Dilution,Dividend Commitments and Liquidity: Do Dividend Changes Reflect Information Signaling?

We develop new tests of the dividend signaling hypothesis by focusing on the role of liquidity. We allow for two different types of signaling models: one where current dividends signal firm value and the objective is to prevent current dilution, and the other where commitments to future dividends constitute the signal. We find that the results differ by the sign of the dividend surprise. Signaling models of the commitment type explain the market reaction to negative dividend surprises. Interestingly, this result is significant only for the earlier sub-period in our sample due, perhaps, to the well-documented increase in institutional investors with longer horizons. The market reaction to positive dividend surprises, on the other hand, is shown to be consistent with the over-investment and wealth transfer hypotheses. We show that the failure of the signaling model for these firms could be due to lower costs of dividend increases.     

Risk Shift Following Dividend Change Announcement: The Role of Trading Volume

This study investigates the role of the trading volume in explaining the shift of firm's total and systematic risk when a dividend change is announced. We compared the differential interpretation hypothesis and pre-announcement disagreement hypothesis with more than 20,000 samples collected for 30 years. We found that the total risk generally increases regardless of the level of abnormal trading volume, which supports the differential interpretation hypothesis. We also found a positive relationship between announcement-period abnormal trading volume and post-announcement changes in beta, which is only consistent with the differential interpretation hypothesis. However, the decrease in beta for the majority of sample firms is only consistent with the pre-announcement disagreement hypothesis.     

On distributor commitment in industrial channels of distribution: A multicomponent approach

Despite a recent surge of interest in commitment, its conceptual scope and components in channel relationships remain equivocal. The authors suggest continuance, behavior, and affect as three essential components of distributor commitment and hypothesize that each component of commitment has a different set of driving forces. A proposed model was tested with data collected in a national survey of industrial distributors. Estimation results indicate that (a) three suggested components are interrelated, yet distinctive, elements of distributor commitment, and (b) each component of distributor commitment is driven by a different set of driving forces. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An AHP & Survey for Selecting Workflow Management Systems

The aim of this study was to establish the important criteria to be considered in selecting the workflow solution for a particular organization’s business process reengineering project. The success of a BPR project depends on the attainment of a subtle balance between two conflicting goals—control of the core work processes and empowerment of the individual employees. This balance in turn must differ from industry to industry, due to the difference in the core processes and the organizational structure. In this study, functions of the workflow management system that were considered important for reengineering an organization were structured as an attribute hierarchy according to the analytic hierarchy process model to facilitate the choice between conflicting functions. The attribute hierarchy was evaluated through a survey conducted on representatives of South Korean firms from different industries, the results of which indicate that workflow management systems must be designed to conform to a firm’s particular managerial practices and organizational structure, which differ among industries.© 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Workforce training transfer: A study of the effect of relapse prevention training and transfer climate

Considerable evidence suggests that a substantial part of organizations' investment in training is often wasted due to poor learning transfer and trainee relapse. This study investigated the effects of two different relapse prevention (RP) modules designed to supplement a training program on employee coaching skills. The coaching program was delivered to 78 research scientists from five departments of a large Midwestern firm. The transfer “climate” of those five represented departments was also assessed. Results indicated that the RP modules did modestly influence trainees' use of transfer strategies, but the impact was contingent on the nature of the transfer climate.¹© 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Pioneering advantages in manufacturing and service industries: empirical evidence from nine countries

Although one might expect differences between manufacturing and service firms in pioneering advantages, the extent of these differences has not yet been investigated. This is the first cross‐national study that compares such differences in nine countries/regions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore. We develop several hypotheses concerning the perceptions of managers of manufacturing firms and service firms regarding the benefits and post‐entry risks of pioneering, and the cost and differentiation advantages accruing to the pioneering firm. We test the hypotheses with data from 2,419 firms representing all nine countries and both industrial sectors. We find that: (1) managers from all countries perceive pioneering to be associated with higher market share and/or profitability; (2) manufacturing firm managers perceive pioneering risks to be significantly more important than do service firm managers; (3) cost and differentiation advantages of pioneering are, for the most part, more significant to manufacturing than to service firm managers; (4) Western manufacturing firm managers perceive the cost advantages to be more important than Asian Pacific manufacturing firm managers. We conclude by presenting the managerial implications of our findings. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Local institutional investors,information asymmetries,and equity returns

We examine the informational role of geographically proximate institutions in stock markets. We find that both the level of and change in local institutional ownership predict future stock returns, particularly for firms with high information asymmetry; in contrast, such predictive abilities are relatively weak for nonlocal institutional ownership. The local advantage is especially evident for local investment advisors, high local ownership institutions, and high local turnover institutions. We also find that the stocks that local institutional investors hold (trade) earn higher excess returns around future earnings announcements than those that nonlocal institutional investors hold (trade).     

Ownership concentration,foreign shareholding,audit quality,and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the effects of largest-shareholder ownership concentration, foreign ownership, and audit quality on the amount of firm-specific information incorporated into share prices, as measured by stock price synchronicity, of Chinese-listed firms over the 1996–2003 period. We show that synchronicity is a concave function of ownership by the largest shareholder with its maximum at an approximate 50% level. Further, we find that synchronicity is higher when the largest shareholder is government related. We also find that foreign ownership and auditor quality are inversely associated with synchronicity. Finally, we show that the amount of earnings information reflected in stock returns is lower for firms with high synchronicity.     

Role of network structure and network effects in diffusion of innovations

Why does diffusion of innovation sometimes propagate throughout the whole population, and why at other times does it halt in its interim process? The current paper provides a potential answer to this question by developing a simple computational model of social networks. The proposed computational approach incorporating small-world graphs enables the authors to find that diffusion of innovation is more likely to fail in a random network than in a highly clustered network of consumers. A marketing implication is that the choice of initial target groups and their network structures matter in influencing whether an innovation makes full or partial penetration, in markets where network effects plays a role.     

FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE WELFARE STATE IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA: PROCESS OF REFORM OF THE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE SYSTEM

The legal framework for social security in the Republic of Korea began to be formed in the early 1960s (the first period) and further progress was made during the process of democratization in the 1980s (the second period). However, it remained a “top‐down” residual system, preserving conservative elements. With the constitutional lawsuit over the right to life in 1994 as a turning point, however, there was a major shift to a universal system, supported by “bottom‐up” efforts through petitions to the National Assembly and legislation by Assembly members. This led to the enactment of the Framework Act on Social Security (1995), the National Basic Livelihood Security Act (1999) and other measures (the third period). This paper attempts to analyze the Korean‐style welfare state by tracking these institutional changes as well as the main actors.