New class divisions in a modern working life?

This article questions the usefulness of a traditional class divide as a tool for understanding a contemporary working environment among manual and non‐manual workers in the oil service industry. The case of study is an enterprise within a supply chain with asymmetrical relationships between companies. Our findings show that the traditional manual/non‐manual class division is still relevant for understanding differences in perceived work situation in a modern work organisation. However, alongside a cleavage between manual and non‐manual workers, we find a cleavage between workers with differing amounts of contact with employees in organisations higher up in the supply chain.     

A nearly perfect market?

Internet shopbots allow consumers to almost instantly compare prices and other characteristics from dozens of sellers via a single website. We estimate the magnitude of consumer search costs and benefits using data from a major shopbot for books. For the median consumer, the estimated benefit from simply scrolling down to search lower screens is $6.55. This amounts to about 60% of the observed price dispersion and suggests that consumers face significant search costs, even in this “nearly-perfect” market. Price elasticities are relatively high compared to offline markets (−7 to −10 in our base model). Furthermore, contrary to the common assumption, search intensity is not correlated with greater price sensitivity. Instead, consumers who search multiple screens put relatively more weight on non-price factors like brand.     

Online display advertising for CPG brands: (When) does it work?

This study examines how online display ads, alone or in combination with more conventional media (television and print), can help drive sales in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector. It also assesses how the combined sales effect of online and offline ads depends on the volatility of their expenditures over time. We explore these relations for 154 brands across 68 Dutch CPG product categories. We find that, even though display ads are not effective for the “average” CPG brand, they do have a significant impact for a sizable, and considerably larger than expected by chance, subset of brands. Importantly, this impact depends on the type of product. While display ads are found to be ineffective for low-involvement utilitarian products, they can significantly enhance sales for other CPG product types. Moreover, the effect depends on whether they are used in combination with other media: while display ads are best used as a stand-alone medium for high-involvement utilitarian products, it is better to combine them with traditional media for hedonic products. Finally, the long-term effectiveness of display messages increases significantly when they are spread more evenly in time.     

Special economic zones: Shortcut or roundabout way towards capitalism?

The experiences of developing countries suggest that special economic zones (SEZs) might be appropriate instruments for accelerating the economic restructuring of Central and Eastern Europe. What functions could SEZs fulfil in the transformation process? What conditions must be met if they are to be successful?     

Ethical and Unethical Leadership: A Cross-Cultural and Cross-Sectoral Analysis

Current literature on ethical leadership and unethical leadership reflects a Western-based private sector perspective, pointing toward a compliance-oriented understanding of ethical and unethical leadership. As today’s executives increasingly have to ethically lead across different cultures and sectors, it becomes vitally important to develop a more holistic picture how ethical and unethical leadership is perceived in the Western and Eastern cultural cluster and the private and the public/social sector. Addressing this issue, the present study aims to identify cross-cultural and cross-sectoral commonalities and differences in international executives’ perceptions of ethical and unethical leadership. Findings from in-depth interviews (N = 36) with executives from Western and Eastern cultures working in the private or the public/social sector reveal collectively held perceptions of ethical leadership (including leader honesty, integrity, concern for responsibility/sustainability, and people orientation) and of unethical leadership (referring to leader dishonesty, corruption, egocentrism, and manipulation). Results indicate limited support for a compliance-oriented perspective on ethical and unethical leadership but yield a much greater trend toward a value-oriented perspective. Concrete practice examples illustrate these different perspectives. Cultural and sectoral particularities of executive perceptions of ethical and unethical leadership are discussed.     

Innovation trends and industrial renewal in Finland and Sweden 1970–2013

We examine trends in innovation output for two highly ranked innovative countries: Finland and Sweden (1970–2013). Our novel dataset, collected using the LBIO (literature-based innovation output) method, suggests that the innovation trends are positive for both countries, despite an extended downturn in the 1980s. The findings cast some doubt on the proposition that the current stagnation of many developed countries is due to a lack of innovation and investment opportunities. Our data show that Finland catches up to, and passes, Sweden in innovation output in the 1990s. In per capita terms, Finland stays ahead throughout the period. We find that the strong Finnish performance is largely driven by innovation increase in just a handfull of sectors, but is not restricted to few companies. Both countries saw a rise in innovation during the dot-com era and the structural changes that followed. Since 2000 however, Sweden has outperformed Finland in terms of total innovations, especially in machinery and ICT, while the Finnish rate of innovation has stabilised. We suggest that these patterns may be explained by different paths of industrial renewal.     

Determinants of discounts in equity rights issues: An international comparison

Equity rights offerings are the predominant SEO flotation method in many European and Asian countries. Several previous studies focus on rights offerings, but these studies often measure solely the announcement effects of these offerings and pay little attention to the discount. This study seeks to close this gap, explain the discounts on such rights offerings, and determine the drivers of offering discounts with a focus on cultural effects regarding the level of uncertainty avoidance. Based on the existing literature, we develop several hypotheses and find supporting evidence for these hypotheses in our data. Our main finding is that the most important factors for explaining the discount on an equity rights offer are the level of uncertainty avoidance, the quality of a firm, and the level of uncertainty about firm value.