Building corporate associations: Consumer attributions for corporate socially responsible programs

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often used as a key criterion in gauging corporate reputation. This research examined the influence of consumers’ attributions on corporate outcomes in response to CSR. Researchers and managers have considered consumers’ beliefs about CSR initiatives to be simplistic, serving either economic ends or reflecting sincere social concerns. The results of two studies established that consumers’ attributions were more complex than traditionally viewed, mirroring many of the motives ascribed to companies by managers and researchers. Rather than viewing corporate efforts along a self- or other-centered continuum, consumers differentiated four types of motives: self-centered motives that are strategic and egoistic and other-centered motives that are values driven and stakeholder driven. Consumers responded most positively to CSR efforts they judged as values driven and strategic while responding negatively to efforts perceived as stakeholder driven or egoistic. Attributions were shown to affect purchase intent as well as mediate the structure of an offer. Pam Scholder Ellen (pellen@gsu.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on perceptual biases in the way consumers respond to marketplace offers, particularly in the public policy arena. In addition to theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, her research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, and theJournal of Retailing. Deborah J. Webb (dwebb@westga.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at the Richards College of Business at the University of West Georgia. Her research interests include consumers’ responses to prosocial corporate behaviors, marketing and society issues, and donation behavior. Her research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, andMarketing Education Review, among others. Lois A. Mohr is a retired associate professor of marketing from the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Her research interests focus on consumer responses to corporate social responsibility and services marketing. She has published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal ofBusiness Research, the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, and theJournal of Services Marketing.     

The effect of globalization and legal environment on voluntary disclosure

We examine how interactions with foreign capital, product, and labor markets affect the disclosure practices of non-U.S. multinational firms. Drawing on literature related to multinationals, country-level legal institutions, and accounting disclosures, we expect that the relation between globalization and voluntary disclosure will be conditioned by the legal environment in a firm's home country. Specifically, while firms from countries with a strong legal environment (e.g., common-law countries) already face pressure for good disclosure, globalization can increase the benefits associated with good disclosure to firms from weak legal environments (e.g., civil-law countries). We use a self-constructed voluntary disclosure index and hand-collected disclosure and foreign activity data for 643 non-U.S. firms from 30 countries for 2003. We find a significant interaction between globalization and the legal environment. This indicates that for the same level of globalization, there is more voluntary disclosure for firms based in weak legal environments. Our results suggest that globalization is an important variable that has been overlooked in much of the previous cross-country research.     

The performance of stocks that are reverse split

An unusually high number of Nasdaq National Market stocks were reverse split following the decline in Nasdaq prices in the year 2000. We test whether these splits were driven by the overall market decline. We find that the performance of stocks with reverse splits in poor overall stock market conditions is better (less negative) than that in good market conditions, and that the differences in performance appear three to five months after the split. This suggests that the longer-term outcomes of reverse stock splits are associated with the market environment at the time of the split. In view of this, changes that Nasdaq made to relax some of its listing standards are well justified.

Taking notice of risk culture – the regulator’s approach

Following the financial crisis and a series of mis-selling and ‘rigging’ scandals in the financial services, organisational culture, and particularly the risk culture of organisations, has come to be regarded as a key issue for both financial firms and their regulators This paper considers the extent to which regulatory published notices, ‘Final Notices’ (FNs), relating to breaches of the regulatory Handbook, are able to provide lessons, or pointers, in the development of ‘appropriate’ cultures. By undertaking a qualitative content analysis of all the FNs in 2012, we examine the extent to which FNs draw attention to issues of culture, and to the regulator’s analysis of the drivers of culture published as part of its treating customers fairly (TCF) initiative. The analysis finds that, although not easy to extract, there are important learning points in FNs relating to organisational culture, and in particular to the factors driving behaviours and outcomes that are signs of poor culture. This paper suggests that, whilst it may not be for a regulator to dictate firms’ culture, it could do much more to make use of the content of FNs as a learning tool for firms; particularly in the context of its cultural framework for TCF. This would support the ‘outcomes-based’ approach being espoused by the UK’s regulators.     

Can training increase the confidence of staff and volunteers in a sector with inexperienced fundraisers? Lessons learnt from the “giving to heritage” programme

The UK independent heritage sector has traditionally not been strong at fundraising. There is a perception amongst the general public that most heritage assets are supported by funds from the state, and that sectors such as children and health are more worthy of support. At a time when pressures on central and local government budgets are increasing, the need for heritage to look for sources of private funds has never been greater, yet the level of confidence and skills to achieve this goal are relatively low. A fundraising training programme tailored to the sector was delivered between 2014 and 2017 by The Heritage Alliance in partnership with the Institute of Fundraising and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This paper analyses the results and explores what worked and what did not work in the programme. An emphasis on face-to-face training in small workshops, backed up with other training techniques, together with online resources, resulted in higher levels of fundraising skills amongst heritage fundraisers and a surprisingly high levels of actual funds raised attributable to the training programme.     

Pension Plan Funding,Technology Choice,and the Equity Risk Premium

In this paper, the impact of Lazear contracts with defined‐benefit pensions on aggregate technology composition and the aggregate risk premium is examined. In the presence of capital market constraints affecting workers, defined‐benefit pensions bias the economy towards risk‐free production. Leveraging the risky technology relaxes the constraints and results in more risky production and a fall in the aggregate risk premium. This effect holds with risky debt and low pension shortfall risk but breaks down with high pension shortfall risk. A key prediction is that as Lazear contracts become less common, risky production will increase and the aggregate risk premium will fall.     

Segmenting Police ‘Customers’ on the Basis of their Service Quality Expectations

Customer expectations form the standards against which organisation performance is often assessed. Additionally, knowledge relating to customer expectations provides information concerning the differentiated performance requirements of heterogeneous customer groups. Relatively few studies have explored the segmentation potential of ‘customer expectations, und to the best of this author. knowledge, none of these has addressed the issue it1 the non-profit sector. This study addresses this need by investigating the extent to which demographics constitute expectation segmentation criteria in the context of the police service. Both the desired and predictive expectation standards are considered. Managerial arid research implications are given.     

The demand for housing and the development of the Selby Coalfield: a case study

The present paper examines the returns to 29 oil companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange during the period surrounding the oil shock of 1973. The returns are decomposed into production, refining, foreign and domestic operations. The hypothesis that domestic price controls benefitted refiners is tested. Finally, the hypothesis that oil price risk was priced in the sense of the arbitrage pricing theory is tested.