Corporate social responsibility,stock prices,and tax policy

We model a market in which some investors get utility from owning shares of firms that engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). In equilibrium, investors' CSR considerations influence portfolio choices, stock prices, and CSR spending. We study tax policy designed to maximize total giving (individual and corporate) net of government tax breaks and find that its effectiveness is non‐monotonic in the proportion of altruistic investors: with few or many altruistic investors, it has little impact on giving, but, at intermediate levels, effective tax policy intuitively relates the corporate tax rebate rate on giving and the cap on allowable tax savings.     

Effects of Technology Absorptive Capacity and Technology Proactivity on Organizational Learning,Innovation and Performance: An Empirical Examination

Technology is crucial for organizations in the knowledge society, but little empirical research has been conducted on technology absorptive capacity and technology proactivity. Based on existing theoretical studies, this article formulates a global model to analyse how technology absorptive capacity and technology proactivity influence organizational learning and organizational innovation, and how these dynamics capabilities affect organizational performance. The model also shows how organizational learning affects organizational innovation. The hypotheses are tested using data from 246 Spanish technological firms. The paper discusses the findings and provides several implications for future research. The findings are important for management practice, especially for firms where technology is the main strategic element.     

The effect of peer observation on consumption choices: evidence from a lab-in-field experiment

We investigate the impact of peer observation on consumption decisions using a lab-in-field experiment. Respondents make consumption decisions either alone or under peer observation. We find evidence for peer effects. We are able to study these further by looking into the mechanism and performing detailed heterogeneity analysis. Concerning the mechanisms, we find evidence for an information channel. Further, we show that the consumption choice is influenced by how many people made the same decision previously, but not by who those people are, hence finding evidence of a psychological channel. Respondents with higher cognitive ability are less susceptible to peer effects, while people living in small villages are more susceptible.     

On the impact of inflation on output growth: Does the level of inflation matter?

This paper investigates the growth effects of inflation on a wide sample of countries, including both industrialized and emerging economies. Relying upon the estimation of smooth transition and dynamic GMM models for panel data, our findings offer strong evidence that inflation non-linearly impacts economic growth. More specifically, there exists a threshold beyond which inflation exerts a negative effect on growth, and below which it is growth enhancing for advanced countries.     

Cultural differences and entrepreneurial behaviour: an intra-country cross-cultural analysis in Cape Verde

Two recent research trends give rise to the current work: the need to extend the conclusions reached in entrepreneurship studies to other cultural contexts, particularly important given the interest in stimulating the creation of firms in recently industrialised and less developed countries; and the need to go beyond the axiom ‘nation=culture’ in favour of the multiple cultures perspective. With these antecedents, we present the current work, which aims to answer two research questions: (1) are the cultural values associated in the literature with venture creation generalisable to different cultural contexts? (2) are there intra-cultural differences in a country generating differences in the entrepreneurial behaviour of its population? Thus, this work contributes to extending knowledge about entrepreneurship and international cross-cultural management by taking the novel approach of studying the cultural values and the decision to create a venture from the intra-cultural differences perspective. A sample of 448 individuals, obtained in the Republic of Cape Verde and analysed in six territories within this country, allows us to confirm the existence of cultural differences in individualism between regions of the Republic of Cape Verde, as well as their capacity to explain entrepreneurial behaviour in these regions.     

Organizational commitment in MNC subsidiary top managers: antecedents and consequences

This article studies, first, how affective and continuance commitments affect MNC subsidiary top managers' intent to leave either their current post or the firm itself, and second, which variables influence these managers' affective and continuance commitments. The analysis uses a sample of MNC subsidiary top managers in Spain, and the results confirm that these managers' intent to leave the subsidiary and the multinational is determined by affective and continuance commitments in its two dimensions (high-sacrifice and low-alternatives), and that these commitments, in turn, are determined by the managers' personal cultural values and company bonding variables.     

Risk Management as Passionate Imitation: The Interconnections Among Emotions,Performance Metrics,and Risk in a Global Technology Firm

This paper traces the evolution of risk management practices in a global technology company between 2000 and 2015. We extend recent research that has highlighted the emotional aspects of riskwork. We detail how a passionate interest—‘we can do better at risk management’—emotionally ‘hooked’ the staff in the company's Sourcing Unit. Risk management, emotion, and management controls were intertwined. When top management singled out one of the key metrics clearly as a risk‐related metric for the Sourcing Unit, the employees felt a strong sense of relief, which gave rise to subsequent extensive risk measurement. We also contribute to the more general debate about accounting and its entanglement with emotions. Little is known about the ‘birth’ and the reasons for durability of passionate interests. Following Tarde (1903/2013), such ‘birth’ and endurance can be explained by analyzing how passionate imitation emerges as a result of a series of dislocal events—in our case a fire, new performance metrics, and natural disasters. These events triggered emotions that provided the necessary energy for three forms of passionate imitation: a) ‘we need to imitate our main competitor’ and risk mapping; b) ‘others in the organization are imitating us and our suppliers should imitate us’ and risk measurement; and c) ‘others in the organization (more specifically the Product Development Unit) should imitate us’ and proactive risk avoidance. This passionate imitation helped explain why the sourcing staff continued to be emotionally ‘hooked’ to risk management, that is, how the passionate interest endured and became vested.