Complex Network of Aviation E-Services in the Belt and Road Initiative: A Heuristic Study of Small Data based on Block Modeling

ABSTRACT

The aviation e-service system is an important part of support for business communication in regions covered by Belt and Road initiative. In exploring the role of airline companies in this system, we examine the structure of the network, which consists of airlines interconnections based on small data of individual attributes of aviation companies in aviation e-services, and study these interconnections across different groups using block modeling. The heuristic solution of airline companies in development of international communication and cooperation is further discussed. Among our policy implications for global managers, we suggest the enhancement of cross-regional cooperation among airlines.     

The price adjustment and lead-lag relations between stock returns: microstructure evidence from the Taiwan stock market

This paper investigates the price adjustment and lead-lag relations between returns on five size-based portfolios in the Taiwan stock market. It finds evidence that the price adjustment of small-stock portfolios is not slower than that of large-stock portfolios. Additionally, limited evidence supports a positive leading role of large-stock portfolio returns over small-stock portfolio returns. These two findings are substantially different from the results of previous research on developed markets.     

Agglomeration Effects versus Policy Effects: The Case of the Electronics Industry in Malaysia

The present study analyses investments within the Malaysian electronics industry in 1991 to assess the effectiveness of development policy in light of strong agglomeration effects in the electronics industry. We find that agglomeration and the use of industrial estates as development policy have had positive effects on firms' location choice. However, agglomeration has a much larger effect than industrial estates. In addition, we find that the marginal effect of industrial estates is positively correlated with the degree of agglomeration. This suggests that improvement of problems of regional inequality by industry estates would be very difficult in reality.     

Head-heart disparity among future managers: Implications for ethical conduct

An examination of the ethical perceptions of business students using Macobby's head/heart traits and a comparison to earlier studies of managers, accountants, and business students is made. The data were collected at three universities that are similar in size, enrollment and degree programs within the College of Business. Results indicate that present day business students are no less ethically inclined than are their business counterparts in previous eras. In general head traits dominated over heart traits, an indication that business schools continued to do a good job emphasizing and developing analytical skills but a poor job of developing the qualities of the heart that are generally associated with ethical behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The evolution of a local R&D strategy: the experience of a service in the UK National Health Service (NHS)

Increasing concern about the state of health‐related research in the UK in the 80s and early 90s, led to an influential parliamentary review. The consequence of this was to strengthen health research through a programme that was fully integrated into the management structure of the NHS. No country had ever attempted such an ambitious approach ( Black, 1997 ). In 1994 a far‐reaching review, recommended further, revolutionary changes to the management of R&D in the UK National Health Service ( Culyer, 1994 ). Many of these were implemented in 1997 with the result that every UK health service at regional and local level has developed an infrastructure, and management arrangements for R&D activity. In most local areas, hospitals with significant involvement in R&D have been eligible to bid to the UK Department of Health for NHS R&D Support funds. In Nottingham, three Hospital Trusts and a community based service made bids to the Department of Health and received grants to support R&D. This paper focuses on one of the hospital Trusts ‐ the mental health service in Nottingham. Our experience will be of particular interest as the first bid that the mental health service made was spectacularly unsuccessful. The organisation was forced to consider dis‐investment in its existing research infrastructure and a potential negative impact on the provision of patient care. This led to a wide‐ranging consultation and evaluation of research and research‐related activity. A range of approaches and tools were deployed to develop the strategy and to ensure its successful implementation and evolution. The strategy reflected a balanced approach, taking into account historical and organisational research strengths, while recognising the need to build capacity and capability, enhance foresight capability and strengthen the knowledge base. The ability to contribute to, and influence policy and practice has been a key driver of the strategy. The result was a successful bid and the evolution of an R&D strategy that has been flexible in its response to policy changes, changing local circumstances and wider socio‐economic trends and technical innovations. Furthermore, R&D performance, measured through outputs, impacts and income, has continually improved and increased.     

Opening the Black Box: Corporate Codes of Ethics in Their Organizational Context

A review of the literature on Corporate Codes of Ethics suggests that whilst there exists an informative body of literature concerning the prevalence of such codes, their design, implementation and promulgation, it is also evident that there is a relative lack of consideration of their impact upon members' everyday organizational behaviour. By drawing upon organizational sociology and psychology this paper constructs a contextualist and interpretive model which seeks to enable an analysis and evaluation of their effects upon individual, group and organizational behaviour.     

Self-Efficacy Toward Service, Civic Participation and the Business Student: Scale Development and Validation

This paper presents the development andvalidation of new measurement tools to exploreself-efficacy toward service and toward civicparticipation. We developed and administereda survey to 851 students in an AACSB-accreditedcollege of business at a comprehensive publicuniversity located in the Midwest. Traditionalscale development methodologies plusconfirmatory factor analysis and simultaneousfactor analysis in several populations wereused to analyze both a primary sample and aholdback sample. Results strongly support thevalidity and reliability of the surveyinstrument. Future use for the instrumentincludes verification of the effectiveness ofpedagogies designed to increase self-efficacytoward service and motivation for civicparticipation in business students.     

THE SQUARED ORNSTEIN-UHLENBECK MARKET

We study a complete market containing J assets, each asset contributing to the production of a single commodity at a rate that is a solution to the squared Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (Cox-Ingersoll-Ross) SDE. The assets are owned by K agents with CRRA utility functions, who follow feasible consumption/investment regimes so as to maximize their expected time-additive utility from consumption. We compute the equilibrium for this economy and determine the state-price density process from market clearing. Reducing to a single (representative) agent, and exploiting the relation between the squared-OU and squared-Bessel SDEs, we obtain closed-form expressions for the values of bonds, assets, and options on the total asset value. Typical model parameters are estimated by fitting bond price data, and we use these parameters to price the assets and options numerically. Implications for the total asset price itself as a diffusion are discussed. We also estimate implied volatility surfaces for options and bond yields.     

Does Hedging Affect Firm Value? Evidence from the US Airline Industry

Does hedging add value to the firm, and if so, is the source of the added value consistent with hedging theory? We investigate jet fuel hedging behavior of firms in the US airline industry during 1992–2003 to examine whether such hedging is a source of value for these companies. We illustrate that the investment and financing climate in the airline industry conforms well to the theoretical framework of Froot, Scharfstein, and Stein (1993). In general, airline industry investment opportunities correlate positively with jet fuel costs, while higher fuel costs are consistent with lower cash flow. Given that jet fuel costs are hedgeable, airlines with a desire for expansion may find value in hedging future purchases of jet fuel. Our results show that jet fuel hedging is positively related to airline firm value. The coefficients on the hedging variables in our regression analysis suggest that the “hedging premium” is greater than the 5% documented in Allayannis and Weston (2001), and might be as large as 10%. We find that the positive relation between hedging and value increases in capital investment, and that most of the hedging premium is attributable to the interaction of hedging with investment. This result is consistent with the assertion that the principal benefit of jet fuel hedging by airlines comes from reduction of underinvestment costs.     

Research notes and communications management and organizational change: A note on the railroad industry

Hypotheses which relate top-level managers' age, years of company and industry service, and education to strategic change are studied with a sample of 855 managers from 27 railroads. Results generally support hypotheses that younger managers and those with less experience are more likely to alter their strategies with changing environmental conditions.