Stability and Success of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations

According to international law, straddling fish stocks should be managed cooperatively through regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs). This paper analyzes the stability and success of these organizations through a game in partition function form based on the classical Gordon-Schaefer bioeconomic model. Results show that the larger the number of fishing states that compete for the fish stock the higher are the relative gains from full cooperation, but the lower is the likelihood of large RFMOs being stable. It is also shown that new entrants increase the incentives of RFMO members to leave and decrease the incentives of non-members to join it. Moreover, the success of coalition formation is positively correlated with the degree of cost asymmetry among fishing states and negatively with the overall level of efficiency.     

Television commercials in violent programming: An experimental evaluation of their effects on children

Using an experimental method, this study found that when a commercial was viewed immediately following a high-violence dramatic programming segment, children’s ad copy recognition scores were significantly lower and attitudes toward the ad and the advertised brand were significantly less favorable than when the commercial was viewed following a low-violence (but otherwise near-identical) program segment. The influence of program violence level on some advertising response measures was more pronounced when the commercial was positioned immediately following the dramatic programming segment than when immediately preceding it. The study cautions advertisers to examine carefully whether, in reaching for high audience ratings and cost efficiency through violent television programs, they may be sacrificing communication effectiveness of their brand advertising. He has published numerous articles on advertising effectiveness, children and advertising, buyer behavior, and marketing strategy in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Communication, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of International Marketing, and others. Her primary research interests are in children and advertising issues, buyer behavior, and marketing ethics. Her research has appeared in theJournal of Services Marketing, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, and proceedings of numerous national and regional marketing conferences.     

Using forecasted net benefits in designing improved recruitment and selection systems

This paper extends the post hoc application of utility formulae to designing improved recruitment and selection systems. It emphasizes interactive tradeoffs from spending to (I) increase the size of the applicant pool, and (2) increase the accuracy of applicant selection.First, the paper reviews the utility formula. Then it applies the formula towards improving the design of recruitment strategies. Next, the paper examines the dollar costs and benefits of different selection strategies. Finally, it examines the dual impact of recruitment and selection taken together. In short, while recruitment has been both under and overfunded in specific environments, selection has been uniformly underfunded, resulting in substantial opportunity costs to organizations.     

A research note on standalone corporate social responsibility reports: Signaling or greenwashing?

Over the past two decades, more and more U.S. firms are voluntarily issuing costly standalone Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reports. Nevertheless, firms’ motivations for issuing standalone CSR Reports are not clear. In this paper, we consider two different explanations: signaling and greenwashing. The first explanation, signaling, proposes that firms use standalone CSR Reports as a signal of their superior commitment to CSR, which suggests firms with stronger social and environmental records will be more likely to issue standalone CSR Reports as compared to those without. The second explanation, greenwashing, proposes that firms use standalone CSR Reports to pose as “good” corporate citizens even when they do not have stronger social and environmental records. To provide insight into these explanations we compare the CSR performance scores of firms that issue CSR reports to those firms that do not. We control for firm size, leverage, profitability and industry. We find that firms that voluntarily issue standalone CSR Reports generally have higher CSR performance scores, which suggests that firms are using voluntary CSR Reports to publicize stronger social and environmental records to stakeholders.