The trade-offs between economic efficiency and job creation in olive grove smallholdings

Cooperation among farmers is an effective alternative to reduce production costs in smallholdings of traditional olive groves and increase their low profitability. However, an increase in efficiency reduces working hours and the labour required for the management of farms. This fact can lead to negative effects in rural areas, especially considering the importance of the social aspect of the crop. Therefore, to contribute to the global discussion on the transition towards more sustainable farming, it is important to know, ex ante, what level of employment is generated by olive groves and what could be lost under more competitive and efficient scenarios. The purpose of the work is to quantify the expected impact on employment by the implementation of cooperative management methods in order to generate true and accurate information that can be used in the design of future policies that aim to increase the economic profitability of small olive farms. The results make clear that this way of managing farms, by increasing the efficiency of agricultural work, has a significant negative impact on employment. However, this management formula does encourage the professionalisation of the sector by generating quality employment, in addition to contributing to the preservation of small farms and the socio-cultural and territorial benefits they generate.     

Selecting people based on person‐organisation fit: Implications for intrateam trust and team performance

Teamwork is widely adopted in organisations. Although much evidence indicates that using person‐organisation (P‐O) fit as a selection criterion benefits individual employees, little is known about how this practice influences team functioning. Drawing on the input‐mediator‐outcome model and the research on value congruence, this study built and tested a model that links P‐O fit in recruitment to work teams' performance. Based on data collected from team members, team leaders, human resources managers, and chief executive officers in 96 firms, we found that P‐O fit in recruitment had a positive relationship with team performance and that intrateam trust mediated the relationship between P‐O fit in recruitment and team performance. Further, this mediated relationship existed only when the organisation had a weak, rather than strong, respect‐for‐people culture. This study contributes to the P‐O fit and team literature and has practical implications for human resources practices and team management.     

A train of thought in product experientiality: Working memory,distraction, and inconsistencies in cue order effects

The sequence of informational cues and the level of distraction have an impact on the judgment of a product’s quality and preference. Two quasi-experimental studies (N_total = 340) investigate the influence of the force behind the processing of these cues – working memory (WM). Previous research found that, in the presence of a distractor, high WM individuals are more able to recall the initial cue, and thus derive their product judgment from the initial strong cue. Study 1 contradicts these findings and raises important methodological questions regarding the conceptualization of strong and weak cues. Specifically, commonly accepted strong cues (e.g., product reputation) might not influence consumers as expected. Additionally, in a sequence of product evaluation with high vs. low degree of experientiality, study 2 reveals that consumers tend to show a primacy effect that is stronger for higher levels of WM capacity. Moreover, in a sequence of assessing low vs. high degree of experientiality products, consumers reveal stronger recency effects, thus showing that WM reinforces this recency effect. Our findings have important implications for marketers by suggesting that consumers with high WMC are more able to process complex stimuli and retrieve previously presented information on a product quality. These consumers also have a higher tendency to retrieve more information from product scenarios with a high degree of experientiality.     

绿色信贷如何影响银行财务绩效——基于地区绿色发展异质性的视角

基于2007~2017年中国34家商业银行非平衡面板数据，实证检验了商业银行开展绿色信贷对其财务绩效的影响，并利用《中国绿色发展指数报告》提供的分省绿色发展指数，考察了绿色发展对绿色信贷与银行财务绩效关系的调节效应。结果表明：商业银行发放绿色信贷投放有助于改善其财务绩效，并且这种改善效应主要来自绿色信贷对银行生息资产收益率的提升作用；绿色发展水平能够增强银行投放绿色信贷的经济效益，并且这种增强效应主要与地方经济增长绿化度和地方政府对绿色发展的支持度有关。商业银行应积极开展绿色信贷业务；政府部门应加强和完善绿色信贷激励政策，以推动绿色金融与绿色经济协同发展。     

高校辅导员和大学生互建信任关系的重要性与实现途径

辅导员是高校学生管理工作中必不可少的中坚力量。辅导员与学生的关系是高校中最为突出和直接的人际关系,二者建立互相信任的关系尤为重要。论文分析了高校辅导员与大学生相互缺乏信任的表象,阐述其危害,进一步明确了互建信任关系的重要性,并从四个方面讲述了建立信任关系的实现途径。     

In CEOs we trust: When religion matters in cross-border acquisitions. The case of a multifaith country

