This paper examines the direction and extent of the asymmetric volatility connectedness among international equity markets using 5-minute interval data from 16 stock markets. We analyze asymmetric volatility connectedness using realized volatility and identify the magnitude of the volatility spillover and of the connectedness through networks. We decompose realized volatility into good and bad, and volatility spillover is time-varying and asymmetric. Bad volatility dominates good volatility in international stock markets. Macroeconomic shocks (negative interest rates in Japan, economic stress in China, a recession in Russia, and double-digit inflation in Brazil) increased volatility asymmetry. Asian markets are responsible for stronger negative spillover, thereby necessitating regulations to reduce the strong negative volatility connectedness with Asian markets. © 2020 The Authors

In international business (IB), the level of equity ownership adopted by a firm is an important decision. In this study, we review and synthesize the findings of 105 empirical studies published in prominent IB and management journals on the determinants of equity ownership stake in foreign investment decisions, published between 1991 and 2020. Three primary theoretical lenses ? organizational learning perspective, transaction cost economics and institutional perspective – are adopted to catalogue and synthesize the existing literature. We find that, despite the proliferation of IB studies on antecedents of level of equity ownership decisions, many unanswered questions remain. We also find that theoretical fault lines impede progress in this research stream. Based on the literature review, we suggest a research programme that includes accounting for the behavioural view of decision-making in the organization, shifting from an atomistic perspective to a network perspective of the firm, having a better understanding of the process of internationalization and considering industry heterogeneity as well as the host country's characteristics. © 2021 British Academy of Management and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

This empirical study leverages the theoretical underpinnings of regulatory focus theory, an influential theory of self-regulation, to investigate the impact of CEOs' dispositional prevention focus on firms' deal structuring choices in mergers and acquisitions. We build on the argument that the dispositional prevention focus of individuals is associated with a higher perception of risk and a preference for non-losses. Accordingly, this study suggests a positive relationship between the intensity of an acquiring firm CEO's dispositional prevention focus and the firm's propensity to use earnouts as a post-closing risk-mitigating instrument in the deal consideration structure. Furthermore, this study accounts for the important role of contextual cues in priming dispositional prevention focus through the concepts of regulatory fit and misfit and examines the moderating impact of M&A deals involving foreign targets and the acquiring firm's acquisition experience on the baseline relationship. We test our predictions on a dataset comprising 217 deals from 2006 to 2011 in the United Kingdom. Building on the micro-foundations of strategy, these findings contribute to the literature on deal structuring choices in mergers and acquisitions. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

This study has been carried out in the pursuit of exploring key human resource management (HRM) practices and work-life balance in the Indian hospitality industry in relation to its impact on frontline employee's turnover intention. A total of 271 responses were collected from frontline employees through questionnaire. Using partial least square (PLS) path modelling the hypotheses were tested. Results indicated that better perception of HRM practices has negative influence on frontline employee intention to quit. Work-life balance acts as a significant moderator in the relationship between certain HRM practices namely training, career growth opportunity and compensation and turnover intention. © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Purpose: The present study is an attempt to extend previous findings and examine the role of the trainer's reputation, training nomination and training reputation on pre-training motivation and training effectiveness in a business context. Design/methodology/approach: The authors hypothesized that trainer reputation, training nomination and training reputation would affect pre-training motivation; and that pre-training motivation would act as a mediator between these three variables and training effectiveness. The sample is constituted by 251 managerial-level employees at a large firm in India who completed pre-training and post-training surveys. These data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling and other inferential techniques. Findings: The results suggested that self-nomination positively influences pre-training motivation. Similarly, positive training and trainer reputations also affect pre-training motivation. Pre-training motivation mediates the relationship between trainer reputation, training nomination, training reputation and training effectiveness. Research limitations/implications: The method bias and measurement error cannot be ruled out. The data were collected from employees in a single firm via self-reports, and, ceteris paribus, it would be advantageous to broaden the sampling frame to cover multiple organizations with data collected using more than one methodology. However, the temporal lag of 45 days used herein between collecting predictor data and criterion data can reasonably be expected to have mitigated this problem to some extent. Practical implications: The findings regarding the reputation suggest that what trainees know or what they believe they know about the trainer or the training program they are going to attend will have a significant impact on their pre-training motivation, and subsequently on the training effectiveness. It is also essential to understand how trainees get information about training. Most often, this information travels through various informal channels and passes through many people, and thus trainees may get inadequate or incorrect information about the training program and the trainer. Originality/value: Previous research indicates that only a small proportion of training actually gets transferred to the job (Mackay, 2007). This study augments the literature by putting forward empirical evidence that could be leveraged by firms' senior management teams pursuant of optimizing investments in the training of employees. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

