New insights into socially responsible consumers: The role of personal values

Given increasing interest in both socially responsible consumption behavior (SRCB) and socially responsible corporate practices in marketing, this study addressed the effects of several personal traits on SRCB (i.e., personal values, collectivism, age, and gender). Findings from an online survey revealed that consumers who valued self‐transcendence (e.g., benevolence and universalism) were more likely to engage in socially responsible consumption (e.g., recycling, avoiding, or reducing usage of products that do long‐term damage to the environment) than those who valued social status and prestige, social power, authority, and wealth. Furthermore, the findings show that older adults and women tended to engage in more SRCB than younger adults and men. Findings also indicate that age and gender were antecedents to the values of self‐transcendence and self‐enhancement.     

Misallocation and financial market frictions: Some direct evidence from the dispersion in borrowing costs

Financial frictions distort the allocation of resources among productive units—all else equal, firms whose financing choices are affected by such frictions face higher borrowing costs than firms with ready access to capital markets. As a result, input choices may differ systematically across firms in ways that are unrelated to their productive efficiency. We propose an accounting framework that allows us to assess empirically the magnitude of the loss in aggregate resources due to such misallocation. To a second-order approximation, the framework requires only information on the dispersion in borrowing costs across firms, which we measure—for a subset of U.S. manufacturing firms—directly from the interest rate spreads on their outstanding publicly-traded debt. Given the observed dispersion in borrowing costs, our approximation method implies a relatively modest loss in efficiency due to resource misallocation—on the order of 1 to 2 percent of measured total factor productivity (TFP). In our framework, the correlation between firm size and borrowing costs has no bearing on TFP losses under the assumption that financial distortions and firm-level efficiency are jointly log-normally distributed. To take into account the effect of covariation between firm size and borrowing costs, we consider a more general framework, which dispenses with the assumption of log-normality and which implies somewhat higher estimates of the resource losses—about 3.5 percent of measured TFP. Counterfactual experiments indicate that dispersion in borrowing costs must be an order of magnitude higher than that observed in the U.S. financial data, in order for misallocation—arising from financial distortions—to account for a significant fraction of measured TFP differentials across countries.     

On the predictability of the distribution of excess returns in currency markets

This paper investigates the predictability of foreign exchange (FX) volatility and liquidity risk factors on returns to the carry trade, an investment strategy that borrows in currencies with low interest rates and invests in currencies with high interest rates. Previous studies have suggested that this predictability could have been spuriously accounted for due to the persistence of the predictors. The analysis uses a predictive quantile regression model developed by Lee (2016) that allows for persistent predictors. We find that predictability changes remarkably across the entire distribution of currency excess returns. Predictability weakens substantially in the left tail once persistence is accounted for, implying a moderate negative predictive relation between FX volatility risk and carry trade returns. By contrast, it becomes stronger in the right tail. Furthermore, we provide evidence that FX volatility risk still dominates liquidity risk after controlling for persistence. These findings suggest that the persistence of the predictors needs to be taken into account when one measures predictability in currency markets. Finally, out-of-sample forecast performance is also presented.     

Recent developments of the autoregressive distributed lag modelling framework

We review the literature on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, from its origins in the analysis of autocorrelated trend stationary processes to its subsequent applications in the analysis of cointegrated non-stationary time series. We then survey several recent extensions of the ARDL model, including asymmetric and non-linear generalisations of the ARDL model, the quantile ARDL model, the pooled mean group dynamic panel data model and the spatio-temporal ARDL model.     

Antecedents of Green Loyalty in the Cruise Industry: Sustainable Development and Environmental Management

As there is a lack of understanding about cruise travelers' eco‐friendly behaviors and knowledge about eco‐friendly cruises, this study attempted to examine the role of green value, satisfaction, desire, and internal and external normative factors in building passengers' green loyalty for environmentally responsible cruises. A survey methodology and structural equation modeling were utilized to achieve the research purpose. Data quality assessment revealed that all measures for variables included an adequate level of reliability and validity. Results of the structural analysis indicated that our theoretical framework had a sufficient level of anticipation power for loyalty. The proposed associations among study variables were generally supported. The significant indirect influence of green values and social norms on loyalty was identified. Moreover, the magnitude of the total influence of social norms on loyalty was the greatest among the study constructs. Overall, our findings offer valuable and meaningful insights for cruise researchers and practitioners. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

The impact of mentoring quality on protégés' organization‐based self‐esteem and proactive behavior: The moderating role of traditionality

