Expediting New Program Development: Meeting Market Demand and Leveraging Internal Resources

Expediting new program development can help universities meet student and employer demand while gaining an edge over competitors, but coordinating program development and approval requires careful preparation and execution. This report profiles strategies to measure market demand for new programs, choose programs for accelerated development, and leverage internal resources. The report also suggests ways to structure and staff program development to maximize speed and effectiveness.

Volatility modelling in the forex market: an empirical evaluation

We compare three frequently used volatility modelling techniques: GARCH, Markovian switching and cumulative daily volatility models. Our primary goal is to highlight a practical and systematic way to measure the relative effectiveness of these techniques. Evaluation comprises the analysis of the validity of the statistical requirements of the various models and their performance in simple options hedging strategies. The latter puts them to test in a "real life" application. Though there was not much difference between the three techniques, a tendency in favour of the cumulative daily volatility estimates, based on tick data, seems dear. As the improvement is not very big, the message for the practitioner - out of the restricted evidence of our experiment - is that he will probably not be losing much if working with the Markovian switching method. This highlights that, in terms of volatility estimation, no clear winner exists among the more sophisticated techniques.

Using irregularly spaced returns to estimate multi-factor models: application to Brazilian equity data

Multi-factor models constitute a useful tool to explain cross-sectional covariance in equities returns. We propose in this paper the use of irregularly spaced returns in the multi-factor model estimation and provide an empirical example with the 389 most liquid equities in the Brazilian Market. The market index shows itself significant to explain equity returns while the US$/Brazilian Real exchange rate and the Brazilian standard interest rate does not. This example shows the usefulness of the estimation method in further using the model to fill in missing values and to provide interval forecasts.

A study of behavioral finance: background, theories and application

Behavioral finance, or behavioral economics, consists of a theoretical field of research stating that consequent psychological and behavioral variables are involved in financial activities such as corporate finance and investment decisions (i.e. asset allocation, portfolio management and so on). This field has known an increasing interest from scholar and financial professionals since episodes of multiple speculative bubbles and financial crises. Indeed, practical incoherencies between economic events and traditional neoclassical financial theories had pushed more and more researchers to look for new and broader models and theories. The purpose of this work is to present the field of research, still ill-known by a vast majority. This work is thus a survey that introduces its origins and its main theories, while contrasting them with traditional finance theories still predominant nowadays. The main question guiding this work would be to see if this area of inquiry is able to provide better explanations for real life market phenomenon. For that purpose, the study will present some market anomalies unsolved by traditional theories, which have been recently addressed by behavioral finance researchers. In addition, it presents a practical application of portfolio management, comparing asset allocation under the traditional Markowitz’s approach to the Black-Litterman model, which incorporates some features of behavioral finance.

Strategic adoption in a two-sided market : a study of college applications in Brazil

This paper measures the importance of indirect network effects in the adoption by colleges and students of ENEM, a standardized exam for high-school students in Brazil that can be used in college application processes. We estimate network effects and find that they are economically significant. Students are more likely to take ENEM the larger the number of colleges adopting it. Similarly, colleges are more likely to adopt it the larger the number of students taking the exam. Moreover, we find evidence that colleges play strategically and that heterogeneity determines their decisions. A college is less likely to adopt ENEM the larger the number of competitors adopting it. Colleges’ characteristics such as ownership and organization affect adoption decisions. In a counterfactual exercise we compare colleges’ adoption decisions under competition and under joint colleges’ payoffs maximization. Adoption rates are significantly reduced when colleges internalize the competitive effect, i.e., the effect of their decisions on other colleges’ payoffs. On the other hand, they increase when indirect network effects - the effect of students’ response to their decisions on other colleges’ payoffs - are also internalized. Competitive adoption rates are found to exceed joint optimum rates by a small difference. These results suggest that, without considering students’ welfare, adoption rates are excessive, but close to the joint optimum.

Using irregularly spaced returns to estimate multi-factor models : application to Brazilian equity data

Multi-factor models constitute a use fui tool to explain cross-sectional covariance in equities retums. We propose in this paper the use of irregularly spaced returns in the multi-factor model estimation and provide an empirical example with the 389 most liquid equities in the Brazilian Market. The market index shows itself significant to explain equity returns while the US$/Brazilian Real exchange rate and the Brazilian standard interest rate does not. This example shows the usefulness of the estimation method in further using the model to fill in missing values and to provide intervaI forecasts.

Market entry of an innovative technology : the example of a new app on the Brazilian tourism market

The Brazilian start-up Local Wander plans to enter the tourism sector with a mobile application aiming to enable a new form of travel research. A web-based survey has been sent out to the start-up’s target audience (n: 236) in order to gain further relevant information for the designing of Local Wander’s market entry strategy. By applying the diffusion of innovation theory, this thesis could detect five different adopter categories, originally described by Rogers (1962), among Local Wander’s target audience based on their adoption intention. The Early Market was observed to be significantly bigger than the theory predicted. Research revealed four characteristics to be of significant impact on the adoption intention: Relative Perceived Product Advantage, Perceived Product Complexity, Compatibility with digital travel research sources, and the adopter’s Innovativeness towards mobile applications. Specific characteristics in order to identify Local Wander’s early users, the so called Innovators, were detected giving indications for further necessary company market research. Findings showed that the diffusion of innovation framework is a helpful tool for start-ups’ prospective decision making and market entry strategy planning.

