Portfolio performance gauging in discrete time using a Luenberger productivity indicator

This paper proposes a pragmatic, discrete time indicator to gauge the performance of portfolios over time. Integrating the shortage function (Luenberger, 1995) into a Luenberger portfolio productivity indicator (Chambers, 2002), this study estimates the changes in the relative positions of portfolios with respect to the traditional Markowitz mean-variance efficient frontier, as well as the eventual shifts of this frontier over time. Based on the analysis of local changes relative to these mean-variance and higher moment (in casu, mean-variance-skewness and mean-variance-skewness-kurtosis) frontiers, this methodology allows to neatly separate between on the one hand performance changes due to portfolio strategies and on the other hand performance changes due to the market evolution. This methodology is empirically illustrated using a mimicking portfolio approach (22 and 23) using US monthly data from January 1931 to August 2007.     

Ethical Codes in Sports Organizations: Classification Framework,Content Analysis,and the Influence of Content on Code Effectiveness

Although there is a growing body of research on social media, only few studies have considered organic products. Therefore, this study mapped the diffusion path of the social media resources for organic products in Mexico and South Korea through Twitter and compared the contents of tweets about organic products in terms of their semantic and hyperlink networks using webometric methods. The results indicate that for organic products, Koreans sent tweets much more frequently than Mexicans. Mexican tweets focused on basic food products in street markets, whereas Korean tweets highlighted promotions and firms, revealing the corporatist structure of its economy. In both cases, the findings support Twitter as a useful tool for Word-of-Mouth Communication on the online environment, among product consumers, and between consumers and enterprises.     

论林业企业可持续发展与人力资源管理的辩证关系及矛盾

论述人力资源是林业企业可持续发展的保障和支撑体系及林业企业可持续发展的核心与实质就是人力资源的可持续这样一种辩证关系,指出目前林业企业人事管理现状制约着其自身的可持续发展。     

Preference for Restorative Situations: Interactive Effects of Attentional State,Activity-in-Environment,and Social Context

This study extends research on psychological restoration by encompassing a broad set of restorative situations available to urban residents. Preferences are assessed for mundane restorative situations comprising leisure activity, setting, and social context, given different levels of attentional fatigue. Attentional fatigue, activity-setting, and social context were experimentally manipulated. The settings for activities were home, park, city center, and transit. Participants (N = 70) read scenarios describing an attentional state and rated their preference for the situations. Results show interactive effects of attentional state with activity-setting and with social context. The park was most preferred given attentional fatigue. Results confirm that while residents may particularly value urban nature for restoration, their urban context also provides other mundane but attractive restorative situations.     

Closed-form valuation of American call options on stocks paying multiple dividends

An American call option on a stock paying a single known dividend can be valued using the Roll–Geske–Whaley formula. This paper extends the Roll–Geske–Whaley model to the n dividends case by using the generalized n-fold compound option model. In this way this paper offers a closed-form solution for American options on stocks paying n known discrete dividends. Moreover, the model also offers the critical values of the early exercise boundaries at each ex-dividend date instant, making it easy to define an early exercise strategy. Numerical examples are included to illustrate this approach.     

Collective self-governance in a marine community: expedition cruise tourism at Svalbard

Collective self-governance is gaining attention in the literature for maintaining the quality of key attractions and promoting sustainable tourism. The long-term success of collective self-governance is dependent on both its internal organization and its embeddedness in external state and non-state regulations. This paper presents the marine community concept, consisting of a policy and a user community, as a framework for investigating the internal and external dynamics of collective self-governance and its ability to steer toward sustainable cruise tourism. As methodology, a case study design was chosen which was primarily studied by means of interviews with a spectrum of relevant actors concerning expedition cruise tourism at Svalbard. By applying the marine community to Svalbard expedition cruise tourism governance, we draw the following conclusions: (1) collective self-governance complements governmental regulation through access to knowledge, conflict resolution and rule-compliance based on disclosure, traceability and trust; (2) collective self-governance's increasing role in the policy community alienates the expedition crew from the user community; and (3) informational overflow by co-existence of collective self-governance and state-governance challenges sustainable cruise tourism. Collective self-governance would, therefore, benefit from reflection, especially regarding the role of the user community that functions as an intermediary between state and self-governance regulations.     

LEGAL KNOWLEDGE AND AGILITY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

To address agility in public administration, we have developed a knowledge acquisition infrastructure for legal knowledge, based on an implementation‐oriented conceptualization of the legal system. Our objective is to reframe legal knowledge as a knowledge source in a design‐oriented task ontology, building on insights from the CommonKADS methodology for intelligent system design. The main result is to make case law and legal expert knowledge of critical incidents in organizations, two diagnostic knowledge sources underutilized in modern management and engineering, more accessible as a resource for design of agile organizational structures and intelligent systems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Economic Capital Allocation Derived from Risk Measures”, Eddy Van den Borre,January 2003

Abstract

The sustained reduction in mortality rates and its systematic underestimation has been attracting the significant interest of researchers in recent times because of its potential impact on population size and structure, social security systems, and (from an actuarial perspective) the life insurance and pensions industry worldwide. Despite the number of papers published in recent years, a comprehensive review has not yet been developed.

This paper attempts to be the starting point for that review, highlighting the importance of recently published research—most of the references cited span the last 10 years—and covering the main methodologies that have been applied to the projection of mortality rates in the United Kingdom and the United States. A comparative review of techniques used in official population projections, actuarial applications, and the most influential scientific approaches is provided. In the course of the review an attempt is made to identify common themes and similarities in methods and results.

In both official projections and actuarial applications there is some evidence of systematic overestimation of mortality rates. Models developed by academic researchers seem to reveal a trade-off between the plausibility of the projected age pattern and the ease of measuring the uncertainty involved. The Lee-Carter model is one approach that appears to solve this apparent dilemma.

There is a broad consensus across the resulting projections: (1) an approximately log-linear relationship between mortality rates and time, (2) decreasing improvements according to age, and (3) an increasing trend in the relative rate of mortality change over age. In addition, evidence suggests that excessive reliance on expert opinion—present to some extent in all methods—has led to systematic underestimation of mortality improvements.     

Foresight in the Brussels Capital Region

This paper presents results from the Iris Futures research project. The research was aimed at exploring the potential role of foresight in the development of the Brussels Capital Region and the identification of tools, capabilities and conditions for an improved application of foresight in Brussels. An overview was created of the characteristics of 60 future oriented activities and 120 organisations involved in such activities At the outset questions on organisational or institutional fragmentation and collaboration were not intended to be in the foreground of the research but over the course of the research this issue was observed to have a significant adverse impact on foresight capacity in Brussels. The case of the Brussels Capital Region demonstrates that institutional and organisational fragmentation need to be overcome for a futures oriented practice to have opportunity. De-fragmentation, bottom-up and institutionally, is both a condition for and an effect of the futures oriented practice underlying the foresight capacity of organisations.     

United we stand,divided we fall: the failure of an accounting information system in a major radiology provider

This article explores the way in which a major Australian radiology organization implemented a complex accounting information system and how workers in the 72 radiology practices that had to use it resisted the change. The study reports on the issues that led to the circumvention of the system by individuals and, after only three years, complete withdrawal of the accounting information system by the parent organization. This article has implications for firms in the health care and other sectors considering implementing new accounting information systems. Organizations need to incorporate change management techniques and provide open communication to all stakeholders to minimize disruption and potential problems.