How Do Media Companies Gain Legitimacy? An Experimental Study on the (Ir)Relevance of CSR Communication

Due to structural changes in the media industry, the topic of CSR has gained more and more attention among media companies. Our research question was whether media companies can gain legitimacy through CSR disclosures. There is reason to assume that CSR disclosures both directly increase and indirectly decrease a media company’s legitimacy. On one hand, CSR is regarded as a means of strengthening legitimacy; on the other hand, stakeholders might become skeptical and distrust disclosures about generous deeds. The experimental study detailed here considers both possibilities by using five CSR disclosures of a fictional media company as the stimuli, ranging from low- to high-communicated CSR engagement (single-factor between-groups design, 274 participants). According to the results of the Structural Equation Model (SEM), both assumptions are incorrect: CSR is not the crucial factor in determining whether or not stakeholders perceive a media company as legitimate, but rather its corporate credibility.     

The influence of disclosure policy on analyst behavior: The case of segment data

More transparent disclosure reduces the effort required to process reported information. The adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 131, Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information, increased the transparency of segment information reported by diversified firms. Using a long sample window (1988–2007) and a difference-in-difference design, this paper examines the association between corporate diversification and analysts' efforts—as reflected in analysts' idiosyncratic information precision and analyst consensus—across the old SFAS No. 14 and the new SFAS No. 131 segment reporting regime. Results indicate that SFAS No. 131 has improved segment reporting such that analysts need to invest relatively less effort generating idiosyncratic information when issuing forecasts for diversified firms. Given that analysts' information gathering efforts are costly, these findings are of interest to policy makers when assessing whether the intended reporting objectives of SFAS No. 131 are being met in a cost effective manner.     

Risks at Work: The Demand and Supply Sides of Government Redistribution

To comprehend how the welfare state adjusts to economic shocksit is important to get a handle on both the genesis of popularpreferences and the institutional incentives for governmentsto respond to these preferences. This paper attempts to do both,using a general theoretical framework and detailed data at boththe individual and national levels. In a first step, we focuson how risk exposure and income are related to preferences forredistribution. To test our hypotheses, we extract detailedrisk-exposure measures from labour-force surveys and marry themto cross-national opinion survey data. Results from analysisof these data attest to the great importance of risks withinthe labour market in shaping popular preferences for redistributiveefforts by governments. In a second step, we turn our attentionto the supply side of government redistribution. Institutions,we argue, mediate governments' reactions to redistributionaldemands following economic shocks. Using time-series cross-countrydata, we demonstrate how national training systems, and electoralinstitutions, as well as partisanship, shape government responses. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: tom{at}wz-berlin.de; iversen{at}fas.harvard.edu;pr9{at}duke.edu     

Organizational power: Should remuneration heterogeneity mirror hierarchy?

We model and experimentally investigate effort levels in team production as a public good game with heterogeneous remuneration. In a hierarchically organized firm, team leaders (allocators) determine the effort levels of all team members. When the allocator receives equal payment or twice as much as the other workers, this results in the same team production, but when the allocator receives only half of what the other workers receive, team production is diminished.     

Why are some entrepreneurs more innovative than others?

Entrepreneurs differ in the degree and type of novelty that they introduce to the economy. This study provides theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the emergence of entrepreneurial innovativeness. The results suggest that entrepreneurial innovativeness depends both on individual factors and on the environment in which the individual acts. In particular, high educational attainment, unemployment, and a high degree of self-confidence are significantly associated with entrepreneurial innovativeness at the individual level. Furthermore, the distribution of innovative and imitative entrepreneurship varies across countries. Entrepreneurs in highly developed countries are significantly more likely to engage in innovative rather than purely imitative activities. The theoretical approach of this study combines a judgment and decision making framework with factors that contribute towards the individual perception of decision alternatives. Data used in the empirical analysis originate from the 2002–2004 adult population surveys of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, yielding a sample of 9,549 nascent entrepreneurs from 30 different countries.

Vacuous Information Affects Bargaining

We introduce vacuous information into buyer-seller ultimatum exchanges and provide evidence that it can affect bargaining outcomes. Notably bargaining behavior is affected asymmetrically in a way that leads allocative efficiency to respond negatively. Our results are consistent with self-serving bias that commands players to interpret vacuous information in a self-serving way.     

Eine reformierte Finanzverfassung muss für künftige Aufgaben gewappnet sein

Negotiations between the federal level and the Länder to reform the German fiscal equalisation system have begun. Major laws concerning the support of the East German Länder and the system of fiscal equalisation in general have to be replaced by 2020. However, instead of debating the design of the future fiscal equalisation with an emphasis on attaining the constitutionally anchored goal of guaranteeing equivalent living standards throughout the country, the publicly discussed proposals focus too narrowly on incremental changes. They fail to take account of future and current social and economic challenges such as demographic change and regional disparities.