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This paper studies the valuation of equity-linked investment products embedded with a high-water mark (HWM) fee structure. Under the HWM fee structure, the insurance company charges threshold fees at a constant rate from the policyholder's account whenever the account value is lower than a pre-specified level, and levies HMW fees at another constant rate whenever the account is hitting new record highs that are higher than another pre-specified level. The dynamics of the logarithmic value of the policyholder's account, before fees, is assumed to follow either a two-sided jump-diffusion process with double exponential jumps, or a down-ward jump-diffusion process with exponential jumps. For the two-sided jump-diffusion model with HWM fees, using the Wiener–Hopf factorisation theorem and the duality lemma, we derive an explicit expression for its potential measure. For the down-ward jump-diffusion model with both threshold fees and HWM fees, we are facilitated with the excursion theory to derive an explicit expression of the potential measure. Using the above newly derived potential measures, we are able to obtain formulas for valuing the equity-linked annuity under the HWM fee structure. Finally, we illustrate our results with some numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research introduces sales delegation in a product innovation game by considering Cournot and Bertrand duopolies. The article first revisits the existing results with profit‐maximising firms, showing that a prisoner's dilemma with undifferentiated products cannot occur in a Bertrand rivalry setting. Then, by considering the separation between ownership and control, the work shows, when managers are delegated to choose only over quantity or price in the product market, that sales delegation (1) increases (resp. reduces) the likelihood to innovate (not to innovate) under Cournot competition, and (2) increases the likelihood to innovate under Bertrand competition compared to the profit‐maximising setting. Unlike this, if managers are delegated to choose over quantity or price in the product market and product innovation is in the decision‐making stage, sales delegation reduces the likelihood of innovation in both Cournot and Bertrand rivalry settings. Overall, results pinpoint the importance of the managerial delegation in affecting investments in product innovation compared to the profit‐maximising model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation represents one of the most important drivers in the business context. Drawing upon the research on corporate social responsibility (CSR), shared value, and innovation, this paper aims to analyze the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG, a form of CSR) sustainability policies and corporate financial performance (CFP) by investigating the mediating role of Innovation (i.e., investment in research and development, R&D). Our sample comprises 148 European companies belonging to the Euro Stoxx index in the period 2009–2014. For high‐innovation companies (HICs), we find positive relationships between some Social (S) issues and CFP and weaker linkages between Environmental (E) indicators and CFP. In contrast, Governance (G) issues (i.e., issues related to board structure and board function) negatively influence CFP. In contrast, for medium‐innovation companies (MICs), these relationships are absent and low‐innovation companies (LICs) show negative relationships. Adopting reporting frameworks or guidelines affects CFP only in HIC. We introduce an original interpretative model, which identifies innovation (R&D) as the main driver in corporate sustainability, particularly in light of Social issues related to the production of a good or service. In terms of managerial implications, we identify three key factors for effectively embedding ESG in organizations' policies: investment in product innovation, compliance with environmental regulations, and corporate choices on brands and channels of external communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk profiles of investors play an important role in the success of derivative products investments. It is also necessary to determine the appropriate investor profile according to the conditions of a country. This protects investors from major losses. Therefore, there is a strong need for a new study that analyzes the risk profiles of derivative products in emerging economies. This study aims to identify the most appropriate investor risk profile for derivative instruments in emerging economies. It constructs a novel decision-making model. In this model, the facial action coding system, quantum theory, spherical fuzzy sets, and multi-stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (M-SWARA) methodology are integrated to minimize uncertainty in this process. First, three main participants of derivatives for financial technology investors are evaluated using the quantum spherical fuzzy M-SWARA technique. After that, seven emerging economies are ranked based on this performance using quantum spherical fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution. The main contribution is that an appropriate investor profile is identified for financial derivative investments in emerging economies. One of the important originalities of this study is the development of a new technique called M-SWARA by making some improvements to the classical stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis method. It is concluded that hedging is the most appropriate purpose for making investments in derivative products in emerging economies. It is also identified that China has the greatest performance among the seven emerging economies regarding the appropriate purpose for making derivative investments. For the effective management of this problem in these countries, it is recommended to prevent the speculative use of derivative products with legal regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of digital investment transactions on the trading volume and profitability of banks' asset management companies. The observations of the variables in the study are compiled for 9 banks between the 1st quarter of 2015 and the 1st