Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Passion, Performance, and Concordance in Rock 'n' Roll Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Non-entrepreneurial passions may be the beginning of an extensive entrepreneurial journey. However, current passion theories cannot fully capture the essence of such passions and their effects. The purpose of this study is to explore and explain the real-life composition of passion and performance. <br><br>Design/methodology/approach – The investigation was conducted with comparative causal mapping on a qualitative sample of people we designate rock 'n' roll entrepreneurs (i.e., individuals driven by a passion for music, and who are successful both artistically and economically). Aggregated causal maps of passion elicited through semi-structured interviews were analyzed and contrasted with performance indicators. <br><br>Findings – Passion is revealed to be an individual phenomenon, one composed of central and peripheral concepts that include—contrary to prior theories—personality traits and life contexts. <br><br>Furthermore, the results suggest that the concordance of concepts determines the scope, degree, and performance of passion. <br><br>Research limitations/implications – This study complements prevailing passion theories in psychology and entrepreneurship. As a context-bound study, the generalizability of the results is limited to its context, which, however, paves a clear way for future research. <br><br>Practical implications – Creative economy entrepreneurs and educators can use the mechanism of concordance to consciously reflect passion driven tensions between artistic, social and entrepreneurial demands and to translate passion into behavioral effectiveness. <br><br>Originality/value – This study is the first to use a comparative causal mapping approach to investigate passion. Findings highlight the potential to research entrepreneurial phenomena at the intersection of emotion, cognition, and action.
Interregional Demand for Workers and the Effects of Labor Income Taxation

We study the short-run impacts of labor income taxation in an aggregate economy of N&gt;2 regions. The distinct regions demand workers. Each region is endowed with one unit of immobile capital. The aggregate economy also has one unit of labor that is mobile across the regions. All regions produce a final good with identical Cobb-Douglas production functions. The price of output is normalized to unity. We perform five tasks. First, we focus on the benchmark case in which no region taxes either capital or labor. We find the equilibrium wage, the allocation of workers across the regions, and the total income of labor and capital. Second, we study the impact of a tax τ on labor income in region 1 when the other N-1 regions do not tax labor income. We ascertain the after-tax return to labor in region 1, the equilibrium wage, and the allocation of labor across the regions. Third, we compute the total income of capital and labor and the tax revenue in region 1. Fourth, we discuss whether workers in region 1 are better off with a tax on labor income. Finally, we comment on the policy implications of our research.
The Costs and Benefits of Price Leadership - Evidence from Retail Gasoline

This paper studies the costs and benefits of price leadership in a retail gasoline market with asymmetric price cycles. A unique dataset with high frequency price and volume data for almost all Norwegian gas stations coupled with a particular pricing pattern allow me to provide the first concrete evidence on the costs and benefits of leading price jumps. The main result is that the leader’s volume loss ensuing from being alone with a high price until the other firms match the price increase, is small compared to the large margin increases and profit gains resulting from the price jumps. Furthermore, I find that the leader is not worse off than the non-leading firms.
The Effect of Probability and Uncertainty Models on Hedge Fund Performance Analysis

This paper implements two types of framework to investigate the outperformance, selectivity and market timing skills in hedge funds: uncertainty and probability. Using the uncertainty framework, the paper develops an uncertain fuzzy credibility regression model in the form of a linear and quadratic CAPM in order to estimate these performance skills. Using the probability framework the paper implements frequentist and Bayesian CAPMs (linear and quadratic) to estimate the same performance skills. We consider a data set of monthly investment style indices published by Hedge Fund Research group. The data set extends from January 1995 to June 2010. We divide this sample period into four overlapping sub-sample periods that contain different market trends. Using the probability framework, our results show that bounded rationality triggers inefficiencies in the market that fund managers can utilise to outperform the market. This market outperformance is due to selectivity and market timing skill during periods of economic recovery only. We admit that these results contradict the rational expectations model. However, with the uncertainty framework this effect disappears on behalf of the rational expectations model and the efficient market hypothesis. This disappearance may be a result of the increased amount of high frequency trading witnessed recently that has made market inefficiencies, which are the main source of hedge fund performance, rarer.
Does Corporate Social Responsibility Spending Affect Strike Risk? Evidence from Union Elections

