This article briefs about a new theory which could provide investors with an extra edge from investments that prove to be profitable and perhaps take the edge off some of the losing ones. Case law and literature indicate that the strategy is legally sound if the investors who adopt it...
Innovations in technology and service design have increasingly enabled firms to incorporate self-service technology to augment or substitute for "Traditional" employee-provided service channels. Although it is clear that self-service can reduce cost, less is known about how customers utilize self-service channels in a multi-channel service delivery system and the resulting...
According to Hanover Research's paper on Purchasing Practices in Higher Education, institutions are continually seeking ways to better manage purchasing and incorporate more efficient, cost-effective purchasing systems in order to save on both purchases and back-end support costs. Many institutions have found that a standardized, controlled purchasing system based on...
We consider a bargaining game among the claimants of a bankrupt firm in which claimants have private information about various operational restructuring alternatives, and can communicate prior to an offer. The setup differs from typical bargaining games with incomplete information in two ways. First, the proposals can be made using...
When a firm files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S., negotiations take place among its claimants to decide what to do with the firm and who gets what. If an agreement cannot be reached, then the firm is likely to be liquidated. Consequently, the liquidation value of the firm...
This paper explores options for programs to be put in place prior to a disaster to avoid large and often poorly-managed expenditures following a catastrophe and to provide appropriate protection against the risk of those large losses which do occur. The lack of interest in insurance protection and mitigation by...
Understanding the value of a product development project is central to a firm's choice of project portfolio. This is due to interactions with other projects in the portfolio that address the same consumer need and with other projects that require the same development resources. This paper empirically investigates the structure...
In this paper, we explore the fit between a firm's product market strategy, and its business model. We develop a formal model in order to analyze and develop theoretical hypotheses on the contingent effects of product market strategy and business model choices on firm performance. By investigating a unique, manually...
The authors have developed a theory of firm boundaries that considers: The asset specificity of the resources that enable an activity; Their firm specificity; and the firm's endowment with these resources. The theoretical framework, which synthesizes and bridges transaction-cost and resource-based perspectives, leads to new predictions about activities that should...
This paper documents the role of geographic dispersion on corporate decision-making. First, it is found that geographically dispersed firms are less employee-friendly. Second, using division-level data, employee dismissals are less common in divisions located close to corporate headquarters. Third, firms are reluctant to divest in-state divisions. To explain these findings...
Cell phones that do email, take photos and surf the web. Cars with options ranging from satellite radio to rain-sensing wiper blades. Wireless fabric keyboards that roll up and stow in the pocket. Not a day goes by without a new product roll-out - or the unveiling of a spruced-up,...
Most workers in defined contribution retirement plans are inattentive portfolio managers: only a few engage in any trading at all, and only a tiny minority trades actively. Using a rich new dataset on 1.2 million workers in over 1,500 plans, the authors find that most 401k plan participants are characterized...
Historically, much of the banking regulation that was put in place was designed to reduce systemic risk. In many countries capital regulation in the form of the Basel agreements is currently one of the most important measures to reduce systemic risk. In last few years there has been considerable growth...
This paper examines the role that insurance coupled with mitigation can play in reducing losses from future natural disasters while at the same time providing funds for recovery. After examining the decision processes of three interested parties who will be at the centerpiece of such a program, residents in hazard-prone...
The large-scale attacks of September 11, 2001, which inflicted $33 billion of insured losses and induced $7 billion in federal payments to civilian and first responder victims' families, have tragically raised a fundamental question about the responsibilities of the public and private sectors in reducing terrorism risk and in providing...
While there have been and will be much-needed investigations about specific failures in preparation and responses at local, state and national levels, the disaster raises a set of much deeper questions about how one addresses risk in the society. Could the current policies and infrastructure be as vulnerable in the...
In this paper the authors are interested in investigating the association between inventory management policies and the financial performance of a firm. Consulting companies provide some limited evidence that firms that excel in supply chain management/lean techniques also enjoy above-average financial returns. Although several prominent companies have created business value...
Some have argued that recent increases in credit risk transfer are desirable because they improve the diversification of risk. Others have suggested that they may be undesirable if they increase the risk of financial crises. Using a model with banking and insurance sectors, this paper shows that credit risk transfer...
This paper explores why plan sponsors design their 401k plans the way they do. Employing a unique, rich dataset of over five hundred 401k plans, the authors' find that these plans are principally a form of tax-motivated compensation under the restriction of federal non-discrimination rules. In other words, to appeal...
Companies may choose to outsource parts, but not all, of their call-center operations. In some cases, they classify customers as high or low-value, serving the former with their "in house" operations and routing the latter to an outsourcer. Typically, they impose service-level constraints on the time each type of customer...
