The association between accounting students’ lone wolf tendencies and their perceptions, preferences and performance outcomes in team projects

In this study we examine the association between accounting students’ lone wolf tendencies and their perceptions of the usefulness of team work, team interaction behaviors, and team performance. While prior studies find that students generally perceive positive benefits from engaging in team work, our study finds that students with greater lone wolf tendencies perceive fewer benefits from engaging in team work. We also find that during team interactions, teams with a greater proportion of students with higher lone wolf tendencies experience less team commitment and team leadership. Further, such teams rate the outcome of their project negatively, although, there is no significant association with the project marks earned by these teams. We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest directions for future research.     

Estimating efficiency effects in a panel data stochastic frontier model

Journal of Productivity Analysis - This paper proposes a panel data based stochastic frontier model which accommodates time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity along with efficiency effects. The...     

Firm behaviour under uncertainty: a simple parametric model

In this paper, we model production technology in a state‐contingent framework. We assume that all the firms use the same stochastic technology, but they may have different risk attitudes and information sets, and ex post they may operate in different production environments. Firms maximise ex ante their preference function subject to a stochastic technology constraint; in other words, they are assumed to act rationally, thereby leaving no room for either technical or allocative inefficiency. We provide a simple parametric functional form to represent the state‐contingent technology. Using simple numerical examples, we illustrate how optimal input–output choices are dramatically affected when firms have different preferences and information sets. Thus, we show that the observed disparateness of production choices among different firms can actually be attributed to the stochastic nature of the decision environment.     

Pricing hybrid bundles by understanding the drivers of willingness to pay

Many companies are increasingly selling hybrid bundles, which comprise one or more goods and one or more services. Hybrid bundle pricing depends on understanding consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for the bundle, which rests on trade-offs among the benefits from four key drivers: service autonomy, complementarity, service quality variability, and overall bundle quality (basic vs. premium). The effects of these drivers and their interactions on the WTP of hybrid bundles are unknown. The authors develop hypotheses and test them rigorously using incentive-aligned choice-based conjoint and hierarchical Bayesian analysis. The results offer important guidelines for developing appropriate hybrid bundles. If a typical firm under budget constraint has to offer either of two hybrid bundles, one with high complementarity or one with service autonomy, the results suggest that it should offer the bundle with high complementarity. Furthermore, contrary to the conventional wisdom of minimizing service quality variability for premium quality bundles relative to basic quality bundles, the results recommend lowering service quality variability for basic quality bundles but maintaining it for premium bundles.     

Efficiency analysis under uncertainty: a simulation study

We model production technology in a state‐contingent framework assuming that the firms maximise ex ante their preference function subject to stochastic technology constraint; in other words, firms are assumed to act rationally. We show that rational producers who face the same stochastic technology can make significantly different production choices. Further, we develop an econometric methodology to estimate the risk‐neutral probabilities, efficiency scores and the parameters of stochastic technology when there are two states of nature and only one of which is observed. Finally, we simulate noiseless data based on our state‐contingent specification of technology. Our state‐contingent estimator recovers technology parameters and other economic quantities of interest without any error. But, when we apply conventional efficiency estimators to the simulated data, we obtain biased estimates of technical efficiency.     

Exploring the Links Between Corruption and Growth

This paper models the transmission channels through which corruption indirectly affects growth. Results suggest that corruption hinders growth through its adverse effects on investment, human capital, and political instability, while fostering growth by reducing government consumption and, less robustly, increasing trade openness. Overall, a total negative effect of corruption on growth is estimated from these channels. These effects are found to be robust to modifications in model specification, sample coverage, and estimation techniques as well as tests for model exhaustiveness. The negative effect of corruption on growth is found to diminish in economies with low governance levels or a high degree of regulation. No one‐size‐fits‐all policy response appears supportable.     

Do Hybrid Goals Pay off? Social and Economic Goals in Academic Spin-Offs

New ventures often pursue both economic and social goals, known as goal hybridity. Yet, we know less about how organizational goal hybridity influences the performance and governance of new ventures. Goal hybridity is common among academic spin-offs (ASOs) seeking to commercialize scientific research from universities. We hypothesize that ASOs’ goal hybridity influences their subsequent performance and their governance structure. We also hypothesize that ASOs who enrol multiple stakeholders with investment goals aligned with their hybrid goals outperform the ASOs who do not. By combining several data sources, we follow Norwegian ASOs longitudinally and find that goal hybridity explains their subsequent performance differences, such that ASOs relying on both economic and social aspects of their business when formulating their goals outperform those who rely purely on economic or social goals. We also find that ASOs with hybrid goals outperform when they enrol multiple stakeholders who are aligned with their hybrid goals. Our findings have implications for theorizing in hybridity, stakeholder enrolment, and the organizational goals literatures. We also provide a fuller understanding on performance heterogeneity of ASOs, and we offer a set of practice and policy implications to academic entrepreneurship and public-private partnership literatures.     

The Interrelationship of Governance,Trust, and Ethics in Temporary Organizations

This study investigates the variety of ethical decisions of project managers and their impact from corporate governance and project governance structures. The roles of personal trust and system trust as a mechanism to steer ethical decision making in different governance settings is explored. Nine qualitative case studies in Europe, Asia, and Australia show that ethical decision making is contingent on trust, which in turn is contingent on the fulfillment of personal expectations within a given governance structure. The findings show the prerequisites for ethical decision making and the consequences of lack of trust. Further managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.     

“Capture” of anti-poverty programs: An analysis of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program in India

Using pooled household level data for the Indian states of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh we find that the size of landholdings is a negative predictor of participation in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (NREGP). In state level analysis this pattern survives in Rajasthan but reverses in Andhra Pradesh where we notice a positive relationship. This paper examines whether this sign reversal in Andhra Pradesh is indicative of program capture in Andhra Pradesh and better targeting in Rajasthan. We compare land inequality, ratio of NREG and slack season agricultural wage rates, political interference, and geographical remoteness across the two states and conclude that program capture may be an issue in Andhra Pradesh, largely because of these reasons. We also find evidence of complementarity between NREGP and the Public Distribution System (PDS), implying that the real income transfer through food subsidy needs supplementation.     

Energy substitutability in transition agriculture: estimates and implications for Hungary

Subsidised energy prices in pre‐transition Hungary had led to excessive energy intensity in the agricultural sector. Transition has resulted in steep input price increases. In this study, Allen and Morishima elasticities of substitution are estimated to study the effects of these price changes on energy use, chemical input use, capital formation and employment. Panel data methods, Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and instrument exogeneity tests are used to specify and estimate technology and substitution elasticities. Results indicate that indirect price policy may be effective in controlling energy consumption. The sustained increases in energy and chemical input prices have worked together to restrict energy and chemical input use, and the substitutability between energy, capital and labour has prevented the capital shrinkage and agricultural unemployment situations from being worse. The Hungarian push towards lower energy intensity may be best pursued through sustained energy price increases rather than capital subsidies.