Behavioral Interventions to Increase Tax‐Time Saving: Evidence from a National Randomized Trial

We provide new large‐scale experimental evidence on policies that aim to boost household saving out of income tax refunds. Households that filed income tax returns with an online tax preparer and chose to receive their refund electronically were randomized into eight treatment groups, which received different combinations of motivational saving prompts and suggested shares of the refund to save—25% and 75%—and a control group, which received neither. In treatment conditions where they were presented, motivational prompts focused on various savings goals: general, retirement, or emergency. Analysis reveals that higher suggested that allocations generated increased allocations of the refund to savings but that prompts for different reasons to save did not. These interventions, which draw on lessons from behavioral economics, represent potentially low‐cost, scalable tools for policy makers interested in helping low‐ and moderate‐income households build savings.     

Market Incentives for Business Innovation: Results from Canada

Are more competitive industries more innovative? Empirical investigation into various theories of innovation in industrial organization, agency theory, or endogenous growth, make diverse predictions with respect to this long-standing open question in economics. In this paper, we investigate the empirical relationship between competition intensity and firm innovation using a new micro-database containing a large sample of Canadian manufacturing enterprises over the 2000–05 period. Using three different measures of competition intensity, we find evidence that competition intensity is positively related to firm-level expenditures on research and development (R&D) in Canadian manufacturing industries. However, we also find that this relationship is dampened when more firms are further from the technological frontier of their industry. Nevertheless, the results provide evidence for a Schumpeterian interpretation, whereby market power can increase business incentives for innovation when many firms are technological laggards.     

Does Ethics Training Neutralize the Incentives of the Prisoner's Dilemma? Evidence from a Classroom Experiment

Teaching economics has been shown to encourage students to defect in a prisoner's dilemma game. However, can ethics training reverse that effect and promote cooperation? We conducted an experiment to answer this question. We found that students who had the ethics module had higher rates of cooperation than students without the ethics module, even after controlling for communication and other factors expected to affect cooperation. We conclude that the teaching of ethics can mitigate the possible adverse incentives of the prisoner's dilemma, and, by implication, the adverse effects of economics and business training.     

美国经济政策不确定性溢出效应研究:来自新兴经济体银团贷款的证据

近年来,中国面临外部风险冲击因素明显增多,其中以美国经济政策不确定性溢出效应影响最为突出。为系统评估美国经济政策不确定性对微观市场主体融资的影响,利用1989年1月至2019年7月美国经济政策不确定性数据以及38个新兴经济体企业银团贷款数据,实证分析了美国经济政策不确定性的溢出效应。研究发现:美国经济政策不确定性对新兴经济体企业融资存在溢出效应,即随着美国经济政策不确定性、货币政策不确定性和贸易政策不确定性的增加,新兴经济体企业银团贷款利率会显著提高。进一步研究发现,美国经济政策不确定性溢出渠道包括美元贷款和美国银行贷款等,美国经济政策不确定性和货币政策不确定性会通过美元和美国银行贷款路径显著提高新兴经济体企业银团贷款利率,而贸易政策不确定性仅通过美元贷款渠道对新兴经济体企业银团贷款利率产生溢出效应。     

The Virtuous Influence of Ethical Leadership Behavior: Evidence from the Field

This study examines a moderated/mediated model of ethical leadership on follower job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. We proposed that managers have the potential to be agents of virtue or vice within organizations. Specifically, through ethical leadership behavior we argued that managers can virtuously influence perceptions of ethical climate, which in turn will positively impact organizational members’ flourishing as measured by job satisfaction and affective commitment to the organization. We also hypothesized that perceptions of interactional justice would moderate the ethical leadership-to-climate relationship. Our results indicate that ethical leadership has both a direct and indirect influence on follower job satisfaction and affective commitment. The indirect effect of ethical leadership involves shaping perceptions of ethical climate, which in turn, engender greater job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Furthermore, when interactional justice is perceived to be high, this strengthens the ethical leadership-to-climate relationship.     

Better Decision-Making: a Field Study

Based on a large research project in north America, this article suggests that only about half of managers' decisions are successful, and that managers themselves are often unaware that the way that they go about making decisions is the main cause of failure. The implication is that inadequate decision-making techniques cost billions of dollars each year in wasted time and money. The author analyses the way managers behave at different stages of the decision-making process and identifies guidelines for best practice from the experience of the managers involved.     

