The importance of morality for collective self-esteem and motivation to engage in socially responsible behavior at work among professionals in the finance industry

Public comments criticizing the honesty and trustworthiness of Professionals in Finance (PIFs) are commonly seen as a way to motivate them towards engaging in more socially responsible business practices. However, the link between public views of this professional group, the self-views of individual group members, and their motivation to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities has not been empirically examined. In this research, we draw on Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Behavioral Regulation Model for social evaluation (BRM) to examine how the self-views of individual group members relate to perceived characteristics of their professional group, indicating Competence and Morality. In two studies (N = 123, 191) we examined whether the self-views of high-profile and general PIFs are affected by other people's perceptions of the honesty and trustworthiness of this professional group. The results offer support for our reasoning derived from SIT and the BRM. In both studies, we first demonstrate that public concerns about the group's lack of honesty and trustworthiness impact on the moral self-views of financial professionals. Subsequently, we employ an experimental design to reveal that reinforcing moral criticism leveled at the group only reduces the motivation of individual group members to engage in CSR activities, while group-level moral affirmation enhances this motivation. The results of both studies converge to demonstrate how public critique on the moral behavior of their professional group relates to the self-views and behavioral motives of PIFs. We consider the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

A dynamic segmentation of U.S. women during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a vast, but uneven, influence on consumers. Diversity in consumer reactions, and the extent to which those reactions lead to lasting preference and lifestyle changes, present challenges for implementing effective marketing strategies during a period of societal crisis. To address this, we conducted a dynamic segmentation analysis involving over 14,000 U.S. women by assessing relevant psychological, experiential, and other personal factors at multiple time points during the pandemic. This analysis identified seven unique consumer segments who varied in their current and future degree of change, and who indicated responsiveness to specific forms of brand and advertising content. This seven-segment clustering was highly stable over time, suggesting that certain segmentation approaches hold continuing value for marketers even as widespread events like pandemics evolve.     

Democratizing Entrepreneurship? Digital Technologies and the Internationalization of Female‐Led SMEs

This study examines how digital technologies affect the international expansion of female‐led small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Digital technologies have the potential to democratize entrepreneurship by providing access to international market knowledge and facilitating interactions with customers and partners. Building on the original Penrosean specification of the resource‐based view and the notion of versatility of resources, we propose that digital technologies impact positively SME internationalization through the mediation of international market intelligence. Furthermore, we posit that female entrepreneurs will leverage the enabling effects of digital technologies more than their male counterparts. The hypotheses are tested on a representative sample of 300 Bulgarian SMEs. Implications for policy and research are advanced.     

A gendered look at entrepreneurship ecosystems

Small Business Economics - Underlying entrepreneurship ecosystems is the implicit assumption that all entrepreneurs have equal access to resources, participation, and support, as well as an equal...     

Mapping the Relationship Among Political Ideology,CSR Mindset,and CSR Strategy: A Contingency Perspective Applied to Chinese Managers

The literature on antecedents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies of firms has been predominately content driven. Informed by the managerial sense-making process perspective, we develop a contingency theoretical framework explaining how political ideology of managers affects the choice of CSR strategy for their firms through their CSR mindset. We also explain to what extent the outcome of this process is shaped by the firm’s internal institutional arrangements and external factors impacting on the firm. We develop and test several hypotheses using data collected from 129 Chinese managers. The results show that managers with a stronger socialist ideology are likely to develop a mindset favouring CSR, which induces the adoption of a proactive CSR strategy. The CSR mindset mediates the link between socialist ideology and CSR strategy. The strength of the relationship between the CSR mindset and the choice of CSR strategy is moderated by customer response to CSR, industry competition, the role of government, and CSR-related managerial incentives.     

Controlled and uncontrolled communication stimuli and organic food purchases: The mediating role of perceived communication clarity,perceived health benefits,and trust

Despite a growing demand worldwide, organic food remains a niche category, with consumers only purchasing it some of the time. This study examines the mediating effects of consumers’ perceived clarity of organic food-related communication, trust for, and perceived health benefits of organic foods in the relationship between controlled and uncontrolled communication stimuli and organic food purchases. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 1011 Australian organic food consumers using Structural Equation Modeling. We find that all mediators except perceived communication clarity perform as hypothesized, with the latter not mediating the relationship between uncontrolled communications and perceived health benefits of organic foods. The results suggest that marketers should ensure clarity in controlled organic food communications, signal health benefits of organic food and build consumer trust to generate organic purchases.     

Trust during retail encounters: A touchy proposition

Adopting an interpersonal communication perspective, this study examines the propositions that a salesperson's touch increases trust, which increases product evaluations and purchase intention. These relationships are evaluated in a contact and non-contact culture, with need for touch (NFT) examined as an additional moderator. An exploratory series of in-depth interviews provides an initial understanding of these relationships, followed by a 2 (touch/no touch condition) × 2 (consumers in France/Germany) experiment with wine serving as the example category. The findings indicate that touch does not uniformly instill trust in customers. Instead a salesperson's touch relates to greater trust only when consumers have an inherent NFT or when they are from a culture where personal touching behavior is less prevalent. Trust, in turn, relates positively to evaluations of product attractiveness, quality, and to purchase intention.     

The impact of international students on housing markets

We study the impact of the 2005–2015 international student boom in US universities on local housing markets. By constructing a sample of American college towns characterizing rarely studied local markets in small urban areas, we show that international students exogenously sustained demand for rentals and residential investment, representing counter-cyclical shocks during the Great Recession. Exploiting the historical distribution of foreign enrolment across college towns and country-of-origin networks, we find that international students increased rents by 1.3% and home prices by 2.5% relative to the housing boom peak, translating into home equity gains of $4,000. An analysis exploiting within-city dynamics reveals that neighbourhoods near campus absorbed international inflows by replacing single-family homes with apartment rentals.     

Business cycle stylized facts and inventory behaviour: New evidence for the Euro area

The purpose of this paper is for the first time to use Business Tendency Survey data, first, to identify new facts that are useful for the interpretation of the decline in the volatility of real activity in the Euro area, and, second, to test the inventory management hypothesis as an explanation for the Great Moderation in Europe. We present stylized facts from the Business Tendency data on series for inventories, current production, current orders, and expected production for the Euro area, emphasizing the decline in the volatility of the series. Further, we investigate whether the decline in inventory volatility can be attributed to an endogenous change in the persistence of shocks to the accumulation dynamics of inventories or to an exogenous change in the shocks hitting the inventory optimisation process. Our results at Euro level generally indicate that there is no evidence of a break in the inventory accumulation process. On the contrary, the impact of exogenous shocks on inventory volatility appears to be steadily declining over time, beginning from the mid-1980s.