Navigating Ambivalence: Perceived Organizational Prestige–Support Discrepancy and Its Relation to Employee Cynicism and Silence

Drawing on the social identity literature, this study offers theoretical arguments and empirical evidence to understand reactions to divergent perceptions of organizational external prestige (PEP) and organizational support (POS) – two crucial bases of employees’ social worth. Across three studies, using both experimental and field data, we find that PEP‐POS discrepancy contributes to employees’ perceptions of organizational cynicism and silence behaviour, especially when PEP is high and POS is low (rather than the reverse). Consistent with our social identity perspective, we find that ambivalent identification, that is, the simultaneous identification and disidentification of an individual with an organization, is a key mediating mechanism that transfers the interactive relationship of PEP and POS to cynicism and silence. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of individuals’ social worth at work.     

From the corset to Spanx: shapewear as a marketplace icon

This article presents the marketplace icon of shapewear—clothing that changes the shape of the human body by compressing or enhancing it. The trajectory of shapewear from the highly structured corset of the sixteenth century to the elastic Spanx of the 2000s evidences how this marketplace icon has come into being. Shapewear has materialized many evolving forms of beauty standards and gender roles as it participates in body-centered market assemblages. Market actors, such as manufacturers, designers, media, celebrities, activists, physicians, and consumers, translate shapewear to materialize intentions in the female body, shaping it accordingly. Whether promoting female autonomy or oppression, shapewear stands as a marketplace icon because it has maintained stable market appeal across time and body-centered market assemblages: it shapes the female body while symbolically articulating women’s roles.     

Risk aversion,innovation and performance in family firms

An analysis of the effect of family governance on the relationships among risk aversion, innovation and performance is the purpose of this study. Beyond the level of risk and innovation, we are interested in analysing the relationship between them and their influence on performance in family firms. Traditionally, risk-seeking has been associated with innovation and performance. Our results confirm both components to be independent and, furthermore, show relationships with opposite signs as expected in the literature. In a sample of 500 firms, the results confirm an idiosyncratic behaviour in family firms; innovation contributes to performance to a higher extent in family firms, and at the same time, risk aversion is positively associated with performance only in non-family firms.     

An exploratory study on the returns management process in an online retailer

The returns management process is gaining increasing importance both in academia and among supply chain professionals, not only as a tool in the practice of sustainability, but also for its strategic role in many economic sectors. Several studies show how efficiently returns management can reduce costs and provide a competitive advantage to companies. Likewise, electronic commerce, or e-commerce, has shown significant growth in many countries and, due to its very nature, it presents much higher return rates than traditional trade. However, despite the importance of returns management operation for electronic commerce, few studies explore this theme in the literature. The aim of this paper is to describe the process of returns management of the largest online retailer of the Brazilian market, showing its evolution and analysing its performance, as well as identifying its main shortcomings. We conclude with suggestions for improvements and the implementation of a more efficient system.     

Risk Aversion, Transparency, and Market Performance

Using a model of market making with inventories based on Biais (1993), we find that investors obtain more favorable execution prices, and they hence invest more, when markets are fragmented. In our model, risk-averse dealers use less aggressive price strategies in more transparent markets (centralized) because quote dissemination alleviates uncertainty about the prices quoted by other dealers and, hence, reduces the need to compete aggressively for order flow. Further, we show that the move toward greater transparency (centralization) may have detrimental effects on liquidity and welfare.     

A Bibliometric Analysis of the First 25 Years of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing

Purpose: As part of the recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing (JBBM), this paper presents an overview of the JBBM through a bibliometric analysis (BA) of its content from 1992 to 2016. The analysis focuses on the most cited articles and authors, h-index, publications per year, among others that typically are conducted for BAs.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper begins with an introduction to the JBBM, showing its characteristics, its history as well as the editorial development and subsequent journal positioning. This information is followed by an analysis based on bibliometric methodology (BM) which considers the h-index, total citations (TCs), total papers (TPs), TC/TP ratio and other similar measures. To display this information, investigation was done to determine the most cited journals, articles, authors, universities and countries, ergo with the greatest incidence within JBBM. Analyzed are 329 articles, reviews and notes taken from the Scopus database for the periods between 1992 and 2016 for the JBBM.

Findings: At the time of this work, the completion of the 25th anniversary of this journal, there is a rising trend in the number of JBBM publications per year. The researchers from the United States were most frequent contributors to the journal, while researchers from Germany, Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom were well represented. Multiple coauthors were more frequent while topics across the general model of business-to-business (B-to-B) marketing were typically found. Special issues on all three university-level education, technology in the classroom as well as Internet in effect B-to-B tactical marketing.

Practical Implications: After observing the different perspectives of the journal’s production, we gain another objective view on the evolution of the JBBM in prior 25 years. This approach is useful for the readers of this journal in order to obtain a quick snapshot of the leading trends occurring in the journal and is similar as performed for many cognate titles. The many titles within marketing and the business disciplines may find such an exercise revelatory.

Originality/Value: There is a trend where several journals (Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Business Research) have produced special sections to show progress and contributions of these to scientific research using BA and BM. This paper does similarly for the JBBM.     

Financial hedging with derivatives and its impact on the Colombian market value for listed companies

The financial theory (Modigliani & Miller, 1958) presents risk management as a matter without importance in companies, given that the shareholders themselves managed their hedges, diversifying their portfolios. However, subsequent studies dispute said premise and present evidence that business financial hedging improves performance and increases the value of the same (Ahmed, Azevedo, & Guney, 2014; Allayannis & Weston, 2001; Kapitsinas, 2008). The efficient market risk management is supported in the financial derivatives, and demands strategic and efficient administrators in hedges that add value, especially in the face of clashes and macroeconomic and financial imbalances. The empirical evidence analyzes the behavior of the Q-Tobin as an indicator of the effect of the hedge strategies for the exchange rate associated to the market value. The aim of this work is to find evidence in Colombia on the effect of the use of derivatives in the market value of the company. Its added value lies in the analysis that is done by economic sectors, identified by ISIC codes and grouped into five (5) macro sectors (Agriculture and livestock, Commercial, Industrial or Manufacture, Services, and Construction). The methodology used includes the estimation of several regression models in data panels, using a Pooled regression model with fixed and random effect estimators through the maximum likelihood estimator. In general, a statistical and financially significant premium for hedges was found for companies exposed to exchange rate risks that use derivatives of a 6.3% average on the market value. Additionally, mixed results were found in relation to the variables analyzed in the model.