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This study aims to shed more light on the relationship between probability of default, investment horizons and rating classes to make decision-making processes more efficient.

Based on credit default swaps (CDS) spreads, a methodology is implemented to determine the implied default probability and the implied rating, and then to estimate the term structure of the market-implied default probability and the transition matrix of implied rating. The term structure estimation in discrete time is conducted with the Nelson and Siegel model and in continuous time with the Vasicek model. The assessment of the transition matrix is performed using the homogeneous Markov model.

The results show that the CDS-based implied ratings are lower than those based on Thomson Reuters approach, which can partially be explained by the fact that the real-world probabilities are smaller than those founded on a risk-neutral framework. Moreover, investment and sub-investment grade companies exhibit different risk profiles with respect of the investment horizons.

The originality of this study consists in determining the implied rating based on CDS spreads and to detect the difference between implied market rating and the Thomson Reuters StarMine rating. The results can be used to analyze credit risk assessments and examine issues related to the Thomson Reuters StarMine credit risk model.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature in three ways: first, the authors investigate the impact of the sampling errors on optimal portfolio weights and on financial investment decision. Second, the authors advance a comparative analysis between various domestic and international diversification strategies to define a stochastic optimal choice. Third, the authors propose a new methodology combining the re-sampling method, stochastic optimization algorithm, and nonparametric stochastic dominance (SD) approach to analyze a stochastic optimal portfolio choice for risk-averse American investors who care about benefits of domestic diversification relative to international diversification. The authors propose a new portfolio optimization model involving SD constraints on the portfolio return rate. The authors define a portfolio with return dominating the benchmark portfolio return in the second-order stochastic dominance (SSD) and having maximum expected return. The authors combine re-sampling procedure and stochastic optimization to establish more flexibility in the investment decision rule.

The authors apply the re-sampling procedure to consider the sampling error in the optimization process. The authors try to resolve the problem of the stochastic optimal investment strategy choice using the nonparametric SD test by Linton et al. (2005) based on sub-sampling simulated p values. The authors apply the stochastic portfolio optimization algorithm with SSD constraints to define optimal diversified portfolios beating benchmark indices.

First, the authors find that reducing sampling error increases the dominance relationships between different portfolios, which, in turn, alters portfolio investment decisions. Though international diversification is preferred in some cases, the study’s results show that for risk-averse US investors, in general, there is no difference between the diversification strategies; this implies that there is no increase in the expected utility of international diversification for the period before and after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Nevertheless, the authors find that stochastic diversification in domestic, global, and Europe, Australasia, and Far East markets delivers better risk returns for the US risk averters during the crisis period.

The originality of the idea in this paper is to introduce a new methodology combining the concept of portfolio re-sampling, stochastic portfolio optimization with SSD constraints, and the nonparametric SD test by Linton et al. (2005) based on subsampling simulated p values to analyze the impact of sampling errors on optimal portfolio returns and to investigate the problem of stochastic optimal choice between international and domestic diversification strategies. The authors try to prove more coherence in the portfolio choice with the stochastically and the uncertainty characters of the paper.

The objective of this paper is twofold: first, to model the value of the firm in the presence of contingent capital and multiple growth options over its life cycle in a stochastic universe to ensure financial stability and recover losses in case of default and second, to clarify how contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds as financial instruments impact the leverage-ratio policies, inefficiencies generated by debt overhang and asset substitution for a firm that has multiple growth options. Additionally, what is its impact on investment timing, capital structure and asset volatility?

The current paper elaborates the modeling of a dynamic problem with respect to the interaction between funding and investment policies during multiple sequential investment cycles simultaneously with dynamic funding. The authors model the value of the firm in the presence of contingent capital that provides flexibility in dealing with default risks as well as growth options in a stochastic universe. The authors examine the firm's closed-form solutions at each stage of its decision-making process before and after the exercise of the growth options (with and without conversion of CoCo) through applying the backward indication method and the risk-neutral pricing theory.

The numerical results show that inefficiencies related to debt overhang and asset substitution can go down with a higher conversion ratio and a larger number of growth options. Additionally, the authors’ analysis reveals that the firm systematically opts for conservative leverage to minimize the effect of debt overhang on decisions so as to exercise growth options in the future. However, the capital structure of the firm has a substantial effect on the leverage ratio and the asset substitution. In fact, the effect of the leverage ratio and the risk-shifting incentive will be greater when the capital structure changes during the firm's decision-making process. Contrarily to traditional corporate finance theory, the study displays that the value of the firm before the investment expansion decreases and then increases with asset volatility, instead of decreasing overall with asset volatility.

