Scientific Annals of Economics and Business

Time-Series Momentum in a Small European Stock Market: Evidence from a New Historical Financial Dataset

Júlio Lobão — 2023-09-20

In this paper, we examine the Portuguese stock market for indication of time-series momentum effects using a new historical financial dataset that covers about 120 years of data. We find strong time-series momentum effects that cannot be explained by conventional risk factors. The positive return continuation seems to last for a period of 12 months, being heavily concentrated at the first month. At longer investment horizons, returns tend to mean-revert. The market exhibited significant time-series momentum for all look-back and holding periods of 12 months or less. A strategy with a 1-month look-back period and a 12-month holding period is shown to be the most profitable yielding a Sharpe ratio roughly 5.4 times that generated by a passive strategy. Time-series momentum strategies tend to perform best during extreme up-market periods and deliver the worst returns during down markets. This suggests that the strategy may not offer significant diversification benefits. Our findings add to the evidence that time-series momentum effects are not a product of data mining and are difficult to reconcile with the assertion that stock markets follow a random walk.

Audit Quality Review: An Analysis Projecting the Past, Present, and Future

Niva Kalita — 2023-09-25

Literature on audit quality remains plenteous, with researchers contemplating the area for 'forever and a day’. The present study proposes synthesising the existing literature on audit quality, discerning the prominent themes and providing future research avenues. This paper attempts to analyse and synthesise the dynamics of audit quality research by employing the diminuendos of systematic literature review with bibliometric and content analysis. Scopus database has been gleaned to systematically retrieve the literature on audit quality from 1981-2022. Analysing the 1101 relevant articles under review makes the USA the highest contributor. It is, however, enthralling to note that developing countries have also registered increased interest in the topic. Apart from the other documented findings, the study concluded that research has witnessed impeccable growth over the years under various lenses, which have been precisely synthesised into six clusters. While various reviews have been conducted using innumerable qualitative methods, this study attempts to employ quantitative methods to synthesise the extant literature, which is a rarity.

Resilience to Online Privacy Violation: Developing a Typology of Consumers

Jelena Budak — 2023-09-25

This study examines which segments of population with similar resilience to online privacy violation, severity of online privacy violation, and attitudes towards online privacy concern exist in Croatia, and whether they can be differentiated by demographic characteristics and attitudes towards other online constructs. Research is performed on a representative sample of Croatian Internet users who experienced online privacy violation. The survey data were analyzed using factor analysis, k-means cluster analysis, chi-square test and ANOVA. The findings indicate three groups of consumers with: (1) low-resilience, (2) moderate-resilience, and (3) high-resilience; who differ in age, income, and online buying habits.

The Economic Impact of the LEADER Program in the Rural Communities of Romania

Ana-Maria Opria — 2023-06-29

The sustainable development of rural areas is one of the European Union’s objectives. LEADER program contributes to its fulfillment by offering financial support to disadvantaged rural areas. The purpose of this paper is to assess the LEADER program’s economic impact in the Romanian rural communities. Econometric methods of impact assessment were used to analyze the evolution of economic indicators in the beneficiary communities. Propensity Score Matching and Difference in Differences were the methods applied in order to meet the objectives of the paper: analysis of the spatial distribution of projects submitted and funds allocated to LAGs (1), and of the economic evolution of LAG and non-LAG communities, before and after LEADER funding (2). The results indicate a stronger economic growth for the beneficiary rural communities, confirming in all cases the initial hypothesis. LEADER seems to have acted in these directions: the creation of new jobs and increasing the local businesses performance. However, the contribution made was minimal and insignificant. Conclusions of the study highlight that the contribution of the LEADER program to the economic development of rural communities can be at most one of supporting the current level of development, but not of reaching a much higher level. LEADER can be considered, from a quantitative point of view, only an instrument with a positive effect on rural areas, but not an instrument of impact. This is because LEADER did not bring significant changes and didn’t ensure that critical mass that could trigger the economic development of rural communities.

The Infancy of the Esports Industry as a Risk to its Sponsors

Bruno Duarte Abreu Freitas — 2023-09-18

In less than 10 years, esports have turned into a global phenomenon with a large following that rivals the audience size of popular established sports. This has resulted in a massive influx of esports sponsors. However, because it appeared and evolved so rapidly, sponsors have no idea of what esports really are nor of what risks they may face. Ergo, this research aimed to determine what issues are being caused by the infancy of the esports industry that is threatening sponsors. Hence, this exploratory research used a convergent-parallel mixed method with equal status. Empirical data was obtained through interviews with 22 experts in esports sponsoring and the application of a survey to 5,638 esports fans. Quantitative data was analysed with SPSS 25 and qualitative data with NVIVO 10. The results showed that the majority of experts considered that the problems associated with the infancy of the esports industry are a risk to esports sponsors and almost all esports fans reckon that the competitive gaming market has infancy-related issues to solve. Esports are not like general sports, so sponsors must holistically study this industry to mitigate the dangers of suffering from the problems of this new and unknown market.

A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis of fNIRS and fMRI Technology in Neuromarketing

Ahmed Alsharif — 2023-09-19

The aim of this study is to perform a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tools. To achieve this aim, we adopted the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol and bibliometric analysis (VOSviewer) for extracting the relevant papers (articles and reviews) from the Scopus database between 2002 and 2022. A total of 86 papers were included in the analysis. The results showed an increasing trend in publications over the years—the top countries in terms of publication outcome were the United States, Germany, Spain, and Australia. The analysis also identified the most influential authors and institutions in the field. In addition, we analyzed the most frequently cited articles, journals, and keywords related to fNIRS and fMRI tools. This bibliometric analysis provides insights into the current state of research on fNIRS and fMRI tools. It also provides insights into the direction of future research in this field. In this study, we will provide general insights and details about current trends in neuromarketing research using fNIRS and fMRI.

Government Support During COVID-19 and Corruption

Zana Beqiri Luma — 2023-09-25

We analyze the allocation and effectiveness of government support in response to the COVID-19 outbreak across a nationally representative sample of firms in 32 countries representing different levels of institutional transparency. The probability of receiving government support is higher for larger firms, firms belonging to business support groups and innovative firms in low corruption countries. In high corruption, countries firms competing against unregistered establishments, with lack of internationally recognized quality certification and no formalized business strategy are more likely to receive government support. Using the panel structure of the data to address reverse causality, selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity, we then find that government support improves firm-level outcomes more strongly in low corruption countries. Among different types of government support, we find wage subsidies to be more effective in high corruption countries while technical assistance for adoption of digital technologies in low corruption countries. In addition, social distancing and lockdown policies do not seem to be as effective in improving firm-level outcomes in high-corruption countries most likely because of weaker capacities to enforce such policies. These results show the importance of enhancing systems of accountability and enforcement procedures that will ensure that fiscal stimulus aid is deployed to benefit those who need it the most.