Do mobile banner ads increase sales? Yes,in the offline channel

Firms allocate increasingly large budgets to mobile banner advertising. Yet, existing research paid only scant attention to the sales effects of mobile banner ads. In this paper, we fill this gap by determining the offline and online sales impact of a large-scale mobile banner advertising campaign. As part of a geographical field experiment, over 3.5 million mobile banner ads were served to a predetermined geographical area. We determine the offline and online sales effects of the mobile banner ad campaign by analyzing twenty months of sales data for regions covering the entire country of the Netherlands. Relying on a difference-in-difference approach and two matching methods, we demonstrate an offline sales increase of around 2%. The online sales effect is not significant. We conclude that firms can use mobile banner advertising to boost offline sales. We find no evidence for cross-channel sales cannibalization.     

Is that website for me?

This study proposes and tests a moderated mediation model for website-self-congruency effects triggered by the visual designs of websites. The model specifies the conditions (i.e. when participants are not involved with the product category) in which website-self-congruency effects emerge, and identifies specific cognitive processes (i.e. generating self-referencing and self-brand connection perceptions) and affective processes (i.e. experiencing positive emotions and browsing enjoyment) that mediate the influence of website-self-congruency effects on attitudes and purchase intentions. The findings of this study support the proposed model and hypotheses, and thereby offer significant implications for research and practice.     

Corporate Social Responsibility: Is it Rewarded by the Corporate Bond Market? A Critical Note

The question of whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a positive impact on firm value has been almost exclusively analysed from the perspective of the stock market. We have therefore investigated the relationship between the valuation of Euro corporate bonds and the standards of CSR of mainly European companies for the first time in this article. Generally, the debt market exhibits a considerable weight for corporate finance, for which reason creditors should basically play a significant role in the transmission of CSR into the valuation of financial instruments. Given that socially responsible firms are often regarded as economically more successful and less risky, they should have lower risk premia. The results of the empirical analysis, however, reveal that based on an extensive data panel the risk premium for socially responsible firms – according to the classification by SAM Group – was ceterius paribus higher than for non-socially responsible companies. However, only one case of the models investigated was weakly significant. Thus, largely the relationship has to be classified as marginal; so CSR has apparently not yet been incorporated into the pricing of corporate bonds.     

What do Airbnb hosts reveal by posting photographs online and how does it affect their perceived trustworthiness?

The use of sellers' personal photographs online is ubiquitous in sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb. This paper addresses two questions. First, what type of personal photos do hosts choose to post on Airbnb? Second, which of the characteristics of their photos affects their perceived trustworthiness? We answer these questions by building a structural equation model of the relation between the characteristics of the photos and the perceived trustworthiness of the hosts. The antecedents of trust in this model were defined based on insights from psychology regarding first impressions. We found that the hosts' visual characteristics (e.g., gender) as revealed in their online photographs affect their perceived trustworthiness both directly and indirectly via attractiveness. We also found that image characteristics, which are not related directly to the traits of the host in the picture (e.g., photograph quality), play a significant role in trust inference. Interestingly, the hosts' choices of their personal photos suggest that they may not be aware of these effects.     

Twitter-marketing in multi-unit restaurants: Is it a viable marketing tool?

The main purpose of the current article is to investigate the status of the usage of Twitter-marketing and to examine the potential factors that impact the usage of Twitter-marketing. The results show that 69.4% of the multi-unit restaurant companies studied use Twitter-marketing and that small restaurants are more likely to utilize Twitter-marketing.     

Do ads that tell a story always perform better? The role of character identification and character type in storytelling ads

The growing use of storytelling as an advertising strategy for brands online poses the question of their relative effectiveness compared to more factual types of ads. In this context, this article focuses on the role of character identification and character type in the effects of narrative transportation that occur from storytelling ads. Using four experimental studies in two different contexts, two brand types, and two character types (human versus animal), the findings present a cautionary tale for the use of storytelling. By generating higher levels of narrative transportation, storytelling video ads can reduce character identification, which results in an overall decrease in positive attitude toward the brand, when using animal characters. These main findings are nuanced in the presence of joyful emotions. Implication for research and practice are discussed.     

Is it up to the industrialised countries to finance the developing countries’ deficits?

Over the past decade the non-oil developing countries’ external debt has shown a more than threefold increase, a trend that may be expected to continue in the foreseeable future. In response to the recipient countries’ changing needs, private lending, their principal source of credit, will have to take different forms involving the creation of new multilateral facilities designed to place a bigger pool of long-term funds at the developing countries’ disposal.     

Does a sustainability risk premium exist where it matters the most?

Using a sample of ESG ratings, we examine the sustainability risk premium for developed and emerging markets between 2015 and 2019-end. Our results show that this premium is not empirically distinguishable in developed equity markets, whilst highly positive in the emerging ones. We further partition the emerging markets to comprehend whether country development and firm size have an impact on the sustainability risk premium. As uncovered, both factors play a significant role in the emergence of the risk premium. Consequently, larger corporations and advanced nations drive sustainability in the emerging markets and thus experience the financial benefits.     

