Sovereign credit risk and exchange rates: Evidence from CDS quanto spreads

Authors: Patrick Augustin, Mikhail Chernov and Dongho Song

Publication: Journal of Financial Economics, Forthcoming

Abstract:

Sovereign CDS quanto spreads tell us how financial markets view the interaction between a country’s likelihood of default and associated currency devaluations (the Twin Ds). A no-arbitrage model applied to the term structure of Eurozone quanto spreads can isolate the Twin Ds and gauge the associated risk premiums. Conditional on the occurrence of default, the true and risk-adjusted 1-week probabilities of devaluation are 42% (2%) and 90% (55%) for the core (periphery) countries. The weekly risk premium for Euro devaluation in case of default for the core (periphery) exceeds the regular currency premium by up to 18 (13) basis points.

Measuring sovereign bond market integration

Authors: Ines Chaieb, Vihang Errunza, and Rajna Gibson Brandon

Publication: The Review of Financial Studies, Forthcoming

Abstract:

There is significant heterogeneity in the degree and dynamics of sovereign bond market integration across 21 developed and 18 emerging countries. We show that better spanning can significantly enhance market integration through local risk premia dissipation. Integration of the sovereign bond markets increases on average by about 10%, when a country moves from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile as a result of higher political stability and credit quality, lower inflation and inflation risk, and lower illiquidity. The 10% increase in integration leads to, on average, a decrease in the sovereign cost of funding of about 1% per annum.

Sharing is caring: Social support provision and companionship activities in healthcare virtual support communities

Authors: K.-Y. Huang, I. Chengalur-Smith, and Alain Pinsonneault

Publication: MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2019, Pages 395-423

Abstract:

Individuals increasingly rely on healthcare virtual support communities (HVSCs) for social support and companionship. While research provides interesting insights into the drivers of informational support in knowledge-sharing virtual communities, there is limited research on the antecedents of emotional support provision and companionship activities in HVSCs. The unique characteristics of HVSCs also justify the need to reexamine members’ voluntary provisions of help in such communities. This paper develops a model that examines the relationships between the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital and the provision of informational and emotional support, and engagement in companionship activities in HVSCs. The model is tested based on data generated through an automated method that classifies and analyzes user-generated text in three healthcare virtual support communities (breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer). The results show that all three dimensions of social capital impact the provision of emotional support; both structural and relational capital facilitate engagement in companionship activities; and only cognitive capital enables the provision of informational support. Research and practical implications on the need to facilitate informational and emotional support provision and companionship activities in healthcare virtual support communities are discussed.

What users do besides problem-focused coping when facing IT security threats: An emotion-focused coping perspective

Authors: H. Liang, Y. Xue, Alain Pinsonneault and Y. Wu

Publication: MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2019, Pages 373-394

Abstract:

This paper investigates how individuals cope with IT security threats by taking into account both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. While problem-focused coping (PFC) has been extensively studied in the IT security literature, little is known about emotion-focused coping (EFC). We propose that individuals employ both PFC and EFC to volitionally cope with IT security threats, and conceptually classify EFC into two categories: inward and outward. Our research model is tested by two studies: an experiment with 140 individuals and a survey of 934 respondents. Our results indicate that both inward EFC and outward EFC are stimulated by perceived threat, but that only inward EFC is reduced by perceived avoidability. Interestingly, inward EFC and outward EFC are found to have opposite effects on PFC. While inward EFC impedes PFC, outward EFC facilitates PFC. By integrating both EFC and PFC in a single model, we provide a more complete understanding of individual behavior under IT security threats. Moreover, by theorizing two categories of EFC and showing their opposing effects on users’ security behaviors, we further examine the paradoxical relationship between EFC and PFC, thus making an important contribution to IT security research and practice.

