What Makes a New Business Start-Up Successful?

This paper seeks a good measure of new business performance, and then explains this measure by various dimensions of business strategy. Three criteria are used to create a one dimensional ordinal ranking of high, medium and low performance for new business starts: employment growth; return on capital employed; and labour productivity. It is shown that statistical cluster analysis provides a convincing separation of a sample of new business starts into high, medium and low performance categories, using a minimum distance criterion for clustering. An ordinal logit model (with selection) is then used to explain this performance ranking. The results indicate that many widely discussed features of small business strategy have little, or even negative, impact on performance. Of the numerous aims that owner managers may adopt (survival, growth etc.), only one appears to have a major impact on performance; the pursuit of the highest rate of return on investment. Many entrepreneurial perceptions of their own capabilities appear false or unimportant, with the exception of organisational features and systems.     

What Makes for a Successful Hotel? Insights on Hotel Management Following 15 Years of Hotel Occupancy Analysis in England

Time series analyses of daily and monthly occupancy rates in different samples of hotels in England over a 15-year period reveal consistent temporal components of occupancy performance. These differentiate hotels in terms of overall occupancy levels, seasonality, length of season, trend and within-week variations. The components are related to the characteristics of hotels and their management using statistical methods and structured interview surveys, and the factors affecting occupancy performance of hotels are identified and calibrated. The policy implications for the results for successful hotel marketing and management are extracted.     

What Makes a Business Ethicist? A Reflection on the Transition from Applied Philosophy to Critical Thinking

Using a sample of 21,030 US firm-year observations that represents more than 3000 individual firms over the 1998–2012 period, we investigate the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and investment efficiency. We provide strong and robust evidence that high CSR involvement decreases investment inefficiency and consequently increases investment efficiency. This result is consistent with our expectations that high CSR firms enjoy low information asymmetry and high stakeholder solidarity (stakeholder theory). Moreover, our findings suggest that CSR components that are directly related to firms’ primary stakeholders (e.g. employee relations, product characteristics, environment, and diversity) are more relevant in reducing investment inefficiency compared with those related to secondary stakeholders (e.g. human rights and community involvement). Finally, additional results show that the effect of CSR on investment efficiency is more pronounced during the subprime crisis. Taken together, our results highlight the important role that CSR plays in shaping firms’ investment behaviour and efficiency.     

What Makes a Human Brand Authentic? Identifying the Antecedents of Celebrity Authenticity

While authenticity has received considerable attention in the marketing literature, the factors that influence the perceived authenticity of a celebrity's “human brand” have remained unexplored. This research fills this void by identifying the antecedents of celebrity authenticity, defined as the perception that a celebrity behaves according to his or her true self. Based on a qualitative analysis of an open‐ended survey completed by 218 adults and on previous authenticity literature and attribution theory, the authors propose two antecedents of celebrity authenticity—rarity and stability—that are each composed of three sub‐dimensions. Analyses of cross‐sectional survey data from a sample of 428 adults provide support for the hypotheses that stability and rarity positively influence celebrity authenticity. Additionally, based on aging stability theory, the authors predict and demonstrate that the effects of rarity and stability on celebrity authenticity are moderated by age.     

What Makes Consumers Willing to Pay for Online Services? Discovering Consumer Opinions and Determinant Factors on Charged Online Services

ABSTRACT

Recently, more and more service e-businesses began to charge their consumers on the services provided to assure revenues for their survival. An understanding of consumer opinions on and behaviors toward the charged online services is critical to successful business models for service e-business. Through survey data analyses, the exploratory study reported herein attempts to discover consumer opinions and behaviors regarding charged online services. The findings of this study would contribute effectively to the formulation and implementation of sustainable business models for e-businesses in the service sector.     

What keeps you up at night? Key issues of concern for lodging managers

A survey of hospitality managers worldwide found that human-resources issues were the foremost concern for the industry. Most of the managers surveyed were from the United States or Europe, with small percentage from other locations. Some 57 percent of those surveyed identified human-resources issues as the industry's major challenge. Other concerns paled by comparison. A total of 40 percent of the respondents cited the following issues, after mentioning human-resources topics (in descending order of frequency): (1) understanding the customer, (2) effectively using capital, (3) aligning stakeholders' interests, (4) using information technology, and (5) valuing brands.     

What Future for the WTO?

The past decade has been troubling for the World Trade Organization (WTO). After 12 hard years of negotiation, and multiple missed deadlines, stakes are high for breaking the many logjams that obstruct the Doha Development Round. This article assesses what can be salvaged from the Doha Round and the associated global payoffs, and it provides guidelines for maintaining the relevance of the WTO moving forward. There is good reason for measured optimism, but for optimism to be sustained, trade ministers must deliver something meaningful at the Bali WTO Ministerial in December 2013.     

Advertising Controversial Products in the Asia Pacific: What Makes Them Offensive?

The advertising of controversial products/services and the use of controversial images to "cut through the clutter" in the marketplace appears to be increasing around the world. However, apart from the general ethical issue regarding the deliberate use of controversial/offensive images for public viewing that may offend some people, it is important to determine what makes a controversial advertisement offensive? A questionnaire was distributed to 1014 students across four different countries in the Asia Pacific region to determine what type of products are seen as offensive and the reasons they are offensive. The results present some important implications for international marketers.     

