Corporate Communication or McCommunication? Considering a McDonaldization of Corporate Communication Hypothesis

In this essay the perspective of Ritzer's McDonaldization of Society Thesis is the starting point for developing hypotheses about corporate communication (CorpCom). The central idea of McDonaldization is that increasing numbers of organizations are run as fast food restaurants, focusing on: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control of people. That produces a form of rationality that becomes irrational. It is hypothesized that CorpCom is an ally of McDonaldization and the more the principles of McDonaldization are applied the more McDonaldized CorpCom becomes. This “McCommunication” could be less effective in gaining identification, support and trust from stakeholders than non-McDonaldized CorpCom.     

Forecasting equity returns: The role of commodity futures along the supply chain

This paper examines equity return predictability using the returns of commodity futures along the supply chain in China's financial market. We find that a considerable number of commodities exhibit significant in‐sample forecasting ability at the daily horizon, especially for supplier‐side equity returns. The macroeconomic risk premium effect, captured by the aggregate commodity prices, is an important source for this predictability. The out‐of‐sample results show that for most commodities, the predictability remains both statistically and economically significant, and the forecasting performance improves substantially during recessions or with economic constraints.     

Assessing credit quality from the equity market: can a structural approach forecast credit ratings?

We investigate the empirical performance of default probability prediction based on Merton's (1974) structural credit risk model. More specifically, we study if distance‐to‐default is a sufficient statistic for the equity market information concerning the credit quality of the debt‐issuing firm. We show that a simple reduced form model outperforms the Merton (1974) model for both in‐sample fitting and out‐of‐sample predictability for credit ratings, and that both can be greatly improved by including the firm's equity value as an additional variable. Moreover, the empirical performance of this hybrid model is very similar to that of the simple reduced form model. As a result, we conclude that distant‐to‐default alone does not adequately capture the firm's credit quality information from the equity market. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Brand extension naming strategies: An exploratory study of the impact of brand traits

When a known brand extends into a product category that involves sophisticated and state-of-the-art technology, consumers face uncertainty and perceive a financial risk when considering the extension for purchase. This study explores how the brand's perceived expertise in the extension category and various brand traits (predictability, dependability, and faith) affect that consideration decision and how these interact with particular extension naming strategies (direct versus brand-bridging). Exploratory results from a field study give three insights. First, a consumer's faith in a brand appears to improve the extension consideration independent of what naming strategy is adopted. Second, brands with good predictability seem to benefit only by using a direct naming strategy in the brand extension. Third, a perceived lack of expertise appears to reduce the extension consideration even when a brand-bridging strategy is adopted. A discussion of these insights and their implications is provided.     

The Roles of Cultural Elements in International Retailing of Cultural Products: An Application to the Motion Picture Industry

We investigate factors influencing the international retailing of cultural products by concentrating on two cultural elements: (1) consumer-perceived cultural content embedded in the product and (2) the general cultural environment of the foreign market. To test cross-culture predictability in international retailing, we develop a novel text mining procedure to elicit the specific cultural content of the product using consumers’ online product reviews. In addition, to measure the general cultural environment of the market, we apply Hofstede's cultural distance measure. To explain foreign markets’ acceptance of culturally specific elements, we theorize that the relationship between inter-country cultural distance and product sales is U shaped because of both cultural discount and cultural premium. In our empirical analysis using American movies in international retailing, we find that the two specified types of cultural factors determine a movie's success, along with the movie's characteristics and the market's economic environment. From a managerial perspective, international retailers that understand the delicate implications of the match/mismatch of their general national culture and the imported product's specific cultural content can better predict the international success of imported cultural products.     

How Relationality Shapes Business and Its Ethics

Just as Michael Porter's “five forces” provided a practical analytical tool for describing the forces that shape competitive strategy, so business ethicists ought to provide business leaders with a workable framework for understanding the sources of ethical obligations. The forces that shape competitive strategy vary according to time and industry, but are anchored in an ultimate criteria of profitability. Similarily, ethics can use a set of analytical categories that identify the relevant forces to business ethics on the basis of relationality. This paper first argues that relationality based on naturalism is the primary, plausible value for ethics. Second, it adapts a tripartite dialectic from scholars William Frederick and Michael Novak to describe the relational categories with which business must contend. Third, it uses these forces in a way similar to Porter's competitive forces to offer an analytical language familiar to managers in order to characterize business ethics.     