How does the implementation of enterprise information systems affect a professional's mobility? An empirical study

Authors: Brad N. Greenwood, Kartik K. Ganju and Corey M. Angst

Publication: Information Systems Research, Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2019, Pages 563-594

Abstract:

Although significant research has examined the effect of enterprise information systems on the behavior and careers of employees, the majority of this work has been devoted to the study of blue- and gray-collar workers, with little attention paid to the transformative effect information technology may have on high-status professionals. In this paper, we begin to bridge this gap by examining how highly skilled professionals react to the increasing presence of enterprise systems within their organizations. Specifically, we investigate how the implementation of enterprise systems-in the form of electronic health records-affects the decision of physicians to continue practicing at their current hospital. Results suggest that when enterprise systems create complementarities for professionals, their duration of practice at the organization increases significantly. However, when technologies are disruptive and force professionals to alter their routines, there is a pronounced exodus from the organization. Interestingly, these effects are strongly moderated by individual and organizational characteristics, such as the degree of firm-specific human capital, local competition, and the prevalence of past disruptions, but are not associated with accelerated retirement or the strategic poaching of talent by competing organizations.

Yu Ma article selected as a finalist 2019 Paul E. Green Award

Congratulations to Yu Ma, Associate Professor of Marketing and Bensadoun Scholar,  whose article “The Club Store Effect: Impact of Shopping in Warehouse Club Stores on Consumers' Packaged Food Purchases” has been selected as one of four finalists for the Journal of Marketing Research’s 2019 Paul E. Green Award

The Paul E. Green Award recognizes the best article in the Journal of Marketing Research within the last calendar year that demonstrates the most potential to contribute significantly to the practice of marketing research.

Publication: Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 55, No. 2, April 2018

Authors: Kusum L. Ailawadi, Yu Ma and Dhruv Grewal

This article studies the impact of shopping at the warehouse club format on households' packaged food-for-home purchases. In addition to low prices, this format has several unique characteristics that can influence packaged food purchases. The empirical analysis uses a combination of households' longitudinal grocery purchase information, rich survey data, and detailed item-level nutrition information. After accounting for selection on observables and unobservables, the authors find a substantial increase in the total quantity (servings per capita) of purchases attributable to shopping at this format. Because there is no effect on quality of purchases, this translates into a substantial increase in calories, sugar, and saturated fat per capita. The increase comes primarily from storable and impulse foods and it is drawn equally from foods that have positive and negative health halos. The results have important implications for how marketers can create win–win opportunities for themselves and for consumers.

Collective Information System Use: A Typological Theory

Authors: Bogdan Negoita, Liette Lapointe and Suzanne Rivard

Publication: MIS Quarterly, Vol. 42 Issue 4, 1281-1301, 2018

Abstract:

As the nature of information systems (IS) has evolved from primarily standalone, to enterprise, and distributed applications, the need for a better understanding of collective IS use has become a research and practical necessity. In view of contributing to this understanding, we conceptually define collective IS use as a unit level construct, rooted in instances of individual-level IS use within the context of a common work process. Its emergence from the individual to the unit level is shaped by different configurations of task, user, and system interdependence between instances of individual-level IS use. On the basis of this definition, we propose a typology of collective IS use that comprises four ideal types, namely siloed use, processual use, coalesced use, and networked use. For each ideal type, we theorize on the emergence process from the individual to the unit level and we consider the measurement implications for each.

A Primal-Dual Lifting Scheme for Two-Stage Robust Optimization

Authors: Angelos Georghiou, Angelos Tsoukalas, Wolfram Wiesemann

Publication: Operations Research, Forthcoming

Abstract: 

Two-stage robust optimization problems, in which decisions are taken both in anticipation of and in response to the observation of an unknown parameter vector from within an uncertainty set, are notoriously challenging. In this paper, we develop convergent hierarchies of primal (conservative) and dual (progressive) bounds for these problems that trade off the competing goals of tractability and optimality: While the coarsest bounds recover a tractable but suboptimal affine decision rule approximation of the two-stage robust optimization problem, the refined bounds lift extreme points of the uncertainty set until an exact but intractable extreme point reformulation of the problem is obtained. Based on these bounds, we propose a primal-dual lifting scheme for the solution of two-stage robust optimization problems that accommodates for generic polyhedral uncertainty sets, infeasible problem instances as well as the absence of a relatively complete recourse. The incumbent solutions in each step of our algorithm afford rigorous error bounds, and they can be interpreted as piecewise affine decision rules. We illustrate the performance of our algorithm on illustrative examples and on an inventory management problem.

