Religious belief and international business negotiations: Does faith influence negotiator behaviour?

Religious observance is widespread and continues to influence managerial behaviour in many parts of the world. However, its role in international business negotiations has not received much scholarly attention. This study explores some of the key ways in which religious belief shapes negotiation behaviour. Focusing specifically on the Islamic context, and drawing on interviews with 27 religiously observant Muslim managers in Malaysia, the study found that commitment to a common religion among negotiators positively influenced certain components of the negotiation process through, for example, the use of religious/emotional appeal, which emphasised their ‘spiritual camaraderie’. In some instances, however, we observed something of a paradox, whereby differing religious beliefs among negotiating counterparts were claimed to actually enhance, rather than hinder, negotiations.     

Corporate Data and Future Cash Flows

Abstract:   This article examines the ability of current accounting data to explain future cash flows for UK firms, as disclosed under FRS1 (1991). Rather than examining price data — from which cash flow implications have to be inferred — we follow the more direct approach used in several recent US studies, in which actual future cash flow data are examined. Specifically, our methodology is a development of the OLS regression framework employed by Barth et al. (2001) . We provide a replication of their main OLS analysis, and then extend this to deal with fixed effects and time trends in the levels of cash flow data. Our study finds that the disaggregation of earnings into cash flows and accruals, generates superior explanatory power with regard to future cash flows.     

Underemployment in Australia: a panel investigation

This 2001–2013 panel study finds 33% of part-time employees to be underemployed, disproportionately affecting males, immigrants, youth, the blue-collared and new to our study, those on casual contracts. Within the underemployed sample, we report that the gap between preferred and actual hours (working hour tension) also varies by personal and labour characteristics, largely consistent with that found for the determinants of underemployment. The continued growth of part-time employment and casualization in recent years has been more pronounced among males, raising their rates of underemployment as they disproportionately prefer to work more hours vis-à-vis their part-time female peers.     

KLSE Long Run Overreaction and the Chinese New-Year Effect

This study investigates long run overreaction and seasonal effects for Malaysian stocks quoted on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), for the period 1986–1996. Stocks exhibiting extreme returns relative to the market over a three year period experience a reversal of fortunes during the following three years. There is also evidence that employing a contrarian trading strategy may yield excess returns. Of particular interest is the apparent existence of a Chinese New Year effect in both the level of market returns, and the overreaction profile for KLSE stocks. These seasonalities mirror the January-effect observed in US markets.     

Why do self-initiated expatriates quit their jobs: The role of job embeddedness and shocks in explaining turnover intentions

Retaining self-initiated expatriates is a challenge for many organizations. Self-made expatriates tend to be mobile. They are willing to manage their own careers and to take up opportunities to live and work in countries of their own choice. Despite their importance as a source of human capital there are few studies on the work experiences of self-initiated expatriates and on the factors that affect their decisions to stay or leave their jobs. This article examined the effects of both job embeddedness and shocks on the turnover intention of self-initiated expatriates. Drawing on a sample of 204 self-initiated expatriates working in public healthcare organizations in the United Arab Emirates we found that both on-the-job embeddedness and shocks played a key role in predicting turnover intentions. The study also revealed that off-the-job embeddedness moderated the relationship between shock and turnover intentions such that self-initiated expatriates were more likely to consider leaving their organizations when they were firmly embedded in their community. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.     

Socio-emotional wealth and corporate responses to environmental hostility: Are family firms more stakeholder oriented?

Do family firms care more for different stakeholders than nonfamily firms when operating in a hostile business environment? This study addresses this question and fills the existing void in family business research. It shows that family-controlled firms adopt corporate social responsibility strategies and balance the demands of internal and external interest groups to preserve their socio-emotional wealth while facing fierce competition, resource scarcity, and penurious economic conditions. More specifically, our analysis of an international sample of 956 listed firms from 2006 to 2014 reveals that family firms show a higher level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and better stakeholder orientation than nonfamily firms. Our findings are useful for managers, policymakers, and responsible investors.     

Optimum choice of invoice currency with correlated exchange rates†

In this paper, we revisit optimal choice of invoice currency for an exporting firm in the face of exchange rate uncertainty. We demonstrate that when a vehicle currency is available, the optimum choice depends not only on the volatility of the exchange rates but the covariance between them as well. In particular, we show that when the exchange rates between the exporter and importer currencies on the one hand, and the exporter and the vehicle currency on the other, are positively correlated, vehicle currency becomes an attractive choice. The intuition underlying this novel outcome is that this regime dampens profit variability for the exporter.     

An Investigation of Market Orientation (MO) and Tourism Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ (SMEs) Performance in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature

This paper aims to build a structured literature review of the field of market orientation and its impact on tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance in developing countries. This literature review will present a comprehensive survey of market orientation (MO) published articles to facilitate good understanding of MO. It serves as an archive and aims to help the scholars and practitioners to explore, analyse, and develop a clear understanding about the different research points and methodologies implemented in previous studies related to MO and its impact on tourism SMEs’ performance. The paper systematically reviews and categorizes the published literature implementing a three-stage methodology, and thereafter analyzes and reviews this literature methodologically. The review covered many areas and identified some factors that drive/hinder market-oriented activities within tourism SMEs. Furthermore, suggestions have been made to understand more thoroughly how market orientation influences tourism SMEs performance in developing economies. A research gap in the area of market orientation and tourism SMEs performance in developing countries was identified. The study provides great benefits for owner-managers, government policy makers, scholars, and educators by clarifying the concept of market orientation and its relationship with performance in the context of tourism SMEs.     

Gains from Disaggregation and the Definition of a Segment: A Note on SSAP 25

The role of line of business segment disclosure is examined in a setting in which disaggregated data is a means of mapping analysts' specialist expertise concerning the future profitability of the industry, to the consolidated profit forecast of the individual firm. Using this analysis, we show formally that relevant segmental disclosure requires that the management of a company define segments in such a way that users (and, in particular, analysts) can use their specialist forecasting expertise. We show that, unless segments are so defined, consolidated profit alone is a sufficient disclosure. This means that appropriate reportable segments may not necessarily coincide with the company's organisational structure, which is unlikely to be determined solely by factors relating to forecasting efficiency. We also provide a rationale for different types of segmental information. Measures of segmental activity enable the expected performance of the industry to be mapped to the individual firm; but using these measures alone assumes that the segment profitability mirrors its industry. The additional disclosure of segmental profit allows this mapping to be varied according to the segment's position in relation to its industry norm.     

Corporate Governance and Sustainability Performance: Analysis of Triple Bottom Line Performance

Given the potential that environmentally oriented anti-consumption (EOA) has in achieving environmental sustainability, the authors draw upon marketing, management, environmental, and psychology studies to conceptualize and delimit EOA, differentiating it from other (related but distinct) phenomena. In addition, the authors review the available literature at the individual (micro) level and summarize research on the antecedents and meanings of broad and specific/strict EOA practices with different targets. Furthermore, the authors propose an agenda for future research, which reflects on EOA not only at the individual (micro) level, but also lays out new opportunities for EOA work at organizational (meso), industry, and national (macro) levels. The work presented here hopes to spark multilevel research on EOA, its antecedents and consequences, and reactions to EOA phenomena.