Drivers,adoption, and evaluation of sustainability practices in Italian wine SMEs

Based on a survey with 64 small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in two Italian wine regions, this study aims to (a) identify key drivers and barriers of the adoption of sustainability and (b) compare the adoption and evaluation (use, financial/labor investments, and satisfaction) of sustainability practices in four management domains (marketing, chain, operational, and innovation). Results show that internal drivers were considered to be more important than external drivers. Economic sustainability‐oriented drivers scored significantly lower than drivers related to other dimensions, such as environmental sustainability and heritage. Key barriers refer to labor and investments costs, as well as concerns about greenwashing. Although there are substantial differences in adoption and evaluation of sustainability practices within and between management domains, this study confirms their widespread adoption in wineries. Among users, satisfaction levels outweigh the perceived investments. Except for innovation management practices, financial investments are considered to be lower than labor investments. Positive correlations between use‐satisfaction (within each management domain) and between investments or satisfaction levels (between management domains) further lend support for producers' adoption of multiple practices. At sustainability dimension level, heritage is negatively correlated with the evaluation indicators, indicating that it may act as a potential barrier to some sustainability practices. Segmentation analysis identified a low (30%) and high sustainability clusters (70%), which differ significantly in terms of sustainability perceptions and drivers, adoption, and evaluation of practices, as well as company characteristics. Future research needs to validate the findings on SMEs, compare our measures with more objective evaluation indicators, future adoption rates, and multidimensional sustainability practices.     

Validation and measurement invariance of the multidimensional qualitative job insecurity scale

This contribution introduces the Multidimensional Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (MQJIS). Drawing from the qualitative job insecurity literature and addressing some of other scales’ limitations, a multidimensional model is proposed and investigated by means of confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis. Study 1 aims to explore the psychometric properties and factorial structure of MQJIS in an Italian sample of blue-collar workers (N?=?583), showing that a model with one higher-order factor (i.e., qualitative job insecurity) and four dimensions (i.e., social relationships, employment conditions, working conditions, and work content) shows a good fit to the data and good reliability indices. Study 2 aims to investigate MQJIS measurement invariance across several groups, based on country of origin, age, and gender. Results on a sample of Belgian and Italian workers (N?=?710) show that MQJIS met the criteria for uniqueness invariance across genders and scalar invariance across countries and age groups. Significance, implications, and future directions stemming from the initial validation and the confirmed measurement invariance of this scale are discussed.

     

From joint to single audits – audit quality differences and auditor pairings

This study analyses audit quality differences between audits by a single big audit firm and joint audits with either one or two big audit firms. We exploit the unique situation in Denmark beginning on 1 January 2005, at which time a long-standing mandatory joint audit system for listed companies was replaced by a voluntary joint audit system. First, we report the results of a survey of Danish CFOs’ views on and their experiences with the choice of single or joint audits and their perceptions of audit quality. Second, based on data from the mandatory joint audit abolition year and the following two years, we test the audit quality differences using abnormal accruals. Most CFOs perceive that audit quality by a single big four audit firm is the same as it is in joint audits with either one or two big four audit firms. The results of our empirical analysis are in line with the perceptions. We find no evidence of audit quality differences between audits made by a single big four firm and those conducted by either of the two combinations of joint audits.     

Offshoring and firm overlap: Welfare effects with non‐sharp selection into offshoring

Using German establishment data, we provide evidence for selection of larger, more productive producers into offshoring. However, the selection is not sharp, and offshoring and nonoffshoring producers coexist over a wide range of the revenue distribution. To explain this overlap, we set up a model of offshoring, in which we decouple offshoring status from revenues through heterogeneity in two technology parameters. In an empirical analysis, we employ German establishment data to estimate key parameters of the model and show that disregarding the overlap has large quantitative effects. It lowers the estimated gains from offshoring by almost 50% and, at the same time, exaggerates the role of the extensive margin for explaining the evolution of German offshoring since the 1990s.     

Wealth inequality and credit markets: evidence from three industrialized countries

Economic theory predicts that changes in the distribution of wealth in an economy affect real interest rates if capital markets are imperfect. We investigate this link for the US, the UK, and Sweden, using multivariate time series analysis that explicitly allows for feedback effects between wealth inequality and real interest rates. Our estimates yield that, over the course of the twentieth century, decreases in wealth inequality led to significant declines in real interest rates. Our results therefore point to the importance of capital market imperfections that arise from moral hazard. They put to question the empirical relevance of a negative interest rate effect of inequality that may arise in variants of these models with high inequality, heterogeneous agents or adverse selection.     

Is cannabis a gateway to hard drugs?

