Deonance and Distrust: Motivated Third Party Information Seeking Following Disclosure of an Agent’s Unethical Behavior

This article explores the hypothesis that third parties are motivated to seek information about agents who have behaved unethically in the past, even if the agent and available information are irrelevant to the third parties’ goals and interests. We explored two possible motives for this information seeking behavior: deonance, or the motive to care about ethics and justice simply for the sake of ethics and justice, and distrust-based threat monitoring. Participants in a consumer decision task were found to seek out information about an agent who had behaved unethically even when the agent was explicitly excluded from the task; there were no intentions to purchase from the agent; performance expectations for the agent’s product were low; the information that could be sought was non-diagnostic, redundant or irrelevant to an ethical judgment; and alternatives in the market offered as good or better value as the unethical agent. Critically, this information seeking took place even when the observer could disengage from and was not vulnerable to the agent. The findings are discussed in terms of third party information seeking and its effects on ethical behavior in the marketplace.     

Assembly FG: An Educational Case on MRP II Integrated within ERP

This case teaches students how discrete (job order) manufacturing companies use Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to plan purchase orders for direct materials and shop orders for work‐in‐process and finished goods. Students simulate MRP II integrated within ERP, using Microsoft Excel to learn MRP II's bill‐of‐materials (BOM) Explosion that plans order quantities and MRP II's scheduling logic that uses lead‐times to determine start dates for planned orders. Students explain why MRP II is most practical and effective when executed within ERP and how MRP II can reduce excess inventories, prevent inventory shortages, and help companies deliver quality products to customers on schedule. Also, students explain why BOM, inventory, and lead‐time inaccuracies can adversely affect the accuracy of MRP II‐planned replenishments and identify controls that reduce the risks of these inaccuracies.     

Labor Market Analysis and Public Policy: The Case of Morocco

This article uses detailed industry and household data to understandwhy Morocco's labor market performed poorly in 1985–95.The data indicate that marked structural changes and weak demandin the product market were responsible. This article makes twocontributions to the literature. The first is specific: it underscoresthat the demand for labor is a derived demand and that the performanceof the product market is an important determinant of the performanceof the labor market. The second is more general: it demonstratesthat this kind of microeconomic analysis, using data sets thatare often available in developing countries, can inform policydesign.     

Simulated Attention-Tracking Methodologies: An Examination of Measurement Efficacy

This study introduces and examines a simulated attention-tracking methodology as an emerging technique to improve the study of in-store shopper behavior and decision making. To assess the viability of this new methodology, we examine its efficacy in producing consumer behavior data consistent with results predicted by the marketing literature. Empirical data across five grocery categories are used to examine the influence of personal, product, and situational differences on external information search. Findings show that the attention-tracking methodology is able to demonstrate expected results in almost all cases. The methodology is also able to provide a more complete view of external information search through tracing the observed search behavior preceding decision making. This proof of methodology responds directly to calls in the marketing and retailing literature to test new and emerging methodologies in support of research on in-store marketing and shopper behavior. Findings also provide managers with a methodology to examine the actual impact of marketing actions intended to capture shoppers’ attention at the retail shelf and to influence behavior.     

The effect of control priming on irresponsible financial behavior

Debt has reached staggering levels among North Americans. Unfortunately, there is deficiency of research that investigates effective means of helping consumers control their debt. We examine how control priming changes consumers’ irresponsible financial behavior. We show that control priming reduces credit card spending and intentions to take credit card risk. We also demonstrate that consumers who score high on self-esteem are more likely to benefit from control priming while those who score low on self-esteem show a backlash effect.     

Spatial econometric Monte Carlo studies: raising the bar

We discuss Monte Carlo methodology that can be used to explore alternative approaches to estimating spatial regression models. Our focus is on models that include spatial lags of the dependent variable, e.g., the SAR specification. A major point is that practitioners rely on scalar summary measures of direct and indirect effects estimates to interpret the impact of changes in explanatory variables on the dependent variable of interest. We argue that these should be the focus of Monte Carlo experiments. Since effects estimates reflect a nonlinear function of both \(\beta \) and \(\rho \), past studies’ focus exclusively on \(\beta \) and \(\rho \) parameter estimates may not provide useful information regarding statistical properties of effects estimates produced by alternative estimators. Since effects estimates have recently become the focus of inference regarding the significance of (scalar summary) direct and indirect impacts arising from changes in the explanatory variables, empirical measures of dispersion produced by simulating draws from the (estimated) variance–covariance matrix of the parameters \(\beta \) and \(\rho \) should be part of the Monte Carlo study. An implication is that differences in the quality of estimated variance–covariance matrices arising from alternative estimators also plays a role in determining the accuracy of inference. An applied illustration is used to demonstrate how these issues can impact conclusions regarding the performance of alternative estimators.     

Depreciation Need Not Be Arbitrary

Following Thomas (1969, 1974) the depreciation adjustment charged against accounting earnings is nowadays commonly presumed to be entirely arbitrary when it is viewed from a measurement perspective. This paper develops a statistical interpretation of accounting measurement to show that the depreciation calculation need not necessarily be viewed as incorrigible in Thomas's sense. A probability modelling approach is adopted to illustrate how the depreciation adjustment can be used to smooth accounting earnings over time. Depreciation is thus shown to have potentially useful estimation properties. The results have obvious policy implications regarding the objectives that depreciation and other accounting allocations might serve. They also have a bearing on fundamental questions regarding the nature of accounting measurement.     

Ambidexterity and Knowledge Strategy in Major Projects: A Framework and Illustrative Case Study

We develop a framework to analyze the multi‐level knowledge requirements of complex, major projects in terms of ambidexterity—the ability to exploit (refine existing knowledge) and explore (develop new knowledge). This is an important theme within the wider literature, yet practical operationalization methods for managers and researchers are not evident. We demonstrate the ambidexterity view through an illustrative case study of telecommunications delivery for the London 2012 Olympic Games and show how these concepts can be used to create an effective knowledge strategy. We offer a structure for the analysis of knowledge utilization in projects.     

Do international investment income flows smooth income?

Do International Investment Income Flows Smooth Income? — One mechanism by which international capital market integration can smooth consumption is to stabilize national income. In order to provide income smoothing, net international investment income should negatively co-vary with GDP. Moreover, to maximize stabilization of GNP in the face of GDP fluctuations, the yield on foreign assets should move countercyclically and the yield on foreign liabilities procyclically. In both time series and panel settings, we reject these hypotheses, suggesting that positive gross international investment income positions are not associated with income smoothing at businesscycle frequencies.