John Newell, An-Yen Hu and Bradley Weber
To explain a series of no-action letters recently released by the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance that help to clarify the circumstances in which a company may exclude…
Abstract
Purpose
To explain a series of no-action letters recently released by the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance that help to clarify the circumstances in which a company may exclude shareholder proposals involving proxy access bylaw provisions from the company’s proxy statement.
Design/methodology/approach
Explains the background of competing proxy access bylaw provisions adopted or proposed by companies and proposed by shareholders, the “directly conflicts” test explained in SEC Staff Legal Bulletin 14H, and the “substantially implemented” guidelines implied in a series of no-action letters in February and March 2016. Explains the status of shareholder proxy access proposals as of Spring 2016.
Findings
Taken together with an earlier series of no-action letters released in February 2016 and Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14H, published in October 2015, companies considering the adoption of a proxy access bylaw provision now have a clearer understanding of when the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance is likely to conclude that a company may appropriately exclude a proxy access shareholder proposal in favor of a proxy access provision adopted or proposed by a company.
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Minh Chau Tran, Christopher E.C. Gan and Baiding Hu
– The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting formal credit constraint status of rural farm households in Vietnam’s North Central Coast (NCC) region.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify factors affecting formal credit constraint status of rural farm households in Vietnam’s North Central Coast (NCC) region.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the direct elicitation method (DEM), the authors consider both internal and external credit rationing.
Findings
Empirical evidences confirm the importance of household head’s age, gender and education to household’s likelihood of being credit constrained. In addition, households who have advantages in farm land size, labour resources and non-farm income are less likely to be credit constrained. Poor households are observed to remain restricted by formal credit institutions. Results from the endogenous switching regression model suggest that credit constraints negatively impact household’s consumption per capita and informal credit can act as a substitute to mitigate the negative influence of formal credit constraints.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation arises from the usage of the DEM to identify credit constrained households. The method cannot detect effective and ineffective constraints. Another limitation is the inability of cross-section data to capture long-term impacts of credit constraints on household welfare. Finally, causes of credit constraints from the lender’s view cannot be observed.
Practical implications
The results suggest that it is necessary to enhance the credit allocation regime to reduce the transaction cost and provide target households with sufficient credit. It should be emphasized that high transaction cost and the mismatch between credit demand and supply stemming from information asymmetry. The government can help formal financial institutions to reduce information cost by encouraging the active role of social organizations such as Women Unions, Youth Unions and Veteran Unions in bridging rural farm households with formal lenders.
Originality/value
There are limited studies focusing on determinants of credit constraints and their impacts on rural farm households. To the best of the knowledge, there is no study evaluating the impact of credit constraints on rural farm household welfare particularly in Vietnam. In addition, the studies related to credit constraints only considered full quantity rationing (households applied for the loan but were rejected), omitting the case of partly quantity rationing (loan obtained by the borrowers is less than their demand) and self-rationing.
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Yuping Mao and Lu Shi
Past studies have shown that acculturation has been linked with media consumption (Shi, 2005; Shohat & Stam, 1996). Some risky health behaviors are associated with immigrants’…
Abstract
Purpose
Past studies have shown that acculturation has been linked with media consumption (Shi, 2005; Shohat & Stam, 1996). Some risky health behaviors are associated with immigrants’ acculturation into the American society. In this study, we investigate the association between Latino adolescents’ recreational use of media with acculturation as related to risky health behaviors such as the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, the experience of getting sunburns, smoking, and drinking alcohol.
Methodology/approach
Regression models were run to analyze the Latino adolescent subsample (aged 12–17) of the 2009 California Health Interview Survey (Ponce et al., 2004).
Findings
The regression models show that weekend television and video gaming are significantly associated with the number of sunburns one had in the past year (incident rate ratio = 1.008, z = 2.73), and weekend recreational computer use is significantly associated with the number of cans of soda with sugar one drank during the previous day (incident rate ratio = 1.003, z = 2.09). The use of English for the interview, age, parents’ educational attainment, household size, and gender are also found to be associated with different acculturation-related risky health behaviors investigated in this study.
Originality/value
This study is the first to analyze media consumption’s association with sunburn among Latino adolescents. Our findings indicate that among Latino adolescents in the United States, a large amount of media consumption can lead to risky health behaviors that were not common in Latin America. Therefore, parents should heed possible behavioral consequences when they decide on the amount of media exposure children have.
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Digitalisation is a key driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) to better understand the opportunities and challenges pertaining to digital transformation;…
Abstract
Digitalisation is a key driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) to better understand the opportunities and challenges pertaining to digital transformation; organisations adopt different approaches to dealing with digitisation. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the impact of Industry 4.0 on the procurement process re-engineering and its role within the area of supply chain management. Additionally, the research will examine barriers and challenges involved in the digitalisation of procurement and supply chains and how to overcome them. According to the findings, digitalisation of the procurement process can have several advantages, such as supporting complex decision-making processes and administrative tasks, focusing on strategic decisions and activities, transforming procurement into a strategic interface to support organisational efficiency, effectiveness and profitability and fostering the development of new business models. Furthermore, the study highlighted various influencing factors, challenges and the role of stakeholders impacting the digitalisation of procurement functions and supply chains.
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Among the top management issues covered in this section are: leadership to promote change; issues of corporate culture; effective international strategy; environmental leadership;…
Abstract
Among the top management issues covered in this section are: leadership to promote change; issues of corporate culture; effective international strategy; environmental leadership; investment in Eastern Europe; and developing “world‐class” manufacturing strategy.
