4,133 research outputs found
Banks, knowledge and crisis: a case of knowledge and learning failure
Purpose â Regulators such as Turner have identified excessive securitization, high leverage, extensive market trading and a bonus culture, as being major factors in bringing about the bank centred financial crisis of 2007-2009. Whilst it is inevitable that banks adopt procyclical business strategies, not all banks took excessive risks and subsequently had to be rescued by taxpayers. The paper examines the extent to which individual bank outcomes can be attributed to systematic differences in banking knowledge concerning the primary risks and value drivers of their organisations by bank board directors and top management.
Design/methodology/approach â The paper reviews a wide range of theoretical, historical and empirical literatures on banking models and detailed case analyses of failing and non-failing banks. A framework for understanding the role and application of knowledge in banking is developed which suggests how banks, despite their pro-cyclical business strategies, are able to institutionalise learning and actively create new knowledge through time to improve bank organisation, intermediation and risk management.
Findings â The paper finds that a lack of basic knowledge of banking risks and value drivers by the boards and senior managers of the failing banks were implicated in the banking crisis. These knowledge problems concerned banks' understanding of their organisation, intermediation and risk management in an active market setting characterised by rapid economic and organisational change. Thus, the failing banks ignored or were unaware of this knowledge and hence experienced acute difficulties with learning the new knowledge needed to address the new problems thrown-up by the financial crisis.
Practical implications â The analysis suggests that addressing this knowledge gap via the institutionalisation of banking knowledge ought to constitute an important element of any sustainable solution to the problems currently being experienced by the banking sector. By ensuring greater bank learning, knowledge creation, and knowledge use, governments and regulators could help reduce individual bank risk and the likelihood of future crisis.
Originality/value â In contrast to the claims made by some politicians and banking insiders, the analysis indicates that the banking crisis and its severity were neither unpredictable nor unavoidable since some banks, by institutionalising banking knowledge and history of past crises, successfully avoided the pitfalls experienced by the failing banks
Removing sky contributions from SCUBA data
The Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) is a new continuum
camera operating on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna Kea,
Hawaii. It consists of two arrays of bolometric detectors; a 91 pixel 350/450
micron array and a 37 pixel 750/850 micron array. Both arrays can be used
simultaneously and have a field-of-view of approximately 2.4 arcminutes in
diameter on the sky.
Ideally, performance should be limited solely by the photon noise from the
sky background at all wavelengths of operation. However, observations at
submillimetre wavelengths are hampered by ``sky-noise'' which is caused by
spatial and temporal fluctuations in the emissivity of the atmosphere above the
telescope. These variations occur in atmospheric cells that are larger than the
array diameter, and so it is expected that the resultant noise will be
correlated across the array and, possibly, at different wavelengths.
In this paper we describe our initial investigations into the presence of
sky-noise for all the SCUBA observing modes, and explain our current technique
for removing it from the data.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures, Proc SPIE vol 335
Optical and X-ray profiles in the REXCESS sample of galaxy clusters
Galaxy clusters' structure, dominated by dark matter, is traced by member
galaxies in the optical and hot intra-cluster medium (ICM) in X-rays. We
compare the radial distribution of these components and determine the
mass-to-light ratio vs. system mass relation.
We use 14 clusters from the REXCESS sample which is representative of
clusters detected in X-ray surveys. Photometric observations with the Wide
Field Imager on the 2.2m MPG/ESO telescope are used to determine the number
density profiles of the galaxy distribution out to . These are
compared to electron density profiles of the ICM obtained using XMM-Newton, and
dark matter profiles inferred from scaling relations and an NFW model.
While red sequence galaxies trace the total matter profile, the blue galaxy
distribution is much shallower. We see a deficit of faint galaxies in the
central regions of massive and regular clusters, and strong suppression of
bright and faint blue galaxies in the centres of cool-core clusters,
attributable to ram pressure stripping of gas from blue galaxies in high
density regions of ICM and disruption of faint galaxies due to galaxy
interactions. We find a mass-to-light ratio vs. mass relation within
of at
with slope , consistent with most
previous results
Beyond swarm intelligence: The Ultraswarm
This paper explores the idea that it may be possible to
combine two ideas â UAV flocking, and wireless cluster
computing â in a single system, the UltraSwarm. The
possible advantages of such a system are considered, and
solutions to some of the technical problems are identified.
Initial work on constructing such a system based around
miniature electric helicopters is described
Bank top management teams, disclosure, learning, survival and failure - 1990-2017
No abstract available
A new approach to research and theory development for financial firms: building a âhouse with windowsâ
Purpose:
The paper aims to rethink empirical models and theory used in explaining banks and financial institutions (FIs) and to enhance the process of theory construction. This is a provisional response to Colander et al. (2009) and Gendron and Smith-Lacroixâs (2013) call for a new approach to developing theory for finance and FIs.
Design/methodology/approach:
An embryonic âbehavioural theory of the financial firmâ (BTFF) is outlined based on field research about banks and FI firms and relevant literature. The paper explores âconceptual connectionsâ between BTFF and traditional finance theory ideas of financial intermediation. It does not seek to âintegrateâ finance theory and alternative theory in âmeta theoryâ and has a more modest aim to improve theory content through âconnectionsâ.
Findings:
The âconceptual connectionsâ provide a means to develop ideas proposed by Scholtens and van Wensveen (2003). They are part of a âhouse with windowsâ intended to provide systematic means to âtake data from the outside worldâ whilst continuously recognising âthe complexities of the contextâ (Keasey and Hudson, 2007) to both challenge and build the core ideas of FT.
Research limitations/implications:
The BTFF is a means to create âconversationsâ between academics, practitioners and regulators to aid theory construction. This can overcome the limitations of such an embryonic theory.
Practical implications:
The ideas developed create new opportunities to develop finance theory, propose changes in banks and FIs and suggest changes in the focus of regulation.
Originality/value:
Regulators can use the expanded conceptual framework to encourage theory development and to enhance accountability of banks and FIs to citizens
The United States and Its Climate Change Policy: Advocating an Alignment of National Interest and Ethical Obligations
The "market for information" â functions, problems and policy proposals
Purpose:
Problems arose in the âMarket for informationâ (MFI) during: the âdot.comâ boom; the Enron case; Northern Rock failure; and during the great financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-09. The paper seeks to extend understanding of the âmarket for informationâ (MFI) through field research and theoretical sources. It seeks to understand the MFI during relatively stable periods and during periods of rapid change, crisis and failure. It seeks to use these insights to propose changes to reduce the possibilities for negative change and problems in the MFI.
Design/methodology/approach:
Field studies are used to develop an âempirical narrativeâ for ongoing MFI structure, process and outcomes during relatively stable periods. The paper develops a âtheoretical narrativeâ to extend understanding of the MFI empirical insights
Findings:
The paper reveals that MFI structure as: knowledge; and social context; is central to ongoing MFI economic processes for MFI agents. Outcomes include changes in markets, firms and others. Change and problems were means to understand interactions between MFI social structure, knowledge, actions and outcomes as they rendered visible the previously invisible.
Originality/value:
The paper demonstrates that a coherent combination of new empirical narrative and theoretical narrative is essential to develop a critical stance, new policy prescriptions and new regulation to deal with problems and change in the MFI. This provides the frame to propose changes in the âworld of knowledgeâ and in (concentrated and elite) social and economic structures in the MFI. It proposes: making explicit shared knowledge in the MFI; monitoring of change processes: and promotion of active formal learning
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