The Effect of Brand Gender on Brand Equity

Brand personality has been suggested as an important source of consumer‐based brand equity, yet empirical research on the relation between brand personality perceptions and brand equity is scarce. This article examines the link between masculine and feminine brand personality and brand equity as well as the underlying process of this relationship. Study 1 reported herein involves 140 existing brands and demonstrates that high levels of brand masculinity and femininity relate positively to brand equity, and that this relation is not moderated by participants’ sex. Study 2 demonstrates that brand gender accounts for brand equity ratings above and beyond other brand personality dimensions. Study 3 identifies ease of categorization as the underlying mechanism for the relationship between brand gender and brand equity.     

Family Formation and the Divisions of Labour in Belgian Couple Households

In this chapter the authors describe how a quantitative analysis resulted in a proposal for a qualitative research. The aim of the quantitative research was to analyse the impact of family formation on the division of labour in couple households, based on data from the Panel Study on Belgian Households.In a first step a typology was made based upon data of 1224 Belgian couple households (1995). The second step consisted of a longitudinal analysis for the period between 1992 and 1995. The analysis of the impact of birth on the division of labour gave evidence of the revocability of equal patterns of division of labour.Based on these findings the authors concluded that the classic concept of emancipation does not allow us to understand the empirical phenomena. Hence, the authors proposed a new (qualitative) investigation aimed at clarification and empirical validation of different contents of the concept of emancipation.     

Prudence and prevention: an economic laboratory experiment

In an economic laboratory experiment, we study the relationship between prudence and prevention in general decision situations. Previous theoretical research on this relationship posits a negative impact of prudence on the optimal level of prevention. Overall, we find both risk-averse and prudent behaviour among our subjects. Moreover, prudent subjects chose significantly less prevention than nonprudent subjects, confirming the theoretical results of one-period models in the literature. Our findings might have implications for health policy if prudence – rather than irrational decision behaviour, as previously assumed – is responsible for low levels of preventive effort.     

The Effects of Foreign Direct Investment Colocation: Differences Between Manufacturing and Service Firms

Colocation may result in positive performance effects because of agglomeration benefits or in negative outcomes because of fiercer competition. Using the notions of industrial organization economics, this study offers a comprehensive industry‐specific analysis on the performance effects of international colocation. We predict that bigger firms will benefit more from colocation of foreign firms in a host country. Considering industry and home country peers, the analysis suggests that positive effects dominate for manufacturing firms whereas service firms are negatively affected. However, these effects are mitigated by a firm's size in a location. A large‐scale empirical analysis on firm‐level data supports the hypotheses. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trade costs,quality and the skill premium

We develop a monopolistic competition model with non‐homothetic factor input bundles where increasing quality requires increasing use of skilled workers. As a result more skill abundant countries export higher quality, higher priced goods. Using a multi‐country dataset, we test and confirm the findings in Schott ( 2004 ) of a positive effect of skill abundance on unit values identified with US data. We extend the core model with per unit trade costs leading to the Washington apples effect that goods shipped over larger distance are of higher quality. The combination of high‐quality goods being relatively skill intensive with the Washington apples effect implies that countries at a larger distance from their trading partners display a higher skill premium. Simulating our model, we find that a doubling of distance of a country relative to all its trading partners raises the skill premium in a country by about 1.6%.     

Positive Effekte des Mindestlohns auf Arbeitsplatzqualität und Arbeitszufriedenheit

Little is known regarding the effects of minimum wage adjustments on job quality and job satisfaction. Our investigation found that for minimum wage workers in continuing employment relationships, work satisfaction unequivocally increased relative to a control group following the introduction of the minimum wage in Germany. Possible reasons include improvements in objective jobs quality such as higher hourly and gross wages, and shorter work hours. However, changes in the organisation of work also appear to have played a role. We find indications for more motivation oriented personnel management and improved work atmosphere in existing minimum wage jobs. Combined with a better work life balance these aspects play a larger role in explaining increased job satisfaction than mere wage satisfaction.     

Influence behaviors and employees’ reactions: An empirical test among six societies based on a transactional–relational contract model

Organizational and task commitment are central drivers of firm performance as they affect employees’ willingness to exert effort for the organization. This paper argues that supervisors who consistently use socio-emotional and supportive influence strategies are likely to enhance subordinates’ immediate commitment to the tasks as well as their psychological attachment to the organization. Drawing on the transactional–relational contracts framework, we develop and empirically examine the effects of supervisors’ influence behaviors on two types of commitment. Data collected from 1150 respondents from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, United States and Brazil provided support for the positive relationship between the persuasive influence strategy and both immediate task and organizational commitment. Exploratory analyses of the cultural differences in our sample reveal differences in assertive and relationship-based individual tactics. We thus identified potentially universally endorsed as well as culturally contingent influence tactics in predicting the two types of commitment.     

Do natural resources define convergence clubs? Empirical evidence from the Kazakh regions

This paper deals with the hypothesis that natural resources are important in forming convergence clubs. We check this hypothesis by applying a dependence and an endowment measure of natural resource abundance and a regression tree analysis. The results indicate that for the Kazakh regions natural resources do indeed play an important role in forming convergence clubs. It is further shown that natural resource endowment rather than resource dependence determines initial conditions and thereby convergence clubs.