China: An Early Test for Obama

Global recessions can bring out the worst in treading partners. Plunging do- mestic demand in both China and the U. S. has left manufacturers in both coun- tries plagued with overcapacity. Ameri- can companies are now accusing their Chinese rivals of dumping products-     

Nonparametric American option pricing

A nonparametric method is introduced to accurately price American-style contingent claims. This method uses only historical stock price data, not option price data, to generate the American option price. The accuracy of this method is tested in a controlled experimental environment under both Black, F and Scholes, M (1973) and Heston, S (1993) assumptions, and an error-metric analysis is performed. These numerical experiments demonstrate that this method is an accurate and precise method of pricing American options under a variety of market conditions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:717–748, 2008     

The consumer-driven approach: can it pick up where managed care left off?

Managed care has failed and health care costs are once again out of control. Given the current political, social and economic environment, there are now two options: a single-payer health care system, or an aggressive and global employer health benefits redesign that strongly encourages consumer-driven behavior. This article discusses the failure of managed care and ways that employers can promote consumer-driven behavior now using available tools and plan provisions.     

Less pain,same gain: The effects of priming fairness in price negotiations

This research demonstrates that, by priming a consideration for fairness, a seller can increase a buyer's satisfaction without sacrificing profit. In simulated negotiations, participants primed to consider fairness demonstrated more cooperative behavior, making greater concessions that led to faster agreement. Fairness‐primed buyers consequently had a more positive attitude toward the seller and expressed significantly greater positive subjective disconfirmation of their expectations. These results show how self‐interest and social utility can work in concert once a concern for fairness is activated. The results support the Models of Social Utility and Group Identification and confirm the Expectancy Disconfirmation Model of Negotiations. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Quantifying the advantage of secondary mathematics study for accounting and finance undergraduates

We examine the role that secondary mathematics plays in the performance of students in introductory business courses. Students who pass more advanced secondary mathematics subjects perform significantly better in introductory business courses. This ‘mathematics effect’ is significantly stronger than the effect of other business‐related secondary subjects, such as economics or accounting. Our findings also confirm previous studies showing that secondary accounting is beneficial for studying first‐year tertiary accounting. Interestingly though, we find that studying secondary economics can detract from a student's introductory tertiary results in some courses. Our findings have implications for educators and administrators as well as current secondary students.     

Perceptual gaps and similarities in buyer-seller dyadic relationships

The research aims to develop a conceptual framework to explore dyadic relationships across a range of industries, involving firms of different size (Medium Sized Enterprise (MSE) suppliers and Multinational Enterprise (MNE) buyers). The purpose is to explore dyadic views of three different relationship durations, identify where perceptual gaps may exist at the various stages, and address these in order to improve relational exchange. A triangulated methodology is implemented with data initially obtained from fifty-four dyads. These findings suggest: a) similar views are associated with the performance and importance attached to four relationship dimensions measured, b) significant perceptual differences are more apparent in shorter term relationships, c) overall suppliers have stronger views of the relationship, and d) relationships may not necessarily follow a linear development path over time. Three case studies offer qualitative insights, several managerial implications are extracted, and a strategic matrix developed related to the management of different typologies of relationship exchange.     

Classifying relationships across cultures as successful and problematic: Theoretical perspectives and managerial implications

There is increasing interest in the theoretical and practical challenges that managers face in having to deal with the multiple dualities inherent in managing a portfolio of different business relationships. A number of relationship portfolio models have been developed which use a wide range of criteria for categorizing relationships. The research reported here takes a different approach by identifying the key process and/or outcome elements which managers use to distinguish between successful and problematic relationships, and also offering a comparison of the managers' perceptions across three different countries. The aim is to contribute to the development of more robust management thinking and action. Managers in the United Kingdom (UK), France and Finland were found to think about relationships in terms of both process and outcome variables. Whilst the outcome variables used to discriminate between successful and problematic relationships vary slightly across countries, it was found that they all used the process variables of trust and problem resolution.     

The Recontextualization of Management: A Discourse‐based Approach to Analysing the Development of Management Thinking*

ABSTRACT Many analysts have sought to explain the development and growth of management ideas and discourse in recent years, using notions such as the diffusion and consumption of ideas, and analogies with the fashion industry. These frameworks have a number of weaknesses that inhibit their value. Conceptualizing management knowledge or ideas or thinking as a form of discourse leads us to alternative frameworks for examining developments in this field. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can be used to explore the social processes and structures from which discourse emanates and which discourse in turn underpins. Bernstein's concept of recontextualization can be employed to analyse the discursive relations between different social spheres or conjunctures within which human action takes place and how discourse is changed as it moves between conjunctures to meet the needs of different social agents. In this respect it can be used to analyse how management discourse unfolds as it is produced, distributed and acquired by agents within the academic, consultant and practitioner conjunctures. By doing so we can explore: the intertextual relations between the discourses; how the management discourse becomes technologized; and how hybrid forms of discourse, which mix genres and styles, emerge.     

Unexpected Inflation,Capital Structure,and Real Risk‐adjusted Firm Performance

Managers can improve real risk‐adjusted firm performance by matching nominal assets with nominal liabilities, thereby reducing the sensitivity of real risk‐adjusted returns to unexpected inflation. The net asset value of US equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) serves as a good proxy for nominal assets and, accordingly, we use a sample of US REITs to test our hypothesis. We find that for the firms in our sample: (i) their real risk‐adjusted performance, and (ii) their inflation‐hedging qualities are inversely related to deviations from this ‘matching‐nominals’ argument. In addition to providing managers with a vehicle to maximize real risk‐adjusted performance, our findings also provide investors with the tools to infer inflation‐hedging qualities of equity investments.