Managerial Opportunism? Evidence from Directors' and Officers' Insurance Purchases

We analyze a sample of 72 IPO firms that went public between 1992 and 1996 for which we have detailed proprietary information about the amount and cost of D&O liability insurance. If managers of IPO firms are exploiting superior inside information, we hypothesize that the amount of insurance coverage chosen will be related to the post-offering performance of the issuing firm's shares. Consistent with the hypothesis, we find a significant negative relation between the three-year post-IPO stock price performance and the insurance coverage purchased in conjunction with the IPO. One plausible interpretation is that, like insider securities transactions, D&O insurance decisions reveal opportunistic behavior by managers. This provides some motivation to argue that disclosure of the details of D&O insurance decisions, as is required in some other countries, is valuable.     

The intersection of entrepreneurship and selling: An interdisciplinary review,framework, and future research agenda

Selling is integral to entrepreneurship, yet it has rarely been a focal topic of analysis for entrepreneurship scholars. To address this, we undertake a broad-ranging systematic literature review of research that in some way explores selling within entrepreneurial contexts. We inductively develop a framework that orders extant research into selling antecedents, activities, contexts, and outcomes. Then, drawing on these entrepreneurship-selling intersections, we suggest opportunity theory can be extended by integrating critical insights from selling literatures. In particular, we address ego-centric views of entrepreneurship which prioritize entrepreneurial agency, and advocate for the incorporation of customer agency into synchronized processes of opportunity identification, refinement, and exploitation. The article concludes that a promising avenue for future theory development resides in the study of situated sales interactions, which can serve as an empirical vista to the underexplored entrepreneur-customer nexus.     

Advertising as Unfavorable Self-Presentation: The Dirty Laundry Effect

Identity appeals—marketing communications that invoke one of the target market's identities—are typically well liked by consumers. In contrast with this notion, this research examines a situation when consumers respond negatively to identity appeals in advertising. Through three studies, we find that identity appeals fail when consumers judge an identity-congruent ad as portraying information about them that they would rather not have widely broadcast. In these cases, self-presentation concerns arise, leading to ad dislike. Thus, although identity-congruent ads resonate with consumers, such ads may lead to negative responses if consumers believe the ad airs their “dirty laundry.” We discuss implications for targeted advertising and identity marketing strategies.     

A socio-technical framework for assessing the viability of carbon capture and storage technology

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen as a key technology to tackle climate change. The principal idea of CCS is to remove carbon from the flue gases arising from burning fuels for electricity generation or industrial applications and to store the carbon in geological formations to prevent it from entering the atmosphere. Policy makers in several countries are supportive of the technology, but a number of uncertainties hamper its further development and deployment. The paper makes three related contributions to the literatures on socio-technical systems and technology assessment: 1) It systematically develops an interdisciplinary framework to assess the main uncertainties of CCS innovation. These include technical, economic, financial, political and societal issues. 2) It identifies important linkages between these uncertainties. 3) It develops qualitative and quantitative indicators for assessing these uncertainties. This framework aims to help decision making on CCS by private and public actors and is designed to be applicable to a wider range of low carbon technologies. The paper is based on a systematic review of the social science literature on CCS and on insights from innovation studies, as well as on interviews about assessment of new technologies with experts from a range of organisations and sectors.     

Moving from Unemployment to Permanent Employment: Could a Casual Job Accelerate the Transition?

This article compares the time taken to exit from unemployment to permanent work with the time taken to exit from unemployment to permanent work through casual work.     

Scoping the Extent of Tourist Road Safety: Motor Vehicle Transport Accidents in New Zealand 1982-1996

There is a growing interest in tourism safety within the travel medicine and safety management literature. From this body of research, motor vehicle traffic accidents (MVTA) are identified as a leading cause of tourist morbidity and mortality. There is, however, a dearth of tourist road safety literature where the tourism context is taken into account. This paper examines the extent of overseas visitor MVTA in New Zealand, based on data collected by the New Zealand Health Information Service for the 15-year period 1982–1996. Some 1604 MVTA cases were recorded in the NZHIS database for non-New Zealand residents, representing 27.4% of all non-resident injuries resulting in hospitalisation during the period of the study. The majority of these incidents involved collisions between vehicles, with 1121 (70% of MVTA cases) involving a car. Highest counts of MVTA were found for males and females in the 20–39 years age range. Largest proportions of MVTA were observed for the Auckland, Otago and Southland regions, although highest incidence rates (based on visitor numbers in each region for the year 1995/6) were found for the Taranaki, Northland, Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Southland regions. The paper discusses possible reasons for patterns and trends in the MVTA data, drawing on comparisons with existing international studies from the travel medicine and safety management literature.     

The difference a day makes: Timely disclosure and trading efficiency in the muni market

The Real-Time Transaction Reporting System (RTRS) reduced the delay in reporting municipal bond trades from one-day to 15 min. We find a significant reduction in secondary market trading costs after the introduction of the RTRS. Our estimates imply that retail investors benefited primarily from reduced dealer intermediation costs, while large trades benefited from reductions in bargaining costs. Bonds experienced increases in trading volume across the liquidity spectrum. We find higher dealer capital commitment, longer intermediation chains, and fewer pre-arranged trades, all suggesting increased market-making incentives for dealers. These results are largely consistent with predictions from search-based models.