Decentralized environmental regulations and plant‐level productivity

Using the framework provided by the Porter hypothesis, we study the impact of environmental regulations and enforcement policies on plant‐level green total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components related to efficiency change and technical change. The detailed microdata we use are from Sweden and for the pulp and paper industry. This industry is the source of significant amounts of water and air pollution and is one of the most heavily environmentally regulated manufacturing industries. Sweden has a unique decentralized regulatory structure where the manufacturing plants have to comply with plant‐specific regulatory standards stipulated at the national level, as well as decentralized local supervision and enforcement. Our empirical results point to beneficial impacts of the environmental policies on plants' green TFP growth and sustainable production practices. We also find that political economy considerations are important, as the presence of the Green Party and aspects like plant size (with corresponding local and regional economic effects) matter in enforcement of the standards.     

Estimation of Randomisation Mean Square Error in Small Area Estimation

In this article, we propose a new method for estimating the randomisation (design‐based) mean squared error (DMSE) of model‐dependent small area predictors. Analogously to classical survey sampling theory, the DMSE considers the finite population values as fixed numbers and accounts for the MSE of small area predictors over all possible sample selections. The proposed method models the true DMSE as computed for synthetic populations and samples drawn from them, as a function of known statistics and then applies the model to the original sample. Several simulation studies for the linear area‐level model and the unit‐level mixed logistic model illustrate the performance of the proposed method and compare it with the performance of other DMSE estimators proposed in the literature.     

The role of consumers' construal level in art-infusion-type effect on retail product evaluation

What cognitive characteristic of consumers directs the art-infusion-type effect? This study inspected the impact of art-infusion type on product attitude through aesthetic judgment under different construal levels. This study was underpinned by “construal level theory” and “the model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments.” The data were collected from a pretest (N = 280) and an experiment (N = 388). A moderated-mediation analysis displayed that to low-construal consumers, infusing figurative (vs. abstract) artwork into retail products elicits greater aesthetic judgment, leading to more favorable product attitudes. However, to high-construal consumers, such an effect did not occur. These results broaden the past art-infusion research by corroborating the existence of art-infusion-type effect and presenting the construal level as its new boundary condition. Furthermore, our results offer practical insights into utilizing artworks in product promotion.     

What's Behind CRM Research? A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications in the CRM Research Field

The diversity of approaches to customer relationship management (CRM) brings about the need for systematic reviews. The objective of this article is to identify and categorize the most used publications in the CRM field. We conducted a bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science database. To identify and categorize the subfields, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis. The most used publications were categorized into: (1) methodology in the CRM research field; (2) relationship marketing; (3) service quality and customer loyalty; (4) implications of market-oriented strategy; (5) CRM theory and its practical implications; (6) strategic management; and (7) customer value.     

Supply chain collaboration and eco‐innovations: An institutional perspective from China

This study explores the impact of supply chain collaboration on eco‐innovations in the context of 220 Chinese manufacturing supplier firms involved in global supply chain networks. It investigates how supplier and customer collaborations help firms to enhance product eco‐innovations, and/or process eco‐innovations, and how the institutional context (i.e., regulatory, market, and community pressures) influences these relationships. The structural equation modeling approach is used to analyze the data captured from medium and large manufacturing enterprises in three major sectors: automotive, electronics, and textiles. The results show that community pressure has a positive effect on supplier collaboration, which further leads to enhanced process eco‐innovation. On the other hand, the findings indicate that while market pressure enhances customer collaboration, this does not reinforce product eco‐innovation. Contrary to our expectation, regulatory pressures do not impact supplier or customer collaboration for innovation. Overall, different institutional factors indicate divergent effects on supply chain collaboration and product/process eco‐innovation. The importance of normative pressures, such as those applied through the local community and interest groups, for eco‐innovations in production processes is further discussed as a typical feature of the institutional environment of Chinese supplier firms.     

