Group diversity and decision quality: Amplification and attenuation of the framing effect

Do groups make better judgments and decisions than individuals? We tested the hypothesis that the advantage of groups over individuals in decision-making depends on the group composition. Our study used susceptibility to the framing effect as a measure of decision quality. Individuals were assigned to one of two perspectives on a choice problem. The individuals were asked to indicate their individual preference between a risky option and a risk-free option. Next, they were asked to consider the same (or a related) choice problem as a group. Homogeneous groups were composed of similarly framed individuals, while the heterogeneous ones were composed of differently framed individuals. In comparison to individual preferences, the homogeneous groups’ preferences were polarized, and thus the framing effect was amplified; in contrast, the heterogeneous groups’ preferences converged, and thus the framing effect was reduced to zero. The findings are discussed with regard to group polarization, the effects of heterogeneity on group performance, and the Delphi forecasting method.     

Declining prices and optimality when costs follow an experience curve

There is a widely held notion that as production costs decline with experience, prices should follow more or less in parallel. Although this notion has been an important factor in estimating experience curves and in formulating corporate strategies, we show that it is generally inconsistent with published multiperiod optimal pricing models. The paper then goes on to demonstrate that this apparent conflict can be reconciled by allowing the demand process to exhibit increasing price elasticity over time. Since this demand characteristic is very plausible for innovative products, we suggest it be incorporated into optimal pricing models.     

National distances,international experience,and venture capital investment performance

This study examines how the performance of cross-border venture capital investments is affected by national institutional and cultural distances between the environments of venture capitalists (VCs) and investee ventures. We propose that institutional and cultural distances will decrease VCs' effectiveness in conducting venture capital activities and negatively affect investment performance in terms of exit success, and obtain supportive evidence while controlling for geographic distance. We further analyze how VCs can use their international experience to mitigate the negative consequences of national distances. We find that while broad international experience in diverse countries attenuates the deleterious effects of institutional distance in a significant way, it does not have a similar impact in attenuating the negative effects of cultural distance.     

Introduction of microcomputers at an academic institute— Study of an innovative process

In the following study the process of microcomputer adoption and diffusion at an academic institute is described and the implications of this innovation for faculty and students are assessed. The individual acquisition data are analyzed using the Mansfield diffusion model. In addition, I report a case study describing the centralized purchase decision-making process at the institute, and conclude with a longitudinal empirical study that examines the development of microcomputer uses and users' attitudes over a period of 1 year. The results show mainly that the adoption process is quite slow, although the response of the users is generally found to be quite favorable.     

Endogenous Financial and Trade Openness

The authors study the endogenous determination of financial and trade openness. They construct a theoretical framework leading to two-way feedbacks between financial and trade openness and identify these feedbacks empirically. They find that one standard deviation increase in commercial openness is associated with a 9.5% increase in de facto financial openness (% of GDP). Similarly, an increase in de facto financial openness has powerful effects on future trade openness. De jure restrictions on capital mobility have only a weak impact on de facto financial openness, while de jure restrictions on the current account have a large adverse effect on commercial openness. The authors investigate the relative magnitudes of these directions of causality using Geweke's (1982 ) decomposition methodology. They conclude that in an era of rapidly growing trade integration, countries cannot choose financial openness independently of their degree of openness to trade. Dealing with greater exposure to turbulence by imposing restrictions on financial flows is likely to be ineffectual.     

Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient: A Five‐Country Study

Cultural intelligence (CI) has often been linked to performance at the individual, team, and firm levels as a key factor in international business success. Using a new measure of CI, the business cultural intelligence quotient (BCIQ), our study provides empirical evidence on several key antecedents of CI using data on business professionals across five diverse countries (Austria, Colombia, Greece, Spain, and the United States). The findings suggest that the most important factors leading to cultural intelligence, in order of importance, are the number of countries that business practitioners have lived in for more than six months, their level of education, and the number of languages spoken. We find that cultural intelligence varies across countries, suggesting that some countries have a higher propensity for cross‐cultural business interactions. By teasing out the common antecedents of BCIQ among professionals, our findings may help with screening and training professionals for international assignments. Future research may examine the environmental (country‐specific) factors associated with a higher propensity for cultural intelligence (such as immigration, cultural diversity, languages spoken, and international trade) to explain the effect of country of origin on cultural intelligence in the professional community. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The meaning of work,employment relations,and strategic human resources management in Israel

The paper deals with the meaning of work, employment relations, and strategic human resources management. First it shows that Israeli workers have become more individualistic and materialistic, and less collectively oriented, as instrumental achievements outweigh contributions to society. These issues apparently influence employment relations and organizational policies. Next, it deals with the corporatist employment relations system, based on tri-partite collective bargaining among employees, employers, and the state. During various times, the relative balance of power among the three parties swayed considerably, according to major political, economic and social events taking place in society. The final section on strategic human resources management focuses on the transition of Israel's Human Resources profession, from the traditional HR role to the new Strategic Human Resource Management role. These three spheres have gone through some significant changes in the last several decades, perhaps not parallel to most industrial nations.     

Growth and survival: The moderating effects of local agglomeration and local market structure

One of the central explanations of the high failure rates of de novo entrants is the liability of smallness. As a corollary, most prior literature has suggested that firms should experience survival benefits from growth. In this paper, we argue that survival benefits need to be balanced against the potential cost of rapid growth, and they are contingent upon the structure of the environment. We predict a curvilinear relationship between an entrant's growth rate and failure, and argue that the relationship is contingent upon the local agglomeration of economic activity and the local structure of competition. We test and find support for our predictions using firm‐level longitudinal data of all de novo entrants into the Canadian manufacturing sector between 1984 and 1998. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

Dynamic Embeddedness in Chinese Firm Internationalization

This article presents a multilevel framework to analyze the motivations and location choices of Chinese OFDIs. We contribute to theory‐integration on Chinese OFDI flows and patterns by suggesting a framework that combines country‐, industry‐ and firm‐level analyses and by reflecting aspects from the resource‐based view (firm‐specific advantages), institutional‐based view (push/pull home‐ and host‐­country factors), and network‐based view (network relations). We also explicitly incorporate “time” as a variable into our framework by introducing and explaining the concept of dynamic embeddedness as an interaction dimension to reflect the inherent dynamics on all levels and actors. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Real estate franchising: The case of Coldwell Banker expansion into China

This article discusses the Chinese real estate market, with special reference to Shanghai, and depicts an interview with Taiwan's largest real estate company, which bought the master international franchising rights of Coldwell Banker for China. As China's real estate market only recently opened to foreign investment, and since franchising in China is in its infancy, this article provides a unique examination of international franchising into a new product market area in the country. In addition, the article highlights some practices that could be adopted by professional service firms in their international expansion and discusses post-WTO implications to real estate franchising in China.