International comparison of returns from conventional,industrial and 52-week high momentum strategies

The performance of industrial and 52-week high momentum strategies is compared to the conventional strategy, using a large sample of stocks drawn from multiple countries covering a quarter of century to 2007. The sample of 51,879 stocks in 51 countries removes the potential for criticism, such as data mining, and provides more generalisable findings and knowledge concerning the robustness and usefulness of return from momentum strategies. Both the industry and 52-week high strategies generate positive returns but neither is greater than the conventional momentum strategy. A new 52-week high industry momentum strategy is examined and it achieves a similar result.     

Green intellectual capital and ambidextrous green innovation: The impact on environmental performance

This study relies on a unique synthesis of ambidexterity theory and the natural resource orchestration approach to investigate how green intellectual capital elements, namely green human, structural, and relational capital, along with ambidextrous green innovation, trigger a synergy in favor of environmental performance. In particular, this paper primarily aims to test the mediating role of ambidextrous green innovation in the relationship between green intellectual capital and environmental performance. Based on a survey of 105 Iranian public listed companies, the results indicate that green intellectual capital elements are not directly associated with environmental performance. Instead, they influence environmental performance only through the channel of ambidextrous green innovation as a mediating variable. This is the first study to simultaneously embed the resource orchestration theory in the green intellectual capital and ambidexterity literature. The findings of the current study offer new insights into the issue of how organizations gain maximum benefit from the orchestration of their various green assets and capabilities, including green intellectual capital and ambidextrous green innovation.     

Comparative performance appraisal practices and management values among foreign and domestic firms in India

Countering culture-based analyses indicating homogeneity in Indian management practices, this empirical study compares performance appraisal practices and management values in India by firm ownership. Differences in Indian private investor corporations, public sector enterprises, foreign/joint ventures and private family businesses are examined to assist managers to adapt selectively to firms in the changing Indian economy. Theoretical and managerial implications, as well as future directions for research are discussed.     

The time-varying correlation between output and prices in the United States over the period 1800–2014

In this study, we examine the time-varying correlations between output and prices, while controlling for the impact of the monetary policy stance and output and inflation uncertainties over the period 1800–2014. The results of the empirical analysis reveal that the dynamic correlations of output and prices were typically negative, suggesting a countercyclical behaviour of prices, apart from the early 1840s and from the beginning until the middle of the 20th century, when the correlation was positive, indicating a procyclicality of prices. A historical decomposition analysis based on a sign-restricted structural vector autoregressive model is able to relate the procyclical and countercyclical behaviour to the predominance of aggregate supply and aggregate demand and/or monetary policy shocks, respectively. Moreover, inflation uncertainty (monetary policy stance) was found to have a positive (negative) effect on inflation over the last 215 years.     

Individualism/collectivism and attitudes towards human resource systems: a comparative study of American,Irish and Indian MBA students

In this study, we collected data from 180 MBA students from the USA, Ireland and India on their individualism/collectivism (IC) orientations and their preferences for human resource management (HRM) practices. Contrary to expectations, the Indian sample tended to be more individualistic than the American or Irish sample. While there were no differences on the preferences for progressive HRM practices across sample, the Americans exhibited a greater preference for paternalistic practices than the Indians and the Irish. Further, the Americans also showed a greater preference for equality in rewards than the Irish and fairness in appraisals/rewards than the Indians. At the individual level, controlling for nationality, age and gender, higher individualism scores on the supremacy of individual goals and self-reliance dimensions were positively related to progressive HRM practices. Higher individualism on supremacy of individual goals was also positively related to procedural fairness in appraisals/rewards and negatively related to paternalistic HRM practices. A higher preference for working alone was negatively related to progressive HRM practices. Further, higher individualism on the supremacy of individual interest dimension was negatively related to progressive HRM practices and positively related to paternalistic HRM practices. Implications are discussed.     

Exploring the role of the spouse in expatriate failure: a grounded theory-based investigation of expatriate' spouse adjustment issues from India

This paper applied the grounded theory method in a study of the expatriates' spouses' relocation adjustment process and the impact of such adjustment problems in expatriate failure. A qualitative enquiry approach using open-ended questions in the form of personal interviews was adopted. Iteratively, the questions were changed to reach theoretical saturation and we allowed the respondents to lead us through the data collection process during our eventual theory development process. An action diagram technique was used to help structure and process the data. The study was conducted with 26 Indian origin spouses who had to encounter relocation issues one time or the other. We found the spouses' perceived gender role ideology to play a critical part in their adjustment process. Other factors that influenced the adjustment process in expatriate assignments were personality factors such as extraversion, organizational and family support, country demographics and pre-departure training.     

Estimation of the precision matrix of multivariate Pearson type II model

In this paper, the problem of estimating the precision matrix of a multivariate Pearson type II-model is considered. A new class of estimators is proposed. Moreover, the risk functions of the usual and the proposed estimators are explicitly derived. It is shown that the proposed estimator dominates the MLE and the unbiased estimator, under the quadratic loss function. A simulation study is carried out and confirms these results. Improved estimator of tr (Σ ⁻¹) is also obtained.     

Chinese Lunar New Year effect in Asian stock markets, 1999–2012

This study investigates the Chinese Lunar New Year (CLNY) holiday effect in major Asian stock markets. These are China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan. For robustness test, India is also examined in this paper. Daily stock index returns for each market are analysed for the period of 01/09/1999 to 28/03/2012. Using an ARMA(1,1)-GARCH (1,1) model, we find that there is a significantly positive pre-CLNY holiday effect for all cases. The findings are robust for most cases with the exception of China. It is found that high pre-CLNY returns for China are rewards for high risk, whereas for the other markets, high returns are caused by unknown factors, other than the conditional risk.     

The effects of public expenditures on labour productivity in Europe

Empirica - In this paper, we analyse the effects of public expenditures and their structure on productivity growth in industry and services in the European Union (EU) countries (1996–2017)....     

Capital Inflows and House Prices: Aggregate and Regional Evidence from China

Rising house prices in China have been of concern for investors and policymakers. Prices have risen substantially in the last decade, especially in large urban cities, and some economists have expressed concerns about the affordability of residential housing for young adults. This phenomenon becomes a major concern for policymakers, in terms of managing policies to balance the residential needs of individuals and the transition to a market economy. Theoretically, house prices ought to be linked to economic factors such as disposable income, availability of land to build and credit policy. However, it appears that traditional economic theories fail to appropriately explain house prices in China. We provide an explanation from the perspective of capital inflows into China. In terms of per capita remittances, China receives the highest inflow of foreign capital, and this may have a significant impact on risk adjusted returns in the Chinese market. To investigate this relationship, we use the vector error correction model to assess the impact of capital inflows on house prices. We find that capital inflows have a significant positive effect on house prices. The study makes important contributions to understanding the relationship between house prices and foreign remittances after controlling for other economic factors. China is a large economy. Because the impact of economic development in China has not been consistent across the country, we address the regional differences in the house price changes to capital inflows. Using regional data, we show that capital inflows have an asymmetric effect on the housing market across different provinces and cities of China. This has important implications for the development of economic policies in China that aim to provide fair access to residential housing for everyone. These findings are also relevant to investors in the housing market, whether investing for a personal residential home or as part of their diversified investment portfolio. It will also be informative to see how a reversal of capital inflows associated with tighter financing conditions in advanced countries will affect house prices in China.