Does bank ownership affect lending behavior? Evidence from the Euro area

We analyze the differences in lending policies across banks characterized by different types of ownership, using micro-level data on Euro area banks during the period 1999–2011 to detect possible variations in bank lending supply responses to changes in monetary policy. Our results identify a general difference between stakeholder and shareholder banks: following a monetary policy contraction, stakeholder banks decrease their loan supply to a lesser extent than shareholder banks. A detailed analysis of the effect among stakeholder banks reveals that cooperative banks continued to smooth the impact of tighter monetary policy on their lending during the crisis period (2008–2011), whereas savings banks did not. Stakeholder banks’ propensity to smooth their lending cycles suggests that their presence in the economy has the potential to reduce credit supply volatility.     

The effect of host country Internet infrastructure on foreign expansion of Korean MNCs

This study examines the effect of host country Internet infrastructure on a multinational corporation (MNC) foreign expansion. Using Heckman’s selection model on a sample of 2589 subsidiaries of 487 Korean MNCs between 1990 and 2011, we find that host country Internet infrastructure is important in MNC expansion decisions. In addition, we find that a well-developed Internet infrastructure within a host country leads to more investments from MNCs producing consumer over industrial goods and is more attractive to domestic market followers than market leaders. We find that the host country’s Internet infrastructure is important for an MNC foreign expansion decision, suggesting that efficient communication within an MNC is critical in coordinating globalized MNC subsidiary operations.     

Business model innovation in cultural and creative industries: Insights from three leading mobile gaming firms

This paper contains an exploratory analysis of the business model innovations (BMIs) that firms in cultural and creative industries (CCIs) undertake along their life-cycle. Despite the role that creative and cultural and creative firms (CCFs) have in the economic development of industrialised countries, they tend to remain small and often fail due to industry-specific constraints and tensions, such as the lack of managerial capabilities and complexity in nurturing value chain relationships. However, there has been relatively limited scholarly interest into the specific conditions and processes that enabled CCFs to overcome these liabilities, and in particular into the identification of the business models they have adopted along their life-cycle. In this paper, this issue is analysed by using the concept of BMI, which sheds light on how the reconfiguration of the activity system through which a CCF creates, delivers and captures value enables the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities over time. This paper builds on an in-depth historical study of three leading firms operating in the mobile gaming industry, namely Rovio, Zynga and King Digital Entertainment. Three main results emerge from this study. First, in the ramp-up phase of their life-cycle, CCFs organize their resource architecture to build a strong and recognized reputation. Second, in the development phase, BMI is used to leverage new distribution paradigms. Finally, in the maturity phase, firms dedicate resources to innovate their product portfolios by providing platforms that support the development and testing of new creative ideas and solutions. Findings and implications are then discussed.     

Brexit: Tracking and disentangling the sentiment towards leaving the EU

On 23 June, 2016, the UK held a referendum to decide whether to stay in the European Union or leave. The uncertainty surrounding the outcome of this referendum had major consequences for public policy, investment decisions, and currency markets. We discuss some of the subtleties involved in smoothing and disentangling poll data in light of the problem of tracking the dynamics of the intention to Brexit, and propose a multivariate singular spectrum analysis method that produces trendlines on the unit simplex. The trendline yield via multivariate singular spectrum analysis is shown to resemble that of local polynomial smoothing, and singular spectrum analysis presents the nice feature of disentangling the dynamics directly into components that can be interpreted as changes in public opinion or sampling error. The merits and disadvantages of some different approaches for obtaining smooth trendlines on the unit simplex are contrasted, in terms of both local polynomial smoothing and multivariate singular spectrum analysis.     

A quantitative study of financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies: A three‐stage data envelopment analysis

This study set out to evaluate the financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies. Applying a three‐stage data envelopment analysis with the data from 85 listed companies in China's low‐carbon industries over the period 2011 to 2017, this study has found that the overall financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies was relatively high, and the pure technical efficiency was quite steady over the period. The overall financing efficiency of these low‐carbon companies on average tended to change with the scale efficiency. This study has also shown that the scale efficiency was the main constraint influencing the financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies in China over the period. Our results are robust and have significant implications for policy makers and corporate managers.     

Virtual interlining within the European airport network: An airfare analysis

Virtual interlining, which covers the actively marketed or ‘non-hidden’ segment of all potential self-connecting flight itineraries, is often assumed to be a money-saving travel strategy. In this paper we assess the price difference between virtual interlined and ‘traditional’ flight itineraries within the intra-European airport network. We query Kiwi.com's recently developed Tequila platform, one of the few specialised online travel agencies (OTAs) offering both ‘traditional’ and virtual interlined flight itineraries, to obtain information on all available flights in the first week of August, October and December 2019. Using a series of sign tests, we investigate whether a statistically significant fare difference exists between the cheapest available (direct and/or indirect) ‘traditional’ and virtual interlined flight itineraries. Our results indicate a statistically significant fare difference between the cheapest indirect ‘traditional’ and the virtual interlined flight itineraries in favour of the latter. However, with regard to direct traditional flight itineraries the results are mixed. We explore the size and the scope of these patterns in more detail, and outline possible avenues for further research.     

Modeling asymmetric price transmission in the European food market

In this study, we employ a multivariate panel error correction model (PVECM) to investigate asymmetric price transmission among the farm, processor, and retail segments of the European food supply chain for the 2005–2016 period. The results indicate that, in both the long- and short-run, retail prices respond more strongly to processor price increases than decreases and the same occurs for processor prices due to farm price changes. Thus, the findings demonstrate the presence of positive asymmetric price transmission in the European food supply chain. Finally, the results of the present study indicate that the food price pass-through varies greatly across product category and across countries, and that the pass-through to producer prices is greater than that to consumer prices.