Competitive Advantage, Online Brokerage and IT: Evidence from Italian and German Companies

Retail banking is rapidly driven by the use of innovative technologies. This is especially true for direct brokers that rely on the fast execution of stock market transactions via electronic distribution channels. Based on the framework of the resource based view we evaluate the contribution of front-end applications, middleware systems and back-end technologies to competitive advantage of direct brokers. Consistent with literature reviewed concerning IT as source of competitive advantage and IT-related competitive advantage in banking we find little potential for sustainable competitive advantage, even in the IT driven industry of direct brokerage. Given the present state of technologies employed, back-end systems reveal the highest potential for competitive advantage. We doubt, though, that it is of a sustainable nature. The findings presented rest on a case evaluation of the German and Italian brokers. This research in progress provides the formulation of hypotheses that are the basis for a more detailed research incorporating the more mature American direct brokers and investigating dynamic capabilities for continuous IT innovation, that might be source of sustainable competitive advantage

Do Brokers Misallocate Customer Trades? Evidence From Futures Markets

In the context of futures markets, we study whether brokers allocate more favorable trades to their own accounts, and less favorable trades to their customers. We find that, within a thirty minute trading bracket, brokers on average buy at a lower price and sell at a higher price for their own accounts relative to their customers. We show evidence that brokers' price advantage may be compensation for providing liquidity to the market when brokers trade for their own accounts, but no evidence that they are due to brokers' superior information, or to greater effort by brokers when trading for themselves. Consistent with the idea that, in a competitive market for brokerage services, brokers may pass on some of their profits to customers, we find that brokers who trade for themselves also provide superior execution for their customers, relative to brokers who do not trade for themselves.futures, brokers, trading

Attaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage in Dubai\u27s Real Estate Industry

Real estate business leaders who fail to attain and sustain competitive advantage to increase profitability during periods of unstable or declining markets, experience either lost profits or bankruptcy. In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the brokerage market is saturated with over 5,000 active brokers and more than 2,000 registered real estate offices. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that successful leaders of Dubai medium-sized real estate businesses implemented to attain and sustain competitive advantage to increase profitability during periods of unstable or declining markets. The population for the study included business leaders of 4 medium-sized real estate businesses in Dubai, who had successfully implemented competitive advantage strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with the 4 leaders and from artifacts such as the company websites and social media pages. The conceptual framework for this study was the strength-weakness-opportunity-threat analysis technique. Inductive analysis was used to code and identify themes in the collected data, and the trustworthiness of interpretations was supported by member checking. Four themes emerged: reduce operating costs, execute corporate real estate management, promote corporate social responsibility, and utilize human capital. Findings from this study could contribute to positive social change by providing real estate business leaders with insights regarding strategy implementations necessary for attaining and sustaining competitive advantage and increasing financial independence, thereby promoting the culture and strengthening the local economy

Community Enforcement of Informal Contracts: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York

The diamond industry is home to many unusual features: the predominance of an ethnically homogeneous community of merchants, the norm of intergenerational family businesses, and a rejection of public courts in favor of private contract enforcement. This paper explains that the diamond industry\u27s unique attributes arise specifically to meet the particularly rigorous hazards of transacting in diamonds. Since diamonds are portable, easily concealable, and extremely valuable, the risk associated with a credit sale can be especially costly. However, the industry enjoys valuable organizational efficiencies if transactions occur on credit between independent, fully incentivized agents. Thus, an efficient system of exchange will find ways to induce merchants who purchase on credit to fulfill their payment obligations. The very features that give the diamond industry an unusual profile are responsible for providing institutions to support credit sales. A system of private arbitration spreads information regarding merchants\u27 past dealings, so a reputation mechanism to monitor merchants can take hold. Intergenerational legacies, though restricting entry only to those who can inherit good reputations from family members, resolve an end-game problem and induce merchants to deal honestly through their very last transaction. And the participation of Ultra-Orthodox Jews, for whom inclusion and participation in their communities is equally paramount to their material wealth, serve important value-added services as diamond cutters and brokers without posing the threat of theft and flight