This paper investigates the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending on labour unions’ propensity to initiate strikes. Given limited financial resources, we posit that firms’ inability to satisfy the demands from all of their stakeholders leads to resource competition among those stakeholders. By exploiting the unique setting of union elections in U.S. firms as plausibly exogenous shocks to labour power, we employ a triple-differences specification and find that firms with high levels of (non-employee) CSR spending are exposed to a significantly higher risk of union strikes. We interpret this finding as evidence consistent with CSR spending intensifying resource competition between employees and other stakeholders. We also document evidence that firms strategically curtail CSR expenditure in non-employee dimensions in response to unionisation in order to mitigate the increased strike risk. Such downward adjustment in CSR spending, however, is less pronounced in financially constrained firms, firms in “sin” industries and firms facing high levels of product market competition, due to their strong incentives to signal quality through CSR spending. Overall, our study sheds light on the inter-stakeholder relationship through the lens of a powerful stakeholder, i.e., organised labour, and has important implications for managers facing severe labour risk.
Litigating Dividends or Not? The Case of Derivative Lawsuits

Recent anecdotal evidence suggests that high litigation risk may induce firms to cut dividends. By comparison, litigation can be an effective governance tool for shareholders to force firms to distribute cash. Therefore, it is unclear how litigation risk affects dividend payouts on average. To address this issue, we exploit the staggered adoption of universal demand (UD) laws across various U.S. states as quasi-exogenous shocks. We find that firms increase dividend payouts significantly after UD laws raise the hurdle of filing derivative lawsuits. In particular, the adoption of UD laws discourages the emission of cash dividends while encourages the initiation of share repurchases. The main effect is more pronounced for firms faced with higher litigation risk, that are more financially distressed, and operating in more competitive product markets. Our overall findings suggest that excessive threats of derivative lawsuits may dampen financial flexibility and deter the distribution of cash to shareholders.
An Investigation of the Effects of Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Implementation on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Performance: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches (A Case of Egypt)

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are facing enormous challenges to survive within today’s dynamic business environment. Accordingly, performance measurement systems that link vision to the strategy and translate them into actions are required. Balanced scorecard (BSC) is among one of those significant developed approaches that can achieve the targeted strategic alignment through balancing financial and non-financial measures. The study employs mixed methods to investigate the effects of BSC implementation on SMEs performance. A survey exploring the Egyptian environment is used to establish current BSC practice in SME context. Then, a case study with a SME is undertaken to investigate the change in performance after BSC implementation. The results provide an evidence of improved performance after BSC implementation. In conclusion, this study presents useful insights into the Egyptian SMEs context and provides guidelines for BSC implementation.
Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Response in Pakistan: A Mediating Role of Positive Moral Emotions, Attitude, and Identification with the Company

Many companies and brands are using CSR to enhance the brand image, goodwill, and gain the confidence and trust of the people. This study’s aim is to investigate how CSR initiatives got converted into consumer favorable responses. We proposed a theoretical framework, modifying Dedeke's (2015) model that hypothesized that CSR activities and actions affect responses of the consumers towards corporate brands both directly or indirectly through mediating roles of moral emotions, attitude, and identifying themselves with the company (CCI). Positive emotions were further broken down into awe, gratitude, and elevation, whereas consumer responses were measured in terms of purchase intention (PI), recommend intention and loyalty. To establish the empirical validity, a quantitative study was conducted, a close-ended Likert scale type questionnaire was developed whilst data were gathered from 300 adult consumers from Karachi by using convenient sampling. Data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor analysis and Structured Equation Modeling. The results concluded that CSR has a significant positive impact directly on consumer responses (Purchase Intention, Recommend Intention but not on loyalty) whereas CSR has a significant positive effect on all three positive emotions, attitudes, and CCI. However, Positive Emotions have an insignificant effect on consumer responses. Apart from gratitude affecting loyalty. Hence there is a positive mediatory effect of CCI for all dimensions of customer responses. Whereas gratitude and attitude also mediate loyalty and PI respectively.
Factors Affecting Fund Flows in Islamic and Conventional Mutual Funds of Pakistan

