The Impact of Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance on Real Options Exercise: Potential for Suboptimal Time Delays and Value Destruction

Real options (RO) valuation has been promoted as a way to evaluate investment opportunities and make investment decisions that takes into account the value of managerial flexibility in the face of uncertainty. Although RO enjoys a substantial body of literature considering its application and suitability in different situations, the impact of national culture on the application of RO has received little attention. Values embedded in national culture affect the behavior of managers. In particular, these values play a role in how managers frame information, communicate, and make decisions, directly and indirectly affecting behavior through cultural layers such as organizational culture. National culture, therefore, can systematically affect the application of RO, potentially leading to suboptimal outcomes. In this article, we hypothesize how 2 particularly relevant dimensions of culture, power distance and uncertainty avoidance, affect RO exercise, and estimate the magnitude suboptimality of these effects using a model we develop for the case of a put option. Our estimates suggest RO may not always be a superior valuation approach to net present value for national cultures with certain characteristics.     

E-Consulting in Virtual Negotiations

In the e-world where many of us live and work, virtual work arrangements will become increasingly commonplace. This paper reports on an exploratory study into the way in which consultants can ply their trade virtually with clients whom they never meet. US-located e-consultants provided advice to Hong Kong-located web site developers on the interface and content aspects of a website that was being developed for an international audience. Extensive analyses of the communication between the consultants and developers is undertaken, in parallel with an analysis of survey data obtained from the two sets of stakeholders. Lessons are drawn for future research and practice.     

A precautionary tale:

In the wake of the minimal disruption to computer systems arising from the Y2K Millennium Bug, there has been a notable lack of discussion about whether the huge expenditures devoted to solving the problem were justified. The most common response was that they were worth it ‘just to be on the safe side’. Furthermore, there were many related benefits in upgraded infrastructure and improved systems. We argue that in fact Y2K activity is an important if unexpected example of the ‘precautionary principle’ at work, i.e. acting in advance to ward off potential danger despite a lack of full scientific certainty about the extent of danger. It was unexpected because it was championed by corporations and governments who routinely oppose precautionary policies directed at environmental issues such as global warming. The paper outlines several reasons why Y2K was acted upon so swiftly while environmental issues are not, and explores what lessons may be learnt from the Y2K episode in terms of future strategies for dealing with environmental danger.     

Tradespace exploration of in-space communications network architectures

Making architectural decisions in long lifecycle systems is challenging because the time between system definition and end of operations can span multiple decades, resulting in shifts in stakeholder needs and major advances in technologies. Space-based communications using relay satellite constellations is one such example, requiring substantial up-front planning to define capabilities and size capacity due to the large investment of time and resources. Additionally, there are numerous viable system architectures. In this paper, we build on existing methods to develop a graph-based decision method to assess and explore architectural flexibility in the future evolution of long lifecycle systems. The tradespace graph defines edges between similar architectures, quantifies the switching cost between architectures, using graphs to analyse the potential system evolution pathways. In a test case on NASA communication satellites, we find that hosting government communications payloads, in particular optical payloads, on commercial satellites could reduce cost and increase flexibility of the NASA network.     

Tourism destination preferences of low-cost airline users in the East Midlands

Increasing demand for air travel, associated with the boom in low-cost airlines, has assisted tourism growth. Expanding opportunities from regional airports underpin an increased propensity to fly. This paper examines European tourism destination preferences and price sensitivity to fly by population segment from an air travel household survey in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom. Of the eight typical low-cost airline destinations presented to respondents cultural locations such as Rome are preferred. Weekend break leisure trips are particularly attractive to those in employment. Price sensitivity, suggests that increasing financial pressures will have an impact upon growth, however demand for an annual holiday is important, particularly for families.     

The Effects of Process and Content Facilitation Restrictiveness on GSS-Mediated Collaborative Learning

Group Support Systems (GSS) technology, extensively applied in decision-making contexts, is now seeing increased application in the educational sector. Previous work has suggested that GSS applications can have significant positive effects on both the process and the outcome of collaborative learning. This study extends this work to examine the effects of process (high/low) and content (high/low) facilitation restrictiveness on GSS-supported collaborative learning. Our results indicate that content facilitation restrictiveness has no significant bearing on student learning. Process facilitation restrictiveness, on the other hand, is more influential, with knowledge acquisition by students requiring a low restrictive environment.     

The EU's evolving stance on the international dimension of competition policy: A critical commentary

In recent years there has been a rapid increase in both the numbers and the value of cross-border mergers and acquisitions. As more and more competition cases fall within the jurisdiction of two or more competition authorities, the possibility of divergent and unpredictab]le outcomes increases. This article explores the response of the European Union to international competition concerns that impact on its, jurisdiction.     

Fair Value and Risk Profile for Presale Contracts of Condominiums

Developers usually presell new condominiums, requiring purchasers to make down payments on a contract that allows them to purchase, at a fixed price, the finished condominiums on a later date. This presale contract is akin to a financial call option sold by the builder to the purchaser of the condo. In this paper, we value the presale contract from both the purchaser’s and the developer’s points of view. We examine the influence of various opt-out clauses, different interest rates and other factors on the value of presale contracts. We discuss the extent of risk sharing between the purchasers and the developers according to varying levels of down payments. We conclude that developers enjoy a reduction in risk without a corresponding reduction in expected profits by holding a presale.     

To Screen or Not to Screen? Using the Internet for Selection Decisions

Organizations are increasingly relying on Internet searches and social networking websites to uncover detailed and private information about job applicants. Such Internet screening techniques have the potential to provide additional information beyond that found using traditional screening approaches. However, questions regarding the legality and appropriateness of this practice, as well as issues regarding the standardization, reliability, and validity of the information obtained, need to be addressed. The current work describes these issues associated with Internet screening and provides recommendations to help ensure this practice is used appropriately in organizations. Suggestions for future research on Internet screening are also discussed.     

The Role of Groupware in Requirements Specification

This article describes how 2 forms of groupware - electronic Mail and Group Support Systems (GSS) were employed to support user requirements specification in a university department. The system being specified was a bibliographic information system, while the users were both qualified systems analysts and academic staff in the department. The background literatures to both requirements specification and GSS are introduced and linked. Groupware tools were used to support the group interaction and consensus formation. The article discusses the key stages in this process and discusses the appropriateness of the techniques used. The results are significant in that they identify techniques appropriate to supporting user groups in the clarification of system requirements before the involvement of development personnel.