The role of brand personality in charitable giving: An assessment and validation

Marketing concepts such as corporate identity, image, and branding are important strategies for nonprofit organizations. In particular, brand personality has been advocated by practitioners but has not been empirically investigated in the nonprofit context. According to social exchange theory and trust, the authors argue that nonprofit stakeholders perceive nonprofit organizations at an abstract level because of the organizations’ intangibility and social ideals. This study develops and refines a parsimonious measure of brand personality specifically for the nonprofit context. The authors conduct a series of six multimethod studies of nonprofit stakeholders to validate the role of brand personality in nonprofit organizations. The results yield four dimensions of brand personality for nonprofits: integrity, nurturance, sophistication, and ruggedness. Thus, current and potential donors ascribe personality traits to nonprofit organizations and differentiate between nonprofits on the basis of the organizations’ personality. Finally, nonprofit brand personality may influence potential donors’ likelihood to contribute. Beverly T. Venable (venable_beverly@colstate.edu; Ph.D., University of Mississippi) is an assistant professor of marketing at Columbus State University. Her research interests are in nonprofit marketing, branding, and ethics. She has published in theJournal of Business Ethics and several national and international proceedings. Gregory M. Rose (rosegm@u.washington.edu; Ph.D., University of Oregon) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Washington, Tacoma. His research interests include consumer socialization and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Advertising, and theJournal of Consumer Psychology, as well as other journals and proceedings. Victoria D. Bush (vbush@bus.olemiss.edu; Ph.D., University of Memphis) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. Her research interests include cultural diversity in buyer-seller relationships, advertising ethics, and Internet marketing. Her research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, andIndustrial Marketing Management, as well as other journals and proceedings. Faye W. Gilbert (faye.gilbert@gcsu.edu; Ph.D., University of North Texas) is a professor of marketing and dean of the J. Whitney Bunting School of Business at Georgia College and State University. Her research interests are in customer relationship management, health care marketing, and sales management. She has published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Retailing, Psychology and Marketing, as well as other journals and proceedings.     

Host country executives' assessments of international joint ventures and divestitures: An experimental approach

A large body of research examines the modes by which multinational firms enter foreign markets, yet little work has considered how host country executives evaluate alternative modes of accepting inward foreign direct investment (FDI). This study adopts the host country firm's perspective to investigate the factors that affect Chinese executives' assessments of international joint ventures (IJVs) and divestitures as different modes for engaging inward FDI opportunities. We use an experimental approach to test our argument that executives' preferences for IJVs versus divestitures are driven by multinational firms' resources as well as potential transaction hazards and available remedial mechanisms. This study complements extant research on firms' entry mode choice by offering a direct test of comparative economic organization by explicitly comparing the attractiveness of alternative modes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hedging Strategies for Grain Processors

Price risk management confronting grain processors differs from that faced by conventional hedgers, especially when futures markets for outputs do not exist. Three components of this problem are addressed in this study. One is the relationship between input and output prices, which are impacted in part by the structure and conduct of an industry. In some cases, these are highly correlated and in others they are not. The second refers to the hedge horizon or how far forward a firm should cover its inherent and persistent short cash positions. This study incorporates these relationships into a utility maximizing model to evaluate hedging effectiveness relative to traditional hedging strategies for processors. Finally, stochastic dominance analysis is used to compare hedging strategies when output is sold at a fixed price for future delivery. Secondary data from the bread‐baking industry are used for empirical analysis. Results indicate that hedging decisions are impacted by these relationships and affect firm risk exposure. La gestion du risque de prix des conditionneurs de grain diffère de celle des opérateurs en couverture traditionnels, surtout lorsqu'il n'existe pas de marchés de contrats à terme pour les extrants. La présente étude traite de trois aspects du problème. Tout d'abord, il y a la relation entre le prix de l'intrant et le prix de l'extrant, prix qu'influencent en partie la structure et le comportement d'une industrie. Dans certains cas, la corrélation est très étroite et dans d'autres, elle ne l'est pas. Ensuite, il y a l'horizon de couverture ou jusqu'où dans le futur une entreprise devrait‐elle couvrir ses faibles positions de trésorerie inhérentes et soutenues. Dans la présente étude, nous avons intégré ces relations dans un modèle de maximisation de l'utilité pour évaluer l'efficacité des opérations de couverture par rapport aux stratégies de couverture traditionnelles des conditionneurs. Finalement, l'analyse de la dominance stochastique est utilisée pour comparer les stratégies de couverture lorsque l'extrant est vendu à un prix fixe pour livraison à terme. Des données secondaires issues de l'industrie de la boulangerie ont été utilisées pour l'analyse empirique. Les résultats ont indiqué que ces liens influaient sur les décisions de couverture et que ces décisions avaient des répercussions sur l'exposition au risque de l'entreprise.     

