Measuring trust: A reinvestigation

We reinvestigate the question first posed by Glaeser et al. (2000): Do survey measures about trust predict actual trusting behavior? This important study established that the behavior in an incentivized trust game is not correlated with the responses to the most widely used survey measures of trust. We conduct a replication and a reinvestigation of GLSS. In the replication, we use the GLSS protocol and we reproduce their results. In the reinvestigation, we introduce one major change: We replace their variation of the standard Berg, Dickhaut, and McCabe (1995) investment game with the original unmodified game. The standard game endows both players, while the modified version endows only the first mover. After endowing both movers in the reinvestigation experiment, we find a significant correlation between the two measures, suggesting that trust is a single construct, whether measured by the survey questions or by an incentivized trust game.     

The effects of patent-law changes on innovation: The case of India's pharmaceutical industry

Recent patent-law changes in India's pharmaceutical industry provide opportunities to study changes of institutional and regulatory environments on innovation and social welfare in low-income markets. From 1972 to 2004 under its process-patent regime, India's pharmaceutical industry grew to become the world's fourth largest. Indian companies were becoming globally competitive in generics and clinical testing, and moving into product R&D. Researchers have debated the effects of India's new product-patent laws' effects on these trends. The authors cover the domestic characteristics and global competitiveness of India's pharmaceutical industry. They contrast data (from 2001 to 2004) on patents in India's process-patent regime with preliminary data (from 2005 to 2008) on patents in the country's new product-patent regime. They argue that Indian pharmaceutical companies have changed their decision-making in response to changed patent laws by moving from process to product research. However, the preliminary results indicate that these changes may have hurt domestic innovation. They conclude with strategic implications for the Indian pharmaceutical industry and highlight the need for research and public policy to establish optimal social returns from product-patent regimes.     

COGNITIVE TRAILS IN STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING: LINKING THEORIES OF PERSONALITIES AND COGNITIONS*

This article attempts to reveal Jungian personality types' cognitive biases through a strategic management framework. The four personality types seem to use distinct heuristics to gather data, to generate and to evaluate alternatives. The connected heuristics appear as cognitive trails. We propose that different personality types habitually use certain cognitive trails; consequently, they can fall prey to biases that lurk in these trails. Cognitive trails may include linked input, output, and operational biases. We present the results from a pilot study to illustrate some connections between personality types and biases. We also explore some implications for future research and for management practice.     

Product Placement in Social Games: Consumer Experiences in China

A phenomenological study reveals the meanings of product placement in social games on social network sites (SNSs) among Chinese urban, white-collar professional users through an investigation of a newly launched SNS, Happy Network. In total, 26 face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted. Through inductive analysis, a theoretical model was proposed to catch the rich meanings of product placement in the context of an SNS. Specifically, the study reveals four interpretive themes regarding the meanings of product placements in an SNS: (1) embracing product placement in the SNS, (2) bridging virtual and real-world branding, (3) referencing the framework of product placement, and (4) influencing real-world consumption.     

Outcomes of Meaningful Work: A Meta‐Analysis

Using job characteristics theory as a framework, we calculated meta‐analytic effect sizes between meaningful work and various outcomes and tested a mediated model of meaningful work predicting proximal and distal outcomes with meta‐analytic structural equation modelling (MASEM). From 44 articles (N = 23,144), we found that meaningful work had large correlations (r = 0.70+) with work engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction; moderate to large correlations (r = 0.44 to ?0.49) with life satisfaction, life meaning, general health, and withdrawal intentions; and small to moderate correlations (r = ?0.19 to 0.33) with organizational citizenship behaviours, self‐rated job performance, and negative affect. The best MASEM fitting model was meaningful work predicting work engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction and these variables subsequently predicting self‐rated performance, organizational citizenship behaviours, and withdrawal intentions. This meta‐analysis provides estimated effect sizes between meaningful work and its outcomes and reveals how meaningful work relates directly and indirectly to key outcomes.     

A ranking of journals for the aspiring health economist

This article identifies and ranks 104 journals that might logically serve as the core for the interdisciplinary field of Health Economics. These journals are identified by analysing approximately 15 000 articles contained in the current CVs of 100 top health economists. Of the nearly 1200 journals spanned by these CVs, 104 journals were outlets for more than five of these top health economists. The 104 journals are ranked using eigenfactor and article influence scores as well as the percentile rank for each journal within its Institute for Scientific Information category. The primary intention is to create a broad-based journal list that exposes possible research outlets for aspiring health economists and to report the relative rankings of such outlets using established metrics.     

Bank bailouts and corporate insider trading during the financial crisis of 2007–2009

Jagolinzer et al. (The information content of insider trades around government intervention during the financial crisis. Working paper, 2014) examine insider trading at banks that were bailed out by the U.S. taxpayers. They provide evidence that insiders of bailed-out banks profitably purchased their banks’ shares over a 9 month period after the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) was announced in October 2008. They find that the purchases were profitable for up to 12 months after the purchases. However, Liu et al. (J Bank Finance 37:5048–5061, 2013) find that shareholder gains at the bailed out banks occurred only after the banks paid back the TARP funds, which in most cases occurred after 2010. In this paper we extend Jagolinzer et al.’s (2014) analysis to financial institutions that did not receive TARP funding as well as to non-financial firms. We find that insiders of the non-TARP financial and the non-financial firms traded their shares profitably after the TARP program was announced. Insider share purchases at these firms were highly profitable for up to 12 months after the purchases. However, insider purchases at the bailed-out banks were slightly profitable only for a month after the purchases, after which the shares that were bought declined in value. Our results for the TARP banks do not corroborate Jagolinzer et al.’s (2014) results, but are consistent with the evidence in Liu et al. (2013) and several other papers that examine the wealth effects of TARP program announcements and fund repayments.

     

Role of variability in cultural dimensions across generations in the context of CSR advertising in an East Asian market

The study examines how, across generations, Korean consumers perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) ads when various ad appeals (help-self vs. help-other) are employed. The findings show that younger consumers have bicultural orientations compared to older consumers who have collectivistic cultural orientations. The findings showed that younger consumers were more likely to form favourable attitudes toward CSR ads and products when they viewed help-other ad appeals over help-self ad appeals compared to older consumers. Furthermore, the study revealed that variability in biculturalism plays a significant role in viewing CSR ads with help-self ad appeals. Further managerial implications and future study ideas are discussed.     

Assessing the impact of different workplace flexibilities on workplace stress in the presence of varying degrees of job control

We apply probit and propensity score matching to 1667 respondents from the 2008 National Survey of the Changing Workforce to quantify how workers’ self-reported stress levels vary under two different workplace flexibilities and varying degrees of job control. The first workplace flexibility considered is the ability to easily take time off for personal and family matters; the second is the option of a compressed work week. Our findings suggest that the first flexibility correlates with lower stress reports regardless of job control level. The second flexibility, however, correlates with lower stress levels only for workers with low levels of job control. This suggests that a compressed work week does not reduce stress for workers that already have high levels of job control. The more general conclusion is that some flexibilities are substitutes for job control whereas other are not, assuming the larger goal is the reduction of workplace stress and the various maladies exacerbated by stress.