Building subsidiary local responsiveness: (When) does the directionality of intrafirm knowledge transfers matter?

The present study focuses on effects of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities—knowledge transfer and reverse knowledge transfer—and absorptive capacity on local responsiveness. We also examine whether absorptive capacity, shared values, and psychological safety, representing constituents of the motivation-opportunity-ability model of behavior, moderate relationships of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities with responsiveness. Based on a sample of 173 Chinese subsidiaries, the results suggest knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity facilitate local responsiveness. Shared values moderates positively and absorptive capacity negatively, the relationship between knowledge transfer and responsiveness. Psychological safety strengthens the link between reverse knowledge transfer and local responsiveness.     

When does electronic word-of-mouth matter? A study of consumer product reviews

Online consumer product reviews, a form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), have attracted increased attention from researchers. This paper examines the persuasiveness of eWOM. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the authors propose that the consumption goals that consumers associate with the reviewed product moderate the effect of review valence on persuasiveness. Data from lab experiments and actual online retailers suggest that consumers who evaluate products associated with promotion consumption goals perceive positive reviews to be more persuasive than negative ones (i.e., a positivity bias). Conversely, consumers who evaluate products associated with prevention consumption goals perceive negative reviews to be more persuasive than positive ones (i.e., a negativity bias).     

When does an ethical attribute matter for product evaluation? The role of warm-glow feelings for low-rated products

Research on the effects of ethical attributes has recently gained traction. However, limited research has addressed consumer response to ethical attributes in the current context where product ratings have become of primary importance to make decisions. Specifically, this study examines the relative effect of ethical attributes on product evaluations across different product ratings. Building on cue consistency theory and the negativity bias, we suggest that ethical attributes gain weight when consumers evaluate a low-rated product. This process leads consumers to anticipate more warm-glow feelings, generating better evaluations for such low-rated products featuring an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute). Two experiments provide consistent empirical support for this prediction, and demonstrate that, compared to other attributes or no attribute, an ethical attribute increases product evaluations to a larger extent when the product received low (vs. higher) ratings. We show that this effect occurs because of warm-glow feelings: when product ratings are low, consumers anticipate more warm-glow feelings from purchasing a product with an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute), leading to better product evaluations. These findings have direct managerial and ethical implications for practitioners.     

When does comparative advertising influence brand attitude? The role of delay and market position

This article presents the results of an experiment that examines the role of delay and sponsor's market position in influencing the effectiveness of comparative ads compared to noncomparative ads. The results show that comparative ads sponsored by an unknown brand are more effective in changing consumers' brand attitudes than noncomparative ads, when brand response occurs at a delay. Implications of these results for the Elaboration Likelihood Model are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The role of social networks and institutions in the internationalization of Russian entrepreneurial firms: Do they matter?

Drawing upon network theory and institutional theory, this paper examines the influence of networks on the internationalization of Russian entrepreneurial firms. Our case analysis suggests that within the context of the Russian environment, networks play a much less important role in the internationalization process than it is usually assumed in the literature. For the Russian entrepreneurial firms examined in our study, the most important factor in their internationalization was their engagement in honest business practices that established trust and commitment in their relationships with international business partners. This study underscores the importance of the institutional context of an entrepreneurial firm’s country.     

Foreign direct investment and entrepreneurship: Does the role of institutions matter?

Development economics, international business, and entrepreneurship literature suggest that foreign direct investment (FDI) has significant positive spillover effects for entrepreneurial activities of host economies. However, the findings of past research are mixed, and they do not always confirm this suggestion. We argue that the reason for conflicting findings may be because of an incomplete understanding of the factors that influence the FDI-entrepreneurship nexus in different contexts. Previous studies have carried out only limited exploration of the contingencies in the FDI and domestic entrepreneurship relationship that may depend on the host country’s institutional capacity. We argue that not all countries can reap the rewards from FDI equally. Rather, we hypothesize that countries need to have a sufficient degree of institutional capacity relevant to specific conditions and appropriate threshold levels to successfully capture the positive spillover effects of FDI on domestic entrepreneurship. Utilizing panel data from 2006 to 2016 for 97 emerging markets, developing and developed countries (at different income levels), and a System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) estimator that controls for instrument proliferation in dealing with endogeneity problems, we test this hypothesis. We find that FDI has a negative (crowding-out) effect on domestic entrepreneurship at below-threshold levels of institutional capacity, and a positive (crowding-in) effect at above-threshold levels of institutional capacity. The crowding-out effect diminishes as the institutional capacity changes or improves to meet mutating economic environment conditions. Our findings are robust across a wide range of aggregate and disaggregate measures of different types of institutions and alternative empirical strategies.     

