Dutch disease revisited. Oil discoveries and movements of the real exchange rate when manufacturing is resource-intensive

We study how natural resource booms affect the real exchange rate in a situation where there are input–output linkages between the manufacturing sector and the natural resource sector. An increase in revenues from natural resources could de-industrialize an economy by raising the real exchange rate, rendering the manufacturing sector less competitive. This tendency towards de-industrialization has been called “Dutch disease”. We build a theoretical model showing that a country experiencing discoveries of natural resources, such as oil, is not necessarily bound to experience the Dutch disease. The appreciation of the real exchange rate can be escaped if patterns of specialization shift towards the manufacturing industries that use oil more intensively. In the second part of the paper, we test the model and find support for the claim that Dutch disease effect associated with discoveries of natural resources (namely oil) are dampened in countries that specialize in resource-intensive manufacturing industries.     

Postformation alliance capabilities and environmental innovation: The roles of environmental in-learning and relation-specific investments

This paper draws insights from the relational view perspective to examine the effects of two postformation alliance capabilities—interorganizational coordination and communication, and relation-specific investments on small- and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') environmental innovation. Analysis of time-lagged survey data from a sample of 223 SMEs from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shows a positive interactive effect of interorganizational coordination and communication on environmental innovation, and this relationship is mediated by environmental in-learning. The results further indicate that relation-specific investment moderates the indirect relationship between the complementary effect of interorganizational coordination and communication and environmental innovation. These findings extend the environmental innovation literature by exploring the interactive effect of interorganizational coordination and communication on environmental innovation.     

EU accession and foreign-owned firms in Bulgaria

Bulgaria signed the European Union accession treaty in 2005. Accession caused an increase in the volume of inward foreign direct investment flows (IFDI). We analyse World Bank BEEPS firm-level data for 2007 to understand the characteristics and performance of foreign firms in Bulgaria. Regression analysis reveals that foreign firms are larger, have lower capital-to-labour ratios, are more likely to export and are more likely to locate in Sofia. However, foreign firms have had limited success in Bulgaria. They do not exhibit higher sales growth and, in manufacturing, carried out lower capital investment in machinery than domestic firms. The numbers of visits from tax officials is the same for domestic and foreign firms in manufacturing, and lower for foreign firms in the service sector. However, firms with higher exports-to-sales ratios and higher absolute sales were subjected to a higher number of visits from tax officials. These findings suggest that a range of institutional challenges remain for foreign firms in Bulgaria.     

Corporate ownership and control in Victorian Britain

Using ownership and control data for 890 firm‐years, this article examines the concentration of capital and voting rights in British companies in the second half of the nineteenth century. We find that both capital and voting rights were diffuse by modern‐day standards. However, this does not necessarily mean that there was a modern‐style separation of ownership from control in Victorian Britain. One major implication of our findings is that diffuse ownership was present in the UK much earlier than previously thought, and given that it occurred in an era with weak shareholder protection law, it somewhat undermines the influential law and finance hypothesis. We also find that diffuse ownership is correlated with large boards, a London head office, non‐linear voting rights, and shares traded on multiple markets.     

Consumer evaluations of movies on the basis of critics' judgments

Moviegoers commonly use film critics as information sources. This article proposes that consumers engage in a causal analysis of the reasons behind critics' judgments and recommendations about new movies before making their own evaluations. An experimental study was conducted where critic's style, critic's predisposition toward the film director, degree of agreement between the critic's judgment and that of other critics, reputation of the critic, reputation of the film director, and critic's judgment direction were manipulated in a mixed within‐subjects factorial design. A summary movie review was constructed for each condition of the factorial design. Viewer's movie evaluations were assessed with the use of four evaluative bipolar scales. Three of the five research hypotheses were fully supported. Consistent with the predictions of attribution theory, it was found that consumers' evaluations of a new movie are more likely to follow the judgment of a film critic when this judgment does not conform to the critic's style (H1), when the judgment is inconsistent with the critic's predisposition toward the film director (H2) and when other critics' judgments show favorable consensus (H3). The other two research hypotheses were partially supported. The impact of the film director's reputation on consumer evaluations (H5) was significant only when the movie reviews were positive, whereas the impact of the critic's reputation (H4) was significant only in the case of negative reviews. The results are interpreted within the framework of attribution theory. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Seek or destroy? Examining value creation and destruction in behaviour maintenance in social marketing

This article presents an empirical investigation of how behaviour maintenance is supported or hindered through value creation and destruction in social marketing. Using a longitudinal, netnographic approach, we identify and examine the key facilitators and barriers encountered during the maintenance of physical and mental health behaviours. Data were collected over a 12-week observation period via Twitter from a sample of 242 participants. A total of 5212 tweets were analysed using content and thematic analysis facilitated by NVivo software program. The findings identify key barriers to and facilitators of behaviour maintenance at the individual level (downstream), meso level (midstream), and policy level (upstream) that have an influence on value creation and destruction in social marketing. These findings demonstrate the importance of employing a strategic and integrated approach to social change management.     

Automatic Enrollment and Its Relation to the Incidence and Distribution of DC Plan Contributions: Evidence from a National Survey of Older Workers

Automatic enrollment has been widely embraced for raising employee participation in 401(k) plans. However, the empirical evidence on the effect of automatic enrollment on plan contributions and retirement saving overall is still imperfect. Using nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we find that although automatic enrollment is associated with a higher proportion of workers participating in DC plans, automatically enrolled workers are less likely to contribute to their DC plans and contribute on average less than their voluntarily enrolled counterparts. In contrast, employers of auto‐enrolled workers on average contribute more to their employees' accounts than do the employers of voluntarily enrolled workers. Even so, the combined effect is that the total annual contribution rates of automatically enrolled older workers are 1.6 percentage points lower than those of voluntarily enrolled workers.     

International Financial Reporting Standards in an Emerging Economy: Lessons from Romania

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are a reference point for the modernisation of accounting models in emerging economies. Previous literature documents a diverse IFRS experience, especially among emerging economies. The IFRS implementation strategy and local institutional characteristics shape the way in which the standards are used in practice. We use the Romanian case to illustrate the effect of various contextual factors, some historical, on the process and outcomes of IFRS implementation. We show that IFRS implementation can follow a different pattern in emerging economies.     

Supply Chain Management as Private Sector Regulation: What does it Mean for Business Strategy and Public Policy?

The growing practice of environmental supply chain management by firms constitutes private sector regulation that is analogous in many ways to public sector regulation. Similarly to their public counterparts, private sector regulators set standards, apply standards, monitor for compliance, apply sanctions and require corrective action. Private sector regulation differs, however, in the source of authority, external oversight, analytical requirements, public participation and available sanctions. This article argues that supply chain management by firms goes beyond business objectives by creating positive environmental externalities for society, and that more systematic study of the similarities and contrasts between the two forms of regulation may provide valuable lessons for both. Further, it may be possible to increase the effectiveness of private sector regulation to achieve both public societal and private business goals. From a business perspective, supply chain management enables firms to strategically redefine their relationships with government, reduce uncertainty and promote goal‐oriented collaboration. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment