How website design options affect content prominence: a literature-derived framework applied to SME websites

The literature offers a fragmented view of design options with thepotential to affect the prominence of selected content (e.g., privacyinformation) on organizational websites. This article contributesto knowledge by consolidating the design options into a singleframework. It argues that future research should consider howthe design options in combination, not just individually, can affectcontent prominence. The article summarizes the types of qualitativeand quantitative studies needed to apply and extend the framework.It presents an example qualitative study showing how theframework can be applied to, and extended by, examining the prominence of ecologically sustainable practices (i.e., green content)on small and medium enterprise websites. The example studyemphasizes the value of the framework by illustrating how contentprominence may vary depending on interrelationships betweendesign options. The article finally offers suggestions on how practitioners and developers can use the framework when making website design decisions.

Studies of firm efficiency on stock returns

 The thesis provides strong evidence for a negative relationship between firm efficiency and average stock returns in the Australian market. Moreover, the findings indicate that the return anomalies are more likely due to mispricing in which arbitrage costs play an important role in explaining the efficiency effect.

Testing for stock return predictability in a large Chinese panel

This paper proposes a simple panel data test for stock return predictability that is flexible enough to accommodate three key salient features of the data, namely, predictor persistency and endogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence. Using a large panel of Chinese stock market data comprising more than one million observations, we show that most financial and macroeconomic predictors are in fact able to predict returns. We also show how the extent of the predictability varies across industries and firm sizes.

Estimating Forward Pricing Function: How Efficient is Indian Stock Index Futures Market?

This paper uses Indian stock futures data to explore unbiased expectations and efficient market hypothesis. Having experienced voluminous transactions within a short time span after its establishment, the Indian stock futures market provides an unparalleled case for exploring these issues involving expectation and efficiency. Besides analyzing market efficiency between cash and futures prices using cointegration and error correction frameworks, the efficiency hypothesis is also investigated after explicitly modeling the underlying state of the market (expansion or contraction) through the first-order Markov switching set-up. The results based on Markov switching analysis show that relatively longer time horizon is more effective in eliminating arbitrage opportunities than the short run.

Time-varying herding behavior, global financial crisis, and the Chinese stock market

In this paper, we examine the evidence of herding behavior on the Chinese stock market. Our main findings are as follows. First, we find strong evidence of herding behavior on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Second, we document evidence of asymmetric herding behavior with greater magnitude of herding behavior on up markets than on down markets. Third, our findings suggest that herding behavior is sector-specific and predominant in the industrial and properties sectors. Finally, we unravel strong evidence suggesting that herding behavior is time-varying and in some sectors time-varying herding behavior is more prevalent than in other sectors.

Initiation of trades on the Chinese stock market

The flow of orders from buyers and sellers, relative to past returns and stock characteristics, was examined in the Chinese stock market. Order imbalance (the gap between buyer-and seller-initiated trades) was found to be negatively related to long term returns. Turn of the calendar year trading provided strong indications of tax-motivated trading as well as support for the flight-to-quality hypothesis, which suggests selling in response to perceived increases in market risk.

The relationship between stock returns and the foreign exchange rate: the ARDL approach

This study employs the ARDL cointegration approach in order to examine the impact
of financial liberalization on the relationships between the exchange rate and share
market performance in China. We discovered that cointegration has existed between the
Shanghai A Share Index and the exchange rate of the renminbi against the US dollar
and Hong Kong dollar since 2005, when the Chinese exchange rate regime became a
flexible, managed, floating system. We found that both the exchange rate and the money
supply influenced stock price, with a positive correlation. We further show that the
money supply increase was largely caused by a huge ‘hot money’ inflow from other
countries in recent years. After local currency appreciation, hot money, followed by
the money supply increase, pushed the market into a high level, based on expectations
regarding the local currency’s further appreciation.