quarter of 2023, and a balanced panel data set containing 297 observations is formed. Panel ARDL model, cointegration analysis and correlation analysis are utilized in the study. According to descriptive statistics and normal distribution statistics, Total Trading Volume variable is normally distributed, while Asset Management Company Profit Amount, Bond Trading Volume, Equity Trading Volume and VIOP Trading Volume variables are not normally distributed but close to normal. According to the findings of the CD Horizontal Cross-Section Dependence Test, it is determined that there is horizontal cross-section dependence for Total Trading Volume and Asset Management Company Profit Amount variables and other variables do not vary across units. According to the findings of the IPS (2003), LLC (2002) and CADF (2007) 2nd generation panel unit root tests for the variables Total Trading Volume and Portfolio Management Company Profit Amount, the dependent variables of the study were found to be non-stationary at the level and stationary at the first cyclical difference (Total Trading Volume, Portfolio Management Company Profit Amount). According to the findings of Breitung (1991) and HarrisTzavalis (1999) unit root tests, which are among the first generation panel unit root tests for variables with unit constant and time variables, the variables with unit constant and time variables in the models, namely Bond Trading Volume, Equity Trading Volume, VIOP Trading Volume and Mutual Fund Trading Volume, are found to be non-stationary in level but stationary in first-cycle difference. According to the findings of the correlation analysis between variables, there is a statistically significant, moderate relationship between Total Trading Volume and Bond Trading Volume, VIOP Trading Volume and Mutual Fund Trading Volume at the 1% significance level. There is no statistically significant relationship between Total Trading Volume and Equity Trading Volume. While there are statistically significant low to medium positive relationships between Asset Management Company Profit Amount variable and Bond Trading Volume, Mutual Fund Trading Volume and Mutual Fund Trading Volume at 1% significance level, there is no statistically significant relationship between Asset Management Company Profit Amount and Equity Trading Volume. When the relationships between independent variables are analyzed, there is a statistically significant and quite high relationship between Bond Trading Volume and VIOP Trading Volume and Mutual Fund Trading Volume at the 1% significance level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research shows when, why, and how a research bias during the product development process can lead to increased or decreased likelihood of investing in inclusive product design. Inclusive product design enables consumers who hold commonly overlooked identities such as people of color, people with disabilities, and older adults to realize the benefits of a product. However, there is a mismatch between the spending power of overlooked consumers and the dearth of products for which companies have invested in inclusive product design. This paper develops an analytical model to examine how company culture and bias in the research process influence the investment in inclusive product design and the product's expected profitability. Interestingly, the results show that under specific company cultures, a research bias against finding the need for inclusive product design can actually increase the probability of investment in inclusive product design, relative to when there is no research bias. The results of the model define the conditions for when each direction of research bias (in favor or against) can lead to more investment or less investment in inclusive product design. The findings have implications for companies that are able to influence the research bias or the company culture in which the researcher works. History: Anthony Dukes served as the senior editor for this article. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2023.1438. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever-increasing data consumption and evolving technologies make cooperation on investments and network sharing crucial issues in mobile telecommunications markets. In this paper, we analyze incentives for cooperation and investment in product quality. Generalizing quality investment in a Hotelling duopoly model, we allow investment to have heterogeneous effects on consumers' changing demand responsiveness to prices. If the effect of investment on demand elasticity is weak, consumer surplus and total welfare are higher when firms are prevented from cooperating on quality investment. Otherwise, firms should be allowed to jointly decide on quality improvements and share these improvements as long as they compete in the downstream markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the results of mathematical modeling and theoretical research works, it was established that the most influential factors of 3D printing, affecting the quality and time of end products formation, are extruder die temperature, layers height, speed of printing head movement when forming products, as well as simultaneous fabrication of several products within one cycle. In the work, the modes of the FDM 3D printing process were worked out and the regularities of the influence of the mentioned parameters on the structure and properties of resulted 3D polylactide products were established. The parameters of product formation were experimentally determined, which provide the production of 3D objects with predicted properties: maximum strength (98 % of filament strength), high aesthetic quality (surface smoothness and resolution) and products with minimal investments of time during their production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the theoretical underpinnings of the real options theory framework to investigate whether uncertainty affects a firms' decision to directly export versus indirectly export and to determine whether indirect exports may offset the negative effects of uncertainty on export intensity. Using firm-level survey data of 40 emerging countries, we find that uncertainty and firms' export intensity