Understanding and modifying beliefs about climate change through educational travel

Understanding the factors that shape individuals’ beliefs about climate change is key to the development of effective climate change communication and education strategies. In this study, we test a path model of the social psychological antecedents of beliefs about climate change and evaluate the effectiveness of an educational travel program in changing them. Results show that environmental worldview and affective association with nature are two significant predictors of students’ belief in the occurrence of climate change. Gender was found to influence belief in an anthropogenic causation, while political orientation was a significant predictor of conviction that climate change is occurring. Regression analysis was used to test for changes in climate beliefs before and after participation in an educational travel experience, compared to a control group, using a quasi-experimental design. Results indicate participation strengthened climate change beliefs.     

Little Fish in a Big Pond: Legitimacy Transfer,Authenticity, and Factors of Peripheral Firm Entry and Growth in the Market Center

Research summary : How do peripheral firms compete and secure future growth? Building on literature in strategy and organizational theory, we test a model of peripheral entry and growth in the mainstream market segment. Using data from 289 craft breweries over 11 years, we find evidence that niche producers are increasingly entering the mainstream market and competing with market‐center firms. We identify two mechanisms contributing to these actions: legitimacy transfer and cognitive claims of authenticity. As hypothesized, imitation of niche products by macro breweries facilitates craft beer entry into mainstream markets. Moreover, two authenticity‐based identity codes are found to reliably influence craft brewery growth: a local identity (i.e., operating in one's local market) and a product proliferator identity (i.e., offering a more diverse set of products) . Managerial summary : How can small niche firms compete with larger, more established organizations? By examining the rapidly expanding craft beer industry, this study explores how craft breweries are able to both enter the market space of these larger competitors and secure sustained patterns of growth. Specifically, we highlight two factors influencing the success of craft breweries. First, as major beer producers mimic niche products (i.e., faux craft beer), smaller niche firms are allowed to enter the market by exposing the typical consumer to the tastes of craft beer. Second, craft breweries enjoy increased success if they (a) emphasize the local elements of their company, and/or (b) offer a larger number of products . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exceeding Our Grasp: Curricular Change and the Challenge to the Assumptive World

The recent global economic collapse brings new calls for reform and change as well as a re-examination of the ethical foundations underpining it. Most professors as well as students remain profoundly unhappy with the Business Curricula. The curricula appear to swing between technological training and academic theory. There is little genuine focus on the central issue of the problem: the students’ and faculty’s assumptive world which drives the selection of the materials chosen for presentation as well as the decision-making process. In the pragmatic quest to achieve status within academe, business schools appear to have forgotten that their subject matter is not one cognate domain but a mixture of several areas including mathematics, economics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, logic and planning. Course structures must be redesigned as consilient. That is, each course contains in it the links to other courses and is not expected to be complete in themselves; the new structures proposed are no longer under the direct control of one instructor but each course is under the control of a committee. This creates a linkage between courses that together from a linked chain of knowledge where the strength of the curriculum is tied to the consilient strength of the courses. The result is an organic and developmental model for teaching and learning with a strong ethical foundation as well as developed moral links to effective decision making.     

Structural ambidexterity,transition processes,and integration trade‐offs: a longitudinal study of failed exploration

In order to overcome the exploration–exploitation paradox, structural ambidexterity literature suggests establishing differentiated units for exploitation and exploration with a carefully managed exploration–exploitation interface supporting cross‐fertilization without cross‐contamination. Recent research demonstrates the crucial role of integration mechanisms (i.e. how knowledge exchange between exploratory and exploitative units can be organized) and related transition modes (i.e. how exploratory innovations can ultimately be transferred back into the exploitative structures of core business) to deal with this challenge. However, a systematic account of the diverse tensions, risks, and trade‐offs associated with integration which may ultimately cause exploration failure is missing, so far. This paper presents a longitudinal process study uncovering the anatomy of an unsuccessful exploration of (green) technologies by a medium‐sized entrepreneurial firm. We investigated their transition processes to understand how the managers dynamically configured and reconfigured the exploration–exploitation interface over time. Our theoretical contribution lies in providing a framework of six integration trade‐offs (Exploratory‐complementary linking vs. contamination; Seeking legitimacy early on vs. frustration at discontinuation of innovation; Boundary spanning through job rotation vs. carrying over of old culture; Early vs. premature transfer; Reorganization vs. capability mutation; and Improved access to core business resources vs. resource starvation) linked to three phases in the transition process (before, at, and after transfer). We also highlight mechanism, pulling‐forward, and streamlining‐related failures linked to integration trade‐offs in resource‐constrained contexts. Our implication for R&D and top management is that the use of integration mechanisms for structural ambidexterity bears the risk of cross‐contamination between the exploitative and exploratory structures and are therefore inevitably linked to trade‐offs. To minimize negative side effects and prevent exploration failure, organizations have to consciously select, schedule, operationalize, and manage (re)integration mechanisms along the transition process. Our framework of integration trade‐offs systematically supports managers in their organizational design choices for integration mechanisms in the transition processes.     

