Credit Management: An Examination of Policy Choices, Practices and Late Payment in UK Companies

A central element in developing credit management policy involves design choices on the extent to which credit activities are best managed internally or through specialist market intermediaries. This paper draws on the findings of a survey on the credit management practices and policies of large UK companies to: (1) Examine the type of firm most likely to enter into specialist external credit management structural arrangements; and (2) Identify contextual and credit policy choices influencing the credit period taken and late payment of debts. The study found that specialist intermediaries are not particularly common in large firms. The paper also identifies a number of contextual and policy variables that help explain variation in debtor days and late payment by customers.     

Asymmetric mean-reversion and contrarian profits: ANST-GARCH approach

This paper investigates the time-series evidence of asymmetric reverting patterns in stock returns that is attributable to “contrarian profitability.” Using asymmetric nonlinear smooth-transition (ANST) GARCH(M) models, we find that, for monthly excess returns of US market indexes over the period of 1926:01–1997:12, negative returns on average reverted more quickly, with a greater reverting magnitude, to positive returns than positive returns revert to negative returns. The results are quite consistent when the models are implemented not only for the different sample periods, such as 1926:01–1987:09 and 1947:01–1997:12, but also for portfolios with different characteristics, such as different firm-size portfolios and Fama–French risk-adjusted factor portfolios. We interpret the asymmetrical reversion as evidence of stock market overreaction.     

Is asymmetric mean-reverting pattern in stock returns systematic? Evidence from Pacific-basin markets in the short-horizon

This paper applies asymmetric nonlinear smooth transition generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ANST-GARCH) models to the analysis of mean-reversion and time-varying volatility in weekly index returns of the stock markets of nine countries in the Pacific-basin. It finds that the returns exhibit an asymmetric pattern of return reversals, viz., on average, a negative return reverts more quickly, with a greater magnitude, to a positive return than a positive return reverting to a negative one. The asymmetric pattern of return reversals is directly associated with the unequal pricing behavior on the part of investors. Following a negative return shock, investors do not appear to require any additional premium to the leverage effect; instead they actually neutralize the risk in the form of a reduced premium! The reduction in risk premium causes not only the current stock price to rise but also the realized negative return to revert faster with a greater magnitude.     

Exploring the Attitudes of Bottled Wine Distributors Toward Wine Producers in the Portuguese Wine Sector

The wine sector has unique features that have not been deeply studied. This study aims to explore the attitudes of bottled wine distributors toward wine producers in the Portuguese wine sector. Eleven interviews (about 60 min each) were carried out with all major wine distributor managers. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative software. Content analysis shows that distributors develop six main attitudes toward producers: (a) Long-term Relationship, (b) Cooperation, (c) Interdependence, (d) Product Quality, (e) Trust, and (f) Brand Image. Findings may help managers of the wine sector and promote favorable relationships with the distributing customers.     

Layoff victim's employment relationship with a new employer in Korea: effects of unmet tenure expectations on trust and psychological contract

Existing studies of psychological contract have largely focused on the effects of contract breach on employees' attitudes and the contract itself involving the same employer. Given that both workforce mobility and downsizing activities are increasing, it is important to understand how individuals' past employment experiences shape their relationships with their employers. The present study focuses on the effect of prior layoffs on relationships with new employers. We posit that furloughed workers experience layoff as a breach of the psychological contract of job security they have entered into with their employer. Longitudinal data collected from individuals who were re-employed following a layoff revealed that unmet tenure expectations in an employment relationship result in reduced trust in a new employer, which in turn negatively impacts the quality of psychological contracts with the new employer. The results also show that the relationship between unmet tenure expectations and trust was moderated by individual attributions regarding the cause of the layoff. The present findings suggest that the negative impact of contract breach experienced with one organization may carry over to subsequent organizational contexts.     

