Functional magnetic resonance imaging in consumer research: A review and application

Although the field of psychology is undergoing an immense shift toward the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the application of this methodology to consumer research is relatively new. To assist consumer researchers in understanding fMRI, this paper elaborates on the findings of prior fMRI research related to consumer behavior and highlights the features that make fMRI an attractive method for consumer and marketing research. The authors discuss advantages and limitations and illustrate the proposed procedures with an applied study, which investigates loss aversion when buying and selling a common product. Results reveal a significantly stronger activation in the amygdala while consumers estimate selling prices versus buying prices, suggesting that loss aversion is associated with the processing of negative emotion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Chinese domestic tourist perceptions of wind farms experiences

Wind farm complexes have grown in popularity as a form of energy tourism, but to date there is a paucity of research that addresses tourist perceptions of wind farms as a form of special interest tourism (i.e. energy tourism). The scope of this study concentrated on determining and statistically profiling domestic tourists’ perceptions of wind farm complexes for energy tourism purposes. As such, this study applies grounded theory as a means of interpreting domestic tourist perceptions of their lived wind farm experiences. By means of a qualitative research design, the researchers discovered that domestic Chinese tourists found their wind farm experiences were typified by interests in sustainability energy, exposure to differing local cultures, the science surrounding wind turbine technology and personal enrichment associated with the sharing of wind farm experiences with family and friends. The primary implication of this study calls for the deployment of collaborative interagency policies which promote wind farming as part of the government's overall sustainable energy platform while also supporting energy tourism as a means of personal enrichment and a form of economic development.     

Plädoyer für einen Ersatz der Grunderwerbsteuer

Since Germany reformed its federal structure in 2006, federal states have been able to set their own rates of real-estate transfer tax. This limited tax autonomy at state level has resulted in a rate increase to 6.5%, which suggests that a narrow tax base is being exploited for purely fiscal purposes. The weaknesses of the real-estate transfer tax can be eliminated by integrating it into value-added tax. States’ lost revenue can be offset by increasing their share of value-added tax. The resulting horizontal revenue shifts between federal states are an advantage compared with today’s unjust tax burden differences.     

How Corporate Reputation Disclosures Affect Stakeholders’ Behavioral Intentions: Mediating Mechanisms of Perceived Organizational Performance and Corporate Reputation

Journal of Business Ethics - Corporate reputation is decisive for stakeholders’ supporting or repelling behavior and, therefore, one of firms’ most valuable intangible resources....     

The Capital Gains Tax: A Curse but Also a Blessing for Venture Capital Investment

Our study analyzes the effect of the capital gains tax on the individual investment decisions of venture capitalists. By doing so, we are able to study the decisions for a sample of 61,558 funding rounds in 32 countries from 2000 to 2012. Our results support the predictions of the theoretical model that higher capital gains tax rates are associated with fewer start‐ups financed and a lower probability of receiving follow‐up funding. However, the results concerning the effect on the probability of success of start‐ups show that a higher tax burden is associated with a higher probability of eventual start‐up success.     

Distance and Border Effects on Price Transmission: A Meta‐analysis

Using price transmission estimates for 1,189 cereal market pairs extracted from 57 published studies in a meta‐analysis, we examine whether geographic distance and separation by an international border affects the strength and speed of price transmission. Our findings indicate that a border reduces the likelihood that two cereal prices will be cointegrated by 23%, and each additional 1,000 km of distance reduces the probability of cointegration by 7%. The speed of price transmission is on average 13 percentage points per period faster between prices that are located within the same country compared with cross‐border price pairs. Our meta‐analysis also indicates that increasing distance strongly reduces the speed of price transmission on domestic markets, but that the effect of distance on the speed of transmission is considerably weaker for trade over longer international distances. Overall, these results confirm expectations and complement the findings in the trade literature that borders and distance affect trade flows and price dispersion.     

How Does the Franchisor's Choice of Different Control Mechanisms Affect Franchisees’ and Employee-Managers’ Satisfaction?

Satisfaction of franchisees and employee-managers affects the overall performance of a franchise system. We argue that different actors in the same franchise system need to be treated in different ways. The franchisor's choice of control mechanisms affects the satisfaction of franchisees and employee-managers differently. To our knowledge this is the first study that gathers primary data from franchisees and employee-managers in the same franchise system at the store level with almost identical questionnaires. We show based on data from the largest German franchise system that outcome control leads to higher satisfaction among franchisees and employee-managers, while behavior control enhances employee-managers’ satisfaction. Thereby, outcome control leads to higher satisfaction among more experienced franchisees, while behavior control enhances both highly and lowly experienced employee-managers’ satisfaction. Our results suggest that franchisors face a dilemma: On the one hand, behavior control is associated with high costs and has no impact on franchisees’ satisfaction at all. On the other hand, it might still be necessary to prevent franchisees from behaving opportunistically.     

Should I stay,or should I go? – How fund dynamics influence venture capital exit decisions

We investigate the determinants of venture capital (VC) exit behavior after the lockup expiry in initial public offerings (IPOs) by considering insights from prospect theory and behavioral finance for the first time. Hereby, the paper concentrates on the under-researched relationship between fund managers and the limited partners investing in these funds. The results from a proprietary dataset of 292 U.S. VC-backed IPOs from 1991 to 2008 imply that VC firm characteristics and fund dynamics have a significant influence on the exit extent after the lockup expiry and may not always be in line with limited partners' interests, hinting at the relevance of behavior grounded in prospect theory. In particular, first-time funds keep their shares longer after an IPO, whereas funds satisfied with current fund performance cash out soon after the end of the lockup period.     

Stakeholders' Impact on Turnaround Performance: The Case of German Savings Banks

This study explores how savings banks as powerful stakeholders of SMEs in Germany assess turnaround performance. It tests the impact of the support provided by German savings banks and distressed SMEs' actions with survey data from corporate advisors. The results show that structural and continuing support foster turnaround performance. This support is conducive in the initial stage of turnaround but negligible in the recovery stage. Contributing to stakeholder theory and turnaround management, the findings shed light on the factors that motivate a selected stakeholder's involvement and SMEs' ability to engage in actions fostering this stakeholder's support for a turnaround.