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the fund flows in conventional and Islamic equity and fixed-income funds by considering the relationship of it with management expense ratio, fund return, fund size, fund age, inflation, interest rate, and GDP in comparison for conventional and Islamic investors. By using panel data, the sample of Pakistan’s locally managed equity and fixed-income funds are considered comprised of 21 individual conventional and Islamic funds from equity and fixed income category respectively from 2009 to 2018. The results provide evidence that Islamic investors have different factors when choosing funds in comparison with conventional investors. The study finds that the key factor influencing the fund flows is the management expense ratio, return, and fund size. This study also shows that all the conventional and Islamic fund characteristics of equity and fixed-income funds are positively related to fund flows except management expense ratio and fund age, which have negative relationship with fund flows. The empirical findings of this paper clearly call for fund managers and investors to review their investment policy as this paper help fund managers to maintain a balanced amongst the factors so as to ensure maximization of its return, benefiting both; Mutual Fund managers and investors. The results could also provide better information and guidance for investors as well as policy-makers on the factors that affect the fund flow for Pakistan Islamic and conventional equity and fixed-income funds.
Effect of Heavy Metals on the Desmodesmus quadricauda Isolated from the River Nile, Egypt

The wastewater of Iron and Steel Factories contains high level of metallic ions, especially Fe which represents the main component of the waste followed by Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Hg, Co, Cd, Mn and Cr. Bioassay experiment were achieved to determine the effect of industrial waste of Iron and Steel Factories at Helwan on growth, chlorophyll a and photosynthetic activity of one alga (Desmodesmus quadricauda) which represent one of the most dominant phytoplankton in the Nile River. The growth rate (counting and chlorophyll a) was more sensitive than photosynthetic activity. A synergistic effect was found between the trace metals of the waste. The toxicity of the waste decreased gradually by time. The EC50 of the growth rate values indicated that, the inhibitory effect of waste on growth of the alga showed slight decrease during the four days incubation, the phenomenon was enhanced on the 5th day when the EC50 reached to 46.84. The EC50 values of waste inhibited chlorophyll a showed a significant increase till the 3rd day when the EC50 reached to 47.79. The EC50 values had considerably decreased to 32.78 on the 4th day then abruptly increase to 47.32 on the 5th day. Industrial waste showed a significantly reduced the photosynthetic activity at 48% and 60% concentration. The maximum decreased observed on the 4th day and represented by 62.92% and 79.02% below their control values, respectively.
Investment Funds, Monetary Policy, and the Global Financial Cycle

This paper examines the role of international investment funds in the transmission of global financial conditions to the euro area using structural Bayesian vector auto regressions. While cross-border banking sector capital flows receded significantly in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, portfolio flows from investors actively searching for yield on financial markets world-wide gained importance during the post-crisis “second phase of global liquidity”(Shin 2013). The analysis presented in this paper shows that a loosening of US monetary policy leads to higher investment fund inflows to equities and debt globally. Focussing on the euro area, these inflows not only imply elevated asset prices, but also coincide with increased debt and equity issuance. The findings demonstrate the growing importance of non-bank financial intermediation over the past decade and hold important policy implications for monetary and financial stability.
Independent Director Attention and the Cost of Equity Capital

We study the relation between independent director attention and the cost of equity capital. Masulis and Mobbs (2014; 2017) find that a director with multiple directorships distributes her time and effort (i.e., attention) unequally according to the relative prestige of each directorship. We investigate whether a firm’s cost of equity capital reflects such unequal distribution of attention by its directors. We find that firms receiving more director attention are associated with a lower cost of equity capital. These firms also have higher accounting information quality. Moreover, the attention from audit committee directors matters more than that from other directors in reducing the cost of equity capital. Robustness checks show that the results are not driven by firm size. Overall, our evidence is consistent with director attention reducing the cost of equity capital through effective monitoring that increases accounting information quality.
The Association between Quarter Length, Forecast Errors, and Firms’ Voluntary Disclosures

Approximately 60% of adjacent fiscal quarters contain a different number of calendar days. Our preliminary results indicate it is important for analysts to adjust for changes in quarter length when making forecasts. However, we find the quarterly change in days is positively associated with analysts’ revenue and earnings forecasts errors, which indicates analysts systematically underestimate (overestimate) performance when quarter length increases (decreases). We find evidence indicating investors make similar errors as returns around earnings announcements are positively associated with the change in quarter length. Corroborating these findings, managers are more (less) likely to discuss quarter length during conference calls when quarter length decreases (increases). The results are consistent with managers’ strategic disclosure incentives. In summary, our evidence suggests analysts and investors fail to fully take account of the quasi-mechanical effect that quarter length has on firm performance and managers strategically alter their voluntary disclosures to take advantage of these failures.
Nonlinearities and the Determinants of Inequality: New Panel Evidence

