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A “state-driven” approach suggests that colonists use census categories to rule. However, a “society-driven” approach suggests that this state-driven perspective confers too much power upon states. A third approach views census-taking and official categorization as a product of state–society interaction that depends upon: (a) the population's lay categories, (b) information intellectuals' ability to take up and transform these lay categories, and (c) the balance of power between social and state actors. We evaluate the above positions by analyzing official records, key texts, travelogues, and statistical memoirs from three key periods in India: Indus Valley civilization through classical Gupta rule (ca. 3300 BCE–700 CE), the “medieval” period (ca. 700–1700 CE), and East India Company (EIC) rule (1757–1857 CE), using historical narrative. We show that information gathering early in the first period was society driven; however, over time, a strong interactive pattern emerged. Scribes (information intellectuals) increased their social status and power (thus, shifting the balance of power) by drawing on caste categories (lay categories) and incorporating them into official information gathering. This intensification of interactive information gathering allowed the Mughals, the EIC, and finally British direct rule officials to collect large quantities of information. Our evidence thus suggests that the intensification of state–society interactions over time laid the groundwork for the success of the direct rule British censuses. It also suggests that any transformative effect of these censuses lay in this interactive pattern, not in the strength of the British colonial state.

The success of online health communities (OHCs) depends on maintaining long-term relationships with physicians and preventing churn. Even so, the reasons for physician churn are poorly understood. In this study, an empirical model was proposed from a social influence perspective to explore the effects of online social influence and offline social influence on physician churn, as well as the moderating effect of their online returns.

The empirical data of 4,145 physicians from a Chinese OHC, and probit regression models were employed to verify the proposed theoretical model.

The results suggest that physicians' churn intention is influenced by online and offline social influences, and the offline social influence is more powerful. Physicians' reputational and economic returns could weaken the effect of online social influence on churn intention. However, physicians' economic returns could strengthen the effect of offline social influence on churn intention.

This research study is the first attempt to explore physician churn and divides the social influence into online and offline social influences according to the source of social relationship. The findings contribute to the literature on e-Health, user churn and social influence and provide management implications for OHC managers.

This study aims to comprehensively examine the relationship between initial public offering (IPO) activities and macroeconomic factors in Sri Lanka.

This study uses principal component analysis (PCA) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) techniques to examine the relationship between IPO activities and macroeconomic factors. Ten macroeconomic variables are transformed into principal components (factors) using PCA. Then, ARDL is applied to investigate the long- and short-term relationships between IPO activities and the transformed macroeconomic factors.

The empirical investigation identifies three principal factors from the ten macroeconomic variables, of which two factors have a significant long-run association with IPO activities: “return on investment (RTOI)” and “economic and market development (ECMD).” In the short run, “trade openness and banking sector development (TOBD)” and RTOI are significantly associated with IPO activities.

The study was based on 30 years of observations, which passed all diagnostic tests but may be insufficient for generalizing the findings. Future studies could use high-frequency data (monthly or quarterly) to increase the number of observations and repeat the method and analysis. Also, while the symmetrical ARDL method was used in this study, an asymmetrical ARDL method may provide more insightful results and interpretations.

The study highlights the importance of considering both long- and short-term associations when analyzing the impact of macroeconomic variables on IPO activities.

This study is the first to comprehensively examine the relationship between IPO activities and macroeconomic variables using PCA and the ARDL technique. The study provides insight into the macroeconomic factors that influence IPO activities in Sri Lanka and highlights the importance of considering long- and short-term associations.

The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of Michel Porter's generic business-level strategies adopted by the organisation on its employer branding strategy. Based on the expert’s opinion and insights, this study aims to determine the extent to which the employer branding strategy, its inherent significance, the requisite investment and the used tactics are influenced by the organisation's business strategy.