Dividend payout and executive compensation: theory and evidence from New Zealand

Using a model based on Bhattacharyya (2007), we predict a positive (negative) relationship between the earnings retention ratio (dividend payout ratio) and managerial compensation. We use tobit regression to analyse data for New Zealand firms' dividend payouts over the period 1997–2015 and find results consistent with Bhattacharyya (2007). These results hold when the definition of payout is modified to incorporate both common dividends and common share repurchases. Our results indicate that corporate dividend policy among New Zealand firms is perhaps best understood by considering the dividend payout ratio, rather than the level of, or changes in, cash dividends alone.     

Board gender composition,board independence and sustainable supply chain responsibility

The consideration of social and environmental factors in companies’ supply chain is a prevalent research topic because stakeholders are now inquisitive about the social and environmental impacts of companies’ suppliers. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms, we find that board gender composition and board independence are positively associated with sustainable supply chain responsibility (SSCR). We also identify three channels (CEO duality, sustainability committee and sensitive industries) through which board gender composition and board independence affect SSCR, where board gender composition consistently explains SSCR, but the effect of board independence is less pronounced in firms with CEO duality and firms with a sustainability committee. Finally, we explore the reason for the less-pronounced findings for board independence in our subsample analyses and find that, compared with independent female directors who continue to display significant associations with SSCR, independent male directors do not engender SSCR across the three subsample tests.     

Waste disclosure and corporate cash holdings

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we address an important and emerging question: Can firms’ voluntary waste disclosure affect corporate cash holdings? Using a sample of S&P 500 firms, we find strong evidence for a positive relationship between waste disclosure and the cash holding policy of firms. Furthermore, we find that waste disclosure significantly increases cash holdings only for firms with strong corporate governance quality. We also find that the significant relationship between waste disclosure and cash holdings remains unchanged only for firms that operate in environmentally sensitive industries. Our paper provides novel evidence on the role of voluntary waste disclosure as an environmental dimension that influences the cash policy of firms and highlights the little-known issue of waste disclosure as a significant research topic.     

Understanding the motivations of coastal residents to voluntarily purchase federal flood insurance

Federally-backed flood insurance is the primary mechanism by which residents in the United States (US) prepare for and recover from floods. While there is a growing literature on the general uptake of flood insurance, little work has been done to address the factors motivating residents to voluntarily buy and maintain federally-based insurance policies. We address this issue by conducting a survey of coastal residents in four localities in Texas and Florida. Based on survey responses, we quantitatively examine the factors influencing whether residents located outside of the 100-year floodplain obtain insurance policies when it is not required. Using two-sample t-tests and binary logistic regression analysis to control for multiple contextual and psychological variables, we statistically isolate the factors contributing most to the decision to purchase insurance. Our findings indicate that a resident located outside the 100-year floodplain who has voluntarily purchased federal flood insurance can be characterized, on average, as more highly educated, living in relatively expensive homes, and a long-time resident who thinks about flood hazard relatively infrequently but who, nonetheless, thinks flood insurance is relatively affordable. Unexpectedly, the physical proximity of a respondent to flood hazard areas makes little or no discernible difference in the decision to obtain flood insurance.     

Economic and quality of life burden of anemia on patients with CKD on dialysis: a systematic review

Abstract

Aims: The overall cost and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) associated with current treatments for chronic kidney disease (CKD)-related anemia are not well characterized. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted on the costs and HRQoL associated with current treatments for CKD-related anemia among dialysis-dependent (DD) patients.

Materials and methods: The authors searched the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, NHS EED, and NHS HTA for English-language publications. Original studies published between January 1, 2000 and March 17, 2017 meeting the following criteria were included: adult population; study focus was CKD-related anemia; included results on patients receiving iron supplementation, red blood cell transfusion, or erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs); reported results on HRQoL and/or costs. Studies which included patients with DD-CKD, did not directly compare different treatments, and had designs relevant to the objective were retained. HRQoL and cost outcomes, including healthcare resource utilization (HRU), were extracted and summarized in a narrative synthesis.

Results: A total of 1,625 publications were retrieved, 15 of which met all inclusion criteria. All identified studies included ESAs as a treatment of interest. Two randomized controlled trials reported that ESA treatment improves HRQoL relative to placebo. Across eight studies comparing HRQoL of patients achieving high vs low hemoglobin (Hb) targets, aiming for higher Hb targets with ESAs generally led to modest HRQoL improvements. Two studies reported that ESA-treated patients had lower costs and HRU compared to untreated patients. One study found that aiming for higher vs lower Hb targets led to reduced HRU, while two other reported that this led to a reduction in cost-effectiveness.

Limitations: Heterogeneity of study designs and outcomes; a meta-analysis could not be performed.

Conclusions: ESA-treated patients undergoing dialysis incurred lower costs, lower HRU, and had better HRQoL relative to ESA-untreated patients. However, treatment to higher Hb targets led to modest HRQoL improvements compared to lower Hb targets.