Market-oriented institutional change and R&D investments: Do business groups enhance advantage?

Emerging market firms (EMFs) are increasingly relying on innovation to find their competitive advantage, but our understanding of how institutional change affects firm innovation has been limited. We analyzed Korean manufacturing firms from 1994 to 2006 to test the proposition that market-oriented institutional change in an emerging economy alleviates firms’ financing constraints and monitoring problems and improves the effectiveness of their innovation activities. Institutional evolution in the economy was found to affect Korean business groups and independent firms differently. Institutional change reduced the financing constraints on independent firms more than for business group affiliates in R&D investment. Independent firms, however, appeared less capable than group affiliates of translating the benefits of improved institutional environments into efficient R&D investment. This asymmetry may lead to a wider gap in the efficiency of R&D investment between business group affiliates and independent firms.     

Perceived justice and post-recovery satisfaction in banking service failures: Do commitment types matter?

Based on the notion that the types of customer commitment to a service provider may have diverse reasons and effects on the customer’s perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, this study aims to investigate the different buffering effects of calculative and affective commitments on the perceived justice and post-recovery satisfaction (PRS) relationship. Multiple and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted based on survey data collected from 284 households who experienced service failure in the banking sector. Results revealed that while affective commitment moderates the effects of procedural and interactional justice, calculative commitment increases the impact of distributive and procedural justice on PRS.     

Science and Technology Take-off in China?: Sources of Rising R&D Intensity

China's ratio of research and development (R&D) spending to its gross domestic product (GDP) more than doubled from 0.6 per cent in 1996 to 1.4 per cent in 2005. This study documents the pattern of science and technology (S & T) take-off, characterized by an abrupt increase in the R&D to GDP ratio. This abrupt increase, observed in many of the now Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, typically drives R&D intensity from below 1 per cent to the range of 2–3 per cent. The question addressed in this work is whether China has begun a similar S & T take-off. The study reviews several conditions identified in the endogenous growth literature that drives R&D intensification and notes their emergence in China during the past decade. It also speculates why China's R&D intensification appears to be starting at such a low level of income per capita.     

Do Mature Firms Gain Higher Economic Value from R&D Investment?

Despite the significance of economic value indicators in the measurement of firm value, not much attention has been dedicated to how research and development (R&D) influences firms’ economic value. This study examines the relationship between R&D investments and firms’ economic value and considers the moderating role of age in the relationship using a dataset from manufacturing and information and technology firms in China. The results show that R&D investments impact firms’ economic value positively. This suggests that firms that invest in R&D are rewarded with a monopoly, which increases their market shares, thereby increasing economic value. Again, we find that older firms increase their economic value more than younger ones when they both invest in R&D. Thus, younger firms in China suffer from the liability of newness when they invest in R&D. It is recommended that these younger firms should strive to shorten the time to reap the returns from R&D investments.

     

Shopping trip value: Do stores and products matter?

Previous research indicates the importance of shopping trip value but recognises that consumers do not shop independent of the environment; both products and stores contribute to overall shopping trip value. This study identifies the impact of product and store value on overall shopping trip value and investigates the interrelationship among their utilitarian and hedonic components. In addition, it proposes a store value scale. The authors find empirically that utilitarian store value and performance-related product value have significant effects on utilitarian shopping trip value, whereas hedonic shopping trip value is influenced most by hedonic store value and emotional product value. In addition, women appear more prone to hedonic shopping trip value yet also utilitarian store value, while men were more attentive to utilitarian product value.     

Antecedents of mentoring: Do multi-faceted job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment matter?

This study examines the relationships between work attitudes, willingness to mentor and business-to-business salesperson mentoring support. Results provide evidence that individual directed organizational citizenship behavior (altruism) and willingness to mentor may not share as many antecedents as the literature conceptualizes. Willingness to mentor is a strong predictor of serving as a mentor and mentors most willing to mentor provide protégés with the greatest vocational, psychosocial and role modeling support. The findings raise concerns regarding the applicability of organizational citizenship behavior theory as a framework for understanding why employees mentor.     

When do firms benefit from university–industry R&D collaborations? The implications of firm R&D focus on scientific research and technological recombination

Firms' access to academic discoveries through R&D collaborations has been shown to enhance their patent performance. However, increasing both internal and external R&D activities can lead to high knowledge redundancy and coordination costs. This paper examines what kind of R&D focus inside the firm will improve or reduce the benefits of R&D collaborations with universities. Our results show that technological recombination focus strengthens the relationship between university collaborations and patent performance, whereas scientific research focus weakens the relationship. These results also differ between young and old firms, implying that firms may shift their R&D focus according to their collaborative objectives.     