This paper examines the emergence of trust by multifaith target-firm personnel in foreign acquirer CEOs during early post-acquisition integration, a decisive period for acquisition success, yet considerably under-researched. Combining self-categorization and similarity-attraction theories, we argue that religious similarity with the foreign acquirer’s CEO represents shared values to the personnel, from which trust in the CEO arises. Further, we scrutinize the moderating effects of the personnel’s religiosity and prior alliance success between the acquirer and target firm. We test our model using field-experimental data from 411 multifaith Malaysian personnel. The findings show that personnel-leader trust occurs more readily with religious similarity than religious dissimilarity, and that the personnel’s religiosity strengthens this relationship. However, a successful prior alliance does not weaken the religious similarity–trust relationship. Our research encourages acquisition managers to consider religion, a factor beyond the traditional acquisition playbook, as a trust antecedent during early post-acquisition integration.     

Islamic and conventional portfolios optimization under investor sentiment states: Bayesian vs Markowitz portfolio analysis

This paper investigates the portfolio optimization under investor’s sentiment states of Hidden Markov model and over a different time horizon during the period 2004–2016. To compare the efficient portfolios of the Islamic and the conventional stock indexes, we have employed two approaches: the Bayesian and Markowitz mean-variance. Our findings reveal that the Bayesian efficient frontier of Islamic and conventional stock portfolios is affected by the investor’s sentiment state and the time horizon. Our findings also indicate that the investor’s sentiment regimes change the Islamic and the conventional optimal diversified portfolios.Moreover, the results show that the potential diversification benefits seem to be more important when using the Bayesian approach than when applying the Markowitz approach. This finding is valid for the bearish, depressed, bullish and calm states in Islamic stock markets. However, the diversification of potential portfolios is significant only for the bullish and the bubble states in the conventional financial markets.The findings of the study provided additional evidence for investors to exploit googling investor sentiment states to evaluate the portfolio performance and make an optimal portfolio allocation.     

Selective disclosure and the role of Form 8-K in the post-Reg FD era

We investigate the impact of Form 8-K filings on cross-firm differences in analysts’ private or idiosyncratic information in the post-Reg FD era. Using firms’ connections to the investment community to identify the likelihood of selective disclosure, we document differences in analysts’ idiosyncratic information arising from selective disclosure before 8-K filings. While filings of 8-Ks pursuant to Reg FD attenuate the link between connections and analysts’ idiosyncratic information, they do so only after selective disclosures have already resulted in some analysts having better private information. In addition, the connections continue to facilitate private information search after the filings of non-Reg FD-specific 8-Ks.     

农村集体经济组织与农民专业合作社协同扶贫模式创新:重庆例证

农村集体经济组织和农民专业合作社是与农民联系较为紧密的两类经济组织,是贫困地区打赢脱贫攻坚战的重要内生性力量。但在实践中,受农村集体经济组织市场主体地位不明确、承担市场经营风险能力弱及农民专业合作社总体规模偏小、脱贫带动力不强等因素影响,两类主体的扶贫作用都未能得到充分发挥。重庆市城口县是国家扶贫开发工作重点县,在近年来的脱贫攻坚中,一方面普遍性地成立了新型农村集体经济组织,作为承接相关政府部门扶贫资源、开展村集体资产运营管理的平台;另一方面通过平等协商将村集体经济组织承接的扶贫资源以入股方式投入当地运行规范、实力较强的农民专业合作社,以获取相对稳定的分红收益,并优先用于增加贫困户收入。该模式既为村“两委”参与市场活动和承接政府扶贫资源提供了有效载体,又较好地保证了农民专业合作社等市场主体的经营自主权,有利于构建激励兼容、多方共赢的长效扶贫机制,是有镜鉴价值的扶贫模式创新。     

非公允关联交易中董事责任问题研究——兼评世行营商环境评估之董事责任程度指标

在关联交易中,对关联董事的追责应采用忠实义务标准。然而,当前立法存在"程序公平倾向"以及"忠实义务追责标准狭窄"的问题,导致无法对已履行法定程序的关联董事进行追责。对此应将忠实义务下追责标准改为全面公平标准,对关联董事课以承担非公允关联交易中公司所受损失的义务;对非关联董事的追责应采用勤勉义务标准。因为当前立法过于原则化,缺乏适用空间,所以应在信义义务两分法下积极拓展勤勉义务即"知情"的基础上决策的内涵,衍生出对于公司造成损失的直接故意、间接故意以及重大过失三种追责情形,以弥补董事问责空隙,并将"商业判断规则"作为法院介入而非排除审查的判断标准,进一步激活董事追责的路径。