Defying Distance? Cross‐Border Acquisitions by Emerging‐Economy Firms

We argue that emerging‐economy firms’ international location choices are driven by the pursuit of dynamic efficiency rather than the immediate minimization of transaction and learning costs, and hence the relationship between country distance and the number of cross‐border acquisitions will be less negative for these firms relative to advanced‐economy firms. We then test the hypothesis with respect to four measures of country distance—geographic, economic, cultural, and institutional—and find support for the hypothesis. Our study provides empirical support for claims in the literature about differences in the international expansion behavior of emerging‐economy firms with respect to location. In addition, our study makes a theoretical contribution by showing that the theoretical perspective of dynamic efficiency can explain the difference in the location choices for cross‐border acquisitions by emerging‐economy firms relative to those by advanced‐economy firms. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc..     

What is the Value of Luxury? A Cross‐Cultural Consumer Perspective

International luxury businesses are challenged by the identification and satisfaction of the common needs and desires of global market segments. Although luxury goods have become available to a wider range of consumers, the traditional conspicuous consumption model has been transformed into a new experiential luxury sensibility that is marked by a change in the way that consumers define luxury. Based on an empirical study in collaboration with American, European, and Asian researchers, the results provide evidence that consumers in various parts of the world purchase or wish to purchase luxury products for varied reasons but that such consumers generally possess similar values. Regardless of their countries of origin, the basic motivational drivers of luxury consumers are similar among the financial, functional, personal, and social dimensions of luxury value perceptions, although the relative importance of these dimensions varies.     

Does Vanity Describe Other Cultures? A Cross‐Cultural Examination of the Vanity Scale

Vanity is a psychological construct that describes a person's excessive concern with physical appearance or achievement. A scale, recently developed to measure this construct, has been psychometrically validated using data from U.S. respondents. The goal of this paper is to determine if this scale can be used cross‐culturally. If the scale has cross‐cultural applicability, it can be used as a counseling device to guide and alert individuals to certain tendencies. The scale also can be used to track foreign cultures as they adopt a consumerism ethos more aligned to Western consumer culture. Based on data from 475 young adults in China, India, New Zealand, and the U.S., the scale was found to have similar dimensionality and factor structure, internal consistency, discriminant validity, and metric invariance. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.     

Who Is in Control? The Role of Self‐Perception,Knowledge, and Income in Explaining Consumer Financial Behavior

The current research examines the relationship between consumer financial knowledge, income, and locus of control on financial behavior. Ethnicity is included as a potential moderator of the effects of these three variables on financial behavior. Findings suggest that consumers’ propensity to save, budget, and control spending depends partly on their level of perceived control over outcomes as well as knowledge and financial resources. Evidence of race and ethnicity as moderators is mixed.     

Why Hurry? The Slow Process of High Growth in Women‐Owned Businesses in a Resource‐Scarce Context

This article critically uncovers how embeddedness within a resource‐scarce context influences high‐growth women’s entrepreneurship. Research suggests that though highly embedded women entrepreneurs can easily access resources and attain legitimacy, resulting in high‐growth businesses, they can also become locked into existing systems that constrain their growth development paths. Using 16 qualitative cases developed in Cameroon, we unpack and resolve this paradox by analyzing how entrepreneurial path creation by women entrepreneurs enables the realization of growth aspirations. Implications for initiatives to support high‐growth women’s entrepreneurship in resource‐scarce contexts are critically examined.     

The Role of Academic Research in Supply Chain Practice: How Much Are We Contributing?

Supply chain academics and practitioners enjoy a unique bond. The applied heritage of logistics and supply chain scholarship motivates researchers to identify problems residing in current and future practice, address them in a conscientious manner, and to provide findings that yield meaningful insights. Yet, this bond is sometimes strained when scholarship loses touch with “real problems” found in industry. Strains in the bond then limit the contribution potential and impact of resultant work. This editorial calls for supply chain researchers to embrace the discipline's applied heritage in the identification of problems and delivery of results, while employing the requisite rigor for valid conclusions. Fortunately, there has never been a better time to work with practitioners in light of the disruptive forces at work in industry and the thirst for meaningful insights.     

Who Feels Credit Constrained in Europe? The Role of Social Capital

This paper analyzes the influence of social capital in consumers' perceptions of their borrowing constraints, which affect numerous financial decisions. Social capital is a multidimensional concept that concerns consumers' ability to obtain benefits from their engagement in social activities and social networks. To test the hypotheses, we rely on data from the European Social Survey. The results indicate that the four indicators of social capital (bonding capital, bridging capital, trust in people, and trust in institutions) are negatively associated with perceived borrowing constraints, and that some of these associations are moderated by income. The relationship of bonding capital with perceived borrowing constraints appears to be stronger than that of bridging capital, and trust in people reveals a stronger association with the outcome variable than trust in institutions. These results suggest several implications for practice and theory.     

