Assessing the influence of marketing research on the social science literature

Citation analysis indicates that theJournal of Marketing and theJournal of Marketing Research contribute primarily to marketing and other business areas as opposed to nonbusiness social sciences. The journals are also heavily cited by practitioner-oriented publications. A list of most cited articles is provided.The authors acknowledge the research funding from Washington State University and the National University of Singapore for this project.     

When the Cat's Away: A Content Analysis of MNC Overseas Recruitment Print Ads

This study examines discrimination in the overseas recruitment print ads of Multinational National Corporations (MNCs) in a lax regulatory environment, Singapore. Institutionalization theory suggests that in a weakly regulated environment, MNC affiliates would tend to adopt the less stringent requirements. With the lack of a strong legal framework in the host country, the home country's legal and cultural imperatives would be more salient, suggesting differences in discrimination as a function of home country imperatives. Some 1122 recruitment print ads of U.S., U.K., and Japanese affiliates of MNCs were examined. While discrimination was found in the print ads of all organizations, U.S. affiliates were least discriminatory, followed by Japan and U.K. affiliates. When Singapore firms were included, they were found to be least discriminatory. However, Singapore firms became more discriminatory when the request for a recent photograph was considered in the discrimination index. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research advanced.     

Leverage and Taxes: Evidence from the Real Estate Industry

Finance theory has long viewed corporate income taxes as a potentially important determinant of corporate financing decisions and capital structures. But finance academics have been unable to provide convincing empirical evidence of a material effect of taxes on corporate leverage, in part because of difficulties in constructing an effective proxy for marginal corporate tax rates, and hence for the tax benefits of debt, for large samples of individual companies. The authors address this by analyzing leverage decisions in an industry whose publicly traded entities are organized either as taxable corporations, or as real estate investment trusts (REITs) that effectively avoid entity level taxation. This enables them to measure the relative tax benefits of debt with greater precision while controlling for important nontax characteristics that affect debt usage. The tax hypothesis predicts that for real estate firms with similar asset portfolios, taxable firms should have more debt than their nontaxable counterparts. Both the nontaxable and the taxable real estate firms in our sample routinely have more than twice the leverage of industrial firms, which suggests that factors other than taxes are contributing to their use of debt. But among real estate firms, tax status appears to play a much weaker role. Taxable firms have significantly more leverage only after 2000, when restrictions on REITs were removed through new regulations that made their operations much more like those of taxable real estate firms. Our findings also depend on real estate characteristics—most notably, only residential real estate firms demonstrated differences that are consistent with the tax hypothesis. Taken together, the authors’ findings suggest that although taxes do seem to matter, their role is clearly secondary relative to factors such as the nature of the firm’s assets. A generous interpretation of our evidence puts the effect of taxes between one‐third and one‐half of that implied by prior research.     

Modernity and the Singaporean adolescent

This article investigates the effects of modernity on the purchase intentions of Singaporean adolescents. As a component of subjective norms, modernity had a positive impact on the purchase intention for party clothes among Singaporean Chinese teens. It was also found that the socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of modernity interacted with attitude and subjective norm. Specifically, attitude had a greater effect and subjective norm had less influence on the purchase intention for party clothes among more modern teens who resided in private homes and were English speaking than those who lived in public housing and were non‐English speaking. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Managerial Incentives and Corporate Fraud: The Sources of Incentives Matter

Operating performance and stock return results imply that managerswho commit fraud anticipate large stock price declines if theywere to report truthfully, which would cause greater lossesfor managerial stockholdings than for options because of differencesin convexity. Fraud firms have significantly greater incentivesfrom unrestricted stockholdings than control firms do, and unrestrictedstockholdings are their largest incentive source. Our resultsemphasize the importance of the shape and vesting status ofincentive payoffs in providing incentives to commit fraud. Fraudfirms also have characteristics that suggest a lower likelihoodof fraud detection, which implies lower expected costs of fraud.     

Perceived effectiveness of influence strategies among Hong Kong managers

This study extended recent attempts to build a conceptual framework for the study of organizational influence behaviors. A hundred and four Hong Kong managers rated the perceived effectiveness of 16 influence tactics in six scenarios, covering three directions of influence—upward, downward, and lateral. Results consistently generated a two-dimensional model of basic strategies—the more nurturing, conformity-inducing Gentle Persuasion (GP); and the more agentic, compliance-pressuring Contingent Control (CC). A three-way interaction among these two strategies, the three influence directions, and gender was found, and the relationships between the perceived effectiveness of these strategies and the managers’ social beliefs explored.

The reference wars: Encyclopædia Britannica's decline and Encarta's emergence

Research summary: The experience of Encyclopædia Britannica provides the canonical example of the decline of an established firm at the outset of the digital age. Competition from Microsoft's Encarta in 1993 led to sharp declines in the sales of books, which led to the distressed sale of the firm in 1996. This article offers new source material about the actions at both Encarta and Britannica, and it offers a novel interpretation of events. Britannica's management did not misperceive the opportunities and threats, and Britannica did not lack technical prowess. This narrative stresses that Britannica's management faced organizational diseconomies of scope between supporting lines of business in the old and new markets, which generated internal conflicts. These conflicts hindered the commercialization of new technology and hastened its decline . Managerial summary: An established and leading firm, such as Encyclopædia Britannica, would seem to have enormous advantages over its competitors in a new market. Why would a successful firm come to have severe difficulties organizing for a new market? Of particular importance for explaining Britannica's decline are theories that stress its inherited capabilities, especially inherited technological (in)abilities and inherited (mis)perceptions about the potential for new market opportunities. This article argues that Britannica's management did not misperceive the opportunities and threats, and Britannica did not lack technical prowess. This narrative stresses that Britannica's management faced organizational diseconomies of scope between supporting lines of business in the old and new markets, which generated internal conflicts. The narrative directs attention at managing commercialization activity around new products using new technologies . Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards Strategic Intent: Perceptions of disability service provision amongst hotel accommodation managers

The tourism sector globally has become increasingly mindful of how an ageing population is reshaping service provision forms and offerings. This being particularly true of accommodation operations where there is a now a growing recognition of the commercial value for providing market groups with exceptional service. With this in mind, this study sought to ascertain the perceptions of managers in the accommodation sector towards disability service provision with a view to identifying any current service gaps or failings. An inductive, qualitative approach was used with the data collection phase incorporating a series of one on one interviews and a focus group. The in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 managers of hotels deemed to have accessible rooms that complied with the relevant building codes and standards. A focus group comprised 22 managers of hotels located in the Sydney central business district, Australia. Study findings revealed five key themes that had not been previously discussed in the literature. They were: inclusive attitudinal approach; safety; the responsibility of people with a disability to communicate their needs to the hotel; perceptions of accessible rooms by the general public; and operational processes. Related themes that emerged from the data analysis that had previously been aligned with the literature included: legislative responsibility, policy and building codes; disability as a market segment; staff awareness/training; and language, marketing, and promotion information. Implications with respect to management of accessible rooms in the accommodation sector are outlined and further areas of research are proposed.