Does the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission make a difference? An assessment of its first decade

In 1972 the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was given the mandate of protecting the U.S. public against unreasonable risks of injury associated with consumer products. Pooled cross-sectional time-series data from 1961 to 1982 on states' accidental home death rates are used to examine how effective the CPSC has been. This evaluation controls for several relevant historical forces (besides the CPSC) which may have contributed to fluctuations in the accidental home death rate. The results indicate that after controlling for those exogenous factors for which there are data, the CPSC reduced accidental home deaths by an estimated 17,941 over its first ten years of operation.     

How Large is the ChinaMarket?An Analysis by Chinese Experts

OnehastosubdueChinabeforeheconquerstheworldisamenacingsloganputforwardattheFOrtuneGlobalForumheldinthesecondhalfofSeptember1999inShanghaiChina.ThechiefthemesoftheforumwereThesituationoftherisingChineseconsumermarbet,ExportstOChin4,,FormulatingaChinastrategyforyourcompanyandtomordayandtomorrowoftheChinesesecuritiesmarket.Theyconveyedsuchinformalnon:EnterpreneursaroundtheworldareconcernedaboutandattachgreatimportancetoChina,withitsvastterritorybigpopulationandmanybusinessopportunit…     

How Does FDI Affect Productivity at Home?: Evidence from a Plant-Level Analysis

This study investigates the effect of foreign direct investments (FDI) on home productivity using plant-level data rather than firm-level data. Our results are consistent with the theoretical predictions. Horizontal FDI (HFDI) does not have a significantly positive effect on home productivity in plants that have the same activities abroad. In contrast, vertical FDI (VFDI) significantly enhances productivity in plants with an input–output relationship with activities relocated abroad. Furthermore, focusing on FDI in East Asia, the productivity improvements at home through VFDI are even greater, which might be caused by significant differences in factor prices between Japan and host countries.     

How Important Are CEOs to CSR Practices? An Analysis of the Mediating Effect of the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility

Drawing on the Agency–Stewardship approach, which suggests that manager profile may range from the agent model to the steward model, this article aims to examine how important CEOs are to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Specifically, this exploratory study proposes the existence of a relationship between manager profile and CSR practices and that this relation is mediated by the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility. After applying a mediated regression analysis using survey information collected from 149 CEOs in Spain, results show that those closer to the steward model are more inclined to attach great importance to ethics and social responsibility, and to implement CSR practices in their companies. Results also provide support for the suggested mediating effect. Thus, this article extends research in understanding top managers as drivers for CSR and suggests new ways to deal with this issue empirically.     

Does Psychological Contract Violation Moderate the Impact of Severity and Recovery Satisfaction on Boycott? An Analysis of Halal Violation

Halal violation is a critical issue in the Islamic market, but little is known on its impact on the Muslim consumer. Thus, this study investigates the effect of psychological contract violation (PCV), recovery satisfaction, and severity of halal violation on product boycott. The moderating role of PCV in the relationship between recovery satisfaction and seriousness of a violation on the product boycott is also examined. Data collected from a sample of 360 customers were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results show that recovery satisfaction, severity, and PCV significantly influence product boycott and PCV significantly moderates the relationship between recovery satisfaction and product boycott. This study provides new insights into the relationships among recovery satisfaction, the severity of the halal violation, psychological contract violation, and product boycott and helps the managers to design recovery action toward halal violation.     

How Does the Largest Shareholder Affect Dividends?

Focusing on the legal protection of minority shareholders in Japan, which suggests that manager‐owned firms are better governed than corporation‐owned firms, this study presents a new test of two dividend models: the substitute model and the outcome model. In support of the latter, I find that manager‐owned firms pay higher dividends than corporation‐owned firms. The paper also examines the association between ownership by the largest shareholder and dividend payments. I find an inverted U‐shaped relationship for manager‐owned firms and a U‐shaped relationship for corporation‐owned firms between them. These results can be explained by the benefits and drawbacks of concentrated ownership.     

Does the EU need a tax of its own?

The demand has been raised in various quarters recently that the EU should have a tax of its own. What are the reasons behind this demand? And what are the arguments of its opponents?     

How Much Does Wealth Matter in the Acquisition of Financial Literacy?

The acknowledged widespread lack of financial literacy casts serious doubts on the ability of individuals to make financial decisions. Some studies suggest that financial experience can affect financial knowledge and that household financial wealth can be a factor leading to the acquisition of financial literacy. This article investigated the determinants of financial literacy using the 2006 wave of the Italian survey on household income and wealth. Empirical results indicated that wealth has a positive but small effect on the degree of financial knowledge.     

Does and How Does Globalisation Matter at the Industry Level?

In this paper we develop a concept of globalisation at the micro level defined as the exposure of a productivity follower industry in one country to the productivity leader in another country. Globalisation is measured by the intensity of contacts through trade and foreign direct investment. In a simple model and empirically we show that the exposure of a productivity follower to competition with the leader is highly correlated with the productivity gap of this industry. Competition restricted to one region such as Europe, or North America, or the Far East, is not sufficient to achieve highest productivity levels. Moreover, it turns out that foreign direct investment (FDI) has a weight in the globalisation index at least equal to trade. FDI can contribute directly to higher levels of domestic productivity by transferring the best production practices, and put pressure on other domestic producers to improve. The impact of trade on globalisation can be weakened by tariffs and non‐tariffs.     

Does Brain Drain Lead to Institutional Gain?