are negatively correlated. We also find that an increase in uncertainty increases a firms' willingness to export through trade intermediaries. These results when considered holistically imply that trade intermediaries are able to countervail the negative effect of uncertainty on firms' export intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do SFDR Art 9 funds induce more significant inflows than Art 8 funds? Using the industry-wide reclassification of SFDR labels in 2022 as a natural experiment, we find statistical evidence that SFDR labels matter in attracting flows. We see a substantial and statistically significant effect of, on average − 10.27% reduced flows in the immediate month following reclassification. After this adjustment, there is no difference in flows between old and new Art 8 funds (i.e. those recently reclassified from Art 9). Virtually all funds became Art 8. Our results confirm the regulator's view that SFDR labels help to channel capital flows into greener funds. They also support the commercial hopes of the asset management industry for attracting flows into ESG investment products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stocks are the most common financial investment products and attract many investors around the world. However, stock price volatility is usually uncontrollable and unpredictable for the individual investor. This research aims to apply different machine learning models to capture the stock price trends from the perspective of individual investors. We consider six traditional machine learning models for prediction: decision tree, support vector machine, bootstrap aggregating, random forest, adaptive boosting, and categorical boosting. Moreover, we propose a framework that uses regression models to obtain predicted values of different moving average changes and converts them into classification problems to generate final predictive results. With this method, we achieve the best average accuracy of 0.9031 from the 20-day change of moving average based on the support vector machine model. Furthermore, we conduct simulation trading experiments to evaluate the performance of this predictive framework and obtain the highest average annualized rate of return of 29.57%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Maqasid Shariah ratio is operationalized based on Maqasid Shariah objectives. Shariah fraternity, such as scholars, investors, and customers, is still assessing how the business, specifically the financial institutions, delivers Maqasid Shariah's objectives according to their business goals. Thus, this becomes a genuine concern for society, especially the users of the financial information and shariah financing or investing customers, depositors, or borrowers. Therefore, this study intends to examine the application level of Maqasid Shariah objectives by Islamic banks using their financial reporting data. Methodology: The Maqasid Shariah ratio is measured based on the two objectives of Maqasid Shariah, namely Justice (Al-Adl) and Welfare (Al-Maslahah). The determinants of the Maqasid Shariah ratio as a performance score for the Shariah scale of Islamic banks are assessed using the sophisticated Fuzzy TOPSIS technique. Findings: Surprisingly, Malaysian Islamic banks' achievement is based on the Shariah objectives, specifically on Justice (Al-Adl) at 84.51% and Welfare (Al-Maslahah) at 67.53%. However, the top score for Malaysian Islamic banks could achieve an above-average level of 44.1% out of 70% on the overall average score on Maqasid Shariah's objectives application in their reporting practice. Contributions: The results help improve and understand the application levels on Maqasid Shariah objectives and the disclosure practice on Maqasid Shariah's financial reporting for Islamic banks in Malaysia. Hence, Islamic banks need full disclosure and specific standard or provision on reporting the Maqasid Shariah elements. This needs to assist the users and provide insights into making the right decision, especially in Shariah-compliant investment products, financing alternatives, or services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we study the effect of differentiation on firms' optimal investments in advertising and product quality in the specific context of the motion picture industry. To guide our empirical analysis, we develop a stylized model uncovering that competition in advertising is the highest for intermediate levels of horizontal differentiation, while product quality increases monotonically in differentiation. We corroborate our theoretical predictions with a large dataset on the movie industry confirming both the inverted U‐shaped relationship between advertising and differentiation, and the monotonically increasing relationship between product quality and differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to substantiate the premise that the very task of socially responsible investment (SRI) today is to achieve impact. Based on extensive empirical studies on how different strategies deliver on this impact premise, it recommends changing the current strategy mix from a focus on exclusion to shareholder engagement. Design/methodology/approach: Based on an extensive review of the SRI literature, various SRI strategies are theoretically evaluated. Subsequently, an example of a bank that applies a sophisticated engagement strategy is presented. Findings: It is shown that there are indeed severe differences in the effects of exclusion, positive approaches and shareholder engagement. Impact-oriented investment products should use engagement strategies. Practical implications: By providing an empirically based rationale for shareholder engagement, this article gives those who practice it a moral and economic justification. Instead of having to defend why there are seemingly unethical companies in their portfolio, they can go on the offense and counter that the "pure" role models are actually "impact washers". Social implications: By emphasizing the primacy of the impact of investment products, the transmission mechanism of the capital market to create positive change for the environment and society is strengthened. This should lead to improvements in both areas. Originality/value: While there are some other studies that examine investor impact in some way, they often do so in a context that is unrelated of sustainable investments. This study structures the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of exclusion, positive approaches and shareholder engagement and provides a recommended course of action for investors and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to understand how scholarly research addresses sustainable investments' contribution to sustainable development (SD) within the sustainable development goals (SDG) framework. This is achieved by focusing on how the asset management industry, through the practice of advanced sustainable investment strategies, can contribute more efficiently to SD. Design/methodology/approach: For this purpose, a systematic literature review using the content analysis method and comprised between the years 2015 and 2021 is carried out. Findings: A systematic literature review shows that the asset management industry is critical to integrating SDGs in financial markets, through their influence on investee companies or their investment products. The findings also indicate that SDGs are integrated into investment portfolios, particularly those managed according to the impact investment strategy and those that practice active ownership. However, the integration is not homogeneous. Research limitations/implications: This review has limitations derived from search engineering. In addition, research goals have conditioned the exclusion of articles that merely refer to the SDGs. Moreover, since SDGs were launched in 2015, not enough time has elapsed to analyze the total contribution of sustainable investment to achieving the SDGs. Practical implications: This study provides the basis for a multidisciplinary debate related to developing a good integration of SDGs in the asset management industry under new global challenges. Social implications: Given the disconnection between the expansion of sustainable investment and sustainability achievements, this research aims to deepen the understanding of how sustainable investment can contribute more efficiently to SD within the framework of SDGs. Originality/value: This analysis advances previous academic research by providing insights into new pathways for future studies on how to approach the asset management industry's challenges to contribute to sustainable development efficiently in the current context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally Financial inclusion provides an opportunity to promote equal access to resources for all. One of the crucial catalysts for microenterprises development is access to the financial market. However, the growth of many microenterprises has been truncated in Ghana due to limited access to financial opportunities. Despite this challenge, little is known about the drivers of financial inclusion in Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. This paper examines the drivers of financial inclusion of microentrepreneurs in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. Using a close ended questionnaire, this study employed an exploratory survey design to collect data from 200 engaged in trading, manufacturing, and services. The respondents were sampled using a simple random sampling technique. Given that the outcome variable is binary, the study used a binary probit regression model for the data analysis. The results predicted that religion, awareness of loan services, business registration, and preparation of financial statements drive financial inclusion in Wa Municipality. From the results, the study recommends that financial service providers should consider social networks, entrepreneurial practice, gender and religion as sensitive drivers of financial inclusion. In addition, financial education should be intensified as knowledge of the available financial products is a key driver of financial inclusion in the Municipality. While this study has contributed to the body of literature on financial inclusion in Ghana, further research is necessary to identify consumer financial needs to meet clients' expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the article is to examine whether inflation-indexed treasury bonds issued by the Polish Minister of Finance protect investors’ capital against the negative consequences of an increase in the price level. Design/methodology/approach: The condition which has to be met in order to achieve a positive net rate of return in real terms has been established. The historical and current rates of return on investment in the inflation-indexed treasury bonds issued by the Polish Minister of Finance were analysed to check whether they meet this condition. Findings: Own research has shown that in general, operation principle of bonds indexed to inflation should allow the investor to gain protection from negative effects of price changes. Yet, the example of Polish treasury bonds shows that systematic reduction of interest premiums for the subsequent series of issued instruments, changes in the operation principles, negative effect of taxation and materialisation of the defined in article time-shift mismatch risk – in the high-inflation environment results in significantly negative values of the current net rates of return in real terms of the latest series of COI and EDO bonds. This means that these bonds have not protected investors from the negative effects of price increases and loss of purchase power of invested capital. Research limitations/implications: The levels of real rates of return calculated in the way presented in the article, i.e. based on official data of the Statistics Poland, are representative for the entire economy, yet do not have to translate into the same value for the individuals – real rates of return calculated appropriately for the individual investor may vary in both ways and therefore be more or less favourable than presented in the article. Originality/value: The demand for these investment products is increasing, which is surprising in the light of the article’s findings. That may, result from investors’ expectations regarding a decrease in inflation in the coming periods, as well as the fact that, despite the