Prohibited Floor Trading Activities Under the Commodity Exchange Act

In algorithmic graph theory, a classic open question is to determine the complexity of the Maximum Independent Set problem on Pt -free graphs, that is, on graphs not containing any induced path on t vertices. So far, polynomial-time algorithms are known only for t≤5 (Lokshtanov et al., in: Proceedings of the twenty-fifth annual ACM-SIAM symposium on discrete algorithms, SODA 2014, Portland, OR, USA, January 5–7, 2014, pp 570–581, 2014), and an algorithm for t=6 announced recently (Grzesik et al. in Polynomial-time algorithm for maximum weight independent set on P6 -free graphs. CoRR, arXiv:1707.05491, 2017). Here we study the existence of subexponential-time algorithms for the problem: we show that for any t≥1 , there is an algorithm for Maximum Independent Set on Pt -free graphs whose running time is subexponential in the number of vertices. Even for the weighted version MWIS, the problem is solvable in 2O(tnlogn√) time on Pt -free graphs. For approximation of MIS in broom-free graphs, a similar time bound is proved. Scattered Set is the generalization of Maximum Independent Set where the vertices of the solution are required to be at distance at least d from each other. We give a complete characterization of those graphs H for which d-Scattered Set on H-free graphs can be solved in time subexponential in the size of the input (that is, in the number of vertices plus the number of edges): If every component of H is a path, then d-Scattered Set on H-free graphs with n vertices and m edges can be solved in time 2O(|V(H)|n+m√log(n+m)) , even if d is part of the input. Otherwise, assuming the Exponential-Time Hypothesis (ETH), there is no 2o(n+m) -time algorithm for d-Scattered Set for any fixed d≥3 on H-free graphs with n-vertices and m-edges

Perspectives on the educational market: universities between virtual campus and education brokers

Nowadays information and communication technologies are affecting many aspects of our daily life. Sitting at our home computer we can order products, book flights, transfer money, buy and sell stocks and take online classes of educational institutions at the other end of the world. Maybe one day we will be able to pick any graduate business course at any institution that we like and combine credits of several online universities. Major changes are happening on the educational market. How will the educational market look like in 10 or 20 years? Which path will the traditional universities go from now on and where will they end? And: what are the factors that influence this shift? These are the questions which are addressed in this paper. Some of the analysis presented in this paper is based on papers published by the German Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Heinz Nixdorf Stiftung (Encarnacao/Leidhold/Reuter 2000) and on some English authors (i.e. Daniel 1998) and it summarizes some of their ideas

THE RISE OF KENYAN SUPERMARKETS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THEIR FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS

Supermarkets are rapidly penetrating urban food retail in Kenya and spreading well beyond their initial tiny market niche into the food markets of lower-income groups. Having penetrated processed and staple food markets much earlier and faster than fresh foods, they have recently begun to make inroads into the fresh fruits and vegetables category. The important changes in their procurement systems bring significant opportunities and challenges for small farmers, and have implications for agricultural diversification and rural development programmes and policies.Marketing,

Do Brokers Help or Hinder the Marketing of Fresh Produce in Lusaka? Preliminary Insights from Research

Brokers are agents who arrange sales without taking ownership of the commodity, earning their money on a commission. Brokers are a common but often controversial presence in wholesale markets of East and Southern Africa. Efficient brokering can be beneficial by matching buyers and sellers more effectively than if each had to search independently for someone to transact with. Yet buyers and sellers can be harmed if brokers are able to behave in uncompetitive, collusive, or unethical ways. In Soweto market of Lusaka, common complaints lodged by sellers are that brokers force sellers to use them by threatening the security of the sellers’ produce, and that the brokers add “hidden” commissions when selling a farmer or trader’s produce. This policy brief explores the role of brokers in the marketing of fresh produce in Soweto Market. It concludes that, while brokers appear to provide some valued service to some sellers, the chaotic nature of the market and the lack of any regulatory and enforcement structure leads to questionable broker behaviour including charging of hidden commissions. As government and city officials grapple with how to improve fresh produce wholesaling, it is imperative that they focus not just on physical infrastructure but also on the governance, regulatory, and enforcement structures without which new market places will be of little use.Zambia, brokers, marketing, produce, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty, Marketing,

WHAT BUYERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MICHIGAN CELERY

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,