The Optimal Timing of Open Market Stock Repurchases

Using a continuous-time real options approach we determine the conditions under which a value-maximizing company would conduct an open market stock repurchase to exploit the undervaluation of shares. We find the optimal timing of such repurchases as well as the optimal amount a company should repurchase and analyze how it depends on market parameters. Obtaining the announcement returns from the authorization of stock repurchases from our model allows us to derive testable empirical implications.     

Marketing Strategies and the Search for Virtue: A Case Analysis of The Body Shop, International

The authors propose a framework to integrate virtue ethics into marketing theory and apply it to the development of marketing strategies. Virtue ethics, a philosophy that focuses on an individual's moral character, has received limited attention from marketing scholars and researchers. The authors argue that without consideration of virtue ethics a comprehensive analysis of the ethical character of marketing decision makers and their strategies cannot be achieved. They provide an overview of virtue ethics supplemented by a case study of The Body Shop, International to demonstrate how evaluation of the ethics of corporate executives and their marketing strategies is completed by virtue ethics.     

Dependence structure between the equity market and the foreign exchange market–A copula approach

This paper investigates the dependence structure between the equity market and the foreign exchange market by using copulas. In particular, several copulas with different dependence structure are compared and used to directly model the underlying dependence structure. We find that there exists significant symmetric upper and lower tail dependence between the two financial markets, and the dependence remains significant but weaker after the launch of the euro. Our findings have important implications for both global investment risk management and international asset pricing by taking into account joint tail risk.     

Entry mode choice in China's regional distribution markets: Institution vs. transaction costs perspectives

In this paper, we investigate the entry mode choice of a leading Taiwanese food company in setting up regional distributors in China's 312 sales districts. Our study shows that, in entry mode decisions, the institutional factors are more important than transaction cost considerations. Both formal and informal institutions are considered. Formal institutions refer to government prescribed institutions (laws and regulations), while informal institutions refer to rules prescribed by the industry and the society. Both institutions are shown to affect the entry mode choices but one important type of institution, professional norms, is conspicuously missing in China. Professional norms exert peer pressures on the practitioners in the same profession, forcing their behaviors to conform to a common pattern. In the absence of professional norms, the roles of network ties and mimetic behaviors are heightened and they become a proxy for professional norms. As a foreign enterprise operating in China's local markets, the Taiwanese food company attained legitimacy by forming alliances with local wholesalers and by following its predecessors in selecting organization forms.     

贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡

本文利用两国两异质财货的产业内贸易模型,讨论贸易财属性与贸易政策竞争均衡的决定,并获得以下结论:(1)当两国政府均采取相同的进口或出口政策时,不论产品的消费性质,最适进口贸易政策均为课税;最适出口贸易政策将随贸易财的消费性质而定.替代品为出口补贴,互补品为出口课税.(2)当产品为替代品且厂商在两国市场均实行数量竞争的情况下,进口课税政策虽将成为两国政府的优势策略,但出口补贴政策则更具有效率.在产品为互补品且厂商在两国市场均实行价格竞争的情况下,当产品的互补程度较小(大)时,进口课税(出口课税)政策将成为两国政府的优势策略;当互补程度中等时,两国政府有可能采取差异性的贸易政策.     

Are two brands better than one? Investigating the effects of co-branding in advertising on audience memory

Co-branded advertising, where advertisements feature two partnered brands from different categories, should ideally benefit both brands. We test this assertion by studying the effect of featuring a second brand in advertisements on ad and brand name memorability, and the role of category context on which brand is recalled. Our test covers online display advertisements for consumer-packaged brands paired with charity and retailer brands in three markets (USA, UK, and Australia). Independent sample comparisons across 54 brand pairs show that advertising two brands has a neutral effect on ad memorability and negative effect on brand memorability. Furthermore, the advertisement’s category context determines which of the brands is recalled. Our findings support a competitive interference theory of dual-brand processing, whereby the two brands compete for attention resources. The results have implications for the return on investment from advertising expenditure, which will vary substantively depending on whether the costs of advertising are shared or borne by one brand in the pair.     

Health insurance and precautionary saving: A structural analysis

Starr-McCluer (1996) documented an empirical finding showing that US households covered by health insurance saved more than those without coverage, which is inconsistent with the standard consumption–saving theory. This study conducts a structural analysis and suggests that institutional factors, particularly, a social insurance or safety net system and an employment-based health insurance system, can account for this puzzling finding. A dynamic equilibrium model is built that combines these two institutions with heterogeneous agents making endogenous decisions regarding saving, the labor supply and health insurance when they are young. The model, in which agents save in a precautionary manner, can generate Starr-McCluer?s empirical finding. The result implies that Starr-McCluer?s results are not inconsistent with the standard theory of saving under uncertainty, but it does indicate that the standard saving regression model is unable to reveal the precautionary saving motive. Counterfactual experiments are performed to provide implications for empirical analyses.     

Tax Auditing as a Public Good Game: An Experimental Study on Punishment and Compliance

Prior experimental studies on tax evasion generally assume that the budget and the probability of audit are exogenously given, and ignore taxpayers' incentives to detect evasion and their compliance behaviour under such incentives. The experimental evidence of the present paper shows that, on average, subjects are willing to spend 20 to 30% of their tax revenue on auditing. Compliance is also greatly improved if subjects can determine the budget and, hence, the probability of audit. These findings suggest that taking taxpayers' incentives to detect evasion into consideration is important for the design of compliance‐improvement audit schemes.     

Native American casino marketing on the web

The Internet and its component, the World Wide Web (WWW or Web), as well as the casino industry grew tremendously in the United States in the past decade. While there are various estimates about the future size of the Internet and the casino market, all agree that the two will continue to grow substantially. However, very few studies have discussed Internet use within the casino industry. This study reviewed 58 Class III Native American casino web sites. Content areas analyzed included introduction to the casino organization, local destination attractions, food and beverage services, accommodations, entertainment and recreation facilities, maps and directions to casinos, links to related commercial and regulatory agency web sites, and user friendliness. Web site features were evaluated based on marketing mix and principles.