We use a comprehensive data set covering almost all Indian coal-fired power plants over the period 2005–14 to evaluate the technical efficiency of power plants using the Slacks-Based Measure model. We find that average technical efficiency falls from 0.847 in 2005 to 0.742 in 2014, indicating substantial scope for efficiency improvement. This trend is driven primarily by declining energy efficiency rather than declining managerial (non-energy) efficiency. We use Simar and Wilson's bootstrapped truncated regression approach to analyze the determinants of technical efficiency. We find an inverted-U shaped relationship exists between efficiency and plant age, with maximum efficiency levels observed between 22 and 23 years of age. Privately owned plants operate at higher efficiency levels than their State-owned counterparts. Large plants are more efficient than small and medium size plants. Coal quality has no significant influence on efficiency as usage of higher calorific value coal is not accompanied by a concomitant reduction in coal use. Foreign equipped plants operate at higher efficiency levels than Indian equipped plants. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

Post-Great Recession many advanced nations have experienced an unprecedented rise in debt-to-GDP ratios. Among other factors, increasing age-related spending can add to fiscal stress with a high peacetime debt-GDP ratio. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the factors that can affect the debt dynamics. Previous literature highlights the components affecting the debt-GDP ratio as nominal interest rate, inflation, growth rate, and primary deficit/surplus. However, the contribution of these financing components was calculated without any reference to policy regimes. This paper calculates the financing components and their distribution under two regimes: “active” fiscal and “passive” monetary policy (“F”) and “active” monetary and “passive” fiscal policy (“M”) using US data between 1942 and 2017. The results show that inflation, growth rate, and primary deficit have played essential roles in affecting the debt-GDP dynamics under regime F. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Purpose: Consumers subscribe to different mindsets or implicit theories of personality malleability, namely, fixed and growth mindsets. This study aims to investigate how and why consumers’ mindsets can influence their word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions toward a brand and the consequent implications for a brand’s personality. Design/methodology/approach: Three mall-intercept studies and one online study demonstrate the influence of consumers’ fixed and growth mindsets on their WOM intentions. The first two mall-intercept studies identify motivations underlying consumers’ WOM intentions as a function of their mindset orientations. The third mall-intercept study examines the implications of such mindset-oriented WOM intentions for a brand’s personality dimension and the underlying psychological mechanism. The fourth study tests the link between WOM intent and behavior. Findings: Results show that fixed (growth) mindset individuals exhibit greater WOM intentions than growth (fixed) mindset individuals for motives of “impression management” (“learning and information acquisition”). Findings further demonstrate that brands that exhibit dual personality dimensions simultaneously, one salient and the other non-salient at any instant, garner equivalent WOM intentions from both fixed and growth mindset individuals, contingent on the fit between the salient brand personality dimension and the dominant consumer mindset. Finally, using a real brand, it can be seen that WOM intentions actually translate into behavior. Research limitations/implications: The study measures offline WOM intent but not offline WOM behavior. Practical implications: This study sheds new light on branding strategy by demonstrating how and why dual-brand personalities may attract consumers with both kinds of implicit self-theory orientations. Relatedly, it also demonstrates a technique of framing ad-appeals that support the dual-brand personality effect. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to propose and demonstrate the use of simultaneous dual-brand personalities as an optimal branding strategy. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This study estimates that stock market entry costs of around 31–35% of income can explain the observed level of non-participation in developing countries. Employing a two-generation, multi-period model with income risk, borrowing constraints and flexible human capital investment options in the offspring, the study numerically computes the possible improvements in consumption and human capital if households participate in the financial markets. The study extends the portfolio choice literature by endogenizing human capital investments and compares the optimal portfolio choice graph of a parent with that of a single worker. Results show that a parent's portfolio should contain more bonds when educational investments are inflexible and more stocks when they are flexible. Lower asset levels of a parent also tend to increase stock holding percentage. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.