Relying on data for a panel of 90 economies over 1970-2015 and System-GMM estimates, we extend the standard Kuznets-curve empirical framework to investigate how financial development, globalisation and technology affect income inequality. Our findings reveal the presence of significant nonlinearities, consistent with either U-shaped or inverted U-shaped relationships. As such, depending on whether a certain threshold value is achieved, the same determinants of income distribution can exert opposite effects in different countries. Globalisation is associated to increasing inequality in most advanced economies, but to falling disparities for the large majority of emerging economies. Further, while the effects for advanced economies are mixed, technology and financial development lead to increasing inequality for most emerging economies. Hence, particularly in countries in earlier stages of development, policymakers aiming at fostering growth via technological progress or financial development should also consider the nature of the trade-offs with inequality and how policy can improve them.
A New Investment Strategy with Economic Cycle Alternations Based on Residual Income Valuation Model: Empirical Results from Taiwan Stock Markets

The purpose of this research is an attempt to present a mixed model based on the residual income valuation model, where two new factors, business cycles and financial items, are added. We offer a practical investment opinion by which investors and fundamental analysts can either establish or adjust their portfolios if there is an effort made to reverse the present economic atmosphere due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.We find that the items in financial reports don’t have the same impacts for different business cycles. However, tax has a significantly positive sign when economies are expanding or contracting.
The Effects of Delivering Personalized Course Recommendations at Scale on AP Exam Participation and Performance

Gaps in advanced high school coursework by socioeconomic status and geography continue to persist in the United States, even among students who have the ability and access to succeed in them. Lack of information on course availability and inaccurate self-perceptions may contribute to the persistence of these inequities. We report on a low-cost, large scale experiment designed to increase Advanced Placement (AP) participation among two groups of students with historically low participation rates: underrepresented minority students and students attending rural high schools. Students and parents assigned to treatment received personalized outreach via multiple communication channels about APs offered at their high school in which they demonstrated potential to succeed. Outreach increased the probability of AP Exam participation in subjects in which students demonstrated potential to succeed by 1.1 percentage points, a 2.5 percent increase over the control group participation rate. This, in turn, increased the probability that students scored 3 or higher on those AP Exams by 0.5 percentage points, a 1.4 percent increase over the control group rate. Intervention effects were concentrated among underrepresented minority students attending non-rural schools and relatively less academically prepared students. These findings indicate that personalized course recommendations can increase equity in advanced high school course participation, although the design of outreach campaigns at scale that engage students deeply is a crucial challenge to their efficacy.
Corporate In-house Human Capital Investments in Accounting

In this study, we provide large-sample evidence on how corporate in-house human capital investments in accounting affect earnings management. We construct a dataset of more than 411,000 individual-years of corporate accountants between 2009 and 2015 and measure firms’ accounting human capital using the proportion of their accountants with Big N work experience or a CPA designation. We find that firms with higher accounting human capital have a lower probability of accounting irregularities, lower discretionary accruals, better internal control quality, and fewer unintentional accounting errors. The results hold when we control for potential endogeneity by using the staggered adoption of the CPA mobility law and the number of top accounting undergraduate programs near the firm as instrumental variables for accounting human capital. We further find that firms with higher accounting human capital exhibit stronger market reactions to earnings news and pay lower audit fees, confirming that external stakeholders perceive these firms as having better financial reporting quality.
Fire Sale Risk and Credit

This paper examines whether the risk of a future collateral fire sale affects lending decisions. We study US mortgage applications and exploit exogenous variation in foreclosure frictions for identification. We find lenders to be less likely to approve mortgages when anticipated losses due to uncoordinated collateral liquidations are high, and when there is elevated risk of joint collateral liquidation. These results suggest that fire-sale risk has implications for credit allocation, and that lenders' collective origination decisions mitigate fire sale risk ex-post. However, we also find the effects to be significantly weaker outside periods in which fire sales are salient.