The Fight Against Obesity: Influences of Self-Efficacy on Exercise Regularity

Given the current social problem of obesity, past and current research efforts have examined consumer choice and decisionmaking regarding food consumption. However, preventative health behaviors such as exercise are also instrumental in combating the obesity epidemic. Limited studies in the marketing literature have explored how internal and psychological characteristics influence physical activity and exercise regularity. Thus, this study seeks to examine how individual self-efficacy impacts exercise behavior. Findings indicate that in order to fully explain the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and exercise regularity, significant mediating factors such as health consciousness, goal progress, attitude toward exercise, and satisfaction with current weight must be included in the decision-making process. Implications for consumers, social marketers, and public policy makers are discussed.     

Pre-IPO ownership structure and its impact on the IPO process

We investigate the impact of pre-issue ownership structure on the key decisions surrounding an IPO. We find that managerial ownership is significantly related to (1) the proportion of shares offered, (2) share allocation, and (3) direct issue-related expenses. This suggests that pre-IPO ownership by managers influences their incentive to maintain control and to lower the cost of going public. In comparison, large pre-IPO non-managerial shareholders are more concerned about exiting, and their presence tends to increase issue size and costs. Our findings indicate that differences in pre-IPO owners’ incentives and bargaining power as implied by their pre-IPO shareholdings can significantly influence the IPO process.     

Controlling monopoly power in a double-auction market experiment

There is robust evidence in the experimental economics literature showing that monopoly power is affected by trading institutions. In this paper, we study whether trading institutions themselves can shape agents' market behavior through the formation of anchors. We recreate experimentally five different double-auction market structures (perfect competition, perfect competition with quotas, cartel on price, cartel on price with quotas, and monopoly) in a within-subject design, varying the order of markets implementation. We investigate whether monopoly power endures the formation of price anchors emerged in previously implemented market structures. Results from our classroom experiments suggest that double-auction trading institutions succeed in preventing monopolists from exploiting their market power. Furthermore, the formation of price anchors in previously implemented markets negatively impacts on monopolists' power in later market structures.     

Private investment with social benefits under uncertainty: The dark side of public financing

We develop a game‐theoretic model of private–public contribution to a long‐term project with sequential actions and moral hazard. A private agent is one who is in charge of both the financial contribution and the management effort, these two actions entailing private costs and uncertain ex‐post private and social benefits. A public agent is one who decides the amount of public funding to this quasi‐public good, knowing that the size and the probability of attaining a surplus ex post depend on the private agent's effort. We consider four public‐funding scenarios: benefit‐sharing versus cost‐sharing crossed with ex‐ante versus ex‐interim government intervention. We test our theoretical predictions by means of an experiment that confirms the main result of the model: Cost‐sharing public intervention is more effective than benefit‐sharing in boosting private financial contribution to the project. Furthermore, when public intervention comes after private contribution ( ex‐interim government intervention), both public‐funding scenarios have a negative impact on the private management effort. In our model, the latter result is explained by the private agent's high degree of risk aversion. These results have policy implications for strategic investments with long‐term social consequences. In deciding the optimal timing and method of the contribution, governments should also consider the indirect effects on agents’ long‐term management efforts.     

R&D investment and future firm performance: The role of managerial overconfidence and government ownership

We investigate the relationship among managerial overconfidence (MO), government ownership, and research and development (R&D) investment using data from Vietnamese public companies for the period 2007–2016. We also investigate how R&D investment, given MO and government ownership, affect future firm performance. Our results indicate that MO and government ownership are positively related to R&D investment. Conceptually, this study investigates novel factors affecting of R&D investment and their role in improving firm performance. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of R&D investment in the corporate world, improving firm performance and, ultimately, economic prosperity.     