Inferring Market Structure from Customer Response to Competing and Complementary Products

We consider customer influences on market structure, arguing that market structure should explain the extent to which any given set of market offerings are substitutes or complements. We describe recent additions to the market structure analysis literature and identify promising directions for new research in market structure analysis. Impressive advances in data collection, statistical methodology and information technology provide unique opportunities for researchers to build market structure tools that can assist real-time marketing decision-making.     

Women Entrepreneurs and Family Firm Heterogeneity: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Family firms add to the economic and social well-being of countries. While research on heterogeneity of family firms is gaining momentum, it has mostly been gender-neutral. The study fills this gap by examining heterogeneity of family firms owned and managed by women, in the context of a developing country—Brazil. The study draws upon the resource-based view of the firm to investigate the relationships between firm performance, family involvement, and financial resources at the start-up phase. An inductive analysis reveals two patterns. First, family firms that are started with the family achieve better performance than firms that are launched without the family and later evolve into a family business. Second, family firms that are funded with women entrepreneur’s own savings achieve worse performance than family firms that are started with borrowed funds. The results are useful for strategic decision making in fostering family businesses headed by women and proactive public policies for future innovation to enhance the success of women entrepreneurs.     

Managed care, quality of care, and patient rights

The growth of managed care has been accompanied by calls for increased government regulation because HMOs and other forms of managed care are seen by the public as more concerned about controlling costs than with protecting the rights of patients to quality care. This paper applies a theory of health care rights and clinical evidence of managed care quality in an analysis of public opinion about managed care. The paper concludes that there is no persuasive evidence that managed care has resulted in a general deterioration in the quality of care and that, with one exception, restrictions imposed by managed care plans are consistent with a theory of health care rights. The paper concludes with the recommendation that public policy should dispense with attempts to fine tune managed care and address an unquestionable violation of health care rights, the failure to guarantee a minimum standard of care to some 43 million Americans.     

Applications of artificial neural networks in management science: a survey

An increasing number of publications reporting on applications of Artificial Neural Networks demonstrates the growing relevance of modeling techniques summarized under this heading. In Management Science several known problems also have already been solved by using one of these methods.The paper at hand provides a survey of the most recent publications in this field and employs the functional structuring of Management for presentation. In the spirit of a metaanalysis we try to identify regularities with respect to the methods used and the results achieved. Furthermore we formulate areas for future research and give a summarizing evaluation of the state-of-the-art.     

The non-7% solution

While the vast majority of underwriters charge a gross spread of exactly 7%, as documented in Chen and Ritter (2000), more than a third charge something other than 7%. Among offerings of $50 million and below where underwriters charge the firm other than 7%, two-thirds of issuers pay more than published NASD¹ compensation guidelines. When underwriters charge less than expected, they do not trade-off IPO compensation with underpricing. However, our evidence suggests a trade-off between IPO compensation and future SEO business among underwriters that charge something other than 7% and less than expected. Underwriters that overcharge may provide a signal to investors about future underperformance.     

The effects of executives' experiences and perceptions on their assessment of potential technological alliances

Researchers have only begun to provide explanations of how top executives' experiences and perceptions influence organizational decisions. Drawing from a broad theoretical base, this study tests the contention that top executives' personal experiences (age, educational background, and work experience), their perceptions of their firms' attitudes toward technology and risk, and their perceptions regarding their firms' past success with collaborative technological development influence their cognitive assessments of potential technological alliances. Results from the study suggest that top executives with a technical education place more weight on the opportunities provided by the alliance than those with other types of education. Moreover, executives from firms that are perceived to emphasize technology and to have had success with technological alliances in the past tend to focus more on the opportunities provided by the alliance and less on the riskiness of the venture. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd