Love thy neighbour: Evidence from capital structure decisions

We examine how the peer effects arising not only from the leading firm but also from a slightly better performing firm affect the capital structure decisions of a firm. There is a large body of literature documenting the importance of peer effects, but it is unclear whether managers pay close attention to activities of slightly better performers. This study uses both book- and market-value based approaches to estimate the peer effect measures. Our analysis shows that: (1) our peer effect measures induce the convergence of the follower firms' capital structure towards better performing firms; and (2) the capital structure converges more towards a slightly better performer.     

Sectoral trends and cycles in Germany

We examine the comovements between the output indexes of three German sectors (manufacturing, mining, and agriculture) and the three corresponding sectoral stock market indexes. It is found that data with and without seasonal adjustment give mixed results on the long-run interaction between the sectoral indexes. Compared with data that are non-seasonally adjusted, the adjusted data offer weaker evidence on the cointegration relationship between a) the sectoral output indexes, b) sectoral stock indexes, and c) individual pairs of real and financial indexes. On short-run comovement, seasonally adjusted data offer stronger evidence on the presence of common synchronized and non-synchronized cyclical components. First version received: March 2000/Final version received: September 2001 RID="*" ID="*"  We would like to thank Michael Dooley, Juergen von Hagen, Kenneth Kletzer, Peter Kugler, Jacky So and two anonymous referees, as well as the participants of the Fifth Global Finance Conference in Mexico City, the seminars at the University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Munich, and University of Basel for their helpful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by CGES at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz faculty research funds.     

Explore how Chinese consumers evaluate retail service quality and satisfaction

The present study explores how Chinese consumers evaluate retail service quality and satisfaction. A questionnaire including items from SERVQUAL and RSQS was developed and administrated to a random sample of 556 Chinese consumers based on a literature review of retail service quality. The results of confirmatory factor analyses showed that neither SERVQUAL nor RSQS was able to fit the collected data appropriately. Employing exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a four-factor higher-order retail service quality model, ReServQual, in which interaction and trustworthiness, store environment, understanding the consumers, and policy were key dimensions, was identified. The current study contributes to the literature on service business research by reexamining and extending the existing service quality models in the Chinese context. Global and regional retailers should realize that consumers’ perceptions are country specific.     

Output dynamics of the G7 countries--stochastic trends and cyclical movements

Using a time series framework, the paper studies the interactions of the annual real per capita GDP data of the G7 countries. Evidence is found of six common nonstationary processes behind the international output dynamics. In addition, there is evidence for the existence of a common business cycle among these countries. The trend and cycle components of each output series are obtained with a procedure that accounts for the presence of both the common nonstationary and cyclical factors. It is found that the relative variability and the correlation of the trend and cycle components are not similar across the G7 countries.     

Core self-evaluations and salary attainment: the moderating role of the developmental network

Core self-evaluation (CSE) has been shown to be robust as a predictor of employees' salary attainment. Although the developmental network is suggested to have a positive impact on salary, do all high-CSE individuals benefit from their developmental networks similarly? We incorporate both personality research and developmental network research to explore this question in two studies. In Study 1, we investigated whether developmental network size moderates the positive CSE–salary relationship. In Study 2, we explored whether the organizational status and the strength of ties of one's developers moderate the positive CSE–salary relationship. Results indicated that high-CSE individuals with developmental networks characterized by fewer developers and by strong ties reported higher salaries than others. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the positive CSE–salary link may vary depending on the structural characteristics of the developmental network.     

China's Capital Controls: Through the Prism of Covered Interest Differentials

We study the renminbi covered interest differential, an indicator of the effectiveness of capital controls. It is found that the differential is not shrinking over time and, in fact, appears larger after the global financial crisis than before. That is, capital controls in China are still substantial and effective. In addition to exchange rate changes and volatilities, the renminbi covered interest differential is affected by credit market tightness indicators. The marginal explanatory power of these macroeconomic factors, however, is small relative to the autoregressive component and the dummy variables that capture changes in China's policy.     

For All Good Reasons: Role of Values in Organizational Sustainability

Management practices are at the heart of most organizations’ sustainability efforts. Despite the importance of values for the design and implementation of such practices, few researchers have analyzed how human values, particularly ethical values, relate to human resource management practices in organizations. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to integrate scholarship on organizational sustainability, human resource practices, and values in delineating how four specific values—altruism, empathy, positive norm of reciprocity, and private self-effacement—support effective human resource practices in organizations. This set of distinct values has sustainability implications, global relevance, and ethical significance. Propositions that indicate relationships among these values, human resource practices, and organizational sustainability, as well as the effects of the resource-based view to potentiate these relationships, are developed. This analysis suggests that ethical and multicultural values are important for planning and implementing effective management practices and organizational sustainability.