bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cambios del estado oculomotor en pacientes de 18 a 25 años diagnosticados con insuficiencia de convergencia (IC) de la Universidad El Bosque, tras el tratamiento sugerido de ortóptica durante tres meses, 2013
Authors: Viafara García Jesika
Published: February 2016

Estudio de casos prospectivo longitudinal, cuyo propósito es valorar los cambios de las condiciones binoculares, en pacientes diagnosticados con insuficiencia de convergencia, tras el tratamiento sugerido de ortóptica durante tres meses, con el fin de establecer el porcentaje de mejoría. Durante el desarrollo de esta investigación, se establecieron como criterios de inclusión: exoforia (X´) en visión próxima <20 Dioptrías prismáticas (Dpt), reservas fusiónales positivas (RFP) <15 Dpt, amplitud de acomodación baja (AA), punto próximo de convergencia (PPC) ≥6cm, acomodación relativa positiva (ARP) <2.50 y edades entre 18-25 años. Un total de 7 pacientes fueron incluidos; quienes firmaron el consentimiento informado. Inicialmente se valoró el estado oculomotor de cada paciente y respondieron la encuesta de síntomas pre-tratamiento; posteriormente fueron instruidos para realizar ejerciciosy/o terapia visual diarios en casa por 30 minutos. Una vez, finalizado el tratamiento, se tomaron medidas, las cuales evidenciaron cambios significativos en el PPC con luz ruptura/ recuperación (p = 0.0022) / (p = 0.0017); PPC con objeto real ruptura/ recuperación (p = 0.0040) / (p= 0.0017); reservas fusiónales positivas en visión próxima ruptura/ recobro (p = 0.0017) / (p = 0.0027). El 100% de los pacientes presentaron una ruptura ≤6cm y una recuperación de 7 ±3,6 cm en el PPC con luz; con objeto real el 71,4% presento una ruptura ≤ 6cm y una recuperación de 9 ±1,2 cm; las RFP incrementaron en el 85,7% siendo esta ≥15Δ en ruptura y una recuperación ≥15Δ en el 71,4% y en la encuesta el 48% de los pacientes reportaron mejoría de sus síntomas. Con lo anterior, se puede concluir que el tratamiento sugerido de ortoptica, presentó cambios y mejoras significativas de los signos clínicos los cuales se acompañan de una reducción de síntomas, los que permiten mejoras en la calidad de vida de los jóvenes universitarios y el restablecimiento de las condiciones binoculares.
Ausentismo laboral: una visión desde la gestión de la seguridad y la salud en el trabajo
Authors: Sánchez. Diana Carolina
Published: February 2016

El ausentismo laboral es un tópico de relevancia dentro de los Sistemas de Gestión de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo, antes llamados Programas de Salud Ocupacional, dadas las repercusiones para el propio trabajador ausente, para los empleadores, para los sistemas de aseguramiento e, incluso, para la economía local y nacional. Los múltiples factores determinantes del ausentismo hacen complejo su abordaje y su manejo; sin embargo, hay crecientes pruebas de intervenciones psicosociales, organizativas y ergonómicas exitosas, que han logrado reducir significativamente la ausencia al trabajo y, por ende, sus costos directos e indirectos.
PENGARUH FAKTOR INTERNAL DAN EKSTERNAL YANG MEMPEMPENGARUHI PEMBIAYAAN BERMASALAH PADA BANK UMUM SYARIAH DI INDONESIA
Authors: Firdaus Rizal Nur
Published: February 2016

This study aims to answer some questions about the factors that influence the
occurrence of non-performing finanncing at sharia banks in Indonesia. Hypothesis
testing is performed by multiple linear regression analysis to determine the
effect of the internal variables (Growth Capital Financing and adequency
Ratio) and external variables (Gross Domestic Product, Inflation and Exchange
Rate) on the occurrence of non-performing Finanncing (NPF) in Islamic banks
in Indonesia. Sources of data in this study came from Bank Indonesia Bank
Indonesia website. Period examined data starts from March 2008 to December
2012 with a 3-month data collection. The study shows that simultaneous each
factor in the internal and external variables have a significant influence on
the occurrence of NPF at the 5% significance level. But partially, financing
variables, inflation and the exchange rate has no significant effect on the
occurrence of NPF while CAR and GDP variables have a significant influence.
Education and Income Imbalances Among Married Couples in Malawi as Predictors for Likelihood of Physical and Emotional Intimate Partner Violence
Authors: Bonnes Stephanie
Published: February 2016

