The moderating effects of need for cognition and cognitive effort on responses to multi-dimensional prices

We investigate how need for cognition and cognitive effort associated with multi-dimensional pricing combine to influence demand. Experiment 1 shows that individuals with low (vs. high) need for cognition are less likely to purchase products that list price and relative discount separately. The direction of the effect of need for cognition on demand is found to depend on whether consumers’ inaccurate arithmetic generally leads them to overestimate or underestimate final prices. Therefore, experiment 2 finds that individuals with low (vs. high) NFC are more likely to purchase products that list price and relative surcharge separately. As expected, the effect is eliminated for absolute discounts or surcharges and mediated by recalled purchase prices.     

How Debt Creates Pressure to Perform when Information Asymmetries are Large: Empirical Evidence from Business Start‐ups

In this paper, we empirically examine how leverage affects firm performance when information asymmetries are large. We argue that entrepreneurs are strongly incentivized to maximize earnings when leverage is high in order to reduce the likelihood of adverse credit decisions and firm liquidation. Our empirical tests focus on the effects of leverage on firm profitability and growth in earnings during a 5‐year window after start‐up for a large and unique sample of newly established ventures in Belgium. Accounting for the endogeneity of leverage, the data reveal that more highly indebted business start‐ups are not only more profitable but also realize larger earnings growth. Moreover, the positive effect of leverage on firm profitability intensifies as the venture matures.     

The Transition from Strategic Technology Alliances to Mergers and Acquisitions: An Exploratory Study

This paper studies a number of research topics derived from the basic question: do interfirm alliances change into mergers and acquisitions as companies that were previously co-operating become integrated? The analysis is limited to the group of strategic technology alliances, i.e. those interfirm agreements for which joint technology development or technology sharing is part of the agreement. The paper first explores the literature that refers to the possible transition from strategic technology alliances to mergers and acquisitions. Based on this we formulate a number of hypotheses regarding the change in modes of governance and several dimensions of this process related to the international distribution of transformed alliances, their industry specificity, the size of firms, and the distribution of contractual and equity agreements. The major finding of our research is that the transformation from strategic technology alliance to merger and acquisition hardly ever takes place. This suggests that alliances and mergers and acquisitions are not part of a rather smooth continuum but they are first of all different modes of governance where one mode certainly does not lead to the other     

Globalization and the connection of remote communities: A review of household effects and their biodiversity implications

The remote regions of the world provide refuge to a disproportionate amount of the Earth's biodiversity. As globalization continues, isolated human communities in these regions are increasingly connected to global market, migration, and technology networks. We review the diffuse literature on the household effects of changing market access, migration, and technology adoption in remote regions and implications for native biodiversity. Market access affects biodiversity in remote communities through changes in household economics and social networks. Migration, either to or from remote settlements, affects biodiversity through changes in population, remittances, human capital, and social networks. Finally, we consider effects due to production, public infrastructure, and information and communication technologies. There is much ambiguity surrounding these causal pathways, and thus we also examine the roles of various ecological, household, community, and institutional mediating factors in determining the impacts of global connection. Finally, we explore the limitations of our current knowledge and research practices and propose directions for future work to address key uncertainties in theory and evidence as well as weaknesses in methodological approaches. We recommend a broad and interdisciplinary mode of inquiry as the best means toward clarifying globalization's impacts on human settlements and the biodiversity harbored in the Earth's remaining remote regions.     

Challenges and opportunities in the provision of long-term care

The demands for long-term care are substantial and, given our nation's demographics, are likely to become a critical issue for the economy. Through employee assistance programs and the provision of long-term care benefits, employers are likely to see a substantial increase in individuals' concern for the provision of care.     

The Residual: On Monitoring and Benchmarking Firms,Industries, and Economies with Respect to Productivity

Productivity is an important component of profitability, and therefore an important variable for monitoring and benchmarking exercises. This survey discusses the basic accounting model as well as the various measurement problems one gets involved in. By virtue of its structural features, this model is applicable to individual firms and aggregates such as industries or economies.Though the measurement of productivity change and productivity differences is important, still more important is their explanation. Thus, first, this article reviews recent results relating to the decomposition of aggregate productivity change into components due to firm dynamics and intra-firm productivity change, results which were obtained by studying longitudinal enterprise microdata sets. Second, this article reviews a number of methods for decomposing productivity change and productivity differences, whether at the individual firm level or at aggregate level, into partial measures relating to technological change and efficiency change. The combination of both research strategies seems to be a promising undertaking.     

Structuring On-the-job Training: Report of a Multiple Case Study

Structured on-the-job training (OJT) has gained the attention of the business world as well as of researchers. The project discussed in this article contains a series of case studies of on-the-job training programmes in seven Dutch firms. Several dimensions are found to be useful in discriminating between types of OJT activities and between ways of structuring OJT. Trainee activities are either of a preparatory nature or a real work character. Assignments may be focussed on skill application, individualised study, or experiential learning. Jobs may be broken down to a greater or lesser extent and supervisors may have either a directive or a coaching role.     

The impact of bank ownership concentration on impaired loans and capital adequacy

This paper examines the impact of bank ownership concentration on two indicators of bank riskiness, namely banks’ non-performing loans and capital adequacy. Using balance sheet information for around 500 commercial banks from more than 50 countries averaged over 2005–2007, we find that concentrated ownership (proxied by different levels of shareholding) significantly reduces a bank’s non-performing loans ratio, conditional on supervisory control and shareholders protection rights. Furthermore, ownership concentration affects the capital adequacy ratio positively conditional on shareholder protection. At low levels of shareholder protection rights and supervisory control, ownership concentration reduces bank riskiness.