Sector‐based corporate citizenship

This paper approaches the much‐debated issue of corporate citizenship (CC). Many models depict the development process of CC, and yet attempts to find one extensive definition remain in progress. We argue that more than one type of citizenship may be needed to fully describe the concept. So far, social factors have dominated the definitions of CC, but citizenship functions can also be found in other areas. In fact, for maximum benefit, the type of citizenship should be tied to the sector and business field of the corporation in question. Using data drawn from three internationally operating corporations headquartered in Finland, we introduce three different types of CC that are in line with their core business ideas: cultural citizenship, environmental citizenship and technological citizenship. These new types of citizenships can help in grasping the complexity of business responsibility and ethics, and offer tools for gaining competitive advantage by differentiation.     

Consumers as researchers – innovative experiences in UK National Health Service Research

Consumer involvement is an established priority in UK health‐ and social‐care service development and research. To date, little has been published describing the process of consumer involvement and assessing ‘consumers’ contributions to research. This paper provides a practical account of the effective incorporation of consumers into a research team, and outlines the extent to which they can enhance the research cycle; from project development and conduct, through data analysis and interpretation, to dissemination. Salient points are illustrated using the example of their collaboration in a research project. Of particular note were consumers' contributions to the development of an ethically enhanced, more robust project design, and enriched data interpretation, which may not have resulted had consumers not been an integral part of the research team.     

Financing constraints and US cross‐listing

This study investigates whether relaxation of firms' financial constraints is an important outcome of the US cross‐listing mechanism. We use the association between investment spending and cash flow to test for the presence and importance of firms' financing constraints. Consistent with the bonding hypothesis, the results suggest that US exchange and private placement cross‐listings significantly alleviate firms' financing constraints. In addition, the financial benefits associated with exchange listings are larger than those associated with private listings, while on the other hand, over‐the‐counter programs do not improve capital allocation. The study also shows that US exchange cross‐listing benefits have not been eroded by the enactment of the Sarbanes‐Oxley (SOX) Act in 2002. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moderators of the negativity effect: Commitment,identification, and consumer sensitivity to corporate social performance

Numerous studies have identified constructs such as commitment and brand familiarity as moderators of negativity effects. However, boundary conditions for this moderation have yet to be identified within a retailing context. This study tries to rectify this gap in the literature. This study finds that three factors (commitment, consumer–company identification, and consumer sensitivity to corporate social performance) moderate attitude change toward a retailer following exposure to moderately negative (vs. positive) publicity. However, given extremely negative information, the buffering effects of the moderating factors disappear, and attitude changes are significant for all consumers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Digital sport entrepreneurial ecosystems

The entrepreneurial ecosystems literature has increasingly explored network relationships between different stakeholders, as well as the role of context. This article addresses the challenge of including a sport context in the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature thereby contributing to the sport entrepreneurship literature by bringing insights from entrepreneurship ecosystem research. In‐depth interviews of football stakeholders in the sport entrepreneurship ecosystem are conducted in terms of understanding the emergence of digital sport start‐ups. The issues raised help explore the changing nature of digital entrepreneurial ecosystems to take into account new sport technological advances. Mixed embeddedness theory is used as the conceptual foundation to understand sport digital entrepreneurial ecosystems. Key management practices are identified in terms of sport start‐ups participating in entrepreneurial ecosystems. The article concludes by making suggestions for future research.     

Consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food in Galicia (Northern Spain)

Although the organic sector is still relatively small, the demand for organic food is increasing throughout the world. The characterization of consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food is important to enable the development of marketing policies aimed at attracting conventional consumers to the sector. Consumers' behaviour studies must be conducted specifically for different regions and countries as perceptions and attitudes vary across the world. In the present study, a questionnaire was designed for administration to consumers in Galicia (Northern Spain). The questionnaire was administered to 830 consumers in 200 establishments to obtain data about the consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food. The survey results showed that one‐third of responders consume organic food and that the typical profile of a consumer of organic food is a middle‐aged, medium‐high class, university‐educated female living in a large village, who shops in supermarkets and preferably consume vegetables, fruits and eggs. Most people who declared that they consume organic products confuse these with home and locally produced food, indicating the potential for growth of the organic sector by providing such consumers with appropriate information. Most consumers (including conventional consumers) have a good opinion of organic food and consider that it is better for health, is of better quality than conventional food and avoid pesticide residues. However, price continues to be a barrier to the consumption of organic produce. Most respondents stated that they would consume more organic food if the price was only between 10% and 30% higher than the conventional equivalent. Finally, organic consumers in Galicia showed positive attitudes towards using local breeds in organic agriculture, both for producing food and for ecotourism and educational activities. Such activities could contribute to conserving breed biodiversity and adding value to organic farming.     

When innovation in education works: stimulating teachers' innovative work behaviour

The twenty‐first century labour market requires employees that proactively shape innovations and solve complex problems. Professionals in the education sector are expected to perform innovative behaviour that not only entails the generation, but also the realization and sustainable implementation of new ideas. In a sample of 458 employees in Dutch secondary and higher vocational education (abbreviated in Dutch to MBO and HBO, respectively), this study investigated the relation between environmental factors (namely task variety, management support and exposure to innovation) and Innovative Work Behaviour (IWB) across the different phases of the innovation process, including a sustainability phase. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that management support and exposure to innovations served as a predictor for all phases of IWB. Teachers with supportive managers and a high degree of exposure to innovations showed higher scores on innovative behaviour across all phases. Linear regressions revealed a significant relationship between task variety and IWB. In the hierarchical model, only management suport and exposure to innovations showed significant relations. Background characteristics, such as gender, age, tenure, number of working hours and type of education, for which we controlled during the analyses, played a role in how much IWB is displayed. It can be concluded that a work environment, in which employees are exposed to innovation and are supported is crucial. Additionally, in view of the role background characteristics play, it is recommended to select teachers with specific profiles for the different phases of the innovation process.     

Investment Committee,Corporate Cash Holdings and Corporate Life Cycle

We investigate the association between voluntary formation of board investment committee (IC) and corporate cash holdings of nonfinancial firms over the corporate life cycle stages for a large sample of Gulf Cooperation Council firms during 2005–2016. We find that IC increases corporate cash holdings in growth and maturity stages of firm, compared to introduction, shake‐out, and decline stages. These results have important implications for investors, policy makers, and regulators. Our findings are robust to various econometrics specifications.     

Who should sell stocks?

Never selling stocks is optimal for investors with a long horizon and a realistic range of preference and market parameters, if relative risk aversion, investment opportunities, proportional transaction costs, and dividend yields are constant. Such investors should buy stocks when their portfolio weight is too low and otherwise hold them, letting dividends rebalance to cash over time rather than selling. With capital gains taxes, this policy outperforms both static buy‐and‐hold and dynamic rebalancing strategies that account for transaction costs. Selling stocks becomes optimal if either their target weight is low or intermediate consumption is substantial.