Naming as Strategic Communication: Understanding Corporate Name Change through an Integrative Framework Encompassing Branding,Identity and Institutional Theory

This article presents a framework for understanding corporate name change as strategic communication. From a corporate branding perspective, the choice of a new name can be seen as a wish to stand out from a group of similar organizations. Conversely, from an institutional perspective, name change can be perceived as a way to claim membership of a given organizational field. The framework integrates these understandings and serves a double purpose. First, it can be applied as a theoretical lens through which we can analyze and consequently understand naming in diverse sectors around the world. Second, it offers practical support to organizations, private as well as public, who find themselves in a situation where changing the name of the organization could be a way to reach either communicative or organizational goals.     

The perverse effect of environmental regulation on emissions: The role of product-mix changes

We study the effect of environmental regulation (taxation) on emissions when the only available abatement method consists of product-mix changes. Firms choose to produce one or both varieties of a product—a pollution-intensive (dirty) and a non-pollution-intensive (green)—and compete in a differentiated Cournot duopoly. We characterize the equilibrium market structure as a function of the tax rate and show that increases in the tax can promote product-mix changes that lead to a jump in emissions for some tax range, an effect we call the perverse effect of taxation. Our work emphasizes the key role horizontal product differentiation in this process and shows that the perverse effect does not require the presence of vertical product differentiation. Further, the perverse effect of taxation is especially strong in the presence of incomplete regulation, that is, when only one of the markets is subject to taxation.     

Unequal opportunities and human capital formation

This paper develops a tractable, heterogeneous agents general equilibrium model where individuals have different endowments of the factors that complement the schooling process. The paper explores the relationship between inequality of opportunities, inequality of outcomes, and aggregate efficiency in human capital formation. Using numerical solutions we study how the endogenous variables of the model respond to two different interventions in the distribution of opportunities: a mean-preserving spread and a change in the support. The results suggest that a higher degree of inequality of opportunities is associated with lower average level of human capital, a lower fraction of individuals investing in human capital, higher inequality in the distribution of human capital, and higher wage inequality. In particular, the model does not predict a trade-off between aggregate efficiency in human capital formation (as measured by the average level of human capital in the economy) and equality of opportunity.     

An environmental performance index for products reflecting damage costs

Several studies have demonstrated how to use DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) based techniques to estimate environmental performance indices. None of these studies, however, are taking information on the environmental damage costs of the pressure types considered into account. This study is bridging a gap between environmental indices founded in physical pressures and damage costs founded in welfare economics. The aim of the paper is twofold: first, to demonstrate how to implement the information on environmental damage costs within a DEA based environmental performance index, and second, to estimate these indices at product level by using Danish input-output data and environmental data from 1997.     

Internationalization capabilities of SMEs: A comparative study of the manufacturing and industrial service sectors

Nowadays, the global economy requires developed countries to undergo industrial restructuring. In this context, industrial small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to collaborate with the service sector to enhance their competitiveness and strategic capabilities. Indeed, industrial service SMEs have been the object of particular attention from governments since these enterprises have become a key element for manufacturing and innovation networks in developed countries. However, these firms, as well as the manufacturing SMEs they serve, now face the challenge to internationalize. This paper addresses the of the strategic capabilities required by SMEs in general, and manufacturing and industrial service SMEs in particular, to internationalize, as well as the effect of these capabilities on their export performance. These strategic capabilities are presented in a research model, which relates human resources (HR), product development capabilities and market development capabilities to export performance. In testing this model with a sample of 347 Canadian and French SMEs, similarities and differences between the two types of SMEs are highlighted.     

The European Union preventive restructuring framework: A hole in one?

While traditionally (Continental) Europe has not been known for an in particular debtor‐ or restructuring‐friendly insolvency practice, in recent decades, important reforms were implemented that would foster restructurings in Europe. In this article, we comparatively look a the status quo of insolvency and restructuring practice in five different European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, UK). We place our observations into the context of the preventive restructuring directive, to be implemented within the next two years after its publication on 26 June 2019. The directive leaves quite some room implementation, from a watered‐down restructuring tool with high access threshold to a pre‐insolvency debtor‐friendly US‐style restructuring procedure.     

When birds flock together: an identification of the destination social servicescape

ABSTRACT

While servicescapes have been studied in a variety of travel and tourism domains, the phenomenon has been largely ignored at the destination level. This is especially true when it comes to considerations of the social servicescape, which is reflective of the extent to which the mere presence of other destination visitors can influence affective responses to the destination experience. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to propose and empirically test a model of the destination social servicescape that explores perceived psychographic similarity within the social servicescape and the effects of this construct on affective evaluations and behavior.     

Impact of customer experience on loyalty: a multichannel examination

This article examines the relation between the five dimensions of customer experience advocated by Schmitt [1999a. Experiential Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 15, 53–67] (cognitive, affective, sensory, behavioural and social) and service provider loyalty. The examination focuses on two different channels, namely branch/agency (physical) and online (Web-based). A total of 484 panellists of a large Canadian polling firm self-administered a Web-based questionnaire regarding banking experience. The exercise was subsequently replicated in the tourism sector. Findings demonstrate that the main dimension impacting loyalty is the affective dimension (negative), thereby contributing handsomely to experiential marketing literature since negative emotions are rarely investigated. Findings also reveal that choice of channel exerts a moderating effect on the different dimensions influencing loyalty and that results vary from one sector to another. The multidimensional, multichannel, multisector approach selected for this study substantiates customer experience as complex and context specific. The authors also suggest practical implications and set out avenues of future research.