Internet stock trading has made it easier for inexperienced and uninformed investors to participate in financial markets. These investors often use online investing systems to engage in “feedback trading” – a strategy based on past price trends whose expected profit averages out at negative. Such an outcome, and the sheer volume of Internet trading, suggests ... Read More

Visit your local supermarket or convenience store and you are likely faced with your favorite products in a bewildering array of sizes: a Coca-Cola could be in 200ml, 330ml, 500ml, 1250ml or even 2500ml packaging. And it’s not just grocery items, but cosmetics, shampoo and candy bars, too. Anecdotal evidence suggests consumers associate package size with ... Read More

Management teams are critical drivers of the performance of business units. Is it possible to increase performance – that is, revenue – by engaging in “collective organizational citizenship behavior” (COCB)? “Upper echelons theory” suggests that management team characteristics influence the strategic decisions that determine business unit performance, yet ... Read More

Two managers issue earnings forecasts; manager A’s forecasts are consistently three cents below realized earnings, while manager B’s forecasts are one cent below half of the time and one cent above the rest of the time. Do investors prefer A’s forecasts, even though B’s are more accurate, and does this preference depend on the type of investor? These were ... Read More

Knowledge Management Systems (KMSs) have an important role to play in organizations, yet many of these systems fail to achieve their intended outcomes in terms of job performance and job satisfaction. It may be that employees do not know how to use the systems properly: KMSs are usually complex and incorporate a variety of technologies and features, making ... Read More

Short selling was fingered as a direct cause of the collapses of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the European sovereignty debt crisis in 2011. But even though these events resulted in bans on short selling, the evidence linking the two was inconclusive. Now, Xuewen Liu has produced a model that shows these collapses may be the result of not ... Read More

Corporate ownership tends to be highly concentrated in countries with weak protection for investors and this has two results. On the one hand, the agency conflict between firm executives and controlling shareholders is minimal, but on the other hand, there is potentially more conflict between minority and controlling shareholders. Since the latter and their ... Read More

For customer service employees, it is an unfortunate fact of life that some days they will encounter verbal abuse, unfair demands, disrespectful behaviour and other mistreatment by customers. What’s more, the impacts can linger. Previous research has shown that the short- and long-term well-being of some service employees may be affected by mistreatment ... Read More

Pia is a young, hotshot, product manager with an MBA from a top school; she’s just delivered a presentation at her company’s board meeting, during which the CEO praised her lavishly. She heads to a fancy restaurant to celebrate, where she needs to decide between the bar’s signature best-selling cocktail or the limited-edition microbrew. Which will she choose ... Read More

From the latest policy information to downloadable car license renewal forms to filing taxes – an increasing array of government services is now available online. There are benefits all round: citizens find accessing government services easy and convenient, while governments can save costs as well as deploy a new channel to engage citizens. It is not all ... Read More