Intimate partner violence is a social and public health problem that is prevalent across the world. In many societies, power differentials in relationships, often supported by social norms that promote gender inequality, lead to incidents of intimate partner violence. Among other factors, both a woman’s years of education and educational differences between a woman and her partner have been shown to have an effect on her likelihood of experiencing intimate partner abuse. Using the 2010 Malawian Demographic and Health Survey data to analyze intimate partner violence among 3,893 married Malawian women and their husbands, this article focuses on understanding the effect of educational differences between husband and wife on the likelihood of physical and emotional abuse within a marriage. The results from logistic regression models show that a woman’s level of education is a significant predictor of her likelihood of experiencing intimate partner violence by her current husband, but that this effect is contingent on her husband’s level of education. This study demonstrates the need to educate men alongside of women in Malawi to help decrease women’s risk of physical and emotional intimate partner violence.
E-Commerce: The Next Global Frontier For Small Businesses
Authors: Mehta Kamlesh T. , Shah Vivek
Published: February 2016

This paper discusses the growth of E-Commerce and its advantages to small business firms. Guidelines for small businesses to create a successful E-Commerce sites on the Internet are offered. Furthermore, tools for the trade and strategies for E-Commerce are discussed. Business on the Internet will continue to develop as technologies for the Internet evolve, and the evolution seems to be progressing at an ever-increasing pace.
 
Examining Relationships Between Organic Leadership And Corporate Sustainability: A Proposed Model
Authors: Kantabutra Sooksan , Suriyankietkaew Suparak
Published: February 2016

Much of the leadership literature indicates that organizations adopting the Organic leadership paradigm tend to respond to the environmental change more effectively than those adopting other leadership paradigms, therefore more sustainable. However, few published studies, if any, have specifically investigated the assumed relationship between Organic leadership and sustainability performance. Derived from the literature, a model expressing the relationships between Organic leadership characteristics and sustainability performance outcomes is proposed. The broad proposition is the more organizations adopting the Organic leadership characteristics, the better the sustainability performance outcomes. In this paper, characteristics of Organic leadership such as shared vision and values, self-leading, self-managing, mutual sense-making are independent variables, while sustainability performance outcomes such as financial results, long-term shareholder value, customer satisfaction, brand and reputation are dependent variables. Relevant hypotheses and directions for testing them are also discussed.
 
The Relationship Between The Financial Ratios And Transparency Levels Of Financial Information Disclosures Within The Scope Of Corporate Governance: Evidence From Turkey
Authors: Adiloglu Burcu , Vuran Bengu
Published: February 2016

Even though several years have passed since the large corporate scandals of 2001 and 2002, corporate governance continues to remain an area of concern and focus in the global economy, and especially in the emerging markets. Corporate governance refers to the quality, transparency, and dependability of the relationships between the shareholders, board of directors, management, and employees that define the authority and responsibility of each in delivering sustainable value to all the stakeholders. The importance of the issue has been growing at an international level and the quality of corporate governance practices, which is deemed to be as important as financial performance in investment decisions, has become a subject of more serious consideration. In recent years the issue of corporate governance and their impacts on corporate performance have continued to gain widespread prominence in the capital market economy. Higher compliance with the corporate governance standards means more accountable and transparent companies for investors. In this framework, firstly, the transparency levels of financial information disclosures in corporate governance reports and annual reports are calculated by establishing a transparency checklist for the year 2010. MANOVA analysis is conducted to examine the relationship between the calculated transparency levels and financial ratios. The results reveal that transparency level has statistical differences among the group means of return on asset, total debt / total assets, long-term debt / total assets and corporate governance index variables.
 
Winner versus Loser: Time-Varying Performance And Dynamic Conditional Correlation
Authors: Xiao Zhongyi , Zhao Peng , Rahnama Masha , Zhou Yaling
Published: February 2016

Using multi-factor models in OLS and GARCH-M methodology, this paper provides a cross-sectional and time-series investigation of conditional and unconditional expected returns of real REITs index momentum portfolios against real estate property, large-cap stock small-cap stock, and bond index in USA. The expected returns and dynamic conditional correlations between REITs and those of other financial and tangible assets vary in period 1989-2010. REITs returns exhibit a higher correlation with up move of financial market, but a lower correlation in market downturns. REITs may possibly provide diversification benefits to multi-asset investment portfolio. We find that the performances of momentum returns are different from the NAREIT index, and display asymmetric volatility as well. Additionally, we find evidence that REITs momentum returns are varying between winner and loser by Wald test. The results of regressions also indicate that REITs return exhibits the greater sensitivity to large- and small-cap stock index, and less closely with those of bond and real estate index. The results also suggest that REITs not be viewed as a complete substitute for investment in tangible property of real estate.
 
Using Annual Panel Data To Examine The Monday Effect
Authors: Morey Matthew R. , Rosenberg Menahem
Published: February 2016

The Monday effect is a well-known anomaly in which Monday stocks returns are significantly different from other days. Recent research suggests that small-cap stocks exhibit negative and significant Monday returns, mid-cap stocks show no Monday effect and large-cap stocks have positive and significant Monday returns. In this short paper we re-examine the Monday effect using a somewhat different approach that the rest of the literature. Specifically, we examine the U.S. mean Monday returns for each market capitalization decile and for each year over the period 1966-2007. We then examine the patterns of these annual Monday returns. Using this method, we find that the Monday effect has dissipated for all sizes of stocks so much that, by the middle 1990s, the Monday returns are generally not significant from zero.
 
