Corporate Ethics: An Exploration of Contemporary Greece

This study aims to discover marketing professionals' perceptions on ethical problems and current level of ethics in Greece, as well as, on the policy instruments used by companies to help employees make decisions in a more ethical fashion, using a qualitative research design. Specifically, it reports the results of a series of in-depth interviews conducted with Greek marketing professional employed by multinationals in Greece. A number of topics examining ethical problems, ethical standards, corporate policy instruments and corporate cultureserved as a basis for discussion. While the occasionally contrasting opinions revealed in part the perplexity of marketing ethics, respondents also arrived at points of convergence. All recognized government as playing the most prominent role in issues of public concern, legislation and overall ethical standards. Moreover, all marketers identified multinational and other foreign firms as a positive influence to the level of ethics, due to the introduction of policy instruments and control mechanisms. Finally, they also accepted the need for better informed customers and a strong organizational culture. Several recommendations are offered for consideration by marketing professionals interested in promoting ethical business conduct.     

Sales force reactions to corporate social responsibility: Attributions, outcomes, and the mediating role of organizational trust

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining momentum among researchers and practitioners. In spite of this extensive interest, systematic research regarding the effects of CSR on other stakeholder groups, besides consumers, remains sparse. Based on a field study in a global Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods company, we examine sales force attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of company's partnership with a United Nations (UN) philanthropic organization. Specifically, we seek to examine whether sales force perceptions of CSR motives influence their evaluation of CSR actions. Findings indicate that egoistic-driven motives negatively influence salesperson trust in the company, whereas stakeholder- and values-driven motives positively influence salesperson trust; however, strategic-driven attributions do not have an influence on salesperson trust. The results further reveal the mediating role of trust in the relationship between sales force attributions and outcomes including loyalty intentions and positive word-of-mouth.     

Understanding the Change and Development of Trust and the Implications for New Leaders

Leaders, particularly new leaders, seek to establish high levels of trust, as it has been associated with higher levels of effectiveness and group outcomes. This study is designed to understand how trust changes and develops for leaders in a new role and the implications of that change. Although calls for research on trust over time have been made for the past 2 decades, our knowledge of this phenomenon is still quite limited. The findings indicate that leader and unit performance is a function not only of absolute trust level, but is also affected by the direction and magnitude of change in trust across time periods, with the highest levels of effectiveness being associated with leaders who exhibited an increase in trust from the group over time. The data also suggest that the direction and rate at which trust grew was determined by initial expectations and transformational leadership behaviors.

     

Effect of marketing activities,benefits, risks,confusion due to over-choice,price, quality and consumer trust on online tourism purchasing

The paper focuses on website vendors and three fundamental aspects, which influence price quality and trust, the major factors that affect purchasing intentions amongst online consumers. The three fundamental aspects in question are: perceived benefits, risks and confusion due to over-choice. The purpose of the study is to examine the influence of these three aspects on consumers' trust and their online purchasing intentions, and also to evaluate their interrelationship with marketing activities. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the research focuses on holidaymakers (N = 735) who bought at least one component of their vacation using the Internet. The research implements Confirmatory Factor Analysis and uses Structural Equation Modelling. The findings indicate the importance of direct marketing and of the brand names of e-retailers and products. They also pinpoint the significance of online buying convenience and of the provision of sufficient product information. Moreover, they reveal the influence of safety and security issues, of the instilment of trust, and of price and quality in relation to purchasing intentions. The research contributes to a better understanding of online tourism decision-making, identifies website vendor characteristics that are important to online consumers and presents a number of managerial implications.     

Board gender diversity,environmental committee and greenhouse gas voluntary disclosures

We explore the impact of gender diversity and environmental committees on greenhouse gas (GHG) voluntary disclosures utilising a sample of 215 firms, which are listed on the London Stock Exchange market. We provide strong evidence for a strong positive association between GHG voluntary disclosures and gender diversity, which constitutes an important input to the ongoing debate about the role of women in the boardroom. The governance mechanism of environmental committees is not found to significantly affect GHG disclosures. This adds to the growing empirical evidence in the literature that questions the effectiveness of the current board structures in serving the wider needs of stakeholders and in addressing the relevant issues on climate change. Overall, our results suggest that by being diverse and open to a mixed‐gender governance approach, a firm can better serve the demands of stakeholders and legitimise their green credentials, thus gaining more trust from a broad range of stakeholders other than their shareholders. The noneffectiveness of the environmental committees in enhancing GHG voluntary disclosures demonstrates that firms may not have to directly link the relevant governance mechanism to their disclosure decisions and practices.     

