Do Consumers Acculturated to Global Consumer Culture Buy More Impulsively? The Moderating Role of Attitudes towards and Beliefs about Advertising

This research advances knowledge that can foster understanding of how global consumer culture (GCC) and its elements relate to impulsive buying and sheds light on how advertising attitudes and beliefs interact with this main relationship. Specifically, this study examines the moderating effects of attitudes towards and beliefs about advertising on the relations between consumers’ level of acculturation to global consumer culture (AGCC) and impulsive buying. Consumers who are the most acculturated to GCC, and who have positive attitudes towards and beliefs about advertising, buy the most impulsively. AGCC is related to increased impulsive buying, even when attitudes towards and beliefs about advertising are negative. The article contributes to the development of a theoretical explanation of these understudied relations by employing acculturation theory and congruity theory. Social and practical implications are discussed.     

The Impact of Firm Capabilities and Competitive Advantages on Import Intermediary Performance

ABSTRACT

Import intermediary firms, domestic firms that serve U.S. industries by linking domestic wholesalers/retailers and foreign distributors/manufacturers, handled a whopping U.S. $1.85 trillion of commodity good imports in 2006. This study focused on these important firms by assessing the role of capabilities and competitive advantages as key determinants of import intermediary performance. The empirical results showed that market interpretation, sourcing, and service capabilities, overall, positively affected cost, product, and service competitive advantages. These competitive advantages, in turn, positively affected their relationship performance with business partners. Results, however, also indicated some interesting negative associations among sourcing capabilities, service advantages, and relationship performance with foreign partners, raising questions about extant firm performance theory.     

Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Impact of Natural Disasters and Regulation on U.S. Property Insurers’ Supply Decisions

In this article, we identify the main factors that drive insurers’ willingness to offer coverage in catastrophe‐prone property insurance lines. We compare insurers’ supply decisions in personal and commercial lines, with an emphasis on insurers’ responses in the aftermath of natural disasters. Our empirical results suggest important policy implications with regard to improving the availability of insurance against catastrophic threats. Concerning the impact of regulatory constraints, we present empirical evidence that certain regulatory responses may unintentionally impede insurers’ willingness to provide coverage against natural disasters.     

Measuring the Academic Self-Efficacy of First-year Accounting Students

Abstract

This study measured the levels of academic self-efficacy of first-year accounting students. It also investigated whether there were any gender differences and the extent to which efficacy levels explained variation in academic performance. Overall the analysis revealed that many students lacked the confidence to participate fully in the academic activities associated with their accounting modules. Specifically, they were reluctant to seek help, they lacked the confidence to study effectively or to engage in independent reading and note-taking, and 40% of them were unable to judge the standard required to do well in examinations. The findings demonstrated that being confident in one's ability to understand the course content, to attempt questions in advance of tutorials, and to meet deadlines were associated with achieving significantly better results in the accounting modules. Interestingly, very few gender differences were identified. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings for accounting educators.     

Changing from German GAAP to IFRS or US GAAP: A Survey of German Companies

Since 1993 an increasing number of listed German companies have been publishing their consolidated financial statements in accordance with either IFRS or US GAAP. In 1998 this was approved as a substitute for the consolidated German GAAP financial statements of listed companies (§292a HGB). Our study surveys the motives that led these companies to opt for international reporting systems (IFRS or US GAAP) rather than German GAAP and considers whether these objectives have been achieved. Rather surprisingly, we find that even though companies state that their overall expectations have been met to a satisfactory degree, a detailed analysis shows that several of the ex-ante objectives have not been achieved from an ex-post point of view. Additionally, we use logistic regression analysis to show that companies choosing IFRS rather than US GAAP and vice versa differ distinctly in the objectives they pursue with their choice of international GAAP.     

Liquidity Dynamics Around Jumps: The Evidence from the Warsaw Stock Exchange

The aim of our study is to examine the dynamics of trading volume and the number of trades around jumps detected in intraday stock returns. We detect jumps in equally spaced 10-minute returns for most liquid stocks quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange within one-year sample period. We match jumps with macroeconomic and firm specific news. We find that only the minority of jumps is associated with public information releases, whereas the majority of them is motivated by liquidity shocks observed in the spreads, volume, and the number of trades. Our findings show that jumps are related to the inability of the market to absorb new and big orders. Liquidity shocks in volatility, volume, and quoted spread are the key drivers accompanying the occurrence of the jumps. Finally, the introduction of a faster and more efficient trading system improves the liquidity by increasing the depth of the market.     

Level the Playing Field to Bolster the Boardroom: Sports as a Springboard for Women's Labor Force Advancement in Asia

We promote women's participation in sports as part of a solution to better integrate women into the labor force of Asian economies. Women in Asia lag other regions in terms of labor force participation and membership in corporate leadership bodies; this is particularly acute in East Asia. Involvement in sport has been found to be associated with long‐term economic benefits for women internationally, including enhanced returns to education and labor outcomes. We propose a number of sports program‐related policies for Asian countries to consider in order to better integrate women into education, society, labor, and corporate boardrooms.     

Affiliation bias in the online market for rental accommodation

We find evidence of taste‐based discrimination against rival affiliations in the online market for rental accommodation. Airbnb hosts in college towns increase their listing prices more than hotels on home football games against rival teams. By setting listing prices too high as a result of their affiliation bias against rival fans, hosts experience a 30% reduction in rental income. The overestimation of demand, the cost (inconvenience) of temporary relocation, and the likelihood of incurring damage cannot explain the inverse relation between listing price increases, and rental incomes that is limited to games against rival teams. Instead, greater financial constraints are associated with smaller listing price increases, and higher rental incomes on rival games, suggesting that taste‐based discrimination is a luxury.     

Sick of being “Activated?”

Do unemployment insurance (UI) benefit recipients take sick leave more often when facing “activation” by the employment office? We answer this question using administrative data from the German Federal Employment Agency on vacancy referrals sent to UI benefit recipients. Applying duration analysis, we find an increased transition rate into short-term sick leave among individuals who had received vacancy referrals from the employment office. We find that while men on average report less sick compared to women, they respond stronger to a vacancy referral. In subsequent steps, we test the hypothesis that the results are driven by real illnesses as opposed to shirking. Our findings do not support this hypothesis. We interpret the findings as evidence of moral hazard behavior and as evidence of a side effect of an activation measure.     

Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size

While much of the empirical accounting literature suggests that, if differences do exist, Big Four employees are more ethical than non-Big Four employees, this trend has not been evident in the recent media coverage of Big Four tax practitioners acting for multinationals accused of aggressive tax avoidance behaviour. However, there has been little exploration in the literature to date specifically of the relationship between firm size and ethics in tax practice. We aim here to address this gap, initially exploring tax practitioners’ perceptions of the impact of firm size on ethics in tax practice using interview data in order to identify the salient issues involved. We then proceed to assess quantitatively whether employer firm size has an impact on the ethical reasoning of tax practitioners, using a tax context-specific adaptation of a well-known and validated psychometric instrument, the Defining Issues Test.