CEO Risk Taking and Firm Policies: Evidence from CEO Employment History

I propose that CEO employment history is an observable characteristic that reveals the CEO’s unobservable risk-taking preferences. I hypothesize that CEOs that change employers more frequently (mobile CEOs) have a propensity to bear risk and implement riskier firm policies. Using a sample of S&P 1500 CEOs, I find that firms are more likely to hire mobile CEOs when the firm’s prior risk is high, firm-specific human capital is less important, the prior CEO turnover is forced, the prior CEO has a shorter tenure and the board is smaller and has fewer insiders. Mobile CEOs increase financial leverage, invest more in advertising and less in capital expenditures, and increase firm-specific risk. Mobile CEOs invest more (less) in R&D in homogenous (heterogeneous) industries where firm-specific knowledge is less (more) important in making investment decisions. Shareholders react positively to appointments of CEOs who change employers more frequently. I find no difference in long-run accounting performance for CEOs with different employment histories. Firms’ annual stock returns and sales growth are higher for CEOs who change employers more frequently. The cost of debt increases after the firm appoints a mobile CEO. These findings suggest that lower CEO risk aversion and the potential risk-shifting from shareholders to bondholders are sources of shareholder value increases. In sum, my findings provide evidence that CEO employment history is an observable characteristic that reveals the risk-taking preference of the CEO

Consumption of salmon. A survey of supermarkets in China

To keep up with the recent trends in consumer demand for salmon product in supermarkets, an understanding of the relationship between consumption and variation of lifestyle is needed. The present paper seeks to address this question by hypothesizing that consumption is strongly influenced by consumers’ sociodemograhic status, experience of salmon, beliefs with salmon’s attributes and preference for the preferred type of salmon. Understanding the main lifestyle factors influencing consumer behaviour is important for marketers who want to increase demand of Norwegian salmon in supermarkets. A recursive sequential model of decision making process is used to evaluate the effect of socio-demograhic, experience, preference, belief variables on salmon demand in supermarkets in China. The important findings lead to suggestions for the marketers, such as, ‘ try taste’ activity could be carried out through in store promotion; marketing campaign should be taken around fish counter; promotion should be taken in supermarkets that have consumers of middle and high income; making salmon into nicely packed sashimi with kinds of sauce could possibly increase demand; cooking skill should be demonstrated in store or through media; Marketing activities should be carried out more frequently in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Moreover, the impact of hygienic standard of the supermarket and advertisement are suggested to be investigated and evoked set to be applied in the further studies

Construction of a high-resolution genetic linkage map and comparative genome analysis for the reef-building coral Acropora millepora

Section of Integrative Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C0930, Austin, TX 78712, USABackground: Worldwide, coral reefs are in decline due to a range of anthropogenic disturbances, and are now also under threat from global climate change. Virtually nothing is currently known about the genetic factors that might determine whether corals adapt to the changing climate or continue to decline. Quantitative genetics studies aiming to identify the adaptively important genomic loci will require a high-resolution genetic linkage map. The phylogenetic position of corals also suggests important applications for a coral genetic map in studies of ancestral metazoan genome architecture. Results: We constructed a high-resolution genetic linkage map for the reef-building coral Acropora millepora, the first genetic map reported for any coral, or any non-Bilaterian animal. More than 500 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were developed, most of which are transferable in populations from Orpheus Island and Great Keppel Island. The map contains 429 markers (393 gene-based SNPs and 36 microsatellites) distributed in 14 linkage groups, and spans 1,493 cM with an average marker interval of 3.4 cM. Sex differences in recombination were observed in a few linkage groups, which may be caused by haploid selection. Comparison of the coral map with other metazoan genomes (human, nematode, fly, anemone and placozoan) revealed synteny regions. Conclusions: Our study develops a framework that will be essential for future studies of adaptation in coral and it also provides an important resource for future genome sequence assembly and for comparative genomics studies on the evolution of metazoan genome structure.Integrative [email protected]