A country's endowment of human capital affects its institutions through various channels. This raises the possibility that skilled emigration can leave its mark on a country's institutional development. We explore the impact of emigrant human capital on home country's institutional quality. Using geographical and genetic distance‐based instrumental variables for emigration and a dynamic panel estimation method, we find that human capital emigration helps the home country's political institutions, but hurts economic institutions. The conventional ‘brain drain’ argument, therefore, needs to incorporate the institutional changes due to skilled labour emigration.     

Does corporate advertising work in a crisis? An examination of inoculation theory

The primary purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework of consumer evaluation of corporate advertising in a corporate crisis. It also suggests future research propositions by investigating how the so-called inoculation effect from pre-crisis corporate advertising influences consumer response to corporate advertising during a crisis. First, the paper describes how the inoculation effect confers resistance to negative news in a corporate crisis. Next, the paper determines whether the inoculation effect further reduces consumer resistance to corporate advertising during a crisis. Other factors that figure into the broader context of corporate crises are then discussed. These include four other types of external impacts on a crisis situation – the crisis, the corporation, the media, and individual differences. The article concludes with implications for research and practice.     

Does Religion Affect the Materialism of Consumers? An Empirical Investigation of Buddhist Ethics and the Resistance of the Self

This paper investigates the effects of Buddhist ethics on consumers’ materialism, that is, the propensity to attach a fundamental role to possessions. The literature shows that religion and religiosity influence various attitudes and behaviors of consumers, including their ethical beliefs and ethical decisions. However, most studies focus on general religiosity rather than on the specific doctrinal ethical tenets of religions. The current research focuses on Buddhism and argues that it can tame materialism directly, similar to other religions, and through the specific Buddhist ethical doctrines of the Four Immeasurables: compassion, loving kindness, empathetic joy, and equanimity. The empirical results show the following: (1) Buddhism reduces materialism directly and through some of the Four Immeasurables, and (2) despite the doctrine of non-existence of the self, positive emotions toward the self are still present, and the self absorbs the effects of Buddhist ethics on materialism. The latter finding suggests a “resistance of the self” that is coherent with the idea of a consumer who leverages the self to go beyond it.     

How Does the Market Value Corporate Sustainability Performance?

This study provides empirical evidence on how corporate sustainability performance (CSP), as proxied by membership of the Dow Jones sustainability index, is reflected in the market value of equity. Using a theoretical framework combining institutional perspectives, stakeholder theory, and resource-based perspectives, we develop a set of hypotheses that relate the market value of equity to CSP. For a sample of North American firms, our preliminary results show that CSP has significant explanatory power for stock prices over the traditional summary accounting measures such as earnings and book value of equity. However, further analyses suggest that we should not focus on corporate sustainability itself. Our findings suggest that what investors really do is to penalize large profitable firms with low level of CSP. Firms with incentives to develop a high level of CSP not engaging on such strategy are, thus, penalized by the market.     

Search: An Expense or an Experience? Exploring the Influence of Search on Product Return Intentions

Prepurchase information search may be viewed as an expense and/or an experience. The authors argue that theory is unclear in explaining the effect of each form of search on a consumer's ultimate product return intentions. Alternative hypotheses are developed in relation to core theory that predict inconsistent effects of search upon both product satisfaction and return intentions. Results ultimately suggest that a consumer's investment in search that is viewed as an expense weakens satisfaction with a product, while prompting return intentions. Conversely, search viewed as an experience heightens satisfaction and diminishes return intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.     

How Can Business Ethics Strengthen the Social Cohesion of a Society?

The essay aims to show how business ethics—understood as a three-level approach—can strengthen the social cohesion of a society, which is jeopardized today in many ways. In the first part, the purpose of business and the economy is explained as the creation of wealth defined as a combination of private and public wealth that includes natural, economic, human, and social capital. Special emphasis is placed on the implications of the creation of public wealth which requires institutions other than the market and motivations other than self-regarding ones. In the second part, the question of what holds a society together is discussed through different approaches: enlightened self-interest, a new game-theoretical approach, and the concept of the common good advanced by Catholic Social Teaching, followed by my own proposal. The third part presents several perspectives for business ethics to strengthen social cohesion of a society (a) by focusing on the purpose of business and the economy to create natural, economic, human, and social capital; (b) by advancing public goods that stand the test of ethical scrutiny; and (c) by securing human rights conceptualized as public goods.     

Does the Product Really Matter? A Look at Mainstream Pro-Environmental Consumption Behavior

The overall objective of this article is to determine if the product matters in determining willingness to pay for pro-environmental products compared to non-pro-environmental products through experimental design. Ultimately, this research aims to use a posteriori or behavioral segmentation approach to cluster consumers using the price collected through a controlled auction experiment they would actually pay to purchase a pro-environmental product as opposed to a non-pro-environmental product, as well as profiling each segment according to (a) perceived product benefits; (b) values; (c) perceived consequences of purchase behavior; and (d) demographics based on self-reported survey data.     

Does a weak Euro signify poor competitiveness of the Euro zone?

The pronounced decline in the euro’s exchange rate since the currency’s launch at the start of 1999, especially against the US dollar, has rekindled the discussion surrounding the competitiveness of the euro zone. This marks quite a shift of focus within just a short period. When the new monetary union came into being, the emphasis was on the increased significance of the corresponding economic zone, given its economic muscle and its prominent position on world markets. This was taken to indicate that the EMU economies were highly competitive. On the other hand, the drop in the euro’s value since its launch is said by many to reflect a poor competitive position. This article will examine some possible explanations for the depreciation of the euro against the dollar, focussing on the competitiveness of the euro zone, particularly relative to the USA, by applying selected indicators.