Predicting market orientation through internal market orientation as culture and behaviour: an empirical application in Spanish hotels

The aim of this study is to analyse how the internal market orientation, considered from a dual perspective, cultural and behavioural, affects the development of external market-oriented behaviours by improving the attitudinal results (affective commitment and job satisfaction) of the internal customers. An empirical study was carried out, based on the perceptions of 68 managers and 296 supervisors at four- and five-star hotels in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain). The findings show that (1) the internal market orientation (IMO) has a positive influence on the effective development of market orientation behaviours in managers and supervisors; (2) the IMO has a positive influence on the affective commitment and job satisfaction of hotel managers, but not supervisors; and (3) greater affective commitment and job satisfaction have no significant effect on market orientation behaviours in hotel managers or in supervisors. Based on the study results, the paper concludes with a discussion and implications for practitioners.     

Cargo cult science and the death of politics: A critical review of social and environmental accounting research

We present here an extensive literature review delineating the main theoretical parameters that have shaped the discursive field of Social Accounting/Social and Environmental Reporting (SER). In doing so, we reflect upon the way in which theory is used in SER focusing particularly on its political character. We show that SER theories have been developed in isolation from, and in contradistinction to, other organisational literatures and the social sciences more generally. This self-referentiality has precluded consideration of whether accountability is a realistic or desirable demand to make of corporations. In an age where political antagonism has been seriously eroded in the Western World, we argue that if SER is to avoid complicity in this, then SER research must break free from its self-imposed theoretical limitations and embrace a goal beyond accountability.     

The mediating effect of satisfaction on consumers' switching intention

Most previous research on consumers' switching intention has focused on individual variables that have immediate effects on consumers' intentions or behaviors, rather than analyzing it as a complex phenomenon. This article provides evidence that some service provider behaviors precipitate relationship dissolution, whereas other behaviors create a predisposition to switch. This different effect is observed through the mediating effect of customer satisfaction. While poor service quality and low firm commitment undermine consumer satisfaction and have only an indirect effect on switching intentions, price unfairness and anger incidents have a strong effect on switching, both directly and indirectly through satisfaction. Implications are discussed for customer relationship management. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Toward a conceptual framework of the harmonization of bank financial reporting standards in transition economies: The case of Mexico

In recent years banks in emerging and transition economies throughout the world have been compelled to change lending and financial reporting practices in response to the economic transition of their countries. Correspondingly, on the basis of the theory of soft budget constraints (SBC), economists have studied the relationship between economic development, banks' lending practices, and banks' penchant to overstate loans. However, very little research has been performed by accounting researchers regarding the nature of bank loan overstatement during times of financial crisis in emerging markets. Accordingly, this paper uses the theory of soft budget constraints to develop a four stage conceptual framework of the harmonization of bank financial reporting standards during times of economic transition. Emphasis is placed on using the theory of soft budget constraints to characterize the harmonization of standards and practices with respect to bank loan overstatement. The framework is applied to the harmonization of Mexican bank financial reporting during the country's economic transition of the late 1990s. The Mexican harmonization process during this period generally followed the framework.     

Examining the behavior of renewable‐energy fund investors

Mutual fund investors could contribute to sustainable development by encouraging fund managers to channel their savings into the funding of sustainable energy projects adopted by firms. This study examines whether renewable‐energy investors take into account financial and/or nonfinancial factors when making the decision to invest in a specific fund, comparing their investment behavior with that of black‐energy and conventional investors. To this end, we have gathered information about 4,368 mutual funds (76 renewable‐energy funds, 109 black‐energy funds, and 4,183 conventional mutual funds) from January 2007 to December 2017. For this sample, we adopt a panel‐data approach with Petersen's standard errors clustered by fund and year. Our results indicate that renewable‐energy fund investors are less sensitive to past financial performance than are black‐energy and conventional fund investors, indicating that the former derive their utility from nonfinancial attributes whereas black‐energy investors derive their utility from a conditional multiattribute and conventional fund investors derive their utility from financial attributes.     