negative profitability in real terms, these instruments can more effectively minimize the real-term losses stemming from inflation than other types of investments of a similar risk level (deposits, savings accounts) what can be furtherly reviewed in the next research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence indicates that market model alphas are stronger predictors of mutual fund flows than alphas with other models. Some recent papers have interpreted this evidence to mean that CAPM is the best asset pricing model, but some others have interpreted it as evidence against investor sophistication. We evaluate the merits of these mutually exclusive interpretations. We show that no tenable inference about the validity of any asset pricing model can be drawn from this evidence. Rejecting the investor sophistication hypothesis is tenable, but the appropriate benchmark to judge sophistication is different from that used in this literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's society, investment wealth management has become a mainstream of the contemporary era. Investment wealth management refers to the use of funds by investors to arrange funds reasonably, for example, savings, bank financial products, bonds, stocks, commodity spots, real estate, gold, art, and many others. Wealth management tools manage and assign families, individuals, enterprises, and institutions to achieve the purpose of increasing and maintaining value to accelerate asset growth. Among them, in investment and financial management, people's favorite product of investment often stocks, because the stock market has great advantages and charm, especially compared with other investment methods. More and more scholars have developed methods of prediction from multiple angles for the stock market. According to the feature of financial time series and the task of price prediction, this article proposes a new framework structure to achieve a more accurate prediction of the stock price, which combines Convolution Neural Network (CNN) and Long–Short-Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM). This new method is aptly named stock sequence array convolutional LSTM (SACLSTM). It constructs a sequence array of historical data and its leading indicators (options and futures), and uses the array as the input image of the CNN framework, and extracts certain feature vectors through the convolutional layer and the layer of pooling, and as the input vector of LSTM, and takes ten stocks in U.S.A and Taiwan as the experimental data. Compared with previous methods, the prediction performance of the proposed algorithm in this article leads to better results when compared directly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine what factors played a determining role in creating new and dynamic bilateral relationships between the "sixteen" smaller European states and China, particularly the Republic of Serbia. Our research will notably examine the expressed capacity of the local actors in Serbia and their main drivers to accept and support China's initiatives. A new chapter in cooperation with the People's Republic of China (PRC) resulted from the one-sided PRC initiative. Vulnerable to the consequences of the global economic crises and neglected by Brussels, member states among the "sixteen" were attracted to China's promise of market access for their products and investment. The Balkan states, severely affected by the civil war in the 1990s and the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, were in an even grimmer condition and even further from substantial developmental assistance from Brussels. The domestic economic and somewhat political drivers were the main ones that existed with all the local agents and their willingness to engage. In the case of Serbia, there were also powerful peace and security issues. Additional drivers come from international relations, and major power rivalries became increasingly apparent with the rise of project numbers and values and China's growing political clout over the included countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge management arose as a result of the need to incorporate the dynamics of an enterprise environment into an enterprise model. It requires a holistic approach integrating technological and human aspects by building and developing key competencies. Knowledge management makes possible correct strategic decisions, correct investments into product, minimizing risks, process innovations and effective update of the business strategy. Furthermore it leads to reduction of costs, improvement of quality in all aspects of an enterprise and reduction of delivery times of goods and services. In the knowledge enterprise, the creation of an internal climate favourable towards innovative approaches, employee development, cooperation between employees, knowledge sharing and fulfilment of organization goals must be provided. A synergy of functions is crucial for managing a knowledge enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a structured product (SP) for hedging defined contribution pension fund members against capital market risk. Using Monte Carlo simulations on three different guaranteed returns to test the investment strategy of the SP against a balanced investment portfolio, we measure their performance across a wide variety of capital market returns and risk scenarios. The results show that the SP guarantees a minimal return on the pension savings portfolio and offers a higher portfolio return at a lower investment risk, compared with the balanced investment portfolio. We conclude that the SP may become popular among pension fund members, potentially leading to improved risk management, greater competition, and investment strategy innovations for defined contribution pension schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SEC's efforts to standardize climate disclosure have revealed deep divides among the public and among corporate and securities law scholars about the proper scope and goals of climate disclosure reform. This controversy comes at a time when investor demand for ESG investment products is rising exponentially and when other regulators worldwide are already moving to standardize