Equity Style Payoffs And Stock Return Predictability: Evidence From The South African JSE Securities Exchange
Authors: Hodnett Kathleen , Hsieh Heng-Hsing , Van Rensburg Paul
Published: February 2016

This paper undertakes to examine the structure of the payoffs to style attributes on the JSE Securities Exchange over the period from 1997 to 2007. Adopting the methodology of Haugen and Baker (1996), two expected return multifactor models are constructed to predict forward monthly returns of sample stocks using style attributes as model inputs. The Grinold model has an objective of selecting model inputs that will maximize the in-sample Grinold (1989) information ratio while the QH model has an objective of maximizing the in-sample Qian and Hua (2003) information ratio. The out-of-sample predictions of the models and their corresponding model inputs are evaluated over the period from 2002 to 2007. The permutations of the style attributes for the models are updated every 12 months based on training over the prior 60 months under the stepwise variable selection procedure proposed by Van Rensburg and Robertson (2003). The examination of the style attributes selected by the respective models reveal that most of the style attributes that exhibit significant univariate mean payoffs in our prior study are selected by the expected return multifactor models in this research. In addition, the value attributes with the most consistent univariate payoffs are found to be the most important contributors to equity return forecasting. It is also found that models that account for multicollinearity tend to outperform the models that fail to address this issue over the out-of-sample period. Overall, the QH model outperforms the Grinold model in terms of both information ratios over the out-of-sample period. The out-of-sample performance scores of the respective models are consistent with their corresponding in-sample performance scores, which suggest that successful expected return multifactor models, based on style attributes, can be developed to forecast ex-ante JSE equity returns.
 
Mavenness And Salespeople Success: An Empirical Investigation
Authors: Eesley Dale T. , Adidam Phani Tej
Published: February 2016

The sales literature has examined many characteristics of highly successful salespeople but as yet has not evaluated the concept of mavenness in the context of sales. Mavens are persons who have a passionate desire to freely share their expertise and knowledge for the benefit of others. This paper develops a three-factor measure of mavenness that measures levels of expertise, passion and the desire to share knowledge, and tests if higher levels of mavenness are associated with superior salesperson performance. The scale was administered to a sample of 122 salespersons in a large insurance company. Data on salesperson performance as well as other control variables were collected from archival records. Confirmatory factor analysis provided satisfactory support for the scale. Mavenness and the control variables were regressed on salesperson performance. All three factors of mavenness were highly significant. Sales managers can improve the selection and training of their sales force by using the scale to find candidates with high levels of mavenness. Although the concept of mavenness is not new, no attempt to measure this trait has been made previously. Furthermore, this trait has not before been tested to see if high levels of mavenness are associated with superior salesperson performance.
 
Equity Prices, Monetary Policy, And Economic Activities In Emerging Market Economies: The Case Of South Africa
Authors: Bonga-Bonga Lumengo
Published: February 2016

This paper investigates the possible influence equity price shocks have on economic activities and inflation in emerging market economies such as South Africa. Moreover, the paper discusses the role monetary policy action should play in preventing or reducing the disruptive effects of equity market volatility in emerging markets. It uses the structural vector error correction (SVEC) model to identify the different shocks and obtain the impulse response functions in a case study of South Africa. The paper finds that positive shocks to equity prices negatively affect expected inflation in the first two quarters before the effect becomes positive. This finding indicates that initially high stock market valuations raise the expectation of high capital and labour productivity by investors. Later on, the possibility of high stock prices increasing economic activity creates an expectation of high inflation rates in the future. From this finding, the paper concludes that the monetary authority in emerging markets in general and South Africa in particular should include equity prices in its reaction function.
 
Nonlinearities In Stock Return Prediction: Evidence From South Africa
Authors: Hodnett Kathleen , Hsieh Heng-Hsing , Van Rensburg Paul
Published: February 2016

This research investigates the relationship between firm-specific style attributes and the cross-section of equity returns on the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) over the period from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2007. Both linear and nonlinear stock selection models are constructed based on the cross-section of equity returns with firm-specific attributes as model inputs. Both linear and nonlinear models identify book-value-to-price and cash flow-to-price as significant styles attributes that distinguish near-term future share returns on the JSE. The risk-adjusted performance of the nonlinear models is found to be comparable with that of linear models. In terms of artificial neural network modeling, the extended Kalman filter learning rule is found to outperform the traditional backpropagation approach. This finding is consistent with our prior findings on global stock selection.
 
