The income inequality,financial depth and economic growth nexus in China

Income inequality has increased in China despite rapid economic growth. Income inequality could impinge on future development, leading to social tension or political instability. Our study investigates the short-run and long-run relationship between three important macroeconomic indicators—income inequality, economic growth and financial depth. We utilise a two-step procedure of ARDL bounds and Granger causality for the analysis. The bounds test indicates the presence of a cointegrating relationship between income inequality, financial depth and economic growth in the long run. In the second step, we utilise the Granger causality approach. Results show a bidirectional causality between financial depth-growth and a unidirectional causality between inequality-growth in the short run. In the long run, results reveal that growth and financial depth determine Gini. Our findings provide support for the inequality-widening effect due to economic growth and higher credit provided to the private sector. We find no evidence of inequality-narrowing or income-equalising effect in the long run for the period of study. It is possible that the government's inclusive growth policies which started less than a decade ago have not taken effect for us to capture the inverted U-shape income equalising effect significantly.     

Further examination of the demographic and social factors affecting risk aversion

In this paper we examine how social and demographic factors explain risk aversion. Specifically, we focus on how an individual’s place of residence effects his level of risk aversion. Israel is a natural experiment field for such an investigation since the majority of its population lives either in big or small cities, moshavs, or kibbutzim, where the last two forms of settlement being unique to Israel. The kibbutz follows the prototype of a collectivist culture; the moshav follows the prototype of an individualistic culture. This environment also allows us to reexamine the contradiction between the “cushion hypothesis” and previous findings regarding the risk aversion of Israeli kibbutz residents. In general, we find that the moshav respondents demonstrate the lowest level of risk aversion and the kibbutz (and the small city) respondents demonstrate the highest. However, further examination reveals that the risk aversions are domain specific. The urban residents of both big and small cites are similar to each other than they are to residents of the kibbutz and the moshav, who, in turn, are more similar to each other than they are to the urban residents. For example, kibbutz and moshav respondents are less risk averse in insurance and gambling, but more risk averse in driving and sport, compared to urban residents. Interestingly, on average, the respondents demonstrate the highest level of risk aversion for extreme sports and the lowest level of risk aversion for irresponsible driving.     

Online brand communities: constructing and co-constructing brand culture

Consumers act and interact via social media networks and online brand communities, collectively generating brand culture. In this context, organisations have the opportunity to develop a cultural following. The respective task for brand managers and marketers is to understand how consumers collectively generate online brand culture? Using active and overt netnography and investigating the specific context of the Behance Network, the findings presented here demonstrate that online brand community members collectively generate brand culture in variant ways: through construction of self, emotional relationships, storytelling and ritualistic practices. Pragmatically, this work demonstrates that online brand community members are curators of online brand culture and netnography offers a window through which to identify what actions and interactions need to be facilitated and fostered.     

Do VCs matter? the importance of owners on performance variance in start‐up firms

Adding to the corporate effect literature, we study the effect of owners on firm performance in a new context, that of venture capital firms (VCs) and the start‐up firms in which they invest. After discussing the effect that VC ownership can have on start‐ups, we estimate that start‐up‐specific, owner (VC), and year effects account for significant variance in performance (26.3 percent, 11.2 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively). The effects of industry and investment stage are not statistically different from zero. We also provide an analysis that separates the owner effect into two components: a selection component—which impacts investment—and a management component—which explains significant variance in performance. By examining the owner effect in a different institutionalized form of governance—that of the start‐up and its relationship to VC owners—our study also contributes to an understanding of the ‘ownership’ effect in the strategy literature more generally. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Democratization and the depoliticization of the banking sector: Are all banks affected equally?

This paper shows that the influence of the dramatic change in political ties of the Indonesian banking sector following democratization varies widely by bank ownership type. Panel estimates using several unique data-sets show that the decrease in political ties over democratization positively influences the performance of government-owned banks while negatively influencing the performance for privately held banks. Results remain robust to a variety of alternative hypotheses and sensitivity tests. This study provides evidence not only of the differential impact of depoliticization, but also suggests that the relationship between political connections and performance may be different based on bank ownership.     

The Moderating Effect of Equal Opportunity Support and Confidence in Grievance Procedures on Sexual Harassment from Different Perpetrators

This study drew on three theoretical perspectives – attribution theory, power, and role identity theory – to compare the job-related outcomes of sexual harassment from organizational insiders (i.e., supervisors and co-workers) and organizational outsiders (i.e., offend- ers and members of the public) in a sample (n = 482) of UK police officers and police support staff. Results showed that sexual harassment from insiders was related to higher intentions to quit, over-performance demands, and lower job satisfaction, whereas sexual harassment from outsiders was not significantly related to any of the outcome variables investigated. We also examined two moderator variables: equal opportunity support and confidence in grievance procedures. Consistent with our hypotheses, equal oppor- tunity support mitigated the effects of sexual harassment from supervisors on intent to quit and over-performance demands. Confidence in grievance procedures moderated the relationship between sexual harassment from supervisors and all outcome variables. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Predictive safety analytics: inferring aviation accident shaping factors and causation

This paper illustrates the development of an object-oriented Bayesian network (OOBN) to integrate the safety risks contributing to an in-flight loss-of-control aviation accident. With the creation of a probabilistic model, inferences about changes to the states of the accident shaping or causal factors can be drawn quantitatively. These predictive safety inferences derive from qualitative reasoning to conclusions based on data, assumptions, and/or premises, and enable an analyst to identify the most prominent causal factors leading to a risk factor prioritization. Such an approach facilitates a mitigation portfolio study and assessment. The model also facilitates the computation of sensitivity values based on perturbations to the estimates in the conditional probability tables. Such computations lead to identifying the most sensitive causal factors with respect to an accident probability. This approach may lead to vulnerability discovery of emerging causal factors for which mitigations do not yet exist that then informs possible future R&D efforts. To illustrate the benefits of an OOBN in a large and complex aviation accident model, the in-flight loss-of-control accident framework model is presented.