Professor Ramaprasad appointed Associate Editor of Management Science

Jui Ramaprasad, Associate Professor in Information Systems, was recently appointed as Associate Editor to Management Science.

Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Rewards for Contributing Reviews in an Online Platform

Authors: Warut Khern-am-nuai, Karthik Kannan, Hossein Ghasemkhani

Publication: Information Systems Research, Forthcoming

Abstract: 

Firms have considered various forms of incentives for writing reviews, including the use of extrinsic rewards to attract reviewers. Building on this literature, we study the implications of monetary incentives on online reviews in the context of a natural experiment, where one review platform suddenly began offering monetary incentives for writing reviews. We refer to this as the treated platform. Along with data from Amazon.com and using the difference-in-differences approach, we compare the quantity and quality of reviews before and after rewards were introduced in the treated platform. We find that reviews are significantly more positive but that the quality decreases. Taking advantage of the panel data, we also evaluate the effect of rewards on existing reviewers. We find that their level of participation after monetary incentives decreases but not their quality of participation. Last, even though the platform enjoys an increase in the number of new reviewers, disproportionately more reviews appear to be written for highly rated products.

Read abstract: Information Systems Research

Robust Dual Dynamic Programming

Authors: Angelos Georghiou, Angelos Tsoukalas, Wolfram Wiesemann

Publication: Operations Research, Forthcoming

Abstract: 

Multi-stage robust optimization problems, where the decision maker can dynamically react to consecutively observed realizations of the uncertain problem parameters, pose formidable theoretical and computational challenges. As a result, the existing solution approaches for this problem class typically determine suboptimal solutions under restrictive assumptions. In this paper, we propose a robust dual dynamic programming (RDDP) scheme for multi-stage robust optimization problems. The RDDP scheme takes advantage of the decomposable nature of these problems by bounding the costs arising in the future stages through lower and upper cost to-go functions. For problems with uncertain technology matrices and/or constraint right-hand sides, our RDDP scheme determines an optimal solution in finite time. If also the objective function and/or the recourse matrices are uncertain, our method converges asymptotically (but deterministically) to an optimal solution. Our RDDP scheme does not require a relatively complete recourse, and it offers deterministic upper and lower bounds throughout the execution of the algorithm. We demonstrate the promising performance of our algorithm in a stylized inventory management problem.

The Effects of Analyst‐Country Institutions on Biased Research: Evidence from Target Prices

Authors: Mark T. Bradshaw, Alan G. Huang, Hongping Tan

Publication: Journal of Accounting Research, Forthcoming

Abstract: 

Prior research demonstrates that a strong institutional infrastructure in a country moderates self‐serving behavior of market participants. Cross‐country economic activities have increased significantly, presenting a research opportunity to examine the relative influence of local versus foreign institutional infrastructure on individual market participants. We utilize variation in analyst‐country location relative to covered firm location to examine institutional determinants of optimism in analyst research. Focusing on target prices, where persistent optimism is well documented, we find that analysts domiciled in countries with stronger institutional infrastructures exhibit significantly attenuated target price optimism and more value‐relevant target prices. Our results demonstrate the importance of domestic country‐level institutional factors in moderating self‐serving behavior of market participants engaged in cross‐country activities.

