Can returnee managers promote CSR performance? Evidence from China

With growing economic globalization, returnee managers who have obtained education or work experience overseas play a much more crucial role in corporations, especially in emerging economies. Using hand-collected managerial background data from a sample of firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2014, this paper investigates the impact of returnee managers on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. We find that returnee managers can promote CSR performance. Further analyses show that the impact of returnee managers on CSR is more pronounced when managers have a foreign study background compared to managers with foreign work experience. The impact only holds when managers obtained their experience in developed economies. When enterprises face greater information asymmetry, returnee managers are more willing to use CSR as a tool to convey a positive image to stakeholders. CSR can help managers reduce information asymmetry and improve firm value. The results are robust through a series of robustness checks including a propensity score matching (PSM) procedure and a Heckman two-state sample selection model. This paper contributes to growing studies on the economic consequences of returnee managers and advances our understanding of the determinants of CSR at the individual level. The results also have implications for government and enterprises attracting talents with overseas experience.     

The effects of perceived value on loyalty: the moderating effect of market orientation adoption

This paper aims to identify the moderating effect of service firms’ adoption of market orientation on key variables of consumer behavior, namely perceived value and loyalty. The study took a business-to-customer perspective. First, the adoption of market orientation was measured, from the firm’s point of view. Second, customer perceptions were analyzed, using the two variables perceived value and loyalty. The sample comprised 100 service firms and 572 of their customers. The present work provides original insights, identifying that the effect of perceived value on loyalty depends on other variables external to the consumer, such as the market orientation approach.     

The role of other customers during self-service technology failure

Service recovery through inter-customer helping is especially meaningful in the self-service technology (SST) failure context because SSTs are associated with a high risk of failure due to the lack of face-to-face contacts with employees. In understanding the phenomenon of inter-customer helping, two fundamental questions are investigated in the current research: (1) does social influence play a role in customers’ helping decisions? and (2) what are the motives for helping? Through two experimental studies, we provide evidence that two different forms of social influence play a role in helping others during SST failures, and customers have self-centered (vs. other-centered) motives. Results from Study 1 showed that individuals in the private environment indicated more willingness to help than individuals in the public environment did due to heightened perceived responsibility. Study 2 revealed that tie strength influenced willingness to help via a dual pathway: perceived responsibility and social approach motives. Finally, we discuss and highlight the positive influence that self-centered motives can exert in the SST failure scene.     

Inflation,uncertainty, and monetary policy

Low inflation likely reflects factors whose influence should fade over time. But many uncertainties attend this assessment, and downward pressures on inflation could prove to be unexpectedly persistent. My colleagues and I may have misjudged the strength of the labor market, the degree to which longer-run inflation expectations are consistent with our inflation objective, or even the fundamental forces driving inflation. In interpreting incoming data, we will need to stay alert to these possibilities and, in light of incoming information, adjust our views about inflation, the overall economy, and the stance of monetary policy best suited to promoting maximum employment and price stability. How should policy be formulated in the face of such significant uncertainties? In my view, it strengthens the case for a gradual pace of adjustment. But we should also be wary of moving too gradually. It would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to 2%.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan</Emphasis> by Sebastian Mallaby

I agree that Sebastian Mallaby’s detailed and well-sourced The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan, will be essential for every future economic historian studying the Greenspan era. That said, Mallaby does not convey to his readers a sound understanding of monetary policy. I disagree with Mallaby’s claim that Greenspan could and should have done something about the housing and subprime mortgage bubbles. Peter Wallison makes a strong case that the affordable housing quotas did not just “encourage” but forced the GSEs to buy subprime mortgages. Information available in real time on aggregate subprime mortgage issuance was seriously flawed because the GSEs did not report accurately. Greenspan cannot be held responsible for the GSEs hiding the subprime debt on their balance sheets. These mortgages were central to the crisis. It seems improbable that any monetary policy mistake of 2001–05 was large enough to create the crisis. Mallaby could have written a final chapter emphasizing the Maestro resisting the power of a malign and evil pair of GSEs and the power of the President and Congress of the United States pursuing a disastrous housing policy. Despite the Maestro’s best efforts, Leviathan triumphed and brought ruin upon the Nation.     