How is Benevolent Leadership Linked to Employee Creativity? The Mediating Role of Leader–Member Exchange and the Moderating Role of Power Distance Orientation

Previous research has shown that virtuous leader behavior in the form of benevolent leadership has considerable impact on employee creativity. However, little is known as to how and under what conditions these constructs are linked. In the current research, we proposed and tested a moderated mediation model positing leader–member exchange (LMX) as a mediator, and employee power-distance orientation as a moderator of this relationship. Two studies were conducted to test our hypothesized model. In Study 1, repeated measured data collected from 284 Chinese employees in an information technology company demonstrated that benevolent leadership had a lagged effect on LMX. In Study 2, analyses of multisource and lagged data from 391 Chinese employees in 42 research and development teams, and their direct supervisors indicated that benevolent leadership was positively related to supervisor-rated employee creativity via LMX. In addition, the relationship between benevolent leadership and LMX was stronger for employees high in power-distance orientation. Theoretical implications of benevolent leadership’s research and practical contributions concerning promoting creativity in organizations where benevolent leaders prevail are also discussed.     

Angels or Sharks? The Role of Personal Characteristics in Angel Investment Decisions

We use actual negotiations between angel investors and entrepreneurs to study the impact of personal characteristics on investment outcomes. We construct a unique data set with 707 investment requests led by 1,089 entrepreneurs and find that the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur, including gender, race, and age, are correlated with requested valuations, the likelihood that an offer is received, and the implied valuation when an angel investor extends an offer. Shared personal characteristics between entrepreneurs and investors also affect the likelihood that an investor makes an offer, the entrepreneur accepts an offer, and the implied valuation when an offer is extended.     

Cross‐Functional Influence and the Supplier Selection Decision in Competitive Environments: Who Makes the Call?

This paper presents the results of a multiple‐case study that examines how procurement and engineering personnel share priorities, have a common vision, and influence the supplier selection decision in competitive environments of varying risk and uncertainty. We interviewed 113 procurement and engineering respondents from 26 different companies/business units across up‐, mid‐, and downstream segments of the oil and gas industry. Following a middle‐range theorizing approach, we develop a series of working propositions and theoretical frameworks, utilizing goal congruence theory to sharpen proposition development and create suggested extensions for theory. In general, we find that engineering personnel tend to dominate cross‐functional decision making in higher risk environments and that more equal arrangements exist when both risk and uncertainty are low. When competitive environment risk is low but uncertainty is high, considerable disagreement arises over which function “leads” this decision. Higher risk environments drive higher goal congruence through shared vision and consensus on who makes supplier selection decisions.     

The West and China: Shake‐up in global banking?

The global recession of 2007–2009 is altering the structure of the global banking industry. Many Western banks suffered after the fallout of the subprime mortgage market in 2007 and are having to respond to the policy ramifications of the crisis and recession. China's banks, however, have undergone performance improvements in a number of areas, both leading into and during the crisis, and they are now emerging as significant players in the global banking market.¹ This “shake‐up” in global banking is occurring in five areas: independence, profitability, market focus, business models, and talent. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The economic impact of the Trans‐Pacific Partnership: What have we learned from CGE simulation?

The Trans‐Pacific Partnership (TPP ) trade agreement, if were it to be successfully implemented, would be one of the largest regional agreements ever seen. It is the only exemplar to date of a “mega‐regional” FTA for which negotiations have been successfully concluded, and a landmark in evolving approaches to Asia–Pacific integration. As such, quantitative assessments of its potential effects are of considerable interest. One of the most widely used techniques for evaluating the economic impact of regional trading agreements is numerical simulation with computable general equilibrium, or CGE , models. There have now been a large number of papers written that use CGE methods to analyse the potential economic impact of the TPP agreement under varying theoretical and policy assumptions. In this paper we provide a synthesis of the key results that have emerged from the literature, and introduce some new simulation results of our own to anchor the discussion.     