Do order imbalances predict Chinese stock returns? New evidence from intraday data

In this paper we examine whether order imbalances can predict the Chinese stock market returns. We use intraday data, a panel data predictive regression model that accounts for persistent and endogenous order imbalances and cross-sectional dependence in returns, and show that order imbalances predict stock returns from 1-minute trading to 90-minute trading. On the basis of this predictability evidence using multiple trading strategies we show that profits persist during the day. These results imply that a source of Chinese market inefficiency is order imbalances.

No news is not good news: evidence from the intra-day return volatility–volume relationship in Shanghai Stock Exchange

Through this research, we find that the asymmetric volatility phenomenon is reversed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange during bull markets. That is, volatility increases more with good news than with bad news. This evidence is inconsistent with the US markets. Further examination of this phenomenon reveals that the positive impact of good news on volatility is driven by the return-chasing behaviour of investors during bull markets. We also find that volatility increases after stock price declines in bear markets. After controlling for liquidity shifts, we observe similar patterns in volatility in both bull and bear markets. We posit that institutional and behavioural factors are the major driving forces of observed volatility patterns in the Chinese stock market.

Stock price comovement: Evidence from India

We examine the extent to which stock prices comove in an emerging economy, India. We first document that stocks listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) comove. Further, we find that synchronicity is positively associated with growth and earnings volatility and negatively associated with business group affiliation and leverage.

Corporate governance and corporate finance practices in a Kuwait Stock Exchange market listed firm: a survey to confront theory with practice

Purpose– This paper aims to explore the issue of corporate governance mechanisms by including the importance of stakeholders, primary objectives of the firm and the ownership of top financial managers of listed firms in Kuwait in the survey tool. It attempts to investigate whether theory aligns with the behaviour of financial managers in practice in an emerging market case.Design/methodology/approach– A survey was developed to focus primarily on the current corporate finance practices implemented by CFOs in listed companies in Kuwait. The target respondents are listed firms in the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange (KSE). The survey includes questions on topics that are closely related to capital budgeting, capital structure, cost of capital and dividend policy. For example, the survey asks the managers how they estimate their cost of equity (CAPM or other methods) and whether the impact of the weighted average cost of equity is taken into consideration in their capital structure choices.Findings– A surprising number of firms are now widely using IRR for decision making. CAPM is also in use, whereas WACC remains the most popular method used. There is some support for the “bird‐in‐hand” dividend theory in the tax‐free environment. Firms in Kuwait do not have any particular source of capital structure choices when it comes to how best to finance their projects as is the case in the US market. Firms in Kuwait are consciously striving for maximizing profits and those managers are regarded as their most important stakeholders. This may indicate the existence of agency problems.Research limitations/implications– The limitation of this study lies in the absence of empirical investigation on how corporate finance decisions may affect firms' performance in Kuwait. Hence, empirical validation will be performed by the authors in the next stage of this research, which will form the basis for further research. Empirical validation for the impact of corporate governance on performance is needed.Practical implications– This research may benefit managers and decision makers in many aspects, including having an understanding of applying popular and the most suitable corporate finance and corporate governance techniques in the management of their companies. In this research, the authors have identified the gap between practice and academia.Originality/value– To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine comprehensively major areas of financial policies and practices and corporate governance in an emerging market case, especially in the Middle East. Kuwait provides a unique institutional setting in its taxation system. Therefore, this study will make a contribution to the general literature in this field.

Some hypotheses on commonality in liquidity: new evidence from the Chinese stock market

In this article, we examine four specific hypotheses relating to commonality in liquidity on the Chinese stock markets. These hypotheses are (1) that market-wide liquidity determines liquidity of individual stocks; (2) that liquidity varies with firm size; (3) that sectoral-based liquidity affects individual stock liquidities differently; and (4) that commonality in liquidity has an asymmetric effect. Drawing on a two-year data set on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges comprising over 34 million and 48 million transactions, respectively, we find strong support for commonality in liquidity and a greater influence of industry-wide liquidity in explaining liquidity of individual stocks. Moreover, our results suggest that of the three main sectors - financial, industrial, and resources - the industrial sectors liquidity is most important in explaining individual stock liquidities. Finally, we do not find any evidence of size effects and document an asymmetric effect of market-wide liquidity on liquidity of individual stocks.