Socio-emotional wealth and corporate responses to environmental hostility: Are family firms more stakeholder oriented?

Do family firms care more for different stakeholders than nonfamily firms when operating in a hostile business environment? This study addresses this question and fills the existing void in family business research. It shows that family-controlled firms adopt corporate social responsibility strategies and balance the demands of internal and external interest groups to preserve their socio-emotional wealth while facing fierce competition, resource scarcity, and penurious economic conditions. More specifically, our analysis of an international sample of 956 listed firms from 2006 to 2014 reveals that family firms show a higher level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and better stakeholder orientation than nonfamily firms. Our findings are useful for managers, policymakers, and responsible investors.     

On uniform convergence of undiscounted optimal programs in the Mitra–Wan forestry model: The strictly concave case

In this paper, we show that the 1986 Mitra–Wan result establishing asymptotic convergence of maximal programs to the unique golden-rule forest in the case of undiscounted, strictly concave felicity functions can be strengthened, in the same setting, to the  uniform  asymptotic convergence of  optimal  programs to the unique golden-rule forest. We work with a notationally reformulated version of the model that may have independent interest.     

Farmers' Preference for Farming: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Farm Survey in India

Using data from a nationally representative farm survey in India, we have analyzed Indian farmers' stated preference for farming as a profession. Findings show that more than 40% of farmers dislike farming as a profession because of low profits, high risk, and lack of social status, yet they continue with it owing to a lack of opportunities outside agriculture. Farmers who express a preference for moving out of agriculture are mostly those with small landholdings, poor irrigation facilities, fewer productive assets including livestock, and follow a cereal‐centric cropping pattern. They also have relatively lower access to credit, insurance, and information, and are weakly integrated with social networks such as self‐help groups and farmers' organizations. Importantly, the disinclination for farming, conditional on other covariates, is not significantly differentiated by caste, an important indicator of social status in rural India. Yet, within a caste group, the dislike for farming moderates with larger landholdings.     

Analysing customers' reviews and ratings for online food deliveries: A text mining approach

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between online reviews and ratings through text mining and empirical techniques. An Indian food delivery portal ( Zomato.com ) was used, where 50 restaurants on Presence Across Nation (PAN) basis were selected through stratified random sampling. A total of 2530 reviews were collected, scrutinized, and analysed. Using the NVivo software for qualitative analysis, seven themes were identified from collected reviews, out of which, the ‘delivery’ theme was explored further for identifying sub-themes. Linear regression modelling was used to identify the variables affecting delivery ratings and sentiment analysis was also performed on the identified sub-themes. Regression results revealed that hygiene and pricing (delivery subthemes) demonstrated lower delivery ratings. These variables can be established as indicators for restaurants and related online food delivery services to build their business model around them. Similarly, negative sentiments were observed in pricing and hygiene sub-themes. Restaurants and online food services can enhance hygiene levels of their food delivery process in order to receive higher delivery ratings. Similarly, pricing of food items can be modified such that customers are not deterred from ordering the items—food and ordering service do not become cost-prohibitive. This study devised a standardized methodology for analysing vast amounts of online user-generated content (UGC). Findings from this study can be extrapolated to other sectors and service industries such as, tourism, cleaning, transportation, hospitals and engineering especially during the pandemic.     

Sexuality and holiday choices: conversations with gay and lesbian tourists

This paper is an exploratory investigation of the travel motivations of gay and lesbian tourists. Based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, it investigates the interrelationships between sexuality, tourism behaviour and tourism spaces. Given that public space is controlled and heterosexualized, the paper suggests that whilst gay and lesbian people are motivated to travel for a range of reasons, such is the power of the dominant heterosexual milieu that their sexuality has a critical impact on their tourism choices. The need for safety, to feel comfortable with like-minded people, and to escape from heterosexism – often to specifically gay spaces – emerge as key influences on their choice of holiday.     

Has Adoption of IFRS Increased Non–North American Institutional Investment in the Canadian Stock Markets?

