Indifference pricing with uncertainty averse preferences

We consider the indifference valuation of an uncertain monetary payoff from the perspective of an uncertainty averse decision maker. We study how the indifference valuation depends on the decision maker’s attitudes toward uncertainty. We obtain a characterization of comparative uncertainty aversion and various characterizations of increasing, decreasing, and constant uncertainty aversion.     

Consumption-related emotions over time: Fit between prediction and experience

Consumers base many decisions on affective forecasts, i.e., predictions about future emotions. These predictions, however, are susceptible to systematic biases. The present paper examines the accuracy of predicting emotional change in the consumer context. The goals of the study were to examine whether predictions of a change in consumption-related emotions fit actual experienced change and whether original predictions are remembered correctly. A two-wave longitudinal survey with 86 consumers in Austria and the UK showed that consumers who had bought shoes overestimated the decrease of positive consumption-related emotions over time. Results indicate that the intuitive theory of adaptation is related to the prediction bias. Moreover, participants misremembered original predictions as more consistent with actual experienced emotions. This hindsight bias hinders consumers from learning from previous prediction errors.     

A semiparametric model for the systematic factors of portfolio credit risk premia

The aim of this paper is to investigate the empirical relationship between daily fluctuations in the risk premium for holding a large diversified credit portfolio, which we approximate by a benchmark credit index, and some tradeable market factors which capture systematic risk. The analysis is based on an adaptive nonparametric modelling approach which allows for the data-driven estimation of the nonlinear dynamic relationship between portfolio credit risk premia and their hypothetical components. Our main finding is that the empirical weights of the systematic factors display sudden jumps during market crises and a less intense time-dependent behaviour during normal market conditions. In addition, we find that during market crises the directions of the empirical relationships are often inconsistent with ordinary economic intuition, as they are influenced by the specific circumstances of financial markets distress.     

New paradigms for the future: keynote perspectives from The R&D Management Conference 2008

The R&D Management Conference 2008 theme of ‘emerging and new approaches to R&D management’ sought to draw out how R&D‐based organizations today are changing the way they manage (in terms of novel approaches, techniques, models and tools) in face of the challenges and opportunities presented in the current environment. Six keynote presentations by executives, representing both the public and private sectors, elaborated on the following subjects reflecting their experiences on the theme: hyperconnectivity and changing R&D tenets, accelerating discoveries in human health via open access public‐private partnerships, role of government in bridging the innovation gap, building sustainability and innovation in a traditional resource sector, R&D management in the aerospace sector, and leveraging diversity to build a culture of innovation. Their presentations highlighted amongst other things – global trends that are affecting how R&D organizations are operating, economic imperatives driving change in business models, working through partnerships within an open innovation environment, and leveraging the diversity presented by an increasingly globalized R&D workforce for success. Within these presentations are also challenges to researchers to generate new thinking to address current and future problems presented by the R&D environment. The keynote perspectives are summarized in this paper.     

The organization of expertise in the presence of communication

Principal decision-makers are sometimes obliged to rely on multiple sources of information when drawing conclusions about the desirability of given actions in response to decisions they face. They may hire specialized agents to inform their decisions. Principals have authority both to allow communication among agents of information and to prevent information-sharing. I assume that communication facilitates the emergence of some complementarities among agents, but it may also promote collusion. I study the optimal design of contracts focusing on how to sequence communication of expertise. I show that from a principal’s point of view, when the advantages of allowing communication dominate, communication is more effective before effort choices are made rather than after.     

R&D Investment timing,default and capital structure

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - This paper investigates the interaction between R&D investment timing, probability of default, and capital structure. In particular we are...     

University–industry collaboration in Italy: A bibliometric examination

This work investigates public–private research collaboration between Italian universities and domestic industry, applying a bibliometric type of approach.The study is based on an exhaustive listing of all co-authored publications in international journals that are jointly realized by Italian university scientists and researchers in the private sector; this listing permits the development of a national mapping system for public–private collaboration that is unique for its extensive and representative character. It is shown that, in absolute terms, most collaborations occur in medicine and chemistry, while it is industrial and information engineering that shows the highest percentage of co-authored articles out of all articles in the field.In addition, the investigation empirically examines and tests several hypotheses concerning the qualitative–quantitative impact of collaboration on the scientific production of individual university researchers. The analyses demonstrate that university researchers who collaborate with those in the private sector show research performance that is superior to that of colleagues who are not involved in such collaboration. But the impact factor of journals publishing academic articles co-authored by industry is generally lower than that concerning co-authorships with other entities. Finally, a further specific elaboration also reveals that publications with public–private co-authorship do not show a level of multidisciplinarity that is significantly different from that of other publications.     

Motherhood in migration: schools as acculturation agents

ABSTRACT

Motherhood roles lie at the intersection of gender, professional, family, and social identities and are highly contextualized in culture, making them particularly relevant for acculturation success. We provide an empirical example of how schools act as acculturation agents, using the experiences of career-oriented migrant mothers whose children attend elite private schools in Santiago, Chile. This study contributes to consumer acculturation research and to research on matricentric feminism, which positions mothers’ concerns as the starting point for theories, politics, and practices of empowerment. We employ Turner's notion of root paradigms to discuss how schools maneuver their unique institutional agentic power, acculturating career-oriented migrant mothers and their families into a cultural framework of female domesticity and intensive mothering.