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The purpose of this paper is to analyse five biases in the valuation of financial investments using a mental time travel framework involving thought investments – with no objective time passing.

An investment’s initial value, together with any periodic funding cash-flows, are mentally projected forward (at an expected rate of return) to give the value at the investment horizon; and this projected value is mentally discounted back to the present. If there is a difference between the initial and present values, then this can imply a bias in valuation.

The study identifies (and gives examples of) five real-world valuation biases: biased funding cash-flow estimates (e.g., mega infrastructure projects); biased rate of return projections (e.g., market crises, tech stock carve-outs); biased discount rate estimates (e.g., dual-listed shares, dual-class shares, short-termism, time-risk misperception, and long-termism); time-duration misestimation or perception bias when projecting (e.g., time-contracted projections which lead to short-termism); and time-duration misestimation or perception bias when discounting (e.g., time-extended discounting which also leads to short-termism). More than one bias can be operating at the same time and we give an example of low levels of retirement savings being the result of the biased discounting of biased projections. Finally, we consider the effects of the different biases of different agents operating simultaneously.

The paper examines key systematic misestimation and psychological biases underlying financial investment valuation pricing anomalies.

SPACs are reshaping the world of digital entrepreneurial finance. Firms in the digital sector often need access to public markets for long-term competitiveness. SPACs offer a viable solution for these entities to collect capital and transition to public ownership quicker than IPOs. In this context, the paper aims to analyse and compare the performance of SPACs with those of IPOs in the post-business combination phase. The objective is to provide novel insights into the determinants of SPAC operating and market performance by considering firm-specific and deal-specific characteristics and the broader implications of market uncertainty.

The analysis applies univariate and multivariate OLS regressions to a sample of 96 SPACs to investigate the drivers affecting SPACs' performance vis-a-vis IPOs.

The study finds that SPACs underperform the matched group of IPOs on both operating and stock market performance (buy-and-hold strategy). The time to execute a business combination negatively correlates with SPAC performance, and proximity to the 80% deal threshold negatively affects share price performance and EBITDA margin.

The objective is to offer insights for institutional investors to effectively select prime targets within the SPAC framework.

This study strengthens the findings related to the drivers influencing the long-term performance of SPACs that were previously identified in prior research.

The goal is to illuminate the requisites for the implementation of performance management reforms in a public bureaucracy.

The paper employs a configurational approach, qualitative comparative analysis, that identifies combinations of political and organizational conditions necessary and/or sufficient for success. The analysis applies the success factor identified in the literature in analyzing the experience of departments involved in a city-wide reform in Los Angeles. The analysis utilizes two rounds of survey data combined with case observations to evaluate the presence of these conditions. Cross-case comparisons employ Boolean logic to identify configurations associated with successful system implementation.

The analysis identifies several distinct configurations of conditions that appear in departments that implemented the reform. One emphasizes mayoral support, while others emphasize leadership in combination with other organizational capacities.

The analysis yields several insights for managers. First, no silver bullet such as strong leadership assures reform implementation. Second, there are multiple avenues to reform. An organization that lacks some prerequisites – such as leadership or metrics – may succeed in the presence of other features such as an innovative culture or external political support. Finally, the study provides a bracing council that even under favorable conditions, performance management reforms may fail to take root, for reasons that can be difficult to predict.

The paper highlights the importance of considering configurations of conditions rather than focusing on conditions independently. Also, it highlights the importance of equifinality, the notion that observed outcomes can have multiple causes, a perspective typically missing in correlational analyses.

This chapter delves into the complex interplay between ethics, law and business case regarding diversity and inclusion within organisations. While the business case for diversity and inclusion has gained prominence, the ethical imperative often lacks comparable influence. Despite the coercive forces of laws and regulations, ethical values struggle to exert significant pressure on diversity-related issues.

This study concentrates on “ambiguity of law” and “abstaining from complaint” about discrimination, mistreatment, or unfair behavior to explain the weak pushing effect of ethical values on diversity- and inclusion-related issues. The ambiguity of law fosters open-ended discussions and varied interpretations, complicating efforts towards equitable treatment. Furthermore, the reluctance to voice complaints regarding discrimination or mistreatment blurs the boundary between ethics and business.

This chapter points out ethical values in the shade of the business case approach and proposes strategies to strengthen the influence of ethics in diversity management. Moral awareness, a sense of justice, and ethical coding of decisions are prominent components of this chapter that may contribute to strengthening the ethical infrastructure of organizations.

This review aims to present the state of the art regarding the impact of financial technology (FinTech) on financial inclusion and its implications for consumers and institutions in terms of accessibility, usage and quality. An integrated framework is developed to illustrate the primary thematic areas for future research.

We performed a systematic literature review (SLR) to summarize and synthesize existing research published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Forty-two eligible studies were identified from the Web of Science database and a cross-reference search.

The results suggest that FinTech promotes financial inclusion for consumers and businesses by increasing the accessibility, usage and quality of financial products. We present a multidisciplinary integrative framework that links the three dimensions of financial inclusion (i.e. access, usage and quality) to financial technology. Finally, we propose several avenues for future research.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first SLR on how FinTech is associated with the accessibility, usage and quality of financial products. We provide an integrative framework for understanding the topic with implications in different fields.

