We propose several econometric measures of connectedness based on principal-components analysis and Granger-causality networks, and apply them to the monthly returns of hedge funds, banks, ...broker/dealers, and insurance companies. We find that all four sectors have become highly interrelated over the past decade, likely increasing the level of systemic risk in the finance and insurance industries through a complex and time-varying network of relationships. These measures can also identify and quantify financial crisis periods, and seem to contain predictive power in out-of-sample tests. Our results show an asymmetry in the degree of connectedness among the four sectors, with banks playing a much more important role in transmitting shocks than other financial institutions.
During the financial crisis, life insurers sold long-term policies at deep discounts relative to actuarial value. The average markup was as low as—19 percent for annuities and — 57 percent for life ...insurance. This extraordinary pricing behavior was due to financial and product market frictions, interacting with statutory reserve regulation that allowed life insurers to record far less than a dollar of reserve per dollar of future insurance liability. We identify the shadow cost of capital through exogenous variation in required reserves across different types of policies. The shadow cost was $0.96 per dollar of statutory capital for the average company in November 2008.
Stakeholder theory has gained currency in the business and society literature in recent years in light of its practicality from the perspective of managers and scholars. In accounting for the recent ...ascendancy of stakeholder theory, this article presents an overview of two traditional conceptualizations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Carroll: 1979, 'A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance', The Academy of Management Review 4(4), 497-505 and Wood: 1991, 'Corporate Social Performance Revisited', The Academy of Management Review 16(4), 691-717), highlighting their predominant inclination toward providing static taxonomic CSR descriptions. The article then makes the case for a stakeholder approach to CSR, reviewing its rationale and outlining how it has been integrated into recent empirical studies. In light of this review, the article adopts a stakeholder framework - the Ethical Performance Scorecard (EPS) proposed by Spiller (2000, 'Ethical Business and Investment: A Model For Business and Society', Journal of Business Ethics 27, 149-160) - to examine the CSR approach of a sample of Lebanese and Syrian firms with an interest in CSR and test relevant hypotheses derived from the CSR/stakeholder literature. The findings are analyzed and implications drawn regarding the usefulness of a stakeholder approach to CSR.
This paper studies government reactions to large corporate merger attempts in the European Union during 1997 to 2006 using hand-collected data. We document widespread economic nationalism in which ...the government prefers that target companies remain domestically owned rather than foreign-owned. This preference is stronger in times and countries with strong far-right parties and weak governments. Nationalist government reactions have both direct and indirect economic impacts on mergers. In particular, these reactions not only affect the outcome of the mergers that they target but also deter foreign companies from bidding for other companies in that country in the future.
Purpose
Through the human resources (HR) and knowledge management (KM) perspective as human-centric processes, the aim of this study is to explore how companies’ engagement in diversity (DIV), ...inclusion (INC) and people empowerment (PEMP) policies influences companies’ organizational performance, to support organizations in the shift to the Industry 5.0 framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Combining the HR management and the KM-driven organizational culture, a conceptual model is proposed for explaining companies’ higher organizational performance. Proposed hypotheses are tested with reference to a set of listed international companies traced by Refinitiv on a five-year time horizon (2016–2020) through 24,196 firm-year observations.
Findings
This research shows that companies engaged in DIV policies, INC practices and PEMP through education have higher profitability and are more valued by capital markets’ investors.
Originality/value
This paper draws attention to the need to overcome the reductionist view of HR and rethink KM architecture to cope with the growing challenge of HR integration according to the Industry 5.0 paradigm.
With the ongoing and expanding use of willed bodies in medical
education and research, there has been a concomitant rise in the need for willed
bodies and an increase in the means of supplying these ...bodies. A relatively
recent development to enlarge this supply has been the growth of for‐
profit willed body companies (“body brokers”) in the United States.
These companies advertise for donors, cover all cremation and other fees for the
donor, distribute the bodies or body parts nationally and internationally, and
charge their users for access to the body or body parts. In doing so, they
generate substantial profits. This review examines the historical development of
willed body programs, the legal and economic aspects of willed body programs, and
then provides an ethical framework for the use of willed bodies. The ethical
principles described include detailed informed consent from the donors,
comprehensive and transparent information about the process from the body
donation organizations, and societal input on the proper and legal handling of
willed bodies. Based on the ethical principles outlined, it is recommended that
there be no commercialization or commodification of willed bodies, and that
programs that use willed bodies should not generate profit.
Algorithms are becoming ubiquitous. However, companies are increasingly alarmed about their algorithms causing major financial or reputational damage. A new industry is envisaged: auditing and ...assurance of algorithms with the remit to validate artificial intelligence, machine learning, and associated algorithms.
Servitization and digitalization are two business model innovations that have affected product companies. From the convergence of these two trends, digital servitization emerged as a novel concept. ...Digital servitization pushes product companies to radically transform their business model, creating new challenges for its implementation. This paper aims to uncover how digitalization fundamentally transforms product companies in their transition towards services. Based on a systematic review of the literature, we analyze a sample of 180 articles published between 2005 and 2020 using both descriptive and content analysis techniques. Our review thereby offers both theoretical and managerial contributions. We descriptively analyze the evolution of the research field. Furthermore, we propose a new unified definition of digital servitization and discuss nine servitization dimensions where digitalization influences servitization—motivations; strategy; service offerings; structure; culture; resources and capabilities; processes; performance; and servitization ecosystems—leading to a new conceptual framework for digital servitization. Finally, we identify several directions for future digital servitization research.
•Servitization and digitalization are two business model innovations that have affected product companies.•This study offers a comprehensive review and synthesis of extant work from 2005 to 2020.•Insights into the effects of digitalization in servitized product companies are analyzed.•Seven research propositions emerge from a new conceptual framework proposed for digital servitization.•Research gaps and avenues for future research on digital servitization emerge from our review.
PDF