The present outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected 28,584,158 people world-wide as of 13th September 2020 (WHO, 2020b). This crisis has created an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. Due to the unavailability of the evidence based medical treatment, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are the best options at the present moment. Lockdown was one of such measures to control the spread of the Covid-19 disease. Due to lockdown measures, many countries across the globe followed the complete closure of shopping malls, transport networks, schools, universities, etc. This study aims to investigate the behavioural psychological changes among university students due to covid-19 crises and lockdown. Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model has been adopted to develop a theoretical foundation for the research. Qualitative research methodology including a combination of personal interviews and focus groups has been adopted in the study to develop the themes with the help of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, Atlas.ti 7. It has been found that students are suffering from academic anxiety, fear, Mysophobia, etc. As far as behavioural responses are concerned following behavioural changes have been found; Panic buying, e-learning, community support, support for prime-minister, etc. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

This study examines the direction and extent of asymmetric volatility connectedness between the oil and commodity markets, using five-minute interval data from the oil, natural gas, and 21 commodity futures markets. We also analyze the positive and negative volatility connectedness through network diagrams to determine the magnitude and strength of the volatility spillover. We suggest optimal portfolios for several oil-commodity pairs minimizing value-at-risk and conditional value-at-risk with higher hedge effectiveness. The results are of significant interest to investors and policymakers. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

Biofuels share a meagre fraction in the total fuel consumption, and their usage is speculated to upsurge steadily in the years to come. One of the key drivers for the development of biofuel production industries and simultaneous dilution of biofuels in the energy market is the country's policy. Hence, this critical review focuses on the evolution of biofuel policies in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations and successful implementation of the policies by the respective countries. In detail, this paper provides legal framework and policies prompted the expansion of biofuel research and industries across the BRICS nations. It extensively presents key laws, blending targets, current regulation, national action plan, government support mechanism (subsidies), output targets, and major hurdles and scope in biofuel policies of BRICS nations for efficient penetration of biofuel to the energy market. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

The current work explores the attributes that serve as motivation regulations for students' selection of a higher education institute (HEI). Design/methodology/approach: With a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective, the current study used a mixed-method approach to develop a scale to measure HEI attribute-based motivation regulations. Findings: A total of eight regulations were proposed: academic/extracurricular activities, infrastructure, faculty research expertise, teaching and learning quality, placement opportunities, marketing and promotion, education cost and social influence. The first four were autonomous motivations and the remaining were controlled motivations. Research limitations/implications: The study leverages the SDT motivation continuum into a structured HEI attribute-based student motivation framework. Practical implications: The study guides HEI managers with specific attributes to position the institute appropriately. Originality/value: This is one of the few works in the higher education utilizing the complete SDT framework. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Contract renewal is critical to maintaining a company’s recurring revenue source. Therefore, there is a significant emphasis on setting up an efficient process for renewal. In this study, a machine learning technique was followed to improve contract renewal rates. In addition to this, key factors affecting renewal rates were also studied in detail. The solution presented in this study used an unsupervised machine learning technique to segment high-risk resellers with relatively lower probability of renewal, which was further actioned upon by a proactive contact strategy soliciting a contract renewal. This solution was tested and monitored for a period of three quarters. It resulted in an incremental improvement in the renewal rate for the company. As part of the implementation, a user interface application was also developed, which enabled the sales specialist to list and contact high-risk (or underperformer) resellers quarter-on-quarter. © Operational Research Society 2020.

In this article we consider the analysis of progressively censored competing risks data obtained from a simple step-stress experiment. It is assumed that there are only two competing causes of failures at each stress level and the lifetime distribution of each one of them is one parameter exponential distribution. Based on the cumulative exposure model assumption, the conditional maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the unknown parameters can be obtained in explicit forms. Confidence intervals of the unknown parameters based on the exact distributions of the conditional MLEs and percentile bootstrap method, are constructed. Further we obtain Bayes estimates and the associated credible intervals based on a very flexible Beta-gamma prior on the unknown parameters. A simulation experiment has been performed to observe the performances of the different estimators. © 2020 Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research

