Does Cultural Background Affect Volunteering Behavior?

The purpose of this qualitative investigation is to help nonprofit organizations which rely heavily on the support of volunteers increase the effectiveness of their marketing by accounting for differences in cultural background among community members. It was conducted in the multi‐cultural Australian context and included 79 participants from different cultural backgrounds. Findings indicate that as a whole, cultural groups differ significantly with respect to their attitudes, social norm and perceived behavioral control over volunteering. Nonprofit organizations are unlikely to be successful in attracting volunteers from a range of different cultural backgrounds unless they account for heterogeneity among volunteers and customize marketing messages. To the authors' knowledge this is the first study that investigates differences in attitude, social norm and perceived behavioral control regarding an important social marketing issue: changing the volunteering behavior of individuals in a multi‐cultural society.     

Does Globalisation Affect Crime? Theory and Evidence

Globalisation sceptics argue that trade liberalisation has high social costs, including an increase in expropriative behaviour such as civil conflict, coercion of labour and crime. We show that a theoretical relationship between trade and expropriation exists, but the sign differs for developed and developing economies. We verify this empirically using data on crime rates. Specifically, we find that trade liberalisation, as measured by both higher openness and lower import duty rates, tends to increase burglaries and theft in very labour‐abundant countries. For other countries, however, we find that trade liberalisation has either a small negative effect on crime or no effect, depending on the country's capital abundance.     

Does Legal Tradition Affect Competition Policy Performance?

During the early 1990's, in the early days of the worldwide competition policy boom, Spencer Waller and Joshua Newberg argued that difficulties inherent in grafting common law concepts—such as antitrust—onto non common law traditions would undermine the administration of competition law in non common law tradition countries. Recent independent survey data on the performance of competition programs in 102 nations shows deplorable differences in performance, lending some weight to the Waller-Newberg thesis.

This article tests whether differences in legal tradition contributes to the observed variance in competition agency performance.

A careful understanding of the influence of legal tradition and other factors underscoring the relevance, shortcomings and problems of competition policy performance are useful for determining whether competition programs should be at all reproduced elsewhere, whether they should be modified prior to adoption or whether they should be adopted verbatim. Familiarity with performance factors is also useful both for program administration and program sequencing. Comparative examinations of competition programs enable decision-makers to properly allocate resources and to address policy issues.

The estimated model is a two-stage least-squares cross-section analysis between competition policy performance and various control variables, including the presence of a common law tradition. Limitations on the availability of control and instrumental variables, reduces the data set from 102 to 82 nations.

Succinctly, after accounting for other explanatory variables such as gross domestic product per capita, foreign direct investment, imports, physical size, the level of corruption, and national experience with a modern antitrust law, one can attribute statistical significance to historical legal tradition as established by the Waller-Newberg hypothesis.     

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 Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Information Asymmetry?

In this study, we examine the empirical association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and information asymmetry by investigating their simultaneous and endogenous effects. Employing an extensive U.S. sample, we find an inverse association between CSR engagement and the proxies of information asymmetry after controlling for various firm characteristics. The results hold using 2SLS considering the reverse side of information asymmetry influencing CSR activities. The results also hold after mitigating endogeneity based on the dynamic panel system generalized method of moment. Furthermore, the CSR–information asymmetry relation is amplified in high-risk firms due to managers’ efforts to build a good reputation. Last, we find that CSR engagement is inversely associated with reputational risk measure and lower predicted value of reputational risk is positively associated with lower information asymmetry measures. We interpret these results as supporting the stakeholder theory-based, reputation-building explanation that considers CSR engagement as a vehicle to build and maintain firm reputation thereby enhancing the information environment.     

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 Service Employees’ Appearance Affect the Healthiness of Food Choice?

Derived from previous research on social influence on food consumption and social comparison theory, this article examines the effect of service employees’ appearance on consumers’ food choice using an experimental study, involving a video manipulation and eye‐tracking technique. The video shows a menu being proffered by a waitress whose degree of apparent healthiness varies (healthy, overweight, unhealthy lifestyle). The menu contains both healthy and unhealthy meal alternatives. The analysis of participants’ eye movements demonstrated that exposure to the overweight employee did not stimulate greater (i.e., earlier or longer) attention to unhealthy meal alternatives, whereas exposure to the employee who displayed an unhealthy lifestyle did. These findings have social and managerial implications: The postulated stigma according to which the presence of overweight others encourages unhealthy eating appears questionable. Service providers that might secretly hire according to body weight have no grounds to do so. In contrast, employees signaling an unhealthy lifestyle through their style choices prompt patrons to pay more attention to unhealthy meal alternatives. Food service providers might want to take this factor into consideration and actively manage the aspects that can be altered by simple measures.     