Threat Interpretation and Innovation in the Context of Climate Change: An Ethical Perspective

The ability of managers to identify and interpret challenges in the external environment is one of the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities. The underlying literature on strategic issue interpretation suggests that interpreting environmental challenges as opportunities rather than threats is more likely to lead to proactive and innovative responses, but there are also potentially positive effects of threat interpretation, for instance high levels of commitment and risk-seeking behaviour. In this paper, I use the context of climate change to explore the link between threat interpretation and innovation in more detail. I use exploratory cluster analysis and illustrative case studies to develop a set of propositions to explain when threat interpretation can in fact encourage innovation. I identify two ethical mechanisms that positively mediate the relationship between threat interpretation and innovation: enlarged concept of responsibility to society and moral legitimacy. The paper contributes to the literature by identifying the importance of ethics in linking managerial interpretation to innovation, particularly in the context of global environmental and social challenges.     

Is the Ethical Culture of the Organization Associated with Sickness Absence? A Multilevel Analysis in a Public Sector Organization

The main aim of the present study was to examine whether an ethical organizational culture is associated with sickness absence in a Finnish public sector organization at both the individual (within-level) and work unit (between-level) levels. The underlying assumption was that employees working for organizations that are characterized by a strong ethical organizational culture report less sickness absence. The sample consisted of 2192 employees from one public sector city organization that included 246 different work units. Ethical organizational culture was measured with the Corporate Ethical Virtues scale covering eight sub-dimensions. Sickness absence was inquired by asking the participants to report how many days they had been absent from work because of their own sickness over the past year. Multilevel structural equation modelling showed that, at the individual level, perceptions of a strong ethical organizational culture were associated with less sickness absences after controlling for the background factors. This link was not found at the work-unit level. The findings indicate that an ethical organizational culture plays a significant role in enhancing employee well-being measured as sickness absence. It seems that especially supervisor’s ethical role modeling and possibilities to discuss about ethical issues are important factors in preventing sickness absence in the organizations.     

Professional Accountants’ Identity Formation: An Integrative Framework

Previous studies in Western contexts have examined the relationships between various board characteristics and CSR, yet the relationships need to be re-examined in non-Western contexts given differential theoretical premises across contexts. We specifically propose that the effects of board characteristics on CSR in Korea should be patterned distinctively from Western-based existing literature, focusing on three important board characteristics, such as a board’s independence, social ties, and diversity. Using a panel dataset from large Korean firms, we found that various relationships between board characteristics and CSR were non-linear, whereas most of the previous research on Western contexts found that the same relationships were linear. Specifically, curvilinear relationships were found between CSR and board independence (i.e., exponentially growing shape), CEO-outside director social ties (i.e., inverted U-shape), and educational diversity (i.e., U-shape). Our findings suggest that there is no universal feature of CSR-supportive board characteristics due to the unique characteristics of various institutional contexts.     

Is Fair Treatment Enough? Augmenting the Fairness-Based Perspective on Stakeholder Behaviour

Fairness and justice are core issues in stakeholder theory. Although such considerations receive more attention in the ‘normative’ branch of the stakeholder literature, they have critical implications for ‘instrumental’ stakeholder theory as well. In research in the instrumental vein, although the position has seldom been articulated in significant detail, a stakeholder’s inclination to take action against the firm or, conversely, to cooperate with it, is often taken to be a function of its perceptions concerning the fairness or unfairness (or equity or inequity) of the treatment it receives in its relationship with the firm. Thus, from various works in this domain can be distilled what might be termed a ‘fairness-based perspective on stakeholder behaviour’. This perspective, as it currently stands, assumes a high degree of homogeneity in stakeholders’ responses to fair, unfair, or munificent treatment by the firm. This supposition is itself typically based on a presumption that stakeholders consistently and uniformly adhere to norms of equity and reciprocity in their relationships with firms. However, research developments in equity theory and social exchange theory suggest that such assumptions are likely untenable. Accordingly, in this work, after outlining the fairness-based perspective on stakeholder behaviour, I undertake to augment it by presenting propositions concerning the possible influences of stakeholders’ equity preferences and exchange ideologies on their propensities to sanction or support the firm. Incorporating these stakeholder traits into the fairness-based perspective should enhance the predictive validity of its propositions concerning stakeholder behaviour in response to fairness or unfairness in the firm–stakeholder relationship.