金融业的成功 从事金融服务的人同样能够在招牌行业取得新的成功

“一旦拥有了所有的技术和资源,那么是时候开设一家招牌商店了。“十年前.世纪招牌制作公司(美国新墨西哥,阿尔伯克基州)在圣菲的一个小村庄里进行了改造.并于1932年进行了一次大规模的整修,具备了一个完整的环保图形软件包,其中包括,建筑证明、房间号码牌、指路标志,以及其它的一些圈形设施等。     

Affective and Cognitive Components of Attitudes in High‐Stakes Decisions: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Hormone Replacement Therapy Use

Consumers are increasingly encouraged to take charge of high‐stakes decisions such as those regarding medical treatments. However, the important inputs into overall evaluations of risky and important behaviors, such as undergoing medical therapy, are not well understood. The purpose of this research is to study the interplay of cognitive and affective factors in determining consumer attitudes and intentions toward high‐stakes decision behaviors. This is done in the context of consumer choices regarding medical treatments, and specifically, the decision to use (or not to use) hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Overall, both affective and cognitive responses are found to be independent significant predictors of attitude toward HRT use. Moreover, the results support an extended version of the theory of planned behavior model that is useful in predicting consumer's intentions to engage in high‐stakes decision behaviors, such as using HRT. These findings have implications for the design of decision support systems and behavioral change interventions.     

Beyond convenience: the future for independent food and grocery retailers in the UK

The UK's independent food and grocery retail sector's competitive advantage of 'convenience' has been eroded in recent years as major retailers increase opening hours and develop their own convenience trading formats. As a result, large numbers of independent retailers are closing. A UK-wide survey was undertaken to identify other sources of competitive advantages, and the changes needed to stop or reverse the decline in this sector. Exploratory semi-structured interviews led to the development of a questionnaire on six major issues affecting the sector. 'Snowball' sampling, using industry partners, provided 142 respondents. The provision of a 'social shopping experience' emerged as a key competitive advantage that could be developed. Improving vertical and horizontal trading alliances, and the wider use of information technology, provided other options.     

Naomi R. Lamoreaux and Kenneth L. Sokoloff, eds. Financing Innovation: In the United States, 1870 to the Present

This edited volume makes a large and welcome contribution toour understanding of the history of entrepreneurial financein the United States. The focus of the volume is on innovationby both corporations and entrepreneurs. It examines all theimportant forms of financing, including wealthy individuals(who we now call angels), venture capital, government financingand debt. Scholars of many disciplines, including economics,finance, entrepreneurship, business history, and organizationalnetworks will find this volume to be of interest and the essayscan be read either selectively or globally. Lamoreaux and Sokoloff's introduction is a significant chapterin itself, providing a rich historical analysis of the riseof the U.S. patenting system. The editors also provide a     

‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’: moral entrepreneurship,or the fine art of recycling evil into good

Moral entrepreneurship is the fine art of recycling evil into good by taking advantage of situations given or constructed as crises. It should be seen as the ultimate generalisation of the entrepreneurial spirit, whose peculiar excesses have always sat uneasily with homo oeconomicus as the constrained utility maximiser, an image that itself has come to be universalised. A task of this essay is to reconcile the two images in terms of what by the end I call ‘superutilitarianism’, which draws on the lore of both superheroes and utilitarianism. After briefly surveying the careers of three exemplars of the moral entrepreneur (Robert McNamara, George Soros and Jeffrey Sachs), I explore the motives of moral entrepreneurs in terms of their standing debt to society for having already caused unnecessary harm but which also now equips him with the skill set needed to do significant good. Such a mindset involves imagining oneself a vehicle of divine will, which would be a scary proposition had it not been long presumed by Christians touched by Calvin. In conclusion, I argue that moral entrepreneurship looks most palatable – and perhaps even attractive – if the world is ‘reversible’, in the sense that every crisis, however clumsily handled by the moral entrepreneur, causes people to distinguish more clearly the necessary from contingent features of their existence. This leads them to reconceptualise past damages as new opportunities to assert what really matters; hence, a ‘superutilitarian’ ethic that treats all suffering as less cost than investment in a greater sense of the good.     

Errata

Previous theoretical work suggests that it is appropriate to adjust the CAPM for information contained in analysts' earnings forecasts. This paper uses non-parametric statistical methods to test the relation between estimation risk and security returns. The evidence supports the theory that neglected firms earn abnormally high risk adjusted returns.     

Mapping and analysing virtual outcrops

Laser scanning is a very efficient way to generate realistic, high-resolution digital models of 3-D geological outcrops. This paper discusses the methodologies involved in the creation and analysis of virtual outcrops, based on laser scanner data. The visualisation of the laser scanner data as a photorealistic 3-D object is described. Geological features picked out on the virtual outcrop (e.g. fractures, faults or bedding planes) can be extrapolated outward, into space, and inward, into the subsurface, using tension surfaces.     

On the importance of systematic risk factors in explaining the cross-section of corporate bond yield spreads

In this paper we examine the importance of systematic equity market factors in explaining the cross-sectional variation in yield spreads on corporate debt. Based on a sample of 1771 corporate bonds over the period from January 1985 to March 1998, we find that once the default-related variables are controlled for, bond betas or sensitivities to aggregate equity market risks have very limited explanatory power. This is in contrast to [Elton, E.J., Gruber, M.J., 2001. Explaining the rate spread on corporate bonds. Journal of Finance 56, 247–277] who find that market factors tied to expected returns are predominantly important, but who do not control for these variables (i.e. the relevant variables from structural models), possibly biasing their estimates. On the other hand, our finding that the systematic factors exhibit some limited explanatory power suggests that the standard contingent claims approach may not fully apply. This finding is consistent with previous research that bond betas are not completely irrelevant once market frictions are introduced. Overall, the evidence provides empirical support for the proposition that structural models capture important elements of corporate bond yield spread determination and equity market systematic factors are by no means predominant.