Does Mood Affect the Efficiency of Credit Approval? Evidence from Online Peer-to-Peer Lending

Using a large dataset obtained from “Paipaidai,” an online peer-to-peer lending platform in China, we examine whether credit officers’ mood affects the efficiency of credit approval from a perspective of individual decision-making. Refering to studies in psychology and financial economics, we employ season, temperature and weather as mood proxies, and control the variables related to the quality of the loan to study credit approval behavior under different mood conditions. The results suggest that the efficiency of credit approval by individual credit officers is significantly correlated with their mood—a positive mood improves efficiency, while a negative mood reduces it. Specifically, loans examined under better mood conditions (e.g., during spring, comfortable temperatures, and sunny days) have a significantly higher probability of approval, but a lower probability of default if approved; and those examined under poorer mood conditions show a lower probability of approval and a higher probability of default if approved. This effect of mood is even stronger when a loan application is more complex, atypical, or unusual to evaluate. Moreover, investor sentiment, denoted by closed-end fund premiums, has the same effect on credit approval as well.     

How Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Corporate Continuous Innovation?

From the perspective of sustainable development, this paper analyzes the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the corporate continuous innovation based on the theory of innovation economics and the demand for innovationdriven development, and then conducts a series of empirical tests based on a sample of Chinese A-shared listed companies from 2008 to 2016. The results show that better CSR performance is conducive to the continuous innovation, and this positive relationship is more pronounced for firms with voluntary accounting information disclosure, for firms of non-high-technology industries, and when policy uncertainty is high. This paper not only enriches the literature on CSR but also provides theoretical references for the innovation practice of enterprises under the innovation-driven strategy.     

Does Consumer Well‐Being Affect Hedonic Consumption?

This article presents a theoretical model that reveals how consumers’ long‐term subjective well‐being (SWB) influences their spending on hedonic products. Using the longitudinal data from a large national panel survey, the study found that consumers’ SWB influences spending on hedonic products via the mediating effects of their positive interpretation of life circumstances and broadened set of activities resulting from positive emotions. The results are explained using cognitive tuning theory and broaden‐and‐build theory and have implications for hedonic products providers in terms of who their target audience is and how demand for their products is generated.     

Does the Use of Mobile Phones by Smallholder Maize Farmers Affect Productivity in Ghana?

ABSTRACT

This study evaluates the effects of mobile technology on productivity and the channels of transmission of these effects. Using propensity score matching procedures, the results show that mobile phone ownership and use significantly improves agricultural productivity. Specifically, the mobile phone improves the productivity of user-farmers by at least 261.20 kg/ha per production season. Further, we find that phone ownership and use impacts productivity more than phone use only. The identified channels of effect are extension services, adoption of modern technology and market participation. These results have key policy implications for Ghana and developing economies at large.     

Have the Mobile Coupon Preferences of Millennials Changed?

ABSTRACT

In 2007, the authors delivered a web-based survey to a sampling frame of 18 to 30 year olds. Choice-based conjoint analysis was used to determine their local coupon preferences. The findings indicated that Millennials, in general, were resistant to receiving coupons for local businesses through their cell phones. In this article, the same survey was delivered to a sampling frame of Millennials in 2014. Choice-based conjoint analysis was again used to examine the couponing preferences of Millennials and statistical analysis was conducted to determine if these preferences have significantly changed over the last seven years.     

How Does Race and Ethnicity Affect Persistence in Immature Ventures?

Does race/ethnicity affect persistence in an immature venture? Using data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics II, we examine how race/ethnicity, access to supplier credit, and personal financial investment affect three entrepreneurial outcomes: continued engagement, new firm creation, and disengagement. We find that compared with whites, blacks were less likely to receive supplier credit and invest more of their own capital, whereas Hispanics did not significantly differ from whites. Blacks were more likely to persist and remain engaged in an immature venture if they did not achieve success after two years in operation, whereas Hispanics were more likely to disengage.     

Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect Wage Inequality? An Empirical Investigation

We use a panel of more than 100 countries for the period 1980–2002 to analyse the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and wage inequality. We particularly check whether this relationship is nonlinear, in line with a theoretical discussion. We find that the effect of FDI differs according to the level of development: we depict two different patterns, one for OECD (developed) and one for non‐OECD (developing) countries. Results suggest the presence of a nonlinear effect in developing countries: wage inequality increases with FDI inward stock, with such effect diminishing with further increases in FDI. For developed countries, wage inequality decreases with FDI inward stock, and there is no robust evidence to show that this effect is nonlinear.     

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.     

Does the Type of Family Control Affect the Relationship Between Ownership Structure and Firm Value?

Our objective is to disentangle which family business characteristics enable family ownership to be an effective corporate governance mechanism. To this aim, we investigate whether the relationship between ownership concentration and firm value is moderated by the type of family influence. This study shows that family control positively affects performance, primarily when family members serve on the board and when the founder is still influential. Our findings hold when we control for the general blockholder effect and they are robust to a battery of tests. We conclude that the impact of ownership concentration on firm value differs across family firms.     

The Level of Compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes: Does it Matter to Stock Markets?

The present paper explores, theoretically, and empirically, whether compliance with the International Code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes impacts on financial performance measured by stock markets. The empirical analysis, which considers a 20-year period, shows that stock markets are indifferent to the level of compliance by manufacturers with the International Code. Two important issues emerge from this result. Based on our finding that financial performance as measured by stock markets cannot explain the level of compliance, the first issue refers to what alternative types of mechanisms drive manufacturers who comply the least with voluntary codes such as the International Code. Conversely, from our finding that stock markets do not reward the most compliant, the second issue raised is an inherent weakness of stock markets to fully incorporate social and environmental values.