The role of bank monitoring in corporate governance: Evidence from borrowers’ earnings management behavior

In this paper, we examine the corporate governance role of banks by investigating the effect of bank monitoring on the borrowers’ earnings management behavior. Our analyses suggest that a borrowing firm’s earnings management behavior generally decreases as the strength of bank monitoring increases. The strength of bank monitoring is measured as (1) the magnitude of a bank loan, (2) the reputation (rank) of a lead bank, (3) the length of a bank loan, and (4) the number of lenders. These results imply that bank monitoring plays an important role in the corporate governance of bank-dependent firms. We further examine other bank loan characteristics (collateral, refinancing, loan types, and loan purposes) and their effects on borrowers’ earnings management behavior. Our analyses show that collateral and loan types are significantly associated with borrowers’ earnings management behavior while refinancing and loan purposes have no association.     

Performance feedback and middle managers’ divergent strategic behavior: The roles of social comparisons and organizational identification

Research Summary: What drives middle managers to search for new strategic initiatives and champion them to top management? This behavior—labeled divergent strategic behavior—spawns emergent strategies and thereby provides one of the essential ingredients of strategic renewal. We conceptualize divergent strategic behavior as a response to performance feedback. Data from 123 senior middle managers overseeing 21 multi‐country organizations (MCOs) of a Fortune 500 firm point to social performance comparisons rather than historical comparisons in driving divergent strategic behavior. Moreover, managers’ organizational identification affects whether they attend to organizational‐ or individual‐level feedback. These results contribute to research on performance aspirations and strategy process by providing a multilevel, multidimensional framework of performance aspirations in middle management driven strategic renewal. Managerial Summary: Middle managers are essential actors in strategic renewal. Their unique positions offer insights into operations alongside knowledge of strategy. In contrast to typical assessments of managerial performance with reference to a prior year, this research shows that performance comparisons relative to peers and other organizational units better motivate managers’ divergent strategic behavior. Our results also show that managers who identify with the firm are more attentive to organizational rather than individual performance discrepancies. Thus, our study unveils an important approach for organizations aiming to spark strategic renewal.     

Language and advertising effectiveness: code-switching in the Korean marketplace

Using two languages within an advertisement is increasing across many markets, throughout the world. By investigating code-switching effects between the Korean and English languages, this study is the first to directly test the Markedness Model perspective in the Korean marketplace. Furthermore, this study introduces a new type of code-switching (transliterated code-switching) between two alphabetic languages and assesses the impact of code-switching on advertising effectiveness across the different types. The results of Study 1 indicate that Korean–English (KE) code-switching and transliterated Korean–English (TL-KE) code-switching were significantly higher in attitude toward the slogan and product evaluation than English–Korean (EK) code-switching. However, there was no significant difference in the dependent variables between TL-KE and KE slogans. Study 2 tested the role of the perceived difficulty of the English words as a moderating variable. It was found that the KE slogan was more effective than the TL-KE slogan when difficult English words were embedded in the slogans, whereas no difference was found between the two slogans when the English words were perceived as easy. Implications for advertisers are presented and future research areas are discussed.     

City Residents’ Perception of MICE City Brand Orientation and Their Brand Citizenship Behavior: A Case Study of Busan,South Korea

City branding is an important strategic asset in publicizing a city's values for building a competitive global city. Brand orientation plays a vital role in understanding the identity of the city as branded by city authorities. However, successful city branding needs to be built upon consensus on the identity and core values of the city between city authorities and internal stakeholders. The engagement of internal stakeholders is an essential determinant for creating a consistent city brand in the long term. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among brand orientation, brand commitment, brand citizenship behavior, and brand pride among city residents. The findings of this study extend the brand orientation model suggested by Hankinson [2012. The measurement of brand orientation, its performance impact, and the role of leadership in the context of destination branding: An exploratory study. Journal of Marketing Management, 28(7–8), 974–999.] and provide empirical evidence for the tourism literature on brand orientation in the context of a city brand. A self-administered survey of residents (N?=?240) was conducted at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO), Busan, South Korea. The results for Hankinson's brand orientation model reveal that, among five dimensions, the brand reality is the most important brand orientation influencing the resident's brand commitment, followed by brand partnership, brand culture, and brand departmental coordination. In addition, the results of this study indicated that brand citizenship behavior was determined by brand commitment and led to brand pride. A utilization of the brand orientation can influence brand citizenship behavior through brand commitment, and brand citizenship behavior enhanced brand pride.     

An analysis of the evolution of global financial network of the coordinated portfolio investment survey

In this study, we construct a directional global financial network using portfolio investment data from more than 200 countries during the first two decades of the 21st century and analyze the properties of the network. Through macroscopic analysis, we show that the network became denser and could be divided into central and peripheral groups. Microscopic analysis shows that, in addition to well-known financial-central countries, relatively less well-known countries played important roles in the global financial network. Further, each country's per capita GDP is positively correlated with its centrality in the network, and the correlation is stronger when measured with inbound investments than when measured with outbound investments.     

The role of observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the duration of unemployment

This paper studies the degree to which observable and unobservable worker characteristics account for the variation in the aggregate duration of unemployment. I model the distribution of unobserved worker heterogeneity as time varying to capture the interaction of latent attributes with changes in labor-market conditions. Unobserved heterogeneity is the main explanation for the duration dependence of unemployment hazards. Both cyclical and low-frequency variations in the mean duration of unemployment are mainly driven by one subgroup: workers who, for unobserved reasons, stay unemployed for a long time. In contrast, changes in the composition of observable characteristics of workers have negligible effects.