The Impact Of Organizational Objectives On The Selection Of Defensive Marketing Strategies: Empirical Evidence From A Small Open Economy
Authors: El-Sady Hassan Mounir , Nassar Mohamed , Sultanova Vasilya , Mousa Dia
Published: February 2016

Defensive Marketing Strategies (DMSs) do not receive enough attention as offensive or attacking marketing strategies in literature. This gap in the research constitutes a serious weakness in the marketing field. This paper aims to fill this gap in literature by conducting the first study to explore the determinants of the implemented DMSs in Kuwait. Empirically, this study examines the relationship between eight DMSs, demographics, and organizational objectives to define the most prevalent and appropriate DMSs to be deployed in the small open economy of Kuwait. Factor analysis and canonical correlation are used in this study to analyse the obtained data from surveyed board members, CEOs and executive managers of listed companies in the financial sector of Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE). Results reveal a significant relationship between the eight DMSs and the two sets of identified variables in Kuwait context. Cost leadership strategy ranked the most effective defensive marketing strategy by respondents. Also, results show that organizational objectives are mostly affecting the choice of DMSs.
 
Recessions, Budget Deficits, And Austerity: A Comment On The U.S. And European Economies
Authors: Kondonassis Alex J.
Published: February 2016

We have seen that both the U.S. and the European Union have experienced a serious recession in recent years. Some of the results of these economic difficulties include a rise in unemployment and an increase in budget deficits and national debts. This paper discusses the likely outcome of policies instituted by U.S. and European leaders to this economic situation.
 
How Franchisors Describe Their Ideal Entrepreneurial Franchisee
Authors: Boulay Jacques , Stan Valentina
Published: February 2016

This article has two main objectives: first, to identify the various entrepreneurial profiles of the ideal franchisee, as perceived by franchisors, and second, to describe and compare each profile on the basis of system characteristics. Qualitative research of franchisors is coupled with analyses of data collected from 90 franchise systems. This procedure offers strong sequential evidence in that the results of the first method inform the second-stage sampling and instrumentation (Greene et al., 1989). The study reveals three main entrepreneurial profiles of prospective franchisees - system developer, in-store craftsperson, and opportunistic investor. It also establishes that the term of the franchise agreement and the level of system plurality are two factors on which entrepreneurial profiles differ. These results offer strong support for franchisors in their selection strategy of future franchise partners.
 
Social Influence In Computer-Mediated Communication: The Effects On Group Meeting Outcomes
Authors: Bahli Bouchaib
Published: February 2016

Studies of managers and knowledge workers reveal that they spend a significant amount of their time in meetings, suggesting that meetings are an important part of one's working life. Findings in Group Support Systems research suggest that using computer-mediated communication enhances idea production in group meetings. Nevertheless, little attention has been given to how the communication medium, in electronic brainstorming, influences group meeting performance. Using a laboratory experiment, 259 subjects were randomly assigned to 51 groups. Three different treatment conditions were used: no public screen, public screen presented at the end of the meeting session, and public screen provided throughout. The results show that there is a significant performance difference between groups under the three treatment conditions. The findings of this study offer striking evidence that there are social group processes that may account for these performance differences including the self-evaluation potential, social loafing and performance matching effects. Implications of these findings for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.
 
Jump Dynamics And Volatility Components For OECD Stock Returns
Authors: Guesmi Khaled , Akbar Farhan , Kazi Irfan A. , Chkili Walid
Published: February 2016

The paper applies Markov Regime Switching Model (MRSM) to investigate the volatility behaviour of twelve OECD stock markets (U.S.A, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Australia and Japan) for the period 2004-2010. The results highlight two different regimes: the first regime consist of low mean high volatility whereas the second regime is categorized by high mean low volatility. We conclude that the periods of high volatility are generally synchronous to several economic and/or political events in all the developed markets during the period under investigation.
 
Firm Valuation, Market Responses, And Accounting Conservatism
Authors: Petruska Karin A. , Wakil Gulraze
Published: February 2016

This study examines whether the components of accounting conservatism as described in Watts (2003a): contracting, litigation, regulation, and taxation, provide insight on the value relevance of financial information. During the years 1993 through 2009, we explore whether these four factors are value relevant in capturing information in contemporaneous stock returns and prices and whether the trends in value relevance for these drivers vary across time. Specifically, our study aids in helping to reconcile the competing results of Balachandran and Mohanram (2011), who state that there is no compelling evidence that firms with higher levels of accounting conservatism exhibit decreasing levels of value relevance, and Lev and Zarowin (1999), who suggest that accounting conservatism is a factor causing a decline in the usefulness of financial information over time. Our results provide evidence that the level of contracting, litigation, and regulation are associated with returns and prices and their value relevance has not decreased over time, findings which differ from Lev and Zarowin (1999), and support Balachandran and Mohanram (2011), such that the expectation of these drivers are associated with value relevance. In addition, we find less consistent evidence that the taxation explanation of accounting conservatism is associated with value relevance.
 
