Gender Diversity in Corporate Governance and Top Management

This article examines whether and how the participation of women in the firm’s board of directors and senior management enhances financial performance. We use the Fama and French (1992, 1993) valuation framework to take the level of risk into consideration, when comparing firm performances, whereas previous studies used either raw stock returns or accounting ratios. Our results indicate that firms operating in complex environments do generate positive and significant abnormal returns when they have a high proportion of women officers. Although the participation of women as directors does not seem to make a difference in this regard, firms with a high proportion of women in both their management and governance systems generate enough value to keep up with normal stock-market returns. These findings tend to support the policies currently being discussed or implemented in some countries and organizations to foster the advancement of women in business.     

Stereotypical or just typical: how do US practitioners view the role and function of gender stereotypes in advertisements?

There is a long and diverse literature on gender stereotypes in advertising; however, US practitioners’ perspectives on the role and function of stereotypes in advertising remain unknown. Understanding professionals’ views on whether and how stereotypes communicate is important for anyone who believes it beneficial to reduce future stereotypical representations. Using qualitative interviews with 42 practitioners, this study detailed seven themes concerning professionals’ perceptions of the role and function of stereotypes in advertising, including beliefs that stereotypes are based in truth, are attractive to audiences, communicate quickly, simplify processing, prevent distraction, prevent thinking, and are the obvious solution. Practitioners felt stereotypes were used most appropriately when they were subverted or challenged in advertising messages. Stereotypes were most inappropriate when they reinforced negative perceptions. Four factors believed to drive the use of stereotypes in advertising are discussed.     

Strategies for improving cruise product sales using hybrid ‘multiple criteria decision making’ models

As airlines have shifted to decommission policies, selling cruise products has become a growing trend in the travel industry. However, few studies have discussed this issue or proposed strategies to help improve sales for travel agencies. The purpose of this study is to address this problem, using the novel method of hybrid multiple criteria decision making, including decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), the DEMATEL-based analytic network process and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje), to present optimal improvement models, which are superior in identifying both an influential network and a priority sequence of dimensions/criteria related to selling cruises. The findings provide useful schemes for decision makers according to the priorities of influential weightings from high to low or the sequence of gap values to aspired level from low to high.     

Assessing the Impact of Service Employees' Nonverbal Sexual Signals on Consumer Attitudes: A Caribbean Perspective

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effects of nonverbal sexual signals by service employees on consumer attitudes. An experimental design was used to manipulate the nonverbal gender cues exhibited by service employees in a high- and low-contact service setting. As predicted, heterosexual customers who perceived the service employee to be homosexual vs. heterosexual had a significantly more negative attitude towards the employee and company. Attitudes towards the company were more negative for a high-contact vs. low-contact service but, surprisingly, there was no significant difference in attitudes towards the employee across service types.     

基于委托代理的国有企业绩效考核准则

绩效考核是建立激励约束制度的基础，是完善国有企业治理的重要组成部分，它是将所有者目标传递给经营者，使经营者的努力方向与所有者目标一致。因此，通过构建考核准则，可以减少信息不对称和降低代理成本，提高国有企业绩效。     

Do you want me to watch this ad on social media?: The effects of norms on online video ad watching

This study examines the influences of norms on consumers’ intentions to watch online video ads on social media. The social norms approach and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) were adopted as theoretical frameworks. In addition, the effects of interpersonal and social influences on the three personal-level norms were examined as the antecedents of normative perceptions. To test the hypothesized model, an online survey was conducted with 313 undergraduate students. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the measurement constructs of the model, and a structural equation modeling was used to identify the relationships among constructs in the model. Findings indicate that personal injunctive norms and subjective norms were positively related to consumers’ intention to watch online video ads. Interpersonal and social influences were positively related to three normative perceptions regarding online video ad watching. The findings of this study contribute to the research stream on social norms approach and TRA and provide practical implications for advertising and marketing practitioners.     

Women's self-employment: An act of institutional (dis)integration? A multilevel,cross-country study

In this paper we investigate the extent to which gender equality disintegrates women's self-employment choice (compared to that for men) and whether this is contingent upon a country's development stage and industries. We rely on symbolic interactionism to argue that employment choices emerge from an interactive conversation between individual and social institutional processes. Using data from 61 countries, we find that overall gender equality is associated with the gender gap in men's and women's self-employment choices and that this association depends upon the country's development stage and industries. Contributions are made to women's entrepreneurship and institutional theory.     

Performance of China’s advertising agencies: a time series cross-sectional analysis

Although China has been the world’s second largest advertising market after the United States in terms of advertising spending since 2006, the performance of advertising agencies in China and the factors that contribute to this performance have been understudied. However, by incorporating the structure-conduct-performance model and agency theory into the integrative framework and conducting a time series cross-sectional analysis, we determine that the degree of concentration in the advertising agency industry and number of regulations in the advertising industry have had significant negative effects on the financial performance of agencies. In addition, agencies with mainly foreign capital have performed better than those with only Chinese capital. Agencies adopting strategies of initial public offering (IPOs) or engaging in name changes and mergers have performed better than those that have done nothing. Implications are also discussed.     

Investor reaction to women directors

Existing studies on women directorships present equivocal results on the association between appointing women directors and firm performance. These studies tend to focus on western countries and largely ignore investors' reactions to such appointments. This paper applies the financial event study method and finds that investors generally respond positively to the appointment of women directors in Singaporean firms. Regression analyses also reveal that investors are most receptive when the women are independent directors and are least receptive when the directors assume the CEO role. This study not only tests the theory of gender diversity in an Asian context but also examines whether investors react systematically to the different positions that women directors hold on corporate boards, a question that has received little attention in prior studies.     

Effects of Gender,Occupational Stereotyping,and Culture on Perceived Service Quality in Anglo-Saxon and Middle Eastern Cultures

This article investigates whether customers perceive receiving better service from same-gender service providers or from opposite-gender service providers. It also examines how occupational stereotyping and cultural values influence the perceived quality of service in eight industries. Based on 1,180 respondents from four counties, insights are provided on the effects of gender, occupational stereotyping, and culture on service quality. The study found significant gender and cultural effects on service quality and significant interaction effects of gender and culture. It was also determined that occupational stereotyping and culture significantly affect perceived service quality within each culture, which could have important managerial implications.     

职业经理人薪酬实证研究述评

职业经理人薪酬是近年来国内外理论界关注的热点问题.本文对职业经理人薪酬的实证研究进行了全面回顾,并对今后我国职业经理人的薪酬研究作出了展望.