A LITERATURE SURVEY ON PROPOSED AFRICAN MONETARY UNIONS

This study provides a survey of recent advances in the literature on proposed African monetary unions. The survey comprises about 70 empirical papers published during the past 15 years. Four main strands are discussed individually and collectively. They comprise the proposed: (i) West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), (ii) East African Monetary Union (EAMU), (iii) Southern African Monetary Union (SAMU) and (iv) African Monetary Union (AMU). We observe a number of issues with establishing the feasibility and/or desirability of potential monetary unions, inter alia, they are variations in: choice of variables, empirical strategies, sampled countries and considered periodicities. We address this ambiguity by reviewing studies with scenarios that are consistent with Hegelian dialectics and establish selective expansion as the predominant mode of monetary integration. Some proponents make cases for strong pegs and institutions as viable alternatives to currency unions. Using cluster analysis, disaggregating panels into sub-samples and distinguishing shocks from responses in the examination of business cycle synchronisation provide more subtle policy implications. We caution that for inquiries using the same theoretical underpinnings, variables and methods just by modifying the scope/context and periodicity may only contribute to increasing the number of conflicting findings. Authors should place more emphasis on new perspectives and approaches based on caveats of, and lessons from the European Monetary Union (EMU) and CFA zones.     

Export survival and the dynamics of experience

This paper focuses on developing countries’ pioneer exports to the OECD and obtains several important results on export dynamics, linking export experience and export survival. Using product level data at the SITC 5-digit level for 114 developing countries over the 1962–2009 period, we show that prior export experience obtained in non-OECD markets significantly increases survival of pioneer exports toward the OECD. The experience does not need to last long, as gaining experience for more than two years does not confer any additional benefit. The effect of experience depreciates rapidly with time: a break in export experience prior to entering the OECD reduces the advantage on survival. Finally, the role of prior export experience is particularly relevant for survival in the first two years upon entry into the OECD. The geographic dynamic of export experience reveals that experience is acquired in neighboring, easy to access markets before reaching more distant, richer partners and ultimately serving the OECD with a higher probability of survival.     

New challenges in sport entrepreneurship for value creation

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - Sport entrepreneurship has rapidly gained popularity in the entrepreneurship, management and sports fields due to the way it balances...     

The power of the pen: Handwritten fonts promote haptic engagement

Consumers are increasingly bombarded with merchandise and offers, making clear the need for visually distinctive and sensorially engaging product packaging design. The current research demonstrates that the use of handwritten fonts on product packaging elicits an approach tendency and enhances haptic engagement, which influences product evaluation and choice likelihood. A pilot study quantifies the use of handwritten fonts in four grocery product categories to establish that the study of handwritten fonts as a packaging design element is a worthy one with managerial significance. Four experiments are then presented. Studies 1 and 2 use real products to show that a product label with a handwritten (vs. typewritten) font elicits haptic engagement and, enhanced product evaluations (Study 2). Study 3 identifies a boundary condition such that the focal effect is observed only for benign (safe and enjoyable) product categories, but not for risky (unsafe and dangerous) ones. Study 4 relies on a simulated store setup with actual products to illustrate the differential preference for products with a handwritten (vs. typewritten) font when choosing between brands in a benign (vs. risky) product category.     

Q method and ethnography in tourism research: enhancing insights,comparability and reflexivity

Whereas other writers have recently presented Q method as an option for use in combination with traditional surveys, I employed the mind-mapping technique within a deeply qualitative approach. Showing how the Q method adds value to reflexive ethnography, I highlight the extended possibilities for its application in tourism studies. The method allows qualitative researchers’ novel entries into the perspectives and lived experiences of hosts as well as guests, providing enough rigidness to enhance their systematic handling and comparability, while being flexible enough to do justice to their complexities and nuances. The Q method can successfully be embedded in ethnographic fieldwork practices and used even with illiterate people. By adding themselves as a research participant, researchers can reflect intensely on their own subjective understandings and positions, as well as on their methodological approaches. This is of special value in tourism studies where extended reflexivity is especially urgent, because researchers are often placed in the same category as tourists by their research participants.     

