Pyramidal structure,risk‐taking and firm value

This article investigates the relationship among pyramidal layers, risk‐taking and firm value using a sample of local state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) in China. We find that state‐pyramidal layers have a positive and significant impact on firm risk‐taking and firm value, suggesting that the pyramidal structure formed by the state protects SOEs from political intervention. Risk‐taking is conducive to enhancing firm value and is one of the important channels through which state‐pyramidal layers increase firm value. By exploring the role of state‐pyramidal organizational structures in improving SOEs' risk‐taking, our results contribute to both corporate governance and corporate finance literature.     

Market imperfections and crowdfunding

Small Business Economics - This article is the first one that considers the choice between the different types of crowdfunding and traditional financing under different types of market...     

Introduction to “Unintended Consequences: The U.S. Postal Service Conundrum of Service,Business, Labor,and Politics”

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal -     

Can mutual funds time risk factors?

Using daily observations from 448 actively managed funds, we employ the methodology in Bollen and Busse (2001) in order to assess the ability of fund managers to time systematic risk factors. We first construct synthetic portfolios in order to obtain the empirical distribution of timing coefficients under the null hypothesis of no timing ability and then compare this distribution to that of the timing coefficients of the actual funds. Fund managers do not seem to be timing any of the risk factors. We interpret this result as evidence that factor timing ability does not persist over long time periods.     

Dynamic Spatial Competition Between Multi‐Store Retailers

We propose a dynamic model of an oligopoly industry characterized by spatial competition between multi‐store retailers. Firms compete in prices and decide where to open or close stores depending on demand and cost conditions, the number of competitors at different locations, and on location‐specific private‐information shocks. The model distinguishes multiple forces in the spatial configuration of store networks, such as cannibalization of revenue between stores of the same retail chain, economies of density, competition, consumer transportation costs, or positive demand spillovers from other stores. We develop an algorithm to approximate a Markov Perfect Equilibrium in our model, and propose a procedure for the estimation of the parameters of the model using panel data on number of stores, prices, and quantities at multiple geographic locations within a city. We also present a numerical example to illustrate the model and algorithm.     

Policies for Enhancing Corporate Environmental Management: a Framework and an Applied Example

This paper develops a four‐phase schematic representation dubbed the CEM lifecycle for conceptualizing how corporate environmental management (CEM) programs typically evolve in a given organization and then explicates the forces that influence corporate commitment as a CEM program progresses from inception to later phases of the CEM lifecycle. Examples are then presented on how the Singaporean government encourages enhancement of CEM programs by designing support programs that target the underlying corporate needs inherent to the first three CEM lifecycle phases. The examples provided in this paper of Singaporean CEM support programs illustrate how policy can be strategically designed to improve corporate uptake of CEM programs by enhancing CEM knowledge in the initial phase of the CEM lifecycle, providing technical support in the second lifecycle phase and providing opportunities for public recognition in the third lifecycle phase. The article concludes that replicating the strategic approach to policymaking exemplified in the Singaporean case study can significantly improve the competitiveness of domestic firms through encouraging more efficient use of resources; however, in order to design truly sustainable economies (provide for the needs of future generations), governments must be prepared to more coercively regulate the exploitation of natural endowments. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Attitudes of industrial buyers toward selected social issues

Although the demand on industrial establishments to resolve various social problems is ever-present, there is little substantive material in the literature concerning the industrial buyers' perceptions of the social responsibilities of their firm. Studies of executive's attitudes toward corporate social responsibility have focused heretofore on corporate personnel other than industrial buyers. Next to salespersons, however, industrial buyers have more contact with persons and businesses outside their company than other corporate personnel. People in purchasing, nonetheless, are perceived by many as conservative, hard-nosed negotiators either unconcerned about corporate social responsibility at best or denying such responsibility at worst. This article presents the results of a survey of industrial buyers concerning their attitudes toward various social issues.     

From the laws of human nature to capital accumulation: James Mill's analysis of the states of society in the Elements of Political Economy

Abstract

James Mill's Elements of Political Economy is usually treated as a textbook of Ricardian political economy. Although this might be justified, there is a passage in this Ricardian textbook that is not Ricardian. The passage deals with Mill's analysis of the states of society, in which he underlines the laws of human nature conducive to capital accumulation. This paper investigates such states.