Personality in context: effective traits for expatriate managers at different levels

The purpose of this article is to assess how management level as a contextual factor interacts with personal characteristics in predicting expatriate performance. In particular, we focused on proactive personality (the individual’s disposition to change the organizational environment) and self-control (the individual’s disposition to change oneself to fit the organizational environment). Surveying 307 business expatriate managers in China, we hypothesized that in relation to work outcomes, the effect of proactive personality would be stronger for CEOs while the effect of self-control would be stronger for non-CEOs. We found both proactive personality and self-control to have favorable effects on our performance indicators: job performance, effectiveness, and time to proficiency. In line with our prediction, we also found the effect of proactive personality on job performance to be stronger for CEO expatriates while the effect of self-control on performance was stronger for non-CEO expatriate managers.     

Social norms in repeated public good games

The paper explores the relationship between an individual’s preference for cooperation and the establishment of cooperative norms. Our aim is to provide an experimental test of the hypothesis (Fehr and Gachter, 2002) according to which the individuals’ willingness to punish defectors in social dilemma games favours the establishment of a common rule of behaviour leading to increased levels of cooperation. We conduct two experiments in which individuals decide both whether to participate in a common project and the institutional rules determining how the profits of the project were to be shared among the participants in the group. Our main question is to analyse whether high contributors react to free riding behaviour by adopting punitive sanctions. We also interview our subjects in order to elicit their opinions on civic values and free riding behaviour. Our results partly contradict the initial hypothesis; however, with reference to the institutional choices, we find that individual ethics may play an important role.     

Innovation and growth: supply and demand factors in the recent US expansion

It is widely held that the social-economic context of the US,characterised by labour market flexibility and deregulationof product and capital markets, lies at the basis of the innovativecapacity displayed by the country's productive system in the1990s, thus accounting for the growth differential with Europe.Starting from a different interpretative model of innovationand growth, the paper focuses on both supply (institutionaland technological) and demand factors. It is argued that, whentheir interaction is taken into account, there is no strongevidence that more deregulated labour and product markets areamong the factors allowing for US growth. In accordance withthe view that there is no single road to innovation and growth,this leaves room for the exploration and implementation of policiesthat might reconcile innovation and growth with safeguards suchas those provided by Europe's social institutions.     

Fundraising,social media and tourism in American symphony orchestras and opera houses

Business Economics - The multiple segmentation of audiences and stakeholders is as essential to the survival of American symphony orchestras and opera houses as is revenue diversification....     

INCOME AND WEALTH OVER THE LIFE CYCLE EVIDENCE FROM PANEL DATA

In this paper we examine household wealth and income in the Netherlands using data from the Socio Economic Panel (SEP) in the period 1987–89. We provide an evaluation of the quality of the data and some simple statistics which describe the behavior of wealth, saving, and income over the life cycle. We find there is substantial heterogeneity in the behavior of households, and wealth holdings vary substantially even among the same age group. By exploiting the panel feature of the SEP, we derive saving from first differencing wealth. We find that a sizeable fraction of households do not dissave when old and we find some evidence in favor of the bequest motive.     

Knowledge,innovation, and control towards accountability: a comparative case study

This paper deepens the countervailing relationship between control and innovation in highly innovative networks. It adopts a middle range theory perspective [Broadbent and Laughlin, 2013. Accounting Control and Controlling Accounting: Interdisciplinary and Critical Perspectives. 1st ed. Bingley: Emerald Group] integrated with the quintuple helix model (Carayannis and Campbell, 2010. “Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix and Quintuple Helix and How Do Knowledge, Innovation and the Environment Relate To Each Other?.” International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development 1 (1): 41–69] to explore how control and innovation interact and shape each other in the contexts of high complexity and intensive knowledge creation, towards the satisfaction of accountability demands by stakeholders. The research relies upon two case studies and reveals what are the factors positively shaping the interaction between innovation and control towards greater accountability. We document that successful changes are facilitated by the implementation of adequate and innovative informal control devices favouring collaborative relationships, reinforcing innovation and shared knowledge and capabilities within the organisation. The findings are relevant to all complex settings involved in multifaceted processes of producing knowledge and innovation.     

Financial Literacy Skills for the 21st Century: Evidence from PISA

I am delighted to be asked to give the Colston Warne Lecture at the American Council on Consumer Interests annual conference. What I want to cover in this lecture is what I consider to be one of the most important topics for consumers: financial literacy. This topic is particularly important for the young, and in this lecture, I will describe the findings from the first international survey on financial literacy among high school students: the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). I am honored to chair the financial literacy expert group that designed the financial literacy assessment in PISA. Our journey to design that assessment included meetings in many countries and lasted for several years. It is one of the works I have enjoyed the most. I hope the findings from PISA will be a catalyst for changes in education policies, including adding financial literacy to school curricula.     

R&D team diversity and performance in hypercompetitive environments

Research summary : This article examines the effects of an R&D team's composition on its performance outcomes in hypercompetition. The fundamental feature of firms in hypercompetitive settings is that they are constantly challenged to improve their competitiveness in a relentless race to outperform one another. Analyzing a unique data set from the Formula 1 motorsport racing industry, we find an inverse U‐shaped relationship between team diversity in task‐related experience and performance an important result that diverges from well‐established theories developed in more stable environments. Fundamentally, we show that the role of R&D team experience diversity varies depending on the size of the organizations in which R&D teams operate. While we find a moderating effect for firm age, this effect is not as robust as that of firm size. Managerial summary : This article examines the relationship between R&D team composition and performance in fast‐moving environments. Firms in these environments are constantly challenged to improve their competitiveness by outperforming one another. Analyzing a unique data set from the Formula 1 motorsport racing industry, we find that a team's diversity in job‐related experience increases its performance up to a certain extent. Once R&D teams become too diverse, performance decreases because communication and coordination become more difficult. We also show that the role of R&D team diversity varies depending on the size of the organizations in which R&D teams operate. Overall, our findings provide several novel implications for the strategy, innovation, and team literatures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.