R&D: Who does the R,who does the D?

This paper examines the determinants of the allocation of national R&D resources between research and development activities. We derive conditions under which a firm being outdistanced by a foreign rival in a two-stage international patent race would drop out, and relate those conditions to home-market size and to the race's cost and risk characteristics. Because of this “discouragement effect”, firms located in smaller markets appear as if they were, on average, less successful in transforming research expertise into commercial product development. We also show that in a two-sector model (R and D), the proportion of R&D resources going into product development as opposed to research increases with country size. Moreover, starting from a symmetric game and increasing the size of one country induces the opposite effect on other countries (a shift of R&D resources from development to research) through strategic interaction among research teams.     

Strategic orientations of born globals—Do they really matter?

This paper contributes to the literature on born globals by introducing the concept of strategic orientations into this domain. Only few empirical studies have investigated them in this context. The study extends the existing knowledge on born globals and responds to complaints about lacking empirical research in this as yet infant field. The literature on strategic orientations and born globals was used as a basis for drawing up the hypotheses, which were tested with data from 299 Finnish companies representing several different industrial sectors. The findings indicate that strategic orientations are related to a firm's international performance. This relationship is moderated by its international growth strategy.     

The dynamics of trade composition: Do trade-type interdependencies matter?

This paper explores the changes of trade composition in the Food Products, Beverages & Tobacco industry in the European Union (12 countries) from 1985 to 2007, using an empirical modeling framework based on the statistical support proposed by Márquez et al. The contribution of this study is mainly empirical. On the one hand, we investigate whether the interdependencies (complementary or substitutable) between trade types are significant and hence if they are able to affect trade composition. And on the other, we provide a ranking of the dynamic drivers of trade composition (such as market size, endowments, technology, and consumer tastes and preferences). The econometric analysis reveals evidence of significant interdependencies between some trade components. The results point to technological capital and market size as the most important drivers of Food Products, Beverages & Tobacco in European trade, and suggest some relevant economic policy recommendations to foster industries in the sector and positively influence its pattern of trade.     

The performance of small and medium-sized technology-based enterprises: Do product diversity and international diversity matter?

This paper examines the individual and interaction effects of product diversity and international diversity on the performance of small- and medium-sized technology-based enterprises (SMTEs). We measure international diversity by geographic spread and geographic concentration, and also divide product diversity into related and unrelated dimensions. Several important findings are revealed. First, profitability is insignificantly associated with both related diversification and unrelated diversification. Second, both geographic spread and concentration have a curvilinear relationship with performance. Third, some interaction effects between product diversity and international diversity are highly significant in comparison with their individual effects.     

Does ethical leadership enhance group learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical conduct,justice climate,and peer justice

The link between ethical leadership and employees' ethical behaviors is well established, but are ethical leadership's benefits confined to ethical behaviors? This study aimed to address this question by examining the extent to which ethical leaders create an environment conducive to cultivating a broader set of desirable behaviors such as group learning behavior. We drew upon and integrated insights from social learning theory and the social marketplace model to develop and test a model that illuminates how ethical leadership enhances group learning behavior. We propose that group ethical conduct, justice climate, and peer justice are three contextual mechanisms through which ethical leadership improves group learning. Using data collected over two time periods from 95 supervisors and 323 work group members from a large financial institution in the United States, we found that ethical leadership significantly relates to group learning behavior, and that this relationship is partially explained by group ethical conduct and peer justice, but not justice climate. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

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.     

The effects of innovative capabilities on exporting: Do institutional forces matter?

We challenge the assumption that innovative capabilities are always beneficial for exporting by developing and testing the premise that export performance is contingent on firm- and location-specific institutional idiosyncrasies. Testing our framework against a large dataset for China, we demonstrate that foreign ownership, business group affiliation, and the degree of marketization of the region where the firm operates positively moderate the effects of innovative capabilities on export performance. Government relationships have a stronger positive moderating effect on the innovation–export relationship in regions with a high level of marketization only. Our findings suggest that the relationship between innovative capabilities and export performance is not uniform but rather contingent upon the institutional setting in which the firm is embedded. These results have important implications for how policymakers promote exporting and open up new theoretical avenues for conceptualizing the internationalization implications of innovation.     

Sustaining imperfectly credible trade liberalization: Do the rate of tariff reduction and the degree of labour mobility matter?

