Who is going to save the Brazilian Amazon forest? Reflections on deforestation,wildlife eviction,and stewardship behavior

The Brazilian Amazon deforestation is the context for this article, approached as a crime against humanity and wildlife. Recently, Amazon forest fires have also worried most of the economically developed nations, generating criticism and demanding that the Brazilian Government be more active in preventing fires and deforestation. It is necessary to guarantee the wellbeing and health of millions of animal species that live in this habitat, avoiding their extinctions and encouraging the preservation of the forest and its inhabitants. Agribusiness, together with illegal timber trade, are blamed for most of the deforestation. In this paper, we present and discuss Brazilian Amazon deforestation data, addressing the role of agribusiness as dependent on good environmental governance. We argue how stewardship behavior needs to become a path to stop deforestation and wildlife eviction and we reflect on what marketers in Brazil and the world can do to better protect the Amazon rainforest. We conclude that the Government, companies, and society must be coresponsible for the protection of the Amazon rainforest through conservation transparency, dialogue, environmental awareness, and sustainability in production and consumption practices.     

Built environment analysis for road traffic hotspot locations in Moshi,Tanzania

Road traffic injuries (RTIs) cause significant morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Investigation of high risk areas for RTIs is needed to guide improvements. This study provides built environmental analysis of road traffic crash hotspots within Moshi, Tanzania. Spatial analysis of police data identified 36 hotspots. Qualitative comparative analysis revealed 40% of crash sites were on local roads without night lighting and increased motorcycle density. Paved narrow roads represented 26% of hotspots and 13% were unpaved roads with uneven roadsides. Roadside unevenness was more predominate in low risk [n = 19, (90.5%)] than high risk sites [n = 7 (46.7%)]. Both low [n = 6 (28.6%)] and high risk [n = 1 (6.7%)] sites had minimal signage. All sites had informal pedestrian pathways. Little variability between risk sites suggests hazardous conditions are widespread. Findings suggest improvement in municipal infrastructure, signage and enforcement is needed to reduce RTI burden.     

Religion's influence on the financial well-being of consumers: A conceptual framework and research agenda

Religion is an indelible force in society, yet research examining its influence on consumption, particularly in the context of financial well-being is lacking. Thus, this paper presents a conceptual framework of factors influencing, and outcomes associated with, the effects of religion on financial well-being. Specifically, this paper introduces a conceptual framework aimed at understanding how religion influences financial decisions and well-being, both from a consumer and a business perspective. Focus groups were conducted with consumers and financial practitioners to support the development of the conceptual framework. Most novel to this framework is the identification of potential process mechanisms explaining this relationship, including trust, affect, risk propensity, and perceived personal control. The framework concludes with potential interventions targeted at consumers and businesses to improve financial well-being. This propositions-based conceptual framework serves as a research agenda to guide and aid scholars, consumer advocacy groups, policymakers, and marketers in promoting greater financial well-being.     

A green Lewis development model

This paper develops an environmental extension of a Lewis dual economy model, in which the interaction between environmental quality and economic growth, in one of its several dimensions, is explicitly modeled to explore long-run effects of a pollution abatement rule in developing economies. The government requires the modern sector to dedicate a fraction of its output to pollution abatement, with such profitability-reducing fraction being endogenous to the level of environmental quality. Meanwhile, the level of environmental quality positively affects labor productivity, profits and, therefore, savings, which has a positive impact on capital accumulation. It is shown that this pollution abatement requirement, by affecting profitability in the modern sector both negatively and positively, makes for the emergence of an ecological development trap from which a developing dual economy, if left to the free play of its structural forces, never escapes. Fortunately, however, this economy can be released from such a trap not only through a standard Big Push, in the spirit of Rosenstein-Rodan, but also by means of what we call an Environmental Big Push.     

Gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from India and Singapore

ABSTRACT

This study investigates if gender diversity on boards is an effective driver of financial performance. For this purpose, this study choses two countries, one of which has the soft law approach (Singapore) while the other has mandatory requirements (India) on corporate boards gender diversity. By doing so, it examines if there is a comparability between the listed firms of the two countries. Our results suggest that the gender diversity has a positive and significant effect on the financial performance of the firms of both the countries. Although, the gender diversity of the two countries does not seem to affect the growth opportunities of both the countries. Further, our results indicate that the board characteristics affect the performance positively and significantly when the sample is divided into five quantiles for the firms in these two countries. These findings have implications to the managerial decision making and relevance to stewardship theory and resource dependency theory.     

BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE QUANTITATIVE METHODS APPLIED TO THE MEASUREMENT OF INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS

Literature on methods for analysing interindustry interdependence and geographical concentration of firms began to multiply since the 1990s. The aim of this paper was to systematize the literature on methods and measures applied to the analysis of industrial clusters, as well as to identify trends in this knowledge field. The method used was bibliometrics, which consisted of a frequency evaluation of the publications and the relationship network between them. It was verified an exponential increase in the number of papers that composed this area, based mainly on the theories of New Economic Geography. Recently, the literature has focused on the geographic location in relation to interindustry linkages, and the frontier of knowledge has shifted from traditional methods of regional science to areas such as spatial statistics, econophysics and artificial intelligence. There are still relevant questions being explored, as Modifiable Area Unit Problem (aggregation bias), nevertheless, spatial anisotropy (directional bias) is still neglected and indicates a new research path.     

Correction to: Drivers and Inhibitors of Internet Privacy Concern: A Multidimensional Development Theory Perspective

Using U.S. listed firms during the period from 1971 to 2010, this paper investigates the effect of religion on corporate cost behavior. We find that religion mitigates cost stickiness induced by agency or behavioral biases of managers. This result holds for several robustness tests that address endogeneity concerns. The mitigating effect of religion on cost stickiness is through the channel of reducing top managers’ overconfidence and optimistic bias regarding future demand change (risk-aversion mechanism) and promoting managers’ adherence to fiduciary responsibilities and consideration of shareholder benefits (ethic mechanism). Further evidence shows that the reduction in cost stickiness caused by religion increases firm value. Overall, our findings suggest that religion reduces the wedge between a firm’s actual and optimal resource commitments, which helps to improve firm value and resource allocation efficiency.

     

A re-examination of accruals quality following restatements

Empirical research from the first years following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the US suggests that firms improve accruals quality following restatements, but the materiality of restatements has declined since then. This decline may affect firms' responses to restatements, and hence we re-examine whether restatements are associated with subsequent improvements in accruals quality in a more recent sample. We compare the changes in accruals quality of firms restating between 2000 and 2014 with that of a control group. We do not find that firms improve accruals quality more than the control group following a restatement, even when we isolate the types of restatements considered to be most material. However, we do find that restatements followed by the most negative stock market reactions are associated with a relative increase in accruals quality, indicating that only restatements deemed very severe by investors lead to subsequent improvements in accruals quality. Our results suggest that firms' responses to restatements have changed concurrently with the trend of fewer and less material restatements in recent years.     

Impact of responsive and proactive market orientation on SME performance: The moderating role of economic crisis perception

This study examines the relationship between market orientation (MO) and the performance of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) within the context of economic crisis. It distinguishes between two levels of MO: responsive market orientation (RMO) and proactive market orientation (PMO). Data were collected on a sample of 300 SME. Findings indicate that SMEs, confronted with an economic downturn, use a MO approach that is both proactive and responsive, and reveal the moderator effect of the SME manager's perception of an economic crisis on PMO/RMO–performance. Research and practical implications are discussed. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.