“Strategic Failure” in the Financial Sector: A Policy View

Analysis of the recent financial crisis has tended to focus upon “market” and corresponding “regulatory” failures. While this provides important insights, it may neglect deeper issues at the root of recent problems. In this paper, we take a broader perspective, drawing upon the stategic choice approach to the theory of the firm (Cowling and Sugden, 1998 Cowling, Keith and Sugden, Roger. 1998. The essence of the modern corporation: markets, strategic decision-making and the theory of the firm. The Manchester School, 66: 59–86. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar], 1999 Cowling, Keith and Sugden, Roger. 1999. The wealth of localities, regions and nations: developing multinational economies. New Political Economy, 4: 361–378. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar]). We present a governance-based analysis which emphasises the process of engaging interested “publics” in corporate decision-making processes. We illustrate our arguments with respect to three UK cases – Northern Rock, Bradford and Bingley, and HBOS banks – which each required major interventions by the UK Government and whose recent history reveals significant changes in ownership, governance and corporate strategy. We argue that the current period of reform for these former building societies represents an ideal opportunity to address serious concerns over governance within the financial sector, and we propose a revised mutual solution as one appropriate way forward.     

Farmers’ Income and Production Responses to Rural Taxation Reform in Three Regions in China

The relationship between agricultural taxation and production efficiency has been thoroughly explored for many countries. Recently, China has taken various measures including the rural taxation reform (RTR) to promote grain production and to increase farmer incomes. In this study, we investigate whether the Chinese policy of abolishing rural taxation has improved farm households’ incomes and affected their production decisions. Using household survey data obtained from three regions in China, we estimate the effect of the RTR on farmers’ income. Results show that the RTR has significantly improved farmers’ post‐tax net income by 9.2% in Shandong, 16.9% in Shanxi and 16.8% in Zhejiang. These increments, mostly from farm income rather than from off‐farm income, are much higher than the direct income increase from the tax savings. In addition, we examine the dynamic impact of farmers’ net income, and find that the RTR has a sustained positive income effect in Shandong and Shanxi, whereas its positive effect in Zhejiang appears temporary. We also examine farmers’ production responses to the RTR. Results show that farmers in the three regions respond in different ways: farmers in Shandong significantly increase their labour input, farmers in Zhejiang increase intermediate inputs, whereas Shanxi farmers augment their intermediate inputs and enlarge their crop acreage. It appears that the farmers’ responses to the taxation reform vary due to the agronomic and economic factors in these three regions, suggesting that diverse post‐RTR supplemental policies should be implemented in different regions.     

国外高频交易的发展现状及启示

证券市场上的高频交易模式大体上分为四类:订单拆分策略、做市交易策略、定量化交易策略和其他策略。研究发现:(1)高频交易降低了买卖价差,提高了市场流动性,而并没有增加市场波动率,甚至反而可能降低了市场波动率;(2)没有发现高频交易者存在系统性抢单行为(并不排除有特定高频交易者存在此类行为);(3)学术研究认为高频交易有导致市场风险的可能性,但是事件调查大多认为高频交易不是引发市场风险的罪魁祸首。本文认为,对高频交易的监管应该注重抓住重点区别对待,以维护公平、透明、高效的市场秩序。     

The effect of a decision aid on risk aversion in capital investment decisions

In this study we examine whether a decision aid is an effective means of reducing risk aversion within a capital investment decision context, and under what conditions. Participating in the experiment were 78 working adults (mid management) with a mean age 30 and enrolled in a leading U.S. MBA program. We predict and find that a decision aid will be most effective among individuals intolerance of ambiguity and exhibiting high negative affect.     

Design of a Global Decision Support System for a manufacturing SME: Towards participating in Collaborative Manufacturing

This paper discusses the conceptual design of a Global Decision Support System for a manufacturing Small or Medium Enterprise (SM/E), which actively participates in Collaborative Manufacturing. In order to implement the proposed concept, a Web Services based system architecture is proposed to offer maximum interoperability between all the distributed participants of a Collaborative Manufacturing Network (CMN) and their management information systems. Furthermore, this conceptual design utilises a Collaborative decision-support model that effectively interacts with the decision-makers and the management information systems/tools exist in the network, and provides appropriate support to all necessary decision-making steps towards the attainment of the network's strategic goals, while making full benefits of the network resources.     

Bayesian portfolio selection using a multifactor model

This article develops a new portfolio selection method using Bayesian theory. The proposed method accounts for the uncertainties in estimation parameters and the model specification itself, both of which are ignored by the standard mean-variance method. The critical issue in constructing an appropriate predictive distribution for asset returns is evaluating the goodness of individual factors and models. This problem is investigated from a statistical point of view; we propose using the Bayesian predictive information criterion. Two Bayesian methods and the standard mean-variance method are compared through Monte Carlo simulations and in a real financial data set. The Bayesian methods perform very well compared to the standard mean-variance method.     

品牌服装连锁经营物流配送中心绩效评价的研究

探讨了服装连锁经营物流配送活动的绩效评价指标体系和评价方法。从运作层、支持层和结果层三个方面构建了评价指标体系。确定各指标的权重采用多层次群组聚类分析发,对指标的评价采用模糊综合评价,将评价的结果转化为一个数值,使评价结果更加准确。     

一种基于模糊距离和证据理论的多属性群决策方法

针对语言评价信息形式的多属性群决策问题,提出了一种基于模糊距离和D-S证据理论的群决策方法。该方法首先运用基于模糊距离的方法来获得决策者权重,再对多个决策者给出的语言评价信息进行分析,然后通过D-S合成法则对其值进行合成。计算信度函数和似真函数,据此对所有决策方案进行排序。最后通过一个算例验证该方法的可行性和有效性。     

Efficiency and productivity growth in hotel industry

This paper analyses the relative efficiency and productivity of a representative sample of Portuguese hotels by using the directional distance function and the Luenberger productivity indicator. The key advantage of this approach is that both input contraction and output expansion are considered. The model generates hotel efficiency scores, ranking the hotels in the sample. We conclude that both inputs and outputs play a major role in hotel efficiency. Therefore, we suggest an alteration of management procedures in order to enable efficiency to be increased, based on an effective enhanced‐incentive policy and taking into account the small hotel characteristics of the sample. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.