Enhancing Corporate Environmental Performance Through Reporting and Roadmaps

Managing the carbon footprint of companies and addressing their respective decarbonization plans is a challenging endeavour. The aim of this study is to help companies better understand the issues around decarbonization and environmental performance by suggesting a holistic management process on which they could embark. This process comprises two crucial steps, which are (a) sustainability reporting and (b) low‐carbon roadmaps. These steps are covered and further developed based on a detailed study of the UK food retail sector. This sector is relevant due to its economic and environmental importance, but most importantly it has a significant record of available environmental reports in the public domain and a large potential to influence consumers, policy makers and multiple supply chains. Sustainability reporting is assessed by analysing environmental KPIs disclosed in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, and then these are compared against industry standards. This analysis highlights a general lack of consistency and transparency in CSR reporting of UK food retailers. Consequently, a low‐carbon roadmap based on relevant KPIs and on the ‘backcasting’ framework is presented as a case study in order to showcase how a hypothetical UK food retailer can employ a low‐carbon roadmap. The case study demonstrates that ambitious environmental targets are achievable if robust corporate action plans are followed. Furthermore, the case study indicates that capital might be misallocated in favour of highly visible environmental stores and on‐site energy generation technologies, whilst more could be done by applying energy efficiency measures that have the potential to deliver substantial carbon savings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The impact of mandatory trans fat labeling on product mix and consumer choice: A longitudinal analysis of the U.S. Market for margarine and spreads

The impact of changes in food labeling policy on food consumption depends on how market participants—both firms and consumers—react to the changes across all products in the market. We investigate how both responded to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2006 rule mandating that the quantity of trans fat in food products be separately labeled on the mandatory Nutrition Facts Panel across an entire differentiated product category. Using a longitudinal data set tracking both product offerings and consumer purchases in the market for margarine and spreads for over a decade, we analyze how product mix and consumer purchase behaviors were influenced by the new regulatory requirement. We find that the number of products bearing voluntary “trans fat free” labels increased after the labeling regulation was implemented. However, a large number of the newly introduced products exited the market within five years. As a result, the FDA’s 2006 rule had a stronger short-run than long-run effect on product offerings. Even after the introduction of additional “trans fat free” labeled products, such products remained only a small percentage of margarine and spreads product offerings, increasing from a pre-regulation level of 2.3% of the market to a peak of 6.5% in 2007 before dropping to 3.1% by 2011. In addition to firm response, we examine demand-side reactions to the 2006 rule and find that consumers significantly increased their expenditures on “trans fat free” labeled products soon after the labeling changes were implemented, increasing from about 1.2% of the market in 2001 to a peak of 5.9% in 2007, before returning to 1.8% in 2011. We further explore variations in responses across different demographic characteristics. Although long-run effects are small, the market for “trans fat free” labeled margarine and spreads settled into a new equilibrium with a somewhat higher level of products in the market than prior to the 2006 rule taking effect and a somewhat higher share of expenditures in the category. Overall, our category-wide analysis of both firm and consumer behavior indicates that the effects of the labeling policy change were smaller in the longer run in this market than would be indicated by an analysis of only new product introductions in response to the policy change.     

Sustainable evaluation and verification in supply chains: Aligning and leveraging accountability to stakeholders

Managers are being challenged by multiple (and diverse) stakeholders, which have variety of expectations and informational needs about their firm’s supply chains. Collectively, these expectations and needs form a multi-faceted view of stakeholder accountability, namely the extent to which a firm justifies behaviors and actions across its extended supply chain to stakeholders. To date, sustainable supply chain management research has largely focused on monitoring as a self-managed set of narrowly defined evaluative activities employed by firms to provide stakeholder accountability. Nevertheless, evidence is emerging that firms have developed a wide variety of monitoring systems in order to align with stakeholders’ expectations and leverage accountability to stakeholders. Drawing from the accounting literature, we synthesize a model that proposes how firms might address accountability for sustainability issues in their supply chain. At its core, the construct of sustainable evaluation and verification (SEV) captures three interrelated dimensions: inclusivity, scope, and disclosure. These dimensions characterize how supply chain processes might identify key measures, collect and process data, and finally, verify materiality, reliability and accuracy of any data and resulting information. As a result, the concept of monitoring is significantly extended, while also considering how different stakeholders can play diverse, active roles as metrics are established, audits are conducted, and information is validated. Also, several antecedents of SEV systems are explored. Finally, the means by which an SEV system can create a competitive advantage are investigated.     