From reform to neo-regulation: An assessment of recent political/economic developments in Nigeria

The Nigerian political economy was placed on the path of economic and political liberalization from the mid-1980s. About a decade later, both processes had experienced great reversals. This article examines the social forces that are arrayed against the reform processes. It focuses on recent political and economic developments in Nigeria with a view to understanding the nature of the emerging business environment for the purpose of potential investors, international managers, aid agencies, and donor countries in Africa's most populous country. While noting the inevitability of a modicum of regulation in the nation's economic adjustment program, this study contends that the regulatory measures contained in the 1994 budget prepared by the new military junta in Nigeria is stifling investment, and can neither lay the basis for the recovery of, nor engender sustainable development in the nation's economy. A more appropriate management of the exchange and interest rate regimes, and the democratization of the political processes as the minimum prerequisite for stability, growth, and development in the Nigerian political economy is recommended. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Facilitating and restricting a challenger: Patents and standards in the development of the Bull-Knutsen punched card system, 1919–1938

This paper discusses the various ways that patents and standards framed a challenger's opportunities. It recounts the history of the Bull punched card system, both in Norway in the 1920s and France in the 1930s, as it developed and became a challenger to IBM's monopoly. Bull faced the first mover's patents and standards differently. Standards paved the way for the challenger's actions, while patents hampered certain facilities for their duration.     

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) generation in new media platforms: The role of regulatory focus and collective dissonance

In this research, we examine the role of two motivational forces associated with creation of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM): regulatory focus and collective dissonance. Our studies show that generation of eWOM is enhanced by regulatory fit, while traditional WOM is dominated by the negativity effect. In study 1A, we show that prevention-focused consumers produce stronger intentions to post eWOM when they undergo a negative compared to a positive service experience. In study 1B, we find that promotion-focused consumers are more likely to post eWOM in reaction to a positive service experience when one's self-construal is independent. The final study shows that due to collective dissonance, consumers have greater intentions to create eWOM when their experiences are inconsistent with others' postings. We discuss the implications of these results for the development and management of eWOM communication in virtual communities.     

Exploration and exploitation in established small and medium-sized enterprises: The effect of CEOs' regulatory focus

Based on theory of regulatory focus and organizational ambidexterity, we hypothesize that the level of engagement in exploration and exploitation in a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) is affected by the respective CEO's chronic regulatory focus. In our analysis of survey responses from CEOs in Switzerland, we find that the CEO's level of promotion focus positively affects the firm's engagement in both, exploration and exploitation, while the CEO's prevention focus is negatively associated with the firm's exploration but not significantly related to its exploitation. The positive associations between a CEO's promotion focus and the firm's exploration/exploitation activities are enhanced under conditions of intense competition.     

Predictability and interpretability of hybrid link-level crash frequency models for urban arterials compared to cluster-based and general negative binomial regression models

Machine learning (ML) techniques have higher prediction accuracy compared to conventional statistical methods for crash frequency modelling. However, their black-box nature limits the interpretability. The objective of this research is to combine both ML and statistical methods to develop hybrid link-level crash frequency models with high predictability and interpretability. For this purpose, M5′ model trees method (M5′) is introduced and applied to classify the crash data and then calibrate a model for each homogenous class. The data for 1134 and 345 randomly selected links on urban arterials in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina was used to develop and validate models, respectively. The outputs from the hybrid approach are compared with the outputs from cluster-based negative binomial regression (NBR) and general NBR models. Findings indicate that M5' has high predictability and is very reliable to interpret the role of different attributes on crash frequency compared to other developed models.     

Indonesia – Trade Policy Review 2007

This paper examines the 2007 WTO review of Indonesian trade policy. Indonesia undertook a major policy liberalisation in the late 1960s. Serious protectionist pressures emerged in the 1970s but for most of this period, and especially since the mid‐1980s, the economy has remained broadly open. We summarise the WTO report, update some of its analysis, highlight its key findings, and point to some trade policy issues that in our opinion warranted greater attention. The main theme of the paper is that Indonesia is a largely open economy, but that this openness on occasion remains precarious. There are both political economy, rent‐seeking forces opposed to the current openness and, perhaps more importantly, much of the country's influential public opinion is sceptical of the merits of an open economy and deeper global commercial integration. Nor is there a deeply institutionalised support for openness in the country's bureaucracy and polity. Seen from this perspective, a key question to answer is why the country has remained open, particularly since the deep economic and political crises of 1997–98.     

Are business‐to‐business relationships inherently unstable?

The intangible nature of relationships makes for certain difficulties in analysing both “relationships;” themselves and the circumstances in which they might exist. Using an adaptation of Bosiot's I Space, it is suggested that relationships may often effectively be the product offered in business‐to‐business relationships. However, the combination of market forces and the behaviour of managers is identified as the source of the instability of relationships.     

Are green bonds priced lower than their conventional peers?

The green bond market's rapid growth has alerted issuers and investors to this sustainable area of investment. This study ascertains whether green bonds are priced lower than conventional bonds—whether a negative green bond premium exists in both Chinese and global bond markets—and the driving forces behind any such green bond premium. First, an event study is set up to observe stock market's reaction upon issuance of green bonds to test whether green bonds are embedded with additional value by improving the issuer's equity market performance. Then, using the matching method and a two-layer regression process, the study estimates the green bond premium in the Chinese and global markets, respectively, and analyses factors affecting the green bond premium. The event study reveals that green bond issuance could reduce the issuer's equity return performance. The regression models found no significant negative green bond premium in either Chinese or global markets, indicating that green bonds are not priced significantly lower than conventional bonds. However, global market models show that issuing green bonds in CNY could reduce the green bond premium, unlike in USD or EUR.     