Considering a phenomenological research design, this study adopted semi-structured interviews as a means to gather qualitative data from a purposive sample comprising HR professionals. The collected data were subjected to thematic analysis, enabling the identification of recurring themes and patterns. Findings and conclusions were subsequently derived in accordance with the outcomes of the thematic analysis.

The study revealed that the significance, nature, challenges and ways of implementation of employer branding strategies vary depending on the type of business strategy adopted by the organisation. While organisations pursuing a differentiation strategy heavily invest in employer branding and placing considerable efforts into developing an appealing employee value proposition, companies pursuing cost leadership invest relatively less in employer branding by implementing cost-effective tactics. Companies implementing a focus strategy demonstrate a moderate level of investment in employer branding initiatives.

The study is limited to IT, manufacturing and banking sectors only. Additionally, the sample of the study is limited.

Employer branding as a strategy has been widely explored in the recent past. Similarly, Michel Porters’ generic strategies have also been widely researched. However, the interconnection between these two levels of strategies presents novel perspectives for business strategists and HR professionals involved in the formulation and implementation of HR strategies. This linkage provides valuable insights that facilitate effective decision-making in relation to employer branding strategies, enabling organisations to prioritise their objectives more effectively.

The existing literature lacks research that investigates the connection between employer branding strategy and business strategy. Hence, this study represents a pioneering effort that aims to explore this unexplored linkage. Further, this research effort has also uncovered previously uninvestigated findings concerning the comparative analysis of employer branding strategies across different sectors while examining the connection between business strategy and employer branding strategy.

The study examines the impact of macroeconomic risk and volatility associated with key macroeconomic indicators on financial market uncertainty; and the extent to which governance and institutional structures moderate such relationships.

The study employs data from 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the period between 1996 and 2019. Variable derivation techniques such as the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) for deriving volatility data, and the principal component analysis (PCA) for index construction were employed. The data is examined using the two-step system generalized method of moments (TS-SGMM) technique.

Empirical results suggest that macroeconomic risk and exchange rate volatility heighten financial market uncertainty among economies in the sub-region. Further empirical estimates show that institutional quality and government effectiveness have a negative moderating effect on the nexus between macroeconomic risk, inflation uncertainty, GDP growth, exchange rate, and financial market uncertainty.

The key macroeconomic conditions with the propensity to foment financial market uncertainty are worth monitoring with adequate buffers to mitigate their impacts on the financial market.

Compared to related studies, this study focuses on uncertainty associated with financial markets among emerging economies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) instead of the performance of the financial markets or specific financial market indicators such as the stock market; and the extent to which a host of macroeconomic conditions influence such uncertainty. For instance, Abaidoo and Agyapong (2023) focused on the impact of macroeconomic indicators or conditions on the performance of the financial market and the efficiency of financial institutions respectively instead of the uncertainty or risk associated with the financial market as pursued in the current study. This differing approach is pursued with the goal of proffering appropriate strategies for policy makers towards assuaging the financial market risk (uncertainty) due to macroeconomic dynamics. We further examine how the various fundamental relationships may be moderated by effective governance and institutional quality.

We adopt an information risk view and argue that higher levels of pledge risk incurred by insiders incentivize opportunistic financial disclosure and impair the quality of information available to analysts to forecast firm performance.

We sample Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2022. Following the literature, we apply established models to measure and test analysts’ forecasting accuracy/dispersion related to controlling shareholders pledging equity and the amount of margin call pressure. Analyst characteristics and nonfinancial disclosures proxied by CSR reports are also examined as factors likely to influence the relationship between pledge risk and analysts’ forecast quality.

We find that analysts’ earnings predictions are less accurate and more dispersed as the proportion of shares pledged (pledge ratio) increases and in combination with greater margin call pressure. Pledge ratios are significantly associated with several information risk proxies (i.e. earnings permanence, accruals quality, audit quality, financial restatements, related party transactions and internal control weaknesses), validating the channel through which equity pledges undermine analysts’ forecast quality. The results also demonstrate that forecast quality declines for a wide variety of analysts’ attributes, including high- and low-quality analysts and analysts from small and large brokerage firms. Importantly, nonfinancial disclosures, as proxied by CSR reporting, improve analysts’ forecasts.

