Institutional Investors' Preferences for REIT Stocks

This article investigates the determinants of real estate investment trusts (REIT) portfolio investment and institutional REIT ownership using multivariate Tobit regressions. We contend that many institutional investors take larger positions in more liquid assets like REIT stocks, as compared with private real estate equities, because of liquidity considerations. Consistent with this contention, we find that liquidity constraints are significantly related to REIT portfolio investment by institutional investors. We also find that institutional investors have different preferences for REIT stocks than do other investors; they generally prefer larger, more liquid REIT stocks.     

Investor perceptions of CEO successor selection in the wake of integrity and competence failures: A policy capturing study

Research summary : Drawing on theory about signaling, sensemaking, and the romance of leadership, we extend inquiry on investors' perceptions of CEO succession following misconduct. Whereas past studies have treated misconduct monolithically, we examine failures of integrity and competence separately. Using a policy capturing methodology that isolates investors' decision making from potential confounds, we find that, following an integrity failure, investors perceive outside and interim successors positively but inside successors negatively. Following a competence failure, investors perceive outside successors positively but are ambivalent toward inside and interim successors. Our findings indicate that whether an act of misconduct was an integrity failure or a competence failure, and what type of successor the firm chooses, are important considerations when using CEO succession as a means to restore investor confidence. Managerial summary: Business headlines regularly feature episodes of organizational misconduct, such as product safety problems, environmental violations, employee mistreatment, and securities lawsuits, and their aftermath. In such scenarios, shareholders demand answers from the people at the top, even if those people were not directly responsible for the problem. As a result, companies often fire the CEO as a means to restore investor confidence. Does this work? It depends on the type of misconduct and who is the CEO's successor. Following a competence failure, investors welcome the appointment of an outsider, but they are indifferent to inside and interim successors. Following an integrity failure, shareholders greet outside and interim CEO successors favorably while frowning on the promotion of insiders. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Agribusiness and FAO: A critical view

The author seeks to redress the balance of views expressed about the role of industry in the UN system. He does this through a redefinition of the links in the Industry Cooperative Programme of FAO and its perceived role and a critique of the article by Kimberley Albright et al in the February 1977 issue of Food Policy.     

Is regulatory adoption ceremonial? Evidence from lead director appointments

Research Summary: Regulatory bodies often wrestle with the thorny question of whether to mandate a governance practice or allow for organic adoption. While mandates afford rapid diffusion, we theorize that they also result in ceremonial adoptions. Leveraging a quasi‐natural experiment, we compare adoption outcomes for a governance practice—lead director adoption—that was mandated by the NYSE but not the NASDAQ. We find that NYSE firms are more likely than NASDAQ firms to have installed a lead director as a symbolic management tactic, so their lead directors are less effectual. We also find that transient institutional investors are deceived by this symbolic management, but dedicated institutional investors are not. Managerial Summary: Shareholders and analysts often desire to see companies introduce strict governance measures, such as proxy access and independent boards. Consequently, regulatory bodies often wrestle with the thorny issue of whether and when to mandate such practices for all companies. What they might not realize is that mandates may not work as well as they seem. Although more companies adopt reform under a mandate, they do so merely as a symbolic gesture. We look at one governance reform—appointing a lead director—finding that companies who introduce this reform as a result of a mandate appoint someone that is relatively toothless. We also find, though, that savvy investors are not actually fooled by this tactic and will trade out of firms that attempt such symbolic management.     

Measuring Residential Real Estate Liquidity

There are many factors, other than price alone, that may affect the liquidity of real estate. This study develops a liquidity measure based on the Cox proportional hazard technique, a statistical model widely used in the epidemiologic and social sciences. The odds ratio, along with an estimate of market value for a home, are used to construct a liquidity measure. This measure can extract from the data a rich statistical profile of the variables that affect liquidity.     

Relationship equity and switching behavior in the adoption of new telecommunication services

This paper first defines and then presents a model of “relationship equity” for business markets. It points out that the potential benefits of managing relationship equity have been largely ignored and that a general model and stream of relevant research questions could be useful to marketing and relationship practitioners. The model developed considers the special case of key account management as antecedent, two different types of moderator variables, relationship equity as a perception by the buyer, and switching behavior via adoption of new telecommunication services as a result of this perception. The model is used as a basis for developing a number of working propositions.     

Job satisfaction and co-worker pay in Canadian firms

One reason to be concerned about income inequality is the idea that people care about not only their own absolute income but also their income relative to various reference groups (co-workers, friends, neighbours, relatives, etc.). We use Canadian linked employer–employee data to estimate the casual effect of co-worker pay on a worker's reported job and pay satisfaction. Since worker satisfaction can affect the worker's productivity, organizational commitment, turnover, creativity and innovation as well as the firm's productivity and profitability, this is an issue that requires more attention and careful examination. In models that control for a rich set of workplace characteristics, we find that co-worker pay has a large positive and significant effect on both pay and job satisfaction. In our preferred models with establishment-level fixed effects, the effect of co-worker pay on pay satisfaction is half as large and the effect on job satisfaction completely disappears, suggesting that part (all) of what previous studies attribute to the effect of co-worker pay on worker pay (job) satisfaction is driven by unobserved heterogeneity across firms or establishments. Our results also suggest that the effect of co-worker pay on worker satisfaction is much stronger for workers who leave their job during the following year. Finally, we find that while co-worker pay has a positive effect on pay satisfaction among Canadian-born whites, it has a negative effect among immigrants and Canadian-born visible minorities.     

Realisations of Venture Capital Investments: The Case of Management Buy-outs in the UK

One of the most rapidly developing sectors of the financial services industry in the UK has been venture capital, and with it the growth of management buy-outs. As these markets have matured, increasing attention is being paid to issues associated with the realisation of gains for both institutions and equity-holding management. This article seeks to contribute to this area by examining the issues involved in the realisation of investments in management buy-outs. Based on detailed interviews with 24 managers of buy-outs which have exited, and on information drawn from the Centre for Management Buy-out Research database, the article considers the relative merits of flotations, trade sales, capital restructurings, secondary buy-outs, share redemptions etc. The article also addresses the agency cost issues involved in controlling buy-outs to enable institutions to achieve realisation of their investments at a price and timing which enable their targets to be met.     

Does food advertising influence children’s food choices? A critical review of some of the recent literature

Food advertising to children is an issue that is at the centre of debate and the purpose of this paper is to critically examine the claims and the evidence. Several issues are examined: the child’s understanding of advertising, the content of advertising to children; food choices in families, children’s food choice and behaviour, and the effect of advertising on food choice. Major conclusions are the following: that children understand the function of advertising from the age of 8–9 years, although there are limitations on how effectively they apply this knowledge; that the content of advertising to children has remained relatively unchanged for 25 years; that children play an active role in food choice in families; that children’s dietary preferences and habits are well-established before advertising is understood; and that advertising’s role in children’s food choices and preferences is multi-factorial and complex.     

Tourism: The Use of Production Management Techniques

Manufacturing industry has over many decades achieved enormous improvements in productivity and the quality of goods through applying a wide range of techniques. Many of these techniques can find appropraite uses in a service industry like tourism and bring about the same beneficial effects as in manufacturing. Theresultsofa questionnaire survey to establish whether a selection of these techniques are used by hotels, travel agents and tour operators are presented. The findings indicate that the techniques listed are not generally in use, apparently mainly because of lack of knowledge.