Presidential Agenda Building and Policymaking: Examining Linkages Across Three Levels

To investigate the role of strategic political communication in governing, this study comprehensively examined presidential agenda-building associations at three levels during the first six months of U.S. president Barack Obama’s second term. Multiple presidential information subsidies, national news content, and policymaking activity were monitored. The results revealed solid support for all three levels of agenda-building (i.e., object salience, attribute salience, and network associations among objects or attributes), but the linkages with media coverage and policymaking were not uniform across information subsidy types. Based on the analysis, presidential news releases, blog posts, and presidential speeches were the most effective all-around strategic agenda-building tools for media management and policymaking purposes during this time period. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Exploring the Perceptual and Behavioral Outcomes of Public Engagement on Mobile Phones and Social Media

Mobile technology and social media exert a substantial impact on our society and daily lives. Employing a survey of 633 college students in the United States, this study examined the effects of college students’ public engagement on mobile phones and social media on their organizational identification and attachment and positive electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) communication. Findings suggested that college students’ public engagement with mobile phones and social media significantly impacted their attachment toward and identification with the university. Moreover, this study found that students’ public engagement and university identification strongly predicted their positive e-WOM communication about their university. Furthermore, students’ mobile phone engagement indirectly influenced positive e-WOM communication through organizational identification. The theoretical and practical implications of this study were also discussed.     

Social isolation and its relationship to multidimensional poverty

While the multidimensionality of poverty is well-recognised, one dimension of poverty which has been often overlooked is weak social connectedness. This paper draws on conceptual, participatory and measurement literatures to show that social connectedness appears to be an important missing ingredient of multidimensional poverty analyses, with social isolation being a feature which exacerbates the condition of poor persons. To provide contextual detail as to its impact on persons in marginalized communities, we present qualitative primary data from South Africa and Mozambique and review pertinent studies of the First Nations of Canada and among persons with disability. A policy challenge for social isolation is that it is often seen as stemming from an individuals’ capacity rather than resulting from the broader social context. The closing section outlines areas for policy.     

Influence of the measurement of distance on assessment of recreation access

Residents’ recreation behavior is highly influenced by their level of access to recreation opportunities. Distance is an important component of access. The purpose of this study was to measure levels of access to public beaches in the Detroit Metropolitan Area (DMA) using four travel distances (1, 6, 10, and 20 miles) and three access measures (minimum distance, travel cost, and covering), with the intent of demonstrating the sensitivity of findings to both the distance and measure employed. Findings indicate that while public beaches are geographically accessible for a majority of the DMA population within 20 miles according to all access measures, at distances less than 20 miles level of access varies substantially with the access measure used. Future access studies should consider a range of travel distances rather than the single distance typical of most prior analyses and should also be sensitive to the differentials produced by the access measure employed.     

An Empirical Examination of the Divergence between Managers’ and Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts

We study circumstances when analysts’ forecasts diverge from managers’ forecasts after management guidance, and the consequences of this divergence for investors and analysts. Our results show that investors’ return response to earnings surprises based on analyst forecasts is significantly weaker when analyst and management forecasts diverge, and that this attenuating effect is stronger when the management forecast is more credible. When the divergent management forecast is more accurate than the analyst consensus forecast, the subsequent‐quarter analyst consensus forecast is significantly more accurate than that of the current quarter, and exhibits less serial correlation. Overall, our findings suggest that, when analyst and management forecasts diverge, investors find the two sources to contain complementary information, and analysts learn to improve their subsequent forecasts.     

Executive Bonus Target Ratcheting: Evidence from the New Executive Compensation Disclosure Rules

This study investigates whether firms revise executive bonus compensation targets based on past performance. Studies in this area suffer from a lack of detailed information related to executive performance targets. Using mandatory disclosures of executive compensation information under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new disclosure rules, this study provides the first large‐sample evidence of bonus target ratcheting. There are three major findings: (i) executive bonus targets ratchet and they ratchet asymmetrically; (ii) the degree of target ratcheting and ratcheting asymmetry vary with executive equity incentives and investment opportunities; and (iii) performance relative to bonus target is serially correlated.     

Improving new product development using big data: a case study of an electronics company

Big data is becoming more important to the new product development (NPD) efforts of global firms. Although the term of big data is not new, very few studies have investigated how firms can harvest big data to facilitate NPD. The purpose of this article is to present the means by which big data can be used to assist firms in NPD to shorten the time to market, improving customers’ product adoption and reducing costs. This research is based on a two-step approach. First, we identified and analysed three world-leading firms that have successfully integrated big data in supporting their NPD. Then, the observations from the firms were used to determine the principle involved in leveraging big data to reduce product development lead times and costs. Given the exploratory nature of the research objective, a participant-observation case study is adopted in which during a 6-month period a NPD project in a fast moving high-tech industry was investigated. This study provides empirical confirmation for the three principles to big data supported NPD: (a) Autonomy; (b) Connection; and (c) Ecosystem. It is termed the ACE principles which we believe represent a paradigm shift to help firms unlock the power of big data and make NPD faster and less costly. This article provides guideline to firms in harvesting big data to better support their NPD: it allows organisations to launch new products to market as quickly as possible; it helps organisations to determine the weaknesses of the product earlier in the development cycle; it allows functionalities to be added to a product that customers are willing to pay a premium for, while eliminating features they do not want; and it identifies and then prioritises customer needs for specific markets.     

Is Job Insecurity Higher in Leveraged Buyouts?

This article assesses whether job insecurity is higher in leveraged buyouts (LBOs) than elsewhere. It draws on matched employer‐employee data from the British 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study linked to data from the Centre for Management Buyout Research. The analysis finds no consistent evidence of higher job insecurity in LBOs as measured by workforce reduction practices (redundancy rates, job security/no‐compulsory redundancies policies and redundancy consultation), dismissal rates, labour use practices (non‐permanent employment contracts and outsourcing) and employees’ job security perceptions. Job insecurity is no higher in either current or former LBOs than elsewhere. Contrary to what might be expected, it is also no higher in private equity (PE)‐backed LBOs, management buy‐ins or high‐debt LBOs and there is only partial and weak evidence of higher job insecurity in short‐hold LBOs. Job insecurity is also no higher in perfect storm LBOs (PE‐backed management buy‐ins that are short‐holds with high‐debt). Concerns over the negative implications of LBOs for job security thus appear misplaced.