Intertemporal Relation Between The Expected Return And Risk: An Evaluation Of Emerging Market
Authors: Xiao Zhongyi , Zhao Peng
Published: February 2016

This paper explores the intertemporal relationship between the expected return and risk in Chinese exchange market. We investigate the characterization of time-series variation in conditional variance and capture the cross-sectional correlation among equity portfolios by incorporating multivariate GARCH-M model with dynamic conditional covariance (DCC). Restricting the slope to be the same across risky assets, the risk-return coefficient is estimated to be positive and highly significant. In addition, the estimates of portfolio-specific slopes provide evidence to support the robustness across different portfolio formations. Our findings, in the Intertemporal Capital Asset Pricing Model (ICAPM) framework, reveal that the risk premium induced by the conditional covariation of equity portfolio with the market portfolio remain positive after controlling for risk premia induced by conditional covariation with Fama French benchmark factors (HML and SMB). The SMB factor might provide a significant predictive power to hedge against market risk. However, four indices of alternative investments are not consistently priced in the ICAPM framework.
 
Contractual Governance, Relational Governance: Why Do Firms Continue Drafting Contracts?
Authors: Boulay Jacques
Published: February 2016

Governing relationships effectively is central to marketing channel performance. Relational governance theory singles out two key mechanisms, contracts and norms, and suggests that norms surpass contracts in their ability to minimize opportunistic behaviour. Recent research has disputed that perspective though, by noting the dark side of norms and calling for a renewed perspective on contractual governance.  An analysis of existing empirical research on contractual versus relational governance of marketing channels leads into the proposal of four research directions that can help better understand why firms keep drafting contracts.
 
The Duration Of Relationship Banking And The Performance Of Tunisian Firms: An Empirical Test
Authors: Hakimi Abdelaziz , Hamdi Helmi
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we examine whether there exist a linkage between the duration of a bank enterprise relationship and the performance of Tunisian firms. To this end, we collected data of 100 Tunisian companies for the period 2000-2007. By, applying panel data technique, our results reveal that the cost of credit decrease the performance of Tunisian firms while the duration of bank relationships improves their performance and increase their profitability.
Strategic Incentive Systems For Open Innovation
Authors: Schneckenberg Dirk
Published: February 2016

Our paper presents a cross-sectional study of incentive systems for open innovation practices. Organisations face the challenge to design and implement strategic incentive systems which reward active contributions of individuals to open innovation practices. We refer to contributions from psychology and economics to develop a framework for organisational incentive systems. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 experts in Germany and the Netherlands. The experts work in firms which are both international top players and open innovation pioneers in their respective industries. The results show that all organisations in the sample develop incentives for open innovation. The key strategic function of incentive systems is to open mind-sets of the workforce and to overcome mental barriers of the 'not invented here' syndrome. Immaterial and in particular task content incentives have been judged to have a more efficient long-term impact than material incentives. While experts have emphasised the importance of aligning incentives systems to open innovation strategies, in practice many incentive approaches still remain patchwork and lack a clear strategic focus.
A Dynamic Perspective On Determinants Of Short-Term Debt Financing: Evidence From South African Listed Firms
Authors: Kwenda Farai , Holden Merle
Published: February 2016

This study analyses the determinants of short-term debt financing using the generalised method of moment (GMM) of estimation to attest whether it follows a partial adjustment process. The study analyses data collected for 92 firms listed on the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) for the period 2001 to 2010. The evidence obtained from the study suggests that firms have a target level of short-term debt and follow an adjustment process towards the target level. Spontaneous and internal resources, investment opportunities and the state of the economy play an important role in the use of short-term debt as a short-term financing instrument among the listed companies. The study recommends that managers pay particular attention to the key factors that drive the use of short-term debt because of its importance in financing working capital.
Portfolio Choice And Investments In Renewable Energy: Evidence From U.S. Household Surveys
Authors: Apergis Nicholas
Published: February 2016

Economic theory predicts that investing in renewable energy should generally have a negative effect on risk-taking in financial portfolios, which can affect the optimal design of a wide variety of financial and insurance policies. However, there is no empirical work to confirm a relationship between renewable energy investments and portfolios. Using data for 15,600 U.S. households spanning the period 2001-2012, we find that increases in renewable energy investments also increase investments in risky assets. Therefore, investing in renewable energy has a substantial impact on portfolio choice decisions.
Modeling Long Memory In The Russian Stock Market: Evidence From Major Sectoral Indices
Authors: Saleem Kashif
Published: February 2016