When does green advertising work? The moderating role of product type

Using environmental appeals to promote products is a popular marketing technique. However, little is known about how the effectiveness of green appeals varies across different product categories. The purpose of this study is to examine whether and to what extent green appeals in advertising are effective and how that effectiveness differs between products with more versus less environmental impact. Using the theoretical frameworks of ad-product fit hypothesis, our two product types (more harmful vs. less harmful) × two appeal types (green appeal vs. non-green appeal) experiment shows that ads with a green appeal are more effective for more-harmful products, whereas for less-harmful products, there is no significant difference between a green and a non-green appeal. Furthermore, cognitive response was found to mediate the interaction effect of green appeal and product type on ad persuasiveness. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Early stage SME bankruptcy: does the local banking market matter?

Small Business Economics - This paper investigates the role of local context, with regard to the effect of local financial development and banking concentration, on a firm’s probability of...     

How does FDI inflow affect productivity of domestic firms? The role of horizontal and vertical spillovers,absorptive capacity and competition

This paper examines the existence of externalities associated with foreign direct investment (FDI) in a host country by exploiting firm-level panel data covering the Polish corporate sector. We distinguish between horizontal spillovers (from foreign to domestic firms operating in the same industry) and two types of vertical spillovers: backward (from FDI in downstream industries) and forward spillovers (from FDI in upstream industries). The main findings are as follows. Local firms benefit from foreign presence in the same industry and in downstream industries. The absorptive capacity of domestic firms is highly relevant to the size of spillovers: vertical spillovers are larger for R&D-intensive firms, while firms investing in other (external) types of intangibles benefit more from horizontal spillovers. Competitive pressure facilitates backward spillovers, while market power increases the extent of forward spillovers. Horizontal spillovers are particularly strong in services, while the remaining results, including backward spillovers and the role of absorptive capacity and competition, are mainly driven by manufacturing. Host country equity participation in foreign firms is consistent with higher unconditional productivity spillovers to domestic firms. A number of robustness checks yield results qualitatively similar to those obtained in the baseline specification.     

How does past behaviour stimulate consumers' intentions to repeat unethical behaviour? The roles of perceived risk and ethical beliefs

Repeated unethical behaviour by consumers is a serious challenge for participants in business transactions, including consumers, retailers, and those responsible for market supervision. Due to the inherent risk of such behaviours, we examine perceived risk to uncover the psychological mechanism by which consumers consider past behaviour (PAB) when deciding to repeat unethical behaviour. We divide perceived risk into two categories, material risk (MAR) and nonmaterial risk (NMR), based on two kinds of ethical evaluation and explore their mediating effects in the process through which PAB influences consumers' intentions to repeat unethical behaviour (CIRUB). We check the moderating effect of consumers' ethical beliefs on the relationship between PAB and CIRUB. We use survey data from four typical ethical scenarios to test the proposed structural relationships. Direct positive effects of PAB on consumers' intentions are observed in all four scenarios. NMR has stable, positive mediating effects in all scenarios. MAR is found to have negative mediating effects in two scenarios (switching price tags and using an expired coupon) and a positive effect in one scenario (copying software). However, no effect is observed in the benefiting from a cashier's mistake scenario. Finally, ethical beliefs are proven to positively moderate the relationship between PAB and consumers' intentions in the first two scenarios, but not the last two. This study also discusses the implications of the findings and offers suggestions for future research.     

Why does service inclusion matter? The effect of service exclusion on customer indirect misbehavior

In recent years, there has been much conceptual work calling for research on transformative service, and service inclusion in particular. However, quantitative studies focusing on service inclusion are scant, and little is known about customer responses to the opposite of service inclusion, i.e. service exclusion. Taking a transformative research perspective, this study advances the service inclusion literature by focusing on service exclusion and its downstream consequences. We first build the causal link between service exclusion (vs. inclusion) and customer indirect misbehavior, reveal the underlying mechanism, and further identify negative reciprocity beliefs as a boundary condition. The results of three studies suggest that customers who experience service exclusion (vs. inclusion) are more likely to engage in indirect misbehavior (Study 1), and that this effect is mediated by perceived need threat (Study 2). Moreover, the basic effect holds true only for customers with strong negative reciprocity beliefs (Study 3). The findings of this research not only contribute to the literature on transformative services, service inclusion, and social exclusion, but also have managerial implications for marketing practitioners in terms of creating an inclusive service system.     

Why does the diffusion of environmental management standards differ across countries? The role of formal and informal institutions in the adoption of ISO 14001

This research explores the factors underpinning the international diffusion of environmental management standards (EMSs), focusing on how macro-level institutions explain differences in the extent to which ISO 14001 has penetrated into each country. We argue that macro-level institutions affect the diffusion of ISO 14001 by shaping both how managers assess it and the pressures that stakeholders exert on firms to adopt it. Our results, based on a sample of 49 countries between 2000 and 2014, show that informal and formal institutions, namely, uncertainty avoidance and market-supporting institutions, contribute to explaining cross-country variations in the number of firms implementing ISO 14001.     

Making the next move: When does the newness of experience matter in overseas sequential entries of multinational companies?

