Cross-listing and legal bonding: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions

Using a sample of foreign acquisitions of US targets, this study examines the extent to which cross-listing in the US leads to legal and regulatory bonding, and/or whether reputational bonding proxied by financial intermediaries monitoring, an often ignored component of the bonding mechanism, is an important factor in US investors decision to hold shares in cross-listed firms. We find that compared to US firms, cross-listed firms are less likely to use equity in takeovers of US targets. Further, cross-listed firms from countries with poorer legal protections are less likely to finance with equity and pay higher premiums than cross-listed firms from countries with better legal protections. Using analysts’ coverage and institutional following as proxies for financial intermediary monitoring, we find some support for the importance of reputational bonding. The evidence suggests that while cross-listing reduces barriers to investment, there are limits to its ability to completely subsume both the legal environment and the importance of the monitoring of financial intermediaries. This further suggests that the extent of actual legal and regulatory bonding by cross-listed firms may be more limited than often assumed.     

The antecedents of preventive health care behavior: An empirical study

A conceptual model of preventive health care behavior is proposed and tested. Results suggest that preventive health care behaviors are strongly influenced by the value consumers perceive in engaging in such actions. This value is greatly affected by response efficacy, or the person’s belief that a specific action will mitigate the health threat. A separate consideration affecting adherence to a prescribed preventive health care behavior is self-efficacy, or the person’s belief that the target behaviors can be enacted. Additionally, health motivation and health consciousness are also shown to influence preventive health care behaviors. Future research directions and managerial implications of the findings are outlined. Rama K. Jayanti (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is an assistant professor of marketing, James J. Nance College of Business, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio. Her primary research interests include services marketing and consumer behavior. She has published articles inJournal of Health Care Marketing; Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior; andJournal of Professional Services Marketing. Alvin C. Burns is a professor of marketing and department chairman at Louisiana State University. His articles have appeared in publications such as theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, andAsian Journal of Marketing. Burns belongs to the American Marketing Association, the Association for Consumer Research, and the Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning. He is the lead author ofMarketing Research (Prentice Hall, 1995).     

Managing tourists and politicians in India

This article describes one approach to matching the needs of foreign tourists and local communities in India—ldstar circuits” (a way of routeing tourists around a collection of sites) and condominium hotels (a way of allowing locals to participate in providing a range of tourist services). Also discussed are some of the problems that arise when Indian politicians consider tourism projects.     

Consumer decision making and the nature of the product: A comparison of husband and wife adoption process location

Many studies investigating consumer decision making have implicitly assumed that one individual in a family (most often the wife) makes all of the consumption choices for the family. This study investigated and compared the independent responses of husbands and wives concerning their adoption process location for a series of products. Significant response discrepancies were observed, primarily for products for which the adoption decision likely involves lower levels of involvement. Relatively little agreement was observed between husbands and wives on whether a product was adopted. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Construction Cycles in the United States Since World War II*

The article analyzes the cycles of total construction and its major sectors after adjustment for the varying growth trends of real expenditures. Fluctuations in GNP and business fixed investment serve as “reference cycles.” The findings elucidate the relationships between cycles in total construction and its components and between construction and GNP cycles. Special analyses are devoted to the movements of public versus private construction expenditures and to the “countercyclical” behavior of residential building. The paper shows increasing volatility of private construction over time and substantial inter-sector differences in average volatility. Although public policies have a strong potential influence on the cyclical performance of construction, the complexities revealed in the study indicate severe problems in attempts to stabilize its output.     

Motivators of Mobilization

Using data on shareholder-initiated class action lawsuits in the US, I investigate the corporate scandals of US-listed foreign firms. The shareholders of scandal firms suffer considerable loss in both the short term and the long term. I document that firms domiciled in countries with weak institutions are more likely to be embroiled in corporate scandals, but such a relation can be moderated by the presence of Big 4 auditors. Investors automatically adjust for undiscovered misconduct when valuing the stocks of non-scandal firms (i.e., the spillover effect). Investors rely on the audit quality to form their expectations about the severity of undiscovered misconduct, and thus impose less negative spillovers on firms with Big 4 auditors, especially when the firms are from countries with weak institutions. Taken together, my results suggest that listing on US exchanges does not fully compensate for weak local institutions; voluntarily bonding to a more stringent audit process has an incremental effect on protecting shareholder interests and enhances the confidence of investors in firms’ financial integrity.     

Store brands and retail differentiation: the influence of store image and store brand attitude on store own brand perceptions

Store's own brands can provide important opportunities for retail differentiation if they are considered by consumers to be uniquely associated with store image. A survey of shoppers measured attitudes toward individual stores’ images and store brand perceptions, as well as general attitudes toward store brands. A regression analysis demonstrates a positive relationship between consumers’ perceptions of individual store own brands and their associated store's image dimensions and attitudes toward store brands in general.     

The simultaneous sponsorship of rival teams: Beyond ingroup favoritism and outgroup animosity

The current research broadens the scope of sponsorship research to empirically examine ambivalence as a consumer response to the increasingly popular strategy of brands engaging in the simultaneous sponsorship of rival teams (i.e., a joint sponsorship). Specifically, our research considers the effects of ambivalence and team identification on sponsorship responses across three different types of brand-team partnerships: a joint sponsorship of two rival teams, a favored team sponsorship, and a rival team sponsorship. Our results indicate that a joint sponsorship elicits ambivalence which directly and indirectly has a negative impact on attitudes and intentions toward the sponsoring brand. Joint sponsorships were also found to diminish the well-established link between team identification and attitudes and intentions. Our research also identified argument strength as a brand messaging strategy for mitigating some of the negative effects of simultaneously sponsoring rival properties.