Optimizing Foreclosed Housing Acquisitions in Societal Response to Foreclosures

Authors: Senay Solak, Armagan Bayram, Mehmet Gumus, Yueran Zhuo

Publication: Operations Research, Forthcoming

Abstract:

A dramatic increase in U.S. mortgage foreclosures during and after the great economic recession of 2007-2009 had devastating impacts on the society and the economy. In response to such negative impacts, non-profit community development corporations (CDCs) throughout the U.S. utilize various resources, such as grants and lines of credit, in acquiring and redeveloping foreclosed housing units to support neighborhood stabilization and revitalization. Given that the cost of all such acquisitions far exceeds the resources accessible by these non-profit organizations, we identify socially optimal policies for CDCs in dynamically selecting foreclosed properties to target for potential acquisition as they become available over time. We evaluate our analytical results in a numerical study involving a CDC serving a major city in the U.S, and specify social return based thresholds defining selection decisions at different funding levels. We also find that for most foreclosed properties CDCs should not offer more than the asking price, and should typically consider overbidding only when the total available budget is low. Overall, comparisons of optimal policies with historical acquisition data suggest a potential improvement of around 20% in expected total impacts of the acquisitions on nearby property values. Considering a CDC with annual fund availability of $4 million for investment, this corresponds to an estimated additional value of around $280,000 for the society.

A Smart-City Scope of Operations Management

Authors: Wei Qi and Zuo-Jun Max Shen

Publication: Production and Operations Management, Forthcoming

Abstract:

We are entering an era of great expectations towards our cities. The vision of “smart city” has been pursued worldwide to transform urban habitats into superior efficiency, quality and sustainability. This phenomenon prompts us to ponder what role the scholars in operations management (OM) can assume. In this essay, we express our initial thoughts on expanding OM to the smart-city scope. We review smart-city initiatives of governments, industry, national laboratories and academia. We argue that the smart-city movement will transition from the tech-oriented stage to the decision-oriented stage. Hence, a smart city can be perceived as a system scope within which planning and operational decisions are orchestrated at the urban scale, reflective of multidimensional needs, and adaptive to massive data and innovation. The benefits of studying smart-city OM are manifold and significant: contributing to deeper understanding of smart cities by providing advanced analytical frameworks, pushing OM knowledge boundaries (such as data-driven decision making), and empowering the OM community to deliver much broader impacts than before. We discuss several research opportunities to embody these thoughts, in the interconnected contexts of smart buildings, smart grid, smart mobility and new retail. These opportunities arise from the increasing integration of systems and business models at the urban scale.

Designing Risk‐Adjusted Therapy for Patients with Hypertension

Authors: Manaf Zargoush, Mehmet Gumus, Vedat Verter, Stella S. Daskalopoulou

Publication: Production and Operations Management, Forthcoming

Abstract:

Limited guidance is available for providing patient‐specific care to hypertensive patients, although this chronic condition is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. To address this issue, we develop an analytical model that takes into account the most relevant risk factors including age, sex, blood pressure, diabetes status, smoking habits, and blood cholesterol. Using the Markov Decision Process framework, we develop a model to maximize expected quality‐adjusted life years, as well as characterize the optimal sequence and combination of antihypertensive medications. Assuming the physician uses the standard medication dose for each drug, and the patient fully adheres to the prescribed treatment regimen, we prove that optimal treatment policies exhibit a threshold structure. Our findings indicate that our recommended thresholds vary by age and other patient characteristics, for example (1) the optimal thresholds for all medication prescription are nonincreasing in age, and (2) the medications need to be prescribed at lower thresholds for males who smoke than for males who have diabetes. The improvements in quality‐adjusted life years associated with our model compare favorably with those obtained by following the British Hypertension Society's guideline, and the gains increase with the severity of risk factors. For instance, in both genders (although at different rates), diabetic patients gain more than non‐diabetic patients. Our sensitivity analysis results indicate that the optimal thresholds decrease if the medications have lower side‐effects and vice versa.