Does innate consumer innovativeness relate to new product/service adoption behavior? The intervening role of social learning via vicarious innovativeness

Empirical studies provide an inconsistent picture of the relationship between an innovative personality predisposition (i.e., innate consumer innovativeness [ICI]) and innovative behavior (i.e., new product adoption behavior). Such inconsistencies suggest intervening variables that may mediate the relationship have not been considered. Using data from a panel of consumers (n = 296 in a cross-sectional phase, n = 147 in a matched, two-phase longitudinal analysis), we find that ICI does not directly influence adoption behavior but does so indirectly through two of three components of vicarious innovativeness (modeling and engagement in word of mouth but not exposure to advertising). Furthermore, despite the evidence that consumers’ decision processes differ for service versus product adoption, extant studies largely ignore the role of ICI in new service adoption. Our findings suggest that vicarious innovativeness plays a similar intervening role in service contexts. Finally, divergent operationalizations of adoption behavior (ownership, relative time of adoption) appear to perform equally well.

Debt and Punishment: Market Discipline in the Eurozone

This article challenges the conventional wisdom of weak market discipline in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). In so doing, we empirically analyse the dynamics of market discipline for all 27 EU member states between 1992 and 2007. The existing literature tends to assert that markets discipline governments, without measuring whether the interest punishment markets impose actually has the purported effect on government policy. To better grasp the dynamics of market discipline it is essential to consider both sides. Market discipline is thus understood as a two-sided phenomenon. On the one hand, financial investors react to policy developments. On the other hand, policy-makers react to market signals. We find strong evidence that although the impact of fiscal policy developments on market punishment slightly decreases with monetary integration, government responsiveness to market punishment increases. This runs counter to the conventional narrative of policy-makers banking on bailout from fellow EMU members.     

MEASURING INEQUALITIES: DO HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS PAINT A REALISTIC PICTURE?

The paper addresses the issue of the accuracy of standard‐of‐living measurements using household survey data. First, it highlights the fact that lighter data collection processes in some developing countries have added to measurement errors in consumption and income aggregates measurement errors. The paper reasserts the need to apply reference guidelines to the measurement of household consumption in order to compute comparable distribution indicators across countries and over time. Second, it contends that it is hard to analyze inequality solely from consumption patterns without taking income and savings into account. Two solutions are proposed for the correction of income measurement errors: by using savings declarations and by implementing a multiple imputation procedure. The results are based on a careful analysis of the EPM93 survey of Madagascar whose design is quite close to the LSMS household surveys, and the ENV98 survey of Côte d'Ivoire representative of surveys conducted nowadays in most Sub‐Saharan African countries.     

Can leadership compensate for deficient inclusiveness in global virtual teams?

Although the number of global virtual teams has been growing rapidly, it is still a great challenge to achieve internal collaboration across geographic, cultural, and linguistic barriers. Two factors that have been identified to improve productivity are inclusive group attitudes in the team and the right leadership from the team leader. Although there are strong indications that each of these concepts would have a favourable effect on team member performance, we set out to explore how they function in combination. More specifically, we hypothesise that inspirational motivation from a team leader can compensate for a lack of inclusive group attitudes in the form of team openness to language diversity. We also predict the positive effects of “inspirational motivation” leadership to be stronger than those of the “management by exception” style of leadership. Using responses from 174 team members and their 23 team leaders in the research and development department of a Danish manufacturing organisation, we confirm our hypotheses. This provides clear guidelines for HRM interventions in organisations using global virtual teams.     

The hidden costs of control revisited: Should a sanctioning policy be announced in advance?

Sanctions are widely used to enhance compliance in principal agent relationships. Although there is ample evidence confirming the predicted positive incentive effect of sanctions, it has also been shown that imposing sanctions may reduce compliance by crowding out intrinsic motivation. We add to the literature on the hidden costs of control by showing that these costs are restricted to situations where the principal actively chooses to sanction low performance and where this choice is known to the agent. In such a situation, the principal's commitment to sanction low performance might indicate that she or he is a distrustful “type” and hence conveys a negative signal. To the contrary, if (a) an agent is not informed about whether low performance will be sanctioned or if (b) the computer determines whether low performance will be sanctioned, the principal's “type” is not revealed, and we find no evidence of crowding out.     

The relation between implied and realised volatility in the Danish option and equity markets

We show that the conclusions to be drawn concerning the informational efficiency of illiquid options markets depend critically on whether one carefully recognises and appropriately deals with the econometrics of the errors‐in‐variables problem. This paper examines the information content of options on the Danish KFX share index. We consider the relation between the volatility implied in an option's price and the subsequently realised index return volatility. Since these options are traded infrequently and in low volumes, the errors‐in‐variables problem is potentially large. We address the problem directly using instrumental variables techniques. We find that when measurement errors are controlled for, call option prices even in this very illiquid market contain information about future realised volatility over and above the information contained in historical volatility.     

Localizing women's experiences in academia: multilevel factors at play in the Arab Middle East and North Africa

This article explores the localized experiences of women at work in higher education in the under-researched context of the Arab Middle East and North Africa. Our main research questions are: What is the current status of academic women between and across the countries of this region? How can human resources play a developmental role for women at work in academic institutions, as well as for the region in general? We adopt a two-part research method in this study. First, through a critical review of the literature, we develop a regionally relevant macrolevel hypothetical model to localize a gender perspective on women at work. Second, we engage in a focused empirical examination of publicly available university data to document the: (1) representation of women across ranks; and (2) specific content of pertinent human resource policies. On the basis of these data, we propose a more complete multilevel hypothetical model upon which we put forward a critical discussion and directions for future research on gender, human resource management and regional development more broadly.