Unfolding the impact of leadership and management on sustainability performance: Green and lean practices and guanxi as the dual mediators

This study aims to empirically evaluate the predictors that influence sustainability performance among manufacturing firms. Leadership and management, green and lean practices, and guanxi were examined to determine whether these predictors are directly and/or indirectly affecting sustainability performance; 160 valid responses were collected and partial-least-squares-structural-equation-modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that leadership and management positively influenced green and lean practices and green and lean practices positively influenced sustainability performance. Leadership and management also positively influenced guanxi. Interestingly, leadership and management and guanxi do not exert a significant direct influence on sustainability performance. The findings contributed to the development of the resource-based-view theory further by empirically exploring the significance of leadership and management coupled with green and lean practices as competencies and capability to drive sustainability performance. The testing of the dual mediators' effects further added value to this study.     

Ethical Decision Making in Marketing: A Synthesis and Evaluation of Scales Measuring the Various Components of Decision Making in Ethical Situations

The authors present a comprehensive synthesis and evaluation of the published scales measuring the components of the decision making process in ethical situations using the Hunt-Vitell (1993) theory of ethics as a framework to guide the research. Suggestions for future scale development are also provided.     

Analysis of Credit Risks in Asset-Backed Securitization Transactions in Singapore

Asset-backed securitization (ABS) is a relatively new financial instrument in Singapore's capital market, which has been accepted by developers (originators) as an alternative source of financing. Credit assessment and rating requirements have not been imposed on the ABS bond issues. Default-risk evaluation has also been understated, if not omitted, in the process of structuring ABS deals. This is the first study that applies a theoretical default-risky swaps valuation model to evaluate credit risks in ABS bonds in Singapore. The Monte-Carlo simulation results, based on the Century Square shopping mall ABS case, show significant effects of the changes in rental volatility and default-free interest rate volatility on the default-risk premium of swap. More specifically, an increase in the rental volatility reduces the default-risky swap values significantly. However, an increase in the instantaneous default-free interest rate volatility increases the default-risk premium of swaps, and this effect is only observed in the high default-free interest rate volatility regime (above 20 percent). The results suggest that the rental dynamics of the securitized real estate are critical in determining the default risks of ABS deals. The fixed-rate (coupon yield) and floating-rate (rental cash flows) should therefore be adequately determined to reflect the default risks, which may be caused by the rental dynamics of the securitized real estate.     

The impacts of international tourism demand on economic growth of small economies dependent on tourism

This paper studies the impacts on economic growth of a small tourism-driven economy caused by an increase in the growth rate of international tourism demand. We present a formal model and empirical evidence. The ingredients of the dynamic model are a large population of intertemporally optimizing agents and an AK technology representing tourism production. The model shows that an increase in the growth of tourism demand leads to transitional dynamics with gradually increasing economic growth and increasing terms of trade. In our empirical application, an econometric methodology is applied to annual data of Antigua and Barbuda from 1970 to 2008. We perform a cointegration analysis to look for the existence of a long-run relationship among variables of economic growth, international tourism earnings and the real exchange rate. The exercise confirms the theoretical findings.     

Joint effects of prior start-up experience and coping strategies on entrepreneurs’ psychological well-being

Drawing on theories from the coping and entrepreneurship literatures, we investigated the relationship between the entrepreneurs’ active and avoidance coping on psychological well-being (PWB) and the moderating role of prior start-up experience on this relationship. Data from 156 entrepreneurs indicate that the use of avoidance coping positively predicted immediate PWB for entrepreneurs with more start-up experience. Notably, this relationship was negative for entrepreneurs with less start-up experience. We also found that over the extended period, entrepreneurs who used avoidance coping had improved PWB only if they also used active coping. Theoretical and practical contributions to the entrepreneurship and coping research are discussed.     

Teams developing business ideas: how member characteristics and conflict affect member-rated team effectiveness

Team researchers have found that the diversity to effectiveness ratings are mediated by team conflict. Using a sample of 73 teams developing their business ideas, I found direct effects of diversity and conflict on member-rated team effectiveness. Here, I explain how the circumstances under which these teams operate can lead to these findings. For these teams, task conflict was found to relate negatively to member-rated team effectiveness. This finding contrasts with research on organizational teams, where task conflict usually relates positively to team effectiveness ratings. I also found that both diversity and average member experience influence member-rated effectiveness. These findings imply that diversity, conflict, and ratings of team effectiveness may differ for teams developing business ideas as compared to organizational teams. Thus, findings from organizational team research should be applied with caution to teams developing business ideas and possibly to new venture teams in general.     

Perceptions of the Ethical Work Climate and Covenantal Relationships

Employees perception of the existence of a covenantal relationship between themselves and their employer indicates that they believe there is a mutual commitment to shared values and the welfare of the other party in the relationship. Research suggests that these types of employment relationships have positive benefits for both employees and employers. There has been little research, however, on the factors that determine whether such relationships will develop and thrive.In this paper, we suggest that the organizations ethical work climate may be an important factor affecting employees perceptions about the nature of the relational contract between themselves and their employer. Specifically, we argue that work climates emphasizing benevolence and principle will be associated with covenantal relationships. Conversely, we believe that work climates emphasizing egoism will make it less likely that covenantal relationships will develop between an employer and employee.In order to test our hypotheses, we collected data from 194 employees of a large retail department store. The employees perceived their work climates in terms of principle (laws and professional codes) and benevolence, but to a lesser extent also believed that egoism (self interest) concerns characterized their climate. After controlling for demographic and job-related variables, we found (as expected) that measures of principled and benevolence climate were positively associated with covenantal relationships and that a measure of egoistic climate was negatively associated with covenantal relationships. In the final section of the paper, we discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.     

A never-decisive and anonymous criterion for optimal growth models

We address in this paper the question of the existence of a Social Welfare Function that would be sustainable and would allow us to obtain solutions to optimal growth models. We define sustainability by two new axioms called Never-decisiveness of the present and Never-decisiveness of the future. We first show that a SWF which has Never-decisiveness properties cannot be defined on a ball of $l_{\infty }^{+}$ . We must (i) restrict to the set of utility streams for which the value of the SWF is finite and (ii) introduce additional assumptions in order to obtain the Never-decisiveness properties. Our main result in this paper is therefore to show that the undiscounted utilitarian criterion is an anonymous and never-decisive criterion for optimal growth models. We consider the set of utilities of consumptions which are generated by a specific technology, namely a technology with decreasing returns for high levels of capital, and restrict ourselves to good programs, i.e., any program for which intertemporal utility is well defined.