CSR Practices and Corporate Strategy: Evidence from a Longitudinal Case Study

This paper aims to contribute to the present debate about business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that the Journal of Business Ethics is hosting. Numerous contributions argued theoretical frameworks and taxonomies of CSR practices. The authors want to ground in this knowledge and provide further evidence about how companies adopt CSR practices to address stakeholders’ claims and consolidate their trust. Evidence was provided by a longitudinal case study about an Italian food company that is one of the largest producers of baby food. This company reshaped its corporate strategy along three decades through the adoption of CSR practices in order to win stakeholders’ trust about food safety and supply chain behaviour. The empirical exercise was informed by a literature review of the relevant contributions in terms of CSR business practices and levels of efforts to adopt them. In light of this review, the authors adopted for the research framework the taxonomy of business practices proposed by Spiller (2000, “Ethical Business and Investment: A Model for Business and Society”, Journal of Business Ethics 27, 149-160) and the levels of commitment towards CSR proposed by Stahl and Grigsby (1997, Strategic Management; Total Quality & Global Competition (Blackwell, Oxford)). The main findings are discussed in order to argue theoretical implications and identify further areas of research and debate.     

Effects of $9 Price Endings on Retail Sales: Evidence from Field Experiments

Although the use of $9 price endings is widespread amongst US retailers there is little evidence of their effectiveness. In this paper, we present a series of three field-studies in which price endings were experimentally manipulated. The data yield two conclusions. First, use of a $9 price ending increased demand in all three experiments. Second, the increase in demand was stronger for new items than for items that the retailer had sold in previous years. There is also some evidence that $9 price endings are less effective when retailers use Sale cues. Together, these results suggest that $9-endings may be more effective when customers have limited information, which may in turn help to explain why retailers do not use $9 price endings on every item.     

Conceptualizing the Dynamics of Social Responsibility: Evidence from a Case Study of Estonia

During the last decade and a half, Estonia has concentrated predominantly on economic development in its narrowest sense. Currently, the emphasis is gradually moving towards a broader approach, including an increasingly social agenda. The research question here concerns the awareness of corporate social responsibility among Estonian owners and managers. Empirical research in Estonia indicates that there has been a shift towards recognizing the importance of social responsibility, but this primarily concerns the “lower layers” of social responsibility, recognizing the importance of economic responsibility and in some respects also public responsibility. Responses in interviews show a certain amount of personal initiative, but these are single examples rather than a general trend and are not enough to change the overall picture. Still, in any assessment of the current situation regarding social responsibility in Estonia, emphasis should be laid on the fact that changes are taking effect and will continue to do so. In transition economies, including Estonia, we should not overlook the fact that, at least in the early years of transition, the focus is on a rapid economic development where the social side will inevitably be left in the background and economic development will take place at the expense of social and environmental development.     

公允价值会计信息对银行贷款契约有用吗——基于上市公司数据的实证检验

本文以2007-2009年上市公司财务会计信息为样本,实证检验新会计准则引入的公允价值会计信息是否以及如何影响公司获取银行贷款,以探讨公允价值会计改革是否有利于提高会计信息的债务契约有用性。研究结果发现,银行贷款与公司核心盈利能力、偿债能力和贷款需求显著相关,企业取得的短期贷款规模与公允价值变动损益相关,但显著水平较低;长期贷款与公允价值变动损益信息无显著相关性;银行能够区分公允价值变动损失与资产减值损失稳定性不同。     

Reputational Implications for Partners After a Major Audit Failure: Evidence from China

This paper questions the taken-for-granted moral portrayal depicted in the extant literature and popular media of the devoted social entrepreneurial hero with a priori good ethical and moral credentials. We confront this somewhat ‘idealistic’ and biased portrayal with insights from unique large-scale data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2009 survey on social entrepreneurship covering Belgium and The Netherlands. Binary and multinomial logistic regressions indicate that the intention and dominance of perceived social value creation over economic value creation is indeed what makes social entrepreneurs unique. In contrast to the extant literature, however, our empirical investigation points at a reluctant attitude of social entrepreneurs toward entrepreneurship in terms of confidence in their skills to start and manage a business, their perception of entrepreneurship as a desirable career choice and their involvement in their activities. While the extant literature points at a strong entrepreneurial orientation as a source of ethical issues (e.g., mission drift, profit orientation), the main contribution of this study lies in the reverse observation: ethical issues are also likely to emanate from a frail entrepreneurial profile. We formulate empirically grounded propositions that may serve as a basis for theory-building and testing purposes.     