The study’s findings reveal that funding, default and conversion decisions have crucial implications on growth option exercise decisions and leverage ratio policy. The model also shows that the firm consistently chooses conservative leverage to reduce the effect of debt overhang on decisions to exercise growth options in the future. The risk-shifting incentive and the debt overhang inefficiency basically decrease with a higher conversion ratio and multiple growth options. However, the effect of the leverage ratio and the risk-shifting incentive will be greater when the capital structure changes during the firm's decision-making process.

The firm's composition between assets in place and growth options evolves endogenously with its investment opportunity and growth option financing, as well as its default decision. In contrast to the standard capital structure models of Leland (1994), the model reveals that both exogenous conversion decisions and endogenous default decisions have significant implications for firms' growth option exercise decisions and debt policies. The model induces some predictions about the dynamics of the firm's choice of leverage as well as the link between the dynamics of leverage and the firm's life cycle.

The aim of this paper is to study the impact of equity returns volatility of reference entities on credit‐default swap rates using a new dataset from the Japanese market.

Using a copula approach, the paper models the different relationships that can exist in different ranges of behavior. It studies the bivariate distributions of credit‐default swap rates and equity return volatility estimated with GARCH (1,1) and focus on one parameter Archimedean copula.

First, the paper emphasizes the finding that pairs with higher rating present a weaker dependence coefficient and then, the impact of equity returns volatility on credit‐default swap rates is higher for the lowest rating class. Second, the dependence structure is positive and asymmetric indicating that protection sellers ask for higher credit‐default swap returns to compensate the higher credit risk incurred by low rating class.

The paper has several practical implications that are of value for financial hedgers and engineers, loan market participants, financial regulators, government regulators, central banks, and risk managers.

The paper also illustrates the potential benefits of equity returns volatility of reference entities as a proxy of default risk. These simplifications could be lifted in future research on this theme.

Investment decisions by agribusiness firms are costly and subject to high volatility and uncertainty. In many cases, the project value is not only determined by its cash‐flows stream and financial side effects but also by the presence of substantial future uncertainty such as project implementation delay and growth opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an agribusiness project taking into account these two options and to illustrate the how risks that evolve over time can affect sequential investment decisions in the oleic oil industry in Tunisia.

The methodology used to capture the investment project value and analyze the impact of lags between the initial investment decision and its implementation on project value is based on a decision tree method and binomial lattice method (which adds growth option). The project valuation is based, first on actual data at the time of the initial decision and second the authors use the full information to report on the true value of the investment opportunity as real time evolved.

Findings show that time to build is a very important factor in valuing an agribusiness especially when efficiency is strongly governed by climatic conditions and international market uncertainty. Our real options approach shows that production delays can deteriorate the follow‐on project value by as much as 53 percent. The implicit growth option falls to only 27 percent of the total project value while it was about 58 percent according to the standard forecast. The delay in project implementation not only affects the firm project financing costs and the loss of revenue, but also it contributes to modify the initial marketing strategy.

The paper is a first application of real option approach to the oleic oil industry. The methodology used in the paper can be adapted by practitioners and investors to adequately value oleic projects.

Since equity markets have a dynamic nature, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of a revision procedure for domestic and international portfolios, and provides an empirical selection strategy for optimal diversification from an American investor's point of view. This paper considers the impact of estimation errors on the optimization processes in financial portfolios.

This paper introduces the concept of portfolio resampling using Monte Carlo method. Statistical inferences methodology is applied to construct the sample acceptance regions and confidence regions for the resampled portfolios needing revision. Tracking error variance minimization (TEVM) problem is used to define the tracking error efficient frontiers (TEEF) referring to Roll (1992). This paper employs a computation method of the periodical after revision return performance level of the dynamic diversification strategies considering the transaction cost.

The main finding is that the global portfolio diversification benefits exist for the domestic investors, in both the mean-variance and tracking error analysis. Through TEEF, the dynamic analysis indicates that domestic dynamic diversification outperforms international major and emerging diversification strategies. Portfolio revision appears to be of no systematic benefit. Depending on the revision of the weights of the assets in the portfolio and the transaction costs, the revision policy can negatively affect the performance of an investment strategy. Considering the transaction costs of portfolios revision, the results of the return performance computation suggest the dominance of the global and the international emerging markets diversification over all other strategies. Finally, an assessment between the return and the cost of the portfolios revision strategy is necessary.

The innovation of this paper is to introduce a new concept of the dynamic portfolio management by considering the transaction costs. This paper investigates the performance of a revision procedure for domestic and international portfolios and provides an empirical selection strategy for optimal diversification. The originality of the idea consists on the application of a new statistical inferences methodology to define portfolios needing revision and the use of the TEVM algorithm to define the tracking error dynamic efficient frontiers.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the major critical success factors (CSFs), which are instrumental for effective adoption and implementation of Halal logistics (HL) in Halal supply chain (HSC) environment.