Effect of price and in-store promotion on sales: a study of distinct regions in an emerging market

Increasing competition caused by globalization, high growth of some emerging markets and stagnation of developed economies motivate Consumer Packaged Goods (CPGs) manufacturers to drive their attention to emerging markets. These companies are expected to adapt their marketing activities to the particularities of these markets in order to succeed. In a country classified as emerging market, regions are not alike and some contrasts can be identified. In addition, divergences of marketing variables effect can also be observed in the different retail formats. The retail formats in emerging markets can be segregated in chain self-service and traditional full-service. Thus, understanding the effectiveness of marketing mix not only in country aggregated level data can be an important contribution. Inasmuch as companies aim to generate profits from emerging markets, price is an important marketing variable in the process of creating competitive advantage. Along with price, promotional variables such as in-store displays and price cut are often viewed as temporary incentives to increase short-term sales. Managers defend the usage of promotions as being the most reliable and fastest manner to increase sales and then short-term profits. However, some authors alert about sales promotions disadvantages; mainly in the long-term. This study investigates the effect of price and in-store promotions on sales volume in different regions within an emerging market. The database used is at SKU level for juice, being segregated in the Brazilian northeast and southeast regions and corresponding to the period from January 2011 to January 2013. The methodological approach is descriptive quantitative involving validation tests, application of multivariate and temporal series analysis method. The Vector-Autoregressive (VAR) model was used to perform the analysis. Results suggest similar price sensitivity in the northeast and southeast region and greater in-store promotion sensitivity in the northeast. Price reductions show negative results in the long-term (persistent sales in six months) and in-store promotion, positive results. In-store promotion shows no significant influence on sales in chain self-service stores while price demonstrates no relevant impact on sales in traditional full-service stores. Hence, this study contributes to the business environment for companies wishing to manage price and sales promotions for consumer brands in regions with different features within an emerging market. As a theoretical contribution, this study fills an academic gap providing a dedicated price and sales promotion study to contrast regions in an emerging market.

Barriers to Latin American and Caribbean exports in the US market, 1998-1999

Includes bibliography

Analysis of the effects of trade opening on household welfare: an application to Chile, 1999-2006

Incluye bibliografía

Analysis of the effects of trade opening on household welfare: an application to Chile, 1999-2006

Includes bibliography

Application of molecular markers on genetic improvement and reproduction in the post-genomic Era: Emerging biotechnologies and perspectives in livestock

Background: New challenges are rising in the animal protein market, and one of the main world challenges is to produce more in shorter time, with better quality and in a sustainable way. Brazil is the largest beef exporter in volume hence the factors affecting the beef meat chain are of major concern in countrýs economy. An emerging class of biotechnological approaches, the molecular markers, is bringing new perspectives to face these challenges, particularly after the publication of the first complete livestock genome (bovine), which has triggered a massive initiative to put in practice the benefits of the so called the Post-Genomic Era. Review: This article aimed at showing the directions and insights in the application of molecular markers on livestock genetic improvement and reproduction as well at organizing the progress so far, pointing some perspectives of these emerging technologies in Brazilian ruminant production context. An overview on the nature of the main molecular markers explored in ruminant production is provided, which describes the molecular bases and detection approaches available for microsatellites (STR) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). A topic is dedicated to review the history of association studies between markers and important trait variation in livestock, showing the timeline starting on quantitative trait loci (QTL) identification using STR markers and ending in high resolution SNP panels to proceed whole genome scans for phenotype/genotype association. Also the article organizes this information to reveal how QTL prospection using STR could open ground to the feasibility of marker-assisted selection and why this approach is quickly being replaced by studies involving the application of genome-wide association using SNP research in a new concept called genomic selection. Conclusion: The world's scientific community is dedicating effort and resources to apply SNP information in livestock selection through the development of high density panels for genomic association studies, connecting molecular genetic data with phenotypes of economic interest. Once generated, this information can be used to take decisions in genetic improvement programs by selecting animals with the assistance of molecular markers.

Flexible labour markets, workers' protection and active labour market policies in the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Mobile application as a tool for urban traffic data collection and generation to advanced traveler information systems using Wi-Fi networks available in urban centers

This paper presents an Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) developed on Android platform, which is open source and free. The developed application has as its main objective the free use of a Vehicle-to- Infrastructure (V2I) communication through the wireless network access points available in urban centers. In addition to providing the necessary information for an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) to a central server, the application also receives the traffic data close to the vehicle. Once obtained this traffic information, the application displays them to the driver in a clear and efficient way, allowing the user to make decisions about his route in real time. The application was tested in a real environment and the results are presented in the article. In conclusion we present the benefits of this application. © 2012 IEEE.