Applications of artificial neural networks in management science: a survey

An increasing number of publications reporting on applications of Artificial Neural Networks demonstrates the growing relevance of modeling techniques summarized under this heading. In Management Science several known problems also have already been solved by using one of these methods.The paper at hand provides a survey of the most recent publications in this field and employs the functional structuring of Management for presentation. In the spirit of a metaanalysis we try to identify regularities with respect to the methods used and the results achieved. Furthermore we formulate areas for future research and give a summarizing evaluation of the state-of-the-art.     

Hedging with mismatched currencies

This article presents a model of a risk-averse multinational firm facing risk exposure to a foreign currency cash flow. Forward markets do not exist between the firm's own currency and the foreign currency, but do exist for a third currency. Because a triangular parity condition holds among these three currencies, the available forward markets, albeit incomplete, provide a useful avenue for the firm to indirectly hedge against its foreign exchange rate risk exposure. This article offers analytical insights into the optimal cross-hedging strategies of the firm. In particular, the results show that separate unbiasedness of the forward markets does not necessarily imply a perfect full hedge that eliminates the entire foreign exchange rate risk exposure of the firm. The optimal cross-hedging strategies depend largely on the firm's marginal utility function and on the correlation of the random spot exchange rates. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 19:859–875, 1999     

Optimal environmental taxes and standards: Implications of the materials balance

This paper investigates the implications of the materials balance for optimal environmental policy. We find that neglecting the materials-emissions relationship - as is common in models of optimal environmental regulation - implies biases, whose sign depends on the regulatory instrument chosen. When emissions are regulated through an emission tax, the seemingly optimal tax is too high. When regulation proceeds through the use of an emission standard, the seemingly optimal standard is too lax.     

Export,Exchange Rate Risk and Hedging: The Duopoly Case

Abstract. This paper studies a Cournot duopoly in international trade with firms exposed to exchange rate risk. A hedging opportunity is introduced by a forward market on which one firm can trade the foreign currency. We investigate two settings: First, we assume that hedging and output decisions are taken simultaneously. It is shown that hedging is exclusively done for risk‐managing reasons as it is not possible to use hedging strategically. Second, the hedging decision is made before the output decisions. We show that hedging is not only used to manage the risk exposure but also as a strategic device.     

Game‐park capitalism,globalization, and multinational companies: An overview and a research agenda

This article paints a broad‐brush picture of a modernizing and reglobalizing world, following a path that can metaphorically be described as leading from unfettered “savannah‐type capitalism” over an interwar state‐controlled “zoo mentality” to a system of managed “game‐park capitalism.” I propose an agenda for studying the effects of what is ironically both a more integrated and an increasingly multipolar world on the role, strategies, and practices of incumbent multinational companies and their challengers. International business is portrayed as a learning race where I especially direct scholarly attention to internationally active companies' abilities to handle and benefit from the periphery, understand and serve customers, manage knowledge and interfaces, tap the international factor markets, and project a contemporary image. ©2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Global Accounting Harmonization from a German Perspective: Bridging the GAAP

This paper presents the results obtained from a survey of various aspects of international accounting harmonization in which we submitted questionnaires to senior managers of major German companies and university professors of accounting. Most corporate managers were at least sceptical with regard to US-GAAP principles. The professors held divergent views, ranging from clear rejection to decided approval. Almost all participants agreed, albeit to different degrees, that German accounting rules reduce the demand for German shares abroad. With respect to the information value for investors in capital markets, the majority of managers had a positive opinion of German accounting. They further assumed that US accounting practice has a negative effect on capital market conditions in that it encourages short-term thinking. The academics, in contrast, were more in favor of US accounting and more critical towards German accounting. In the light of these results it was surprising to find that German accounting experts, including the managers interviewed, were far from rejecting further harmonization. Only a quarter of the managers and less than 10 per cent of the professors were decidedly against any modification of current German accounting rules. However, the experts clearly wished to limit the harmonization of accounting to consolidated financial statements. The majority of managers were in favor of giving German corporations the option of preparing their consolidated financial statements in accordance with either the German Commercial Code (HGB), IAS or US-GAAP. The academic experts, on the other hand, wished to see IAS as the authoritative basis for consolidated financial statements.     

Equivalizing Incomes: A Normative Approach

The paper deals with the comparisonof living standards and investigates two normative methods ofderiving equivalizing transformations for a population whichhas different household types. The first one equates the utilitylevels of representative household members belonging to differenthouseholds. The second method evaluates the well-being of householdsby a social welfare ordering defined by means of household utilityfunctions. The methods can determine the implicit normative assumptionsinvolved in conducting distributional analysis using any equivalizingtransformation. In particular income-level dependent equivalencescales can be founded in this framework. The assumptions underlyingboth approaches are examined and compared.     

Employment stability in newly founded firms: a matching approach using linked employer–employee data from Germany

Using a linked employer–employee dataset and taking the perspective of individuals rather than firms, this paper analyzes some effects of joining startups. We show that entrants in new firms differ from those joining incumbent firms, and we use a matching approach to compare a group of employees joining new firms in 1995/1996 with a control group entering incumbent firms. Our results indicate that individuals’ employment stability was higher in incumbent than in newly founded firms, while their risk of becoming unemployed was lower. In particular in eastern Germany, joining firms that were older than 6 years improved individuals’ employment prospects.     

Household willingness to pay and income pooling: A comment

We demonstrate some problems with Munro 2005 (“Household willingness to pay equals individual willingness to pay if and only if the household income pools”, Economics Letters 88, 227-230). Furthermore, we reconsider income pooling in a slightly changed framework and prove: Income pooling implies that household willingness to pay is equal to minimal individual willingness to pay. The converse is not true.     

为非洲不断发展的消费市场挑选产品

非洲消费者阶层的迅速扩大应该使企业有理由考虑进入这一过去曾被许多企业回避的地区。