Web 2.0 heralds a new era of communication with a massive increase in information supply and where news, opinion and services flow directly from user to user. Financial institutions can take advantage if they stay abreast of this development. However, any Web 2.0 presence of a financial...

Elektromobilitaet und Flexibilisierung: Industrielle Wandlungsprozesse am Beispiel der Automobilregion Ingolstadt (The electric car and work Flexibility: Industrial Transformation Processes Analysed through the Example of the Bavarian Automobile Region, Ingolstadt) Die mit der Elektrifizierung...

Offshoring of IT services and back-office services to low-wage countries is a fast-growing market. Besides India, the pacesetter and dominant insourcer, there are numerous other countries and regions attempting to establish themselves as offshoring locations. Our report focuses on nearshoring...

The informational value of credit ratings is a subject of continuing debate. This research examines whether reaction to small market credit rating announcements is different from large markets, due to limited information, liquidity premia, and analyst neglect factors. Unlike U.S. and Australian...

A key requirement for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to maintain their corporate tax-exempt status is that 95 percent of income must be distributed as dividents. Receipt of this income imposes a personal tax burden on shareholders. A central tenet of this research is that REIT management...

Studies have shown that when two information providers or outside auditors exist, the value provided by the second one will be decreased by the actions of the first. Credit rating agencies have been rating bank loans since 1996. Capitalizing on the highly similar functions performed by banks and...

Private equity has become a substantial force in the European financial system. This paper describes some of the recent developments and looks at the structural relationship between private equity investments and economic growth. The econometric analysis of a set of panel data from 20 European...

The relationship between the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is characterized by a persistent potential for disruptions in implementation, such as 'biopiracy' conflicts, because of the agreements'...