Celebrity altruism: the good,the bad and the ugly in relationships with fundraising charities

• Enlisting or retaining the support of celebrity volunteers is a crucial element in the fundraising and communications strategies for many third sector organisations. But whilst there is a plethora of literature on volunteer motivations, there has been little exploration of the relationships between celebrity volunteers and the charities that they support. Furthermore, the limited theory that exists appears to be based on the experiences of fundraisers and other media specialists with little primary research on attitudes of celebrities themselves. This paper therefore considers celebrity/charity relationships on the basis of existing volunteer motivation theory and attitudinal data from a sample of 208 celebrity volunteers associated with a major fundraising charity in the UK. The findings indicate that the motivation of celebrity volunteers may be much closer to those of other charity volunteers than might be expected from other literature on celebrities. In addition, the study found that amongst other factors, celebrity volunteers typically prefer their engagements to be simplistic and expedient in nature, but that where possible, the engagement activity should be fun and rewarding. It also reveals that individual motives for supporting charities are varied in nature and range from purely altruistic tendencies at one end of the continuum to egoistic motives at the other. In addition, the study indicates that factors such as security and trust in the endorsed organisation are a key motivating factor for many.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beating the market with a bad predictive model

It is a common misconception that in order to make consistent profits as a trader, one needs to possess some extra information leading to an asset value estimation that is more accurate than that reflected by the current market price. While the idea makes intuitive sense and is also well substantiated by the widely popular Kelly criterion, we prove that it is generally possible to make systematic profits with a completely inferior price-predicting model. The key idea is to alter the training objective of the predictive models to explicitly decorrelate them from the market. By doing so, we can exploit inconspicuous biases in the market maker’s pricing, and profit from the inherent advantage of the market taker. We introduce the problem setting throughout the diverse domains of stock trading and sports betting to provide insights into the common underlying properties of profitable predictive models, their connections to standard portfolio optimization strategies, and the commonly overlooked advantage of the market taker. Consequently, we prove the desirability of the decorrelation objective across common market distributions, translate the concept into a practical machine learning setting, and demonstrate its viability with real-world market data.     

Herding in the bad times: The 2008 and COVID-19 crises

The objective of this paper is to analyze the imitation behavior of investors in especially convulsed periods, such as the 2008 financial crisis and the recent global pandemic, both of which could affect investors' emotions and behavior, although both have different characteristics and might have different implications. The cross-sectional dispersion of returns is used to measure the level of herding in the markets of Spain and Portugal, using a survivorship-bias-free dataset of daily stock returns during the period January 2000–May 2021, in turn divided into several sub-periods classified as pre-2008 crisis, 2008 crisis, post-2008 crisis, Covid-19 and post Covid-19. Additionally, the existence is studied of differences between days of positive and negative returns, or between days of high volatility compared to the rest, and whether the cross-sectional dispersion of returns in one market is affected by the cross-sectional dispersion of returns in the other market. The results indicate that herding appears with greater intensity in periods prior to the crisis, disappearing during the financial crisis and reappearing, although with less intensity, after it, while it is not generally detected in Covid-19 times. However, herding behavior can be observed in the market during the pandemic on high volatility days.     

The delivery of bad news: An integrative review and path forward

Managing the delivery of bad news is a crucial component of effective human resource management. However, the diversity of contexts in which this phenomenon has been studied has made it difficult to develop a consolidated theoretical and practical understanding of bad news delivery. Using an interdisciplinary integrative review (N = 685), we critically analyze how bad news delivery has been conceptualized as well as what interdisciplinary theoretical insights and practical guidance can be offered. Beyond identifying key challenges in the extant literature, we also provide a path forward by showcasing key opportunities, including how conceptualizing bad news delivery as a dialectic process that unfolds over time can further enhance theoretical insights and practical guidance for effectively managing bad news delivery in the workplace.     

Managing the good and bad of looking to others: The use of proxies for self-assessment

Employees often compare themselves to the actions and performance of others in order to understand their relative standing and assess their likelihood of succeeding at future tasks. The challenge, however, is that managerial advice for facilitating informative comparisons is sparse. Accordingly, this article adopts the viewpoint that managers need to better understand how to facilitate useful comparisons between employees in order help them attain success. We provide suggestions that help managers direct employees in ways that develop their self-efficacy and assist with their goal attainment.     

An empirical investigation of the antecedents,behaviors, and outcomes of bad leadership

This exploratory study identifies actions and behaviors that subordinates attribute to bad leadership and explores the implications these factors have for organizations. Data were obtained through a Web‐based survey that generated 335 respondents who completed at least some of the questions. Results identified the prevalence of bad leaders, behaviors causing a leader to be perceived as bad, the impact of bad leaders on the employee and organization, whether these bad leaders had always been bad, and what happened to the bad leader. An interesting discovery was that the majority of bad leaders were either promoted or rewarded by the organization.     

"以存代贷"巨额存款变坏账

编者按 审计人员在某电力集团财务公司进行审计时发现,该财务公司信贷二部原负责人吴某擅自决定,以"以存代贷"的方式违规贷款给非集团成员单位使用,造成本金7450万元损失.事后,财务公司竟将部分巨额存款作为坏账修销.日前,监察部、审计署、银监会等部门已经组成联合调查组,对此案展开调查.     