Improving Order Fulfillment Performance through Integrated Inventory Management in a Multi-Item Finished Goods System

Effective inventory management is fundamental to order fulfillment excellence and supply chain success. In this paper, we develop a strategic inventory management decision tool that integrates inventory classification and inventory control policy decisions for maximizing order fulfillment performance, while accounting for a constraint on inventory budget and the profit expectation of a firm. This inventory solution tool provides critical enhancements to current inventory planning software, which is developed upon the traditional inventory classification scheme and where practitioners have to balance service levels and safety stock decisions through trial-and-error. The model allows firms to assess whether the current inventory performance is Pareto optimal, quantify the trade-offs between various performance measures, and identify the right inventory level according to the firms' strategic goals. In computational results, we demonstrate the trade-off and positive relationships between key item- and order-based inventory performance measures and short-term profitability under different levels of inventory budget in a multi-item finished goods inventory system.     

Cyclical dynamics in a Kaleckian model with demand and distribution regimes and endogenous natural output

We analyse the interaction of demand and income distribution in a dynamic Kaleckian model with endogenous natural output. Endogenous changes of the natural output level to changes in the demand-determined actual output level have featured prominently in discussions of hysteresis after the crisis of 2008. We consider wage-led and profit-led demand (PLD) regimes and goods market-led and labour market-led income distribution regimes. The stability of the steady state is related to the endogeneity of natural output level in certain regimes. Limit cycles arise when the strong flexibility of prices or wages to the output gap is combined with moderate natural output hysteresis. A Kaleckian model with a wage-led demand regime and anticyclical profit share is less unstable and pseudo-Goodwin cycles can arise in the PLD regime with a procyclical profit share.     

The Effects of Creative Culture on Real Earnings Management*

Creativity and innovation have been identified by senior executives as some of the most desired characteristics of corporate culture. Accordingly, managers strive to build these cultures within their organizations. However, research in psychology suggests that these attempts may have unintended negative consequences. In this study, I predict and find that managers in a more (versus less) innovative company culture will engage in higher levels of real earnings management (REM). I then test two construal level theory (CLT)-based interventions designed to reduce REM. As I predict, I find that in more innovative corporate cultures an intervention that makes downside risk more salient reduces REM, but an intervention that encourages managers to consider the “big-picture” impact of their decision reduces REM to a greater extent. Unexpectedly, I also find that the effect of the “big-picture” intervention reverses in a less innovative corporate culture leading to an increase in REM. My findings contribute to the emerging accounting literature regarding REM. I also extend the psychology literature investigating the link between opportunistic behavior and creativity, and I also expand research into how interventions based on CLT can affect judgment and decision making in an accounting context.     

What do customers expect of travel agent–customer interactions? Measuring and improving customer experience in interactions with travel agents

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to explore what customers expect of travel agent–customer interactions by developing a scale of customer service experience; further, a framework to demonstrate how to improve customer service experience derived from interactions with travel agents is proposed. The results indicate that the indirect effect of travel agent interpersonal competencies on word-of-mouth is not through cognitive customer service experience but rather through affective customer service experience. Also, the indirect effect of travel agent professional competencies on word-of-mouth is not through affective customer service experience but rather through cognitive customer service experience.     

Traveler preferences from online reviews: Role of travel goals,class and culture

Along with being critical performance indicators as well as a rich source of information for potential customers, the overall rating and recommendation behavior also work as a crucial information source for managers of airlines for customer segmentation, service design, and post-purchase evaluation management. In this study, we explore how customer preferences, behavior and post-purchase evaluations differ for travelers depending on their respective travel goals, travel class, and the culture of their native country. Based on the frameworks of the construal level theory and expectation disconfirmation theory, we provide a psychological explanation of why specific service attributes, categorized in process-outcome and tangible—intangible dimensions, get higher importance than others for a particular set of customers. We analyzed consumer review data of 28,341 reviews for 345 airlines by customers from 132 countries. The results yielded critical theoretical contributions to extant literature on airline evaluations and recommendations, construal levels, airline customer segmentation, etc. Moreover, the results also helped managers of an airline to package design, segment customers, enhance targeted communication, and customer relationship management overall. The limitations and future scope of the study have also been discussed.