Expatriate management: Comparison of MNCs across four parent countries

This article reports the results of a study of expatriate management and headquarters‐subsidiary relations in 29 American, British, German, and Japanese multinationals and a sample of 46 of their foreign subsidiaries based on face‐to‐face and telephone interviews with key international HR, subsidiary HR, and subsidiary managing directors. We found that earlier studies, heavily weighted with U.S. multinationals, cannot necessarily be applied to expatriate management experiences of other national industrial countries. Also, expatriate management is more similar for American and British MNCs, while both German and Japanese multinationals in our sample had fairly distinct systems of using expatriates in their foreign subsidiaries. Thus, we can discuss at least three fairly distinct models of expatriate management and corporate‐foreign‐subsidiary control. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Luxury-cruise travellers’ brand community perception and its consequences

This study examines the roles of brand community and brand differentiation in the context of the luxury-cruise market. Employing a brand community integration scale, an online survey was conducted with 300 luxury-cruise customers in the USA. The results of structural equation modelling provided six findings as follows: (1) three of the four dimensions of brand community, namely the relationship with the cruise brand, the cruise product, and other cruisers, had positive effects on brand distinctiveness; (2) brand distinctiveness had positive effects on emotional brand attraction; (3) emotional brand attraction had positive effects on active engagement and repurchase intentions; (4) the corporate social responsibility image moderated the link between the relationship with other cruisers and brand distinctiveness; (5) customers’ desire for unique products moderated the relationship between brand distinctiveness and emotional brand attraction; and (6) service-use self-efficacy moderated the relationship between emotional brand attraction and active engagement. The results provide a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of the luxury-cruise market.     

After the global financial crash: Individual factors differentiating young adult consumers’ trust in banks and financial institutions

Our exploratory study aims to examine individual factors that may differentiate young adults’ trust in banks and financial institutions. We use a longitudinal data set compiled during two, timed surveys, before and after the collapse of the nation’s financial system. Participants (N=748) were classified into three groups distinguished according to their differing levels of trust. Findings based on ANOVA and three-group discriminant analyses indicate that several individual factors – self-reported well-being (overall well-being, financial well-being, subjective financial knowledge) and financial status (determined by parents’ socioeconomic status and total debt level) – significantly influence young adult consumers’ level of trust in banks and financial institutions.     

When does transitioning from family to professional management improve firm performance?

Using long‐term data on Japanese family firms, this study explores when the transition from family to professional management leads to better performance. In order to avoid endogeneity bias, we employ propensity score matching and difference‐in‐differences techniques. We find evidence that firms that transition from family to professional CEOs outperform those that maintain family leadership. This performance improvement is more pronounced when (1) families maintain high ownership control but leave no family legacy behind, (2) when the transition moves from non‐founder family managers to professionals, and (3) when professional managers graduated from elite universities. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Capital-based regulation,portfolio risk and capital determination: Empirical evidence from the US property–liability insurers

This paper examines the impact of capital-based regulation on the insurer’s risk and capital adjustments in the US property–liability insurance industry. We conduct the three-stage least squares (3SLS) procedure to estimate a simultaneous equations model. The key finding is that undercapitalized insurers increase capital to avoid regulatory costs and take more risks to generate higher returns. We also investigate firm characteristics that determine the insurer’s capital structure. The results indicate that insurers appear to rely heavily on retained earnings to make up their capital shortage and insurers with greater growth opportunity may hold high levels of capital to control for agency problems. Robustness tests with an alternative risk measure and subsamples present consistent results.