-supportedprograms. These proposals include encouraging countries to designtheir own adjustment and reform programs, streamlining structuralconditionality, introducing flexibility in the timing of structuralpolicy measures (floating tranche conditionality), and applyingconditionality to outcomes rather than policies (outcomes-basedconditionality).