On the phone trying to get through to a call center, queuing at an ATM… it’s all a part of daily life. But how do potential customers deal with this? Do they decide to join the queue? Do they switch to an alternative service provider that offers a shorter waiting time? On what do they base their decision? Uncertainty and information scarcity typically make ... Read More

An increase in corporate taxes leads to drops in patents, research and development (R&D) expenditure and new product introductions, but a decrease in taxes does not appear to boost such innovation-linked activity, according to a study that looked at corporate income tax changes across American states from 1990-2006. Researchers Abhiroop Mukherjee, Manpreet ... Read More

Cybercrime costs firms and organisations money – equivalent to 1.5 per cent of a country’s GDP according to one estimate, and up to $100,000 per hour for retailers under attack according to another. The Convention on Cybercrime (COC) was unveiled in 2001 as the first international legislation to address the problem. But a new study shows that while it helps ... Read More

Mutual funds are important investment vehicles for many households. When these households invest in a fund, their capital is pooled and entrusted to a professional fund manager; this manager is responsible for growing his clients’ money by investing in stocks, bonds and other assets. Understandably, therefore, the choice of fund manager is crucial. There are ... Read More

Price is usually the main objective of search for homogenous products such as books. However, considerably less is known about the more complex process of searching for differentiated products such as consumer durables goods. Bart J. Bronnenberg, Jun B. Kim and Carl F. Mela set out to close this gap by studying online consumers’ search behavior for digital ... Read More

You are an auditor, consultant or lawyer, and you have just been promoted to a management role. Congratulations! But, wait, don’t get too carried away – what will this new and more responsible role mean in terms of your relationships within the workplace? Who comes into focus and who fades out, and how do you identify high-quality new contacts? Role ... Read More

We’ve all seen the photos of people queuing outside stores, eager to buy the latest hot product. “Buying frenzies” are a favorite topic in the media, and everyone has an opinion about them, and many may have even joined such a queue for a mobile phone or game console. One of Hong Kong’s most notable buying frenzies occurred when Apple released its iPad 2 in ... Read More

The financial sector plays a central role in the modern economy, as is evident from the wide and deep macroeconomic impact of the global financial crisis in 2007–2009. There are at least two channels through which the financial sector can influence the “real economy” -- the part concerned with producing goods and services -- namely the financing of capital ... Read More

Diet Crystal Pepsi was launched in 1992 after getting a strong response in test markets, but a year later the product was pulled from the shelves after weak sales. Similarly, Frito Lay Lemonade and countless other products that passed the pilot phase went on to be failures. How could there be such a mismatch of early promise and subsequent performance? ... Read More

Short selling is undoubtedly a controversial activity; it is motivated by the belief that the price of the stock will decline, so it can be bought back at a profit. Previous research has shown that short sellers can identify earnings manipulation and fraud before they are publicly revealed. But this is for earnings manipulation that has already taken place ... Read More