More powerful panel data unit root tests with an application to mean reversion in real exchange rates

Unit root tests, seeking mean or trend reversion, are frequently applied to panel data. We show that more powerful variants of commonly applied tests are readily available. Moreover, power gains persist when the modifications are applied to bootstrap procedures that may be employed when cross‐correlation of a rather general sort among individual panel members is suspected. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crossing the chasm: Leadership nudges to help transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation

Top managers tend to focus on strategy formulation and planning but fail to embrace the problem-solving complexity of strategy implementation. This can lead to implementation failures that are reflected in misaligned organizations that seem to know where they want to go but cannot seem to get there. We posit that one reason for the ineffective transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation is that planning is associated with a different set of thought processes and emotional experiences than is required for strategy implementation. We integrate research from management (strategy implementation and change management) with that from psychology (self-regulation and nudges) to identify the transition from strategic planning to implementation as a roadblock that prevents effective strategy implementation. We then present six leadership nudges that aid this transition. The first set of nudges are willpower-enhancing nudges that rely on increasing willpower to help transition from planning to implementation: Remove the distraction to plan, develop implementation intentions, and use verbal framing. The second set are desire-reducing nudges that work to decrease the desirability of planning and in so doing facilitate the transition to implementation: Highlight the end game, leverage a crisis, and celebrate small wins.     

“I Am My Body”. Physical Selves of Police Officers in a Changing Institution

Most studies on identity work have overlooked the corporeal quality of occupational life. Despite calls to attempt such engagement, little is known about the role of the body in occupations for which corporeal elements are central in the affirmation of identity. This study aims to answer such calls by providing a detailed ethnography of police work. Focusing on four bodily practices, we demonstrate how fitness, intimidation, cleanliness, and toughness are central elements to the officers’ construction of self. We thereby highlight the notion of physical selfhood as a way to understand the body/identity nexus among police officers and their capacity to resist new work requirements. We view bodies through a lens of resistance, rather than docility and compliance as much previous research has done. We aim to contribute to scholarship on identity work by portraying the politicization of bodies as a powerful component, thereby helping professionals to deflect some important institutional pressures affecting their work.     

The Way to the Top: Career Patterns of Fortune 100 CEOS

How have the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies worked their way to the top position? Are there several paths to the top, or have most present‐day CEOs moved up the ranks in a similar fashion? We examine the employment trajectories of all of the current Fortune 100 CEOs across their entire working careers to answer these questions. The analysis developed in this article is carried out in two steps. We first use sequence analysis to find the patterns that are characteristic of the career paths of these CEOs . We then apply clustering techniques to identify distinct groups of career paths that have led individuals to the uppermost management level. Our results show that the careers of the Fortune 100 CEOs have largely followed traditional career paths that are symbolized by steady progression toward more responsibility, little mobility between firms and industries, and a strong focus on general management functions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Nature Imagery in Non-Green Advertising: The Effects of Emotion,Autobiographical Memory,and Consumer's Green Traits

Images of pristine nature constitute frequent elements of visual advertising design. Research on the effectiveness of such imagery has been scarce, however. Which psychological processes are involved? Do all individuals react equally to nature advertising imagery? Based on environmental psychology theory, the present research analyzes the effectiveness of the use of nature imagery in non-green advertising and the underlying processes involved. We conduct three experimental studies, two with student samples and one with a representative population sample, to test the effects of visual advertising stimuli featuring nature versus urban and indoor scenery. Findings contribute to research in two ways: First, emotional ad responses that are similar to the feelings experienced in nature as well as the retrieval of positive autobiographical memories are identified as intervening processes by which nature advertising imagery increases attitude toward the ad (Aad) and brand (Abr). Second, results indicate these processes are moderated by consumers’ green traits, with green consumers being more susceptible to the persuasive effects of nature advertising imagery even though advertisements were non-green. The processes are further moderated by the accessibility of memory of past nature experiences. These findings enrich our knowledge on the effects of specific visual appeals and provide practical implications for visual advertising effectiveness.