This paper studies the market efficiency of modern Russian stock market. In particular, we look at the long memory in stock market volatility in the Russian financial market. To examine the temporal dependencies in depth we utilize major sectors of the Russian stock market. We take a GARCH modeling approach. Specifically, we estimate a FIGARCH model proposed by Baillie et al. (1996) using daily returns. We find evidence of long memory in all sectors of the Russian equity market, implying that, all the market sectors under investigation are weak form inefficient. Our results show that the volatility has a predictable structure in all the sectors of modern Russian stock market, signifying the need of regulatory and economic reforms within the Russian financial system.
Consumer Complaints And Complaint Forums Employed In The South African Motor Vehicle Service Industry: A Survey Of The Literature
Authors: Koekemoer Michel M.
Published: February 2016

A South African consumer who owns a motor vehicle will need to have it serviced at a motor vehicle service dealership. The level of service experienced by consumers is not always satisfactory, leaving the consumer dissatisfied and wanting to complain about the poor service. The complaint forums available to South African consumers can roughly be divided into two categories, namely those established under South African law (which include the National Consumer Tribunal; the National Consumer Commission; the Motor Industry Ombud of South Africa; a consumer court; an alternative dispute resolution agent; and an ordinary court); and other traditional complaint forums (which include complaint websites and complaints made to the dealer directly). When deciding on the most appropriate complaint forum, consumers must consider the following factors: the cost of and time spent on the complaint process; the complexity of the rules and procedures associated with each complaint forum; the effective functioning of each forum; and the relief that the consumer can expect to receive from the complaint forum. This study found that when measured against these factors, consumers are left with few viable complaint forums. The structure and functioning of the existing complaint forums remains far from perfect. However, inroads have been made to improve the current complaint forums. Further improvements will only be achieved through a concerted effort by all the industry players. Such collaboration between them will ensure that South African consumers in the motor vehicle service industry will be ranked amongst the best protected consumers in the world.
Shock And Volatility Transmissions Between Bank Stock Returns In Romania: Evidence From A VAR-GARCH Approach
Authors: Ulici Maria , Chaibi Anissa , Rault Christophe
Published: February 2016

We develop a VAR-GARCH approach to investigate shock and volatility transmissions between bank stock returns in Romania during the 2007-2009 international financial crisis. Our findings provide evidence of significant shock and volatility transmissions between Romanian bank returns. We also show how our empirical results can be used to build effective diversification and hedging strategies.
Barriers To Effective Supply Chain Management, Implementation, And Impact On Business Performance Of SMEs In South Africa
Authors: Dubihlela Job , Omoruyi Osayuwamen
Published: February 2016

Supply chain management (SCM) is vital for companies to achieve their goals and for information sharing. Operations managers are faced with many barriers in implementing SCM, particularly in developing economies such as South Africa. It is essential for managers of SMEs to know the key barriers and attempt to minimize them and improve competitive strength. This article presents the SCM implementation barriers and suggests significant variations between these barriers as well as their impact on the business performance of SMEs. Researchers and trained fieldworkers gathered the needed data through face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires, obtaining a total of 249 usable questionnaires. The data analysis included frequencies, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in Amos 5, and structural equation modelling (SEM) run LISREL 8.8. The results revealed that the lack of economies of scale, poor organisation structures, and technological challenges are the major limitations to implementing SCM. The findings of this research provide invaluable information to scholars and researchers investigating the barriers of SCM implementation, and to SMEs managers who desire to implement SCM. The findings can assist the development of effective strategic and operational plans as well as to programs and projects designed to enhance SCM within SMEs in South Africa. The research paper concludes by discussing both academic and managerial implications of the results, providing future research directions.
Implementation Of Inflation Targeting And Budget Deficit Performance In Emerging Countries: A Treatment Effect Evaluation
Authors: Kadria Mohamed , Ben Aissa Mohamed Safouane
Published: February 2016

In this paper, we tried to examine whether the implementation of inflation targeting (IT) monetary policy and its discipline character allows reducing the budget deficit in emerging countries. To do this, we used the propensity score matching methodology to evaluate the treatment effect of IT on fiscal discipline, in terms of budget deficit performance, in emerging countries has adopted this monetary policy framework. Our empirical analysis, conducted on a sample of 41 economies (20 IT and 21 non-IT economies) for the period from 1990 to 2010, shows that on average IT adoption has had a considerable and significant effect in reducing the budget deficit. Our results are confirmed by the robustness tests and corroborate the literature of disciplining effects of IT regime on the fiscal discipline.
Gender Role And Culture In Pre-Employment Relocation Decisions
Authors: Chapa Olga , Wang Yong J.
Published: February 2016

Conventional understanding of pre-employment relocation is incomplete due to the disconnection between human resources managers and pre-employment individuals. This study attempts to empirically examine pre-employment relocation preferences of upcoming young professionals. Guided the literature, it states any individual with the same gender or gender role orientations and cultural influences may behave in a similar manner in non-professional occupations. The findings highlight certain timing and situation factors that are salient in determining pre-employment relocation preferences. The findings offer insights into pre-employment relocation for researchers and human resources managers.
Assessing The Relative Performance Of Heavy-Tailed Distributions: Empirical Evidence From The Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Authors: Huang Chun-Sung , Huang Chun-Kai , Chinhamu Knowledge
Published: February 2016

