How career plateau beliefs and leader interpersonal unfairness harm job performance in dysfunctional organizational settings

Building on social exchange theory and attribution theory, this study unpacks the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational politics and job performance, considering the mediating effect of career plateau beliefs and the moderating effect of leader interpersonal unfairness. The findings provide empirical support for the theoretical predictions. An important reason for which perceptions of dysfunctional organizational politics reduce job performance is that employees develop beliefs that opportunities for their career development are limited. This mediating role of career plateau beliefs is particularly salient to the extent that employees are exposed to organizational leaders who treat them with disrespect. Organizations can mitigate the risk that highly politicized decision-making processes lead to negative performance outcomes by stimulating fair interpersonal relationships.     

Place Matters: (Dis)embeddedness and Child Labourers’ Experiences of Depersonalized Bullying in Indian Bt Cottonseed Global Production Networks

Journal of Business Ethics - Engaging Polanyi’s embeddedness–disembeddedness framework, this study explored the work experiences of Bhil children employed in Indian Bt cottonseed GPNs....     

On minimizing the welfare cost of fiscal policy: evidence from South Asia

This study evaluates whether India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka minimized the welfare cost of their fiscal policies? For this purpose it tests tax smoothing hypothesis and finds that there is a weak tax smoothing in Pakistan and Sri Lanka whilst fiscal policy in India has not been conducted in an optimal fashion in accordance with the predictions of the hypothesis. The difference in results is due to difference in budget deficits as the deficits of Pakistan and Sri Lanka are higher as compare to India so they are careful to reduce volatility in budget deficits by trying to keep close correspondence between taxes and expenditures while India, with comparatively less deficit, was more careful regarding its debt. Therefore, to minimize the cost a close correspondence between permanent expenditure and taxes are required. In this context the best policy option would be an initiation of prompt action program of tax base expansions and expenditure rationalization.     

Does the Linder effect hold for differentiated agri-food and beverage product trade?

Using a generalized gravity equation, this study tests for the Linder effect in differentiated agri-food product trade, i.e. as the demand structures of two countries become more similar, their trade intensity increases. Two proxies of demand structure, the Balassa index and the absolute value of the difference in per capita Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) of trading partners, are used to capture the Linder effect. In addition, two measures of bilateral trade, the Grubel and Lloyd (GL) index, and the value of bilateral trade are used as the dependent variable. This study investigates the role of the Linder effect in explaining the trade of 37 differentiated agri-food and beverage products categorized into eight product groups: cereals, fresh fish, frozen fish, vegetables, fresh fruit, processed fruit, tea and coffee and alcoholic beverages. The data covers trade across 52 developed and developing countries from 1990 to 2000. The type of proxy used for the Linder effect and the way in which bilateral trade is measured influence the outcome of the statistical tests for the Linder effect. The Linder effect for cereals, frozen fish, vegetables, processed fruits and tea and coffee, using the value of trade as the dependent variable, is often accepted, but it is generally rejected when the GL index is used as the measure of trade intensity. In brief, the results do not provide strong support for the Linder effect in the trade of differentiated agri-food products.     

Customer motivations for sustainable consumption: Investigating the drivers of purchase behavior for a green‐luxury car

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of status motivation on customers' purchase intention of a green‐luxury car associated with owning a green‐luxury car, and whether materialism and horizontal–vertical individualism/collectivism moderate this relationship. The quantitative research methodology using online survey technique was used to collect cross‐cultural data from respondents (507) from China and Germany. Purposive sampling technique was used to identify and collect data from current and prospective customers of the BMW brand. Collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results demonstrated that materialism and cultural value (horizontal–vertical collectivism and vertical individualism) can serve as moderators of the effects of status motivation and purchase intention of the green‐luxury car. Although some studies have explored the factors involved in customer purchasing behaviour for green‐luxury products, our results theoretically and empirically show that materialism, vertical individualism, horizontal collectivism, and vertical collectivism enhance the positive effects of status motivation on customer purchasing behaviour for a green‐luxury car.     

Forecasting the Dynamics of the Depletion of Conventional Energy Resources

The paper presents the results of forecasting the dynamics of the depletion of conventional energy resources, including hydrocarbons (coal, oil, natural gas) and natural uranium, which currently form the mainstay of the energy supply of the economy. A balance model developed by the authors shows the dynamics of the growing shortage of exhaustible conventional energy resources after 2040 at various energy-consumption rates. For the time being, it is unclear which nonconventional primary energy sources are able to supply advanced commercially acceptable fast-growing energy systems (including capital investment) in order to equalize the rapidly growing primary energy shortages expected in the 1940s. The most advanced energy technology with almost unlimited resources that has reached the near-commercial stage of development can be nuclear fuel breeding.     

Linking Customer Engagement to Trust and Word-of-Mouth on Facebook Brand Communities: An Empirical Study

Given the rise of social networking sites, particularly Facebook, companies have started engaging with customers in this newly emerged digital space. This study explores the role of customer engagement in enhancing trust and word-of-mouth on brand communities over Facebook. The effect of customer involvement on customer engagement is also checked. This study also investigates the direct relationship of customer involvement with trust and word-of-mouth. A pen-and-paper questionnaire survey of 450 Facebook account holder students was used. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results reveal that a higher level of involvement with the brand community leads to a higher level of customer engagement. Customer engagement leads to customer trust and word-of-mouth activities. The results further suggest a direct positive relationship of customer involvement with trust and word-of-mouth, but the mediation of customer engagement strengthens the mentioned effect.     

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: SKILL TRANSFERENCE THROUGH A REVERSAL OF 'HUMAN CAPITAL FLIGHT' OR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Abstract.  We examine the issue of technical assistance versus brain drain repatriation as alternative strategies for transferring scarce skills to a skill-poor economy. Technical assistance relies mainly on expatriate skills and labour from the host country, while brain drain repatriation seeks to effect a return of skills that might have been lost in migration. We show that, even in the simplest setting with imperfect information, a surprisingly rich menu of responses is obtained.     

Meeting basic needs: An overview

This paper summarizes some of the main issues related to the World Bank's basic-needs oriented lending programme. In particular, based on country experience it discusses the lessons learned with regard to sectoral policies and programming for their basic needs and their implications for future lending.