Paraguay and Mercosur: The Lesser of Two Evils?

ABSTRACT

This article examines Paraguay's experience with Mercosur in terms of its impact on economic growth, trade, investment, industrial competitiveness, and income distribution. Of particular interest is Mercosur's impact on the flourishing border trade taking place under the “regimen de turismo,” a special tax regime for consumer goods, especially electronics. The author concludes that while Mercosur has not brought all the benefits expected from membership in the customs union, being excluded from Mercosur might have been worse for the Paraguayan economy.     

The roles of news and volatility in stock market correlations during the global financial crisis

The global financial crisis has again brought the interdependencies of international financial markets to the fore, particularly during times of financial crises. This paper explores the relative roles of news and volatility in explaining the changes in correlations between national stock markets during the global financial crisis. Our results show that the majority of the correlations are more strongly explained by volatility rather than news. However as the global financial crisis evolves the relative role of news grows in importance.     

Alliance portfolios and shareholder value in post-IPO firms: The moderating roles of portfolio structure and firm-level uncertainty

Using longitudinal data for initial public offering (IPO) firms, we examine the role played by structural differences between different types of alliance portfolios in the relationship between IPO firm alliance portfolios and shareholder returns. We show that because of the different signals they send to the capital market, different types of alliance portfolios affect IPO firm performance differently. Namely, financial markets seem to reward firms whose alliance portfolio is diversified across different types of alliances (a portfolio high in functional diversity), but not those who align their alliance partners into multiple functional points in the value chain (a portfolio high in vertical scope). We also examine the signaling role of alliance portfolios under different IPO firm uncertainty conditions. We note that uncertainty about the IPO firm is not limited to pre-IPO quality uncertainty. Investors also face transition uncertainty, post-IPO uncertainty about the ability of the firm to adapt to the new managerial challenges it faces and succeed post-IPO. We find that these two types of uncertainties moderate alliance portfolio effects in different ways. The beneficial effects of alliance portfolios in mitigating liabilities of newness is of greater importance for firms associated with higher quality uncertainty and for those associated with lower transition uncertainty.     

Angel investor characteristics that determine whether perceived passion leads to higher evaluations of funding potential

Despite interest in understanding the role passion plays in investor decision making, little is known about the conditions under which perceived passion is likely to play a significant role in the funding decision process. We first establish a relationship between perceived passion and evaluations of funding potential, then use affective reactivity as a theoretical framework to explore how several individual characteristics of angel investors impact the relationship between perceived passion and evaluations of funding potential. The results indicate that the relationship is stronger for angel investors who are older, more intuitive, have a high openness personality, or those who are motivated to mentor. Surprisingly, the relationship weakens for angels who are extraverted and those who have a promotion-dominated regulatory focus.     

Complaint management and the role of the chief executive

The aim of this paper is to encourage a new stream of research into complaints and the role of the chief executive officer (CEO). The objectives of this paper were firstly to assess the intensity of dissatisfaction driving customers to complain directly to the CEO and secondly to ascertain if the reasons for complaining to the CEO were different to those of complainants using ‘normal’ channels. A leading financial services company in the UK provided access to its complaint letters and its CEO. Based on analysis of a sample of 100 letters sent to the CEO and 100 standard complaint letters, it was found that customers complaining directly to the CEO have a significantly greater intensity of dissatisfaction. However, unexpectedly, despite the greater positional power of the CEO, the reasons for complaining to the CEO were little different to the reasons for using the ‘normal’ channels. Interestingly most of the complainants to the CEO had multiple reasons for complaint suggesting that complaints to the CEO are motivated by multiple underlying service failures.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of Ethics: The United States,Romania, Poland,and the Czech Republic

Global expansion of business into areas defined by different cultural and national environments creates the need for companies to better understand the impact of culture on business operations. Of particular importance is the role country of residence plays. Researchers argue that many cultural differences are malleable, capable of shifting to fit the corporate culture of an organization. However, additional research aimed at identifying different countries’ cultural values is needed. This paper presents the results of a multi-national survey of business students identifying differences in cultural perceptions of ethical behaviors. Differences in personal versus social decision making are discussed.     

Preparing undergraduate students for the Major Field Test in Business

Many business programs address the learning of undergraduate students with an exit exam. A reference librarian and the business school faculty created an online test preparation study guide (or LibGuide) which included no-cost resources that were readily available yet academically authoritative to aid students in studying for the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test in Business at an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business–accredited college in northwest Georgia. The findings indicated that while some graduating business seniors did use the LibGuide materials, many were overwhelmed with the amount of material available and believed studying would not be beneficial to their performance on the exit exam. Discussion and areas for future research are presented.     

A dynamic market conceptualization for entrepreneurial marketing: the co-creation of opportunities

The entrepreneurial marketing domain should consider opportunity co-creation as a foundational construct for advancing the discipline. This paper integrates emerging views in entrepreneurship with an evolving, service-dominant logic of marketing to develop a market conceptualization for exploring uncertainty in dynamic social and economic environments. With this market conceptualization, opportunities are continually co-created through the development and communication of value propositions, the derivation and determination of value, and the (re)formation of markets. Emerging research around the process of opportunity co-creation is used to create an initial definition and theoretical considerations.     

Estimation of a simultaneous equations model with an ordinal endogenous variable: The extent of teacher bargaining and the state legal environment

This paper presents a simple two-step estimator for a simultaneous equations model that contains an ordinal endogenous variable. The estimation rules are extensions of the Heckman (1978) estimators, also considered by Amemiya (1978). Asymptotic covariance matrices of the estimators also are derived. The estimator is applied to an economic model in which the statewide extent of teacher bargaining and teacherbargaining legislation are determined jointly.     

Reconceptualizing entrepreneurial exit: Divergent exit routes and their drivers

We develop a conceptual model of entrepreneurial exit which includes exit through liquidation and firm sale for both firms in financial distress and firms performing well. This represents four distinct exit routes. In developing the model, we complement the prevailing theoretical framework of exit as a utility-maximizing problem among entrepreneurs with prospect theory and its recent applications in liquidation of investment decisions. We empirically test the model using two Swedish databases which follow 1,735 new ventures and their founders over eight years. We find that entrepreneurs exit from both firms in financial distress and firms performing well. In addition, commonly examined human capital factors (entrepreneurial experience, age, education) and failure-avoidance strategies (outside job, reinvestment) differ substantially across the four exit routes, explaining some of the discrepancies in earlier studies.