It has been well documented that the empirical distribution of daily logarithmic returns from financial market variables is characterized by excess kurtosis and skewness. In order to capture such properties in financial data, heavy-tailed and asymmetric distributions are required to overcome shortfalls of the widely exhausted classical normality assumption. In the context of financial forecasting and risk management, the accuracy in modeling the underlying returns distribution plays a vital role. For example, risk management tools such as value-at-risk (VaR) are highly dependent on the underlying distributional assumption, with particular focus being placed at the extreme tails. Hence, identifying a distribution that best captures all aspects of the given financial data may provide vast advantages to both investors and risk managers. In this paper, we investigate major financial indices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and fit their associated returns to classes of heavy tailed distributions. The relative adequacy and goodness-of-fit of these distributions are then assessed through the robustness of their respective VaR estimates. Our results indicate that the best model selection is not only variant across the indices, but also across different VaR levels and the dissimilar tails of return series.
Does The Market React Differently To Chaebol Firms?
Authors: Park Heejin , Kim Jinsoo , Ha Mihye , Park Sambock
Published: February 2016

Based on a sample of Korean firms listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ from 2001 to 2011, we examined whether the affiliation of a firm with a Chaebol group affects the sensitivity of stock prices to earnings surprises. We found that the market response to positive (negative) earnings surprises is more positive (negative) for Chaebol firms than for non-Chaebol firms. In addition, we investigated how intra-group transactions affect the ERCs of Chaebol firms by comparing with those of non-Chaebol firms. Our results show that the intra-group transactions of Chaebol firms are positively related to ERCs under both positive and negative earnings surprises. However, we did not find the same results from the analyses of non-Chaebol firms.
Home Equity Insurance & The Demise Of Home Value Insurance Corporation
Authors: Smith Zachary A. , Harper Alan
Published: February 2016

This study uses the demise of the Home Value Insurance Company (HVIC) to explore whether the concept of home equity insurance is implementable. Shiller, R. and Weiss, A. (1999) and Goetzmann, W., Caplin, A., Hangen, E., Nalebuff, B., Prentce, E., Rodkin, J., Spiegel, M. and Skinner, T. (2003) have provided a platform to evaluate this concept by questioning whether a product that allows homeowners to transfer the risk associated with a decline in housing prices should be structured as insurance. This study explores the cost associated, in the U.S. Real Estate Market, with this risk transfer process in the pre and post mortgage crisis periods by simulating the cost of insurance using the theoretical pricing of ATM (at the money) put options based upon the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model from 1989 to 2013. As the U.S. Housing Market transitioned from the pre-crisis to the post-crisis periods the hypothetical breakeven cost of insurance increased from 0.60% to 20.85% of the starting value of the index. The demise of HVIC seems to be a cautionary tale: Given the recent changes in the underlying dynamics of the U.S. Real Estate Market it does not seem prudent (for insurers) to use insurance contracts to transfer the risk associated with a decline in the value of U.S. Residential Equity Wealth.
Does GMVP Strategy Reduce Risk? A Global Asset Approach
Authors: Zibri Arben , Kukeli Agim
Published: February 2016

This paper studies the out of sample risk reduction of global minimum variance portfolio. The analysis are drown from the discussions of Jagannathan and Ma (2003) regarding the risk reduction in US stock portfolios using portfolio constraints. We estimate the covariance matrix using the sample covariance matrix approach and derive optimal minimum variance portfolios considering upper/lower bounds and no restrictions. Results are shown under different revision frequency and transaction costs assumed. The data used are monthly indices of stocks, bonds, gold oil and spreads from 1996 until 2013. Unconstrained GMVPs result in the lowest out of sample variance, while unconstrained GMVPs of global bond portfolios performs the best in terms of risk reduction. Diversification through global asset classes result in a better strategy than international stock diversification regarding risk, as suggested by the literature.
Long-Tail Distributions And Total Returns On Risk-Based Investment Products
Authors: DePrince, Jr. Albert E. , DePrince III A. Eugene
Published: February 2016

Use of target date funds (TDFs) in retirement plans increased in popularity following the 2007-2008 financial crisis. However, some argued that TDFs do not provide an acceptable level of protection against market downturns and long-tail events. This study assesses the ability of TDFs to deal with long-tail events. It builds a system of equations for seven asset classes that are used to build four hypothetical TDFs, and compares simulated total returns for four hypothetical TDFs over a 50-year horizon, where the stochastic terms for each of the underlying asset classes is based on the normal distribution and a long-tail distributions (the Laplace distribution). Simulations are repeated 2000 times. Total returns for four TDFs are calculated over non-overlapping 1-, 2- 3-, and 5-year horizons over the 50-year span for the 2000 simulations. Results show that about half the time the risk measure for the long-tail distribution are wider than the normal, and about half the time the opposite holds. It seems that the processes of asset diversification along with calculating returns over horizons of at least one year mitigates effects of long-tail characteristics. Even so, results do not bode well for those nearing retirement. Negative returns over 1- and 2-year investment horizons are possible 17% of the time for a conservative allocation over a 50-year period.
Value-Growth Spread: Evidence From The Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Authors: Hodnett Kathleen
Published: February 2016

