There is significant amount of literature tackling different issues related to the port industry. The present chapter focuses on a single business unit of seaports aiming at the…
Abstract
There is significant amount of literature tackling different issues related to the port industry. The present chapter focuses on a single business unit of seaports aiming at the documentation of works related to container terminals.
An effort to review, collect and present the majority of the works present in the last 30 years, between 1980 and 2010, has been made in order to picture the problems dealt and methods used by the authors in the specific research field. To facilitate the reader, studies have been grouped under five categories of addressed problems (productivity and competitiveness, yard and equipment utilization, equipment scheduling, berth planning, loading/unloading) and four modelling methodologies (mathematics and operations research, management and economics, simulation, stochastic modelling).
The analysis shows that most works focus on productivity and competitiveness issues followed by yard and equipment utilisation and equipment scheduling. In reference to the methodologies used managerial and economic approaches lead, followed by mathematics and operations research.
In reference to future research, two fields have been identified where there is scope of significant contribution by the academic community: container terminal security and container terminal supply chain integration.
The present chapter provides the framework for researchers in the field of port container terminals to picture the so far works in this research area and enables the identification of gaps at both research question and methodology level for further research.
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Md Jahidur Rahman, Hongtao Zhu and Md Moazzem Hossain
From an agency perspective, the authors investigate whether family ownership and control configurations are systematically associated with a firm's choice of auditor and audit…
Abstract
Purpose
From an agency perspective, the authors investigate whether family ownership and control configurations are systematically associated with a firm's choice of auditor and audit fees. Agency theory is an economic theory that purposes the existence of a contract between two parties, principals and agents. Auditor choice and audit fees by family firms provide interesting insights given the unique nature of the agency problems faced by such firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ Big-4 auditors (PWC, KPMG, E&Y and Deloitte) as a proxy for high quality auditor (Big N) for the auditor choice model. For the audit fee model, the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of audit fees (LnAF). The authors use two measures for family firm as explanatory variables: (1) a dummy variable (FAM_Control), which equals one if the firm is classified as a family firm and (2) FAM_Ownership, which is an indicator variable with a value of one if a firm has family members who hold CEO position, occupy board seats, or hold at least 10% of the firm's equity. Data of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2021 are used. The authors adopt the Heckman (1979) two-stage model to mitigate the potential endogeneity issue involved in the selection of Big-N auditors.
Findings
The findings suggest that compared with non-family firms, Chinese family firms have a less tendency to employ Big-4 auditors due to less severe agency problems between owners and managers. Additionally, Chinese family firms sustain higher audit fees than non-family firms. Similar to the prior literature, however, Chinese family firms audited by Big-4 auditors incur lower audit fees than family firms audited by non-Big-4 auditors in this study. In contrast to young-family firms, old-family firms are less likely to pick top-tier auditors and sustain lower audit fees. Consistent and robust results are found from endogeneity tests and sensitivity analyses.
Originality/value
The empirical evidence provides a unique insight, for accounting practitioners, policymakers, family owners and other capital market participants concerning the diverse effects of various family ownership and control features on selecting high-quality auditors and audit fees. This study advances the understanding, showing that a lower demand for audit quality occurs in Chinese family firms as they encounter less severe Type I agency problems. However, the more severe Type II agency problems in Chinese family firms sustain higher audit fees due to higher audit risk and greater audit effort.
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Saeedeh Rezaee Vessal and Amitabh Anand
The purpose of this research is to conduct a literature review on the evolution, antecedents, and outcomes of luxury consumption (LC). To accomplish our goal, we used a…
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to conduct a literature review on the evolution, antecedents, and outcomes of luxury consumption (LC). To accomplish our goal, we used a combination of bibliometrics and systematic approaches to review 165 articles published between 1998 and 2019. The investigation revealed that the evolution of LC is mostly driven by consumer motivation and is influenced by cultural and psychological variables. Furthermore, we explored the aforementioned antecedents of LC along four major axes. Antecedents related to (1) individual characteristics, (2) brand components, (3) cultural and social values, and (4) organizational strategies. Furthermore, based on the outcomes of LC, we found two categories (individual traits and social values). The chapter concludes by proposing a broader research agenda for the future.
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Sheikh Najam-mu-Sahar and Hafizullah Dar
Purpose: Recent years have seen a tremendous surge in research into corporate social responsibility (CSR). One noticeable aspect is the increasing relevance of CSR in the tourist…
Abstract
Purpose: Recent years have seen a tremendous surge in research into corporate social responsibility (CSR). One noticeable aspect is the increasing relevance of CSR in the tourist and hospitality industry, which reflects the industry's fast growth and emphasis on solving societal issues. The current study aimed to assess CSR in tourism and hospitality offering a thorough understanding of CSR in a wider context of sustainability, financial performance and ethical considerations.
Methodology: A qualitative desk research approach was undertaken to conduct this study. Thorough review of contemporary research literature, including content analysis, was done for data gathering.
Findings: Findings show that CSR is rising as a key trend in the worldwide tourism and hospitality business, with a significant impact on the industry's performance and development. Tourism and hospitality industry shows both positive and negative economic impacts on the environment and society. To offset negative impacts, this industry is progressively embracing CSR initiatives. An integration between CSR and sustainable tourism, highlights the stability of socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural growth while considering interests of all stakeholders. The effect of CSR on the financial performance of the tourist and hospitality industry reveals that CSR has a favorable influence on financial performance of hotels, but mixed outcomes are shown in restaurants, cruises, and airlines. Highlighting insights on tourism corporations incorporating strategic and ethical CSR ideals into their activities, this study concludes with practical implications.
Originality: This study creates a unified integrated framework based on intersection of strategic CSR, financial performance, sustainability, and ethical aspects in tourism and hospitality.
