Does Service Employee Arrogance Discourage Sales of Luxury Brands in Emerging Economies?

Upscalex stores selling luxury brands from Western, developed countries are having a strong presence in many emerging markets. However, it is not uncommon to find that the service employees of these stores are arrogant and inhospitable. This article uses a dual attitudes perspective to show how service employee arrogance affects customers’ attitudes and purchase intentions toward luxury brands in emerging markets. Experimental findings show that arrogance produces dual attitudes, with positive implicit attitudes exerting a stronger influence than unfavorable explicit attitudes on purchase intentions. In addition, for customers with high self‐esteem, service employee arrogance has a negative effect on their purchase intentions. In line with the expectation disconfirmation model, when service employees change their arrogant attitudes and subsequently show hospitality, customers also change their expectations. When the improved service exceeds customers’ expectations, their explicit attitudes turn positive and exert a stronger influence on purchase intentions than when service employees are consistently hospitable.     

The performance of alternative futures buy‐write strategies

This study compares the performance of a conventional buy‐write (or covered call writing) and a dynamic buy‐write strategy. The conventional strategy generally enhances portfolio returns in low volatility conditions but underperforms the underlying cash asset in sharply rising markets. The dynamic strategy adjusts the moneyness of the option according to market conditions. The study extends Hill, J. M., Balasubramanian, V., Gregory, K., and Tierens, I. ( 2006 ) and tests how and to what extent market volatility and market direction affect the performance of these two strategies. The study finds that both strategies offer significant positive α, higher returns and lower standard deviations than the market. Consistent with prior research, the abnormal returns of the buy‐write strategies can be attributed to a volatility premium embedded in the options prices. The buy‐write returns from the Hong Kong market appear to be lower than those found in the U.S. and U.K. markets. The conventional buy‐write outperforms the dynamic strategy in both high and low volatility environments, and in sharply falling markets. However, by targeting exercise probability, the dynamic strategy provides a greater upside in sharply rising markets. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark     

The China–US Trade War: Deep‐Rooted Causes,Shifting Focus and Uncertain Prospects

The USA has waged a trade war against China, whose rapid rise has come to be seen as a threat to US hegemony. Besides imposing additional tariffs on imported Chinese products, the USA is also tightening restrictions on the transfer of technology to China and the business activities of some Chinese high‐tech companies, notably Huawei. The escalation of the trade war into a tech war could lead to a decoupling between the US and Chinese economies, if not a world economy divided into two economic blocs that centered on them.     

The impact of product knowledge on consumer product memory and evaluation in the competitive ad context: The item‐specific‐relational perspective

Research evidence to date suggests that the combined presence of item‐specific and relational processing is necessary to induce higher memory performance of the target ad and proper evaluation of the target brand. This elaborative processing, however, requires cognitive capacity. In this paper, an item‐specific‐relational processing framework was employed to explain the roles of consumer product knowledge in the competitive and non‐competitive ad contexts. Findings from an experimental study suggest that high‐ and low‐knowledge consumers differed in product memory and evaluation in competitive and non‐competitive ad contexts. Such differences could be explained by consumers' engaging in item‐specific and/or relational processing depending on whether target brand information was presented with or without information on competing brands. It appears that competitive ad context would benefit low‐knowledge consumers by serving as a reference. In contrast, high‐knowledge consumers did not seem to be affected by ad context. Both theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Predominant sources and contributors of influential business ethics research: evidence and implications from a threshold citation analysis

Influential or frequently cited business ethics research does not appear in a vacuum; our study reveals its predominant sources and contributors by discipline. By examining citations from articles published in three top business ethics journals (Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly and Business Ethics: A European Review) over the period 2004–2008, we document that the preponderance of influential business ethics research comes primarily from the management faculty. In addition, management journals and management books are the predominant sources for influential business ethics research. Further, among the management fields, organizational behavior and organizational structure predominate leadership and strategy as the major subject areas for influential business ethics research, suggesting that this influential body of research is focused on a micro rather than on a macro context. These empirical results lend credence to the perception that there is a silo effect in influential business ethics research and suggest that business ethics research in a micro context might have permeated to the teaching of business ethics.     

A Web of Watchdogs: Stakeholder Media Networks and Agenda-Setting in Response to Corporate Initiatives

This article seeks to model the agenda-setting strategies of stakeholders equipped with online and other media in three cases involving protests against multinational corporations (MNCs). Our theoretical objective is to widen agenda-setting theory to a dynamic and nonlinear networked stakeholder context, in which stakeholder-controlled media assume part of the role previously ascribed to mainstream media (MSM). We suggest system dynamics (SD) methodology as a tool to analyse complex stakeholder interactions and the effects of their agendas on other stakeholders. We find that largely similar dynamics of interactions occur among stakeholders in these cases, and that the costs for managements of maintaining their agendas steadily rises. We conclude that the “web of watchdogs” comprises a powerful reason for managers to engage in responsibility negotiations with their stakeholders.     

Political Connections and Firm Performance in Chinese Companies

This study uses panel data analysis to examine the relationship between political connections and firm performance in Chinese firms from 2004 to 2008. We define firm‐level political connections and demonstrate a robust result for the positive relationship between political connections and firm performance. In addition, we integrate the effects of ownership structure, related‐party transactions and political connections into our analysis and continue to show a positive relationship. We show that political connections dampen the negative effect on firm value of related‐party transactions. Finally, we demonstrate channels through which the benefits of political connections are realized in terms of greater cash holdings, larger long‐term loans, lower financing costs, larger sales and lower sales costs. Our results indicate that state‐owned and non‐state‐owned enterprises use political connections equally effectively to enhance performance.     

Measuring Vertical Specialization: The Case of China

The explosive growth of Chinese trade may be due to international production fragmentation, but few have assessed these phenomena together, in part, because it is difficult to measure the vertical specialization (VS) of China's trade. Unique features of China's processing trade cause both identification of imported inputs and their allocation across sectors to vary by trade regime. This paper estimates the VS of Chinese merchandise exports, addressing these two challenges. A new method to identify Chinese imported inputs is developed, and used to calculate VS by sector and destination. VS estimates based on the official Chinese input–output table are contrasted with those based on a split table, capturing processing and normal exports separately. Last, the paper tests whether Chinese “export sophistication” can be explained by VS.     

Work‐to‐Family Spillover Effects of Workplace Ostracism: The Role of Work‐Home Segmentation Preferences

This study considers workplace ostracism as a source of stress and examines its spillover effects on the family. By integrating the work‐family interface model with boundary theory, we investigate the impact of workplace ostracism as perceived by employees on their family satisfaction by examining the mediating role of work‐to‐family conflict and the moderating role of work‐home segmentation preferences. The results from a three‐wave field survey of 233 employees in China indicate that workplace ostracism is negatively related to family satisfaction; this relationship is also mediated by work‐to‐family conflict. In addition, work‐home segmentation preferences attenuate the mediating effect of work‐to‐family conflict on the relationship between workplace ostracism and family satisfaction. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.