Evidence on the international evolution and convergence of corporate governance regulations

The issue of appropriate corporate governance framework has been a focal point of recent reforms in many countries. This study provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of corporate governance regulatory systems and their evolution since 1990 in 30 European countries and the US. It proposes a methodology to create detailed corporate governance indices which capture the major features of capital market laws in the analyzed countries. The indices indicate how the law in each country addresses various potential agency conflicts between corporate constituencies: namely, between shareholder and managers, between majority and minority shareholders, and between shareholders and bondholders. The analysis of regulatory provisions within the suggested framework enables us to understand better how corporate law works in a particular country and which strategies regulators adopt to achieve their goals. The 15-year time series of constructed indices and large country-coverage also allows us to draw conclusions about the convergence of corporate governance regimes across the countries.     

Influence of community design on user behaviors in online communities

While the question of how community design influences user behavior in online communities has recently attracted considerable research, few studies have empirically evaluated the influencing factors of specific user behavior. Building on a conceptual framework of identity-based vs. bond-based attachment in online communities, this study evaluates the influence of several antecedents on user attachment as well as attachment's mediating role for explaining consumer behavior. Results of a survey reveal that network effects, intergroup comparison, and social categorization have a positive and significant effect on common identity attachment, whereas this is not the case with in-group interdependence. Conversely, collectivism, interpersonal similarity, and social interaction drive common bond attachment, while personal information has no effect. Most importantly, the results show that common identity attachment is the primary driver of user behavior in online communities.     

Men wielding the plough: Changing patterns of production and reproduction among the Balanta of Guinea‐Bissau

This paper is centred on the fast‐track changes occurring among the Balanta of Guinea‐Bissau—at present, the only ethnic group in West Africa still able to produce a mangrove swamp rice surplus with a manual plough—in their traditionally intensive farming system and their social organization, and on the consequences that these changes have had for gender relations, especially with regard to married women's spatial mobility, sexual and economic independence, and access to land, labour, and capital. In doing so, the paper contributes to old debates about the relationship between means of production and gendered power dynamics in contexts where African societies based on domestic modes of production progressively embrace the market economy. The Balanta case offers a new layer of complexity to this debate due to their long‐term resistance to westernization and market integration, their particular conjugal relations, and the paradoxical way in which women have been losing their traditional rights.     

Travel philanthropy and sustainable development: the case of the Plymouth–Banjul Challenge

Travel philanthropy is an evolving phenomenon. It owes its origins to rising frustrations with conventional aid and traditional philanthropic giving and is seen as development assistance enabling resources to flow directly from the tourism industry into community development and conservation initiatives. Philanthropists have long sought to achieve social transformation, and travel philanthropy in all its forms has evolved through the democratization of charity, as a kind of “doing good” through “giving back” whilst travelling. This paper evaluates values, practices and impacts of traditional, modern and post-modern philanthropy. Drawing upon evidence emerging from a longitudinal study, which involved the retrospective evaluation of personal diary entries, participant observations and semi-structured interviews about the transcontinental Plymouth–Banjul (car) Challenge (PBC), it exemplifies how an initiative can evolve across all three philanthropic approaches. It further debates critical understandings of the problematic travel philanthropy concept and its role in stimulating sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Business travellers' connections to home: ICTs supporting work‐life balance

This paper examines the role of information communication technology in enabling connections to home for work‐related travellers. Although digital connectivity for work‐related tasks are well researched, the use of digital technology for home communication is under‐researched. The study draws on a qualitative study of UK‐based organisations and business travellers to explore how these travellers use ICTs for personal use while ‘on the move’. The findings reveal that organisations are supportive of work‐life balance for employees, but fail to consider specific needs of those whose work takes them away from home. For business travellers, insights are gained into practices around connecting to home and the value of this virtual presence for relationships with family while absent and work‐life balance. The study identifies and discusses practice occurring around three activities; checking in, maintaining relationships with home and sharing experiences.     

Un metodo di valutazione di un portafoglio assicurativo vita

Si adatta il modello proposto da L. Peccati [5] ad una concreta realtà aziendale fornendo un'analisi della redditività delbusiness assicurativo sia rispetto alla sua evoluzione temporale che alla sua origine finanziaria. Al fine di mantenere l'approccio quanto più generale possibile si modellizza il portafoglio a partire dal singolo contratto.

