The Interaction Between Technology Adoption and Trade When Firms are Heterogeneous

This paper develops a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms to study the interaction between technology adoption and trade in a world of two countries facing different technology adoption costs. It shows that a reduction in the technology adoption cost in one country increases productivity, induces more firms to adopt advanced technology, and improves welfare in this country, while decreasing productivity, inducing more firms to switch back to old technology, and reducing welfare in the other country. Furthermore, although a reduction in transport costs always makes the country with the lower adoption cost better off, it can hurt the other country.     

Online image content analysis of political figures: an exploratory study

This study investigates the emotional content of facial images of South Korean politicians. The data were drawn from official websites of 18th National Assembly members. We categorized facial expressions (smiling, frowning, and no expression) by using photos on the websites. The smiling image was the most prevalent facial expression regardless of the socio-political-demographic attributes of the politicians. The existence and strength of the smiling image had significant positive correlations with the politicians’ web visibility. Opposition parties were significantly more likely to show frowning or expressionless images than the ruling party. The more experienced politicians were more likely to continue their use smiling images than similarly aged politicians with less experience.     

Quality heterogeneity and global economic growth

This paper develops a fully endogenous, variety-expansion growth model with firm-specific quality heterogeneity, limit pricing, and an endogenous distribution of markups. Firms with high-quality products engage in exporting, firms with intermediate-quality products serve the domestic market, and inefficient firms with low-quality products exit the market. Trade liberalization, measured by a reduction in trade costs or a decline in foreign market entry costs, generates a reallocation of resources from low-quality to high-quality products and exit of inefficient firms. However, it has ambiguous effects on the average global quality level, long-run growth, and welfare. An increase in the rate of population growth or in the intensity of trade-related knowledge spillovers accelerates economic growth. The laissez-faire equilibrium is inefficient, and this leaves room for welfare-improving government intervention.     

Persistence of cities: Evidence from China

Using data from the Qing dynasty, we investigate the long‐run impact of early development on today's living standards in China. We use city‐level population density in 1776 as a measure of early economic prosperity, and examine how it is associated with today's development indicators such as the average night light density, GDP per capita, average years of schooling, and trade openness. We find that cities which were more prosperous during the Qing dynasty are now also brighter, richer, more educated, and more open.     

The perceived autonomy–perceived service climate relationship: The contingency effect of store-level tenure diversity

Although prior research has examined the relationship between perceived autonomy and perceived service climate, a dearth of studies exist that have explored the boundary conditions of the perceived autonomy–perceived service climate relationship. To this end, this study draws on self-determination theory and the job characteristics model to develop a multi-level model that examines the relationship between perceived autonomy and perceived service climate and how this relationship alters at varying levels of store-level tenure diversity. Based on matched data from service employees and customers from a national chain of retailers, the findings indicate that perceived autonomy is positively associated with employee's perception of service climate. However, this relationship was qualified by a curvilinear (U-shaped) moderating effect of store-level tenure diversity. Perceived autonomy had a greater impact on perceived service climate at low and high levels compared to moderate levels of tenure diversity. Implications for advancing theory in service retailing are discussed along with strategic ramifications.     

Technology Diffusion through Trade with Heterogeneous Firms

I investigate the long‐run implications of trade and technology diffusion through trade, when firms are heterogeneous and trade is costly. This paper integrates firm heterogeneity and trade into a product innovation growth model from endogenous growth theory. I find that although exposure to trade increases average productivity, it has an ambiguous effect on economic growth and consumer welfare.     

Unpacking the relationship between an innovation strategy and firm performance: The role of task conflict and political activity

This article adds to extant literature by examining the contingent effect of two cross-functional processes on the relationship between the use of an innovation strategy and firm performance, namely, task conflict and political activity. The authors examine the effects of these processes with a sample of 260 firms. The positive relationship between the use of an innovation strategy and firm performance is stronger for higher levels of cross-functional task conflict and lower levels of cross-functional political activity. Furthermore, the authors find support for a configurational hypothesis: the innovation strategy-firm performance relationship is strongest for the high task conflict/low political activity configuration and weakest for the low task conflict/high political activity configuration. The results unveil two important cross-functional mechanisms influencing the extent to which the benefits of an innovation strategy can be reaped.     

Stock market seasonality: International Evidence

This study examines empirically stock market seasonality in major industrialized countries. Evidence is provided that there are strong seasonalities in the stock market return distributions in most of the capital markets around the world. The seasonality, when it exists, appears to be caused by the disproportionately large January returns in most countries and April returns in the U.K. With the exception of australia, these months also coincide with the turn of the tax year.     

Stakeholder Multiplicity: Toward an Understanding of the Interactions between Stakeholders

While stakeholder theory has traditionally considered organization’s interactions with stakeholders in terms of independent, dyadic relationships, recent scholarship has pointed to the fact that organizations exist within a complex network of intertwining relationships [e.g., Rowley, T. J.: 1997, The Academy of Management Review 22(4), 887–910]. However, further theoretical and empirical development of the interactions between stakeholders has been lacking. In this paper, we develop a framework for understanding and measuring the effects upon the organization of competing, complementary and cooperative stakeholder interactions, which we refer to as stakeholder multiplicity. We draw upon three forms of fit (i.e. fit as matching, fit as moderation, and fit as gestalts; Venkatraman, N.: 1989) to develop a framework for understanding stakeholder multiplicity based upon the direction, strength, and synergies of the interacting claims. Additionally, we draw upon the theory of stakeholder identification and salience of Mitchell et al. (1997), which we argue provides a more relevant and significantly more illustrative explanation of the nature and effects of stakeholder interactions upon the organization than the network approach of Rowley (1997). Furthermore, we ground our framework through reference to three stakeholder groups (i.e. governments, customers, and employees) and the stakeholder issue of concern for the natural environment. We propose a hierarchy of the multiplicity strength of influence of these three stakeholder groups. Potential measurement and implications are discussed.     

Sectoral exports dynamics of Turkey: Evidence from panel data estimators

This study aims to determine the most important factors affecting sectoral exports dynamics of Turkey and to estimate sectoral exports elasticities. It then relates sectoral elasticities to factor and technology intensities. The study uses three recent panel data estimators, Mean Group, Augmented Mean Group and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group estimators, all of which take into consideration slope heterogeneity and the last two also taking into consideration cross-sectional dependency. The results obtained show that foreign demand and productivity are important determinants of Turkish exports. In addition, sectoral elasticities vary across sectors, tending to be greater in some sectors where factor and technology intensities are the main distinctive features.