We extend the literature by demonstrating that incremental pledge risk increases non-diversifiable information risk; all non-pledging shareholders pay a premium through more diverse and less accurate earnings forecasts. Our study provides important policy implications with economically significant costs to investors associated with insider equity pledges. Our results highlight the benefits of nonfinancial disclosures in China, which has implications for the current debate on the global convergence of CSR reporting.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to recognize essential considerations for the initial public offerings (IPO) decision, compare different types of fundraising options for startups, evaluate the free pricing regime for IPO pricing, examine the pricing process of IPOs, explore the issue of valuation of IPOs and assess the decision choices of the founder regarding IPO given the trade-offs and market conditions.

The case study explores the dilemma of Ghazal Alagh, the co-founder and chief innovation officer of Mamaearth, a direct-to-consumer babycare and skincare unicorn, regarding its IPO decision. Mamaearth had filed the draft offer document with SEBI in December 2022, and Ghazal was busy engaging with the investment bankers for the upcoming IPO. However, the weak market sentiments and shelving of IPO plans by many startups were forcing her to think about facing the possibility of postponing the IPO or continuing the IPO process but at lower valuations. The case study provides an opportunity to explore a startup’s financing choices. It allows for discussion of various IPO challenges from the perspectives of founders, venture investors, regulators, investment bankers and new IPO investors.

This case study is best suited for senior undergraduate- and graduate-level business school students in courses focusing on entrepreneurship, corporate finance, financial management, strategic management and investment banking.

CSS1: Accounting and finance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

The purpose of our study is to examine the functioning of internal capital markets (ICMs) within business groups in Iran. We document how the ultimate owner's economic interests in affiliated firms influence their investment and dividend policies.

Using hand-collected data on the ownership structures of Iranian firms, we first identify group-affiliated firms using Almeida et al.’s (2011) method. Having identified business groups, we test a number of hypotheses concerning the dynamics of the ICMs and the implications of the ultimate owner’s incentives for affiliated firms’ behavior.

We first demonstrate that investments of group-affiliated firms are less sensitive to their own cash flow (as compared to stand-alone firms) but are sensitive to the cash flows of other firms affiliated with the same group near or at the bottom of the ownership structure. We next find significant variation in dividend policy within groups, with notably higher dividends for firms close to the ultimate owner. Furthermore, we find that higher investments by firms close to the owner lead to lower dividends by firms positioned far from the owner, but the reverse does not hold.

We are the first to examine the effect of group-affiliated firms’ investments on the dividend policies of other firms based on their position within the group. Our findings illuminate how business groups prioritize funding investments in their closely held firms over paying dividends to outside investors in firms positioned farther from the group owner.

This study examines the influence of stock liquidity on stock price crash risk and the moderating role of institutional blockholders in Vietnam’s stock market.

Crash risk is measured by the negative coefficient of skewness of firm-specific weekly returns (NCSKEW) and the down-to-up volatility of firm-specific weekly stock returns (DUVOL). Liquidity is measured by adjusted Amihud illiquidity. The two-stage least squares method is used to address endogeneity issues.

Using firm-level data from Vietnam, we find that crash risk increases with stock liquidity. The relationship is stronger in firms owned by institutional blockholders. Moreover, intensive selling by institutional blockholders in the future will positively moderate the relationship between liquidity and crash risk.

Since stock liquidity could exacerbate crash risk through institutional blockholder trading, firm managers should avoid bad news accumulation and practice timely information disclosures. Investors should be mindful of the risk associated with liquidity and blockholder trading.

We contribute to the literature by showing that the activities of blockholders could partly explain the relationship between liquidity and crash risk. High liquidity encourages blockholders to exit upon receiving private bad news.