Family Business in Sub-Saharan Africa Versus the Middle East

This paper examines the impact of culture on family businesses in two regions of Africa: sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle Eastern region. Nine cross-culturally comparable “etic” dimensions are used to assess characteristics of family firms in both regions, based on the Culturally-sensitive Assessment System and Education (CASE) project. Overall, the characteristics of family businesses in the regions are associated with their distinctive cultures. Several commonalities are found; however, the observed differences suggest directions for the African family businesses to become the engines for national and regional development. Implications for further research and for practice are identified.     

Linking corporate logo,corporate image,and reputation: An examination of consumer perceptions in the financial setting

This study aims to fill a gap in marketing studies concerning the effect of a logo on consumer evaluations. The research addresses two questions: (1) what are the factors that influence the favorability of the corporate logo; and (2) what are the main influences of this favorability on corporate image and corporate reputation? The favorability of a corporate logo is reflected by the extent to which consumers positively regard that logo. The findings from the consumers' perspectives in the context of a financial setting, suggest that the main factors that bear influence on a favorable corporate logo (antecedents) are: corporate name, design, and typeface. The findings reveal the importance of the company's corporate logo in enhancing the corporate image, attitude toward advertisements, recognizability, familiarity, and corporate reputation. Key implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.     

Enhancing Brand Equity Through Sustainability: Waste Recycling

Unlike many existing research studies that explain reverse marketing from a purchasing perspective, this study recognizes it as an honest effort made by managers aiming to promote sustainability by purposefully managing waste and discusses the spillover effect of their initiatives on brand equity. It argues that efficient recycling of products through reverse marketing by a brand demonstrates its sincere intent to adopt sustainable business practices and enhances its equity in the marketplace. A business‐to‐business viewpoint has been used to combine knowledge about waste recycling and management through reverse marketing based on the unpretentious operations and management practices. The propositions reflect on the criticality of engaging business customer firms in a procedural mechanism of recycling for increase in brand equity as the success of reverse marketing. A comprehensive adoption of an initiative like waste management through reverse marketing by a brand highlights how sustainability initiatives can create value for the customers of the brand and ultimately drive brand equity. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mutually acceptable courses of action

We offer a game-theoretic framework that enables the analysis of situations whereby rational individuals with different beliefs and views of the world agree to a shared course of action. We introduce a new solution concept: a mutually acceptable course of action, which can be viewed as an (incomplete) contract or a social norm that free rational individuals would be willing to follow for their own diverse reasons. We show that by varying the degree of completeness of the underlying course of action, our concept can be related to commonly used solutions, such as perfect equilibrium, perfect Bayesian equilibrium, (rationalizable) self-confirming equilibrium, and rationalizable outcomes. We are grateful to the editor and an anonymous referee for very useful and helpful comments and suggestions. Earlier versions of this paper were circulated under the title “Towering over Babel: Worlds Apart but Acting Together”. We thank participants at the World Congress of Game Theory Society (2004), the International Conference on Game Theory (2004), the European Meeting (2004), and the Econometric Society World Congress (2005). Financial support from SSHRC and NSERC of Canada, and the National Science Council of Taiwan are gratefully acknowledged.     

Spiritual Climate of Business Organizations and Its Impact on Customers’ Experience

This study examines the notion of ‹spirituality’ as a dimension of human self, and its relevance and role in management. Major thesis of this research is that spirituality of employees is reflected in work climate. This may in turn affect the employees’ service to the customers. In the first part of the study a Spiritual Climate Inventory is developed and validated with the data from manufacturing and service sector employees. In the later part, hypothesis of positive impact of spiritual climate on customers’ experience of employees’ service is examined and found to be substantiated empirically.

“To buy or to pirate”: The matrix of music consumers' acquisition-mode decision-making

The decision to engage in music piracy may be preceded by consumer consideration of a range of issues. The determinants of such piracy as embedded in a large matrix of acquisition-mode decision factors relevant to exchange theory, including economic, legal, ethical, network and consumer behavior aspects, are investigated here. This matrix depicts numerous interrelated factors and makes assessing the decision-making process regarding music piracy more contextual than previously considered. A study of 204 American business students was conducted to test this matrix and assess the impact of the various factors. Implications and future research regarding this decision-making matrix and exchange theory are provided. The significant factors predict whether an exchange takes place between music consumers and the music industry.     

Tourism development,environmental pollution and economic growth: A theoretical analysis

We develop a two-sector dynamic model of a less-developed economy with an imported traded good sector and with a non-traded tourism service sector serving international tourists. Revenue earned from tourism finances imports. The model takes care of the negative effect of tourism development on environmental pollution. Environmental quality and capital stock accumulates over time. We analyse comparative steady-state effects and show that tourism development raises the level of capital stock as well as national income but lowers the quality of environment in the new steady-state equilibrium leading to a relative expansion (contraction) of the capital (labour) intensive non-tourism (tourism) sector. Pollution abatement policy produces a completely opposite effect; and so tourism development policies are to be accompanied by pollution abatement policies in order to ensure green growth.     

Diversification into Emerging Markets – An Australian and the US Perspective Using a Time‐varying Approach

Over the past two decades, a number of studies have examined the benefits of diversifying equity investments internationally, particularly into emerging markets. In the portfolio construction process, many researchers have criticised Markowitz's Portfolio Theory because of its inherent assumptions such as symmetric and constant correlations. In this study, we use a conditional copula model to estimate the time‐varying asymmetric correlations of stock markets and construct optimal portfolios by using estimated correlations. We find that optimised portfolios provide significant benefits for both Australian and the US investors. Out‐of‐sample results show Copula model provides results closer to the in‐sample‐estimated benefits of diversification. The results have important implications for portfolio managers who seek to diversify into emerging markets.     

Exploratory Results on the Importance of R&D Knowledge Domains in Businesses with Different Strategies

A number of studies have described the consequences of the changing patterns in the business environment for R&D departments. Fewer studies have addressed the specific implications of the changing business environment for the agenda of R&D managers. Gupta and Wilemon (1996) have provided R&D managers with a priority list for action designed to be applicable to R&D departments independent of business strategy. However, a substantial body of literature suggests that the priority listing may be different for R&D departments in businesses with different strategies. Against this background this study sets out to determine whether the priority listing is different for Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic archetypes of prospectors, analyzers, defenders and reactors. A total of 72 R&D managers of businesses competing in industrial markets in the Netherlands provided the data to test for the existence of these differences. The results indicate that the priority listings are indeed different for R&D departments in businesses with different strategies. This finding has important practical implications. The priority listings can be used by R&D managers to assess which R&D capabilities have to be developed in order to match R&D strategy with business strategy and meet the criteria for getting more commercial payback from R&D in a changing business environment.