Intragroup competition in public good games: The role of relative performance incentives and risk attitudes

We analyze a public good game (PGG) with intragroup competition in which, generally but not always, the dominant strategy is to not contribute; therefore, free riding is the unique Nash equilibrium, not achieving Pareto efficiency. We propose a PGG setup where subjects' contributions are rewarded with different individual returns following a rank‐order voluntary contribution mechanism. It is found that the resulting competition for a better return significantly increases contributions. This effect is sensitive to the salience of return differences rewarding higher contributions. Furthermore, the positive effect of return differences on contribution levels depends on an individual's return‐to‐risk sensitivity as elicited through an independent risk elicitation task.     

The time-varying correlation between output and prices in the United States over the period 1800–2014

In this study, we examine the time-varying correlations between output and prices, while controlling for the impact of the monetary policy stance and output and inflation uncertainties over the period 1800–2014. The results of the empirical analysis reveal that the dynamic correlations of output and prices were typically negative, suggesting a countercyclical behaviour of prices, apart from the early 1840s and from the beginning until the middle of the 20th century, when the correlation was positive, indicating a procyclicality of prices. A historical decomposition analysis based on a sign-restricted structural vector autoregressive model is able to relate the procyclical and countercyclical behaviour to the predominance of aggregate supply and aggregate demand and/or monetary policy shocks, respectively. Moreover, inflation uncertainty (monetary policy stance) was found to have a positive (negative) effect on inflation over the last 215 years.     

Risks and marketing in online transactions: a qualitative comparative analysis

The article focuses on the perspectives of holidaymakers who have used internet to book a part or the whole spectrum of their holidays' accommodation. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), the research examines the complex relations between product and web-vendor risks, and marketing activities on consumer trust, also employing predictive validity. It examines the perspectives of 735 holidaymakers returning to Manchester International Airport, through the use of structured questionnaires. The findings reveal three sufficient configurations dealing with the focus on the impact of price and quality relationships, the influence of product and web-vendor risks on consumer trust, and the importance of marketing for the minimization of perceived risks in online tourism shopping. Theoretically, the study contributes on the understanding of online decisions’ complexity, and explores the attributes that affect accommodation e-purchasing and associated linkages. Methodologically, it implements QCA, which is new in tourism and hospitality domain. It also progresses from fit to predictive validity, an analysis that only a handful of studies has implemented in the service industry.     

Identifying Croatian museums’ indigenous visitors in a post-war era: perceptual examinations of one's own heritage

The paper focuses on the consumption of the past by indigenous people through the museum or heritage site within post-war Croatia. Through the application of an inductive, qualitative methodology, ‘Critical Ethnography’, an integrated theory of individual identity formation, which is both social and psychological in nature, is presented. The paper, which is the culmination of theory building, has been guided by in-depth interviews, observation of behaviour and the incorporation of theoretically sensitising literature. As a result of reflexive integration of both the data and the literature, three categories, which constitute the developed theory are derived and analysed in relation to the different ways of constructing meaning and experiences within the museum/heritage context. The labels assigned to each of the developed categories, the ‘Fragmented self’, the ‘Paraphrenic self’ and the ‘Enlightened self’ are a reflection of a part of the self, which identifies to varying extents with the ascribed post-war identity of ‘Croat’. Furthermore, the three explanatory categories of behaviour look into the various ways with which the individual subject reflects upon and interprets his/her own past in relation to the formation of an acceptable post-war conception of his/her individual identity. The paper concludes that in order for a nation to project its cultural heritage worldwide through its museums and cultural sites, it needs first to understand and incorporate the indigenous’ views of their own heritage and then to develop and communicate cultural heritage products through other industries, such as tourism.