International environmental outsourcing

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of firms shifting stages of their production processes overseas. In this paper we investigate whether firms outsource the dirtier stages of production to minimise domestic environmental regulation costs—a process broadly consistent with the pollution haven hypothesis. We develop a theoretical model of international environmental outsourcing that focuses on the roles played by firm size and productivity, transport costs and environmental regulations. We test the model’s predictions using a firm-level dataset for Japan and do find evidence of an ‘environmental outsourcing’ effect.     

The effect of changes in ownership structure on performance: Evidence from the thrift industry

Restrictions on stock ownership may harm a company's performance, because restrictions prevent owners from choosing an optimal structure. We examine the stock-price performance and ownership structure of a sample of thrift institutions that converted from mutual to stock ownership. We find that after conversion and the expiration of ownership-structure restrictions, firm performance improves significantly, and the portions of the firm owned by managers and the firm's employee stock ownership plan increase. Changes in performance are positively associated with changes in ownership by managers, but negatively associated with changes in ownership by employee stock ownership plans.     

Exploring quality of life perceptions in rural midwestern (USA) communities: an application of the core–periphery concept in a tourism development context

Tourism has increasingly become a preferred option for rural economic development. Like other economic opportunities, the purpose is to improve community viability and residents' quality of life. However, the impacts from tourism are sometimes negative and may lead to a decreased quality of life for residents. This empirical study investigates residents' quality of life using the core–periphery (CP) model. Periphery respondents reported a statistically higher overall quality of life, which is at odds with other research. Significant differences in quality of life scores and subsequent indicators highlight the usefulness of the CP model towards understanding tourism impacts to a rural destination. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organizational Justice and Individuals' Withdrawal: Unlocking the Influence of Emotional Exhaustion

This study examined the relationships between organizational justice and withdrawal outcomes and whether emotional exhaustion was a mediator of these linkages. Data were obtained from 869 military personnel and civil servants; using structural equation modelling techniques, we examined an integrative model that combines justice and stress research. Our findings suggest that individuals' justice perceptions are related to their psychological health. As predicted, emotional exhaustion mediated the linkages between distributive and interpersonal (but not procedural and informational) justice and individuals' withdrawal reactions. Results showed that distributive and interpersonal justice negatively related to emotional exhaustion and emotional exhaustion negatively related to organizational commitment which, in turn, negatively influenced turnover intentions. These findings were observed even when controlling for the presence of contingent‐reward behaviours provided by supervisors and individuals' psychological empowerment.     

Insurance groups,product diversification,and the role of surplus lines affiliation

The market share of surplus lines insurers has grown considerably. We examine the impact of surplus lines representation within insurer groups on the extent of product diversification. Initial evidence suggests that groups with greater surplus lines representation are more diversified than other groups. These results hold when controlling for the joint impact of surplus lines representation and size, as well as surplus lines representation and the percentage of overall business written in personal lines. However, when examining the subsample of groups affiliated with surplus lines insurers, we find some evidence that supports the product focus hypothesis, which states surplus lines insurers are used to further focus on existing product lines already being written by other members of the group.     

Impacts of news media coverage on Canadian medical crowdfunding campaigns

While donation-based crowdfunding for health-related purposes raises hundreds of millions of dollars yearly, most campaigns fail to meet their fundraising goals. Crowdfunding campaigners are advised to seek traditional news media coverage of their campaigns to increase donor interest and fundraising success. In this study, we seek to better understand what happens to donor behavior via donation-based crowdfunding campaigns after they receive news media coverage. While research has focused on the impact of social media sharing on donation-based crowdfunding, academic analyses of the impact of news media coverage is largely speculative. We searched the Newsstream and Factiva databases for Canadian news coverage of domestic donation-based health-related crowdfunding campaigns. This news coverage was paired with the crowdfunding campaign reported on in the story. Campaign text and daily fundraising totals and donor amounts were recorded for the 7 days before and after publication of the news article. The authors identified emergent patterns in this data around the amplification of personal information from the crowdfunding campaign to a wider audience and inclusion of new personal details. This process identified 17 relevant pairs of news stories and crowdfunding campaigns over a review period of just under 5 months in 2021–22. These campaigns raised a total of CAD$443,134 (median CAD$20,030) out of a total goal of CAD$772,500 (median CAD$40,000) or 57.4% of the requested funds. Median campaign donations and donor numbers increased for the 3 days following publication of the news article. Our exploratory analysis shows a relationship between crowdfunding campaigns that receive news media coverage and the numbers of donations and total amount donated shortly after this coverage. Campaigners may feel pressure to participate in news media coverage in order to reach their fundraising goals. Media coverage has implications for campaign recipient privacy and the equitable distribution of health-related funding. This exploratory analysis establishes the need for additional research on this topic.     

The Tip of the Spear: How Longshore Workers in the San Francisco Bay Area Survived the Containerization Revolution

Introducing new technologies often crush unions; indeed, sometimes that is the purpose. However, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), on the US Pacific Coast, demonstrates that need not occur. In 1960, the ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association signed the Mechanization & Modernization agreement (M&M). M&M represented among the first efforts by a union to shape this process—to “get a share of the machine.” Although workers understood that new technologies cannot simply be resisted, tremendous controversy still existed, culminating in the US shipping industry’s longest strike ever. In 1971, members of the San Francisco Bay area’s Local 10 led this strike, having experienced containerization most extensively. Although their numbers plummeted, those remaining maintained power at a strategic point of the global economy. Looking at how these workers managed to survive and partially shape the introduction of a valuable new technology suggests that it, and globalization, need not always destroy unions.     

Exploring justice judgment patterns in Asia: a four country multi-group latent class analysis

We explore workers’ justice judgment patterns to understand how they use information to assess fair treatment at work. Justice judgment patterns are the unique set of information that individuals draw upon and use when evaluating the overall fairness of an entity. Data from four samples of workers from Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, and China were analyzed using a multi-group latent class analysis. Results suggest four classes of justice judgment processes, three of which represent different patterns of heuristic processing. Comprehensive processors use a wide range of information when making justice judgments, while minimalist processors consider a limited range of information. Reward-focused processors focus on distributive justice cues and treatment-focused processors specifically attend to interpersonal justice cues while neglecting distributive justice cues. The latent class structure shared conceptual meaning across countries but the patterns had different rates of representation. Findings suggest that individuals do not always use complete information when assessing how fairly they are treated at work. Many appear to use heuristics that emphasize minimizing information processing, instrumental outcomes, or more relational outcomes. Results and implications are discussed.     

Demographic Factors and Price Distortions in Insurance

Few papers have analyzed the potential linkages between price distortions and the specific demographic and political traits of customers. The existence of price distortions may have adverse and potentially unintended impacts on certain demographic groups, leading to significant public policy concerns. The current study uses census tract data and rating factors to examine age, income, and race demographics in an effort to determine if any subgroups of the population are adversely impacted by the price distortions of property insurance. The results suggest that Hispanics, lower income households, and specific age groups pay relatively more for insurance coverage than comparison groups.