An examination of the joint venture market entry option in China : a case study of an Australian company's international marketing experience in China

There is a widely held view in the literature that foreign companies looking to invest in the China market should opt for joint ventures rather than wholly foreign-owned enterprises for many reasons, ranging from a smaller capital commitment to utilising the market knowledge of local Chinese partners. This paper examines this issue in the light of the experience of the Foster's Brewing Group which established three joint ventures in China only to reject this form of market entry option within a few years. The paper looks at some of the reasons behind Foster's rejection of the joint venture option and proposes some key guidelines that foreign companies should follow if they are to successfully establish joint ventures in China.

Self-regulation: a risky option for developing countries? The case of Bangladesh

In recent years, the command and control type of government regulation is giving way to self- regulatory approaches in which industry sectors are responsible for controlling the conduct of their own members. Although self-regulatory approaches are increasingly being adopted with the objective of both improving the rate of compliance and reducing costs in developed countries, this paper argues that this might be a risky option. Developing countries often do not have adequate levels of standards of efficiency, effective legal regulatory frameworks, institutional safeguards and public awareness. Using the Bangladesh agriculture sector as an exemplar, this paper investigates the prospects of self-regulation of small businesses trading in agricultural inputs as a possible remedy for the recent problems associated with the sale of contaminated inputs to the farmers. The paper argues that self-regulation does not develop and is not sustained  independently of the context in which business operates. Importantly, the context includes the legal infrastructure created by the state and the enforcement effort imposed by the state. In the absence of effective state intervention in the public interest, institutional safeguards and public awareness, private entrepreneurs are less constrained to behave in the public interest and in conformity with the objectives of self-regulation. The findings of this paper provide significant implications for addressing the issue of effective regulation in developing countries.

Contemporaneous intra-day volume, option, and futures volatility transmissions across parallel markets

The primary objective of this article is to investigate volatility transmission across three parallel markets operating on the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE), both within and out of sample. Half-hourly observations are sampled from transaction data for the share price index (SPI) futures, SPI futures options, and 90-day bank accepted bill (BAB) futures markets, and the analysis is carried out using the simultaneous volatility (SVL) system of equations as well as competing volatility models. The results confirm the poor ability of GARCH models to fit intraday data. This study also applies an artificial nesting procedure to evaluate the out-of-sample volatility forecasts. Implied volatility has very limited (if any) predictive power when evaluated in isolation, whereas the SVL model with implied volatility embedded provides incremental information relative to competing model forecasts.

Electrosorption: an alternative option for desalination

Electrosorption is generally defined as adsorption on the surfaces of charged electrodes by applying potential or current. Electrosorption deionization method is a low-pressure non-membrane deionization process, with the potential to be a low energy cost alternative for desalination in the future. In this paper, the principle and mechanism of the electrosorption deionization method are discussed, the materials and properties of the electrode used in electrosorption process are summarized and the application and prospect of this promising desalination method are reviewed.

Is money targeting an option for Bank Indonesia?

In this paper, using the cash-in-advance model, we estimate Indonesia's money demand function for the period 1970–2005. We find the real M1 and real M2 are cointegrated with their determinants, namely real income, real exchange rate and short-term domestic and foreign interest rates. The long-run elasticities, except for the relationship between M2 and domestic interest rate, are plausible. Interestingly, we find a negative relationship between real exchange rate and real money demand, suggesting evidence of currency substitution. We test for causal relationships and find that in the short-run only the real exchange rate Granger causes real M1 and real M2. Finally, we find that Indonesia's money demand functions are unstable. We conclude that money targeting is not an option for Bank Indonesian and that currency substitution should be curbed in order to ensure macroeconomic sustainability.

Do retail option traders know better about market volatility?

This paper examines the informational content and predictive power of implied volatility over different forecasting horizons in a sample of European covered warrants traded in the Hong Kong and Singapore markets. The empirical results show that time-series-based volatility forecasts outperform implied volatility forecast as a predictor of future volatility. The finding also suggests that implied volatility is biased and informationally inefficient. The results are attributable to the fact in Hong Kong and Singapore the covered warrants markets are dominated by retail investors, who tend to use covered warrants' leverage to speculate on the price movements of the underlying rather than to express their view on volatility.

Do retail option traders know better about market volatility?

This paper examines the informational content and predictive power of implied volatility over different forecasting horizons in a sample of European covered warrants traded in the Hong Kong and Singapore markets. The empirical results show that time-series-based volatility forecasts outperform implied volatility forecast as predictors of future volatility. The finding also suggests that implied volatility is biased and informationally inefficient and that covered warrants are typically overvalued. The results are attributable to the fact that, in Hong Kong and Singapore, the covered warrants markets are dominated by retail investors who tend to use covered warrants' leverage to speculate on the price movements of the underlying assets rather than to express their view on volatility. Arbitrage is not possible in the markets as short-selling of covered warrants is prohibited.

The hidden martingale restriction in Gram-Charlier option prices

A hidden martingale restriction is developed for option pricing models based on Gram-Charlier expansions of the normal density function. The restriction is hidden behind a reduction in parameter space for the Gram-Charlier expansion coefficients. The resulting restriction is invisible in the option price.

