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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is any difference across individual investors, domestic and foreign institutional investors in trading volume responses to analyst reports. The authors also examine the determinants of trading volume responses using firm as well as forecast characteristics.

The authors use trading data from the Korean equity market. The authors divide investors into three classes of investors; namely, individual investors, domestic institutional investors, and foreign institutional investors. The authors then examine whether the trading responses to analyst reports vary across investor types, and how firm characteristics and characteristics of analyst reports influence the trading activities on the release dates across investor types.

Individual investors are the most responsive investor group, being responsive to analyst reports on small, neglected firms with large inside ownership as well as to analyst reports with optimistic forecasts. Domestic institutional investors are responsive to reports on neglected firms with high return volatility while foreign institutional investors show least responses.

There are few studies that investigate whether the trading responses to analyst reports vary across investor types and how firm characteristics and characteristics of analyst reports influence the trading activities on the release dates across investor types. Taking advantage of the trading volume data for the three main investor types in the Korean stock market, the authors study the trading volume responses for each investor type and make comparisons across investor types.

This paper aims to investigate the adoption barriers of Industry 4.0 in the Indonesian manufacturing supply chains.

The mixed method was deployed to validate the findings. First, the qualitative study was conducted based on the interviews. Then, the companies were approached using filter questions on the involvement in adopting industry 4.0 and its impact on the supply chain.

Based on the qualitative study, nine main barriers were found in the thematic analysis. Thus, to get a consensus on the barriers in the industry, the barrier indicators were tested using a structural equation model retrieved from 173 small and medium Indonesian manufacturing firms. Results indicate that five main barriers (e.g. unclear Industry 4.0 policy, higher-risk investment, insecure data sharing, lack of expertise and lack of incentive) are confirmed as the adoption barriers.

The successful adoption of supply chain integration with Industry 4.0 technology can strengthen the manufacturing sector and competitiveness. Therefore, this study can be a complimentary assessment to evaluate the Indonesia Industry 4.0 Readiness Index (INDI 4.0) and the effectiveness of the government support program.

The results can be used as the framework to foresee the successful implementation of smart manufacturing supply chain management and its integration. Therefore, the authors proposed the framework to foresee the successful implementation of smart manufacturing, supply chain management and integration.

Using the next-day and next-week returns of stocks in the Korean market, we examine the association of option volume ratios – i.e. the option-to-stock (O/S) ratio, which is the total volume of put options and call options scaled by total underlying equity volume, and the put-call (P/C) ratio, which is the put volume scaled by total put and call volume – with future returns. We find that O/S ratios are positively related to future returns, but P/C ratios have no significant association with returns. We calculate individual, institutional, and foreign investors’ option ratios to determine which ratios are significantly related to future returns and find that, for all investors, higher O/S ratios predict higher future returns. The predictability of P/C depends on the investors: institutional and individual investors’ P/C ratios are not related to returns, but foreign P/C predicts negative next-day returns. For net-buying O/S ratios, institutional net-buying put-to-stock ratios consistently predict negative future returns. Institutions’ buying and selling put ratios also predict returns. In short, institutional put-to-share ratios predict future returns when we use various option ratios, but individual option ratios do not.

There is unprecedented interest by consumers to improve health and wellness through dietary means. This first study conducted in Trinidad, West Indies, aims to examine the exercise enthusiasts’ perceptions, choices, reasons and beliefs of functional foods.

A structured questionnaire was administered to 120 randomly chosen exercise/fitness enthusiasts at six gyms located in East and Central regions.

Only 50.5 per cent had heard of at least one term either “functional” or “nutraceutical” or “designer” foods with the most familiar term (34.3 per cent; p<0.05) being “functional”. Frequency of exercise (p<0.01) and age (p<0.05) were influential factors affecting familiarity to functional term. Tomatoes (89.5 per cent) and cabbages (83.2 per cent) were popular vegetable choices. Energy giving was selected as most (71.6 per cent; p<0.05) important health claim. The perceived benefit of functional foods was more for performance enhancement rather than for health. Functional foods were considered expensive (47.4 per cent), prevented disease (46.3 per cent), necessary for older people (37.9 per cent) and were different from others. On comparing the respondent's agreement of manufacturer's health claims of functional foods with their own beliefs, 39.0 per cent “agreed/strongly agreed” that the manufacturers exaggerated their health claims. Gender did not (p>0.05) influence responses.

Although, limited in sample size, the reasons given for consumption of functional foods and the chosen foods could guide marketers and food product developers. The study highlighted the need for public education on the health benefits and regulatory measures on functional foods.

Though female labour force participation (FLFP) rates have been widely analysed across countries, the analysis of migrant women's participation has been consistently ignored in the literature. The few studies that have been conducted concentrate largely on sociological and anthropological aspects of migrant women (see Foner (1976)). This article will investigate immigrant FLFP rates, which are generally found to be different from their counterparts in the immigrants' country of origin. To evaluate the immigrant FLFP rate we analyse and quantify the nature and significance of its various demographic, socio‐economic and cultural determinants.

This paper describes the development of a scale for measuring top management commitment towards continual quality performance improvement in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). A set of self‐assessment questions of the ISO 9004: 2000 Standard was used to assess the adoption status of quality management practices. This paper investigates the inter‐item reliability and the content validity of the Quality Management Principles Scale (QMPS) in an integrated improvement process in SMEs. An empirical study was conducted to acquire senior management views on the use of the QMPS in manufacturing sectors in Trinidad and Tobago. Based on 328 responses from 110 SMEs, statistical software packages were used to analyse the empirical data and determine the reliability and validity of the QMPS. The paper contributes to develop a self‐assessment scale that can be used to measure top management commitment. It is anticipated that the findings would provide practical insights for evaluating the levels of maturity on performance improvement in SMEs.

This study sets out to assess public awareness and perception of genetically modified (GM) foods in Trinidad, West Indies.

Respondents (113) were interviewed by structured questionnaire on demographics, awareness, perceived risks, perceived benefits, labelling, availability of GM foods and responsibility for information.

Some respondents (31.0 per cent) had not heard of GM foods. Most (64.6 per cent) respondents were willing (“very” or “somewhat”) to purchase GM foods, if considered healthier than conventionally‐produced foods or to purchase GM foods if they were safe (47.8 per cent). Food labels were important for warnings (31.4 per cent), information (30.4 per cent) and advertising (15.3 per cent). Some major perceived risks of GM foods were the toxic effects on health (41.6 per cent) and allergenic effects (28.3 per cent). Some benefits of GM were for increased productivity of crops and food availability (43.8 per cent), improved health and in disease control (27.9 per cent), economics (21 per cent), pest resistance (18.8 per cent) and improved nutrition (16 per cent). Most respondents (41.1 per cent) felt that the Government was responsible for giving information on GM foods. The public was indifferent (p>0.05) as to whether GM foods should be grown in Trinidad and Tobago. The level of education and gender were not (p>0.05) influential factors on responses.

Although the sample size was small, the findings could be used to target effective public education and bio‐safety policies.

This study is an extension of an etic‐emic analysis of the individualism‐collectivism construct at the sociopsychological level to an organizational context. At the first level of comparison, strong and weak etics were extracted to permit comparability of values. At the second level, emic elements were produced to provide a basis of intercultural comparisons. Purely individualistic, purely collectivist and multidimensional factors emerged for the ten nations under consideration.

Free trade reform promotes and consolidates businesses’ orientation to international markets. Using a sample of twenty Latin American countries, this study finds support for the hypothesis that higher revealed trade openness implies faster economic growth. However, at low output growth levels, increased revealed trade openness does not translate to faster output growth. Why more trade does not necessarily imply faster growth at all levels of revealed trade openness growth remains a conundrum. Failure to derive faster economic growth may compromise the prospects for sustainable trade reforms and thus the consolidation of new business ventures as engines for further growth.