Traditional internationalization models suggest multinational companies (MNCs) can exploit their accumulative experience to facilitate their sequential entries. However, experience may depreciate over time. Thus, obtaining benefits from prior experience for MNCs is based on two critical premises, i.e., interpreting and applying experience correctly. We argue that there is a need to study the newness dimension of experiential learning. In doing so, we aim to explore to what extent the newness of experience matters in overseas sequential entries for MNCs. Moreover, we expect that the benefits from recent experience in guiding sequential entries are contingent on the extent of context similarity between the most recent entry location and sequential entry location and the outcome expectancy of focal entry. With a sample of 112 Chinese listed firms and 410 observations during the period of 2000–2012, we find that else being equal, the newness of experience of MNCs is positively associated with sequential entry and such a relationship is positively moderated both by context similarity in institutional environment and the outcome expectancy of the focal entry. We also compare the effects of the newness of different types of experience and find that the newness of the most recent experience has a larger influence on sequential entry than location-specific experience and general experience.     

When do cooperation and commitment matter in a monetary union?

This paper offers a framework to study strategic interactions between private players, national fiscal authorities and a common central bank in monetary unions. We establish general conditions, in terms of restrictions on spillover effects of actions by private and public players, under which games that differ in the degree of cooperation and commitment can admit the same equilibrium outcome. We use these conditions to characterize benchmark results on the irrelevance of cooperation and commitment established in recent literature. Moreover, we show for a general setting, in which the benchmark results do not apply, that gains from fiscal cooperation depend on the number of countries and increase as this number gets larger.     

Building a competitive advantage based on transparency: When and why does transparency matter for corporate social responsibility?

Customers today are increasingly demanding transparency from firms. This article discusses the concept of performance transparency and explores when and why transparency plays a key role for a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) effectiveness. In doing so, it addresses consumer skepticism as the logic of the transparency-CSR interaction and presents empirical evidence of the effect. It also discusses key principles for managing performance transparency effectively. Companies should monitor and track performance transparency regularly, initiate consistent transparency practices along with CSR activities, pay attention to the types of information made available, and adapt the transparency practices to the involvement level.     

Can AI benefit individual resilience? The mediation roles of AI routinization and infusion

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about individual resilience in the face of adversity. The abundant research suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) can help organizations handle changes during this challenging period. However, little empirical research has explored whether the presence of AI enhances individual resilience against adversities. Drawing on the reciprocal determinism theory, this study considers the formation of two typical post-adoption behaviors and their subsequent results in individual resilience. The structural equation modeling shows that AI factors (usability and sociability) and personal factors (self-efficacy) determine usage behaviors (routine and infusion use), in turn affecting individual resilience. The OLS results suggest the right half of the U-shaped relationships between infusion use and resilience. Two-step fsQCA offers three configurations resulting in high resilience under the different presence of AI factors and also suggests the roles of user behaviors. The study provides new theoretical enlightenment for the impact of digital service technology on individuals and enriches the existing literature on the usage of digital service technology. The findings provide practical implications for practitioners to design AI products better to improve smart service experience.     

When does Ethical Code Enforcement Matter in the Inter-Organizational Context? The Moderating Role of Switching Costs

Drawing on signaling theory, we suggest that a supplier’s enforcement of ethical codes sends signals about the supplier that affect a buyer’s decision to continue their commitment to the supplier. We then draw on side-bet theory to hypothesize how switching costs influence the importance of a supplier’s enforcement of ethical codes in predicting a buyer’s continuance commitment to a supplier. We empirically test our model with data from 158 purchasing managers across three manufacturing industries. Results confirm the connection between ethical code enforcement and continuance commitment, but suggest that a supplier’s enforcement of ethical codes matter less when switching suppliers is perceived as too costly.     

Which regions matter for MNEs? The role of regional and firm level differences

This paper explores the impact of regional and firm level heterogeneity on MNE performance from an operational perspective. We find that the underlying economic growth of a region and the MNE’s overall product diversity significantly impact returns from downstream operations in specific regions. Based on a 10 year panel dataset of 1249 US based MNEs, results show that the incremental impact of the degree and speed of operations within a given region, is greater for regions exhibiting faster economic growth than for slower growing ones. For slower growing regions only, product diversity of the MNE becomes important and negatively moderates the link between operations and performance. Previous literature has shown that MNEs largely follow a regional strategy and has ignored the role of inter-regional differences, and how firm level characteristics interact with region specific ones. Once inter-regional heterogeneity is introduced, a more complex picture of the internationalization performance link emerges than has been addressed previously, with significant implications for the theory and practise of internationalization.     

How do standard setters define materiality and why does it matter?

Material information is a core aspect of a firm's governance and reporting activities. If corporate information is material, then the firm has a responsibility to disclose it. Currently, firms must judge information as material largely based on a confusing set of standard setters’ definitions. I analyze the particular conditions laid out by each standard setter and explain the ethical implications that result from materiality judgments made by firms using these varied standards. Importantly, this analysis underscores that regulators, firms, and researchers alike must consider the impact of these implications on the fiduciary duty and promise-keeping that firms make as well as the potential for unfairness and financial harm to others’ welfare that could result.