Estimating expected excess returns using historical and option-implied volatility

We test the relation between expected and realized excess returns for the S&P 500 index from January 1994 through December 2003 using the proportional reward-to-risk measure to estimate expected returns. When risk is measured by historical volatility, we find no relation between expected and realized excess returns. In contrast, when risk is measured by option-implied volatility, we find a positive and significant relation between expected and realized excess returns in the 1994–1998 subperiod. In the 1999–2003 subperiod, the option-implied volatility risk measure yields a positive, but statistically insignificant, risk-return relation. We attribute this performance difference to the fact that, in the 1994–1998 subperiod, return volatility was lower and the average return was much higher than in the 1999–2003 subperiod, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in the latter subperiod.

Asset-selling problem with an uncertain deadline, quitting offer, and search skipping option

This paper presents a discrete-time sequential stochastic asset-selling problem with an infinite planning horizon, where the process of selling the asset may reach a deadline at any point in time with a probability. It is assumed that a quitting offer is available at every point in time and search skipping is permitted. Thus, decisions must be made as to whether or not to accept the quitting offer, to accept an appearing buyer’s offer, and to conduct a search for a buyer. The main purpose of this paper is to clarify the properties of the optimal decision rules in relation to the model’s parameters.

Implied volatility smiles, option mispricing and net buying pressure : evidence around the global financial crisis

Using the recent global financial crisis as an exogenous setting, we examine the presence and source of implied volatility smile phenomena in Australian S&P ASX 200 index options. We find a pronounced implied volatility smile for index puts in both bull and bear markets and a smile for index calls in the bear but not bull market. Implied volatilities of out-of-the money puts tend to be upwards biased whilst those of calls tend to be downwards biased. We also find that the bias in implied volatilities yields excess returns based on unhedged and delta-neutral trading strategies, suggesting that implied volatilities are related to option mispricing. Net buying pressure from market participants appears to be a source of mispricing in the case of out-of-the-money index puts with excess demand particularly pronounced during the bull period before the global financial crisis unfolded.

Physical activity promotion for male factory workers : a realistic option?

Issue addressed: Worksites are a promising setting for health promotion initiatives. While there is an accumulated body of evidence indicating favourable health and cost outcomes, there have been difficulties identified in recruiting and influencing blue- collar workers. This descriptive study aimed to identify specific opportunities and barriers which may impact upon physical activity options at work for male blue-collar factory workers.

Methods: Fifteen manager interviews and worksite observations, and eight employee group discussions were conducted in manufacturing industry worksites.

Results: Several key barriers emerged which limit opportunities for blue-collar employees to participate in physical activity at work: time constraints; limited facilities; and lack of interest from management to facilitate physical activity due to limited resources and concerns about safety issues. Potential opportunities included the presence of change rooms, showers, outdoor areas suitable for physical activity, nearby parks and local fitness facilities, and occupational health and safety committees.

Conclusions: Increasing opportunities for workers to be active at work did not emerge as a priority of managers who may need to be convinced that allocating time and resources to physical activity is a wise investment and that workers need an environment that both supports and encourages participation in physical activity. The role of physical activity in relation to injury prevention and potential reductions in Workcover premiums is worthy of further investigation.

So what? While worksite physical activity promotion is a national health objective, there are numerous actual and perceived barriers to initiatives directed at factory workers. Rather than offering specific programs, it may be more productive to address work practices and environmental and regulatory barriers through established occupational health and safety channels. Information and education strategies to change the attitudes and beliefs of management and workers about these issues, as well as about the health benefits of physical activity, may also be helpful.

Home hemodialysis : a successful option for obese and bariatric people with end-stage kidney disease

The increasing prevalence of obesity in developed countries is reflected in the chronic kidney disease, dialysis, and transplant populations. The added risk factor of obesity increases the risk of vascular events, inflammation, insulin resistance, blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and mortality risk. Nephrology center policies may exclude obese people from transplantation programs resulting in many years of dialysis. The case of a 215-kg Australian male who has successfully dialyzed at home for more than 8 years will be used to illustrate the important considerations and clinical support that these people require for successful home dialysis treatment. The aim of this paper is to report on a program that has successfully trained 23 obese (body mass index >30) people who commenced on home hemodialysis between 2001 and 2009. Body weight ranged between 94.0 and 215 kg (mean 126, SD 26.19) and body mass index ranged between 34.9 and 71 (mean 43.38, SD 9.99) at the start of home training. During the 8.5 years of follow-up, average time on home dialysis was 43.7 months. Home hemodialysis is a feasible treatment for obese people to facilitate longer and more frequent dialysis, resulting in improved hemodynamic stability and improved quality of life. For obese people with end-stage kidney disease, home hemodialysis has shown to be cost-effective and can result in greater treatment efficacy than in-center hospital dialysis.

Examining ‘Latinidad’ in Latin America: race, ‘Latinidad’ and the decolonial option

This article provides a critical account of the idea of race, conceived of and derived from European colonisers in the New World. The paper argues that race became a crucial category to the colonising projects of the New World, and in particular in the distribution of power during colonialism. The paper further examines how the notion of Latinidad (Latinity), entrenched in the term Latin America, continued to enact a discourse of racial superiority/inferiority even after the battles for Independence had taken place. Employing the critical vocabulary and framework of Decolonial theory, the paper introduces key arguments against Western European universality, and calls for a re-reading of the processes that structure privilege across racial and ethnic lines.