how climate risk and other ESG information is reported to investors. This Article clarifies the line-drawing choices behind mandatory climate risk disclosure, explains the established frameworks for corporate climate reporting that regulators internationally are building upon, and identifies how both have informed the SEC's proposed climate disclosure rules. This Article contributes to the debates over ESG disclosure mandates by exploring the boundaries and intersections of climate risk and broader ESG concepts and by considering the potential liability implications of mandatory climate risk disclosure. It concludes by explaining the impact and limits of the SEC's line-drawing choices and outlining steps that could be taken to better achieve the goals of the proposed reforms and perhaps to move beyond them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the product quality in terms of its price and company's advertising investment. The central assumption is that the advertising investment of a collective brand member has a positive influence on its product quality until an advertising investment threshold is reached, after which the effect on product quality becomes negative. This change in the slope is explained because consumers perceive advertising effort as excessive, so they wonder if this means there's a problem with the quality of the product. Advertising investment is curvilinearly related to product quality with a higher slope for products with low price than for those with high price, and positively related to products with moderate price. The results obtained from a sample of Spanish companies that operate in an experience goods industry (i.e. wineries) evidence the proposed relationships. These results reveal the importance of advertising investment for product quality in industries in which the signal of quality is not only reliant on the collective and individual brands; and also suggest the complexities of implementing such investment to get product quality in companies depending on their price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platform owners increasingly make corporate venture capital investments in complementors (e.g., app developers) to stimulate value creation, a practice we refer to as platform venture capital (PVC). Interested in the implications of PVC for other complementors, we investigate how PVC investments affect their product introduction and withdrawal decisions. Given that complementors confront platform-specific uncertainty concerning the strategic directions of the platform, which is asymmetrically set by the platform owner, we theorize that complementors leverage PVC investments as devices for anchored inferential learning. That is, because PVC investments are costly, visible, and consequential, complementors will infer them as credible indicators of the platform's future focus. Consequently, we predict that complementors will seek out, and stick around, product categories of PVC investees. We further anticipate that these inclinations are weaker for complementors with greater platform ecosystem experience that place more emphasis on knowledge acquired via experiential learning, and stronger for complementors that center their business exclusively on the platform and therefore rely strongly on PVC to navigate platform-specific uncertainty. We provide quantitative evidence from the context of the Salesforce platform. Moreover, we draw on qualitative data from this context to unpack why complementors interpret PVC investments as a credible signal concerning the strategic direction of the platform. We highlight that complementors consider PVC as a form of middle-ground platform governance, where the platform owner is perceived as being committed to stimulating value creation in the platform ecosystem, while also inducing complementors to commit their efforts to the platform ecosystem. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1607. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first to explore how manufacturing firms adjust their export product mix in response to services liberalization. We focus on the liberalization of services foreign direct investment (FDI) in destination (importing) countries. Our analysis of detailed customs transaction data from China, finds a promotion effect of services FDI liberalization on export diversification of manufactured goods, which is mainly revealed by an increase in export value, variation in the number of product varieties, the dispersion ratio across exported products, and a decrease in the export skewness ratio. However, this diversification‐promotion effect is only found in developing countries, but not present in developed countries. Our study suggests that services liberalization incurred in importing countries play an important role in promoting export scale and diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine, both theoretically and empirically, how the presence of FDI affects product quality of domestic firms through worker mobility. Mobility of more productive workers from foreign‐invested to domestic firms lowers the cost of production and contributes to improvement in the quality of goods produced by domestic firms. Profit maximisation by firms yields a structural relationship between unobserved product quality and observed revenue, which allows us to identify the impact of FDI on product quality. We use the theoretical model to frame empirical estimation, where we propose a novel approach to correct for sample selection bias. Under some mild assumptions, a set of population moments are derived and estimated using firm‐level data from China's beverage manufacturing industry. We find that, on average, (i) working for foreign‐invested firms boosts the skill level of workers by 11.12 per cent and (ii) the probability that an FDI‐trained worker will move to a domestic firm is approximately 0.3. Estimation of the structural parameters shows that a one per cent increase in FDI leads to approximately 1.4 per cent improvement in product quality of domestic firms in China's beverage manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how personality traits and money attitudes influence consumers' decision‐making styles when purchasing investment