Based on self‐consistency theory, this study examined the relationship between mentoring quality as perceived by protégés and protégés' proactive behavior. It focused on the mediating role of organization‐based self‐esteem (OBSE) and the moderating role of traditionality. To examine these relationships, we administrated three‐wave surveys to 237 subordinate–supervisor dyads in a construction enterprise. The results of hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated that (a) mentoring quality and proactive behavior had a positive relationship; (b) OBSE mediated this relationship; and (c) traditionality strengthened both the relationship between mentoring quality and OBSE and the indirect effect of mentoring quality on proactive behavior via OBSE. Our findings have theoretical and practical implications for research on mentoring and proactive behavior.     

Nation Branding for Survival in North Korea: The Arirang Festival and Nuclear Weapons Tests

The article problematises a popular view in nation branding literature that equates nation branding with states’ attendant advertising campaigns. Instead, this article adopts a broader perspective that nation branding can also operate as a policy aimed at enhancing the sense of ontological security among states and as a practice to strengthen the position of the ruling regime by targeting particular audiences within a broader ‘strategic narrative’. From this perspective, this article aims to shed new light on non-liberal capitalist countries’ – specifically North Korea’s – attempts at nation branding policies in terms of various nation branding strategies. In so doing, Clifford Geertz’s anthropological concept of ‘theatre state’ is introduced as an important metaphor to broaden the existing understanding of nation branding by highlighting the unique characteristics of North Korea’s policies of nation branding and nation building. It is argued that great national spectacles such as the Arirang Festival and military demonstrations provide North Korea with a useful platform for participating in the identity competition among other nation states, as well as in the fierce recognition game against the rest of the Korean national community. Obviously, these strategic performances have contributed to communicating with the outside world, deliberately seeking more respect from others, but have simultaneously operated as nation building processes. Therefore, this work concludes that such staged events are sophisticatedly designed to enhance North Korea’s complex interest of nation branding, and, more importantly, argues that techniques and practices of nation branding are neither historically new nor confined to Western liberal capitalist regimes.     

Performance deviations and acquisition premiums: The impact of CEO celebrity on managerial risk‐taking

Research summary: This article draws on identity control theory and a study of acquisition premiums to explore how CEO celebrity status and financial performance relative to aspirations affect firm risk behavior. The study finds that celebrity CEOs tend to pay smaller premiums for target firms, but these tendencies change when prior firm performance deviates from the industry average returns, thereby leading these CEOs to pay higher premiums. The study also finds that the premiums tend to be even larger when celebrity CEOs have more recently attained celebrity status. Taken together, these findings contribute to identity control theory and CEO celebrity literatures by suggesting that celebrity status is a double‐edged sword and that the internalization of celebrity status by CEOs strongly influences the decision‐making of CEOs. Managerial summary: The purpose of this article is to examine how CEO celebrity status and financial performance relative to aspirations affect the size of acquisition premiums. The study finds that celebrity CEOs tend to pay smaller premiums for target firms. However, when celebrity CEOs' prior firm performance is either better or worse than the industry average, these CEOs pay higher premiums. This situation is exacerbated when the CEO has only recently been crowned a celebrity. In effect, these CEOs feel great pressure to match the inflated performance expectations that come with celebrity status. These findings suggest that being a celebrity is a double‐edged sword. The implication here is that CEOs who have recently been crowned a celebrity should be aware of these pressures and cope accordingly. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do Conspicuous Consumers Pay Higher Housing Premiums? Spatial and Temporal Variation in the United States

This study is the first to examine the relationship between conspicuous demand and housing price dynamics. We hypothesize that conspicuous consumers would want high‐end homes to signal their wealth and this housing consumption behavior would induce greater deviations from fundamental house prices. We test this by using a unique dataset that matches the consumers’ appetite for nonhousing luxury goods from Google Insights for Search to housing premiums that they pay for high‐end houses in U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) during 2004–2011. The estimation results demonstrate that controlling for a wide range of MSA demographic and economic characteristics, conspicuous demand has a significant, positive relationship with housing premiums. This relationship varies spatially and temporally. Conspicuous demand has a stronger relationship with a price increase in high‐end homes in MSAs with a steady, higher housing premium than in MSAs with a volatile, lower premium during the boom period. In MSAs with a steady, higher housing premium, the relationship remains significant even during the bust period, potentially contributing to maintaining higher housing premiums.