The present study aims to identify and investigate the antecedents of enhanced level of cyber-security at the organisational level from both the technical and the human resource perspective using human–organisation–technology (HOT) theory. Design/methodology/approach: The study has been conducted on 151 professionals who have expertise in dealing with cyber-security in organisations in sectors such as retail, education, healthcare, etc. in India. The analysis of the data is carried out using partial least squares based structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM). Findings: The results from the study suggest that “legal consequences” and “technical measures” adopted for securing cyber-security in organisations are the most important antecedents for enhanced cyber-security levels in the organisations. The other significant antecedents for enhanced cyber-security in organisations include “role of senior management” and “proactive information security”. Research limitations/implications: This empirical study has significant implications for organisations as they can take pre-emptive measures by focussing on important antecedents and work towards enhancing the level of cyber-security. Originality/value: The originality of this research is combining both technical and human resource perspective in identifying the determinants of enhanced level of cyber-security in the organisations. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Extant research is vertically divided on the question whether exploration and exploitation constitute two ends of a continuum or whether they are orthogonal activities. We suggest that both characterizations are admissible, albeit under different sets of assumptions. Using March’s iconic model, we demonstrate that the continuum conception concerns leveraging an organization’s internal knowledge heterogeneity where managers use their prior knowledge and experiences to formulate actions to attain the maximum possible extent of organizational knowledge at equilibrium. In contrast, the orthogonal conception mainly concerns assimilating heterogeneous knowledge from sources outside the organization through risky experimentation, leading to order-creation in systems operating in far-from-equilibrium conditions. We further demonstrate that the change in outcome obtained by switching from low to high rate of exploitation is larger—and therefore easier to detect—for the continuum conception. We speculate that many managers and researchers favor conceptualizing exploration–exploitation in the continuum sense, for this reason. Moreover, companies obtain far higher organizational knowledge by functioning in the orthogonal mode, than what is attainable by functioning in the continuum mode. Organizations should, therefore, strive to create conditions that foster cultivation of outside knowledge through autonomous actions of employees. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

We study the problem of assigning doctors to existing, non-operational Primary Health Centers (PHCs). We do this in the presence of clear guidelines on the maximum population that can be served by any PHC, and uncertainties in the availability of the doctors over the planning horizon. We model the problem as a robust capacitated multi-period maximal covering location problem with server uncertainty. Such supply-side uncertainties have not been accounted for in the context of multi-period facility location in the extant literature. We present an MIP formulation of this problem, which turns out to be too difficult for an off-the-shelf solver like CPLEX. We, therefore, present several dominance rules to reduce the size of the model. We further propose a Benders decomposition based solution method with several refinements that exploit the underlying structure of the problem to solve it extremely efficiently. Our computational experiments show one of the variants of our Benders decomposition based method to be on average almost 1000 times faster, compared to the CPLEX MIP solver, for problem instances containing 300 demand nodes and 10 facilities. Further, while the CPLEX MIP solver could not solve most of the instances beyond 300 demand nodes and 10 facilities even after 20 hours, two of our variants of Benders decomposition could solve instances upto the size of 500 demand nodes and 15 facilities in less than 0.5 hour, on average. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

A major impact of globalization has been the information flow across the financial markets rendering them vulnerable to financial contagion. Research has focused on network analysis techniques to understand the extent and nature of such information flow. It is now an established fact that a stock market crash in one country can have a serious impact on other markets across the globe. It follows that such crashes or critical regimes will affect the network dynamics of the global financial markets. In this paper, we use sequential change-point detection in dynamic networks to detect changes in the network characteristics of 13 stock markets across the globe. Our method helps us to detect changes in network behaviour across all known stock market crashes during the period of study. In most of the cases, we can detect a change in the network characteristics prior to crash. Our work thus opens the possibility of using this technique to create a warning bell for critical regimes in financial markets. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Channel intermediaries (hereafter, intermediaries) are among the most critical elements of any supply chain as the bulk of manufacturing output is transported through them. However, we have a limited understanding of the approach a manufacturer should take to achieve the dual goal of increasing profitability and intermediary satisfaction. To provide manufacturers with practical strategies to boost their performance and their intermediaries’ satisfaction, we rely on three related studies. In Study 1, through interviews with managers and intermediaries, we find that distribution alignment across intermediary, market, and product types may be a practical strategy for both manufacturers and intermediaries. In Study 2, by using a robust empirical methodology with data from a construction product manufacturer operating in an emerging market, we find that various combinations of intermediary, market, and product types affect the manufacturer's performance differently. Accordingly, through a supply-side examination, we quantify the revenue impact of reallocating the studied manufacturer's retail distribution resources among different intermediary-, market-, and product-type combinations. In Study 3, through a field implementation, we find that our recommended intermediary alignment strategy from Study 2 substantially boosts both the manufacturer's performance (by fourteen percent in revenue and thirteen percent in profit) and intermediaries’ satisfaction (by 7.71%). Thus, with our qualitative, empirical, and field studies, we contribute to the existing research in channel management, emerging market retailing, retail distribution, and marketing strategy. © 2020 New York University