Where do consumers draw the line? Factors informing perceptions and justifications of deviant consumer behaviour

Deviant consumer behaviour in the marketplace is an ongoing problem causing harm to the organisation, employees, and other consumers. To address this problem, this study explores consumer perceptions of right and wrong using the novel concept of a deviance threshold – the mental line in the sand dictating right and wrong. Using consumer-based interviews with a card-sort activity, findings supported and extended dimensions proposed to explain why some behaviours are perceived as more serious or unethical than others. Moreover, why specific neutralisation techniques are used and how they affect categorisations of behaviours within an individual’s deviance threshold is explained. This study offers alternative strategies tailored to challenging consumer justifications to curb deviance. Implications support abandoning the universal approach to deterrence.     

The Prospect of Infrastructure Public‐Private Partnerships in Kuwait,Saudi Arabia,and Qatar: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

This article examines the prospect of using infrastructure public‐private partnerships (PPPs) within Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in light of the drastic drop in oil prices since mid‐2014. It argues that, while PPPs appear to be a strategic policy option for the three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to tackle growing fiscal deficits, these states are constrained by numerous governance‐related, administrative, and regulatory challenges that make PPPs problematic. Effective implementation of the inherently complex and contractual PPP policy requires addressing the existing institutional, economic, bureaucratic, and cultural constraints within these three states. This article concludes with recommendations to mitigate these challenges, that require serious political will and sufficient time to yield positive results, and to attract international investors and contractors to the Gulf region. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Enterprise‐level training in developing countries: do international standards matter?*

Several studies have examined the determinants of training in developing countries but few have paid attention to the potential importance of international standards such as ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 on the firm's training decision. This article examines training determinants using recent employer surveys for five developing countries: Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco and Nicaragua. It finds that ISO certification status is an important determinant of training, even after controlling for other characteristics such as workers’ formal schooling, firm size, industry and foreign ownership. This points toward the importance of international standards, including product quality and production standards, for firm training. The article also discusses policy implications related to the findings and provides directions for further research.     

Mediation with Incomplete Information: Approaches to Suggest Potential Agreements

In bilateral Negotiation Analysis, the literature often considers the case of complete information. In this context, since the negotiators know the value functions of both parties, it is not difficult to calculate the Pareto efficient solutions for the negotiation. Thus rational negotiators can reach agreement on this frontier. However, these approaches are not applied in practice when complete information is not available. The research question of our work is “It is possible to help negotiators achieving an efficient solution in the absence of complete information regarding the different parameters of the model?”. We propose to derive incomplete information about the preferences of negotiators from the statements they make and the offers they exchange during the negotiation process. We present and discuss three approaches that use this information in order to help a mediator proposing a better solution than the compromise the negotiators have reached or are close to reach.     

Dynamic cross-cultural competencies and global leadership effectiveness

Analyzing data from a sample of 420 global leaders (matched with 221 supervisors), we found a combined effect of personality characteristics (extraversion, openness to experience, and lower neuroticism) and cross-cultural experiences (organization-initiated cross-cultural work experiences and non-work cross-cultural experiences) as predictors of dynamic cross-cultural competencies (tolerance of ambiguity, cultural flexibility, and reduced ethnocentrism). These competencies, in turn, are predictors of supervisors’ ratings of global leadership effectiveness. Our study suggests that developmental cross-cultural experiences occur through both work-related and non-work activities. The results suggest that both selection and development are critical for building a pipeline of effective global leaders.     

Policy makers’ paradigms and evidence from consumer interpretations of dietary supplement labels

The regulation of marketplace information regarding health and nutrition is in flux. Nowhere, perhaps, is this more evident than in the dietary supplement industry. Herein, we present an experiment that examines the two major types of claims used for dietary supplements, testing the underlying assumptions made by policy makers. Our study suggests that a direct‐effects consumer decision‐making model does not apply in this context; instead, consumers process label claims through various biasing filters.     

Executive Compensation： Pay-for-Performance in High-Technology Firms

This study examines the relationship between corporate performance and the Chief Executive Officer （CEO） compensation in high-technology firms in the S＆P 500. The total short- and long-term CEO compensation in high-technology was compared with other industrial sectors from standard classification codes and tested in terms of corporate performance. The ExecuComp database was used to find the variables and to create a sample of firms between 2004 and 2010. Important corporate performance variables are used in this work, such as assets, employees, sales, net income, and earnings per share （EPS）, as reported by the firms for each year. A panel data GLS with a fixed effect model for time is estimated that describes total compensation for the period between 2004 and 2010. The result was aligned with the theory of executive compensations to address agency problems and to examine CEO pay-for-performance. The main objective of this paper is to consistently demonstrate that the performance is determined for the total CEO compensation for short- and long-term periods and to examine whether the total remunergttion paid to CEOs in high-technology firms in the S＆P 500 is related to corporate finance. This work provides a better understanding of the relationship between compensation and performance in high-technology firms. Results suggest that high-tech firms tend to use more sophisticated performance measurements to determine CEO compensation.     

Organizing for Radical Innovation: Exploring Novel Insights

While radical innovation brings extensive economic rewards to firms, it is an activity fraught with risk. Prior research has shown that such risks mainly stem from organizational arrangements (at the level of individuals, teams, firms, and inter firm collaborations), which are inadequate or inefficient to support radical innovation. The papers in this special issue on “Organizing for Radical Innovation: Exploring Novel Insights” take stock of past work and provide novel insights about how to organize for radical innovation. The overarching idea linking them is that radical innovation hinges on the creation of fundamentally new knowledge and the continuous stimulation of creativity. Thus, organizational arrangements that support such processes play a crucial role in explaining and predicting the successful commercialization of breakthrough ideas, radically new technologies, and solutions. In particular, the field of science, which in essence aims for the systematic production of new knowledge, can be a valid source of inspiration for how individuals, teams, firms, and interfirm collaborations should organize for radical innovation. Moving from these premises, in this introductory paper, we offer an overview of the topic of organizing for radical innovation and highlight possible linkages with the organizing principles. Then, we summarize the main insights from the papers in this special issue and use their core ideas to sketch a novel research agenda for scholars working at the intersection of organization theory, economics of science, and management of innovation.