Addressing privacy predicaments in the digital marketplace: A power‐relations perspective

The utilization and governance of the internet and adjacent disruptive technologies have created numerous challenges to ensuring consumer online privacy. This study employs the power–responsibility equilibrium theory to explore emerging online privacy issues in the data‐driven marketplace. This exploratory study, based on semi‐structured interviews, explains why online shopping consumers are increasingly worried about their privacy and why they behave in a manner that could be detrimental to the consumer–vendor relationship. The findings suggest that deficiencies of corporate privacy responsibility and regulatory protection have deprived consumers of privacy empowerment. These deficiencies have also accentuated perceived privacy contract violations to trigger privacy concerns and subsequent defensive responses. We identify enhancement of consumer privacy empowerment and assuagement of privacy contract violations as two separate mechanisms of addressing online privacy issues. We also highlight the importance of addressing power and responsibility dynamics for maintaining a healthy information‐exchange environment.     

Size and diversity in VC syndicates and their impact on IPO performance

This paper investigates the impact of venture capital (VC) syndicate size and composition on the IPO and post-IPO performances of investee companies in an attempt to shed some light on the extent to which larger and more diverse syndicates are more likely to suffer from internal agency problems which might hinder the decision-making process and lead to less value added for their portfolio companies. The question is of great relevance because, while the vast majority of the empirical literature compares VC backed IPOs with non-VC backed ones, most VC funding is provided by syndicates of two or more financiers. We construct alternative measures of size as well as diversity based on several VC characteristics such as age, geographic location, type and affiliation of VC firms and find that larger and more diverse syndicates are associated with higher underpricing and lower valuation at the IPO date. Furthermore, we provide evidence that that diversity and size are negatively correlated to the long-term performance of the IPO firms and this finding is robust to several alternative measures of long-term performance.     

The speed of adjustment in working capital requirement

This paper analyzes the determinants of working capital requirement (WCR) and examines the speed with which firms adjust toward their target WCR. The findings indicate that firms adjust relatively quickly, which supports the hypothesis that current balance sheet items are easier to manipulate and could be changed quite easily, even in the short run. Moreover, we find that the speed of adjustment is not equal across all firms and varies according to their external finance constraints and their bargaining power. Firms with better access to external capital markets and greater bargaining power adjust faster due to their lower costs of adjustment.     

Identifying and Managing Creative Tasks in Collaborative IS Research Projects

Collaborative research projects require a high amount of creativity to create innovative results. Project management has to ensure that it recognizes and encourages creativity. This can be done successfully only if the nature of creative tasks is well understood. The current literature on creativity provides a well‐accepted model to characterize creativity. Based on a literature review and case study we transfer the findings into the context of collaborative information systems (IS) research projects and we evaluate their applicability. We derive specific criteria and characteristics for the identification of creative tasks, find a set of different task types, and provide implications directly usable by project managers.     

Multi-item models for evaluating managerial and organizational resources in service firms

Services are the primary source of wealth in almost every nation around the world. Domestic competitiveness increasingly depends on the health of its service firms. Then understanding the source of competitive advantage for the case of service industry is a challenge that cannot be deferred. Resource-Based View literature gives sound evidences that intangible assets like managerial and organizational resources are the primary source of competitive advantage, especially in the service industry. However, the development of managerial tools for measuring and managing these resources remains as an open gap. In the last few years, some academic work has been devoted to develop intangible assets measurement devices. Nevertheless, these scales are either oriented towards manufacturing industry or do not take specifically into account the distinctive features of service delivery. This study replies the multi-item model proposed by Camisón (Manag Res 3(1):27–48, 2004) over a sample of 152 medium and large services companies. We have taken different tests to demonstrate validity and reliability of the scales. Results show that these scales may also be suitable for being used in all the types of service companies. However, some partial modifications should be done in order to give more relevance to soft managerial competences and to organizational human capital. This study was carried out as part of research project (reference GV2007-075) which has been subsidized by the “Valencian Government Programme Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects”.     

Wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry

We show that wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry is not fundamentally driven by labour productivity in contrast to the standard theoretical prediction. On the contrary, internal institutional arrangements – payroll taxation, the minimum wage or the price wedge between manufacturing and consumption prices – together with a higher exposure to international trade – connected to the increasing globalization of the Colombian economy – appear as the crucial drivers. These findings lead us to question the political strategy followed to attain cost competitiveness in a context of growing exposure to international trade. Implementation of a true wage bargaining system is suggested as a critical policy target to prevent the disruptive economic consequences of the current wage‐setting mechanism and help rebalance the trade deficit.     

Unveiling the role of risk-taking in innovation: antecedents and effects

This study addresses innovation development with a focus on risk-taking, widely considered a relevant driver for the exploration and exploitation of new ideas. The study empirically examines the effects of risk-taking propensity on innovation performance and its antecedents. We consider the role of several key antecedents related to the organizational structure and the activities of firms aimed at encouraging employees to take risks in innovation. We performed an empirical survey within a global and innovation-oriented Swedish company to test our hypotheses. Correlation and linear regression analyses were used to analyze the collected data. The results highlight the significant effect of risk-taking on innovation performance and show that the availability of organizational resources, innovation support activities, clear innovation goals, and collaboration have a significant positive effect on risk-taking. However, contrary to the hypothesis, well-established innovation processes have a significant but negative effect on risk-taking and innovation performance. This study contributes to existing knowledge on the role of risk-taking for innovation, providing insights into designing organizational contexts that encourage an appropriate risk appetite in employees.     

Hello,is anybody there? Corporate accessibility for outside shareholders as a signal of agency problems

Review of Accounting Studies - In this paper, we develop a corporate accessibility measure for publicly listed firms in China based on their responses to outside market participants’ attempts...     

Experimental evidence on personality traits and preferences

Using an experiment, we test the relation between personality traits and revealed risk and ambiguity preferences, and we consider the effects of personality traits prevalence in a group on the decision making of each group member. In the experiment, subjects reveal their risk and ambiguity preferences through lottery choices. They then participate in an unstructured group chat. Afterwards, they are given the chance to revise their initial lottery choices. Results show that personality traits affect ambiguity but not risk preferences before the chat. Specifically, agreeableness is negatively related to ambiguity aversion. We also show that the probability of changing decisions after the chat is affected by the individual's personality traits but not by the traits of the other group members. The latter only affects the direction and the degree of the change.     

Regional differences in residential demand for very high bandwidth broadband internet in 2025

The future demand for data and the role of gigabit networks are central issues in the context of Next Generation Access (NGA) network roll-out. Based on a generic model, which allows to predict unconstrained future broadband demand in different regions and countries, the authors compare the results for Germany, the UK and the Flemish region, and discuss reasons for the different outcomes. The generic market potential model thereby allows to project the future demand for bandwidth from residential customers on the basis of applications and their bandwidth needs, user profiles and population structure on a household level. Despite a general trend towards an increasing need for broadband, there are clear differences. On the one hand, these point to the relevance of socio-demographic factors for broadband adoption. On the other hand, the relatively high proportion of refusals shows that there is still a need for further educational work on the part of public authorities and providers. Finally, it has to be stated, that our forecast relies on the assumption that connectivity and thus that the availability of area-wide gigabit capable broadband access does not represent a bottleneck.