Shared and shared alike? Founders' prior shared experience and performance of newly founded banks

Research summary: Pre‐entry industry experience is a central construct in the founding team literature. Research on prior shared experience (PSE) emphasizes that founding teams face challenges integrating and acting on independent experiences, so PSE should be beneficial for new venture performance. Existing studies, however, typically study PSE in blunt terms, expecting that more is better. Instrumental variable analyses of a unique sample of 344 commercial banks founded in four U.S. states between 1996 and 2006 showed that industry‐specific PSE may be more or less beneficial, depending on several founding team characteristics. Our findings provide nuance and caution to the narrative that PSE is always beneficial. Under some circumstances, firms with founding team PSE may be no better off than those without founding team PSE, suggesting more research is necessary to understand when and why founding team experience matters to new firms. Managerial summary: Pre‐entry experience of founding teams affects new firm performance, but is hard for founders to leverage separately gained experience. Knowledge moves more readily if sets of managers leave together to start a new firm. But, it may be simplistic to conclude that prior shared experience (PSE) is always good, or better than the sum of independent experiences. In a set of banks founded in four U.S. states between 1996 and 2006, we find that PSE is not necessarily a direct pathway to better bank performance. Characteristics of the PSE, such as the part of industry the former and new banks operate in, can lower its benefit. We also found that the benefits of PSE erode as the entire founding team develops shared history after startup. Our findings have implications for entrepreneurs, investors, and policy‐makers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extending financial literacy to insurance literacy: a survey approach

We extend behavioural research in investment and retirement savings to insurance, by investigating factors that may influence individuals’ insurance decision making. These factors include financial literacy, specialist insurance education and some behavioural biases. Based on a definition of insurance literacy that requires both having, and applying insurance knowledge, we find from a survey of postgraduate students that financial literacy does not necessarily translate to insurance literacy, whereas more specialised education can improve insurance literacy. Results also indicate specialist education potentially reduces susceptibility to anchoring effects.     

Introducing Enterprise Risk Management Into the University Classroom: A Case Study

This article reports on the challenges faced when enterprise risk management courses (commonly studied by practitioners after several years of actuarial practice) were introduced into a postgraduate coursework degree, and taught concurrently with Actuarial Control Cycle (Part II) units. A small sample of students were interviewed, and the information gleaned from these interviews combined with the reflections provided by teaching staff is used to argue that although not problem‐free, the overall gain to students makes the project worthwhile. Assessment structure and use of class time in particular are examined as key features of the class, and potential improvements are suggested.     

Marketing Organic and Conventional Potatoes in Germany

We apply a bivariate probit model and cluster analysis to German household survey data to evaluate factors influencing consumption of conventional and organic potatoes. Results show there is a positive but insignificant correlation between the consumption of conventional and organic potatoes and consumers associate organic potatoes with healthy ingredients, trusted origin, and food safety. Furthermore, consumers' sociodemographics such as education and children in households affect their choice of potatoes. Cluster analysis results group potato consumers into the market segments “Industry trusting,” “Healthy diet oriented,” and “Price oriented.” These results suggest an adoption of different marketing strategies to promote fresh potatoes to the different market segments.     

Social comparisons of wage increases and job satisfaction

We combine status quo and social comparison considerations and investigate whether relative wage increases in the sense of differences between individual wage increases and wage increases of comparable employees are related to managers’ job satisfaction. Using a panel data set of managers in the German chemical industry, we indeed find first evidence. The relation between relative wage increases and job satisfaction is relevant for managers with lower absolute wage levels in particular.     

Trust in,trust out: a real cost of sudden and significant financial loss

This study examines the loss of trust that occurs when individuals suffer from sudden and significant financial loss. We use a qualitative case study to show that individuals lose trust in a range of parties, including financial advisors, banks, credit providers, government and perhaps most damagingly of all, oneself. Such outcomes are concerning as all financial services are based on trust between various parties, and trust is important in making financial decisions. A lack of trust can lead to poorer individual and societal outcomes. It also suggests that trends to financial self‐sufficiency have risks, which impact well beyond monetary losses.     

An appraisal framework of the determinants and consequences of brand happiness

Recent academic discussions about the concept of brand happiness have introduced brand happiness as a promising new branding asset and a key research area. There is scientific evidence that its strong desirability, its characteristic of greatest emotional fulfillment, and its superior power to influence brand behavior qualify brand happiness as an important brand goal and differentiate it from other emotional‐relational concepts (e.g., emotional brand attachment, customer delight). However, there is no evidence on the effectiveness of brand happiness. To provide essential new insights in this research field, the authors theoretically develop an appraisal framework of the determinants and consequences of brand happiness and empirically verify it in four industry sectors. On the cross‐industry level, brand relationship quality, brand self‐relevance, brand goal‐congruence, and actual and ideal brand self‐congruence are confirmed to be important brand appraisal determinants of brand happiness, and pleasantness, fairness, and certainty are confirmed to be important situational appraisal determinants of brand happiness. The behavioral power of brand happiness was supported by showing that brand happiness strongly predicts five coping strategies; namely, the problem‐focused coping strategies of (re‐)purchase intention and price premium, and the emotion‐focused coping strategies of word‐of‐mouth, brand evangelism, and brand forgiveness. On an industry‐specific level, differences are observed regarding the influence of some of the brand appraisal determinants on brand happiness and regarding the influence of some of the situational appraisal determinants on brand happiness across the four analyzed industry sectors.     

Integrierte Kommunikation — Ein Bewertungsmodell für Communication Excellence

Zusammenfassungen  Einsparungsma?nahmen stellen neue Herausforderungen an die Effizienz der Kommunikation. Die Notwendigkeit einer Integrierten Kommunikation wird zunehmend erkannt. In der Praxis zeigt sich allerdings ein Defizit im Bereich der notwendigen Erfolgskontrolle. Prof. Dr. Manfred Bruhn Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Marketing und Unternehmensführung am Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Zentrum (WWZ) der Universit?t Basel und Honorarprofessor an der Technischen Universit?t München Dr. Marcus Stumpf Gesch?ftsführer der Service GmbH des Deutschen Turner-Bundes und Lehrbeauftragter für Integrierte Kommunikation an der Fachhochschule Salzburg