Funded by MIF, CAF and Calmeadow, this MicroRate report provides a snapshot of how the impact of the global financial crisis evolved during the last quarter of 2008. The study combines data and interviews from 52 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and 23 microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs)....

This study examined the relationships between core selling teams (CSTs) and customer satisfaction within the mission critical power design industry. The literature indicates that CSTs, which are considered a state of the art sales model, deserved further research. The SERVQUAL survey was used to...

Myths have come of age in consumer research. In the 22 years since Levy’s inaugural article, the literature has grown at an impressive rate. Yet important questions remain unanswered: What makes some myths especially meaningful to consumers? Why are certain consumer myths more prevalent and...

In quasi-markets, contracts find purchasers influencing health care providers, although problems exist where providers use personal bias and heuristics to respond to written agreements, tending towards the moral hazard of opportunism. Previous research on quasi-market contracts typically...

Despite decades of academic endeavor, introspection is still regarded with suspicion in marketing and consumer research. Articles predicated upon introspection are unwelcome in leading journals and its exponents are considered dissidents, outsiders, renegades, rather less than fully integrated...

This paper studies operational risk in the hedge fund industry using due diligence reports. Many funds suffer from operational problems, including limited disclosure of legal and regulatory issues. We use direct evidence of inadequate or failed internal processes to derive a canonical...

Mandatory disclosure is a regulatory tool intended to allow market participants to assess operational risk. We examine the value of disclosure through the controversial SEC requirement, since overturned, which required major hedge funds to register as investment advisors and file Form ADV...

Using a complete set of the SEC filing information on hedge funds (Form ADV) and the TASS data, we develop a quantitative model called the ?-Score to measure hedge fund operational risk. The ?-Score is related to conflict of interest issues, concentrated ownership, and reduced leverage in the...

Due to imperfect transparency and costly auditing, trust is an essential component of financial intermediation. In this paper we study a sample of 444 due diligence (DD) reports from a major hedge fund DD firm. A routine feature of due diligence is an assessment of integrity. We find that...

This paper examines the application of the first two principles of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, namely ownership and alignment, to the cases of Mali and Ghana. It argues that Western donors and recipient governments have adopted the Paris Principles mainly in form, rather...