The limits of generalizability: Why good theory can have bad outcomes

Generalizability is the goal for scientists (both social and natural). In the social sciences invoking generalizability is more problematic as it is often based on assessment of a mainstream population, but may not apply to groups outside of the mainstream. This is a significant challenge to developing appropriate policy and interventions suitable for Other groups. An example is given of how this concern was overcome through consideration of the Voice Of the Customer (VOC) and utilizing cognitive maps to consider the challenge of diabetes in two Canadian First Nations Communities. An understanding of the limits to generalizability is important in cases where cultural, geographical, or political differences exist. This is not only an important consideration for practitioners in search of successful interventions, but also academics trying to understand and contribute to knowledge in a variety of fields; including the diffusion and adoption of innovation.     

America's worst charities: The effect of bad press on philanthropic giving behavior

Negative media stories about nonprofits can potentially lead to decreased financial donations. We used agenda setting theory to study donors' perceptions of what could arguably be called one of the most negative nonprofit media stories in recent times: the 2013 Tampa Bay Times report titled “America's worst charities.” This news story identified and ranked America's 50 worst charities based on solicitation (i.e., fundraising) costs and was investigated further by CNN. We surveyed 655 individuals in August 2016 and found that approximately 3 years since the story had aired, 278 (42.4%) of the sample still remembered the news story, and the majority of them reported that it negatively influenced their thinking (63%) and philanthropic donation behavior (62%). These findings have implications for nonprofit media relations and fundraising.     

穿越大师的丛林——“与大师同行”五年回顾

中国模式是个具有争议的论题!有人认为不存在所谓的中国模式,也有人却深入探讨和研究中国模式,更多的人是将中国模式放在宏观层面,从体制角度进行解读。我们无意如此宏观的解读,因为我们更关注促成中国改革开放三十年巨变的基本力量——那些曾不入流的民营企业,特别是那些成为中国经济躯体中数量最庞大的群体——成长型民营企业。     

关于企业不良资产的构成和计算

■究竟什么是不良资产?企业的不良资产由哪几项构成?不良资产指标又如何计算?这既是一个理论问题,更是一个实践问题。     

How motivation,opportunity, and ability drive knowledge sharing: The constraining-factor model

We introduce and empirically test a theoretical metamodel that explains knowledge-sharing behavior among employees. Building on the well-established motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA) framework, we posit that knowledge sharing among employees is a function of their MOA to do so. Existing literature suggests that the interaction among motivation, opportunity, and ability drives knowledge-sharing behavior. In contrast, we specify a new model in which the “bottleneck” or constraining factor among the MOA variables determines the degree of knowledge sharing that occurs. This constraining-factor model (CFM) fits the data better than the traditional multiplicative model and reveals a new, qualitatively different portrait of knowledge sharing that resolves some of the puzzles in the previous literature. The CFM provides macro-level insights with respect to how operations managers can improve employee knowledge sharing by focusing on the bottleneck MOA variable. As a result, the CFM can help set strategic directions of related policies. The model emphasizes that, counter to conventional wisdom, the MOA variables should not be addressed independently, but rather in a dynamic and coordinated way.     

The German model of industrial relations at the crossroads: past,present and future

This article examines the pressures for reform in the German model of industrial relations, with particular emphasis on the sectoral bargaining system. It assesses if, how and to what extent the German model with its proven track record should be reformed. The article advocates a reform path within the parameters of the excisting system in order to strike subtle balance between stability and change.     

The dynamic invariant multinomial probit model: Identification,pretesting and estimation

We present a new specification for the multinomial multiperiod probit model with autocorrelated errors. In sharp contrast with commonly used specifications, ours is invariant with respect to the choice of a baseline alternative for utility differencing. It also nests these standard models as special cases, allowing for data-based selection of the baseline alternatives for the latter. Likelihood evaluation is achieved under an Efficient Importance Sampling (EIS) version of the standard GHK algorithm. Several simulation experiments highlight identification, estimation and pretesting within the new class of multinomial multiperiod probit models.     

A model of the metropolis: The development of an urban activity location model for Jos, Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria

Planning experience emphasizes the testing of alternative strategies and the analysis of the results as an important aspect of structure planning. Unfortunately, this is yet to be incorporated in the planning methodologies of developing countries. A way of doing this is to develop currently successful models in such environments. Consequently a Lowry-type model developed within the entropy maximizing methodology was calibrated for the city of Jos, Nigeria. Apart from the inadequacies of some categories of data, the model and its results display very stimulating results that could be used in extending the formulation into a predictive framework in such a way that such models would provide concerted attempts at the creation of liveability in cities.     

Contests with multiple alternative prizes: Public-good/bad prizes and externalities

We study contests in which there are multiple alternative public-good/bad prizes, and the players compete, by expending irreversible effort, over which prize to have awarded to them. Each prize may be a public good for some players and a public bad for the others, and the players expend their effort simultaneously and independently. We first prove the existence of a pure-strategy Nash equilibrium of the game, then establish when the total effort level expended for each prize is unique across the Nash equilibria, and then summarize and highlight other interesting and important properties of the equilibria. Finally, we discuss the effects of heterogeneity of valuations on the players’ equilibrium effort levels and a possible extension of the model.     

Why statutory union recognition is bad labour policy:the North American experience

The proposed British legislation is modelled on that of the United States which has been a clear failure in its stated goal of encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining (Adams, 1993). It has instead perpetuated a culture of labour-management animosity that many other nations have 113been able, to their benefit, to overcome (Adams, 1995c).     

The Candy model: properties and inference

In this paper we study the Candy model, a marked point process introduced by S toica et al. (2000) . We prove Ruelle and local stability, investigate its Markov properties, and discuss how the model may be sampled. Finally, we consider estimation of the model parameters and present a simulation study.