From Dagenham to Wall Street

(1968). A Growing World Force: Investment Clubs. Financial Analysts Journal: Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 141-146.

Racial disparities exist in many aspects of social and economic life in the United States. One of the more persistent and potentially damaging disparities is the racial gap in wealth. In this chapter, we (a) explore why communities of color remain behind in asset accumulation, (b) introduce blueprints for individual and collective strategies for building wealth in communities of color, and (c) provide three brief case studies. We acknowledge that it has taken generations to create the current racial wealth gap in the United States and it will not go away quickly. Yet, it is still possible to reduce the number of people living in asset poverty and improve economic security among communities of color. Individual-level strategies and assets discussed in this chapter include investing a portion of Earned Income Tax Credit refunds, Individual Development Accounts, retirement savings, real estate, and estate planning through a trust or family endowment. Collective-level strategies and assets discussed include shared risk pools for insurance, housing cooperatives, investment clubs, worker-owned and microenterprise cooperatives, Community Development Corporations, venture capital entities, and foundations. We note the need for “gap-closing methods” that collectively implement these strategies on a large scale and make suggestions for how this might happen.

Pop Finance: Investment Clubs and the New Investor Populism

The Assets Group Model: Empowerment Through Investment Clubs: Frank A. Sansone

Africa is a 1.2 billion person market on the cusp of transformative growth. It is adopting technology at a furious pace, and entrepreneurial energy pulses throughout the continent. It already has more big companies than you would imagine – and room for many more. Yet Africa still faces serious challenges. Although incomes are rising, poverty remains widespread. Businesses must contend with infrastructure gaps, fragmented markets, and regulatory complexity. To translate Africa’s opportunities into profitable, sustainable enterprises, executives need to reset their mental maps – recasting challenges as a spur for innovation and unmet market demand as room for growth. One key initiative that will help them do so is the France-Nigeria Investment Club, launched by President Emmanuel Macron in 2018. The Club’s priorities include fostering better understanding and cooperation between the two countries and their business communities, creating business opportunities, and triggering co-investment projects – not just in Nigeria but across Africa.

An experimental study was conducted to determine the minimum group size for which the mitigating effect for the hot hand and gambler’s fallacies can be felt. This is quantified by looking if groups are as prone to the hot hand and gambler’s fallacies in making decisions as their individual counter parts. Results suggest that groups maximize their investment returns better than individuals as the former choose to decide on their own more and rely on the experts’ opinions less. Triads are the least biased with the hot hand and gambler’s fallacies and thus are able to make more rational decisions and consequently maximize their investments better than the other treatments.These data allowed us to recognize the benefits of forming investment clubs consisting of three members since their decisions are more likely in line with the profit maximizing strategy in comparison with the decisions made by pairs and individuals.

The positive effects of micro-loans on the impoverished has become veritable gospel to economic development professionals. Pioneered by Muhammed Yunus in the 1970s, the concept of making small loans to groups of poor entrepreneurs has become a mainstream tool of development and poverty reduction agents around the globe. However, little research has been done at this time into the microeconomic mechanics of small scale finance, especially the different outcomes of the loan depending on what sector of the economy the debtor is engaged in. A simulation designed to pursue further understanding of this subject, and conducted in partnership with Opportunity International, a micro-finance NGO, and the Westmont Investment Club, reveals whether different outcomes of a micro-loan were caused by a debtor's location in the production chain.

Purpose Using a combined Industrial Marketing and Purchasing’s network approach and institutional theory, this paper aims to explore why firms exploit dual marketing strategy that targets both the consumer (business-to-consumer) and business markets (business-to-business). This study uses the regulated housing market as its research context in examining how housing developers cope with government intervention when implementing a dual marketing strategy. Design/methodology/approach This study applies a qualitative case study research approach, using 19 in-depth interviews, from the purposefully selected industry actors within the housing market, observations and documents. Findings The findings uncover housing developers’ struggles in dealing with government intervention when they adopt a dual marketing strategy. When dealing with the regulated consumer market, developers formed an issue-based net with other competitors and used their association to bargain with the government for flexibility in public policy. When selling to the business market, in which the private investment club emerged as a powerful actor, they initiated strategic net and influenced property developers’ pricing and selling strategies. The findings also demonstrate that the restrictions imposed on the consumer market have a spillover effect on the business market, which reflects the contextual embeddedness of the two markets. Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding of how actors strategize and co-evolve when implementing a dual marketing strategy. It helps policymakers, business actors and other connected actors to understand the interactions of all actors within a network that affects each other’s decisions.

PurposeSponsorship sales in professional sport is an area of increasing attention and growing investment, but the sport management literature offers only limited research about sales strategies and tactics. As a result, practitioners and academics alike have called for investigation in the area. In response to this need, the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore sponsorship sales in professional sport.Design/methodology/approachSponsorship sales professionals working for sport properties in the four major North American sport leagues were surveyed on a variety of sponsorship sales-related variables and factors.FindingsA total of 92 sponsorship sales professionals responded to the study, for an estimated 15.3 percent response rate. At the time of the data collection, the 92 respondents worked in the National Football League (NFL) (37), Major League Baseball (MLB) (16), National Basketball Association (NBA) (18), and National Hockey League (NHL) (21). A series of practical, conceptual, and comparative results are presented, highlighted by turnover as a problem, the importance of activation/servicing in sponsorship sales, and the high level of investment clubs are making in sponsorship sales.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, on “coverage,” the authors acknowledge that variations in the data can be linked, to a large extent, to reporting issues due to the nature of the study, the data, and the sample. Variations in sponsor number or training, for example, are not necessarily indicative of weaknesses in the industry, but occur because of strategic differences among properties. Second, it is important to note that not all properties had personnel respond to the study. Consequently, the figures presented in this study might be a function of the individual personnel who responded rather than a true average figure for a particular league. Third, in terms of the sample, this study deals with a very specific context in the four North American major sport leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL). Thus, one should be careful in generalizing to minor professional, collegiate, Olympic, or other sport contexts.Practical implicationsThe finding of this paper states that the turnover of sponsors may be a structural issue and is certainly related to the demand for the particular property (Seaver Marketing Group, 2010). Driven by a number of factors, including technology shifts to digital channels and increased sophistication by the sponsorship sales departments of professional sport properties, a shift in the activation and service paradigm is reported and extended to the specific context of sponsorship sales.Social implicationsResults show that sport properties in the North American major sport leagues have a strong commitment to sponsorship sales by the organization (commitment of resources), by sport personnel (who support the business side), and by their sponsorship sales professionals who report satisfaction, motivation, and support from their property.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical research study specific on sponsorship sales in professional sport, thus providing direction for practice and future research on an issue of high importance to the sport industry.

Online communities are popular sites for collective sensemaking. This study explores sensemaking in one such community following the closure of Olint Corp, a highly successful Jamaican investment club. After Olint’s disbanding, Jamaicans reconnected through online communities to make sense of their financial losses, to make sense of Olint – seen variously as an altruistic endeavour, a global currency trader, or Ponzi scheme – and to make sense of themselves as enterprising investors. This narrative inquiry unveils their rich, multi-voiced, fragmented storying of Olint and its founder, once praised as a ‘financial messiah’.