How common are common return factors across the NYSE and Nasdaq?

We entertain the possibility of pervasive factors that are not common across two (or more) groups of securities. We propose and implement a general procedure to estimate the space spanned by common and group-specific pervasive factors. In our empirical analysis, we study the factor structure of excess returns on stocks traded on the NYSE and Nasdaq using our methodology. We find that there are only two common pervasive factors that govern the returns for both NYSE and Nasdaq. At the same time, the NYSE and Nasdaq each have one more group-specific factor that is not the same across the two exchanges. Our results point to the absence of complete similarity between the factors driving the returns on these exchanges.     

The Impact of Trades on Daily Volatility

This article proposes a trading-based explanation for the asymmetriceffect in daily volatility of individual stock returns. Previousstudies propose two major hypotheses for this phenomenon: leverageeffect and time-varying expected returns. However, leveragehas no impact on asymmetric volatility at the daily frequencyand, moreover, we observe asymmetric volatility for stocks withno leverage. Also, expected returns may vary with the businesscycle, that is, at a lower than daily frequency. Trading activityof contrarian and herding investors has a robust effect on therelationship between daily volatility and lagged return. Consistentwith the predictions of the rational expectation models, thenon-informational liquidity-driven (herding) trades increasevolatility following stock price declines, and the informed(contrarian) trades reduce volatility following stock priceincreases. The results are robust to different measures of volatilityand trading activity. (JEL C30, G11, G12)     

Willingness to Pay for Biodiversity Conservation

Nature-based tourism is the fastest growing tourism in many parts of the world. The attitude toward conservation of nature is measured by individuals' willingness to pay. This study has made an attempt to investigate the determinants of tourists' willingness to pay (WTP) for biodiversity conservation. The determinants include a combination of socio-economic and site-specific characteristics of tourists. The study was conducted in Sikkim, which is India's prime nature-based tourism destination. Results show WTP, and effects of education, and income of tourists. Among site-specific characteristics, length of stay and number of spots are the significant determinants of WTP. This empirical research is a valuable input to identify market segment among tourists, which might help to generate more revenues for biodiversity conservation in Sikkim.     

Long-run performance following quality management certification

Public firms that seek and successfully receive certification of quality management, type ISO 9000, seem to experience different post-announcement share-price drifts depending on their size. This result is not consistent with the notion that companies seeking to implement a quality management system may be reducing agency problems between managers and shareholders, which are among corporate governance and control goals of any well management company. Otherwise, we should have observed material and positive abnormal share-price changes, following ISO 9000 registration announcements, independently of company size. Our results show that only stocks of large-size firms, experience positive average significantly abnormal returns over the post-announcement 1-, 2-, and 3-year horizons. On the other hand, stocks of small-size firms experience negative average significantly abnormal returns, and stocks of mid-size firms do not show any material gain over the same horizons. Although there is a rich finance literature that has studied the long-run abnormal stock-price returns following several major corporate events, this study seems to be the only one that have examined the potential long-run impact of this certification-event, despite the fact that those standards have been around since the middle 1980s.

Exploring the enablers and inhibitors of electric vehicle adoption intention from sellers' perspective in India: A view of the dual‐factor model

The electric vehicle (EV) is a crucial innovation with the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help reduce the causes of climate change. Despite their multiple benefits, EVs are selling lower numbers than would be expected, seeming to require more positive intent from their sellers to increase the pace of EV adoption. Hence, this study explores the enablers and inhibitors of EV adoption intention from the sellers' perspective using a dual‐factor model. The extended theory of planned behavior has been used to explore the enablers, whereas the status quo bias theory has been used to explore the inhibitors of EV adoption. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern, and perceived corporate social responsibility obligation have significant positive impacts on intention to adopt EVs. However, regret avoidance, inertia, perceived threat, and perceived value have significant impacts on the resistance to adopt EVs. This study enriches the literature related to intention and resistance to adopt green technology and also provides several suggestions to marketers for increasing the pace of EV adoption.     

Copyright protection and hardware taxation

This paper investigates the recently practiced method of taxing hardware and transferring the proceeds to software makers, or artists in general. We characterize the conditions under which the policy of compensating copyright owners for infringements on their intellectual property using hardware taxation is inefficient.     

Are US macroeconomic series difference stationary or trend-break stationary?

This article tests for the presence of a unit-root in all time series included in the extended Nelson–Plosser data set using the statistics devised by Zivot and Andrews, Perron and Murray and Zivot. It specifies the mixed model characterization of the trend-break stationary alternative that allows for a simultaneous break in both the intercept and slope of the trend-function. It rejects the unit-root null hypothesis for real GNP, nominal GNP, real per capita GNP, industrial production, employment, GNP deflator, nominal wages, interest rate and common stock prices. Use of appropriate critical values to assess the significance of the trend-function coefficients reveals that the slope-break should be included in real GNP, nominal GNP, real per capita GNP, nominal wages, interest rate and common stock prices. The results indicate that there is less evidence against the unit-root hypothesis with the extended Nelson–Plosser data compared to the original Nelson–Plosser data.     

Online Market Entry: The Motivations for Imitation across Retailer Types

This study examines the motivations for imitation in retailers' online channel entry. Extant literature suggests that legitimacy and efficiency are the primary motivators for firms to imitate. We develop hypotheses that center on the belief that not all firm types would use the same motivator for deciding to imitate and enter the online market; legitimacy would be the driving force for some retailer types whereas efficiency would be the motivator for others. We test our hypotheses on unique data collected from multiple sources. Our findings confirm that the motivators for imitation vary across retailer types. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.