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Imran Yousaf, Walid Mensi, Xuan Vinh Vo and Sanghoon Kang
This study aims to examine the tail connectedness between the Chinese and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stock markets. More specifically, the authors measure the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the tail connectedness between the Chinese and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stock markets. More specifically, the authors measure the return spillovers at three quantile levels: median (t = 0.5), lower extreme (t = 0.05) and upper extreme (t = 0.95). The connectedness at extreme upper and lower quantiles provides insightful information to investors regarding tail risk propagation, which ultimately suggests that investors adjust their portfolios according to the extreme bullish and bearish market conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ the quantile connectedness approach of Ando et al. (2022) to examine the quantile transmission mechanism among the ASEAN and Chinese stock markets.
Findings
The results show significant evidence of a higher level of connectedness between Chinese and ASEAN stock markets at extreme upper and lower quantiles compared to the median quantiles, which suggests the use of a quantile-based connectedness approach instead of an average-measure-based one. Furthermore, the time-varying connectedness analysis shows that the total spillovers reach the highest peaks during the global financial crisis, the Chinese stock market crash and the COVID-19 pandemic at the upper, lower and median quantiles. Finally, the static and dynamic pairwise spillovers between the Chinese and ASEAN markets vary over quantiles as well.
Originality/value
This study is the first attempt to examine quantile vector autoregression (VAR)-based return spillovers between China and ASEAN stock markets during different market statuses. Besides, the COVID-19 has intensified the uncertainty in Asian countries, mainly China and ASEAN economies.
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This chapter reviews the literature on servitization to understand whether and how mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been dealt with and what the portrayed consequences are of…
Abstract
This chapter reviews the literature on servitization to understand whether and how mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been dealt with and what the portrayed consequences are of servitization through M&As. Servitization refers to how manufacturing firms extend and remodel their offerings to focus on value in use rather than product transfer. The rationale of the chapter follows from how business model innovation or business modeling has been predicted as the next M&A wave, while the focus on servitization has been pronounced in research and practice as a means for manufacturing firms to refocus operations during the past decade. The chapter concludes that while the servitization literature is vibrant, the mode of reaching service competence and renewing business is not well explored in the literature. In line with the predicted next M&A wave, servitization through M&As would thereby create an interesting path for future research.
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Researchers have shown increased interest in open innovation – that is, the inflow and outflow of ideas, or the collaborative efforts of innovating – while previous research on…
Abstract
Researchers have shown increased interest in open innovation – that is, the inflow and outflow of ideas, or the collaborative efforts of innovating – while previous research on acquisitions of innovative firms has foremost focused on the inflow only. Open innovation, however, introduces several new challenges related to acquisitions of such firms, not the least related to intellectual property rights and innovative skills that may be distributed among several parties. This paper explores what issues the literature on open innovation and acquisitions deals with related to acquisitions in open innovation environments.
A systematic literature review is conducted to achieve the purpose of the paper. Two main questions are addressed. First, how can acquisitions be understood in relation to open innovation? Second, what does the open innovation literature say on matters of distributed innovations in relation to acquisitions?
The paper concludes that there is a quite limited amount of research concerning itself with open innovation and acquisitions combined. Furthermore, acquisitions are for the most part seen as a means to reach innovation in transaction-based transfers between parties.
With acquisitions of innovative firms, in general, being seen as an important means to reach new ideas, while open innovation is on the rise, the juxtaposing of these phenomena would be of high practical and theoretical relevance to study further.
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Adefemi A. Obalade, Tsepang Moeti, Vijen Moodley, Yusuf Randeree and Paul-Francois Muzindutsi
The study evaluated the interlinkages and diversification opportunities in the context of emerging bond markets from 2007:1 to 2020:5, using the vector autoregressive (VAR) model…
Abstract
The study evaluated the interlinkages and diversification opportunities in the context of emerging bond markets from 2007:1 to 2020:5, using the vector autoregressive (VAR) model and sub‐period analyses to compare BRIC (2007:1–2010:11) and BRICS (2010:12–2020:5) regimes. As indicated by the breaking unit‐root test, dummies for the global financial crisis and COVID‐19 were incorporated in the analyses. VAR results showed that the Indian bond market responds positively to the previous change in the Chinese bond market during the BRIC era while BRICS bond markets are mostly uninfluenced by prior behavior patterns of one another. These suggested that the diversification opportunity has been increased following the admission of South Africa to the league. In addition, variance decomposition and impulse response provide proofs to suggest that BRICS bond markets are more exogenous and independent compared to what is obtained during the BRIC period. Consequently, the authors concluded that the BRICS bloc has provided greater diversification opportunities for emerging markets’ bondholders in the recent past.
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Guido Orzes, Fu Jia, Marco Sartor and Guido Nassimbeni
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relationship between the adoption of Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000) – which is considered the most important ethical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relationship between the adoption of Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000) – which is considered the most important ethical certification standard – and firm performance, building on agency and contingency theories.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyse secondary longitudinal balance sheet data of listed firms employing a rigorous event-study approach and compare SA8000-certified companies to different control groups based on three matching criteria, i.e., industry, size, and pre-certification performance. The authors then study the moderating effects of the cultural features, the country’s development level, and the labour intensity on the causal relationship through multiple regression methods.
Findings
The authors find that SA8000 certification positively affects labour productivity and sales performance but has no effect on profitability. Furthermore, the study supports that the relationship between SA8000 and profitability is moderated by two cultural features of the home country of the firms (i.e. power distance and uncertainty avoidance).
Originality/value
This is the first study, which empirically tests the effects of the ethical certification SA8000 on firm performance using a cross-country sample. In addition, the authors contribute to the wider debate on the effects of corporate social responsibility practices on firm performance.