Structural innovation in state variables and expected stock returns

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether the surprise components of systematic risk, which are useful in forecasting future investment opportunities, help explain the cross-section of average returns associated with portfolios sorted on size, book-to-market and accruals. This study also aims to examine the mispricing attributes of the size, value and accrual effects by investigating the relative economic relevance of aggregate risk factors, which are related to exogenous shocks in state variables, in the cross-sectional returns of triple-sorted portfolios.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses innovations of systematic risk, which affect the cash flows and risk-adjusted discount rates of all firms in an economy and determines the expected returns of portfolios based on firm characteristics. This study uses independent sorts based on size, book-to-market and total accruals – all of which are measured at the firm level – and construct three-dimensional test portfolios. For unobserved innovations, this study estimates a triangular structural vector autoregressive system and obtain the exogenous innovations in state variables. The author uses Fama-MacBeth two-pass cross-sectional regressions and examines whether the structural innovations explain a significant part of the cross-sectional variation in the average returns of the test portfolios.FindingsThis study finds that variations in expected returns of testing assets are determined by differences in the underlying assets’ exposure to systematic risk innovation. The empirical evidence also shows that exogenous innovation in Fama-French (FF) risk factors leaves out important cross-sectional information about expected returns, and additionally, the FF-factor betas have lower cross-sectional power than the proxy for innovation betas. The cross-sectional differences in the test portfolios’ sensitivity to instruments such as the short-term Treasury bill rate and term spread survive the presence of FF-factor betas.Originality/valueIn contrast to the existing literature, this study uses structural innovations that are uncorrelated and thus exogenous in nature. The author creates test portfolios that display a wide range of average returns and are unlikely to show spurious variability in risk exposures. Unlike the existing research, where size, value and accrual anomalies have been analyzed in isolation, this study examine these pricing patterns jointly, focusing on the possible contributing role of structural innovation in economy-wide predictor variables. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to link the sensitivity of portfolios sorted on size, book-to-market and accruals to exogenous structural innovation.

Application of RBF model in the relationship between organisational innovation and organisational performance of HEM enterprises

With the increasing dynamics of the environment, the organisational innovation of high-end equipment manufacturing (HEM) enterprises has attracted more attention. This paper introduces a radial basis function (RBF) neural network to establish a model of the effect of organisational innovation on organisational performance (OP). Organisational innovation includes five dimensions: strategic innovation, structural innovation, cultural innovation, institutional innovation and process innovation. Through the modelling results, we know that all dimensions of organisational innovation have an effect on performance. According to the degree of impact, they are strategic innovation, structural innovation, process innovation, cultural innovation and institutional innovation.

Financial constraints, government subsidies, and corporate innovation

To investigate the relationships between financial constraints, government subsidies, and corporate innovation, a semi-logarithmic fixed-effect panel model and mediation effect test were applied, based on the data of Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2017. We find that (1) financial constraints suppress corporate innovation. (2) Government subsidies are targeted at bailing out firms facing financial constraints. (3) Government subsidies promote corporate innovation (4) Government subsidies partially offset the suppression of financial constraints on innovation. We contribute to the fields of public finance, corporate finance, and corporate innovation by: (1) justifying the government subsidies target strategy as a bailout of corporate financial constraints, (2) verifying the corporate-innovation promotion of government subsidies, thus justifying the efficiency of government subsidies, and (3) showing that different types of innovation benefit differently from subsidies, thus justifying subsidies as a structural innovation engine.

The ribbon architecture of the Golgi apparatus is not restricted to vertebrates

The Golgi apparatus plays a central role as a processing and sorting station along the secretory pathway. In multicellular organisms, this organelle displays two structural organizations, whereby its functional subunits, the mini-stacks, are either dispersed throughout the cell or linked into a centralized structure, called Golgi “ribbon”. The Golgi ribbon is considered to be a feature typical of vertebrate cells. Here we report that this is not the case. We show that sea urchin embryonic cells assemble Golgi ribbons during early development. Sea urchins are deuterostomes, the bilaterian animal clade to which chordates, and thus vertebrates, also belong.Far from being a structural innovation of vertebrates, the Golgi ribbon therefore appears to be an ancient cellular feature evolved before the split between echinoderms and chordates. Evolutionary conservation of the ribbon architecture surmises that it must play fundamental roles in the biology of deuterostomes.

Intricate Agribusiness in Potato Contract Farming in Gujarat: A Review

Gujarat ranks top in potato productivity and a hub of many processing organizations. Due to the globally changing potato consumption scenario, a new structural innovation was created between producers and processors named contract farming. It is a win-win situation for both the producers and processors. Potato contract farming in Gujarat is very special as many contract farming models were established under the agribusiness domain, of which some models were informal, and some were formal, but it helped to safeguard the interest of all the stakeholders. Lack of trust, transaction costs, liquidity issues, and present business scenarios like COVID-19 like situations create a challenge to this structure. A sound strategy like farm harvest branding, basket marketing, targeting an untapped market, and increase usage rate will create a space for processing varieties and impel contract farming in the future.

Tailoring Unique Neural-Network-Type Carbon Nanofibers Inserted in CoP/NC Polyhedrons for Robust Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Three-dimensional catalysts have attracted great attention in the field of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It still, however, remains a great challenge in structural innovation and performance enhancement. Herein, we designed...

A Reflection on a Trio of Dimensions in Flipped Classroom in Higher Education—A Literature-Based Study

It has been a decade since flipped classroom as a structural innovation in teaching and learning is widely applied and researched in higher education across the world. This study aims to explore, based on academic literature, three core dimensions to understanding flipped classroom: pedagogies as the inner core, interpersonal relationships as the bond and complexities involved in its evaluation.

Drivers of Stasis and Change

This chapter revises the usual understanding of regimes and regime transitions, including what a genuine transition might entail. It recommends a mix of structural, political-cultural, ideological, and praxis-oriented angles to understand and assess regimes and political change. Over time the workings of politics under electoral authoritarianism may shift the contest from one of policy or ideology toward less differentiable issues of mundane management and microlevel accessibility and acquisition. The chapter focuses on structural innovation at the local level. By supplementing national-level electoral tactics, electoral authoritarian regimes discipline the public and opposition parties that gradually permeates political culture and everyday political praxis. It also points out the implications of patterns that shape politician–voter linkages, premises for accountability and assessing alternatives, and the range of players with stakes in the system-that-is.