The Role of Airline Travelers’ Pre-Recovery Emotions during the Service Recovery Process

This study examines (1) the relationships between airline travelers’ casual attribution (stability and controllability), pre-recovery emotions, post-recovery emotions, and overall satisfaction; and (2) analyzes the mediating effect of pre-recovery emotions on the relationship between causal attribution and post-recovery emotions. Theoretical hypotheses were derived based on a literature review, and to empirically test the hypotheses, data were collected from 210 airline travelers in Malaysia. These respondents were airline travelers who experienced some service failure and relevant service recovery within the past year. According to the results, the two dimensions of casual attribution both influenced pre-recovery emotions. Pre-recovery emotions were significantly related to positive and negative post-recovery emotions, and post-recovery emotions were significantly related to overall satisfaction. In addition, pre-recovery emotions moderated the relationship between casual attribution and post-recovery emotions. These results have important practical implications.     

External Brand Placement: The Effects on Game Players’ Processing of an In-Game Brand

Video games are now a venue for branded messages. Hence, game players may be exposed to brands in and outside game environments. This study focuses on the latter, that is, external brand placement. Drawing upon the literature on involvement and on the limited capacity model (LCM) of information processing, this study explores the mechanism by which external brand placement influences game players’ processing of a brand placed within a game, known as an in-game brand. The results show that players exposed to an external brand identical to an in-game brand showed greater in-game brand recall than those not so exposed. Players exposed to a competing external brand—whether congruent or not—showed lower in-game brand recall. When the brand was incongruent, however, they showed a preference for the in-game brand.     

Style consumption: its drivers and role in sustainable apparel consumption

This study proposes style consumption (SC) as a way to foster sustainable apparel consumption. In doing so, we identify explanatory and outcome variables of SC and also examine gender differences in these variables. Based on an online survey with 586 consumers, we find that frugal apparel consumption (FAC), fashion consciousness (FC) and ecologically conscious consumption (ECC) enhance the likelihood of SC. SC in turn increases environmental apparel purchase (EAP) and sustainable apparel divestment (SAD). The results also suggest significant gender differences both in motivational and behavioural variables included in the model. Specifically, females are significantly higher than males in FAC, FC and ECC. The tendency of SC, EAP and SAD were also higher for females than males. In addition, we find that gender is a significant factor mediating the effect of FC and that of ECC on SC.     

The heuristic‐systemic model of sustainability stewardship: facilitating sustainability values,beliefs and practices with corporate social responsibility drives and eco‐labels/indices

Using a framework from the heuristic‐systematic model and the value‐belief‐norm (VBN) theory, this study tests consumers’ systematic conjunction of sustainability values, beliefs and practices, and examines the heuristic influence of sustainability stewardship on the consumers’ VBN framework. In this study, sustainability stewardship within the textile and apparel industry refers to approaches that can facilitate the corporate social responsible (CSR) drive and eco‐labels/indices in corporate sustainability practices. Data from 239 US college students were analyzed using a structural equation modeling method. The findings confirmed that only the CSR drive is significant as heuristic sustainability stewardship in facilitating the consumer's systematic process in the VBN framework, while eco‐labels/indices do not moderate consumers’ sustainable practices. In particular, the current CSR drives in the textile and apparel industry strengthen consumers’ values in the altruistic, self‐enhancement and biospheric dimensions, and, further, lead to the sustainability practices of eco‐citizenship, green consumption and green product purchasing, through the mediation of proenvironmental belief. Comprehending these dynamics can empower marketers and researchers to devise pertinent ideas and practical applications of sustainability stewardship to academia and to the textiles and apparel industry.     

Pay Secrecy and the Gender Wage Gap in the United States

Legislators and advocates claim that pay secrecy perpetuates the gender wage gap and that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) should be amended to outlaw these practices. Using a difference‐in‐differences fixed‐effects human‐capital wage regression, I find that women with higher education levels who live in states that have outlawed pay secrecy have higher earnings, and that the wage gap is consequently reduced. State bans on pay secrecy and federal legislation to amend the FLSA to allow workers to share information about their wages may improve the gender wage gap, especially among women with college or graduate degrees.     

THE EXTENDED ECONOMETRIC INPUT–OUTPUT MODEL WITH HETEROGENEOUS HOUSEHOLD DEMAND SYSTEM

This paper proposes an extension to the regional econometric input–output model (REIM) [Conway, R.S. (1990) The Washington Projection and Simulation Model: A Regional Interindustry Econometric Model. International Regional Science Review, 13, 141–165; Israilevich, P.R., G.J.D. Hewings, M. Sonis and G.R. Schindler (1997) Forecasting Structural Change with a Regional Econometric Input–Output Model. Journal of Regional Science, 37, 565–590]. We integrate a demand system with age and income parameters into the REIM. The extended model thus addresses concerns about the effects of household heterogeneity. The initial testing is conducted with a model for the Chicago metropolitan area. First, using aggregate expenditure data by income and age groups, the almost ideal demand system with group fixed effects is constructed. Next, the estimated demand system is linked to the REIM to reflect long-term changes in the age and income distribution of households. The long-range simulation from the extended model takes into account structural changes in expenditure type stemming from changing demographic composition. The extended model further broadens the scope of impact analysis under various scenarios associated with age and income changes.     

Boards,takeover protection,and real earnings management

We investigate the effect of board governance and takeover protection on real earnings management. Four types of real earnings management are considered: sales manipulation, overproduction, the abnormal reduction of research and development (R&D) expenses, and the abnormal reduction of other discretionary expenditures. Using panel data from US public firms in the post-Sarbanes–Oxley Act period, we find that the level of real earnings management (sales manipulation, abnormal declines in R&D expenses, and other discretionary expenses) increases with better board governance and decreases with higher takeover protection. These two governance factors generally have no significant effect on overproduction. We further find that firms substitute accrual-based earnings management with sales manipulation and abnormal cuts in discretionary expenses, and the substitution effect is more pronounced in firms with stronger board governance. Overall, our findings indicate that the level of real earnings management is higher when a firm is faced with tough board monitoring, and that takeover protection may reduce managerial incentives for real earnings management.     

Market Liquidity and Ambiguity: The Certification Role of Corporate Governance

We investigate how firm‐specific certification practices through corporate governance can reduce perceived ambiguity and thus enhance liquidity of a firm in the stock market. We show that better corporate governance helps reduce ambiguity. In addition, a reduction in ambiguity is significantly related to higher liquidity of firms. Our results are robust to alternative model specifications and measures of ambiguity, and remain statistically significant after controlling for other known determinants of ambiguity and liquidity. Our results shed light on how ambiguity can be moderated through firm‐level certification practices and on the channel through which a moderation of ambiguity affects shareholder wealth.     

Does “Vote No” Change Corporate Governance and Firm Value? Evidence from the Shareholder Activism of the Korean National Pension Service

In this paper, we analyze the effect of shareholder activism on firm value through internal corporate governance in an emerging market. We investigate the shareholder activism by the National Pension Service (NPS) of Korea, the fourth-largest pension fund in the world in 2010. We investigate stock price reaction to a “vote no” press announcement and find that the market does not react in the short run, which reaction is inconsistent with the results from developed countries. We also find that firms experiencing “vote no” and improved internal corporate governance have higher firm valuation. Shareholder activism by the NPS is effective in increasing target firm value through improving internal corporate governance.