The influence of dispositional affect and cognition on venture investment portfolio concentration

We explore how an investor's dispositional affect and cognitive style influence venture investment portfolio concentration. Based on a field study using a sample of 128 judges from a business plan competition, we find that high positive affectivity investors construct more concentrated investment portfolios than their low positive affectivity counterparts, whereas high negative affectivity investors construct more diversified investment portfolios than their low negative affectivity counterparts. Further, investors who rely on analytical decision making display a weaker relationship between negative affectivity and investment diversification whereas investors who rely on emotion-based decision making display a stronger relationship between positive affectivity and investment concentration.     

When do firms choose global cities as foreign investment locations within countries? The roles of contextual distance,knowledge intensity,and target-country experience

Foreign investors generally need to overcome a liability of foreignness stemming from contextual distance between their home country and the target country. We argue that they can limit that liability more easily by investing in a global city rather than elsewhere in the target country. Accordingly, we hypothesize that the contextual distance to a target country has a positive effect on a firm’s propensity to invest in a global city in that country. We also predict that this effect is stronger for investments in knowledge-intensive activities and weaker for investors with more target-country experience in general and target-country experience in global cities in particular. Our hypotheses receive considerable support in an analysis of 11,748 foreign greenfield investments by 1025 manufacturing and service firms during 2008–2012. Our findings suggest that global cities are superior subnational locations for gathering contextual knowledge about target countries and limiting the liability of foreignness.     

Internationalization processes in stable and unstable market conditions: Towards a model of commitment decisions in dynamic environments

This article proposes a managerial decision framework to deal with internationalization whether in stable or dynamic environments. While displaying the effects of unstable and stable environmental settings on commitment decisions, the framework is the result of an inferential abductive approach that merges the risk management model with empirical data collected from a 32-year longitudinal case study on nine Swedish MNCs. The longitudinal analysis shows that when environmental changes are perceived as detrimental, firms tend to decrease their tangible assets and commit in a more intangible way. On the opposite, when changes to the environment are perceived as beneficial, firms follow an incremental path of commitment, preferably in tangible kind. The findings contribute new knowledge to understand such diversities in commitment decisions as divestment, wait-and-see, market-exit and re-entry.     

Assessing the needs of assisted reproductive technology users of an online bulletin board

Consumers who are infertile and decide to use assisted reproductive technologies undergo lengthy, expensive and potentially risky medical procedures in their quest for a pregnancy and a live birth. In this research we use a consumer model of decision making to analyse the process. We review information available to consumers and we assess use of an online bulletin board which gives consumers social support and medical information during the process. We conclude with the needs for consumer education and protection.     

Factors Affecting Malaysian Household Purchase Decisions of Food-Away-from-Home

Abstract

The dichotomous-choice Logit model is applied on data from the Malaysian Household Expenditure Survey (1998/99) to examine household purchase decisions of food-away-from-home (FAFH). Results indicate that younger, higher educated, wealthier, smaller-sized families, urban residents, or Malay and Chinese households have a significantly higher likelihood to purchase FAFH, ceteris paribus. In addition, gender does not impact FAFH purchase decisions in a statistically significant manner. Based on these findings, several observations are noted to provide policymakers and food industry analysts with a better understanding of the habits and attitudes of Malaysian households visa-vis FAFH.     

Effects of gender and length of land tenure on timber supply in Finland

This study investigated timber supply from Finnish non-industrial private forests (NIPF) using the consistent Tobit model and nationwide micropanel survey data on timber sales of 1299 forest owners during 2004–2008. The effects of forest owners’ gender and length of land tenure on timber supply were studied in particular. Women sold one cubic meter per hectare and per year (about 30%) less than men did. Female owners sold less frequently, but larger quantities at a time than did male owners. Short-tenure (<5 years) owners’ harvests were only affected by price, owner's age, income, timber stock and forest acreage. A group with relatively high harvest levels was young, low-income new forest owners.     

