Impacts of diaspora travel on ethnic identity development among 1.5 generation Korean-American college students

This research project was designed to explore the impacts of the most recent trip to Korea on ethnic identity development among 1.5 generation Korean-American college students. The study employed 18 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Korean-American college students at a major university in the Midwest, USA. The data collection was conducted between December 2010 and February 2011. The findings of the study revealed that Korean-American college students exhibited different levels of ethnic identity prior to their most recent trip to Korea and described themselves as either Koreans, Korean-Americans, or Americans. Travel to Korea played important roles in (re)developing their ethnic identity. Those who identified themselves as Korean prior to the trip either confirmed their ethnic identity or changed their identity to Korean-American. Those who considered themselves Korean-American retained their ethnic identity, while those who thought of themselves as American altered their identity to Korean as a result of the travel.     

Economic and financial crises and the predictability of U.S. stock returns

We argue that the use of publicly available and easily accessible information on economic and financial crises to detect structural breaks in the link between stock returns and macroeconomic predictor variables improves the performance of simple trading rules in real time. In particular, our results suggest that accounting for structural breaks and regime shifts in forecasting regressions caused by economic and financial crises has the potential to increase the out-of-sample predictability of stock returns, the performance of simple trading rules, and the market-timing ability of an investor trading in the U.S. stock market.     

Consumer value conflicts surrounding ethical food purchase decisions: a focus on animal welfare

Ethical attitudes in relation to meat purchases were studied among urban and rural consumers in Scotland. All subjects perceived at least some ethical issues in relation to animal production systems, in particular, systems keeping animals in close confinement. Welfare‐friendly production systems were viewed as adding value to a food, but this value was not necessarily realizable to producers if purchases occurred only when foods were on special offer. Statements made by individuals were often contradictory, revealing ambivalence, unresolved value conflicts and a general lack of involvement in the nature of meat production. A number of barriers to the establishment of stable attitudes and behaviours in relation to the ethical treatment of food animals were also identified. A key finding of the study is that individuals can hold two views on animal welfare. On the one hand, they may think as citizens influencing societal standards, and on the other, as consumers at the point of purchase. As citizens, they support the notion of animals being entitled to a good life; as meat consumers, they avoid the cognitive connection with the live animal. This paper explores both the citizen–consumer relationship and purchase strategies used by consumers to resolve value conflicts. Lessons for public and commercial policy are highlighted in the context of the Curry Report (2002) which advocates more effective market segmentation where markets are finely attuned to their customers, with the development of a number of assurance schemes discussed in the article.     

The importance of origin as a quality attribute for beef: results from a Scottish consumer survey

Perception of country of origin and purchasing habits for beef were examined for urban and rural Scottish consumers. Origin was identified as being as important as intrinsic quality cues of colour and leanness, with rural consumers giving more weight to origin than urban ones. Most consumers interpreted ‘Scotch Beef’ and ‘British Meat’ label logos as evidence that the beef animals were ‘born, raised and slaughtered in Scotland or Britain’ respectively. The logos were taken as indicators of quality and safety. Both urban and rural respondents had higher agreement levels with Scotch beef as a safer, higher quality and more expensive commodity than British meat. Rural consumers made more use of butcher shops for purchase, but both groups sought butcher beef for quality reasons and supermarket sources because of convenience.     

The Euro-area Financial System: Structure, Integration, and Policy Initiatives

Four years after the introduction of the euro, this paper providesan overview of the current structure and integration of theeuro-area financial systems and related policy initiatives.We first compare the euro-area financial structure with thoseof the United States and Japan. Using new and comprehensivefinancial account data, we also describe how the euro-area financialstructure has evolved since 1995. We document the progress towardsintegration of the major euro-area financial segments, namelymoney markets, bond markets, equity markets, and banking. Finally,we discuss recent policy initiatives aimed at further improvingEuropean financial integration.     

Organisational design implications of global sourcing: A multiple case study analysis on the application of control mechanisms

Global sourcing has become an intended practice for many multinational corporations. Organisational design implications of global sourcing are rarely considered although they are one of the main facets of a global sourcing strategy. By elaborating on the information processing perspective of contingency theory, we derive explanations for the application of different control mechanisms in the global sourcing context. Our findings from case studies at eight multinational companies suggest that variations in control mechanisms can be explained by two contingencies: (1) corporate organisational structure and (2) the distribution of purchasing expertise among subsidiaries. Based on these case study findings, we formulate ten propositions for future research.     

Uncovering the supplier selection knowledge structure: A systematic citation network analysis from 1991 to 2017

Because of the critical role supplier selection plays in organizational success, both practitioners and academics have expressed a strong interest in the subject area generating an extensive body of research. The volume and breadth of publications in this area makes it difficult to understand the knowledge structure of the field and the academic work that has influenced the evolution of the domain.This mixed-method study systematically reviews 246 papers that investigated supplier selection issues and were published between 1991 and 2017. We initially examined the statistics of papers by unveiling influential journals, affiliations and articles. Second, we utilized co-citation network analysis, an objective procedure to extract clusters of what has been researched in supplier selection literature. The study analytically retrieves six major knowledge clusters: 1) conceptual foundation of the field; 2) modeling of the procurement environment; 3) handling group-decision making and unprecise input data; 4) computational research; 5) green/sustainable research and 6) risk-based supplier selection. Finally, we conducted main path analysis to get an overview of the evolution of knowledge in the supplier selection field by uncovering its major paths and key articles.     

Interaction of market and credit risk

Experience during the financial crisis illustrates that the integrated measurement and management of different forms of risk remains a challenge for industry practitioners, researchers and financial supervisors alike. In the context of related literature, this article summarizes new research on the interaction of market and credit risk and implications for risk management that is presented in this special issue. The research covered highlights in particular the errors that can occur in the aggregation of the two types of risk and the strong relationships between them that suggest caution in the use of pragmatic distinctions between them. The article also touches on some research-based lessons for supervisory policies and suggests some directions for future research.