Understanding the role of China's domestic market in the (unequal) growth of world economy

This study investigates the rising role of China's domestic market expansion from 1995 to 2011 in the world economy's growth. China maintained high domestic expenditure growth during the entire period, with even bigger increases in the last years, when the global financial crisis and subsequent economic recovery occurred. The expenditures facilitated rapid growth through high demand for durable goods, which are produced across widely fragmented Asian channels. At the same time, China integrated further into the global economy and imported intermediate goods increasingly became embedded in goods for domestic sale. These two forces combined to magnify the impact of China's market expansion on foreign economies but disproportionately more on its neighbouring countries and sectors related to durable goods production. Specifically, our estimates suggest that the expenditure growth in China over the 2009–11 period added about 1 percentage point to the annual GDP growth rate in Taiwan, Malaysia and Korea, while the NAFTA and EU member countries typically benefited by less than 0.1 percentage point.     

Enhancing bank performance through branches or representative offices? Evidence from European banks

We investigate the impact of geographic integration and the level of multinationality by expansion as a foreign branch or representative office on the parent bank performance of 45 European banks during 2000–2007. We use breadth and depth to proxy for the level of multinationality in measuring a parent bank performance. We find that for foreign expansion as a branch, both dimensions (breadth and depth) have a positive impact on a bank's return on assets (ROA). For return on equity (ROE) and Tobin's Q, only depth is positively associated with a bank's ROE while breadth is positively correlated with a bank's Tobin's Q. However, the impact from expansion as a representative office is different; breadth and depth only have a positive impact on bank ROA performance in one of the six models. In terms of cost control, a representative office strategy is better able to control costs than a branching strategy. The model goodness of fit statistics suggest that variables associated with branching better explain the performance variables than similar variables associated with representative offices in terms of profitability. The results are opposite for net interest margin and cost ratio. Overall, our findings suggest that a branching strategy is a more effective strategy in enhancing a bank's profitability while a representative office strategy controls costs better.     

The Effects of Current Market Forces on the Impact of a TV Commercial in Creating Persuasion

Abstract

The present study investigates the extent to which extenuating factors (excluding those produced by the commercial) affect the extent to which an advertisement is both persuasive and eventually engenders persuasion. The authors collected data from over 5,000 television commercials in the United States, and identified the existing market structure (e.g., brand share, number of competing brands, brand loyalty) surrounding each item at the time the product was advertised, in an effort to separate the effects of the advertisement from the effects of pre-existing market forces on persuasiveness. The results demonstrate that the combined pre-existing market forces have a greater impact on a commercial's ability to persuade than does the message or creativity in the advertisement itself. However, when pre-existing market forces between two products were similar, a creative advertising campaign was still identified as important in producing persuasion. Marketing strategy implications are discussed.     

The implied volatility smirk of commodity options

This paper studies the implied volatility (IV) smirks in four commodity markets by adopting Zhang and Xiang's methodology. First, we document the term structure and dynamics of IV smirks. Overall, the commodity IV curves are negatively skewed with a positive curvature. Then we analyze the commodity and S&P 500 returns' predictability based on in‐sample and out‐of‐sample tests and find that the information embedded in IV smirks can significantly predict monthly commodity and S&P 500 returns. For example, the risk‐neutral fourth cumulant (FC) from the crude oil market outperforms all of the standard predictors in predicting the S&P 500 returns.     

Myanmar

Myanmar is one of the few remaining Southeast Asian nations that is seeking to re‐establish itself as an economic force in the region. To achieve this, many of the economic reforms in the 1990s were directed toward the opening up of its economy and allowing the market forces to work. We look at some of the present conditions facing foreign businesses and the unique market of Myanmar. The nation's background, economic conditions, and the market conditions facing both the consumers and businesses are discussed. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Do as You Say,or I Will: Retail signal congruency in buy-online-pickup-in-store and negative word-of-mouth

Buy-online-pickup-instore (BOPIS) services have become an increasingly important part of a retailer's omnichannel strategy. When service failures (e.g., stock-out) occur, consumers may resort to negative word-ofmouth (NWOM) to share their evaluation of the retailer's BOPIS service. While a retailer's service recovery policies (e.g., cross-channel substitution) may help to fulfill its service intent, the extent to which these two signals can improve consumer satisfaction and diminish their NWOM intent remains unknown. Drawing from both service recovery literature and signaling theory, we conducted a series of five experiments and find that the intradimensional congruity of the signal set communicated by the retailer during its BOPIS service process depends on both its operational capability and the consumer's own predilection regarding the product category. These insights collectively indicate that while a retailer's operations need to support service policies to provide a congruous BOPIS service process, substitution policies offered to consumers during the transaction need to consider the extent to which a consumer's purchase decision is hedonic or utilitarian. In turn, this finding suggests that a retailer's category management needs to consider BOPIS substitution in terms of both product assortment and inventory policies.