Controversial Advert Perceptions in SNS Advertising: The Role of Ethical Judgement and Religious Commitment

This study attempts to advance knowledge in the area of controversial advertising by examining the antecedents and consequences of controversial advert perceptions in the context of social media, and particularly social networking sites (SNS). Specifically, we explore how ethical judgement and religious commitment shape controversial advert perceptions leading to attitudes towards the advert, brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Our results indicate that when a SNS advert is judged to be ethically acceptable, the level of perceived advert controversy is lower. However, the impact of ethical judgement on controversial advert perceptions becomes significant and positive when intrapersonal commitment and interpersonal religious commitment are introduced as moderators. This result implies that the level of religious commitment changes the ethical judgement–controversial advert perceptions relationship. The results also highlight that controversial advert perceptions negatively influence attitude towards the advert. The study contributes to the limited knowledge on controversial advertising on SNS, yielding significant and relevant implications for academics and advertisers alike, in their effort to improve advertising effectiveness without offending or alienating target audiences.     

Nonlinear Spatial and Temporal Effects of Highway Construction on House Prices

This paper studies the effect of a newly completed highway extension on home prices in the surrounding area. We analyze non-linearities in both the effect of distance from the highway and the effect of time relative to the completion of the road segment. While previous studies of the effects of nearby amenities on property and land values have focused on either cross-sectional spatial or temporal patterns, the joint analysis of the two dimensions has not been thoroughly investigated. We use home sale data from a period of 11 years centered around the completion of a new highway extension in metropolitan Los Angeles. We combine a standard hedonic model with a spline regression technique to allow for non-linear variations of the effect along the temporal and spatial dimensions. Our empirical results show that the maximum home price appreciation caused by the new highway extension occurs at moderate distances from the highway after it is completed. Lower price increases for this period are observed for homes sold closer to the highway or much further away. This price pattern gradually fades away in the years following the construction completion. A similar, although weaker, price pattern is also observed in the first years of the construction period. There is no statistically significant distance dependency in the 2 years in our sample prior to the beginning of the construction. This indicates that the housing market is not fully efficient as the information about the impending construction of the highway is not immediately incorporated into sales prices.     

Does the professionalism of management practices in nonprofits and for-profits affect job satisfaction?

This paper examines workers' satisfaction related to the level of professionalism of managerial practices in the French services sector. The data used are from the original survey conducted by the French Institute for Demographic Research and include both workers' responses on their satisfaction level, individual characteristics, job conditions, etc. and employers' responses on managerial practices implemented. We construct an index of workers' overall satisfaction and an index of ‘managerial professionalism’. In our model of workers' overall job satisfaction, the index of managerial practices is treated as an endogenous variable using two-stage least squares regressions. We show that the index of managerial practices is strongly and positively associated with workers' overall workplace satisfaction. Overall workplace satisfaction is found to be strongly associated with wages and individuals' perceptions about work environment. Finally, working in nonprofits is positively associated with greater overall job satisfaction.     

Representation as a driver of internationalization: The case of a singular Russian SME

This exploratory research focuses on an unconventional practice in a Russian small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME). While studying the decision-making process of the entrepreneur and executives of this firm, we noted some differences with extant theories. This article aims to shed light on the influence of the SME entrepreneur’s representation of internationalization on his decisions in a foreign context. The results support the assumption that the representation plays a role in guiding strategic decisions and mobilizing subordinates to support the strategic orientation defined by the leader. In particular, we will see that a very favorable representation of internationalization can lead to unexpected success abroad.     

Corporate risk exposures,disclosure, and derivatives use: A longitudinal study

We conduct firm and industry-level examinations of key market risk exposures deemed material by managers over the period 2002–2016. We find that risk exposures have expanded in line with firms’ growth and globalization and that managers strategically select disclosure formats in recognition of firms’ demand for capital market access and need to protect proprietary information. Currency derivatives use has surpassed that of interest rate derivatives and, conditioned on a firm having the associated risk exposure, commodity derivatives use is the highest. Finally, we find large increases in risk exposures concurrent with the initiation of derivatives use.     

Towards constructing the meaning of “aggressive hospitality”

ABSTRACT

“Aggressive hospitality” is an emergent phenomenon that is yet to be understood in the tourism field. This phenomenon involves social interaction between hosts and guests that imitates a hospitable encounter, but at the same time fails to demonstrate some characteristic(s) inherent to hospitable behavior. The underlying forces of the phenomenon are traced back to imperialism, high tourism dependence of the developing regions, staged authenticity, and the mutual gaze. The study focuses on two cruise destinations in the Caribbean region and utilizes over 1200 online reviews to construct the meaning of the phenomenon. Theoretical insights and practical implications are provided based on the findings.     

Choices and Best Practice in Corporate Risk Management Disclosure

For over a decade, the SEC has required corporations to disclose in their 10‐K filings the nature and extent of their risk exposures using one or more of the following three methods: (1) sensitivity analysis; (2) the so‐called “tabular” format; and (3) value‐at‐risk (VaR). After discussing the significant differences in the type and level of information revealed by each method, this article presents the findings of a study that examines how corporate choices of disclosure method vary with firm‐specific and industry characteristics. While sensitivity analysis has been the “middle of the road” chosen by the majority of companies, there have also been significant minorities adopting the tabular and VaR methods. Those companies that have chosen the tabular method—in the authors' view, the most revealing of the three methods—have also had the largest interest rate and commodity exposures as well as the greatest demand for external financing. The propensity of companies to use VaR, the least revealing method, has been associated with larger size, perhaps reflecting scale economies in risk management, greater use of derivatives, and competitiveness concerns about revealing proprietary information.     

The no-choice option and dual response choice designs

Choice set designs that include a constant or no-choice option have increased efficiency, better mimic consumer choices, and allow one to model changes in market size. However, when the no-choice option is selected no information is obtained on the relative attractiveness of the available alternatives. One potential solution to this problem is to use a dual response format in which respondents first choose among a set of available alternatives in a forced-choice task and then choose among the available alternatives and a no-choice option. This paper uses a simulation to demonstrate and confirm the possible gains in efficiency of dual response over traditional choice-based conjoint tasks when there are different proportions choosing the no-choice option. Next, two choice-based conjoint analysis studies find little systematic violation of IIA with the addition/deletion of a no-choice option. Further analysis supports the hypothesis that selection of the no-choice option is more closely related to choice set attractiveness than to decision difficulty. Finally, validation evidence is presented. Our findings show that researchers can employ the dual response approach, taking advantages of the increased power of estimation, without concern for systematically biasing the resulting parameter estimates. Hence, we argue this is a valuable approach when there is the possibility of a large number of no-choices and preference heterogeneity.     

Extending the firm vs. industry debate: Does industry life cycle stage matter?

A series of Strategic Management Journal studies have debated the extent to which business‐unit, corporate parent, and industry effects explain variance in firm performance. Despite evidence that the industry life cycle impacts competition and performance, the life cycle concept has yet to be incorporated into the firm vs. industry debate. Building on ideas from systems theory, we use longitudinal data from 1,957 firms in 49 industries to examine the relative importance of business‐unit, corporate parent, and industry effects during the growth, maturity, and decline stages of the industry life cycle. We find that corporate parent and industry effects increase as industries move through the life cycle while business‐unit effects decrease between maturity and decline. Thus, the life cycle concept should be incorporated within the firm vs. industry debate. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd