Exposure to Provincial and National Information and Firm Performance: Crisis Period Evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of exposure to provincial and national information on the performance of non-financial Chinese firms during the recent global financial crisis (2007 to 2009). The results show that firms with higher level of exposure to provincial information are affected less by the crisis than firms with higher level of exposure to national information. The results are also robust across various proxies of firm performance. The main contribution of this paper is to highlight sources of value for Chinese firms during the recent financial crisis. More importantly, this paper uses publicly available information to draw attention on the role played by national and provincial sources of information in defining firm performance during the recent global financial crisis.

     

Structural shocks and dynamic elasticities in a long memory model of the US gasoline retail market

A structural multivariate long memory model of the US gasoline market is employed to disentangle structural shocks and to estimate the own-price elasticity of gasoline demand. Our main empirical findings are: (1) there is strong evidence of nonstationarity and mean reversion in the real price of gasoline and in gasoline consumption; (2) accounting for the degree of persistence present in the data is essential to assess the responses of these two variables to structural shocks; (3) the contributions of the different supply and demand shocks to fluctuations in the gasoline market vary across frequency ranges; and (4) long memory makes available an interesting range of convergent possibilities for gasoline demand elasticities. Our estimates suggest that after a change in prices, consumers undertake a few measures to reduce consumption in the short- and medium-run but are reluctant to implement major changes in their consumption habits.     

Neoliberal Entrenchment of North Atlantic Capital. From Corporate Self-Regulation to State Capture

After the financial crisis of 2007–8, neoliberal capitalism by all appearances has entrenched instead of being displaced. Its political–economic programme or ‘comprehensive concept of control’ continues to hold society in thrall. This was different in the crisis of 1974–5 when the corporate liberalism of the postwar years and its industry-centred class compromise were beginning to be replaced by finance-led neoliberalism and a compromise with asset-owning middle classes. Under corporate liberalism, real capital accumulation was protected from the ‘rentier’/‘money-dealing’ fraction of capital associated with speculative investment; neoliberalism has allowed its resurgence. Large corporations in the first phase of the transition (‘systemic neoliberalism’) embarked on a strategy of transnational restructuring no longer dependent on 1960s-style state support. In the process, financial group formation, here measured by dense director interlocks (≥2) amongst the largest corporations in the North Atlantic economy (where this type of corporate governance obtains), was intensified. The resurgence of money-dealing capital and rentier incomes in the 1990s led to a decline in real accumulation (‘predatory neoliberalism’), and after the crisis of 2007–8, to a demise of the financial group structure of Atlantic capital as the network of dense interlocks radically thins out and capital comes to rely on states again, this time to protect it from a democratic correction of the neoliberal regime and with state autonomy greatly reduced by public debt.     

Under the sway of a mobile device during an in‐store shopping experience

Mobile device technology is transforming the retail shopping experience. Today's consumers are mobile dependent, preferring to consult with their phone, instead of using the salesperson, while shopping at the retail store. In the absence of literature investigating how the salesperson might sell to this omni‐channel, mobile‐connected consumer, this paper proposes a conceptual model and tests its proposed linkages. The empirically tested model presents a dyadic view of the omni‐channel consumer and the salesperson. Uniquely contributing to the omni‐channel and marketing literature, samples from an emerging economy (India) and developed (United States) economy represent the contexts. Specifically, the research examines the salesperson's role in selling to a mobile‐dependent consumer who uses mobile technology to search for information during the sales meeting. Findings show that adaptive selling can affect purchase intention and customer predisposition to comply with salesperson input. Results also reveal how perceived control, mobile dependence, and customer predisposition to comply with mobile device input affect purchase intention. Managerial and research implications specifically appropriate for the omni‐consumer retail setting are offered.     

Employee Turnover in International Brand Hotels in Russia: A Comparison of Nationals and Foreign Nationals

ABSTRACT

This empirical study tests the relations between employee turnover and the organizational dimensions of service climate, comparing nationals and foreign nationals in the international brand Russian hotel industry. This study extends the geographic scope of employee turnover to the undertested Russian context. Responses were analyzed using a partial least squares model. Results show that nationals’ and foreign nationals’ responses to model variables diverge. Job insecurity directly affects the turnover intentions of Russian nationals, while its effect for foreign nationals was indirect through organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Compounded indirect effects of turnover antecedents and service climate dimensions are also examined and discussed.     

Cartel overcharges: Survey and meta-analysis

The article presents a novel meta-regression analysis of the size of cartel overcharges from a sample of more than 800 observations collected from a wide variety of published sources. The analysis of a subsample of 395 cartel episodes finds that duration, legal environment, and organizational characteristics of cartels explain variation in overcharge rates to a greater extent than the type of publication or the method of calculation. Overcharges tend to be significantly higher for durable international cartels. Secular decline is observed as antitrust-enforcement regimes have stiffened.     

Positive Affect and Malleable Mental Accounting: An Investigation of the Role of Positive Affect in Flexible Expense Categorization and Spending

The present research examines the impact of positive affect on mental accounting and the underlying mechanisms. The authors find that individuals in a positive (vs. neutral) affective state are less likely to exploit ambiguity in mental accounts and justify spending, but only when processing resources are unconstrained. In contrast, when processing resources are limited (high cognitive load), those in a positive (vs. neutral) affective state are more likely to spend. These findings offer new insights into the interplay between affect and cognition in decision making, the use of mental accounting strategies, and the role of affect in spending and self‐control.     

Psychological aspect of the training process of preschool education students

Quality & Quantity - The purpose of this study is to define the components of subjective determination of academic research training and to establish differences in the degree of subjective...     

Branding in a global marketplace: The mediating effects of quality and self-identity brand signals

Research documents that consumers with a stronger belief in global citizenship through global brands (GCGB) view branded products as more important and prefer global to local brands. We test the mediating effects of consumer use of quality and self-identity brand signals on the relationships between GCGB and the importance attributed to branded products (Study 1: U.S. and Russia) as well as purchases of global brands (Study 2: U.S., U.K, and Russia). Our research establishes that consumer involvement with branded products and purchases of global brands revolves around consumers' use of brands as signals of quality and self-identity. In the developing country, results document mediation effects for the use of both quality and self-identity signals on the importance of branded products and global brand purchases. In developed countries, we find that the importance of branded products is explained by a greater use of brands as self-identity signals, whereas purchases of global brands are explained by a greater use of quality signals. Overall, consumers with a stronger belief in GCGB are more likely to use brands as symbolic signals and to express their identity through brands, and consumer use of global brands as quality signals provides a distinct competitive advantage to global brands in both developed and developing countries.     

An investigation of skill requirements for business and data analytics positions: A content analysis of job advertisements

Presently, analytics degree programs exhibit a growing trend to meet a strong market demand. To explore the skill sets required for analytics positions, the authors examined a sample of online job postings related to professions such as business analyst (BA), business intelligence analyst (BIA), data analyst (DA), and data scientist (DS) using content analysis. They present a ranked list of relevant skills belonging to specific skills categories for the studied positions. Also, they conducted a pairwise comparison between DA and DS as well as BA and BIA. Overall, the authors observed that decision making, organization, communication, and structured data management are key to all job categories. The analysis shows that technical skills like statistics and programming skills are in most demand for DAs. The analysis is useful for creating clear definitions with respect to required skills for job categories in the business and data analytics domain and for designing course curricula for this domain.