Gregory J. McKee

Community bank product design within an asymmetric competitive market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess product and service arrays of community banks within competitive markets that are impacted by varying sized financial institutions. A cost efficiency model is used to understand the relationship of product offerings and business cycle response upon bank performance. Design/methodology/approach – A cost efficiency model is used to understand the relationship of product offerings and business cycle response upon bank performance. Markets comprised of alternate size and type of financial institutions are compared. Findings – Greater values of X_EFF i when institutions compete are observed in this analysis. Cost efficiency is lowest when community banks are the only institution in the market, and second lowest when credit unions are the only competing institutions. Call report data are analyzed from 1994 to 2013. The number of big banks increases community bank efficiency and efficiency of large banks. Also, the number of community banks does affect big bank co...

EXECUTIVE SUCCESSION PLANNING: BARRIERS AND SUBSTITUTES IN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

Predicted shortages of chief executives combined with growing economic and social significance of the nonprofit sector in an increasingly complex operating environment highlight the need for executive succession planning. Accordingly, our research explores factors that may influence executive succession planning in nonprofit and cooperative forms of organizations. Survey data (N = 242) were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results suggest both barriers to and substitutes for executive succession planning that help explain the apparent dearth of succession planning efforts in these organizations. A penchant for continuity was found to be a barrier to such planning, while elements of governance quality and internal development were found to substitute for executive succession planning.

Impact of Cooperative Business Management Curriculum on Secondary Student Attitudes.

The authors examined the effect a curriculum about cooperative businesses had on high school student attitudes toward these businesses. Cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions were measured before and after participating in the curriculum. Older high school students increased their attitudes toward cooperatives more than did younger students. Students with prior exposure to cooperatives had increases in positive attitudes toward cooperatives. Larger increases were increased in positive attitudes in female students than male students. Finally, students in regions of North Dakota with relatively fewer cooperatives per square mile had larger increases in positive attitudes.

Marginal impact of sales consultant visits and financing opportunities on adoption of variable-rate fertilizer application

Precision agriculture has been practiced since the early 1990s, but the adoption rate of this technology has been slower than experts had predicted. This study explores the role of public- and private-sector financial assistance in the adoption of variable-rate fertilizer application. Public- and private-sector financial assistance are modeled to show the marginal impacts of changes in the traditional flow of government assistance, sales consultant visits, and financial risk. Results indicate that deviation from traditional Aone stop shopping@ has a negative and significant impact on the adoption of alternative fertilizer application technology. However, sales consultant visits, in conjunction with conservation and environmental quality incentive programs and the availability of financing opportunities, significantly favor the adoption of variable-rate fertilizer application. Changes in business risk produced opposite movements in financial risk to facilitate increased adoption of variable-rate fertilizer application technologies.