The impact of firm prestige on executive compensation

We show that chief executive officers (CEOs) of prestigious firms earn less. Total compensation is on average 8% lower for firms listed in Fortune’s ranking of America’s most admired companies. We suggest that CEOs are willing to trade off status and career benefits from working for a publicly admired company against additional monetary compensation. Our identification strategy is based on matched sample analyses, difference-in-differences regressions, and a regression discontinuity design. We perform several robustness checks and exclude many alternative explanations, including that firm prestige just proxies for better corporate governance or for increased exposure of the pay-setting process to media attention.     

Perceptions and preference for fresh seafood in an Australian context

Seafood as a whole food is highly nutritious. It is an important dietary source of protein, omega‐3 fatty acids and a wide array of highly bioavailable micronutrients. Despite the established health benefits associated with fish and seafood consumption, in Australia consumption levels still remain below those recommended for health. Although considerable research has been carried out on enablers and barriers to seafood consumption, the reasons Australian consumers do not consume recommended amounts of seafood while stating they would like to consume more seafood are complex and have not been fully illuminated. This paper reports on the development and results of a self‐administered questionnaire that aimed to identify consumer perceptions and preferences for fresh and frozen seafood. Data were collected through intercept surveys at an Australian university and 239 valid responses were received. Results confirmed respondent preference for fresh fish and seafood. There was significant confusion among respondents about what constitutes fresh seafood, with the term ‘fresh’ having different meanings to different respondents. Over half of respondents understood the term fresh to relate to seafood having been caught that same day. In comparison, approximately 15% understood fresh to reflect the accepted definition of having never been frozen. Additionally, results indicated respondents find it difficult to recognize if seafood is fresh, particularly in comparison with other meats. There is significant potential for the development of regulations for labelling of unpackaged seafood in order to allow consumers to make informed decisions about their purchases.     

How gender influences the effect of age on self‐efficacy and training success

Previous research has shown age and gender differences in training, but the results have been mixed and their combined influence is only rarely examined. We fill those gaps by analysing age and gender effects on self‐efficacy and training success. Study participants were trainees in an e‐learning time‐ and self‐management behaviour modelling training programme. We measured self‐efficacy before and after training and time‐ and self‐management behaviour before and 6 weeks after training. We expected the differences between pre‐ and post‐test results to indicate self‐efficacy development and we expected differences between pre‐ and follow‐up tests to indicate training success. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that age and gender interacted in both self‐efficacy development and training success. A structural equation model confirmed that men and women showed different relationships among age, self‐efficacy and training success. Older women showed more positive development compared with older men. We conclude that age and gender should both be considered in future design and training evaluations.     

Examining transformative processes in volunteer tourism

This study adopts a multidisciplinary perspective on the process of transformational change in volunteer tourism. Transformational change is understood as an individualized process which can lead to a critical awareness of the self, leading to a new self-definition. It involves four specific elements, a reflection upon the content of their knowledge, the process of knowing, the premise of what they know and the relational elements of their knowledge. Adopting a qualitative semi-structured interview approach, volunteer tourists provide an account of their volunteer tourism experiences in relation to these four transformational process elements. The results indicate that transformational change does occur through tourism, but that this is an individualized process, not an end outcome. Transformation may be strong at an internal level but it may or may not manifest in behaviour that the individual tourist him or herself is even aware of, let alone observable behaviour that researchers can quantify. It is therefore best understood as a process with distinct steps, of which a change in behaviour is just one element. Facilitators of change can be identified but only partially explain why transformation does and does not occur.     

Whence the Beef: The Effect of Repealing Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) Using a Vertically Integrated Armington Model with Monte Carlo Simulation

Increasingly, international trade policy analysis explores the economic effects of changes in ad-valorem tariffs or equivalent nontariff measures on vertically integrated markets for which high quality data are unavailable. Standard Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) Armington models fail to account for either vertical linkages or parameter uncertainty. Here, we introduce a vertically integrated, nested two-sector Armington model that incorporates uncertainty in the estimates of Armington elasticities through Monte Carlo simulation. As an illustrative case, we model the effects of changes in country of origin labeling (COOL) rules on the market shares of cattle in the U.S. beef market. By accounting for parameter uncertainty in this way, we are able to estimate the distribution of potential effects of repealing mandatory COOL. Ultimately, we predict that, in all but the most extreme cases, Mexico and Canada would not gain as much market share from the repeal of mandatory COOL as they claim in their World Trade Organization (WTO) filings against the regulation.     

What actions can be taken to increase whistle-blowing in the classroom?

This study surveyed undergraduate business students on various issues concerning the potential of students whistle-blowing when they observe other students cheating. Developing the courage of one's conviction in our accounting students is important to accounting educators as we are also emphasizing traits such as integrity, skepticism, and professionalism to our accounting students. As the data were gathered in the first introductory-accounting course, students’ cheating and whistle-blowing attitudes were already established. We found that, while students who had cheated in the past were more likely to suggest incentives and cash rewards, students who had never cheated were more concerned with increased confidentiality. Consequently, the need for assuring strict confidentiality is as important to our accounting students as it was to our former accounting clients in developing the trust necessary for the disclosure of sensitive information.     

Same sound,same preference? Investigating sound symbolism effects in international brand names

This study replicates the interaction by language, vowel sound, and car type as first shown by Shrum, Lowrey, Luna, Lerman, and Liu (2012). Contrasting Lowrey and Shrum (2007), however, English speaking natives generally prefer front vowels (such as [e] in bed) regardless of car type. Extending these studies to consonants, most subjects prefer plosives (such as [k] in key) in international brand names for SUVs. A further extension shows a common pattern of sounds eliciting product attribute associations across languages.     

Political market failure? The effect of government unity on energy technology policy in industrialized democracies

When do governments implement technology policies that allow society to solve social problems at a lower cost? Focusing on the case of energy, we argue that in industrialized democracies, severe social problems provoke an effective technology policy response when the government is unified. A unified government can easily strike the bargains required to secure political support for new technology programs. We test this theory against data on public energy research and development (R&D) in 22 OECD countries, 1980–2006. We find that as government fractionalization increases in a country, the sensitivity of public energy R&D to wasteful energy use, which presents economic and environmental difficulties to the society, declines. The analysis reveals a new reason for ineffective technology policies and contributes to the broad literature on political market failure.