We investigate whether non–North American (non‐NA) institutional investment in firms listed on the Canadian stock markets increased between the pre‐ and post‐IFRS adoption periods relative to such investment in firms listed on the U.S. stock markets. Prior to IFRS adoption, Canada had high‐quality financial reporting standards that were similar to the U.S. standards. As consequences of IFRS adoption, Canadian financial statements became more comparable with European and other IFRS country financial statements and less comparable with neighboring U.S. financial statements. Thus, a question of interest is whether the enhanced comparability with non‐NA companies was beneficial in terms of attracting non‐NA investment to Canadian companies versus U.S. companies. We find that there was no significant change in non‐NA institutional investment in Canadian firms relative to U.S. firms for the very largest (fifth quintile) and for smaller (first, second, and third quintiles) Canadian companies. However, intermediate‐sized Canadian companies in the fourth size quintile lost non‐NA institutional investment relative to their U.S. peer companies, suggesting that non‐NA investors cared more about comparability with U.S. peer companies than non‐NA peer companies for companies in this size quintile.     

Public re-release of going-concern opinions and market reaction

This paper examines the market reaction to the public announcement of going-concern (GC) opinions through the news media. In the early 2000s, NASDAQ and AMEX required firms listed on their exchanges to publicly announce previously disclosed information, such as the issuance of a GC opinion, through a press release or the news media. We examine the stock market reaction to the re-release of GC opinions. We find significant abnormal stock return volatility and trading volume at the re-release of this information. Further, based on an analysis of intraday transactions, we find higher abnormal trading activity in small trades around the re-release of the GC opinion, but largely no changes in large trades during the same period. In this respect, the investors that initiate the small trades act as if they are surprised by the information contained in the press release of GC opinions. Such an action, in turn, can be viewed as evidence of a delayed response to the information in GC opinions by a section of investors.     

An empirical investigation of corporate entrepreneurship intensity in the casual dining sector

The purpose of this study was to identify the perception and relationships between corporate entrepreneurship (CE) practices and management performance. The use of Morris and Kuratko et al.'s [2002. Sustaining CE: a proposed model of perceived implementation/outcome comparisons at the organizations and individual levels. Paper presented at the 2002 Academy of Management Conference, Denver] Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI) was used as the survey instrument for this study. A sample size of 1200 unit managers, middle managers, and top management teams (TMTs) within nine casual dining restaurant organizations were surveyed with a response of 522 subjects at a rate of 44%. Responses of the CEAI results were studied using regression analysis and conclusions were drawn to support four out of the six hypothesis originally proposed in determining CE activity and management reinforcement. A post test analysis was also conducted in order to reinforce the previous results of the original study. This study concluded with the determination through an empirical analysis that forms of CE activity and enforcement are currently present within the casual dining restaurant segment.     

Order with Law: Social Capital, Civil Litigation, and Economic Development

I use records on commercial litigation in New South Wales to assess the role of norms and social capital during economic development. The data indicate that total disputes fell over time, whereas the rate of out of court settlements increased. Litigation rates were initially higher in frontier areas that arguably needed to adapt institutions to new circumstances because norms and standards were as yet undeveloped. The fraction of settled cases was significantly lower in frontier areas and areas without market access. Patterns related to jury trials, plaintiff recovery rates, and attorney representation are also assessed. The results are consistent with the theory that cooperative solutions emerge as areas gain access to markets, and suggest that order and law are complementary inputs into the process of economic development.     

Mobile learning adoption for tourism education in a developing country

Since developing countries are gradually introducing mobile-based tourism education, it is a growing demand to understand the students’ intention to adopt mobile learning. The study used partial least squares-based structural equation modelling to analyse survey data from 176 questionnaires at three tourism education institutes in Bangladesh. The study contributes to the theory of planned behaviour by examining the antecedent impact of innovativeness and moderating effect of self-efficacy. Results confirmed innovativeness as a significant antecedent on the attitude–intention relationship; however, the moderating effect of self-efficacy has not been supported. The study has marketing implications for tourism education institutes and government bodies.