Work‐To‐Life Conflict and Enrichment Among International Business Travelers: The Role of International Career Orientation

The present study examines the direct and moderating effects of an international career orientation in the relationship between frequency and duration of international business traveling and work‐to‐life conflict and enrichment. In addition, the effort‐reward imbalance that potentially features in the international business traveler's job was examined in relation to work‐to‐life conflict and enrichment. The study was conducted among 232 Finnish people in jobs requiring international business travel. A moderated hierarchical regression analysis shows that travel of considerable duration and a pronounced effort‐reward imbalance had direct links to work‐to‐life conflict. In contrast, low effort‐reward imbalance and a strong international career orientation had direct links to work‐to‐life enrichment. In addition, having a strong orientation to an international career decreases work‐to‐life conflict when a job requires very frequent traveling, but the moderation effect was not found in relation to duration of traveling. Our findings indicate that interventions aimed at reducing work‐to‐life conflict and increasing work‐to‐life enrichment among international business travelers should focus on fostering a balance between efforts and rewards at work. The extent of employees’ internationalism should also be considered when recruiting people into jobs involving international business travel. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

What's in a broken promissory obligation? Developing and testing a multiple component form measure of psychological contract breach

While the literature has suggested the possibility of breach being composed of multiple facets, no previous study has investigated this possibility empirically. This study examined the factor structure of typical component forms in order to develop a multiple component form measure of breach. Two studies were conducted. In study 1 (N = 420) multi-item measures based on causal indicators representing promissory obligations were developed for the five potential component forms (delay, magnitude, type/form, inequity and reciprocal imbalance). Exploratory factor analysis showed that the five components loaded onto one higher order factor, namely psychological contract breach suggesting that breach is composed of different aspects rather than types of breach. Confirmatory factor analysis provided further evidence for the proposed model. In addition, the model achieved high construct reliability and showed good construct, convergent, discriminant and predictive validity. Study 2 data (N = 189), used to validate study 1 results, compared the multiple-component measure with an established multiple item measure of breach (rather than a single item as in study 1) and also tested for discriminant validity with an established multiple item measure of violation. Findings replicated those in study 1. The findings have important implications for considering alternative, more comprehensive and elaborate ways of assessing breach.     

What motivates R&D professionals? Evidence from decentralized laboratories in Greece

The challenge for research and development (R&D) professionals management is to meet the corporate objectives for effectiveness, productivity and profitability with the needs of technical employees for motivation, reward and satisfaction. Despite the continuous upgrading of the strategic importance of knowledge and technology, human resource management paid little attention to the distinctive characteristics of those highly educated knowledge workers, especially in an international perspective. Based on a large-scale survey of multinational enterprises' (MNEs') decentralized R&D laboratories in Greece, this paper offers insights on the perceived impact of intrinsic and extrinsic compensation on performance. Focused on three distinctive types of research implemented by MNEs, results record the existence of a multifaceted context of researchers' needs and satisfaction determinants, which is differentiated among the different roles of R&D laboratories. Our findings witness that in an EU peripheral economy, R&D professionals are motivated by extrinsic rewards and mainly by economic compensation.     

Information asymmetry and monitoring in equity private placements

This paper systematically examines the factors that determine price discounts and announcement effects of equity private placements conducted by firms in Taiwan from 2002 to 2008. Different with most studies of private placements using available observations as a whole sample, our study separates the whole sample into subsamples by exchange-listed firms and OTC firms. The results for OTC firms corroborate the information hypothesis; the discounts serve as compensation for investor's costs of assessing firms, while abnormal returns reflect the information about firm quality. On the other hand, the empirical results show that some of our findings support an information explanation and some support a monitoring explanation in the case of exchange-listed firms. It seems that there are different motives behind the exchange-listed firms placing equity privately.     

The Creativity‐Performance Relationship: How Rewarding Creativity Moderates the Expression of Creativity

Researchers have argued that creativity is intrinsically motivated, and that rewarding creativity can stifle creativity. Using a sample of 310 employees reporting to 50 different supervisors, we instead show that rewarding creativity influences the relationship between creativity and performance by changing the nature of expressed creativity. We do this by examining novelty and usefulness as separate dimensions. High perceived reward enhances the relationship between novelty and performance while diminishing the relationship between usefulness and performance. The moderating effect of reward for creativity on the relationship between creativity and performance was not observed when we operationalized creativity as an integrated, unidimensional construct. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Fluctuating uncertainty and flexibility value

A simple model of recurrent fluctuating uncertainty with two types of investment assets, commitment and flexible, where fluctuating uncertainty is defined as changes between high and low confidence regimes, is constructed. By assuming risk neutrality, I find analytically a formula for flexibility value that is defined as the difference between the expected return to the commitment asset and the expected return to the flexible asset. This flexibility value is positive in the low confidence regime because of a positive attribute of the flexibility asset that is the option to utilize new information later. The relation between flexibility value and other parameters of the model is also considered. Flexibility value increases as the information an individual obtains in the high confidence regime increases or the discounting factor of the individual increases. Finally, flexibility value can increase even if, ceteris paribus, the return to the commitment asset increases.     