In total, 15 CSFs/CSF clusters were identified and used to develop an interpretive structural modelling-based hierarchal and structural model. Further, analysis categorises driving and dependence power of factors. MICMAC has been undertaken to analyse how these CSFs and their hierarchies relate, with paths and levels.

It was found that there is a need to develop proper guidelines, standards and codes, to train the Halal logisticians. Robust ICT and its appropriate implementation seems as the backbone of the HSC. HL emerges as a key component for the Halal industry to succeed, and the same is required to extend the integrity of the Halal products from the farm to the fork. That’s to develop Halal as an intrinsic characteristic. Thus, organisations should have support from specific CSFs. The paper provides managerial implications, recommendations for effective implementation of HL and further in identifying the pull effect of HL.

The model so developed is contextual and based on the perception of qualified experts, and they can have biasness of Halal meat supply chain.

An academic research taking views from different stakeholders with findings valuable to researchers and the policy planners.

Variations in customer expectations pose a challenge to service quality improvement in the airline industry. Understanding airline customers' expectations and satisfaction help service providers improve their offerings. The extant literature examines airline passengers' expectations in isolation, neglecting the overall impact of online reviews on service quality improvement. This paper systematically evaluates the airline industry's passengers' expectations and satisfaction using expectation confirmation theory (ECT) and the SERVQUAL framework. The paper analyzes online reviews to examine the relationship between airline service quality attributes and passengers' satisfaction.

The SERVQUAL framework was employed to examine the effects of customer culture, the reason for traveling, and seat type on customer's expectations and satisfaction across a large sample of airline customers.

A total of 17,726 observations were gathered from the Skytrax review website. The lowest satisfaction ratings were from passengers from the USA, Canada and India. Factors that affect perceived service performance include customer service, delays and baggage management. Empathy and reliability have the biggest impact on the perceived satisfaction of passengers.

This research increases understanding of the consumer expectations through analysis of passengers' online reviews. Results are limited to a small sample of airline industries.

This study provides airlines with valuable information to improve customer service by analyzing online reviews.

This study provides the opportunity for airline customers to gain better services when airline companies utilize the findings.

This paper offers insights into passengers' expectations and their perceived value for money in relation to seat types. Previous studies have not investigated value for money as a construct for passengers' expectations and satisfaction relative to service quality dimensions. This paper addresses this need.

Risk attitude is an elementary attribute of entrepreneurial behaviour. Determinants of risk-taking propensity have been widely investigated in the group of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs so far. There is a lack of evidence on determinants of risk-taking propensity in the farming business, which is considered as risky business because of the ongoing climate change and epidemic outbreaks. Alternatively, the risk of lower European Union budget raised the question, how to implement publicly supported financial instruments for micro and small farmers which have lower credit rating. The purpose of this study is to find socio-demographic determinants of the risk-taking propensity of the Czech micro farms, controlling for the type of farming.

The survey of 747 micro farmers was processed through ordinal logistic regression. The study is based on the subjective self-assessment of the risk-taking behaviour which is frequently used to measure risk-taking attitude. The results are representative from the type of farming point of view.

The model provided clear evidence that age, household size, living with the partner/wife/husband and level of education have a significant relationship with risk-taking propensity. The most risk-tolerant farmers are young with less formal education and living in small households. The risk-taking propensity varies by the type of farming. Specialized crop farms have significantly higher risk-taking propensity than farms with a substantial share of livestock production. Alternatively, gender, feeling about household income and religion are not significantly related to the risk-taking propensity of the Czech micro farms.

The main limitation of the study is the number of explanatory variables and the use of self-assessment of risk-taking attitude. The risk attitude can be explained by other variables which require in-depth qualitative research, such as past risk experience, the structure of decision problems, market orientation and operation under subsistence conditions.

The significant determinants of risk-taking attitude of micro farmers are important for banks, the Czech Support and Guarantee Fund for Farmers and Forestry and for policymakers who design the rules for post-2020 common agricultural policy. The study is original and valuable for the Central and Eastern European countries’ implementation of financial instruments as new rules for investment support are being prepared and research on the risk-taking attitude of the most vulnerable segment of farmers has not been conducted.

The originality of this study is from the perspective of agricultural sector as well as from the micro farms point of view. The results have commercial and political implications. Younger farmers, singles and lower-educated farmers have significantly higher risk-taking propensity and can be potentially risky clients for banks. Such farmers represent the financial gap in the credit market, and their viable development projects could be subject for implementation of financial instruments co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development in the forthcoming programming period past 2020.