products in South Africa. A sample of 269 South Africans completed the research questionnaire, which assessed their extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, money power/prestige, money retention/time, money quality, info‐mising, extending, and tax‐free investment purchase decision. Also, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling approaches were used to analyze the survey data. The results suggest that personality traits and money attitudes significantly impact consumer decision‐making regarding tax‐free investment products. However, the relationships between extraversion and money power/prestige and between info‐mising decision styles and tax‐tree investment purchase decisions were found to be negative. Cluster analysis revealed three distinct segments based on the characteristics of respondents and their drive for investment: strong conscientiousness investors, status‐driven investors, and introverted investors. Marketing professionals and investment firms can use the study findings on consumer traits and money attitudes to improve marketing effectiveness in an organisation. Practically, extensive information processing has a fundamental bearing on investment decision‐making in emerging markets. Extraversion and conscientiousness personality traits and money attitudes must be taken into consideration by investment products marketers and practitioners in marketing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an increased understanding of financial planning and efforts put in by mutual funds companies to encourage mutual funds as an investment product, mutual funds are slowly becoming a preferred investment avenue. In addition, the availability of a wide variety of schemes of mutual funds makes it easier for an investor to select a scheme which would help him in achieving his financial objectives. As of today, they have become the most common investment avenue. The objectives of this study are to identify the factors which influence investor selection of mutual funds in Tiruvallur District, know the company related factors influencing investment in mutual funds, identify the type of preferred mutual fund schemes, understand the pattern of investments made by investors in mutual fund schemes and to know the association between demographics of investors and their preference for a particular type of mutual fund scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from traditional asset-liability management where only investment allocation is considered, this paper introduces policy product allocation into asset-liability management of insurance companies. In order to balance product allocation and investment allocation, a bi-level optimization model is employed. Since the decision-making environment of the two allocation processes is full of indeterminacy, the imprecise information of the model is measured by uncertain variables in order to deal with the lack of enough historical data. To solve this bi-level Optimization problem containing uncertain variables, an uncertain bilevel programming model is used. Furthermore, we simulate a scenario to compare the bi-level optimization approach with other approaches by virtue of hybrid intelligent algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paraphrasing the famous quote by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, most of us "know it when we see it" when contemplating the possibility and consequences of risk, but the definition of risk may not glibly roll off the tongue. We need to understand a client's sensitivities to risk in order to move to the next level of planning. Risk tolerance is a fundamental determiner of suitability for investment products, and is similarly the appropriate springboard for answering "what kind of policy should I buy?". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses two regulatory developments in the United Kingdom related to retail disclosure and transparency requirements in the financial markets. The first development is the publication of a draft statutory instrument that will implement a revised retail disclosure framework for consumer composite investments. This new framework aims to replace the existing framework for complex retail investment and insurance products, which has been criticized for imposing unnecessary disclosure rules. The second development is a consultation by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on proposals for improving transparency in bond and derivatives markets. The FCA is seeking to replace current pre- and post-trade disclosure rules with minimum harmonized transparency requirements for certain financial instruments, while also providing guidance on the definition of a systematic internalizer. [Extracted from the article]

The topic of this study is the pragmatics of investment recommendations in German financial magazines. The target reader, mainly a private investor, expects a clear assessment of the quality of the investment product and a corresponding operative instruction regarding his investment decision (whether he should buy, sell or hold a certain stock, mutual fund, or bond). On the basis of a large corpus of over five thousand texts from the most important weekly magazines (Börse Online, Der Aktionär, Focus Money) it is investigated to what extent this text genre meets reader expectations. Investment recommendations show a potentially complex pragmatic structure including, among others, a headline, an evaluation of relevant arguments (pros and cons) and the operative instruction (buy/sell/hold). However, crucial elements may be missing or even give conflicting hints concerning the investment decision. Moreover, operative instructions often tend to be formulated as rather vague indirect speech acts, limiting the overall pragmatic user-friendliness. These apparent inconsistencies can be put down to a secondary pragmatic goal from the perspective of the writer: not only to give good advice, but also not to be held accountable for bad advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are many literatures on firms' product and process innovation in recent years, the effects of advertising-based goodwill and consumers' reference quality on firms' product and process