黑龙江省民间借贷法律规制研究

民间借贷具有解决融资难、规范民间借贷法律、打击违法犯罪行为等作用,对国民经济发展有一定的积极作用。近几年,黑龙江省民间借贷发展较为活跃,但相应的法律规制还不完善,仍存在违规经营混杂、信息监测体系不完善、法律体系缺乏等问题。黑龙江省应加快制定规范民间借贷的经营行为,健全民间借贷法律监管体系,加快推进民间借贷的立法进程,从而有效完善民间借贷法律规制,促进其健康有序发展。     

黑龙江农村贫困人口社会救助研究

目前,黑龙江人口的贫困发生率和农村人口的贫困发生率都高于全国平均水平,是贫困发生率较高的地区,这凸显出黑龙江农村贫困人口社会救助工作的艰巨性。黑龙江省贫困人口社会救助主要包括生活社会救助、医疗社会救助和生产社会救助,这对农村贫困人口的生产、生活起到了重要的作用,但是仍存在救助范围狭窄、救助内容过于侧重绝对贫困、救助形式单一等问题。为解决这些问题,黑龙江省应重视对农村贫困人口的教育救助,加强农村社会救助对象与救助标准的透明度,增强农村贫困人口医疗社会救助的投入力度。     

Endogeneity in survey research

Endogeneity is a crucial problem in survey-based empirical research on marketing strategy (MS) and inter-organizational relationships (IORs); if not addressed, it can cause researchers to arrive at flawed conclusions and to offer poor advice to practitioners. Although the field is increasingly cognizant of endogeneity-related issues, many authors fail to properly address it, particularly in survey-based research. Emphasizing the role of essential heterogeneity, this article develops an overarching framework to help improve the understanding of endogeneity problems and how to tackle them when researchers use cross-sectional survey-based data. The authors provide explanations of and advice for how MS and IOR researchers can address six “painful” and sometimes hidden decisions: 1) Do you have an endogeneity problem? 2) What technique/estimator is appropriate? 3) What instrumental variables (IVs) should be chosen? 4) How should IVs be evaluated empirically? 5) How should the results be interpreted and evaluated? and 6) What results should you report? The authors provide a practical flowchart to guide researchers in their efforts to address endogeneity-related concerns.     

The double-edged sword of purpose-driven behavior in sustainable venturing

This paper examines the relationship between purpose and purposeful organizing and how such arrangements influence the entrepreneurial journey as sustainable ventures move from idea to markets. We leverage an iterative multi-stage process-tracing design to understand the mechanisms whereby 14 different B Corp certified organizations embed purpose before, during and after the certification process. Our analyses reveal three types of venture paths for purpose-driven entrepreneurs, which are shaped by distinct imprinting sequences with three critical sensitive windows playing a pivotal role: the definition of scope of purpose, timing of purpose formalization through B Corp Certification and shifts in the source of feedback. Different imprinters occurring within the critical sensitive windows shape particular imprinting sequences triggering situations of both productive and counterproductive path development. Our results challenge the assumed linear relationship between purpose and purposeful organizing and more specifically the belief that seeking (purposeful) B Corp certification at firm foundation is necessarily productive for society and for the ventures themselves regardless of when the certification is achieved.     

An investigation of the influence of cinema environment on advertising effectiveness

Many advertisers are looking to cinema advertising as a nontraditional medium to reach consumers. Although several scholars have examined the effectiveness of this advertising vehicle, there is a dearth of empirically grounded research on how to improve such effectiveness. This study, based on the reactance and the equity theories, is probably the first academic project investigating how to manipulate an advertising environment in a real movie theatre to maximize advertising effectiveness. Results indicated that audiences in a distractive environment held a more positive attitude toward cinema advertising in general, but those in a restrictive environment were more likely to remember the advertised brands. In addition, the provision of ticket price information improved audiences’ acceptance of cinema advertising, but did not enhance recall. Moreover, the influence of ambient scent emitted into the atmosphere in a cinema room on ad recall dissipated when movie viewers became accustomed to such stimuli. Based on these findings, theoretical discussions and recommendations for practising managers were made.     

Is it U.S. GAAP or IFRS? Understanding how R&D costs affect ratio analysis

While financial reporting standards under U.S. GAAP and IFRS are fundamentally similar, differences do exist that may affect our analysis of company financial statements. This is particularly true when comparing a U.S. company following U.S. GAAP to a firm that uses IFRS. To illustrate, we compare research and development (R&D) accounting methods under both sets of standards and illustrate how they affect the analysis of financial results of firms in a specific industry—automotive manufacturers. Our results provide insight into settings in which differences in R&D accounting may have the greatest impact on financial analysis.     

The nature and extent of service user involvement in critical care research and quality improvement: A scoping review of the literature

The importance of involving patients and the public in health care research is globally recognized, but how best to do this in critical care is unclear. The aim of this first published review was to explore the extent and nature of evidence on service user involvement in critical care research and quality improvement. Using the scoping review framework described by Arksey and O'Malley ( 2005 ), a team of service user and critical care researchers searched eleven online databases, reviewed relevant web sites, conducted forward and backward citation searching and contacted subject experts. Extracted data were subjected to a narrative synthesis based on the objectives of the review. Findings from a broad range of evidence support that involvement is becoming more commonplace and that experiences are generally positive. Data extracted from 34 publications identify that involvement is most commonly reported at the level of consultation or participation in project teams, however, the extent to which involvement impacts on projects output remains unclear. Key barriers and facilitators relate to the challenge of recruiting a diverse group of service users, dealing with power hierarchies, being adaptable and effective consideration of the resource requirements. More research is required to identify the most effective methods to support the opportunity for involvement and more thorough reporting of service user involvement practices is strongly recommended.     

Hybridization: Understanding the microdynamics of a postacquisition integration process

There is no shortage of theoretical or empirical research on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Knowledge on the subject has grown substantially in recent decades. However, the integration of firms involved in M&A remains a challenging and often unsuccessful process. In addition, there is a scarcity of research on temporal dynamics within integration projects. This article reports on the postacquisition integration of a business school into a university using the concept of organizational hybridization as a theoretical lens. The aim was to identify the microdynamics that occurred during integration. We conducted an inductive case study, interviewing professionals involved in the integration process, analyzing a wide range of documents, and conducting participant observation over 6 years. Field research revealed that different organizational components underwent distinct hybridization processes that were characterized by different degrees of conflict. This study contributes to the understanding of the microdynamics that occur in postmerger or postacquisition integration processes, focusing on the complex adjustments inherent in these developments.     

Threats to the Validity of Logistics and Supply Chain Management Research

To increase the relevance of logistics and supply chain academic research, this paper recommends the development and testing of middle‐range theory and practice‐level theory. Yet, there are a number of research issues that arise when academic researchers test middle‐range and practice‐level theory, both in measuring constructs and in testing theoretical relationships between constructs. Concerning the measurement of constructs, this paper recommends that academic researchers pay more attention to content validity and undertake rigorous processes to ensure content validity. In addition, academic researchers need to more explicitly define constructs as either reflective or formative. If the construct is defined as formative, then the traditional statistical approaches to validate these measurement scales are not recommended. The appropriate use of employing single‐item measures for concrete constructs is discussed. In regard to conducting hypothesis tests, research issues associated with multicollinearity and omitted variable bias are discussed. Relative weight analysis is ideal for testing theoretical models and research hypotheses when survey data are obtained, multicollinearity is present, and there are a large number of independent variables predicting a dependent variable. Thus, relative weight analysis is ideal for testing research hypotheses in logistics and supply chain management.