Manuchehr Shahrokhi

Brand equity valuation: a global perspective

Since late 1980s there has been a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions in which brands have played the primary role. It is no longer rare to find offers at a multiple of more than 25 times company earning, or two or three times its share value. In this paper we attempt to reach several objectives. First, the marketing and finance perspectives of brand equity are presented, and their interrelationships are shown. Second, the different measurements of brand equity are presented. Next, a comprehensive model of global brand equity, which we believe is capable of both estimating the brand equity more accurately and show the sources of the equity will be proposed.

E‐finance: status, innovations, resources and future challenges

Purpose - This purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the status of e-finance and discuss related issues and challenges. Provides data about growth of e-finance in the last decade. Introduces advances and innovations in e-finance and challenges facing the financial services and IT industries. Design/methodology/approach - The paper employs the archival method of reviewing related literature (theoretical, applied and empirical) and organizing and presenting the topics to provide an overview of e-finance status. Findings - The major contributions and finding of this paper include all areas of e-finance, application of technology to e-finance, growth of the e-finance in the financial services industry. Research limitations/implications - The paper provides areas of e-finance that face many different challenges and calls for further research in a number of areas related to e-finance technology and the interface of financial services and IT. Practical implications - The paper brings all scattered information and data about e-finance under one umbrella that would make scholars and practitioners aware of advances in e-finance and applications of innovations and new technology to financial services provided. Originality/value - The main value or contribution of this paper is bringing together most of available literature, advances, innovations, application of IT in the financial services industry and showing how organizations could benefit from such innovations. It also provides ideas to scholars for further research in this area.

The official and black (parallel) foreign exchange markets: Causal relationships: Empirical evidence

Since the establishment of the Bretton-Woods system in 1944, governments, especially in Less Developed Countries (LDCs), have often resorted to foreign exchange controls in order to “protect” their scarce holdings of foreign currencies and to insulate their domestic economies from de-stabilizing cross-border capital movements. Despite overwhelming trends of deregulations in domestic financial markets and liberalization of international economic policies in the 198Os, foreign exchange controls are still considered viable policy instruments by many developing countries. These controls may also be attractive to many Eastern European nations that are trying to reconcile their pegged (managed) exchange rate systems with their increasing efforts to integrate economic systems with the market-oriented economies of the industrialized world. In recent years an increasing number of LDCs have adopted floating exchange rate systems, however, this is not a widespread practice by a majority of them. The emergence of a black (parallel) market for hard foreign currencies is one of the important consequences of foreign exchange controls: such controls restrict the availability of hard foreign currencies for imports of goods, services, and capital flows. This restriction creates an excess demand in the foreign exchange market that leads to a situation in which hard currencies are being traded at a premium above the officially accepted exchange rates. Sheikh [31] distinguishes three different exchange rates: black market, official, and free market “equilibrium.” The equilibrium exchange rate is higher than the