THE ECONOMIC AND BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES OF ONLINE USER REVIEWS

Online user reviews have become an increasingly relevant informational tool during product search and adoption. Recent surveys have shown that consumers trust and rely on online reviews more than they do on website recommendations and experts opinions. As a new way of driving consumer purchasing intentions, online user reviews have therefore come under scrutiny by researchers. The objective of this paper is to offer an overview of the literature regarding the impact of online user reviews on economic indicators (e.g., sales, marketing strategies) and on consumer behavior. Furthermore, following the growing interest of academics and professionals alike on the topic, the present work provides an exploratory analysis of the consequences of online reviews on individual rating behavior – empirical regularities showed that online rating distributions tend to be concentrated on extreme values, possibly because of rating biases. As consumers and firms incorporate the heuristic cues from such distributions into their decision-making processes, biased ratings might lead to suboptimal choices. This overview presents established results (e.g., the impact of volume on product sales) and insights as issues for future research.     

Using reputation for corporate sustainability to tackle banks digitalization challenges

The new landscape in the financial sector, characterized by fierce competition and the entrance of new technological players, has forced banks to speed up their digital transformation. However, for banks, digitalization entails challenges that can hinder the potential benefits and compromise their survival. In this context, we argue that the reputation generated by corporate sustainability (RCS) may offset these digitalization drawbacks. In particular, we find that the combination of RCS and digitalization facilitates in transforming the organizational nature of banks by simultaneously narrowing their boundaries and expanding their scope. We empirically confirm our hypotheses by analyzing a panel of 110 multinational banks from developed countries.     

The effect of specific discount pattern in terms of price promotions on perceived price attractiveness and purchase intention: An experimental research

This study aims to investigate consumer perceptions and reactions in terms of specific discount patterns (fixed price, 40% discount, discount from 500 TL to 300 TL and 20% + 25% discount) in price promotion. According to the results, specific discount patterns in price promotion have a significant effect on perceived price attractiveness and purchase intention. When the specific discount patterns in price promotion and gender interaction were analyzed in terms of perceived price attractiveness, the scenario of the “discount from TL 500 to TL 300” significantly differentiated from both the control scenario (fixed price) and experimental scenarios for female. For males, no significant difference was found between the control and experimental scenarios. In terms of purchase intention, a significant difference was found between the fixed price scenario and the discount scenario from 500 TL to 300 TL and between the fixed price and 20% + 25% discount scenario. The theoretical managerial implications of the study were discussed, and future research suggestions were presented.     

The financial advice puzzle: The role of consumer heterogeneity in the advisor choice

We investigate motivational drivers of financial advisor use, accounting for investor heterogeneity, with the goal of helping institutions increase the use of financial advisor services. The results from a latent class choice model reveal two distinct segments that differ in their approach to the financial advice decision. While higher levels of risk tolerance, trust, and self-efficacy increase financial advice use for both segments, albeit at much higher propensities for Segment 1, personality only matters for Segment 1. Moreover, their regulatory focus differs with Segment 1 being promotion and Segment 2 being prevention focused. Using these results, we offer suggestions for marketing strategies.     

Stock market reactions to domestic sentiment: Panel CS-ARDL evidence

This study sets out to explore the effects of business and consumer sentiment on stock market performance, within the separate contexts of advanced and emerging markets. The empirical analysis is carried out using the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) modeling approach, which considers time dynamics, cross-sectional heterogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence. The findings for developed markets suggest that business sentiment has positive leading effects on stock returns, across short- and long-term time horizons, while for emerging markets, the price impact of business sentiment turns out to be short-lived. On the other hand, consumer sentiment tends to affect positively both market types, albeit only in the short run. Furthermore, the influence of sentiment indicators seems to be stronger in emerging- than in developed-market countries. The results remain robust, even after controlling for a rich range of potential predictors of stock returns. Generally, such evidence highlights the relevance of psychological factors, such as business and consumer sentiment, in determining the future trajectory of asset prices.     

When gamification backfires: the impact of perceived justice on online community contributions

ABSTRACT

While online communities may enhance firm performance, they commonly fail to retain members. To address this challenge, scholars and managers call for the use of gamification. However, despite gamification’s growing use in online communities, insight into its effect on member experience and behaviours remain limited. We hypothesise that gamification affects member-perceived distributive and procedural justice. In experimental studies, we assess the impact of in-gamification perceived justice on member contributions. We find that while high in-gamification perceived procedural justice acts as a necessary prerequisite for member contributions, high distributive justice can reduce game-related uncertainty, thereby rendering gamified practices less fun, particularly for low-engaged community members that tend to value rewards. We add to the literature by (a) pinpointing the core role of perceived justice in the persistence of online communities, and (b) unveiling that high distributive justice can lead gamification to backfire in online communities by affecting member experience and contributions.