Does Post‐ante Investment Experience Matter? Lessons from FDI in China

Ample efforts of FDI literature have researched on the motives and determinants of FDI flows based on ex‐ante conditions. Little has been studied with regard to the effects of post‐ante behaviour in determining future investment decisions. Post‐ante experience of FDI decisions with regard to foreign investors’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction and future profit expectations on recurrent decisions are critical. This paper, thus, attempts to investigate FDI in the context of an emerging market environment with emphasis on how environmental and institutional factors and the micro‐firm effects of how investors’ post‐ante views on profits expectations and investment experience would affect MNCs’ decisions on recurrent investment and firm relocation. Empirical results show that decisions in the short and long run were affected differently by the factors under study. Specifically, the short‐run decisions were more affected by profit expectations while the long run by post‐ante experience on investment satisfaction/dissatisfaction and environmental and institutional determinants.     

Scared Stiff? The Effectiveness of Threat Appeals in Counseling Services Advertising to High‐Anxiety Students

This exploratory study proposes and tests a theoretical model that analyzes threat appeals in regard to their effectiveness for high‐anxiety students, one of the major target groups for counseling services. In particular, affective and cognitive responses to a threat appeal advertisement and their effects on attitude toward the advertisement and behavior are examined. The results suggest that a strong threat appeal is not effective for counseling services but that positive emotions toward the advertisement and cognitive involvement have a positive impact on advertising outcomes. The study contributes further to knowledge of threat appeal effectiveness, targeting “anxious” audiences.     

What Explains the Gender Gap in Financial Literacy? The Role of Household Decision Making

Using newly collected data from the RAND American Life Panel, we examine potential explanations for the gender gap in financial literacy, including the role of marriage and who within a couple makes the financial decisions. Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition reveals the majority of the gender gap in financial literacy is not explained by differences in the characteristics of men and women—but rather differences in coefficients, or how literacy is produced. We find that financial decision making of couples is not centralized in one spouse although it is sensitive to the relative education level of spouses.     

Do Consumption Goals Matter? The Effects of Online Loyalty Programs in the Satisfaction‐Loyalty Relation

This study investigates the effects of online loyalty programs in the customer satisfaction‐loyalty relationship. It is proposed that loyalty programs may induce loyalty toward programs (program loyalty), which may then influence loyalty toward stores (store loyalty). According to the results of a two‐wave survey, consumption goals matter in the effects of program loyalty on online store loyalty. For consumers with hedonic goals, hedonic program loyalty (e.g., free gifts) has a significant effect on online loyalty. For consumers with utilitarian goals, however, utilitarian program loyalty (e.g., coupons) has a significant influence on online loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.     

Beyond the Economic? Cultural Dimensions of Services. The RESER Survey of Service Research Literature in Europe 2000

In 2000, RESER, the European network for research on services and space, focused its annual service research literature survey on questions of 'culture and services'. This synthesis sums up the major findings from reports on recent publications in seven European countries. The underlying contributions were as diverse as the subcategories of the topic, since 'culture' is, of course, an enormously vast concept. Important aspects treated in the progress report are 'culture as a service' and 'cultural services' (growth, economic importance and impacts) as well as the 'culture of services'. In addition, there is the 'cultural turn' in social, economic and geographical research, which offers new interpretations to socio-economic processes, including services.     

The Hidden Persuader: The Role of the Advisor in Negotiations and Group Decision Making—Perspectives from the European Union

Theoretical models of negotiation and group decision making often overlook or at least do not fully account for the important role played by persons who advise negotiators and participants in group decision making. Sight unseen, advisors are often “hidden persuaders,” important but unrecognized sources of influence on the negotiation dynamic. This article explores the roles and methods of advisors in the negotiation process, drawing on survey research conducted in 2013 among approximately seventy advisors at the European Union Council of Ministers. Defining advice as “\(\ldots \)a communication from one person (the advisor) to another (the client) for the purpose of helping that second person determine a course of action for solving a particular problem\(\ldots \)”, the author considers the nature of advice and the range of relationships that may exist between advisors and their clients. He argues that advising is much more than the mere transmittal of information from advisor to negotiator and that for advice to be effective a relationship must exist between the two parties. The author identifies three models of the advisor–negotiator relationship. Model I is the advisor as director, wherein the advisor tends to take control of the negotiating process, directing the negotiator in actions that the negotiator should take to achieve success at the negotiation. Model II is the advisor as servant in which the advisor merely responds to the demands of the client for help and guidance in the negotiation. Model III is the advisor as partner, wherein advisor and negotiator jointly manage the advising process and together take co-ownership of the problem to be solved. The author then explores the factors that lead advisors and negotiators to adopt each of these three models, the various advising styles that advisors adopt, and the differing effects on the negotiation process that these elements may have, drawing on historical examples as well as survey data from the EU Council of Ministers. He concludes by offering advice about advising to three important professional groups—scholars, negotiators, and advisors—on ways to carry out their respective functions more effectively.