Archetypes of governance for science and technology labs

While policy-makers understand the vast benefits of publicly funded and not-for-profit research, governance practitioners have the difficult task of defining processes that can best foster high performance for science and technology (S&T) labs not primarily driven by profits. This qualitative study develops a new taxonomy based on two dimensions, the nature of the funding relationship between the parent organisation and the S&T lab and the degree of interdependence between the lab's research units. We discuss the dynamics uncovered for each of the four archetypes with illustrative cases and argue that high-performance governance of S&T labs requires an internal coherence linking the processes of planning, funding and performance evaluation.     

Loan collateral and financial reporting conservatism: Chinese evidence

We examine the relation between the use of collateral and financial reporting conservatism for a sample of Chinese firms. In the absence of flexibility in risk pricing through interest rates and strong contract enforcement in China, we find that lenders reduce collateral requirements from more conservative borrowers and that this negative relation is significantly moderated by borrowers’ poor credit quality and low asset tangibility. Our finding that conservatism can result in a tangible benefit in the form of lower collateral requirements indicates that lenders value financial reporting conservatism. However, the benefit from financial reporting conservatism is muted as lenders become more concerned about borrowers’ default risk or ability to pledge tangible assets as collateral against loans.     

Bond Market Response to the Collapse of Prominent Investment Banks

We find that the Bear Stearns rescue in March 2008 elicited a neutral or moderately favorable impact on bond prices. Conversely, we find that the Lehman Brothers failure (combined with news about Merrill Lynch and American International Group) in September 2008 elicited a pronounced negative impact. Bond prices of financial firms suffered more than bonds of nonfinancial firms following the Lehman failure. Our multivariate analysis shows that bonds issued by financial institutions that were previously presumed to be protected (based on bond rating and firm size) suffered more pronounced losses in response to the Lehman failure.     

When do customers offer firms a “second chance” following a double deviation? The impact of inferred firm motives on customer revenge and reconciliation

The present research develops and tests a theory explaining how customers respond to failed service recoveries (i.e., double deviations). This work offers three novel and important conclusions. First, inferences about a firm's motive (negative vs. positive) mediate the impact of perceptions of the double deviation (i.e., severity, blame, and fairness) on resulting outcomes (i.e., customer anger, desire for revenge, and desire for reconciliation). Second, when inferred motive is positive, desire for reconciliation overwhelms desire for revenge, leading customers to choose more reparatory than retaliatory behaviors. Third, following a double deviation, firms that both compensate and apologize to customers can change customers’ inferred motives from negative to positive, leading customers to desire more reconciliation than revenge, and engage in more reparatory than retaliatory behaviors. These studies demonstrate that, contrary to common wisdom, customers do not always respond negatively to a double deviation, and firms still have a “second chance” following a failed recovery.     

Re-examination of industry effects due to withdrawn mergers

We find that the announcement of a merger withdrawal elicits negative industry effects on average, which reflect a partial reversal of the favorable industry effects that had previously occurred at the time of the merger proposal. The mean reversal is about 35% of the original favorable industry effect at the time of the merger announcement. This result for the mean effect is opposite of that found by Akhigbe et al. (2000). When we break our sample into sub-periods, we find that industry effects are substantially weaker in a more recent sub-period beyond the sample period used by Akhigbe et al. (2000). We also find that the industry effects are more negative when the share price response of the target at the time of the announced withdrawal is weaker. Whether the negative impact on the target is attributed to either a reduced likelihood of takeover or weaker industry prospects, it carries over to industry rivals.     

Why do merger premiums vary across industries and over time?

We identify time-varying industry and macroeconomic factors that explain the observed variation in takeover premiums over time. Results support our hypotheses that some industry and economic factors can increase the growth prospects in an industry, which boosts expected synergies and/or demand for the target firm, and therefore increases the merger premiums. Merger premiums are higher when the target's corresponding industry experiences higher growth, has more research and development (a proxy for expected growth), and has less dispersion in performance among firms within the industry. Merger premiums are also positively related to capital liquidity, which can enhance economic growth and competition for target firms, and positively related to volatility in economic growth, which affect merger waves and the demand for target firms over time.     

The Impact of Ethical Climate on Project Status Misreporting

Without complete and accurate status information, a project manager’s ability to monitor progress, allocate resources effectively, and detect and respond to problems is greatly diminished, and this can lead to impaired project performance. Many different factors can contribute to intentional misreporting of status information by project members to the project manager. In this study, the impact of organizational ethical climate was assessed through the analysis of responses from 228 project members drawn from a variety of ongoing information systems projects. Our results revealed that project members who perceived their organization to be one in which rules are followed strictly tended to misreport less, while those operating in an environment dominated by personal self-interest tended to misreport more. Somewhat surprisingly, the existence of a caring, team-spirited environment did not appear to have an impact on misreporting behaviors. Implications for researchers and project managers are discussed.     

Validating the international tourist role scale

This study was designed to validate the international tourist role scale and the three dimensions it revealed. The purpose of this attitudinal scale was to measure the tourist role typology. United States adult outbound tourists flying with 11 major airlines returned useful questionnaires. This study validated the role scale as a reliable one that properly identified three conceptual dimensions of international tourist typology and successfully provided measures of tourists’ novelty-seeking preferences on the three dimensions. The study demonstrated, however, that the scale would measure the novelty-seeking preferences of international tourists more effectively if it were supplemented by other measures.     

数字赋能企业商业生态系统跃迁升级的机理及路径研究

数字技术应用融合叠加商业模式创新催生商业生态新业态,实现跃迁升级。本文结合扎根理论与模糊集定性比较分析（fsQCA）方法,阐释数字赋能企业商业生态系统跃迁升级的机理,探究多重组态路径。从生态视角揭示了数字资源通过与传统要素资源融合释放数据价值,并驱动形成价值循环体系、实现价值共创、塑造商业群落,最终实现企业商业生态系统跃迁升级。基于fsQCA的多组态分析发现,数字赋能企业商业生态系统跃迁升级历经两个阶段分别为价值共创和商业群落生成。其中,价值共创实现有两条组态路径,即产品创新与要素融合相组合,技术融合同低产品创新、低数据资产相组合,且产品创新构成了价值共创的核心条件。商业群落生成的组态路径表现出以下特征：价值共创和价值链接协同下分别和网络组织、数据赋能相组合,网络组织和数据赋能互为替代,即在一方缺失时,分别与价值共创或价值链接组合实现商业群落构建。研究结论为企业商业生态系统的结构与功能持续优化,实现数字商业生态资源的充分共享及最优利用,提供了关键方法和思路。     

Mandatory IFRS adoption and management forecasts: The impact of enforcement changes

We examine how concurrent enforcement changes affect the positive relationship between mandatory IFRS adoption and firms’ voluntary disclosure. We show that the increase in the issuance of management forecasts after IFRS adoption is smaller for firms from IFRS-mandating countries with concurrent enforcement changes than for those from countries without such changes. We find no difference in the increase of forecast informativeness between firms from IFRS-mandating countries without concurrent enforcement changes and firms from non-IFRS-mandating countries; however, firms domiciled in IFRS-mandating countries with concurrent enforcement changes exhibit a significantly smaller increase in forecast informativeness. Our findings suggest that better IFRS enforcement distinctly weakens (strengthens) the positive effect of IFRS adoption on voluntary (mandatory) disclosure.