Econometric estimation of a global spillover matrix for wheat varietal technology

An econometric approach using international and national yield trial data is employed to estimate a spillover matrix for wheat varietal technology. The global spillover matrix is estimated based on international yield trial data from 1979–80 to 1987–88, that include 195 international trial locations and 209 wheat varieties. The locations were classified across countries using the CIMMYT's wheat megaenvironment system and varieties were classified by both their environmental and institutional origin. The model gave good explanatory power and confirmed the location specificity hypothesis, at least, for the varieties developed by national programs (NARS). The spillover matrix shows that NARS varieties developed in the home' environment generally perform better on average than varieties developed in other megaenvironments. Also, the matrix is not symmetric. CIMMYT varieties perform better on average in irrigated and high rainfall environments than NARS varieties developed for these environments. The yield advantage of CIMMYT varieties in many test megaenvironments indicates the potential of CIMMYT varieties to spill-over to these test megaenvironments. Results also indicate that national programs are efficient in selecting from among imported technologies. Analysis of international data is complemented by the analysis of country-level data for Pakistan and Kenya that confirms the above results. The country-level analysis, however, indicates that CIMMYT germplasm does not do so well in some sub-environments, such as the irrigated short-duration environment. The results of the spillover matrix have implications for the design of crop breeding programs both at the national and international levels. Information provided by the spillover matrix can be utilized by national programs to deploy their resources more efficiently by following a mixed strategy of direct importation of technology in some environments and local development of technologies in other environments which are unique to the country.     

Debt Financing and the Failure of Innovation Companies: The Application of the CHS Model in U.S. Stock Markets

This study aims to determine whether increasing a firm’s leverage significantly changes its level of bankruptcy risk in the innovative industry by using the CHS model [Campbell, J. Y., J. Hilscher, and J. Szilagyi. 2008. “In Search of Distress Risk.” The Journal of Finance 63 (6): 2899–2939] to test 395 American innovation companies. These companies are categorised into four groups based on their debt ratios and their performance on the NYSE and NASDAQ stock exchanges is analysed in three separate periods. The findings reveal that innovation companies with a higher debt level are no riskier than those with a lower debt level.     

中国光伏发电产业的现状及发展趋势

太阳能作为一种清洁、可再生能源在当今社会受到了越来越多的关注。从电池板的生产到电力电子变换器的设计，众多的光伏相关技术都得到了极大的发展。中国的光伏电池板产量处于世界领先地位，但由于技术、政策等方面的原因，光伏市场份额和世界领先水平相比仍有很大差距。本文在简要介绍光伏发电系统的基础上，介绍了一种高效率的光伏逆变器拓扑，并对中国光伏发电产业的现状和发展情况进行了分析。     

Land titling policy and soil conservation in the northern uplands of Vietnam

In Vietnam, a quasi-private property regime has been established in 1993 with the issuance of exchangeable and mortgageable long-term land use right certificates. Using primary qualitative and quantitative data collected in a mountainous district of Northern Vietnam, this paper investigates the role of the land policy in the adoption of soil conservation technologies by farmers. This issue is of crucial importance in the region where population growth and growing market demands have induced farmers to intensify agricultural production. While poverty has been reduced, environmental problems such as soil erosion, landslides, and declining soil fertility have become more severe over the past years. Our findings suggest that despite farmers’ awareness of erosion, soil conservation technologies are perceived as being economically unattractive; therefore, most upland farmers continue to practice the prevailing erosion-prone cultivation system. Focusing on agroforestry as one major soil conservation option, we estimate household and plot-level econometric models to empirically assess the determinants of adoption. We find that the possession of a formal land title positively influences adoption, but that the threat of land reallocations in villages discourages adoption by creating uncertainty and tenure insecurity. The analyses reveal that these two effects interact with each other but are of small magnitude. We conclude that the issuance of land titles is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite to encouraging the adoption of soil conservation practices. However, current practices remain economically unattractive to farmers. This deficiency needs to be addressed by interdisciplinary research and complemented by strong efforts by local authorities to promote sustainable land use.