Family Ties that B(l)ind: Do Family-Owned Franchisees Have Lower Financial Performance than Nonfamily-Owned Franchisees?

Over the past three decades, franchisee performance has attracted the attention of scholars in both retailing and entrepreneurship. However, to date, research has not investigated whether the type of franchisee ownership influences franchisee financial performance. Family ownership, the most dominant form of firm organization worldwide, ingrains greater focus on noneconomic goals that could, in turn, reduce the financial performance of a family-owned franchisee. Drawing on the tenets of agency theory undergirding the franchising and family business literature, we examine whether family-owned franchisees have lower financial performance than nonfamily-owned franchisees. Using data from the 2007 Small Business Owner survey and propensity score matching, we observed that family franchisees generated at least 6.7% lower sales per employee than nonfamily franchisees. The inferences are consistent across two additional samples and robust to additional performance outcomes and specifications. Overall, this research provides a novel empirical examination of the influence of family ownership on franchisee financial performance and has managerial implications for both franchisors and franchisees.     

How Do You Consume in China?

On the topic of Chinese consumption style,China's Foreign Trade held a gossip salon to listen to the truest voices from common Chinese residences living in different backgrounds and cities,also foreign expats in China.     

How Do China's Economic Policies Work?

All the indicators of China's economic data in the first half of 2008 have shown that the fast growth is not going to translate into overheating.But given the complicated economic situation now,it remains a headache to maintain a steady economic growth.What challenges will there be in China's economic development in the second halfofthis year?And what policy would be the key to the problems?     

How Do Chinese Firms Deal with Inter-Organizational Conflict?

Based on social exchange and customer relationship marketing theory, this study examines how ethical leadership contributes to inter-organizational conflict management (task conflict (TC) and relationship conflict), and the moderating role of task interdependence in these relationships. Data was collected from 81 suppliers and 45 corresponding managers of a large group company in China. Results show that ethical leadership is negatively associated with the levels of inter-organizational conflict, whether task or relationship. Task interdependence significantly moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and TC. Managerial implication in terms of creating sound buyer–supplier relationship through an ethical perspective is discussed.     

Where Do Firms Export,How Much and Why?

The empirical finding that exporting firms are more productive on average than non‐exporters has provoked a large theoretical literature based on models such as Melitz ( 2003 ), where more productive firms are more likely to overcome costs associated with trade. This paper investigates how closely the productivity heterogeneity framework fits the data from a firm‐level survey that includes information on export destinations and firm characteristics such as productivity. We find a high degree of unpredictable idiosyncratic participation in export markets by firms and a relatively weak positive correlation between the extent of a firm's export market participation and its export sales. We find that a small number of standard gravity variables provide a close fit to the country‐level determinants of trade but that greater variation results in more difficulty in explaining firm‐specific factors driving exporting behaviour. We also illustrate some elements of the dynamics over time in firm exporting patterns by destination. We show that lagged exporting activity has a significant effect on a firm's current exporting profile.     

How Do Exporters React to Changes in Cost Competitiveness?

Various international institutions such as the European Commission, the ECB and the OECD often use unit labour costs as a measure of international competitiveness. The goal of this paper was to examine how well this measure is related to international export performance at the firm level. To this end, we use Belgian firm‐level data for the period 1999 to 2010 to analyse the impact of unit labour costs on exports. We find an estimated elasticity of the intensive margin of exports with respect to unit labour costs between −0.2 and −0.4. This elasticity varies between sectors and between firms, with more labour‐intensive firms having a higher elasticity. The microdata also enable us to analyse the impact of unit labour costs on the extensive margin. Our results show that higher unit labour costs reduce the probability of starting to export for non‐exporters and increase the probability of exporters stopping. While our results show that unit labour costs have an impact on the intensive margin and extensive margin of firm‐level exports, the effect is rather low, suggesting that pass‐through of costs into prices is limited. The latter is consistent with recent trade models emphasising that not only relative costs, but also demand factors such as quality and taste matter for explaining firm‐level exports.     

How Well Do Consumers Protect Themselves from Identity Theft?

Identity theft is a serious and increasingly prevalent crime, and consumers need to take preventative measures to minimize the chance of becoming a victim. In an effort to assess consumer preparedness, this exploratory study measured the self‐reported behavior of 61 college students and 59 non‐students on thirteen identity theft preventative activities that were suggested by the Federal Trade Commission. Consumer education appears to be adequate for several identify theft preventative behaviors, but not for others. In addition, students and non‐students demonstrated some interesting divergencies in behavior. Based on these preliminary findings, areas for increased consumer education and future research are recommended.     

Establishing Organizational Ethical Climates: How Do Managerial Practices Work?

Over the past two decades, Victor and Cullen’s (Adm Sci Q 33:101–125, 1988) typology of ethical climates has been employed by many academics in research on issues of ethical climates. However, little is known about how managerial practices such as communication and empowerment influence ethical climates, especially from a functional perspective. The current study used a survey of employees from Taiwan’s top 100 patent-owning companies to examine how communication and empowerment affect organizational ethical climates. The results confirm the relationship between these two managerial practices and organizational ethical climates. We discuss our results and their implications for both future academic research and practice.     

Manager Trustworthiness or Interactional Justice? Predicting Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are essential for effective organizational functioning. Decisions by employees to engage in these important discretionary behaviors are based on how they make sense of the organizational context. Using fairness heuristic theory, we tested two important OCB predictors: manager trustworthiness and interactional justice. In the process, we control for the effects of dispositional factors (propensity to trust) and for system-based organizational fairness (procedural and distributive justice). Results, based on surveys collected from 120 employee–supervisor dyads, indicate that manager trustworthiness explains variance in OCBs over and above the variance accounted for by interactional fairness. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

How Wisely Do Consumers Select Their Property and Liability Insurance Coverages?

