The Client as a Source of Institutional Conformity for Commitments to Core Values in the Auditing Profession*

Based on an analysis of questionnaire data from a large sample of certified auditors, we examine how the main type of client being served influences auditor conformity to the core values of their profession. We contrast auditors of (primarily) listed companies with auditors of (primarily) single member companies, that is, limited liability companies with a single owner who typically is also the only employee of the company. We show that these two groups of auditors differ in the extent to which they hold certain values important (i.e., show compliance) and in the closeness with which these values are held within each group of auditors (i.e., show convergence). Our results also demonstrate that the type of client predominantly served by an auditor is relevant for explaining variation in professional values both within and between organizational contexts. In addition, we offer a new theoretical approach to classifying auditors and analyzing their commitment to core values of the profession. We analyze commitment to values via both compliance and convergence, two often overlooked aspects of conformity to value commitments in professions.     

The relative importance of human resource management practices for innovation

Human resource management (HRM) practices are generally expected to stimulate a firm's innovation performance. However, which of these practices really pay off? Based on a unique dataset that includes detailed information for both a firm's innovation activities and a broad set of HRM practices, we find that primarily new workplace organization practices seem to enhance a firm's innovation activities. Flexible practices of working time management and incentive payment schemes show only small effects on both innovation propensity and innovation success. Further training does only affect innovation success, but not innovation propensity. Overall, we find a stronger linkage between HRM practices and innovation propensity than with innovation success. Further, we find that innovation propensity increases, first, with the number of combinations of HRM practices adopted by a firm but not with the number of combinations of HRM practices from different groups of HRM practices adopted by a firm.     

Planned or Emergent Strategy Making? Exploring the Formation of Corporate Sustainability Strategies

In strategy research, there is a consensus that strategy making resides on a continuum from planned to emergent where most strategies are made in a mixed way. Different contingency factors have been suggested to explain the factors that influence strategy making. Sustainability research seems to overlook most of this development and assumes instead that sustainability strategies are made in a purely planned way. We contribute to a better understanding of the role of different strategy making modes for sustainability in three ways. First, we point to the bias towards planned strategy formation in sustainability research. Second, we propose a new contingency factor to help explain sustainability strategy making based on the nature of the problem addressed. Third, we discuss strategy making for different types of sustainability problems. We argue that planned strategy making is expected for salient and non‐wicked problems while emergent strategy making is likely for non‐salient and wicked problems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Asymptotically efficient recursive estimation for incomplete data models using the observed information

For a recursive maximum-likelihood estimator with step lengths decaying as 1/n, an adaptive matrix needs to be incorporated to obtain asymptotic efficiency. Ideally, this matrix should be chosen as the inverse Fisher information matrix, which is usually very difficult to compute for incomplete data models. In this paper we give conditions under which the observed information can be incorporated into the recursive procedure to yield an efficient estimator, and we also investigate the finite sample properties of these estimators by simulation.     

Charitable giving among females and males: an empirical test of the competitive altruism hypothesis

We conduct a real-effort task experiment where subjects’ performance translates into a donation to a charity. In a within-subjects design we vary the visibility of the donation (no/private/public feedback). Confirming previous studies, we find that subjects’ performance increases, that is, they donate more to charity, when their relative performance is made public. In line with the competitive altruism hypothesis, a biology-based explanation for status-seeking behavior, especially male subjects increase performance in the public setting.     

Revisiting the arcs of integration: Cross-validations and extensions

This paper revisits Frohlich and Westbrook's arcs of integration concept [Arcs of integration: an international study of supply chain strategies. Journal of Operations Management 2001, 19 (2) pp. 185–200]. Using survey responses from 403 supply chain professionals, we compare the arcs of integration group memberships generated with our sample to the original study, rationalize the classification scheme, and assess the impact of supply chain integration strategies on quality, delivery, flexibility and cost performance. In doing so we cross-validate Frohlich and Westbrook's framework with a more recent and broader sample of data utilizing multi-dimensional performance measures collected from supply chain managers. We ground these relationships in the relational and resource-based views of the firm. We also extend Frohlich and Westbrook's study by investigating the moderating role of internal integration on the relationships between arcs of integration and performance. In accordance with information processing theory, the results indicate that internal integration strengthens the positive impacts of external integration on both delivery and flexibility performance. However, the theory is not supported for either quality or cost performance. Overall, our study confirms and extends the work of Frohlich and Westbrook, augments theories used to describe supply chain integration efforts, and provides practical implications for managers.     

Transparency, entry, and productivity

This paper studies the relationship between transparency on the consumer side and productivity of firms. We show that more transparent markets are characterized by higher average productivity as firms with low productivity abstain from entering these markets.     

FORECASTING CURRENCY CRISES: WHICH METHODS SIGNALED THE SOUTH AFRICAN CRISIS OF JUNE 2006?

In this paper we test the ability of three of the most popular methods to forecast South African currency crises with a special emphasis on their out‐of‐sample performance. We choose the latest crisis of June 2006 to conduct an out‐of‐sample experiment. The results show that the signals approach was not able to forecast the out‐of‐sample crisis correctly; the probit approach was able to predict the crisis but only with models, that were based on raw data. The Markov‐regime‐switching approach predicts the out‐of‐sample crisis well. However, the results are not straightforward. In‐sample, the probit models performed remarkably well and were also able to detect, at least to some extent, out‐of‐sample currency crises before their occurrence. The recommendation is to not restrict the forecasting to only one approach.     

Competition, herd behavior, and credit cycles: evidence from major Swiss Banks

I use time-series analysis to investigate the dynamic interdependence of the credit supplies of the three major Swiss banks from 1987 to 1996. The statistical results document that all three banks reacted to their competitors’ changes in lending. The estimated individual credit supply functions are then used in counterfactual experiments to study the total lending of these three banks (which is roughly half the bank lending in Switzerland) under different assumptions regarding leader/follower behavior. These simulations highlight the role of competitive behavior for the persistence of aggregate credit cycles.