The purpose is to understand the factors affecting Chinese diet selections and propose strategies for revolutionizing Chinese diets toward healthy ones.

This study implemented an online discrete choice experiment to identify the factors affecting diet selections among urban Chinese consumers. Four different diet patterns were used to label each of the product alternatives in the experiment, which varied in taste and cost. Specifically, implying the healthiness and sustainability of a diet, the diet alternatives included the average diet, the Chinese Food Guide Pagoda diet, the EAT-Lancet diet and the Flexitarian diet. Using consumer data from six provincial capital cities, we used random parameter logit models to estimate their preferences.

Diet type and diet cost were found to be more important in urban Chinese consumers' diet selections than the ability to customize taste. The average diet, although not healthy and sustainable, was preferred most by respondents, signaling the challenges of shifting the consumer diet in China. Increasing the cost of the average diet can significantly promote sustainable healthy diet choices among urban Chinese residents. In other words, improving the affordability of sustainable healthy diets would have the potential to fuel the diet revolution in China.

Instead of choices of a single food item, this paper focused on the individual selection of a diet, where different food products can act as substitutes or as complements for one another. We also proposed a way to assess individual preferences and valuations for several different diets.

In the UK signposting services can be developed as enhanced support for people with health and social care needs or service diversion to help primary and urgent care services manage their workload. This review considers these two conflicting purposes.

The review used a realist approach, initial searches to identify theory; we then selected 22 publications and extracted programme theories, from which we developed questions from three viewpoints: the service user, the front-line service provider and the commissioner. A rich sample of studies were found from purposive searching. To optimise the applicability of synthesis findings predominantly UK studies were included.

Users value signposting service that understand their needs, suggest a range of options and summarise potential actions. People with complex health and social care needs generally require extended time/input from signposting services. Front-line providers require initial and ongoing training, support/supervision, good knowledge of available services/resources and the ability to match users to them and a flexible response. Commissioned signposting services in England are diverse making evaluation difficult.

Meaningful evaluation of signposting services requires greater clarity around roles and service expectations. Signposting services alone fulfil the needs of a small number of users due to the unreconciled tension between efficient (transactional) service provision and effective (relational) service provision. This is underpinned by competing narratives of whether signposting represents diversion of inappropriate demand from primary care and other urgent care services or improved quality of care through a joined-up response encompassing health, social care and community/voluntary services.

This study explores the effect of local budget retention rate changes (RER) on total factor productivity (TFP) and its components in Vietnam.

The study employs a two-system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator and data from 2012 to 2019 across all 63 provinces/cities of Vietnam.

The study finds that local budget retention rates significantly influence public investment, affecting scale and allocation efficiency. The reallocation of budgets between regions and from the central government to local levels incurs certain costs, often resulting in economically robust provinces experiencing reductions in their retention rates.

Recognizing the challenges of immediate structural budget changes due to cultural and historical factors, the study suggests a more gradual policy approach. It emphasizes the importance of policy predictability, as abrupt reductions in the retention rate lead to higher costs than gradual reductions, thus implementing budget policies with a clearer timeline. This study provides insight into local budget allocation regimes and their impact on productivity in transitioning countries.

First, the study provides fresh evidence of the impact of retention rate changes on TFP and its components in Vietnam. Second, the study provides insights into the mechanisms of the nexus of increased budget spending, capital efficiency and, most importantly, attaining improvement in education. We also offer further insights into inefficient budget allocation agents in Vietnam, especially in large cities, which should alert scholars to explore this topic further in the future.

This chapter aims to analyse how tourism has oscillated from a wicked problem and a geopolitical strategy tool in Brazilian federal tourism public tourism policies (PTP) over the past century (spanning from 1921 to 2022). Recently tourism has garnered significant relevance, emerging as an alternative avenue for development within the constraints and resource limitations faced by the National States. The empirical study collected secondary data from the government official press, encompassing records from the Senate, the House of Representatives, as well as the executive and judiciary branches. Considering this timeframe, a corpus comprising more than 31,000 documents TNAs (‘Tourism Normative Acts’) was meticulously gathered and systematically analysed. Our analytical framework integrates classical geopolitics, with a primary focus on State actors and the nation-building process, and the public policy approach, which is focussed on the degrees of wickedness. Our findings show that (a) the number of international tourists as well as the number of NAT have increased in a considerable way recently, but we cannot directly connect both; (b) three are the periods (1970–1980, 1990–2000, and 2002–2016) in which we can see a tourism geopolitical strategy has been more explicitly and effectively mobilized, and it is not necessarily reflected in the number of NAT, but in the actions generated in each period; and (c) the wicked degree of the tourism policies seem to be reduced according to the more explicit geopolitical strategy is. Despite, the importance tourism has reached, the support system underpinning this endeavour remains deficient, notably in terms of material and financial resources essential for its efficacious execution.

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) promise to be an incubator for a regenerative, mutualist, and democratic economy. But if business is no longer done in firms and workers are neither employed nor managed – what else? This paper argues that a new production architecture inevitably involves an uncomfortable look at the idea of “business” itself, requiring us to reconsider deeply ingrained ideas of scale, ownership, and control. Here, you will find three provocations to institutionally reimagine DAOs for a planetary-conscious future. Bear with me.