What Makes Logistics Integration More Effective? Governance from Contractual and Relational Perspectives

Third-party logistics (3PL) user–provider integration is attracting increasing attention from both academics and practitioners. However, it remains unclear how best to adopt governance mechanisms to safeguard 3PL user–provider integration (e.g., information sharing and process coordination). Based on transaction cost economics and social exchange theory, this study examined the individual and joint effects of contractual (e.g., detailed contracts and contract application) and relational governance (e.g., trust and relational norms) on 3PL user–provider integration for operational performance. We conducted a survey involving 247 3PL service users and analyzed the conceptual model using the method of structural equation modeling. The results showed that process coordination improved operational performance, while information sharing alone did not significantly improve operational performance but complemented the role of process coordination in improving operational performance. In addition, having detailed contracts was positively related to process coordination, while contract application was positively related to information sharing. Trust was not significantly related to information sharing or process coordination, while relational norms were positively related to both. Finally, three joint effects on 3PL user–provider integration were found. Two of them were substitutional (detailed contracts and relational norms; contract application and trust), and one was complementary (detailed contracts and trust). This study makes several theoretical contributions and provides novel guidelines for 3PL relationship development.     

What drives consumers to shop on mobile devices? Insights from a Meta-Analysis

The penetration of mobile devices has reshaped consumers’ shopping journeys, drawing the attention of both scholars and practitioners. Over the last two decades, a rich strand of empirical studies across disciplines has been conducted on the factors underlying mobile shopping behavior. We provide and test a comprehensive framework for both the key drivers of consumers’ initial adoption and the continuance intention to use mobile devices for purchasing. To achieve this goal, we conduct a meta-analysis, in which we integrate the findings from the literature and apply a structural equation modeling approach. Our work builds on the existing theories (Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) and offers an extensive understanding of the variables that shape mobile shopping behavior. Based on 207 articles, with 228 studies, 4,354 effect sizes, a total sample size of 68,944 shoppers, our findings show that mobile shopping is influenced by variables that reflect the evolution of technological innovations and the consequent improvement of the functionality and convenience of mobile devices (previous digital experience and ubiquity). Managerially, based on these findings, we provide a future research agenda and the key implications for firms to develop for a successful marketing strategy throughout the mobile customer journey. Companies should focus on both utilitarian and hedonic variables to stimulate the intention to use the mobile for the first time. In addition, to increase continuance intention to use mobile for shopping, they improve customer satisfaction, through enjoyment and the three dimensions of quality of the mobile channel.     

Mediating Hierarchical Labor Conflicts: Procedural Justice Makes a Difference—for Subordinates

Investigating mediations of hierarchical labor conflicts, this study focuses on the influence of hierarchical position on perceptions of procedural justice, mediation effectiveness and its moderating effect on this relationship. Since the influence of hierarchical position is omnipresent in organizational life, it is most likely that also parties’ perceptions and appreciation of the mediation will be affected. To test our hypotheses, we use data from real mediation cases dealing with hierarchical labor conflicts in the Netherlands. In line with our hypotheses, results indicate that supervisors—compared with subordinates—perceive more procedural justice and perceive the mediation as more effective. The most striking result however, is that especially subordinates’ perceptions of mediation effectiveness are determined by perceptions of procedural justice: especially when confronted with low levels of procedural justice, their perceptions of mediation effectiveness are negatively affected. This is not true for supervisors. Implications for mediation theory and practice are discussed.     

What next for China's macroeconomic policies?

In Europe debt crisis has not yet hit bottom;in the United States economic recovery remains weak.Domestically,there is insufficient internal impetus driving economic growth in China;and export sees a risk of decreasing....The country has pulled half-way through 2010,its most complicated year in economy.     

What Endgame for the Deglobalisation Narrative?

Intereconomics - From the perspective of international economic governance, other than casting aspersions on the judgement of those that negotiated previous multilateral trade accords and the...     

What information belongs in a warning?

A general approach is described for determining the information content of warnings. It begins with a formal analysis of the magnitudes of the risks arising from misuse (or even from proper use) of a product. It proceeds with structured, open-ended interviews intended to elicit consumers' naive conceptualizations of the processes creating and controlling those risks. Communications are then focused on information filling the most consequential gaps in their knowledge. The implementation of those warnings will depend on the extent of the knowledge gaps, and the opportunities for closing them. This approach allows for an estimate of the residual problems to be expected, if a warning program is implemented. It can also help to focus the policy debate over whether a product warning will achieve an acceptable level of misunderstanding. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

What makes a brand manager effective?

Brands have become increasingly important as a foundation for competitive strategy. Unfortunately, although brand managers are responsible for brand strategy development and execution, little is known about what makes a brand manager effective. A model is developed to understand what intangible capital embodied by brand managers influences brand management capabilities and resultant brand performance. Measures of brand manager intangible capital and brand management capabilities are developed through an iterative scale development process. Hypothesis testing, derived from a survey of brand managers, indicates that brand manager human, relational and informational capital influences brand management capabilities and resultant brand performance, and brand manager intangible capital has an indirect effect on brand performance via brand management capabilities. By delineating and operationalizing the intangible capital and capabilities of brand managers, this study provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for future research on brand managers, tools for assessing current brand manager capital and capabilities, and guidance in relation to intangible capital and capabilities needed by brand managers.     

The Effect of Normative Expectations on Employees’ Intrinsic Interest in Creativity: Is There also a Mediating Mechanism?

As the core element of a firm’s innovation capabilities and the source of firm growth, increasing employee creativity is a primary goal of organizations. Based on social cognitive theory, role theory, and creativity theory, this paper investigates the relationship between perception of normative expectations and employees’ intrinsic interest in creativity, as well as explores the role of self-efficacy in this relationship. We use data from a survey questionnaire of 2,035 employees from 185 firms in different geographic locations across China. Our empirical findings reveal that when employees perceive a normative expectation coming from leaders, family or customers, coupled with the fear of failing to satisfy the expectations of those referent groups, it positively and significantly affects their intrinsic interest in creativity. In addition, self-efficacy not only positively and significantly affects employees’ intrinsic interest in creativity, but also plays a partially mediating role in the relationship between the perception of expectation and employees’ intrinsic interest in creativity.