Individual and Institutional Investors’ Response to Earnings Reported by Conservative and Non‐Conservative Firms: Evidence from Chinese Financial Markets

In this study, we document that there are significant differences in individual and institutional investors’ perception and interpretation of information based on accounting conservatism, as reflected by their trading behavior in the Chinese financial market. Our findings show that institutional investors, who are more sophisticated and have better skills, engage in higher purchases of equities of firms that use high accounting conservatism compared to the firms that use low/no accounting conservatism. Institutional investors’ equity purchases are even higher if these firms are associated with higher growth opportunities. On the other hand, individual investors are attracted more by the attention‐grabbing events and are motivated to purchase equities of firms that either do not use accounting conservatism or use low accounting conservatism, and their purchases are even higher when the firms report positive earnings surprises. Additionally, we find that abnormal returns are higher for the firms using high accounting conservatism and have experienced higher purchases by institutional investors.     

Under the influence of the team? An investigation of the relationships between team autonomy,individual autonomy and social influence within teams

This study contributes to the debate about whether teamwork facilitates or constrains the single team member's autonomy at work. We investigate whether team autonomy can explain employees' individual autonomy, the teams' informal influence on its members and employees' desire for either individual or team influence. Questionnaire data were collected among employees in four Danish companies from different industries with various types of team organization: permanent, project-based and mixed teams. The results of the multiple regression analyses show that team autonomy is positively associated with individual autonomy, which is neither moderated by the team's ability to make the employee feel responsible nor by team support. Team autonomy is positively associated with facilitative social influence, i.e. team reward, team support and we find a negative association between team autonomy and team coercion. Moreover, employees who experienced more team than individual autonomy wanted their teams to control more work issues compared to employees who experienced lower team than individual autonomy.     

Differentiation and dynamism within the IT development program

Information technology (IT) developments of large magnitude organize as collections of multiple projects into a single program, especially under dynamic conditions of market uncertainty that frequently change requirements or solutions midstream. Successful completion of an IT development program requires that the multiple teams work effectively together as well as independently in response to changes by relying on the differentiation of talent and knowledge available to the program manager. We consider and empirically support a model derived from principles in the multi-team systems (MTS) literature to determine the influence of differentiation among the IT program in the sharing of knowledge and information. The relationship from differentiation to program success is mediated by knowledge and information sharing, showing how to manage change through the dissemination of information and knowledge. Uncertainty of the market positively moderates the relation from differentiation among projects to information sharing. These findings contribute to the literature by empirically validating that MTS frameworks are exceptionally well suited for dealing with complex environments in the context of IT development.     

Takeover Waves

Horizontal takeovers often occur in waves. A sequence of takeovers is obtained in a Cournot setting with cost asymmetries. They are motivated by two different reasons: (1) a low realization of demand increases the profitability of takeovers; (2) takeovers raise the profitability of future takeovers. A possible explanation of merger races is also obtained by showing that firms buying in the first place pay a lower price for their targets.     

Takeover Waves

Horizontal takeovers often occur in waves. A sequence of takeovers is obtained in a Cournot setting with cost asymmetries. They are motivated by two different reasons: (1) a low realization of demand increases the profitability of takeovers; (2) takeovers raise the profitability of future takeovers. A possible explanation of merger races is also obtained by showing that firms buying in the first place pay a lower price for their targets.     

Stock market perceptions of the motives for mergers in cases reviewed by the UK competition authorities: an empirical analysis

A number of studies have considered the motivation of managers to follow a merger strategy. However, as far as we are aware none has looked at the influence of competition regulation on merger motives using stock market data and event study techniques. Data drawn from 63 merger cases in the UK between 1989 and 2003 are examined for the stock market's perceptions of what motivated managers to pursue their initial merger bid. The findings suggest that the Synergy and Hubris dominate as motivations for mergers and that, unintentionally, competition policy may help to reduce the number of mergers motivated by Managerialism. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Team Rewards: How Far Have We Come?

