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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which interdisciplinary (HASS, i.e. non-STEM) factors—in particular, accounting, stakeholder management and accountability—enable, influence and motivate large human exploration ventures, principally in maritime and space fields, utilizing Columbus’s and Chinese explorations of the 1400s as the primary setting.

The study analyzes archival data from narrative and interpretational history, including both academic and non-academic sources, that relate to two global historical events, the Columbus and Ming Chinese exploration eras (c. 1400–1500), as a parallel to the modern “Space Race”. Existing studies on pertinent HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences) and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) enablers, influencers and motivators are utilized in the analysis. The authors draw upon the concepts of stakeholder theory and the construct of accountability in their analysis.

Findings suggest that non-STEM considerations—politics, finance, accountability, culture, theology and others—played crucial roles in enabling Western Europe (Columbus) to reach the Americas before China or other global powers, demonstrating the pivotal importance of HASS factors in human advancements and exploration.

In seeking to answer those questions, this study identifies only those factors (HASS or STEM) that may support the success or failure in execution of the exploration and development of a region such as the New World or Space. Moreover, the study has the following limitation. Relative successes, failures, drivers and enablers of exploratory ventures are drawn almost exclusively from the documented historical records of the nations, entities and individuals (China and Europe) who conducted those ventures. A paucity of objective sources in some fields, and the need to set appropriate boundaries for the study, also necessitate such limitation.

It is observable that many of those HASS factors also appear to have been influencers in modern era Space projects. For Apollo and Soyuz, success factors such as the relative economics of USA and USSR, their political ideologies, accountabilities and organizational priorities have clear echoes. What the successful voyages of Columbus and Apollo also have in common is an appetite to take risks for an uncertain return, whether as sponsor or voyager; an understanding of financial management and benefits measurement, and a leadership (Isabella I, John F. Kennedy) possessing a vision, ideology and governmental apparatus to further the venture’s goals.

Whilst various historical studies have examined influences behind the oceangoing explorations of the 1400s and the colonization of the “New World”, this article takes an original approach of analyzing those motivations and other factors collectively, in interdisciplinary terms (HASS and STEM). This approach also has the potential to provide a novel method of examining accountability and performance in modern exploratory ventures, such as crewed space missions.

Focuses on business investments by Singaporean Chinese in Mainland China vis‐à‐vis the impact of the knowledge of the Chinese language, culture etc. on business success. The literature has shown four critical factors namely culture, guanxi, negotiation and communication as important facilitators for business investments in China. Chinese language, however, further moderates their influence on business investments. To explore the association between the Chinese language and the four critical factors, a sample t‐test was conducted. Additionally, the profile of Singaporean business investors in Mainland China was surveyed. The research provices insights for Singaporean and global business investors who are looking at Mainland China as a potential business opportunity.

Describes the environment for making initial public offerings (IPOs) in India and the process itself; and discusses the applicability of various research explanations for underpricing to the Indian Market. Suggests that it will be greater for new firms and issues managed by reputable merchant bankers; and analyses 1992‐1994 data on 386 IPOs to assess their performance. Shows that issues with high risk and/or smaller offer prices are more underpriced; and that returns are strongly correlated with subscription levels. Discusses the underlying reasons for this and the implications for public policy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of firm-level corporate governance practices on the riskiness of a firm's stock returns.

The authors constructed an index of governance quality incorporating best practices stipulated by regulators. The authors employed regression analysis.

The empirical evidence, using an index of corporate governance, shows that well-governed New Zealand firms experience lower levels of risk, ceteris paribus. In particular, the results indicate that corporate governance aspects such as board composition, shareholder rights, and disclosure practices are associated with lower levels of risk.

A limitation of the study is that the corporate governance index constructed is somewhat arbitrary and due to limitation of data availability the authors may have excluded some factors such as share trading policy of directors and policies regarding provision of non-auditing services by auditors. The research supports the view that institutional context could have an impact on governance outcomes. The work has three implications for managers, investors, and policy makers. First, the results imply that well-governed firms have lower idiosyncratic risk and that this reduction is most likely due to the reduction in agency costs and information risk. Second, in the absence of features like an active corporate control market and stock option based managerial compensation, managers have little incentives to take on risky projects that increase firm value. Third, the results suggest that the managers of well-governed firms are not more risk averse with respect to investment decisions compared to poorly governed firms.

The work has practical implications for managers, investors, and policy makers. Well-governed firms face lower variability in stock returns compared to poorly governed firms. Firms that have independent boards that protect its shareholders’ rights and disclose its governance-related policies experience lower firm-level risk, other things being equal.

This study is the first one to examine the impact of a composite measure of corporate governance quality on stock return variability in a non-US setting. The results suggest that firms can use specific corporate governance provisions to mitigate firm-level risk. The findings of the paper are therefore relevant and useful to corporate managers, investors, and policy makers.

This article questions the validity of regression models when high correlations exist between independent variables and presents the application of VAR as an alternative technique through the comparison of two groups of selected stocks that represent components of Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices, respectively. The results indicate that panel regressions face serious specification problems, while the impulse response function underlines that the shock to the volume innovation has a mostly positive impact on the volatility in both S&P and Dow Jones sample, but the tendency cannot be easily accounted for. The positive impact of volatility shocks on the inter market depth is rather unexpected, but it may be associated with an increase in volume that does not enormously enhance the spread up to the point where it will be too costly for market‐makers to trade, and accordingly, quickly narrows the spread to absorb new liquidity influx in the market. In the Granger causality tests Dow Jones stocks with comparatively larger average volume depth values and price levels provide slightly stronger relations between analyzed variables compared to the stocks included in the S&P sample.

Extant research posits that host country investors value geographical proximity and familiarity. American investors are likely to be more familiar with business, legal and economic conditions of Latin America compared to distant emerging market countries. Furthermore, the trading time of Latin American stock markets overlap significantly with that of U.S. markets. Therefore, we expect Latin American ADRs to enjoy better liquidity than ADRs from other emerging markets. Consistent with our expectations, we find weak evidence that ADRs from Latin America have lower effective spreads and adverse selection component of spreads compared to ADRs from other emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to perform an exploratory study of depositary receipts (DRs). In addition to the geographical analysis it test several hypothesis linked to various DRs’ issues.

Using the publicly available The Bank of New York's (now The Bank of New York Mellon) database, descriptive statistics and logit analysis were applied.

It is evident that smaller firms issue DRs in lower level programs apparently due to the considerable cost barriers; firms with larger capital expenditure plans prefer to issue under level III or Rule 144A DR programs and higher quality firms, proxied by lower leverage, are likely to make higher‐level DR issues.

The database is updated quite frequently and departures from enclosed findings are likely to occur in the years to come.

Management interested in issuing DRs may become acquainted with the pattern exercised by both small and large companies, or by companies with specific capital structures. In this manner the listing demonstrates less uncertainty as long as it is possible for managers to ascertain and compare own companies’ features.

The paper adds to the current literature regarding in‐depth analysis of the DRs market.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model to measure foreign exchange (FX) rate volatility accurately. The FX rate volatility forecasting is a crucial endeavour in financial markets and has gained the attention of researchers and practitioners over the last several decades. The implied volatility (IV) measure is widely believed to be the best measure of exchange rate volatility. Despite its widespread usage, the IV approach suffers from an obvious chicken‐egg problem: obtaining an unbiased IV requires the options to be priced correctly and calculating option prices accurately requires an unbiased IV.

The authors contribute to the literature by developing a new model for FX rate volatility – the “moneyness volatility (MV)”. This approach is based on measuring the variability of forward‐looking “moneyness” rather than use of options price. To assess volatility forecasting performance of MV against IV, the in‐sample and out‐of‐sample tests are involved using the F‐test, Granger‐Newbold test and Diebold‐Mariano framework.

The MV model outperforms the IV in FX rate volatility forecasting ability in both in‐sample and out‐of‐sample tests. The F‐test, Granger‐Newbold test and Diebold‐Mariano test results consistently reveal that MV outperforms IV in estimating as well as forecasting exchange rate volatility for six major currency options. Furthermore, in Mincer‐Zarnowitz regressions, MV outperforms IV and time‐series models in predicting future volatility.

The authors’ pioneering approach in modeling exchange rate volatility has far‐reaching implications for academicians, professional traders, and financial risk analysts and managers.

This book is an attempt to reflect on what we have learned from financial policies and financial crises in Latin America. The 21 chapters in this volume capture the developments in various ways. They cover theoretical contributions, regional empirical studies, and specific inquiries on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The breadth of methodologies implemented suggests that researchers are looking at Latin American financial markets through a variety of lenses. The chapters are divided into 7 parts, including, in Part I, an initial overview. Part II examines the foreign exchange markets in Latin America and their interactions with other markets. Part III discusses dollarization issues in the region. Part IV then takes up the issue of banking in Latin America. Equity and bond markets are considered in Parts V and VI, respectively. Lastly, Part VII considers pension systems in Latin America. Taken as a whole, the 21 chapters seize the excitement of studying Latin America and provide lessons that are applicable around the world.

This paper examines and updates an earlier study of the liquidity of an extensive array of common stocks traded on NYSE/ASE/NML‐NASDAQ. It reports apparent variances in liquidity due to trading location and other variables. The paper suggests causes for these differences.