The Impact of Geographic and Cultural Dispersion on Information Opacity

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This paper investigates the influences of intrafirm geographic and cultural dispersion, the distance between the location of a firm’s...     

Cultural influence on corporate and governmental involvement in accounting policy determination in Japan

This study examines the impact of culture on the motivation for, and mode of involvement of, the corporations and the government in accounting policy determination in Japan. Three propositions are developed and evaluated against the events that occurred in the formulation and implementation of the 1976 ordinances on consolidation. Data are derived from source documentation and personal interviewing. Cultural determinants are seen to position the corporations and bureaucracy as influential and conflicting interest groups in accounting standard-setting in Japan and to predetermine a mode of conflict resolution in policy determination that maintains the “balance of forces” between those parties.     

Customers,competitors and choice: employee relations in food retailing

This article examines the nature of employee relations in three of the leading food retailers in the UK. It compares and contrasts policies and practices by analysing the links between product markets, management choice, and employee relations. Special reference is made to features of work relations, employment relations, and industrial relations     

Toxic release inventories and green consumerism: empirical evidence from Canada

Abstract. Do firms abate pollution in response to actual or anticipated green consumerism? Lacking direct observational data on the extent of green consumerism, we construct an indirect method to elicit its effect on pollution abatement. If environmentally motivated consumers target companies rather than particular facilities of a multi‐product firm, green consumerism can be identified through intra‐firm inter‐plant spillover effects in pollution abatement. We test the prediction that ‘environmentally‐leveraged’ firms with consumer market exposure experience larger emission reductions. We use 1993–99 panel data from Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), with pollutants adjusted for toxicity. Our empirical results find statistically significant evidence of green consumerism, but its economic magnitude is very small. JEL Classification: Q2, R3 Inventaires des émanations toxiques et consumérisme vert : résultats pour le Canada. Est‐ce que les entreprises réduisent la pollution en réponse au consumérisme vert – présent ou anticipé? Comme on n’a pas de façon de le savoir directement, on élabore une méthode indirecte de mesurer son impact sur l réduction de la pollution. Si des consommateurs intéressés à l’environnement ciblent certaines sociétés plutôt que des installations particulières d’une entreprise multi‐produit, le consumérisme vert a un impact détectable via des effets de retombées des politiques de réduction de pollution intra‐firme entre les installations. On met au test l’hypothèse que les entreprises qui sont exposées à des pressions sur le marché effectuent des réductions de pollution plus importantes. Utilisant des données de l’inventaire national des rejets de polluants du Canada pour 1993–99, on trouve que l’effet du consumérisme vert est statistiquement significatif mais économiquement très faible.     

Welfare effects of insurance contract non-performance

Non-performance lies at the heart of much of the regulation that insurance companies face. Consumers’ concerns about non-performance of the insurance provider have also been cited as a possible explanation for low demand of microinsurance. We provide a behavioral evaluation of the welfare effects of non-performance risk. We test the hypothesis that the presence of non-performance risk negatively impacts not just take-up of insurance but more importantly the welfare of the insured. We also test if violations of the reduction of compound lotteries axiom could drive this decrease in take-up and welfare. The results show that the compound risk characteristic of non-performance risk does not significantly decrease the welfare of insurance choices made by individuals. This counter-intuitive result is sensitive to the structural modeling of risk preferences. If one assumes the reduction of compound lotteries axiom does characterize behavior towards risk, one finds evidence that non-performance risk reduces welfare for the insured. But if one correctly allows for violations in that axiom in the representation of risk preferences, which is appropriate if one is going to test for the effect of compound risk from non-performance, then the counter-intuitive result is obtained. Take-up is not a reliable proxy for welfare, and the behavioral drivers of take-up are again not the same drivers of welfare. These results provide structural behavioral insight to inform normative policy design with respect to insurance regulation.     

Mapping the criterion space for expatriate success: task- and relationship-based performance,effort and adaptation

The paper presents an explicit consideration of the criterion space for expatriate success. Expatriate performance is conceptualized in terms of task completion, relationship building and overall performance. These three dimensions are determined by various features of effort regulation: the amount and pattern of personal resources the expatriate spends on behaviours that constitute his or her position. Drawing upon work motivation and withdrawal literatures, we assess effort in terms of withdrawal cognitions, passive task neglect, active task avoidance, time to proficiency and leader-team exchanges. Effort regulation, in turn, is proposed to be a function of three forms of adjustment (cultural, interaction and work) – which have been the default criterion in past expatriate research. Our model is tested using multi-source data from expatriates, their spouses and their work colleagues. Support for the proposed mapping of successive linkages between adjustment, effort (including the often-studied assignment withdrawal) and performance dimensions provides a more comprehensive perspective of the expatriate criterion space.     

Strategic motivations and choice in subsistence markets

This paper examines the different motivations behind strategic choice in base of the pyramid or subsistence markets. Two strategies are examined through comparative analysis: market extension and strategic intent. Using two commercial bank's micro-lending business strategies in Sri Lanka, a comparative case study suggests that strategic intent is motivated by building capabilities over time that results in successful poverty alleviation, whereas market expansion is motivated by an immediate desire to expand overall sales revenue. This conclusion may help reframe subsistence market or BoP arguments away from such false choices as appropriate size (e.g., multinational corporations versus small and medium size enterprises) toward more useful discussion on understanding why firms participate in subsistence markets and what is the motivation behind their strategic choice. By considering more than just size and scope and studying the motivations behind long-term solutions to poverty alleviation, firm success can be better understood and achieved.