Responses from a consumer panel in South Carolina were used to evaluate consumers' selections of homeowner's and auto insurance coverages. The results indicate that many consumers violate accepted decision rules for selecting coverages. Liability limits typically were below usually recommended levels, while most respondents had selected only small deductibles. Responses also indicated that a major portion of the respondents had not been provided information by their agents to assist them in the selection of coverage. Respondents who reported they had received information from their agents typically had made more appropriate selections than those who had not.     

Do Consumers Really Know How Much They Are Willing to Pay?

Previous research reveals willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) obtained through consumer surveys and experiments is often influenced by arbitrary information that, from a normative perspective, should have no influence on WTP. This article utilizes data collected from a split‐sample online survey to determine whether the bias induced from arbitrary anchors can be mitigated with a preference elicitation approach designed to facilitate the preference‐discovery process by revealing tradeoffs and consequences implied by stated WTP. The approach forces internal consistency between statements of value and preference orderings. We compare the WTP elicited using the new approach to two more simplified elicitation devices by determining sensitivity to an arbitrary anchor and by determining predictive validity relative to a holdout choice. Our results indicate that the imposition of internal consistency yields more stable estimates of WTP; however, there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that the method provides WTP estimates that lead to a higher degree of predictive validity .     

How Do Costume Listing Companies Perform？

Three Features could be read from the pertbrmance of China＇s costume listing companies in 2007.     

How Do Franchise Contracts Evolve? A Study of Three German SMEs*

Although contracts are crucial for franchisors in managing relationships with franchisees, franchising research has not adequately investigated whether and how franchisors learn about effective contracts. This paper explores the evolution of formal contracts used by three German chains from the restaurant, hotel, and retailing industries. We describe the nature of learning involved in designing contracts in the sampled chains, and suggest reasons why contracts change over time. Despite the fact that drafting contracts with independent entrepreneurs is one of the important tasks the franchisor is rewarded for, we found that franchisors remain boundedly rational and therefore are unable to completely anticipate undesirable franchisee behavior and to incorporate suitable safeguards. We develop propositions to suggest that: (1) learning explains contract design capability better than does foresight, (2) a new management and the pursuit of uniformity lead to contract changes, and (3) the presence of an active franchisee council promotes the efficiency of the contract change process. We offer implications of our findings for theory, practice, and research.     

How Do Front and Back Package Labels Influence Beliefs About Health Claims?

One dilemma with health claims is that too much information can confuse consumers and too little information can mislead them. A controlled study is used to examine the effectiveness of various front‐sided health claims when used in combination with a full health claim on the back of a package. The results indicate that combining short health claims on the front of a package with full health claims on the back of the package leads consumers to more fully process and believe the claim. The basic finding that using two sides of a package (short claim on front; long on back) increases the believability of health claims is relevant for policymakers, consumers, and researchers.     

Europoly Money: How Do Tourists Convert Foreign Currencies to Make Spending Decisions?

This paper examines how tourists convert foreign currencies to make spending decisions. Six studies demonstrate how sequential (Study 1) and simultaneous (Study 2) exposure to nominally different (but economically identical) prices, and the manner in which tourists perform currency conversions (Studies 3–5) influence price perceptions and purchase intentions. Study 6 shows the effects using macroeconomic spending behavior from 1993 to 2008 spanning the introduction of the Euro. The general discussion concludes with a model of how numerical inputs are combined to make judgments as a function of the number of inputs available and their ease of use.     

Ethical Distance in Corrupt Firms: How Do Innocent Bystanders Become Guilty Perpetrators?

This paper develops the concept of the ‘continuum of destructiveness’ in relation to organizational corruption. This notion captures the slippery slope of wrongdoing as actors engage in increasingly dubious practices. We identify four kinds of individuals along this continuum in corrupt organizations, who range from complete innocence to total guilt. They are innocent bystanders, innocent participants, active rationalizers and guilty perpetrators. Traditional explanations of how individuals move from bystander status to guilty perpetrators usually focus on socialization and institutional factors. In addition to these factors, we propose that the very distance between an act and its ethical consequences (ethical distance) may also play a determining role – if not always in the same way – in the transition process. Having developed this conceptual argument, we conclude with a discussion of managerial and research implications. An Earlier version of this paper was presented at the The Twelfth Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics, New York, October 2005     

How Do Real Estate Firms Expand Nationwide？

China's real estate industry is undergoing rapid growth, and the market is becoming even more centralized with the new macro-control measures passed by the government. The battle among real estate companies is stiffening and big companies are swallowing up their smaller rivals. These days, real estate developers have been forced to expand inter-regionally due to rapid growth in the industry and bitter competition in the market.     

How Do Price Perceptions of Different Brand Types Affect Shopping Value and Store Loyalty?

This research investigates the relationships among price perceptions for different brand types (national brands, standard store brands, regional store brands, organic store brands), shopping value dimensions (quality, price, social, and emotion value), and store loyalty (retention and word of mouth (WOM)). A comprehensive model depicts determinants of customer store loyalty. Using structural equation modeling, the model test includes 671 consumers intercepted during shopping trips. The data analysis yields several surprising results. In particular, low product price perceptions do not necessarily signal negative store quality evaluations. Shopping value dimensions influence store retention loyalty and WOM behavior differently. Furthermore, different brand types exert distinct effects on the value creation process. Favorable prices for national and standard store brands have comparable positive effects on store price value and emotional value creation; appealing prices of regional store brands instead reduce the emotional value of the store, and low prices for organic store brand products significantly increase social value creation.