Moderating effects of consumer empowerment on the relationship between involvement in eco‐friendly food and eco‐friendly food behaviour

This study investigates the moderating effect of consumer empowerment on the relationship between involvement in and purchase behaviour towards eco‐friendly food. It uses the generalized linear model, with data from the 2017 Research on Food Consumption. The results showed that gender is related only to involvement in eco‐friendly food and this involvement is higher for women than for men. Moreover, involvement in eco‐friendly food, purchase empowerment, engagement empowerment and frequency of buying eco‐friendly food increase as age increases, with the highest increases observed at ages 40–49 and 50–59; the score for those older than these age groups was much lower, resembling an inverted U shape. Groups with high education and income levels presented high scores for involvement in eco‐friendly food, purchase empowerment, engagement empowerment and frequency of buying eco‐friendly food. Regarding the effects of involvement in eco‐friendly food, purchase empowerment and engagement empowerment on the frequency of buying eco‐friendly food, the main effects of involvement in eco‐friendly food and purchase empowerment as well as the interactive effects between involvement in eco‐friendly food and engagement empowerment were statistically significant.     

Evaluating the purchase behaviour of organic food by young consumers in an emerging market economy

Promoting consumer purchase behaviour of eco-friendly products is key to environmental sustainability. This research aims to investigate how different factors may enhance or impede young consumers’ intentions to purchase a specific type of eco-friendly product, i.e. organic food. Data were obtained from 289 respondents in an emerging market economy, i.e. Vietnam. Multivariate data analysis using structural equation modelling revealed that food safety concern, health consciousness and media exposure to food messages played integral roles in the formation of attitude towards organic food. Interestingly, consumers’ environmental concern and food taste were of little value in predicting their attitude. Notably, perceived barriers (i.e. high price, inadequate availability, poor labelling and extra time required) significantly impeded both attitude and purchase intention towards organic food. The insights gained from this research extend current knowledge about pro-environmental behaviour in developing countries and they have important practical implications for marketers and other key stakeholders.     

Corporate Governance and Financial Peer Effects

Growing evidence suggests that managers select financial policies partially by mimicking policies of peer firms. We find that these peer effects in capital structure choice are unique to firms operating under weak external corporate governance. Cross-sectional tests suggest that this finding is best explained by a quiet life hypothesis in which managers may be able to avoid the effort required to optimize financial policies and the scrutiny of market participants. Leverage ratios of mimicking firms display less sensitivity to a profitability shock. Finally, mimicking correlates to higher financing costs and lower future profitability, especially if it results in high leverage.     

Ethical Context and Ethical Decision Making: Examination of an Alternative Statistical Approach for Identifying Variable Relationships

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational ethical context and the individual ethical decision-making process. In addition, a new statistical approach combining cluster and discriminant analyses was developed to overcome violations of regression assumptions, which are commonly not identified and/or ignored in behavioral and psychological research. Using regressions and this new alternative method, the findings indicated that ethical context does indeed influence the various components of ethical reasoning. However, social desirability was the strongest predictor of ethical decision making, which raises new concerns about how this bias can confound business ethics research. Finally, the findings showed that the alternative method provided more useful and interpretive results, indicating that it has the capacity to influence future empirical work in the field of business ethics, particularly when dealing with data that do not satisfy regression assumptions. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed, and several noteworthy suggestions for future research are provided.     

The digital divide experienced by older consumers in smart environments

The continuing transition of the Internet from wired to mobile has facilitated changes in Internet use. By focusing on older consumers as a potentially disadvantaged group, this study examines whether smart environments have the potential to bridge the digital divide. Data were derived from an analysis of the 2013 South Korean Information Divide data set (n = 2386 for those 60 years and older; n = 5841 for those under 60 years). The existence of a digital divide in the smart environment was verified by comparing younger and older South Koreans; this showed that continuing consumer education is needed to enhance older people's experience and skills regarding information and in its use of communication technology. The digital divide was measured based on three aspects: accessibility, competence, and usage. In smart environments, gaps in accessibility and competence between the age groups increased whereas the gap in information usage decreased. Compared with the personal computer‐based environment, members of both groups in the smart environment exhibited increased usage levels with regard to social relationship services, while the gap between the groups with regard to use of convenience services was reduced.