Default, Currency Crises, and Sovereign Credit Ratings

Sovereign credit ratings play an important part in determiningcountries' access to international capital markets and the termsof that access. In principle, there is no reason to expect thatsovereign credit ratings should systematically predict currencycrises. In practice, in emerging market economies there is astrong link between currency crises and default. Hence if creditratings are forward-looking and currency crises in emergingmarket economies are linked to defaults, it follows that downgradesin credit ratings should systematically precede currency crises.This article presents results suggesting that sovereign creditratings systematically fail to predict currency crises but doconsiderably better in predicting defaults. Downgrades in creditratings usually follow currency crises, possibly suggestingthat currency instability increases the risk of default.     

Managing functional diversity, risk taking and incentives for teams to achieve radical innovations

In this study we analyse the effect of team diversity, encouragement to take risks and team incentives on the degree of radicalness of innovation. Empirical research has been conducted with a sample of 95 companies from four innovative industries according to their high number of patents. The results indicate that team diversity and the combined use of long- and short-term incentives are associated with incremental innovation, whereas the development of risk-taking attitudes within the team is associated with radical innovation.     

Are people emotionally aroused by hypothetical medical scenarios in experiments? An eye tracking study with pupil dilation

Background: Many studies on the communication of medical risks use hypothetical medical scenarios. The results of these scenarios should have sufficient predictive accuracy to be generalized to real life; thus, it is important to know whether hypothetical medical scenarios work and whether there is a relationship between risk level and emotional arousal. Methods: In an eye tracking experiment (N = 67), we investigated the influence of a simple hypothetical medical scenario on pupil dilation, a measure of emotional arousal. In this medical scenario, the participants were shown three risk levels (low, middle, and high) and had to estimate the probability that a hypothetical patient has colon cancer. They were also given a non-medical scenario that controlled for changes in illumination and cognitive workload. Therefore, we supposed that the difference in pupil diameter between the medical and the non-medical scenario was due to emotional arousal. Results: We found that our hypothetical medical scenario had a significant effect on pupil diameter. The mean values of the mean pupil diameter in the first fifth of the fixations were higher for all risk levels in the medical scenario than in the non-medical scenario. In a more detailed analysis of the difference in pupil diameters between the two scenarios, we detected that, for the high-risk level, the emotional difference values (between the medical and non-medical scenarios) differed significantly from zero. Furthermore, we found that higher risk levels lead to higher emotional arousal and higher probability estimates. Conclusions: Even simple hypothetical medical scenarios cause emotional arousal. Thus, hypothetical medical scenarios work, and the results of studies not using real patients can be generalized to real medical situations.     

Entrepreneurial orientation, exploitative and explorative capabilities, and performance outcomes in export markets: A resource-based approach

Innovation is critical to the growth and success of a firm. In an attempt to renew themselves and compete effectively in the global marketplace, firms must possess both technical and non-technical capabilities. Yet, the extant literature has mainly focused on technology and product development capabilities, disregarding other possible capability domains. This study investigates the role of market-related exploitative and explorative capabilities, together with product development ones, in the context of exporting. Drawing on the resource-based and organization learning theories, we examine the internal process through which entrepreneurial orientation influences performance in export markets and develop a model of entrepreneurial orientation-exploitative and explorative capabilities-advantage-performance relationships. The results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation is a precursor of exploitative and explorative product development and overseas market-related capabilities. The findings also suggest that product development explorative capabilities and overseas market-related exploitative capabilities have a positive effect on new product differentiation, which in turn enhances market effectiveness. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed along with suggestions for future research.     

Improving emergency plans management with SAGA

Emergency plans are the tangible result of the preparedness activities of the emergency management lifecycle. In many countries, public service organizations have the legal obligation to develop and maintain emergency plans covering all possible hazards relative to their areas of operation. However, little support is provided to planners in the development and use of plans. Often, advances in software technology have not been exploited, and plans remain as text documents whose accessibility is very limited. In this paper, we advocate for the definition and implementation of plan management processes as the first step to better produce and manage emergency plans. The main contribution of our work is to raise the need for IT-enabled planning environments, either at the national or organization-specific levels, which can lead to more uniform plans that are easier to evaluate and share, with support to stakeholders other than responders, among other advantages. To illustrate our proposal, we introduce SAGA, a framework that supports the full lifecycle of emergency plan management. SAGA provides all the actors involved in plan management with a number of tools to support all the stages of the plan lifecycle. We outline the architecture of the system, and show with a case study how planning processes can benefit from a system like SAGA.