国际服务外包动因:从“降低成本”到“提高服务质量”

本文从国际竞争的视角构建了博弈模型来分析国际服务外包的动因。在跨国企业越来越多地外包其核心业务时,寻求高质量的专业服务才是国际服务外包的主要动因。这一结论通过印度、爱尔兰、中国等21国的Panel Data计量模型得到了验证。为此,中国发展国际服务外包业的根本途径在于提高企业自身质量及提供优质的专业服务。     

MNCs and linkages creation: Evidence from a peripheral area

MNCs’ spillovers occur in the local economy through linkages creation, but little it is known so far on the factors affecting the creation of some linkages rather than others by foreign investors. Adopting as a spatial unit of analysis a peripheral sub-national sub-regional area so far little examined by current IB developmental literature, this study investigates how foreign subsidiaries’ local market strategy and organizational structure impact on local linkages creation. Given the number of features shared by the peripheral sub-national sub-regional area under analysis with less developed economies, broader policy implications are drawn for local economic development in less developed countries. Using original survey data, we find that linkages creation is greater when foreign investors entertain market rival relationships with other foreign units and have a competence-creating scope within the corporate organizational structure. The phenomenon also occurs, although to a lesser extent, when foreign investors with a competence-exploiting scope do not compete with other foreign units. Conversely, no linkages are established by rival competence-exploiting subsidiaries.     

Global Social Preferences and the Demand for Socially Responsible Products: Empirical Evidence from a Pilot Study on Fair Trade Consumers

We analyse behaviour and motivations of a sample of about 1,000 consumers purchasing ‘fair trade (FT) goods’, i.e. food and artisan goods which include socially responsible (SR) characteristics and a price premium for primary product producers with respect to equivalent non‐FT products. By estimating a simultaneous two‐equation treatment effect model we find that FT products have less than unit of income elasticity and their demand is negatively (positively) correlated with geographical distance from the nearest shop (age and awareness of SR criteria). Awareness of SR criteria depends, in turn, on a series of factors (consumption habits, membership of volunteer associations) which, indirectly (via increased awareness), significantly affect consumption. We also measure consumers’ willingness to pay in excess for the SR features of FT products with a contingent evaluation approach and find that it is positively correlated with awareness of SR criteria.     

Reports from the Field:

No abstract available for this article.     

建立农业产业化激励机制的思考

农业产业化激励机制主要以物质激励、利益刺激等方式,调动农业产业化主体———农户与农业中介组织参与农业产业化活动的积极性,从而加快农业产业化发展进程,它是推进农业产业化发展的动力之源。文章认为,农业产业化活动激励机制是一种制度创新,它主要包括农业土地制度的创新,农业经济组织的创新,农业技术、信息、资本支持体系的创新及农业产业化政府支持体系的创新等四个方面。     

Long-term Energy Cost Labelling for Appliances: Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial in Ireland

Journal of Consumer Policy - Given the longevity of investments in energy-consuming products (such as household appliances, vehicles, and properties), underinvestment in energy efficiency can have...     

Assessing the Validity of Consumer Ratings for Higher Education: Evidence from a New Survey

This analysis assesses the validity of using consumer surveys to measure the quality of colleges using new survey data from the Strada‐Gallup Education Consumer Survey. I develop an individual consumer rating based on responses to 14 items related to the quality of education and implement two validity tests: Do higher ratings predict higher welfare, and do they correspond to objective quality measures? I conclude that they do. Indeed, the mean ratings of at least 20 other alumni provide a better prediction of individual satisfaction than popular college rankings from media sources. Consumers rate their experiences higher after attending not‐for‐profit colleges that generate better economic opportunities, enroll students with higher test scores, employ well‐paid faculty, and graduate a higher percentage of students who eventually earn doctorates. I conclude that survey‐based consumer ratings of postsecondary institutions can provide valid and reliable quality comparisons.