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Summary A method for the evaluation of life insurance portfolio has been proposed by L. Peccati in [5]. We adapt the original model to a concrete company situation. We examine the profitability of an investment in a life insurance portfolio from the viewpoint of the shareholders. In the Insurance business premia inflows preceed claims outflows so that we can consider the insurance activity as a medium/long-term funding operation. Starting from a model of the typical insurance activity, we obtain a decomposition of the NPV, distinguishing the contributions of each source of financing (i.e. equity and technical reserves) and of each time period, both for the single contract and the whole portfolio.

     

Production subsidies and redistribution

Who gains from stimulating output? We explore a dynamic model with production subsidies where the population is heterogeneous in one dimension: wealth. There are two channels through which production subsidies redistribute resources across the population. First, poorer agents gain from a rise in wages, since—to the extent there is an operative wealth effect in labor supply—they work harder. Second, because a current output boost will raise consumption today relative to the future, thus lowering real interest rates, poor agents gain in relative terms since their income is based less on interest income. We examine optimal redistribution from the perspective of an arbitrary consumer in the population. We show that, if this consumer has commitment at time zero to set all present and future subsidy rates, and for a class of preferences that admits aggregation in wealth, then output stimulation, and hence redistribution, will only occur at time zero; after that, subsidies are zero. A byproduct of our analysis of this environment is a median-voter theorem: with direct voting over subsidy sequences at time zero, the sequence preferred by the median-wealth consumer is the unique outcome. We also study lack of commitment, since interest-rate manipulation is associated with time inconsistency. We analyze this case formally by looking at the Markov-perfect (time-consistent) equilibrium in a game between successive identical decision makers (e.g., the median agent). Here, subsidies persist—they are constant over time—and are more distortionary than under commitment. Moreover, whereas under commitment asset inequality changes initially—in favor of the consumer who decides on policy—it does not under lack of commitment.     

Does a clustered location matter for high-technology companies' performance? The case of biotechnology in the Netherlands

Young entrepreneurial companies in biotechnology tend to cluster in space, nearby research universities and research centers. This pattern is often ascribed to the availability of external economies, mainly local knowledge spillovers that help to reduce the uncertainty from a disruptive technology faced by these companies. Given a shortage of empirical research on cluster advantages and performance of clustered companies, we present results of a comparative analysis of clustered and non-clustered companies in biotechnology and Bionanotechnology in the Netherlands. It appears that, among other influences, a clustered location has no significant influence on innovation and speed of growth. However, a location in the largest cluster (Leiden) does contribute to a better performance in terms of innovativeness compared with all other locations. The kind of external economies involved seems to vary according to the stage in the knowledge value chain and the segment in biotechnology industry. Knowledge spillovers tend to be local for companies involved in new drugs and diagnostics research only in the first stage of the knowledge chain and for service companies regardless of the stage in the knowledge chain.     

Spillover of corporate governance standards in cross-border mergers and acquisitions

In cross-border acquisitions, the differences between the bidder and target corporate governance (measured by newly constructed indices capturing shareholder, minority shareholder, and creditor protection) have an important impact on the takeover returns. Our country-level corporate governance indices capture the changes in the quality of the national corporate governance regulations over the past 15 years. When the bidder is from a country with a strong shareholder orientation (relative to the target), part of the total synergy value of the takeover may result from the improvement in the governance of the target assets. In full takeovers, the corporate governance regulation of the bidder is imposed on the target (the positive spillover by law hypothesis). In partial takeovers, the improvement in the target corporate governance may occur on voluntary basis (the spillover by control hypothesis). Our empirical analysis corroborates both spillover effects. In contrast, when the bidder is from a country with poorer shareholder protection, the negative spillover by law hypothesis states that the anticipated takeover gains will be lower as the poorer corporate governance regime of the bidder will be imposed on the target. The alternative bootstrapping hypothesis argues that poor-governance bidders voluntarily bootstrap to the better-governance regime of the target. We do find support for the bootstrapping effect.     

Modeling the Impact of Advertisement‐Image Congruity on Applicant Attraction

This study examines the effects of the perceived congruity of recruitment advertisements and organizational image on organizational attractiveness. Based on Mandler's schema congruity theory (1982) and on recruitment research, we developed hypotheses and tested them on a sample of 1,091 individuals. The results show that recruitment advertisements that conform to the organization's image show a higher degree of attractiveness to applicants, particularly because these advertisements have higher resulting credibility than advertisements with low congruity. Furthermore, applicants’ level of familiarity with the organization moderates the relationship between congruity and organizational attractiveness, as congruent recruitment advertisements lead to more positive effects for well‐known organizations. This suggests that highly recognizable organizations should use congruent advertisements to unleash the full potential of their recruitment efforts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.