Servant leadership,organizational identification,and work‐to‐family enrichment: The moderating role of work climate for sharing family concerns

The present study investigates the impact of servant leadership as perceived by followers on their work‐to‐family enrichment (WFE) by focusing on the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating role of work climate for sharing family concerns. The results from a field survey of 230 married managers in China provide full support for our hypotheses, indicating that perceived servant leadership is positively related to WFE; this relationship is also mediated by organizational identification. In addition, work climate for sharing family concerns attenuates the effects of servant leadership on organizational identification and WFE. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of trade union membership on training in Britain

This article investigates the impact of openness and tariff reductions on the technical inventiveness of selected OECD countries. The results suggest that even these simple forms of trade liberalization may, under certain conditions, favour technical inventiveness or creativity, the most advanced form of technological gain. It is therefore likely that other, more directly relevant kinds of liberalization of exchange, will have some positive effects on less extreme forms of acquisition of technical knowledge. The diversity in outcomes across the range of countries surveyed points to the need to specify the conditions under which these dynamic technological gains can be reaped and serve as a rationale for international trade policy.     

SUBSIDIES AS OPTIMAL FISCAL STIMULI

Theoretical macroeconomic models typically take fiscal policy to mean tax‐and‐spend by a ‘benevolent government’ that exploits potential aggregate demand externalities inherent in the imperfectly competitive nature of goods markets. Whilst shown to raise aggregate output and employment, these policies crowd‐out private consumption and typically reduce welfare. On account of their widespread use to stimulate economic activity, we consider the use of ‘tax‐and‐subsidize’ instead of ‘tax‐and‐spend’ policies. Within a static general equilibrium macro‐model with imperfectly competitive goods markets, we examine the effects of wage and output subsidies and show that, for a small open economy, positive tax and subsidy rates exist which maximize welfare, rendering no intervention suboptimal. We also show that, within a two‐country setting, a Nash non‐cooperative symmetric equilibrium with positive tax and subsidy rates exists, and that cooperation between governments in setting these rates is more expansionary and leads to an improvement upon the non‐cooperative solution.     

Quality wars in the North

This paper investigates two stylised facts about quality wars between Northern firms and a Southern copycat firm in the North. First, due to low wage, a foreign or Southern copycat firm may enter the market of a developed economy inhabited by a high‐quality firm and a low‐quality domestic copycat. When the products of the high‐quality firm and the foreign copycat are vertically differentiated, the foreign copycat firm may choose an intermediate quality between the quality levels of domestic high‐ and low‐quality firms. In the second scenario where the products of the high‐quality firm and the foreign copycat are horizontally differentiated, the quality of the foreign copycat may surpass that of the domestic high‐quality firm. As the wage gap between the developed and developing countries widens, the foreign copycat is more likely to survive in the markets of developed economies.     

Managing Market, Hierarchy, and Network: The Jiuda Salt Industries, Ltd., 1917-1937

As China underwent industrialization during the Republican period,how did companies deal with the problems of expansion, competition,and relationship with the state? Using the concept of networkcapitalism, this article demythologizes the "enigma" of Chinesenetwork by analyzing the experience of the Jiuda Salt Industries,Ltd. Fan Xudong, the company’s founder, deftly managedhis network portfolio for information and other resources. Kithand kin as shareholders, interlocking directorates, and cross-shareholding,as well as hierarchical management and cartels, were utilizedto raise capital and manage local markets. Market, hierarchy,and network thus constitute three complementary organizationprinciples in explaining Jiuda’s success.     

The ties that bind us: examining relationship marketing orientation and its impact on firm performance in the information systems outsourcing services sector

The objective of this study is to analyze the adoption of a relationship marketing orientation (RMO) by firms in the information systems (IS) outsourcing service sector. The study frames RMO as a hierarchical, reflective construct which models seven dimensions including bonding, communication, empathy, harmonious conflict resolution, shared value, trust, and reciprocity. A sample of 114 senior executives from firms in the IS outsourcing industry in Hong Kong were obtained from a survey. Empirical analysis via structural equation modeling confirms the hierarchical, seven construct reflective structure of the RMO model, and the high levels of a firms’ RMO lead to a direct positive impact on firm performance outcomes. The findings provide valuable managerial insights for measuring and managing an RMO in the IS outsourcing sector, and professional services generally. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed along with future research directions of the study.     

On the nature of mean-variance spanning

Asset spanning tests are very useful tools for the determination of which asset classes belong to an investor's portfolio. There are numerous applications of such tools in the finance literature. What is not so obvious is the proper decision an investor should make if the extra asset classes are spanned by some existing assets. Should the investor make a conscious decision not to invest in them as they add no value? Should the investor invest in them anyway as they do no harm? This study provides an analytical solution to the puzzle and also offers an economic rationale.     

Multivariate cointegration and causality tests of Wagner's hypothesis: evidence from the UK

The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of omitted variables in testing the long run validity of Wagner's hypothesis. Using UK data for the period 1948 to 1997, this paper first investigates the secular relationship between public spending and economic development in a bivariate system. In all cases considered, our bivariate cointegration tests indicate the absence of a long run equilibrium condition. However, the introduction of a third variable (money supply) re-establishes a cointegrating relationship between public expenditure and economic development variables. In addition, the results of the Granger's multivariate causality test indicate a unidirectional causality from income and money supply to public spending in the long run, thus providing support for Wagner's hypothesis.     

Institutions and preferences in settings of causal complexity: foreign institutional investors and corporate restructuring practices in France

In this article, we illustrate how the interaction between institutional arrangements and the presence of different categories of firm stakeholders with specific preferences provides important insights to understand the conditions under which corporate restructuring practices are introduced. Institutions shape the range of actors' strategic options and mediate the translation of the preferences of firm stakeholders into corporate policies. Nonetheless, strategic choice remains possible since firm stakeholders constitute subgroups with different interests and incentives that influence how they operate in an institutional framework. In particular, we examine under what conditions UK/US-based institutional investors and equity-based compensation incentives are associated with the implementation of asset divestitures and employee layoffs in France. We uncover three key findings. First, the presence of hedge funds and equity-based pay influence the likelihood of French companies undertaking asset divestitures. Second, the impact of hedge funds on employee layoffs is contingent on the ownership structure of firms. Third, layoffs in France are driven by inferior performance – a result that contrasts with the American experience whereby employee layoffs are also used as a strategic mechanism to deal with institutional investors in good times. Our findings demonstrate the importance of the institutional constraints of (national level) employment protection and the moderating effects of ownership structure (firm level) on the strategic and employment policies of French companies.     

Decreasing advertising interference: The impact of comparable differences on consumer memory in competitive advertising environments

This study investigates the structural alignment processes in reducing memory interference in a competitive advertising context. In particular, an experimental study is carried out to understand how alignable (i.e., comparable) and nonalignable (i.e., noncomparable) attributes influence ad claim recall at differing levels of competitive ads. Findings indicate that recall of alignable attributes is higher than that of nonalignable attributes in the presence of ads for competing brands. Results from the study also suggest that nonalignable attribute recall decreases as the number of ads featuring competing brands increases from zero to two, whereas alignable attribute recall is not affected by increasing the level of competitive ads. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.