Business Commons^™

Do We Really Need Funeral Insurance?, Sandra L. Van Der Laan, Lee C. Moerman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

TV advertisements for funeral insurance often warn of the huge financial impost created for families when you die. They argue the only way to protect your loved ones is to take out insurance. However, what these ads don't tell you is that funeral insurance is a financial product and not really any different from life insurance, except the cover is usually for a much lower amount.

Taking Bitcoin To The Stockmarket Won’T Do Much For Its Risky Image, Adrian Lee, Andrew B. Ainsworth, Kihoon Hong

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Since its inception in 2008 digital currency Bitcoin has attracted critics who argue it’s inherently risky. The latest push to create an exchange traded fund (ETF) in order to make trading it easier, suggests attitudes to it haven’t changed. But some risks associated with a Bitcoin ETF is just like any other asset that becomes tied to investors and the stockmarket. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has already rejected an application to create an ETF for Bitcoin. But there are two other proposals - (SolidX & Grayscale) still before the commission. Bitcoin is intended to act like currency …

Secondary Analysis Of Two Environmental Practice Studies. Do Empirical Variables Represent Expressed Theoretical Constructs?, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Many research questions in studies on environmental practices have used variables with little regard as to whether they represent theoretical constructs. This validation is fundamental to testing and interpreting theories using variables. This study examines whether environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and economic performance are different constructs. It uses canonical correlation analysis technique, and reviews two published studies as case presentations. Analyzing the study by Al-Tuwaijri et al., the environmental disclosure variable is found to represent the disclosure construct, while the environmental performance and economic performance variables are found to represent two dimensions of the performance construct. In the Hasseldine et …

Local Determinants Of Crime: Do Military Bases Matter?, Alfredo R. Paloyo, Colin Vance, Matthias Vorell

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Background: The majority of crime is committed by young men, and young men comprise the majority of the military-base population. The confluence of these two empirical regularities invites a scientific look at the contribution of a military base to criminal activity in ist geographic periphery.

Objective: We estimate the impact on criminal activity of the massive base realignments and closures that occurred in Germany for the period 2003-2007. In particular, we examine breaking and entering, automobile-related crime, violent crime, and drug-related crime.

Methods: We use a fixed-effect model to account for time-invariant unobservables in a panel of …

Do Guns Displace Books? The Impact Of Compulsory Military Service On Educational Attainment, Thomas K. Bauer, Stefan Bender, Alfredo R. Paloyo, Christoph M. Schmidt

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

To estimate the causal effect of conscription on the probability to obtain a university degree, we use a regression-discontinuity design associated with the introduction of conscription in Germany. There is evidence that conscription increased the likelihood of completing higher education.

Do Low-Skilled Migrants Contribute More To Home Country Income? Evidence From South Asia, Arusha V. Cooray

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A recursive system is employed to investigate the indirect effect of out-migration on gross domestic product (GDP) through remittances in South Asia, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Out-migration is further disaggregated by skill level and country of destination (Middle East and other), and their effects on GDP through remittances are examined. The results suggest that migration and remittances have an important significant effect on the GDP of the countries under study. Of the skill categories, the unskilled category has the largest robust indirect effect on GDP. The effects of migration on GDP by country of destination suggest …

Do Smart Phones Bring Us Closer? A Family Life And Vacation Perspective, Heather Kennedy-Eden

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Relationships developed in families are crucial because these bonds play an integral part in learning how to function and interact in society. In the past, these bonds were strengthened by spending leisure time together as a family but now smart phone technology provides opportunities for individual entertainment, connecting on social media, and spending time physically together while being emotionally separated. This research looks at this issue from a systems theory perspective, conceptualizing families as open, self-regulating social systems with the smart phone being a technical system within the family system. The smart phone acts as a conduit between immediate family …

Do Venture Capitalists Play A Monitoring Role In An Emerging Market? Evidence From The Pay-Performance Relationship Of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms, Jerry Cao, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates venture capitalists' monitoring of managerial behaviour by examining their impact on CEO pay-performance sensitivity across various controlling structures in Chinese firms. We find that the effectiveness of venture capitalists' monitoring depends on different types of agency conflict. In particular, we find that venture capital (VC) monitoring is hampered in firms that experience severe controlling-minority agency problems caused by disproportionate ownership structures. We provide further evidence that VC is more likely to exert close monitoring in firms that have greater managerial agency conflict, and thus require more direct monitoring. However, controlling-minority agency problems have a greater impact on …

Do Countries Belonging To The Same Region Suggest The Same Growth Enhancing Variables? Evidence From Selected South Asian Countries, Arusha Cooray, Antonio Paradiso, Francesco Giovanni Truglia

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We investigate the growth enhancing variables in a group of countries belonging to the same geographical area namely, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh over the period 1960-2010. We find that this "homogeneity" does not necessarily imply that countries have the same growth enhancing variables due mainly to differences in institutions and policies. Our result suggests that time-series econometrics are preferable to identify the growth drivers for a country accurately.

Do Satisfied Tourists Really Intend To Come Back? Three Concerns With Empirical Studies Of The Link Between Satisfaction And Behavioral Intention, Sara Dolnicar, Tim Coltman, Rajeev Sharma

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Explaining human behavior is a primary concern for tourism research and a substantial body of research concludes that highly satisfied tourists are more likely to return to a particular destination. In this article, we provide an analysis of this body of work, arriving at three concerns relating to the strength of association between satisfaction and behavioral intention: (1) the link between constructs is complex, resulting in the frequent omission of causal factors; (2) inconsistency with construct operationalization impedes cumulative knowledge development; and (3) explainable variance is impeded by between-study heterogeneity. We illustrate these problems by analyzing empirical guest survey data …

Why Do Patients Having Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts Have Different Costs Or Length Of Stay? An Analysis Across 10 European Countries, James Gaughan, Conrad Kobel, Caroline Linhart, Anne Mason, Andrew Street, Padraic Ward

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We analyse variations in cost or length of stay (LoS) for 66 587 patients from 10 European countries receiving a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedure. In five of these countries, variations in cost are analysed using log-linear models. In the other five countries, negative binomial regression models are used to explore variations in LoS. We compare how well each country's diagnosis-related group (DRG) system and a set of patient-level characteristics explain these variations. The most important explanatory factors are the total number of diagnoses and procedures, although no clear effects are evident for our CABG-specific diagnostic and procedural variables. …

Reforming The Power Sector In Transition: Do Institutions Matter?, Rabindra Nepal, Tooraj Jamasb

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper aims to investigate the often poorly explored link between power sector reforms and wider institutional reforms in the economy across different groups of transition countries. We use panel-data econometrics based on bias corrected dynamic fixed effect analysis (LSDVC) to assess the impact of reforms on macroeconomic and power sector outcomes. The results indicate that power sector reform is highly inter-dependent with wider reforms in other sectors of the economy. The findings indicate that failure to harmonize inter-sector reforms leads to power sector reform measures being ineffective. We conclude that the success of power sector reforms in developing countries …