Abstract

Imperfectly credible trade liberalization can lead to balance of payment deterioration and a subsequent reversal of the reform. Therefore, this paper examines whether the likelihood of policy reversal depends on the rate of tariff reduction or the degree of labour mobility. The analysis shows that transitory unemployment increases the likelihood of policy reversal. Furthermore, a gradual reduction in the tariff rate is found to extend the life of the liberalization episode, but does not necessarily increase the likelihood of sustained liberalization.     

Ethical behavior perceptions in Russia: Do ethics-related programs and individual characteristics matter?

This paper aims to analyze how individual differences and ethics-related programs predict Russian business students and working adults' perception of personal business ethics. This research evaluates the business ethics perceptions based on surveys of 1,207 managers, employees, and business students in Russia. This study finds the significant correlations between individual differences (gender, age, education level, and management experience), ethics-related programs (business ethics courses taught in universities, ethics and diversity professional development training), and personal business ethics' perceptions of Russian business students and working adults. We also find that individual differences moderate the relationship between ethics-related programs and how the personal business ethics of Russian business students and working adults are perceived. These findings advance current literature by revealing that age moderates the relationship between ethics-related programs (formal ethic courses, ethics, and diversity trainings) and personal ethical behavior perceptions of working adults and business students in Russia. Our study found that gender had a significant positive moderating effect on relationship of organizational code of ethics, formal ethic courses, and diversity professional development with personal ethical behavior perceptions. The relation between personal ethical behavior perceptions and the presence of an organizational code of ethics was negative and marginally moderated by age and managerial experience. This study contributes to business ethics research by deepening the understanding of the impact of individual differences on the relationship between ethics-related programs and personal business ethics' perceptions.     

The impact of channel integration on consumers’ channel preferences: Do showrooming and webrooming behaviors matter?

This study investigates the relationships among channel integration and consumers' online and offline patronage intentions. The theoretical framework proposes perceived empowerment, perceived assortment, and perceived benefits as mediating variables in the channel integration–patronage intention relationship, with consumer showrooming and webrooming behaviors as moderating variables. Data was collected by means of two studies; that is, for search and for experience products, respectively. The proposed conceptual model was tested by employing variance-based structural equation modeling. The results of both studies confirm that channel integration significantly affects consumers’ channel preferences. The mediating roles of empowerment, assortment, and benefits were confirmed for all of the relationships except for the mediating effect of empowerment on the relationship between channel integration and offline patronage intention. Further, showrooming and webrooming moderated the positive impact of channel integration on online/offline patronage intentions. The study contributes to the multi-channel retailing literature by providing useful implications for academicians and practitioners.     

Do career satisfaction and support mediate the effects of justice on organizational citizenship behaviour and counterproductive work behaviour?

Following Lavelle, Rupp, and Brockner's ( 2007 ) target similarity framework, we propose that perceptions of support and career satisfaction mediate the influence of justice perceptions on citizenship and counterproductive performance. Structural equation modelling results from 356 employees supporting partial mediation. Collectively, the model explained 19% of the variance in perceptions of organizational support, 44% in perceived supervisor support, 33% in career satisfaction, 35% in citizenship performance directed toward the supervisor, 42% in citizenship performance directed toward the organization, 49% in job/task conscientiousness citizenship performance, 9% in counterproductive performance toward the supervisor, and 20% of the variance in counterproductive performance directed toward the organization. We argue that distributive, procedural, informational, and interpersonal dimensions of organizational justice follow different pathways and variously influence organizational outcomes. We discuss the implications of the results for the target similarity framework and more generally for human resources management. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do founders matter? A study of executive compensation,governance structure and firm performance

This study compares founder-CEOs and professional CEOs in newly public firms in terms of executive compensation, governance structure, and firm performance. The paper applies a series of decomposition methods to separate founders' extrinsic characteristics from their intrinsic endowments. The paper finds that founder CEOs tend to earn smaller incentive compensation and smaller total compensation than professional CEOs. Founder-managed firms are associated with higher financial performance and are more likely to survive than professional managed firms. Firms with founder-CEOs are associated with even higher financial performance when the position of CEO and chairperson of the board is combined.     

Effect of R&D and Market Concentration on Merger Outcomes – An Event Study of US Horizontal Mergers

This study examines the pattern of abnormal returns for merging companies and rivals, to determine investor expectations regarding the impact of horizontal mergers challenged by the government. Prior studies have indicated that the government may have challenged efficiency-enhancing mergers, as evidenced by the pattern of abnormal returns to rivals during merger events. This study uses a two-stage regression approach to examine those patterns, using challenged mergers from 1997 to 2007, and finds evidence of potential price effects from approved mergers. The results also show the mergers to have differential effects depending on the level of R&D, market concentration, and product sales.