Acceptance of recommendations to buy in online retailing

Nowadays, many online shops try to improve their customer service by personalization. Personal welcomings, individual assistance as well as recommendations to inform and buy are getting an integral part of the customer communication. These new elements are assumed to increase the retailer's share of wallet and – ideally at the same time – the customer's satisfaction with the online shop. However, till date only few studies have analyzed which external factors influence the customer's acceptance of such assistance. This paper closes this gap by an experiment, where a modified Technology Acceptance Model is used for measuring the customer's acceptance. Volunteers are offered an online shopping experience with individually generated recommendations to buy. The results show a high acceptance of the generated recommendations and how close this acceptance is connected to the quality and shopping relevance of the recommendations. Even though the results are limited to the specific recommendation types used, they give important implications for an adequate design of modern online shops.     

The Consequences of REIT Index Membership for Return Patterns

The impact of stock market index membership on Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) stock returns is unclear. Returns may become more like those of other indexed stocks and less like those of their underlying properties. Taking advantage of the inclusion of REITs in major S&P indexes starting in 2001, we find that shared index membership significantly increases the correlation between REIT returns. However, index membership also enhances the link between REIT returns and the underlying real estate, consistent with improved pricing efficiency.     

Are Audit Firms' Compensation Policies Associated with Audit Quality?

We examine how compensation policies of audit firms are associated with audit quality. Specifically, we investigate the effects of the ratio of variable to fixed compensation and the size of the basis for profit sharing (i.e., whether partners share profits in a small or in a large profit pool). For our analyses, we use detailed mandatory disclosure of the compensation policies in German audit firms. We document that compensation policies vary considerably across audit firms. We find that profit sharing in a small profit pool and high variable compensation are two characteristics of auditor compensation associated with lower audit quality. We also find some evidence suggesting that audit quality may be most at risk in cases in which partners rely more heavily on variable compensation to divide a relatively small profit pool. In additional analyses, we find that these associations are more pronounced in medium-sized audit firms. We argue that this finding may result from these firms being too large for audit partners to directly monitor each other effectively, yet simultaneously too small to have sophisticated centralized monitoring systems in place. Finally, we find that integrating partner-specific, nonprofit-related performance metrics into the compensation structure mitigates the adverse effects of small profit pools and high variable compensation.     

People management: developing and testing a measurement scale

Abstract

The central concept in this study is people management, referring to line managers’ implementation of HR practices and their leadership behaviour oriented at supporting the employees they supervise at work. In this study we conceptualize people management and develop a multidimensional scale to measure it from the perspectives of both employees and line managers. Using a Study 1/Study 2 design, including two-wave multilevel data from employees and line managers of a financial service provider, and cross-sectional data from teachers, educational support staff, and supervisors, we demonstrate the scale’s reliability and multidimensionality across samples and over time. We provide evidence of the convergent validity by showing that employees’ and line managers’ perceptions of people management are significantly related, and that people management is significantly related to transformational and transactional leadership. Also, we demonstrate that people management adds explained variance above and beyond transformational and transactional leadership in predicting team performance. We demonstrate criterion-related validity through people management’s relationship with job satisfaction, commitment, and work engagement. We discuss the implications of our measure for theory and research on people management, its antecedents, and its effects.     

Introduction: Causation,inferences, and solution types in configurational comparative methods

Quality & Quantity - This special issue addresses questions of causality and validity of different solution types in configurational comparative methods (CCMs). First, what main parameters...     

Time for carbon neutrality and other emission reduction measures at European airports

Since 2009, one out of five European airports participate in carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction programmes, although only 8% of them are certified as CO₂ neutral. This study aims to examine empirically internal as well as external factors of importance for airport participation in emission reduction programmes at different levels of involvement. Estimates of the Cox proportional hazard model based on almost 600 airports for the period 2009 to 2017 reveal that the likelihood and timing of participation increase with the size of the airport (number of passengers), independent of level of commitment. Performance (growth in number of passengers) and if the airport is part of a group are crucial for the advanced levels of the programme. Environmental progress at the country level is also a significant predictor, most distinctly represented by renewable electricity generation, whereas airports serving as hubs for low‐cost airlines are less likely to enter the carbon reduction programmes.     

Differences in international opportunity identification between native and immigrant entrepreneurs

The aim of this study is to understand more about how identification of international opportunities differs between native and immigrant entrepreneurs. Based on a survey of 116 immigrant and 864 native Norwegian entrepreneurs with newly registered firms, we show that immigrant entrepreneurs are more likely to identify international opportunities than native entrepreneurs are. We reveal important differences in the identification process between native and immigrant entrepreneurs. Whereas general human capital has a significant positive effect on international opportunity identification for native entrepreneurs, we cannot find the same effect among immigrant entrepreneurs. Moreover, although financial capital positively influences international opportunity identification among native entrepreneurs, the same effect is significantly negative among immigrant entrepreneurs. Based on these findings, we conclude that native and immigrant entrepreneurs do not utilise the same resources to identify international opportunities. This study contributes to the literature on international entrepreneurship by documenting significant differences in how native and immigrant entrepreneurs identify international opportunities. It also contributes to immigrant entrepreneurship literature by bringing the opportunity-based view of entrepreneurship into the field.     

Is coworker feedback more important than supervisor feedback for increasing innovative behavior?

A growing body of research explores human resource management practices that encourage employees to innovate. In this study, we examine the links between different sources of feedback (supervisor and coworker) and employees’ innovative behavior. Drawing on social exchange theory and the job demands‐resources theory, we first propose that work engagement and psychological contract breach mediate the relationship between supervisor feedback and employees’ innovative behavior. Second, we propose a moderated mediation model in which coworker feedback attenuates the relationships between supervisor feedback and employees’ innovative behavior through the mediating mechanisms of both work engagement and psychological contract breach. Using three waves of multisource data from 300 Chinese employees and their 64 supervisors, we found a dual‐mediation pathway by which employees’ work engagement and perceptions of psychological contract breach mediate the influence of supervisor feedback on innovative behavior. Our results also show that coworker feedback can be used to supplement the lack of supervisor feedback when required. Organizations are advised to ensure that employees obtain regular feedback from multiple sources because such feedback can promote employees’ work engagement and perceptions that the organization is upholding its side of the psychological contract, which fosters employees’ innovative behavior.     

Oh my gosh,I got to get out of this place! A qualitative study of vicarious embarrassment in service encounters

Vicarious embarrassment is a negative emotion, which is experienced by an individual when others misbehave. People can feel vicariously embarrassed when observing other people's pratfalls or awkward appearance. For instance, vicarious embarrassment is elicited when watching reality TV or in service encounters where many other customers are present. However, the relevance of vicarious embarrassment in physical service environments has not yet been thoroughly analyzed in the context of service encounters. The objective of the present study is to close this research gap and to introduce the phenomenon of vicarious embarrassment to service research. The findings of 25 in‐depth interviews indicate that vicariously embarrassing incidents mostly occur in service encounters and that these incidents are triggered by the violation of social norms in both customer‐to‐customer and customer‐to‐employee interactions. The authors of the present paper identified closeness of relationship, the service context, and parties involved as important situational variables influencing vicarious embarrassment and further emotional, cognitive, and behavioral consequences for the observing person. From a managerial point of view, the relevance of vicarious embarrassment in physical service environments is caused by negative spillover effects of the service experience, which lead to decreasing customer satisfaction, negative word‐of‐mouth and purchase intentions, and a negative impact on the overall image of the service provider.