Student preferences for a hybrid course

Higher education institutions face demands to develop and deliver course content through alternate modes of delivery. A variety of course designs have emerged in recent years. One of these is the hybrid or blended course design model where face-to-face instruction is combined with online instruction. Researchers have found negligible differences in student performance between this model and traditional instruction. While performance outcomes are similar, this study shows a clear preference for the hybrid course design.     

Managing Negative Reviews: The Persuasive Role of Webcare Characteristics

This article provides insight into a less investigated area that deals with marketers’ responses to negative reviews—a phenomenon known as webcare. Specifically, it examines the effects of (a) salient webcare characteristics like strength and timeliness on consumer forgiveness in the presence of review helpfulness as a moderator, and (b) forgiveness on consumers’ cognitive, affective, and conative loyalty. A 2 (webcare strength: strong vs. weak)?×?2 (webcare timeliness: timely vs. delayed)?×?2 (review helpfulness: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment in a fictitious casual dining restaurant context reveals that webcare timeliness and strength of webcare play affect consumer forgiveness positively which subsequently affects consumer loyalty. These findings are distinctive from previous research because it opens up a new area that deals with managers’ responses to negative reviews. It also explores how the detrimental effects of these reviews can be reduced by manipulating salient characteristics of managers’ responses, i.e., webcare.     

Sequential technology adoption with asymmetric firms

Abstract

We analyse the incentives and welfare implications of costly technology adoption in a two-period duopoly model where firms have different amounts of capital. We also extend our framework to an open economy set-up and examine the relationship between trade and technology adoption. Our findings are as follows. First, no monotone relationship exists between the threshold cost of adoption and capital shares. Second, an unequal distribution of capital, despite lessening competition, can increase total surplus. Third, trade generally encourages adoption of modern technology unless the share of capital for the adopters is too low.     

Cross‐border Economic Activities,Human Capital and Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis for OECD Countries

We study the growth effects of outward‐ori,ented econ,o,mies by using sto,chas,tic fron,tier anal,y,sis to mea,sure the effi,ciency exter,nal,i,ties of three forms of eco,n,omic cross‐bor,der activ,i,ties – inter,na,tional trade, for,eign direct invest,ment (FDI) and migra,tion – for OECD coun,tries. The study also exam,ines whether the effi,ciency of these cross‐bor,der activ,i,ties is affected by the level of human cap,i,tal in the host coun,try. We find that inter,na,tional trade and FDI are impor,tant chan,nels for improv,ing effi,ciency, as is human cap,i,tal accu,mu,la,tion, and that the positive effects of inter,na,tional trade, FDI, and migra,tion depend cru,cially on the level of accu,mu,lated human cap,i,tal. Our results show that the impact of human cap,i,tal is impor,tant for increas,ing effi,ciency via inter,na,tional trade flows and FDI flows, while immi,gra,tion into coun,tries that are richer in human cap,i,tal enhances their effi,ciency rel,a,tively more than immi,gra,tion into coun,tries with lower human cap,i,tal. These results remain robust to alter,nate mea,sures of human cap,i,tal, con,trols on edu,ca,tion lev,els among immi,grants, and to a non‐para,met,ric esti,ma,tion of the model.     

Towards mentoring the Indian organizational woman: Propositions,considerations, and first steps

The globalized Indian economy creates employment opportunity for educated Indian women and increases gender diversity in Indian Enterprises (IEs). Increased gender diversity presents myriad challenges for integrating women into the managerial ranks of IEs. We highlight these challenges, offer propositions on the Indian culture, the status of women within IEs, and formal mentoring as a human resource development initiative. Further, we use social identity theory as a lens for understanding these challenges, and integrate knowledge from the Western literature on mentoring women. We conclude by suggesting first steps for developing formal mentoring programs aimed at the Indian organizational woman.     

Audit Fee Differential,Audit Effort,and Litigation Risk: An Examination of ADR Firms

Prior studies find that audit fees are higher for cross‐listed firms, and these studies primarily attribute the incremental fees to added litigation costs. In this study, we investigate whether the higher audit fees that foreign firms cross‐listed in the United States pay are also attributable to incremental audit effort associated with U.S. disclosure requirements and a more stringent U.S. auditing environment. By comparing audit fees of foreign cross‐listed firms to U.S. domiciled firms and to non‐cross‐listed foreign firms, we are able to decompose incremental audit fees into portions attributable to added audit effort and to added litigation costs. We find that, on average, foreign firms cross‐listed in the United States pay significantly higher fees than domestic U.S. firms and foreign firms that do not cross‐list. Furthermore, we find that audit effort is almost as important as litigation costs in explaining the higher fees associated with foreign cross‐listed firms; our estimates suggest that between 29 percent and 48 percent of the incremental fees are attributable to incremental audit effort. In addition, the total cross‐listing premium is increasing in the difference between the U.S. auditing regulatory environment and that of the home country of the cross‐listed firm. Our study improves our understanding of the role of audit effort in explaining the added fees charged by auditors when foreign firms cross‐list in the United States.