When Shopbots Meet Emails: Implications for Price Competition on the Internet

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - The Internet has dramatically reduced search costs for customers by using such technologies as shopbots. Email based targeting is relatively inexpensive; the...     

Internationalization through foreign listing: A review and future research agenda

This paper reviews and synthesizes literature on foreign listing from international business, management, and finance disciplines. A systematic review of 66 studies from 25 journals indicates fragmentation of the literature across the macro and firm-specific perspectives and a limited usage of current international business theories in research on foreign listing. We propose multiple developmental paths including use of institutional theory, especially institutional distance and institutional evolution to provide more comprehensive understanding of antecedents and contingent factors for foreign listing; supply-chain disaggregation of cross-border capital flow; integrate financial and strategic implications of foreign listing; and advancement of emerging market specific theories.     

Dividend Forecast Biases in Index Option Valuation

Since the early days of option pricing theory,the assumption that the dividends on the underlying stock or index over the life of the contract are known has not been challenged. We examine the sensitivity of index option prices to the assumption of dividend uncertainty. We consider a number of issues related to the forecasting of dividends and build a dividend forecasting model that passes several rigorous tests for unbiasedness. We then generate option prices using contemporary market levels and interest rates. We find that prices generated with the actual dividends are unbiased with respect to those generated using the forecasted dividends. The magnitudes of the forecast errors, however, are sufficiently large to suggest a concern, but the percentage errors are consistently small, typically amounting to less than two percent of the option price. We conclude that the convenient assumption that the stream of future dividendsis known is probably innocuous. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Equipment-related injuries in agriculture: an international perspective

Injuries related to agricultural equipment are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, in both high-income and low-income countries. Tractors are most often associated with severe injuries and fatalities. All age groups sustain injuries. Injuries to children are also prevalent because the sites of agricultural work overlap homes in rural areas. In the majority of papers reviewed, preventive methods are mostly targeted at behaviour modification and effective medical facilities, whereas only a few authors have highlighted design changes and passive measures for injury control. The effectiveness of suggested interventions is not discussed in the majority of papers except those related to roll-over protection structures, fodder cutting machines and thresher safety devices.     

Sustainability as corporate culture of a brand for superior performance

Sustainability research highlights new challenges and opportunities for businesses. This paper reviews the literature to understand the ability of sustainable green initiatives when practiced as a corporate culture to individually create new opportunities for operations, management and marketing. According to current research, business opportunities exclusively available to different functions of a firm can drive its performance. The role of marketing in the achievement of superior performance by virtue of sustainability practices is also explained by the existing literature. Branding literature, however, fails to explain the influence of a brand on sustainability-driven opportunities available to a firm for superior performance. The objective of this study is to explore if a brand can strengthen the ability of sustainability-based green initiatives of managers to drive opportunities available to a firm for superior performance. A conceptual framework grounded in the triple bottom line theory is presented based on the assumption that brand as a stimulating factor can accelerate the conversion of opportunities available to a business into superior performance. Academic and managerial perspectives have been used to draw upon the implications of the model. Both practitioners and academic researchers will benefit from future research on this topic.     

Environmental Certification and Technical Efficiency: A Study of Manufacturing Firms in India

Obtaining environmental certification (such as the ISO-14,001) has become a status symbol for adopting greener practices for the corporate sector in emerging economies. Such certification can help improve the global visibility of firms and is mandated in international trade. This paper attempts to examine the impact of such certifications on technical efficiency of firms belonging to the manufacturing sector in India. In analyzing the impact of ISO Certification on technical efficiency, this paper uses data from the CMIE Prowess from 2007 to 2012. In the first step, the paper estimates technical efficiency for the sample firms and then examines the determinants of inter-firm differences in technical efficiency using firm specific characteristics. The results of this study conclude that there are substantial inter-firm differences in technical efficiency and they are systematically different based on firm age, firm size, debt capital, MNE affiliation, and ISO certification. ISO certification, especially maintaining the standards associated with it, turned out to be an important factor in making the firms achieve higher technical efficiency. In addition, the results of this study also confirm that firms that are ISO certified and doing R&D are better off in technical efficiency as compared to others.     

Is education the panacea for economic deprivation of Muslims?: Evidence from wage earners in India, 1987–2005

Few researchers have examined the nature and determinants of earnings differentials among religious groups, and none has been undertaken in the context of conflict-prone multi-religious societies like the one in India. We address this lacuna in the literature by examining the differences in the average log earnings of Hindu and Muslim wage earners in India, during the 1987–2005 period. Our results indicate that education differences between Hindu and Muslim wage earners, especially differences in the proportion of wage earners with tertiary education, are largely responsible for the differences in the average log earnings of the two religious groups across the years. By contrast, differences in the returns to education do not explain the aforementioned difference in average log earnings. In conclusion, we discuss some policy implications.     

Understanding the inflation–output nexus for China

In this article we examine several hypotheses relating to output and inflation dynamics in China. The hypotheses tests are based on the exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) model of Nelson [Nelson, D. (1991). Conditional heteroskedasticity in asset return: A new approach, Econometrica, 59, 347–370]. Our findings suggest that Chinese output–inflation behaviour is consistent with the hypothesis that increased inflation uncertainty lowers average inflation; the hypothesis that inflation volatility reduces economic growth and the hypothesis that higher output volatility increases economic growth. However, we find no support for the hypothesis that higher output volatility increases the average inflation rate.     

Price Discovery and Efficiency of Indian Agricultural Commodity Futures Market: An Empirical Investigation

This study examines the price discovery process and relative efficiency of ten most liquid agricultural commodities’ futures contracts, traded on the largest agricultural commodity exchange of India (National Commodity and Derivative Exchange Limited). Three different common factor methodologies—component share method (Gonzalo and Granger in J Bus Econ Stat 13:27–35, 1995), information share method (Hasbrouck in J Financ 50:1175–1199, 1995), and modified information share method (Lien and Shrestha in J Futures Mark 29:377–395, 2009)—have been employed to determine the extent of price discovery contribution by spot and futures markets. The sample consists of daily data for the period from January 1, 2009 to October 20, 2015. Stationarity and Cointegration test results reveal that spot and futures prices are integrated and cointegrated for all commodities. The price discovery results show that the futures market leads the spot market in case of six commodities, i.e., castor seed, coriander, cottonseed oilcake, soy oil, sugarM and turmeric. Whereas, in the case of four commodities (chana (chickpea), guar seed, jeera, and mustard seed), price discovery takes place in the spot market. Therefore, it could be inferred that futures market is more efficient in price discovery of agricultural commodities. Policymakers could use these results to design futures contracts on other commodities or to plan concrete policies to curb speculation without hampering the efficiency of the agricultural commodity derivatives market.