The gateway hypothesis proposes that use of cannabis directly increases the risk of consuming hard drugs. We test this controversial, but influential, hypothesis on a sample of cannabis users, exploiting a unique set of drug price data. A flexible approach is developed to identify the causal gateway effect using a bivariate survival model with shared frailty estimated using a latent class approach. The model suggests two distinct groups; a smaller group of “troubled youths” for whom there is a statistically significant gateway effect that more than doubles the hazard of starting to use hard drugs and a larger fraction of youths for whom previous cannabis use has less impact.     

Are There “Honorable Merchants” in International Marketing Channels?

The starting points of this initial exploratory study are two research questions: (1) could marketing relationships in international marketing channels be predicted by international marketing managers’ behavior reflected by “honorable merchants’” key concepts (ethics and trust) and experiential learning key concepts such as capability and competence?; and (2) can we measure the progress of this research theme in the international marketing literature and understand the nature of this phenomenon? We examine how scholarly research on international marketing managers’ behavior and their marketing relationships evolved from 2003 to 2013 and envisage the shape of this research theme the next years, to uncover current trends and possible research gaps on the ethics agenda in the international marketing education area. We identified the most salient concepts from 2,083 words for 22 key concepts counted in the abstracts of the 327 journal articles of the international marketing literature, in order to innovatively uncover the trends and concepts, explaining the marketing relationships in the international marketing context. We assessed sets of concepts that best reflect the marketing relationships in international marketing channels and indicated prospects for increasing the focus on specific topics, by conducting a series of multiple linear regression analyses and trend analyses. The research results show that the progress of the research theme can be measured. Innovatively, key competences and capabilities of international marketing managers relating to the key concepts of the “honorable merchant” construct are realized as a strong logical basis for the explanation of effective marketing relationships in international marketing channels. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Influence of Trust on the Trilogy of Knowledge Creation,Sharing, and Transfer

This empirical article focuses on the phenomenon of trust and its influence on the trilogy of the following interrelated factors that are crucial to the success of international business cooperations and their economic results: knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, and knowledge transfer. Trust is expected and desired by many business partners, but it is also abused by others. The term trust, due to its intangible and invisible nature, is often ignored or superficially treated by companies. However, when trust does not exist between international cooperation partners or is not nurtured, negative relationships and financial implications occur. These lacunae could be explained due to the difficulty in quantifying as a financial asset. The article presents qualitative findings (from two empirical research studies): (1) the implications of trust development for knowledge transfer between Russian‐ and German‐speaking companies, and (2) the influence of trust on knowledge sharing in the completion of an Austrian construction project. The authors applied phenomenological interviewing and observations of critical incidents or significant occurrences, combined with comparative content analysis. The positive influence of trust on the aforementioned trilogy results in higher levels of the involved companies’ innovativeness, culminating in higher levels of competitive advantage and profitability. The empirical findings are presented to explain the influence of trust on knowledge creation, sharing, and transfer, which have a bearing on intercultural cooperations. One innovative finding relates to the differentiated perception of emotions and the implications that this entails. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Foreign bank entry,credit allocation and lending rates in emerging markets: Empirical evidence from Poland

Earlier studies have documented that foreign banks charge lower lending rates and interest spreads than domestic banks. We hypothesize that this may stem from the superior efficiency of foreign entrants that they decide to pass onto borrowers (“performance hypothesis”), but could also reflect a different loan allocation with respect to borrower transparency, loan maturity and currency (“portfolio composition hypothesis”). We are able to differentiate between the above hypotheses thanks to a novel dataset containing detailed bank-specific information for the Polish banking industry. Our findings demonstrate that banks differ significantly in terms of portfolio composition and we attest to the “portfolio composition hypothesis” by showing that, having controlled for portfolio composition, there are no differences in lending rates between banks.     

Cultural distance or cultural positions? Analysing the effect of culture on the HQ–subsidiary relationship

We develop a model of cultural positions in relationships that should be considered in addition to the more conventional cultural distance. We empirically analyse relationships between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries in multinational corporations and how high or low acceptance of power differences at both sides of the relationship is associated with headquarters influence on subsidiary competence development. ANCOVA analyses of 1529 subsidiaries in six European countries, headquartered in 28 countries, provide new insights. We find that relationships with low cultural distance, differ significantly in terms of headquarters influence depending on whether headquarters and subsidiaries agree on accepting or rejecting power differences. Similarly, relationships with high cultural distance differ depending on whether it is headquarters or the subsidiary that is from a high-power-distance culture: we find that headquarters influence is particularly dependent on great acceptance of power differences by the subsidiary.