How do integrated quality and environmental management practices affect firm performance? Mediating roles of quality performance and environmental proactivity

Based on a sample of 208 Turkish firms, this paper investigates the integration of two management systems, quality management and environmental management, and explores the effect of this integration on firm performance. First, a conceptual framework was developed, relying on the premises of the resource‐based view. Second, mediating roles of quality performance and environmental proactivity were examined on the association between integrated quality and environmental management systems and firm performance. Among the underlying trends, both quality performance and environmental proactivity were found to fully mediate the relationship between integrated quality and environmental management and firm performance.     

IMPACT OF OUTCOME AMBIGUITY ON SELF‐INSURANCE AND SELF‐PROTECTION: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE

This experimental study examines and compares individual valuations of the two risk reduction mechanisms: self‐insurance and self‐protection in risky versus ambiguous outcome situations. Results confirm that individuals do not perceive these mechanisms differently under risk. Moreover, ambiguity in the outcome (i.e., size of loss) affects valuations weakly, and changing representations of ambiguity do not alter valuation. In general, individuals are found to be ambiguity averse for low sizes of loss and ambiguity neutral for high sizes of loss, regardless of the probability of loss. Finally, no strong support is found for any particular model of ambiguity.     

Primacy in stock market participation: the effect of initial returns on market re-entry decisions

We examine whether initial returns influence investors’ decisions to return to the stock market following withdrawal. Using a survival analysis technique to estimate Finnish retail investors’ likelihood of stock market re-entry reveals that investors who experience lower initial returns are less likely to return, even after controlling for returns in the last month and average monthly returns for the duration of investing. This primacy effect is robust to accounting for endogeneity in investors’ exit decisions, and other behavioural biases such as recency and saliency of investment experience. Individual investors appear to be subject to primacy bias and tend to put a significant weight on initial experiences in re-entry decisions.     

Financial estimates against investors’ preferences: anchoring,denial and spillover effects

This experimental study investigates how the characteristics of an estimate in a sensitivity disclosure and the level of threat it presents to investors’ preferences interact to influence investors’ risk judgments. Firstly, I predict and find that variation in an estimate affects not only investors’ judgment on a related issue but also their future judgments on an unrelated issue. Secondly, I predict and find that investors are more sensitive to variations in an estimate when information contained in the estimate presents less threat to their preferred conclusions than when it presents greater threat. Finally, I predict and find that investors perceive more uncertainty regarding the association between the disclosed risk factor and the estimated financial reporting item in the estimate when the information presents greater threat.     

Joint and interactive effects of trust and (inter) dependence on relational behaviors in long-term channel dyads

The authors investigate the effects of trust on the relational behaviors of firms in long-term channel dyads across different interdependence structures. Based on the long-term nature of the empirical setting, trust is posited to exert a positive effect on the emergence of relational behaviors in all interdependence conditions. This positive effect of trust is hypothesized to be stronger in highly and symmetrically interdependent channel dyads than in low-interdependence-type symmetric dyads. In addition, for both relatively more dependent and relatively less dependent members of asymmetric dyads, the effect size of trust is hypothesized to increase as the perceived level of interdependence asymmetry increases. Data collected from automobile dealers in Turkey reveal that trust in the supplier has the strongest positive effect on the relational behaviors of dealers in asymmetric dealer-supplier dyads that perceive themselves relatively less dependent than their suppliers. For relatively more dependent dealers, trust is found to exert a modest positive effect. In symmetrically interdependent dealer-supplier dyads, trust exerts a modest positive effect on dealer relational behaviors in the low mutual dependence condition, and this effect size reduces to the point of nonsignificance in the high mutual dependence condition. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

Reactions of dissatisfied investors: exit,voice or loyalty

This study examines the reactions of individual investors that have invested in the stocks of companies that have been eventually delisted from the stock market due to bankruptcy and/or bad governance. Data to determine reaction styles of investors are collected through a well-established questionnaire to a sample of 67 investors of Borsa Istanbul. Multinomial logistic regression analysis concludes that investors’ perceived knowledge about the stock market is the most important factor affecting how investors react. More specifically, the higher the knowledge perceived, the higher the tendency of the investors to keep investing (loyalty) as the reaction. Further, more experienced investors are found to complain/ask for their rights (voice) more.     

An experimental investigation of insurance decisions in low probability and high loss risk situations

This experimental study investigates insurance decisions in low-probability, high-loss risk situations. Results indicate that subjects consider the probability of loss (loss size) when they make buying decisions (paying decisions). Most individuals are risk averse with no specific threshold probability.     

M regression approach for satisfaction of municipality services: the case of Eskisehir

Studies on increasing the effectiveness of municipality services will be carried out only by measuring and increasing the public’s satisfaction with the services. Such studies are considered as feedback for increasing the quality of municipality services and maintaining the productivity of these services. In recent years, thanks to the services provided in line with the understanding of social municipality services, Eskisehir, which has become one of the most popular cities in Turkey, set an example for the municipalities of other cities. The purpose of the present study was to determine the factors influencing the degree of public satisfaction with the services provided by the Metropolitan Municipality of Eskisehir and to establish a mathematical model determining the public’s level of overall satisfaction with the services. In the study, first, the attitudes of the public in Eskisehir towards the services of the Metropolitan Municipality of Eskisehir were examined via factor analysis. As a result of the analysis, the factor scores regarding the factors obtained from the public’s satisfaction with the municipality services were considered as independent variables, and a mathematical model determining the public’s level of overall satisfaction with the services was created. Because, while creating this model, outliers were found in y direction within the data set, M regression analysis, resistant to such outliers, was applied. With the help of the mathematical model established as a result of the study, it was possible to determine all the factors influencing the public’s overall satisfaction with the municipality services and to find out how influential these factors were on the degree of their satisfaction with such municipality services as the transportation and traffic regulations, cultural and art activities, environmental cleaning and planning and arrangement of parks/gardens and sports areas.     

DISPLAYING UNCERTAIN INFORMATION ABOUT PROBABILITY: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE

Different from previous experiments that used three representations of uncertain information for probabilities: best estimate, interval and sets of probabilities, we use visual display to represent different levels of uncertainty through varying amount of probabilistic information provided to subjects. Results confirm that the individuals’ willingness to pay is higher when a larger amount of information is available. Further, individuals are found uncertainty averse for high probability of gain and uncertainty seekers for low probability of gain. Similarities in results across different representations of uncertainty indicate that the representation tested here is a viable method for communicating uncertainty to decision makers.     

Functional income distribution and aggregate demand in the Euro area

An increase in the wage share has contradictory effects on thesubaggregates of aggregate demand. Private consumption expendituresought to increase because wage incomes typically are associatedwith higher consumption propensities than capital incomes. Investmentexpenditures ought to be negatively affected because investmentwill positively depend on profits. Net exports will be negativelyaffected because an increase in the wage share corresponds toan increase in unit labour costs and thus a loss in competitiveness.Therefore, theoretically, aggregate demand can be either wage-ledor profit-led depending on how these effects add up. The resultswill crucially depend on how open the economy is internationally.The paper estimates a post-Kaleckian macro model incorporatingthese effects for the Euro area and finds that the Euro areais presently in a wage-led demand regime. Implications for wagepolicies are discussed.