Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Activities and Corporate Governance in Imperfectly Competitive Markets

We investigate the incentives of firms' owners to commit voluntarily to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in an oligopolistic market. The socially responsible attributes attached to products are considered as credence goods, with consumers forming expectations about their existence and level. We show that hiring an ‘individually’ socially responsible CEO and delegating to him the CSR effort and market decisions acts as a commitment device for the firm's owners and credibly signals to consumers that the firm will undertake the ‘missioned’ CSR activities. We also find that CSR activities are welfare enhancing for consumers and firms and thus, they should be encouraged. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

First Mortgages,Second Mortgages,and Their Default

Using 35,437 pairs of first and second mortgages matched from within a much larger set of subprime mortgages, this paper tracks and describes the tendency for either one of the mortgages to enter default, as well as the tendency for either the one or the other mortgage to ever return to being current, all this in a possibly repeated manner. Thus, the entire, interconnected default history of pairs of first and second mortgages is explored, as well as compared to theoretical predictions.     

A Research Model for Consumers' Intention of Buying Private Label Frozen Vegetables

This article aims at identifying the factors that affect consumers' intentions of buying private label frozen vegetables, developing a related research model, and testing this model using quantitative data from a consumers' sample in Greece.

The field research was carried out in Athens and the sample comprised 282 consumers. Data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results confirmed that:

• Consumers' intention of buying private-label frozen vegetables is directly affected by consumers' attitudes toward this type of products.

• Consumers' attitudes toward private-label frozen vegetables are directly affected by the perceived benefits and indirectly affected by consumer trust and perceived economic situation.

     

Endogenous R&D Networks among Upstream Firms

This paper studies the endogenous formation of R&D networks among upstream firms and the welfare implications thereof. Both under an upstream price setting and an upstream quantity setting, it is shown that the complete R&D network emerges in equilibrium but only if spillovers are sufficiently low. Yet, under a quantity setting, the complete network arises within a larger range of spillovers. In both cases, however, there is a potential conflict between private incentives for R&D collaboration and societal ones. We discuss policy measures that may help to steer firms towards a more socially desirable outcome. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sources of competitive advantage in high performing exporting companies

The requirements for success in export market ventures are likely to differ not merely from the critical success factors in the domestic market, but also from the policies effective in the fully internationalized or global enterprise. Exporting activities are a vitally important area of international business, where the foundations for superior performance are not well understood. A recent study of export market ventures in the U.K. links superior exporting performance to the establishment of key competitive advantages, which may be traced to foundations in specific competencies (competitive skills in exporting) and capabilities (competitive resources in exporting). This simple model of the sources of superior export performance and this study's findings provide important insights for executives.