This study is part of a larger research project which aims to investigate whether sentiments in online reviews on children’s books would represent significant factors which are…
Abstract
Purpose
This study is part of a larger research project which aims to investigate whether sentiments in online reviews on children’s books would represent significant factors which are useful for selecting the right books for children. This paper aims to examine whether positive, negative or neutral attitude would be directly associated with the overall ratings of books.
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigates subjectivity and polarity of online reviews on children’s books such as neutral, positive or negative sentiment. For the investigation of a statistical association between the sentiment values and the rating scores, this study performs correlation analysis. For a clear explanation of the factors affecting the relationships between the sentiment value and the rating score, this study uses the concept-level sentiment analysis of online reviews.
Findings
The findings of this study demonstrate that there is a weak or low correlation between the sentiment value and the rating score of a book and they are hardly related for most books. The results of this study also uncover key contributing factors that affected the correlations between two variables and made the relationship weak.
Research limitations/implications
This study increases awareness of the implications of online reviews as user-generated contents for complementing the existing controlled vocabulary.
Practical implications
This study contributes to improving library catalogs by using latent topics extracted from online reviews which provide additional access points for assisting in the selection of books.
Originality/value
Although several studies have conducted on online reviews in the domain of business, no research appears to exist on the sentiment analysis of online reviews about children’s books. This study attempts to address the potential and challenges associated with using online reviews to help find the right books for children.
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Herbert Kotzab, Christoph Teller, David B. Grant and Leigh Sparks
The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that includes drivers of supply chain management (SCM) adoption and execution identified in the literature, provide a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that includes drivers of supply chain management (SCM) adoption and execution identified in the literature, provide a set of measurement scales that operationalise constructs within this model, empirically verify a hierarchical order of antecedents that affects the adoption and execution of SCM, and assist management by providing a focus on those SCM conditions and processes that need to be prioritised to increase successful SCM adoption and execution.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model is tested empirically through a survey of 174 senior supply chain managers representing the biggest organisations within a central European country.
Findings
Using structural equation modelling the hypothesised hierarchical order of three proposed antecedents is verified: “internal SCM conditions”, that affect “joint or external SCM conditions”, which in turn influence collaborative “SCM‐related processes”. Firms that adopt these steps should enjoy a rigorous and appropriate road to the full execution of SCM.
Research limitations/implications
The survey results reflect the views of large organisations in a country‐specific supply chain setting.
Practical implications
The findings provide a hierarchical focus for financial, personnel and management initiatives to increase integration within a supply chain and improve competitiveness.
Originality/value
The major contribution of this paper is that it provides empirical proof of the antecedents that affect the adoption and execution of SCM.
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Hannan Amoozad Mahdiraji, Khalid Hafeez, Ali Asghar Abbasi Kamardi and Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes
This paper proposes a multi-layer hybrid decision-making approach to evaluate the capability alternatives for developing a collaborative network to operate in the international…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes a multi-layer hybrid decision-making approach to evaluate the capability alternatives for developing a collaborative network to operate in the international market.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study is contextualised in the Iranian pistachio export industry. An extensive review of the state-of-the-art literature on supplier collaboration was conducted to identify key capabilities that are essential to establish a collaborative network. The set of defined capabilities were then optimised through interviews with 14 experts from the relevant industry, academics and export authorities. A combination of the fuzzy Delphi method and the best–worst method (BWM) approach was, respectively, used to reduce the number of capability alternatives and assign priority weights to these alternatives. Subsequently, a weighted aggregated sum product assessment method (WASPAS) was employed to rank and evaluate the ability to creating a collaborative network for the export of pistachio.
Findings
From the extant literature review, 18 capabilities for the formation of coordination networks in the international markets were identified. Then, the prominent indicators in forming a global network were extracted. After ranking the top pistachio export countries/regions to formalise an efficient collaborative network, it was revealed that although Iran exports approximately 30% of the global market, it falls behind the USA and European Union. The competitors have scored higher in critical criteria, including “trust and commitment”, “strategy and management”, “managerial control and standardization” and “financial resources”.
Originality/value
The proposed hybrid approach encompassing fuzzy Delphi–BWM–WASPAS offers to solve the capability evaluation and selection as well as ranking the possible alternative to formalise a collaborative network in an integrated fashion. This combination of methods is capable to first identify the most important factors, then measuring their importance and eventually rank the possible alternatives. The suggested framework provides an approach to deal with the uncertainty of global collaborative network formation.
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Junping Yang and Mengjie Zhang
This paper aims to explore coopetition within the entrepreneurial ecosystem and answer the following two fundamental questions: How does coopetition affect the entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore coopetition within the entrepreneurial ecosystem and answer the following two fundamental questions: How does coopetition affect the entrepreneurial learning and performance of startups? and What learning strategies should startups adopt to promote their growth in the coopetition activities?
Design/methodology/approach
Using the structural equation model and instrumental variable, this study used a sample of 371 startups to test the hypotheses. Data comes from startups in Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang, China.
Findings
This study finds that the coopetition-performance relationship of startups is marginally negative. This study also finds that exploitative learning and exploratory learning positively mediate this relationship. Ecosystem’s social capital can enhance the coopetition-exploration relationship, but the coopetition-exploitation relationship is not affected.
Originality/value
Many studies propose that the coopetition-performance relationship is ambiguous, which makes it meaningful to explore startups individually. Based on the resource-based view and the knowledge-based view, this study deepen the works of Bouncken and Fredrich (2016c), that is, how startups can learn and grow through coopetition activities. This study proposes that coopetition is one of the foundations of the ecosystem and explore the coopetition-performance relationship in this special context. Thus, the present paper adds to the budding literature on the effects of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and to the literature on coopetition.