This study attempts to establish the cyclical nature of the value-growth spread on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) over the period from 1 January 1997 through 31 December 2013, and subsequently undertakes to determine if the recent value-growth spread could be useful to forecast the near-term market risk premium. The three value-growth benchmarks used to classify value and growth stocks include earnings/price ratio (E/P), book/price ratio (B/P) and sales/price ratio (S/P). The ratio between the median S/P ratio for the value portfolio versus the growth portfolio is found to be the highest and most volatile over the examination period, which suggests that the relative valuation of value and growth stocks based on S/P could be cyclical and reflective of the market sentiments and degrees of risk aversion. The prediction of forward market risk premium using the trailing average of S/P value-growth spread achieved the highest R-squared of 26.79%. In addition, predicting forward market risk premium using the other two value-growth spreads is also statistically significant. Examining the coefficients of the regressions reveals that although a significant portion of the forward market risk premium is left unexplained, there exists a significantly positive correlation between recent value-growth spreads and near-term market risk premiums on the JSE. This implies that higher future reward could be expected for equity investments when the value risk premium is higher than its historical average, and vice versa.
On The Impact Of Firm Size On Risk And Return: Fresh Evidence From The American Stock Market Over The Recent Years
Authors: Chaibi Anissa , Alioui Sabrina , Xiao Bing
Published: February 2016

According to the size effect, small cap securities generally generate greater returns than those of large cap securities. Recent studies have however suggested that for certain periods, size cannot be considered as a relevant explanatory variable, and therefore as an anomaly. Our study, based on the American stock market, confirms that there is indeed a size effect applicable to the values of the Russell 3000 index. However, when considering the American market as a whole, the size effect is reversed.
Duration Dependence And Mean Reversion : An Attempt Of Identification In Tunisian Stock Market
Authors: Bejaoui Azza , Karaa Adel , Mahat Emna
Published: February 2016

This study investigates the duration dependence of Tunisian stock market over the period from January 07, 1998 to March 29, 2013; using two-state Duration Markov-switching model. Through this model, duration dependence is emphasized in the conditional mean return, volatility, risk-return trade-off and transition probabilities. We demonstrate that TUNINDEX index weekly returns can be sorted into bull and bear market states. Our results are consistent with mean reversion process; i.e. mean reversion is the tendency of asset prices to return to a trend path. Finally, we conclude that Tunisian stock market fluctuations can be characterized by the presence of the countercyclical return volatility due to the asymmetric movements of the risk premia.
Impact Of E-Atmospheric Elements On The Perceived Value Of The Online Visit
Authors: Charfi Ahmed Anis , Lombardot Eric
Published: February 2016

Websites managers want the consumption experience to be central in the online visit. This study analyzes the effects of experiential components of a website on the online experience. Through experimentation, we handle three elements of the merchant environment (virtual agent, 3D environment and control command). A survey of 272 users shows that the tools manipulated generate perceived value. Furthermore, we test the effect of hedonic and utilitarian value of the visit on the online behavior, highlighting its significant effect. Finally, from a theoretical and a managerial point of view, we elaborate on the necessary conditions for improving the visitor experience and for creating customer values.
Determinants Of Enforcement Action By The Financial Supervisory Service Of Korea From The Perspective Of Audit Firms
Authors: Kang Min-Jung , Lee Ho-Young , Woo Yong-Sang
Published: February 2016

In this study, we examine the determinants of enforcement action by the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea from the perspective of audit firms. Enforcement action is an indication of audit failure. Both client- and audit firm-specific factors are involved in its occurrence. Most published studies of enforcement after audit failure focus on client characteristics because details about audit firms from financial statements and information about organizational structure are not publicly available. However, examining the issues surrounding enforcement from the perspective of audit firms may also be valuable in elucidating the potential determinants of audit failure resulting in enforcement action. Utilizing publicly available data from audit firms in South Korea, we identify several audit firm characteristics as determinants of enforcement action. The results of our empirical analysis reveal that the likelihood of audit failure is positively associated with the ratio of accounts receivable to total assets, the ratio of audit fees to total revenue, the ratio of partners to the total number of CPAs, CEO ownership, and age of audit firms. In addition, the likelihood of audit failure is negatively associated with ownership concentration and profitability. These associations are more pronounced in non-affiliated audit firms than affiliated audit firms. Several useful implications for regulators are described for improving audit quality by means of enforcement action.