Although many organizations find teams to be important to their success, few have implemented reward systems that encourage team effort. This study examines the practices of 35 firms using team‐based reward programs and identifies some features of these programs that improve their effectiveness. The results indicate that the most valued programs were those associated with (1) high levels of communication to employees about the specifics of the plan, (2) strong worker involvement in the plan's design and implementation, and (3) team members' perceptions that the pay system was fair. HR managers considered more complex plans more beneficial than simple plans. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Reward for organ donation: is it effective or not as a promotion strategy?

This study aims to investigate the effects of the rewards for organ donation as a promotion strategy, which is part of a campaign to promote organ donation in Korea by the non‐profit organization Korean Network for Organ Sharing. This study examines how the effects of rewards for organ donation differ in terms of reward types, public self‐consciousness, and stages of change. An interaction effect between types of reward, stage of change, and the degree of public self‐consciousness was found. Reward type and stage of change were found to function as moderators of the effect of public self‐consciousness on the intention to register for organ donation. The effect of public self‐consciousness on the intention for organ donation was positive and statistically significant among those who were in the contemplation stage and exposed to non‐material types of reward. On the other hand, the effect of public self‐consciousness on the intention for organ donation was negative among those in the pre‐contemplation stage and exposed to material types of reward. Practical implications for organ donation organizations are suggested. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Value of supply disruption information and information accuracy

In this paper, we examine the factors that influence the value of supply disruption information, investigate how information accuracy influences this value, and provide managerial suggestions to practitioners. The study is motivated by the fact that although accurate disruption information creates benefits, fully accurate disruption information may be difficult and costly to obtain. Furthermore, inaccurate disruption information can decrease the financial benefit of prior knowledge and even lead to negative performance. To perform the analysis, we adopt a newsvendor model within a single product setting where the focal firm can source from a supply network and has a given resilience capacity. The results show that information accuracy, specifically information bias and information variance, plays an important role in determining the value of disruption information. This influence varies at different levels of disruption severity and resilience capacity, and our results imply that higher amounts of resilience capacity actually may be detrimental to a firm without accurate information about a disruption's influence. Thus, for companies with a high resilience capacity, obtaining quality information is critical for effectively coping with disruptions.     

OSHA inspections: Process and outcomes in programmed inspections versus complaint-investigated inspections

Inspections are an important tool for enforcing OSHA regulations. As with any enforcement procedure, OSHA inspections are an effective tool to the extent that they are conducted in a consistent manner. In this study we compared 3,000 inspections randomly initiated by OSHA with 3,000 inspections conducted by OSHA in response to an employee complaint. Significant differences in both process and outcome variables were found between the two types of inspections. We discuss the findings in terms of the “threat effect” as a tool for enforcement of OSHA safety standards.     

Shaping the future research agenda for compensation and benefits management: Some thoughts based on a stakeholder inquiry

This article highlights some avenues for future research in the field of compensation and benefits management. In order to achieve this, the author has included multiple stakeholder perspectives. First of all, the article provides an overview of the opinions and attitudes of line managers, employees and compensation and benefits practitioners. Based on these results, and taking existing empirical research into account, the article proposes that further research be conducted on the following aspects of rewarding: (1) the external environment — and more specifically, the impacts that an ageing population, geographical differences, and the economic situation have on rewarding; (2) employee perspectives towards rewarding; (3) total rewards; and (4) reward processes and procedures, such as performance management and reward communication.     

企业家高报酬：基于比赛理论的诠释

如何对企业家的高报酬现象做出合理解释,比赛理论在委托代理理论的框架下,从比赛竞争的角度指出,高报酬作为一种显示机制,能激励企业家及其竞争者的努力水平,降低挑选企业家的信息费用和监督费用。     

Voluntary Disclosure by State-owned Enterprises Listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong

This study examines the impact of international capital market pressures on the voluntary disclosure of three types of information (strategic, financial, and non-financial) in the annual reports of former wholly state-owned People's Republic of China (PRC) enterprises, listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). Consistent with a cost­benefit framework, we find that PRC H-Share firms disclose significantly more strategic and financial information than other SEHK firms. Additional analysis of disclosures in their home listings on the PRC exchanges, however, suggests an alternative explanation. The fact that these firms have been selected for "showcasing" in international capital markets may also play a role in our findings. While H-Share firm disclosures in the PRC also appear sensitive to management's assessment of the associated costs, the magnitude of differences across listing locations suggests that disclosure practices on the SEHK may also reflect the effects of state-encouraged disclosure policies. Our findings contribute to the understanding of disclosure behavior among former wholly state-owned enterprises and to the emerging literature on the efficacy of the privatization process.