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The normal way of dealing with damages for delay in a construction contract is to use a Liquidated and Ascertained Damages clause. Such clauses specify a preset sum to be due to the client for every day, week or month by which the contractor fails to meet the works completion date. However, the greater part of the value of construction work is actually carried out by subcontractors, and there is little or no published evidence as to how their contractual responsibilities for delays are determined and pursued. Theoretically, there are a number of possibilities (none of which is entirely satisfactory to both parties) and the logic and implications of each is discussed. A survey was conducted to discover the methods that are actually used, their incidence, and whether it was possible to relate the different approaches to the attributes of particular subcontractors or to specific situations. The most commonly encountered approach was for subcontract damages to be based upon a proportion of those set under the main contract. Interestingly, this is neither the approach incorporated within industry‐standard subcontract conditions, nor is it the one preferred by subcontractors. Furthermore, this method places considerable risks on the main contractor due to the possibilities of under‐recovery and the creation of secondary risks. This method, indeed all the methods that were encountered, seems to be the result of a rather uneasy compromise between the parties, the outcome of which may be related to their relative bargaining power.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the circumstances and events surrounding bull runs in Malaysia from 1990 to 2015. The research question posed here is: What were the historical circumstances and events surrounding bull runs in Malaysia?

Case study approach is used. This research resorts to multiple resources such as academic journals, macroeconomic statistics, official publications, stock broker reports, annual reports of listed companies as well as articles from regional newspaper and magazines.

The results show that the bull runs in recent years happened with lower volatility after the Asian Financial Crisis. It can be conjectured that the specific environment in which the bull runs occurred can be somewhat different from period to period. Based on stylised facts and historical evidence, this study identified five major themes that were behind the bull markets in Malaysia, which include capital flow, spill-over effect from global development, change in ratings, speculative activities and investors’ sentiment, as well as government policies announcement. The findings have practical implications for investors who seek to understand and predict stock market boom through lessons learned from historical perspective.

The analysis in this paper may have limitation, as the facts gathered are from secondary sources, which sources are derived from the observations of others. Therefore, secondary sources inevitably reflect the assumptions and biases of the people who wrote them. As the availability of data is limited by factors that are not under the control of the researcher, results may likely be limited in their generalizability. This case study does not attempt to establish causality or relationship between macroeconomic variables and stock prices. Further studies would therefore be necessary to examine the evolving nature of the relationship that may exist.

The findings of this study have significant policy implications for Malaysia, and also for other emerging markets. First, a prudent macroeconomic measures and concerted stance on fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policy to improve fundamentals and smooth volatility in the business cycle is vital for a bullish stock market. Second, the stock market derived significant benefits from openness to foreign capital and its resilience can be enhanced by fostering deeper and more liquid capital markets with diverse institutional investors, including domestic and foreign participants. Third, the environment that affects a stock market could be related to the political, regulatory and global environments. Malaysia stock market is susceptible to extreme events, capital flow, speculative activities and government interventions. Having a good grasp of which themes are operative at any point in time is central to investment decision making. Continuous rebalancing of portfolios based on information arriving in the market is also vital.

Previous studies on Malaysian stock market movement focus on quantitative analysis based on macroeconomic variable. This research is original in terms of giving background information and additional context to explain phenomena missed by quantitative research methods. The construction of quantitative model is also constraint by the measurability of non-quantitative data and data with different frequencies (such as annual, quarterly and monthly data). Therefore, it is important to contemplate the importance of non-quantitative factors, such as political, legal, regulatory and governance considerations. This study seeks to fill in this void.

Briefly reviews previous research on the value of investment advisors’ recommendations and presents a study comparing portfolio returns from analysts’ recommendations in the Wall Street Journal’s “Dartboard” contest 1990‐1996, four randomly selected shares and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Finds the analysts’ portfolio has the highest average returns and standard deviation; and that although some individual analysts have excellent scores in the contest, this is inversely related to the number of times they participate. Suggests that they do not significantly outperform other portfolios, but that contest winners’ tips have significant effects on the market, especially for non‐listed shares. Assesses the implications of the results for the efficient market hypothesis and the share prices of firms with higher asymmetric information.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

The paper investigates the information sought by UK investors about Japanese companies, and the extent to which this involves the use of company financial statements. Such a study is important because it is only recently that Japanese financial markets have been relatively accessible to foreign investors, and that the volume of investment trade has grown rapidly. This paper describes the principal features of the accounting and capital market situation in Japan and reports the results of a series of interviews on these features. Participants interviewed had contradictory views on the application of CAPM to the Japanese market. If the market model is not appropriate for the Japanese market, this will have implications for future research in that market.

Chinese began to arrive in Florida at the turn of the 20th century. Currently there are more than fifty thousand Chinese living in Florida. This article provides information resources for scholars and students of Chinese studies, and for people interested in the history of Chinese Americans and Southeast regional studies. It consists of archive papers, books, journal and newspaper articles and Internet resources containing information on Florida and China. The list is arranged by authors’ last names when available.

Such reports as reach us go to prove that few, if any, attacks on library finances, such as are usually frequent in the municipal budgetting month of February, have been made this year; and that in spite of the fact that local rates have risen to an unprecedented extent throughout the Kingdom. This is our general impression, although librarians are somewhat reticent upon the matter. Last year we appealed for information as to reductions and retrenchments, but received little response; it appeared that the matter was not sufficiently interesting to librarians to make them express their views or state their experiences concerning it. Library finance is in spite of that a vital matter to us all, and the primary need in connexion therewith is accurate information. We therefore venture to repeat our request for news of the kind. It will be used with discretion.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the risk factors for A‐shares listed on both Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange in China using variables from Akgun and Gibson.

The paper applies cross‐sectional regression on the orthogonal components by rearranging these risk variables into several principal components.

The results produced strong evidence that size and book‐to‐market (BM) ratio could be well explained by these alternative risk variables. Additionally, the alternative variables are better at explaining returns in terms of adjusted R‐squares.

The practical implication of the study is that investors can improve both their pricing of the investment risk and their management of the risk factors with the alternatives identified in the study.

The paper provides evidence in explaining the size and BM effects in China's stock markets.

OUR new features of record and reminiscence appear to have been appreciated by our readers; and, as this number shows, we continue with increased pages and are endeavouring to extend our scope to meet every kind of library interest. There is an atmosphere, of change and, as some think, of crisis, in library matters, especially in those of the public library. The winter to which our minds turn in mid‐September is likely to be interesting and may bring decisions of various kinds. We hope to reflect them, and, as is our invariable custom, invite readers to use us to express their views as well as their experiences.

Drawing upon the theory of organizational commitment and relative standing, this study aimed to develop an integrative model to examine how organizational cultural differences impact on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) performance.

The study used regression analysis and moderated path analysis to test the hypothesis with a sample of 103 executives from 49 firms acquired by Chinese state-owned enterprises.

The paper arrives at the conclusion that the executives’ organizational commitment mediated the association between organizational cultural differences and M&A performance. Besides, the authors also confirmed the moderator role of relative standing.

The paper suggests ways that can help practitioners better eliminate cultural differences obstacles during the M&A by presenting an integrative framework and showed an actual Chinese case.

This study contributes to the M&A literature by developing an integrative model to explain the complexity between organizational cultural differences and M&A performance with a Chinese executive sample.