The relationship between institutional ownership and casino firm performance

This study examined the relationship between institutional ownership and firm performance in the casino industry from 1999–2003. Given the evidence of the endogeneity of institutional ownership in the casino industry, institutional ownership was found to be a significant and positive determinant of casino firm performance as measured by a proxy for Tobin's Q in a simultaneous equations system. This study reveals that investing institutionally in casino firms may help casino industry investors mitigate the agency problem caused by the separation of management from ownership. In addition, financial institutions tend to invest in larger casino firms with lower financial leverage.     

Analysis of career competency of food and beverage managers in international tourist hotels in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to establish indicators of career competencies of food and beverage managers in international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Panel discussions and the Delphi technique were adopted. Two panel discussions were conducted with a total of 11 industry experts and seven academic experts. The framework of career competencies was established based on these experts’ opinions. Delphi questionnaires were sent to 23 experts 13 in the hospitality industry and ten academic experts to collect data. By using such questionnaire twice, the 23 panelists reached a stable consensus. The results indicate career competencies include two categories: (1) career planning and development, and (2) core employability. The data demonstrated that the core employability competency was slightly more important for an individual's career development than the career development and planning competency.     

Understanding the impact of culinary brand equity and destination familiarity on travel intentions

This paper explores determinants of brand equity and the role of destination familiarity for travel intentions in culinary tourism from the perspective of foreign tourists. This analysis advocates four elements for brand equity (brand loyalty, brand image, perceived quality and brand awareness) for culinary travel intentions in Taiwan. Building on extensive literature, this study developed and empirically tested a model of the relationship using survey data collected from 407 foreign tourists from ten regions. The results indicate that there is a direct positive relationship between brand equity and travel intentions in culinary tourism. Moreover, the study recognizes the moderating role of destination familiarity, which positively moderates the effect of brand loyalty and perceived quality on travel intentions.     

Price Rigidity and Vacancy Rates: The Framing Effect on Rental Housing Markets

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This paper proposes a new explanation for housing rent price rigidity. When high inflation or low inflation occurs, the bargaining process for new...     

The Information Transmission Effect and Asset Prices: Evidence from the China B-Share Discount

ABSTRACT

We construct a model based on market microstructure and examine the information transmission effect of equity prices in A-share and B-share markets in China. The data on foreign share discounts raise a question: How are asset prices determined if uninformed foreign traders obtain signals by observing public information? Our investigation on the measure of the information transmission effect presents a substantial segment of the cross-sectional variation in B-share discounts and finds that the information transmission effect plays a critical role in explaining how foreign share discounts become more contractive.     

The Impacts of Surrender Options on Reserve Durations

Estimating the interest rate risk of life insurance reserves is essential for insurers, and surrender options are critical to the estimation. This article advances our understanding of how surrender options affect the durations of reserves. We identify a pattern of the reserve duration with respect to the interest rate that is important in explaining how surrender rate levels and the interest-rate sensitivity of surrenders affect reserve durations. We further found that the surrender behavior that is more positively related to the interest rate produces larger/smaller effective dollar durations when the interest rate is low/high.     

Fiscal incentives and political budget cycles in China

Political budget cycles in democracies have been extensively analyzed, but few studies of non-democracies exist. This paper explores political budget cycles in China’s provinces. Using data from Chinese provinces from 1980 to 2006, the analysis finds that the effects of a provincial leader’s tenure on political budget cycles are minimal, implying a weak causal relationship between spending composition and a politician’s time in office at the provincial level. However, there exists a national coordinated cycle associated with the timing of the National Congress of the Communist Party (NCCP). Two years prior to the NCCP, politicians are likely to shift public spending toward capital expenditures, such as innovation funds and capital construction, and away from current expenditures, such as agricultural subsidies. The opposite pattern occurs during the year of the NCCP, when politicians increase current expenditures, such as social expenditures and government administration, and decrease capital expenditures. The increased capital expenditures 2 years prior to the NCCP are accompanied by an increase in taxation and total aggregate spending. The empirical results indicate that provincial budget cycles are mainly driven by national policies rather than by provincial leaders’ personal career incentives. Chinese leaders’ fiscal behaviors are constrained by the dynamics of the national leadership transition, resulting in similar distortions to those found in the democratic countries.     

The moderating effects of market orientation and launch proficiency on the product advantage-performance relationship

The relationship between product advantage and new product performance has been identified in prior research and cannot be overlooked. However, the moderators between the two constructs have received little attention. This study examines how market orientation and launch proficiency exert contingent influences on the product advantage-performance relationship. Prior research indicates that new product performance is a multi-dimensional concept constituted by different types of performance, yet the way product advantage and its moderators influence certain types of product performance has not been investigated. This study examines the same issues under different dimensions of new product performance. A total of 112 Taiwanese biotechnology firms form the analytical sample. Two interesting findings are revealed. First, product advantage is significantly and positively related to market performance, but has no significant influence on financial performance. Second, market orientation and launch proficiency in tactics indeed moderate the relationship between product advantage and new product performance, either as a whole or in respect to different types of product performance. Obviously, these findings contribute detailed evidence to the theoretical nexus between product advantage and new product performance.     

Strategy in emerging economies and the theory of the firm

Indigenous emerging economy (EE) firms are increasingly competing in global markets or against multinational corporations (MNCs) in their home markets. But their institutional context at the national and local levels often suffers from what has been termed “institutional weakness” which is believed to put them at a competitive disadvantage on the global playing field. Yet little is known about how EE institutional weakness at the national level translates into competitive disadvantage at the firm level. In this perspectives paper, we examine this shortcoming in the literature. We utilize three popular theories of the firm—neoclassical economics, the resource-based view, and the nexus of contracts view—to examine how EE institutional weakness at the national level affects strategic choices at the firm level. We then explain how these strategic choices affect firm boundaries, internal organization, and the nature of competitive advantage for firms in EEs.