innovation are rarely considered. Therefore, the significant features of our study are: (i) introducing the concept and definition of the consumers' reference quality; (ii) considering the effect of product quality on goodwill; (iii) the customers' demand function depends on product quality, product price, advertising-based goodwill and the difference between product quality and reference quality, and the demand function takes a linear form. Our results suggest that (i) the system admits unique saddle-point steady-state equilibrium under the monopolist decision-making and the social planner regulation; (ii) with the increases of the product quality and goodwill, the corresponding investments also increases; however, with the increase of marginal cost and reference quality, the corresponding investment decreases; (iii) the monopolist's investment in one direction boosts the other in the neighborhood of the steady-state investments in product innovation, process innovation and advertising-based goodwill, respectively; and (iv) the monopolist will have an underinvestment problem as compared with the social planner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the literature on innovation, several vital factors or determinants favor innovation in companies. In the case of R&D, significant advances have been made in the last two decades, which have enriched our understanding of its impact on various innovation outcomes. However, due to a lack of data availability, its study is difficult to address in emerging markets. This is why, using microdata from 5588 firms, we investigate the relationship between R&D investment and the impact on product and process innovations in different Latin American countries. We contribute to the literature by employing a machine learning methodology and comparing its results to a traditional innovation model. Our findings demonstrate the behavior of both product and process innovation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As 3D-printed (3DP) patterns are solid and durable, they can be used to create thin wall castings, which is complicated with wax patterns because of the wax's fragility and high shrinkage ratio. According to this study's experiment results, polylactic acid (PLA), polyvinyl butyral (PVB), and castable wax (CW) are suitable materials for preparing investment casting (IC) cavities. The results indicate that the casting product with the highest-quality surface is obtained using a cavity prepared using a CW-printed pattern. PLA- and PVB-printed patterns provide a good surface finish for casted products. In addition, the roughness of both the printed and casted surfaces increases as the printing layer height increases. The roughness of the casted surface varies from 2.25 μm to 29.17 μm. This investigation also considers the correlation between the infill ratio and mechanical properties of PLA-printed patterns. An increase in the infill ratios from 0% to 100% leads to a significant increase in the tensile properties of the PLA-printed pattern. The obtained results can be practically used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a dynamic control model to investigate a monopolist's investment strategies in product innovation, process innovation and advertising-based goodwill. The significant features of our study are: (ⅰ) considering the effect of product quality on goodwill; (ⅱ) considering the instantaneous cost of producing a quality using machinery and/or skilled labour; (ⅲ) the customers' demand function depends on product quality, product price and goodwill in a separable multiplicative way between the state variables and control variables. Our results suggest that (ⅰ) the system admits unique saddle-point steady-state equilibrium under the monopolist optimum and the social optimum; (ⅱ) and the monopolist will have an underinvestment problem as compared with the social planner; and (ⅲ) although the product price is still determined by the monopolist under the social planner optimum, the product price is higher under the monopolist optimum than that under the social planner optimum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, the demand for sustainable and social investments has improved. The mutual funds industry has responded to market needs by offering a number of investment products focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) companies. The aim of this article is to understand if an ESG score can actually be considered a valid criterion that portfolio managers could adopt, along with traditional risk–return optimisation, in selecting asset portfolios. The paper analyses the link between the performance and the ESG score of different sectoral portfolios (one for each sector of the Global Industry Classification Standard), entirely composed of ESG assets, in the search for a clear and strong positive correlation that could suggest an overall advantage to focus on an ex ante choice of assets with high ESG scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Previous research shows that inter-firm collaboration and R&D investments have positive effects on enterprises' product innovation performance. This study aims to assess if the performance effects are moderated by enterprises' innovation experience. i.e., does the experience increase or decrease the innovation performance from inter-firm collaboration and R&D investments? Methods: Norwegian enterprise panel regressions between 2004 and 2016 were done on data provided by Statistics Norway. Results and implications: Consistent with the previous research, inter-firm collaboration increases enterprises' product innovation performance. Also, R&D investments increase product innovation performance but at an exponentially decreasing rate that eventually turns negative. A novel contribution is that the results are consistent, independent of innovation experience. It implies that inexperienced and experienced enterprises have an equal absorptive capacity to innovate from inter-firm collaboration and R&D investments. Independent of innovation experience, enterprise revenues furthermore increase from new products as a function of R&D investments at an exponentially increasing rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]