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In this chapter, the author considers how Melbourne’s grindcore metal scene produces itself as coherent, authentic and masculine through the discursive positioning of Sydney’s scene as lacking, inauthentic and feminine and/or homosexual. The way Melbourne scene-members talk about Sydney in ethnographic interviews and online, indicates how Melbourne’s grindcore scene identity rests on a particular striving towards – and fantasy of – a bounded, comprehensible masculine identity anchored in Symbolic/linguistic signifiers of homophobia. Building on my previous research on Melbourne’s scene, the author utilises a Lacanian perspective to argue that the masculinist talk of Melbournians works as a response to the affective experience of enjoying grindcore music. Here, the author departs from my earlier work, where the author used Deleuzian/Massumian understandings of affect to suggest that affect works to construct community belonging in grindcore scenes (2014). Instead, the author uses Lacan’s approach to affect to suggest that Melbourne grindcore fans construct their identity via furiously producing a fantasy of Sydney fans as ‘Other’. They Symbolically construct Sydney as a ‘cultural wasteland’ populated by ‘poofter[s]’ (Melbourne Grind Syndicate, 2016) who are imagined, and positioned as, inauthentic due to their affective enthusiasm for grindcore. Here, affect works to exclude and Other grindcore fans rather than as a force for collectivity.

We propose that the ambiguity of discourse around a category – rather than being problematic – improves the longevity of that category. This is especially true in the creative industries. Using methods and theories drawn from sociology and art history, we tested this thesis using swing as a case study. Based on three years of archival research we found 70 co-existing definitions of swing and 89 different uses of the term. These multiple meanings enabled various understandings to come in and out of focus over time, contributing to swing’s longevity. Our findings extend to other categories within the creative industries.

We present a new procedure for nonparametric Bayesian estimation of regression functions. Specifically, our method makes use of an idea described in Frühwirth-Schnatter and Wagner (2010) to impose linearity exactly (conditional upon an unobserved binary indicator), yet also permits departures from linearity while imposing smoothness of the regression curves. An advantage of this approach is that the posterior probability of linearity is essentially produced as a by-product of the procedure. We apply our methods in both generated data experiments as well as in an illustrative application involving the impact of body mass index (BMI) on labor market earnings.

Unlike other populations, entrepreneurs may be unable to fully escape from job-related stress due to their financial and/or psychological connection to their ventures. The authors argue that stress is a universal, intangible variable that profoundly influences the entrepreneurial process. In the present review, the authors critically synthesize past literature to evaluate the substantive body of research on stress in entrepreneurship and assess the impact of stress on individuals’ well-being. The authors find that entrepreneurial stress stems from role conflict or overload, issues related to business operations, and concerns from life outside the venture. Further, stress may result in changes to personal satisfaction and psychological well-being, contingent upon an individual’s stress tolerance, coping strategies, or recovery practices. The entrepreneurial process, from creation to exit, is comprised of several transition periods, all of which are uniquely stressful. The authors explore the implications of our findings by discussing stressors that may manifest during each stage of the entrepreneurial process. Therefore, the authors respond to calls for more dynamic investigation of entrepreneurial stress while also highlighting the need for more research into stressors associated with specific entrepreneurial activities.

The author explores the contemporary logics of branding and authenticity among contestants in the reality television show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. In the chapter, the author points to the inherent tension in performing a drag persona that is perceived as authentic by audiences whilst at the same time looking to take advantage of any financial opportunities that being on the show may generate. This tricky balancing act is examined in relation to the case of the drag persona, Tina Burner, who was criticised for not being authentic enough and overbranding herself. The chapter highlights the competing demands that contestants on a high-profile reality show must deal with and the difficulty of deciding ‘when to keep it real in reality TV’.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine whether or not the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) reasonably describes the return generating process on the Ghanaian Stock Exchange using monthly return data of 19 individual companies listed on the Exchange during the period January 2000 to December 2009.

Methodology/approach – We follow a methodology similar to Jensen (1968) time series approach. Parameters are estimated using OLS. This study is designed to measure beta risk across different times by following the time series approach. The betas of the individual securities are estimated using time series data of the excess return version of the CAPM.

Findings – Our test results show that although market beta contributes to the variation in equity returns in Ghana, its contribution is not as significant as predicted by the CAPM, and in some cases very weak. Our results also reject the strictest form of the Sharpe–Lintner CAPM, but we found positive linear relationship between equity risk premium and market beta. Instead, our evidence uphold the Jensen (1968) and Jensen, Black, and Scholes (1972) versions of the CAPM.

Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to the single-factor CAPM. Future studies will extend the test to include both size and BE/ME fundamentals and factors relating to P/E ratio, momentum and liquidity.

Practical implications – Our results will make corporate managers to be cautious when using CAPM as a basis to determine cost of equity for investment appraisal purposes, and fund managers when evaluating asset and portfolio performance.

Originality/value – The CAPM is applied to individual securities instead of portfolios, since the model was developed using information on a single security.