Integrated Management of Land Use Systems under Systemic Risks and Security Targets: A Stochastic Global Biosphere Management Model

Interdependencies among land use systems resemble a complex network connected through demand–supply relationships. Disruption of this network may catalyse systemic risks affecting food, energy, water and environmental security (FEWES) worldwide. We describe the conceptual development, expansion and practical application of a stochastic version of the Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM), used to assess competition for land use between agriculture, bioenergy and forestry at regional and global scales. In the stochastic version of the model, systemic risks of various kinds are explicitly covered and can be analysed and mitigated in all their interactions. While traditional deterministic scenario analysis produces sets of scenario‐dependent outcomes, stochastic GLOBIOM explicitly derives robust outcomes that leave the systems better‐off, independently of which scenario applies. Stochastic GLOBIOM is formulated as a stochastic optimisation model that is critical for evaluating portfolios of robust interdependent decisions: ex‐ante strategic decisions (production allocation, storage capacities) and ex‐post adaptive (demand, trading, storage control) decisions. As an example, the model is applied to the question of optimal storage facilities, as buffers for production shortfalls, to meet regional and global FEWES requirements when extreme events occur. Expected shortfalls and storage capacities have a close relationship with Value‐at‐Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value‐at‐Risk (CVaR) risk measures. A Value of Stochastic Solutions is calculated to illustrate the benefits of the stochastic over the deterministic model approach.     

An open-access method for targeting revegetation based on potential for emissions reduction,carbon sequestration and opportunity cost

We propose a simple heuristic that uses open-access models and government data on agricultural activities to estimate total carbon emissions from agriculture, the gross carbon benefit and the opportunity cost per tonne CO₂-e from revegetating to environmental plantings or plantation forestry. We test this across ten areas of mixed land-use that represent diverse Australian agricultural systems along a rainfall transect. The local value of agricultural production was obtained from government statistics and used to estimate the current economic opportunity cost of converting cleared agricultural land to mixed environmental plantings for carbon sequestration. Gross carbon benefit from revegetation was closely related to current agricultural use, as was financial opportunity cost. These were not related simply to site productivity potential or rainfall. The proportion of land cleared for agriculture that would need to be re-vegetated to achieve a localised zero-carbon land-use scenario was calculated by the ratio of current agricultural emissions to gross carbon benefit from revegetation; this ranged from 13% to 66% for groups of agricultural industries across Australian rainfall transects. While the heuristic does not capture the detail of models built specifically for local research questions it does provide a different lens on the questions policy makers and land managers may ask about the costs and benefits of revegetating agricultural land, and provides open-access methods to guide them.     

A cost-plus trap: Pricing heuristics and demand identification

Cost plus pricing is a common pricing heuristic. We investigate whether a firm, following cost plus pricing in a simple environment, will eventually have enough information about demand conditions to switch to an optimization-based pricing approach. We find that with unsophisticated statistical approaches this is unlikely, and even with a Bayesian decision theoretic approach there can be what we call a cost plus trap.     

Trends in market reactions: stock dividends and rights offerings at Istanbul stock exchange

This paper examines the existence of different price reactions to the implementation of stock dividends and rights offerings as the stock market matures over time and the investor mix changes. For that purpose market reactions at the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) are Investigated during three sub-periods displaying different developmental phases of the market defined in terms of institutional framework, transactions volumes and related investor profiles. Differences in price reactions and the accompanying trading volumes are tested as the investor mix changes and small investors enter ISE due to the cultivating of awareness about the stock market. Other possible causes of excess returns such as prior knowledge about the stocks being traded or a preferred trading range are also tested. Considering the characteristics of thinly traded emerging markets, non-parametric tests are employed besides traditional event study methodology and results are immune to the choice of relevant test statistics. The results indicate that the changing mix of investors shift the timing of market reaction from announcement to implementation of stock dividends and rights offerings. Since individual investors, who are attracted by lower relative prices, are not expected to be prompt in timing, excess returns persist over longer event windows and are accompanied by increasing trading volumes.