This study empirically examines the bandwagon effect of product-popularity information on the choices of audiovisual content products. Regression analysis is conducted using the data of Hollywood ...movies' box office revenues in 73 countries during 2003-2007. The results confirm the aggregate bandwagon effect in audiences' selections of Hollywood movies and shows that the strength of the bandwagon effect is magnified by how uncertain people are about the quality of movies.
We examine whether differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP affect forecast accuracy and other measures of analysts’ performance and if analysts with superior forecasting ability are less affected by ...these differences. Our unique sample consists of U.S. analysts who followed cross-listed firms in the U.S. and were unfamiliar with IFRS prior to its adoption but were familiar with U.S. GAAP. The main finding is that firm-specific differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP and its interaction with our superior analyst variable and other information environment characteristics significantly affect forecast accuracy in the year of IFRS adoption, but this is generally not the case in the subsequent year. We provide evidence that superior analysts gain a comparative advantage in the year of IFRS adoption but the advantage fades out in subsequent years when all analysts are trained and educated in IFRS. Similar effects are generally documented on analysts following and stock recommendations but we find no significant effects on forecast dispersion. We interpret our findings as being consistent with U.S. regulators stating that U.S. analysts will need investments in education, training, and processing the interactive IFRS data and practitioners’ predictions that analysts would quickly learn the new accounting standards.
With the deepening of China's innovation system reform entering into the 21st century, its functionality has received considerable attention in both academic and policy-making contexts. However, it ...has not been fully uncovered yet in a more systematic and practical manner possibly due to theoretical or methodological reasons. In this study, a structural approach with partial least squares is introduced to incorporate various functional constructs together determining the performance of innovation systems into an integrated path framework based on the extended framework of Romer's idea production function. By constructing a rich province–year panel dataset over the 10th five-year plan period of China, we use the novel analytical framework to detect and untangle the periodically operating state of China's regional innovation systems (RISs) in terms of the effectiveness of functional constructs shaping and influencing the innovation process. The examination results show that China's RISs perform well in terms of the performance of most functional constructs except for “innovation linkage” as well as “innovation sophistication”. With respect to the interactive effects between the contextual innovation environment and the innovation process, however, China's RISs perform poorly from the perspective of system thinking.
►The paper provides new insights into development of research in China's regional innovation systems. ►The heart of the contribution is indeed the use of a structural approach that enables to uncover and quantify the performance of China's regional innovation. ►The paper contributes to theoretical or methodological progress to measure performance of regional innovation systems and provides new evidences to China's RISs.
Should unemployment insurance (UI) systems provide coverage for underemployed job seekers? Based on a statistical analysis of Norwegian unemployment spells, we conclude that the answer to this ...question is yes. Allowing insured job seekers to retain partial UI benefits during periods of insufficient part‐time work not only reduces UI expenditures during the part‐time work period, but it also unambiguously reduces the time until a regular self‐supporting job is found. Probable explanations are that even small temporary part‐time jobs provide access to useful vacancy information and that such jobs are used by employers as a screening device when hiring from the unemployment pool.
The importance of the Internet for the travel and tourism industry has increased rapidly over the past few years. Understanding how travellers behave is of critical importance to travel suppliers and ...tourism authorities for formulating appropriate marketing strategies to exploit the full potential of this channel. This study explores the factors influencing Internet usage for travel information and shopping by analysing representative annual panel data on the 17 Spanish autonomous communities from 2003 to 2007. The results indicate that Internet usage for information depends basically on the ICT penetration level in the regions and the demographic characteristics of the population. However, when considering Internet usage as a product-purchasing tool, variables related to the characteristics of travel are also relevant.
This paper presents empirical findings on the impact of leverage (debt's ratio) on firms' performance. Empirical results based on 2003 to 2007 accounting and marketing data for 101 quoted firms in ...Nigeria lend some support to the pecking order and static tradeoff theories of capital structure. The study employed panel data analysis by using fixed‐effect estimation, random‐effect estimation and a pooled regression model. The usual identification tests and Hausman's Chi‐square statistics for testing whether the fixed effects model estimator is an appropriate alternative to the random effects model were also computed for each model. A firm's leverage was found to have a significant negative impact on the firm's accounting performance measure (ROA). An interesting finding is that all the leverage measures have a positive and highly significant relationship with the market performance measure (Tobin's Q). The study further reveals a salient fact that Nigerian firms are either majorly financed by equity capital or a mix of equity capital and short‐term financing. It is therefore suggested that Nigerian firms should try to match their high market performance with real activities that can help make the market performance reflect on their internal growth and accounting performance.
► Analysis of the impact of ownership variables on investment for a sample of firms. ► Investment determined by marginal Q and private benefits of control. ► Ownership shares model the impact of ...controllers enjoying private benefits. ► Negative impact of government ownership on investment and soft budget constraints. ► Significant role for private benefits of control influencing investment.
This paper analyzes the relationship between investment behavior of firms and ownership and corporate governance variables for a sample of large Ukrainian firms 2003–2007. The paper sheds light on the role of the ownership structures of firms and its effect on investment behavior via the presence of private benefits of control, financial and soft budget constraints. We find a negative impact of government ownership on investment and evidence for soft budget constraints. Foreign ownership is associated with financial constraints. Firms with management ownership do not appear to suffer from financial constraints. These and other findings demonstrate a significant role for private benefits of control consistent with the presented investment model that allows for private benefits of control and financial and soft budget constraints.
In the case of football it could be argued that the purpose of clubs is to win the competitions in which they participate. However, the assessment of football clubs from the efficiency would be ...relevant in judging whether the results have been obtained without waste. The chosen sample is football teams who played in the Champions League from 2003 to 2007 and the method of calculating the efficiency will be both the traditional version of the DEA as well as the version proposed by Andersen and Petersen (1993), which allows discrimination among efficient units.
How does Supreme Court precedent affect lower court decisions when there is asymmetric probability of appellate review? We study the impact of Tellabs, Inc.v. Makor Issues & Rights, Ltd., which ...clarified the law of securities fraud on pleading scienter. Tellabs reversed a lenient "reasonableness" standard for pleading scienter but replaced it with a standard that is nonetheless relatively generous to plaintiffs. Would the Supreme Court's directive cause the dismissal rates in the lower courts to converge? We find that Tellabs correlates with a significantly lower dismissal rate on scienter grounds in circuits previously applying a higher preponderance standard for scienter. In contrast, we find no significant shift in the courts previously applying the lower reasonableness standard in our basic model. Overall, we conclude that Tellabs led to increased uniformity in how lower courts apply pleading standards, but its effect is muted by the asymmetry of the right to appeal.
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