Given the rapid increase of web-based sales despite the collapse of many dot-com firms, e-services (both online-only & hybrid "clicks & mortar" firms) are faced with a difficult challenge: what value-added features should they offer to effectively gain market share & profits while realistically...

It is well known fact that all good things, as also bad things, come to an end and business cycles pass through good and bad economic times. Economically 2010 was a year of transition from economic recession to recovery. Economies were improving in some countries and industries were showing...

In this paper, a parametric cost frontier for the credit card market is specified (�stochastic frontier approach� - SFA) and robustness checks of the main results are performed. The aim is to provide some clues to: the x-inefficiency problem and determinants in a retail payment...

In this paper, a parametric cost frontier for the credit card market is specified ("stochastic frontier approach" - SFA) and robustness checks of the main results are performed. The aim is to provide some clues to: the x-inefficiency problem; the main technical characteristics of the industry;...

While the single market has largely been achieved for the EU market for goods, the services sector has lagged behind. This has resulted in sluggish activity, low productivity growth, high prices, that show a wide dispersion and relatively high inflation in this sector. Both the OECD product...

This paper examines the performance of 515 banks in 16 transition economies for the years 1994 – 99 based on their public financial accounts. We first examine lending behaviour and probability distribution of bank profitability to determine whether these banks exhibit behaviour and performance...

Recent theoretical models and empirical analyses argue that mortgage market activity creates information and lowers the costs of underwriting mortgages. We re-examine this question using models that control for neighborhood-lender fixed effects and address the potential endogeneity of market...

This paper examines premises and data underlying the assertion that some financial institutions in the U.S. economy were "too big to fail" and hence warranted government bailout. It traces the merger histories enhancing the dominance of six leading firms in the U. S. banking industry and he...

This paper examines the effect of financial risk on perceptions of service quality and relationship-marketing quality in the online retail environment. Perceptions of financial risk were found to be negatively associated with service quality. In particular, a well-designed and attractive Web...

Within the last decades an increasing number of people practice risky sports in their leisure time. Although there exists a vast number of economic literature on risk-taking behavior, an estimation of the individual willingness to pay (WTP) for the option to exercise risk-taking is missing....