Close to the customer: But is it really a relationship?

Everyone is developing relationships. Customers are being invited to have relationships with telephone companies, banks, auto dealers, airlines, and other suppliers of products and services. Relationship marketing is being touted as an effective strategy to guide companies into the next millennium. Recently there has been widespread reference to relationship marketing in the popular literature, and the concept has been embraced by many companies and organizations. There is little consensus, however, on what the concept means and even less consistency in how it is practised. What is relationship marketing? Practising marketers and articles in the trade press use the term in one way, while authors in academic journals seem often to be referring to something quite different. This paper reviews how the concept has been viewed by marketing authors and draws from social psychology to shed light on the characteristics of relationships. Some insights are drawn from a preliminary analysis of the results of focus group interviews that suggest how consumers describe their relationships with businesses.     

International work experience: Is it really accelerating the way to the management board of MNCs?

International work experience is often claimed to be a prerequisite for managers in an MNC. This paper investigates how international work experience affects those managers who reach upper echelons. Drawing on both human capital theory and elite theory, we argue that stays abroad not only have beneficial, but also adverse effects on managers’ ascent to the top. By analysing the careers of 212 management board members from Germany, we find that once a certain threshold of international work experience is exceeded, being away from home impedes managers’ long-term career advancement. However, it is not only longer stays abroad that show a negative time effect; we are also able to reveal that being in countries with high geographic and cultural distance to the home country significantly decelerates managers’ speed of being appointed to the management board. Our findings demonstrate that conflicting interests exist between MNCs and high potentials who consider an international career. We stress that these conflicts call for being solved in managerial practice.     

Is there a labor shortage?

Business Economics - A panel discusses ongoing and prospective developments in the US labor market. Michael Horrigan points out that job losses in the COVID recession were heavily concentrated...     

Pay Inversion at Universities: Is it Ethical?

This paper examines an important issue facing academia-pay inversion. It discusses how inversion is accompanied by ethical issues including secrecy, moral dilemmas for faculty, honesty, and keeping promises. It then examines this issue from five ethical viewpoints: a legalistic perspective, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, distributive justice, and Kants deontological approach. As part of the discussion, the effect of the moral philosophy on the universitys corporate culture is examined, with attention given to morale and productivity. Finally, alternatives to pay inversion that universities may want to consider are discussed.     

Is mandatory country-of-origin labelling a retrograde step in the long run?

Abstract

There is a strong push from the farming community in Australia to persuade the government to legislate the compulsory display of country-of-origin labelling on retail products. This research examines the label elements considered by grocery shoppers who are inclined to examine the country of manufacture. Shoppers are most likely to consider the brand name when choosing a product, with the odds ratio of taking note of the country of manufacture being the largest for those consumers who scrutinize the name of the product and for those who ascribe the highest importance to the product's country of manufacture. Overt identification as Australian origin, for products without a recognizable brand name, may therefore not be advantageous to Australian producers. Country-of-origin prone shoppers also seek stronger reassurance from other cues on the product label. Shoppers would have to contend with the inevitable higher prices arising from label recomposition and country-of-origin compliance. To what extent increased prices would dampen demand is a moot point.     

Economic Sanctions Against Iran: Is the Third Decade a Charm?

This paper provides background and history of economic sanctions on Iran. Particular attention is paid to the effectiveness of the sanctions and to factors that have mitigated their effectiveness. The United States and other countries have joined in a coalition to impose the sanctions, but it will be difficult to maintain the coalition and get cooperation of nonparticipant countries if there is a major oil price increase. Measures are recommended to reduce this risk and maintain the effectiveness of the sanctions.     

Is it worth it? The rates of return from informal venture capital investments

Despite growing interest in venture capital, there is a paucity of information on the rate of return to these investments and the limited research that is available refers almost entirely to portfolio returns for venture capital funds. The investment returns to business angels have been virtually ignored. This paper provides the first attempt to analyse the returns to informal venture capital investment using data on 128 exited investments from a survey of 127 business angel investors in the UK. The paper finds that the distribution of returns is highly skewed, with 34% of exits at a total loss, 13% at a partial loss or break-even, but with 23% showing an IRR of 50% or above. Trade sales are the main way in which business angels harvest their investments. The median time to exit for successful investments was 4 years. Large investments, large deal sizes involving multiple coinvestors, and management buyouts (MBOs) were most likely to be high-performing investments.     

Cross-channel integration – is it valued by customers?

It has been common for retail companies to use multiple channels simultaneously. However, simultaneous use is only the first step in creating a customer-centric multichannel system that demands channel synergies rather than parallel retail formats. Therefore, the perceived integration of customer-related functions and processes between the channels of multichannel systems is analyzed with respect to its significance for customer loyalty and usage of a multichannel system. Drawing on a sample (n) of 981 customers, the results indicate that linkages between retail channels positively affect customer loyalty and verify the importance of establishing a well-integrated – ‘seamless’ as perceived by the customer – multichannel system.