Return and price volatility of bonds with different credit risk

This article analyzes the relative price and monthly holding period return volatility of bonds with differing credit risk. The research proceeds by decomposing the causes of price volatility into that due to duration and yield volatility. Lower duration, due to higher coupon rate, and relatively stable yields, due to the behavior of credit risk and risk aversion over the business cycle, may well make lower quality issues such as A and Baa industrials exhibit less volatility than high-quality issues such as Aaa industrials and United States Treasury issues.     

The effect of the wife's working status on familial dominance structure

This study examines the effect of the working wife on the distribution of control in the family for specific product decisions. Results lend general support for the proposition that whether a wife is working or not affects her position in the control decision structure in the family. However, the presence of children in the family and the reason for working had no effect on this distribution of control. A new methodological approach to assessing “power” in the family is utilized.     

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CORPORATE LEVEL DISTINCTIVE COMPETENCIES, DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY, CORPORATE STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE

Recent evidence suggests that large multibusiness firms can enhance performance by developing and exploiting corporate level distinctive competencies. In this study of 185 industrial firms, the relationships between corporate level distinctive competencies and performance were examined across firms using different diversification strategies and having different corporate structures. The corporate level distinctive competencies/performance relationships were found to vary by type of diversification strategy but not by type of corporate structure. In addition, only a small relationship was found to exist between diversification strategy and corporate structure. The specific relationships between corporate level distinctive competencies and performance and their normative implications are explored.     

Interesting problems and interesting research: A path to effective exchanges between managers and scholars

Understanding how organizations operate and finding ways to improve organizations are of central importance to managers and to scholars that study business. We believe that greater synergy can be developed between these two groups. In particular, we suggest that collaborating on issues that both groups view as interesting can provide a motivating and stimulating setting for finding ways to improve organizations. We also offer two series of specific recommendations: one for managers and one for scholars. These recommendations are intended to make each side’s goals more salient to the other and to help each side become a more valued resource for the other.     

Dynamics for Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Norm Evolution and Individual Mobility

This article proposes a specific logic of dynamics for integrative social contracts theory (ISCT) that combines two empirically oriented process extensions strengthening concreteness of Donaldson and Dunfee’s conceptualization, namely (1) international policy regime theory and (2) Tiebout migration. While either would help “dynamize” and “concretize” ISCT, the two combined are even more insightful. Real-world policy regime processes can develop concrete action-guiding norms instantiating hypernorms to guide business decisions. Donaldson and Dunfee placed empirical reliance on expectation of converging parallel evolution of universal principles and authentic local values. ISCT remains vague on how global or local norms can develop and change, for two reasons. First, ISCT does not explain mechanisms for how proposed hypernorms can become actual global norms and also become accepted across extant authentic communities. International policy regime theory explains how hypernorms can become instantiated as global norms expressed in policy regimes. Second, a basic element in ISCT is implied consent positing free exit from voluntary moral communities. Empirically, individuals or businesses may be unable to exit from undesired membership in authentic communities to which they do not consent. The Tiebout migration model provides valuable insights concerning how substantive mobility or its absence improves on the minimum ISCT assumption of implied consent. An integrated logic of ISCT dynamics generates a three-level framework in which instantiated hypernorms and authentic community (microsocial) norms can empirically change, and individuals or businesses can migrate more freely across extant communities.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Benefits of Employee Trust: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective

Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has tended to focus on external stakeholders and outcomes, revealing little about internal effects that might also help explain CSR-firm performance linkages and the impact that corporate marketing strategies can have on internal stakeholders such as employees. The two studies (N = 1,116 and N = 2,422) presented in this article draw on theory from both corporate marketing and organizational behavior (OB) disciplines to test the general proposition that employee trust partially mediates the relationship between CSR and employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Both studies provide evidence in support of these general relationships. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the context of CSR and corporate marketing research.