Employees' concerns about change and commitment to change among Italian organizations: the moderating role of innovative work behavior

Despite being regarded as a critical psychological process influencing the effectiveness of change initiatives, concerns about change have not received empirical attention in the organizational change literature. The present study addresses this issue by examining the relationships among employees' concerns about change (conceptualized as including concerns about the contents and benefits of change, and concerns about mastering the change), commitment to change and innovative work behavior. First, in a hospital undergoing a major administrative change (N = 435), concerns about change were generally found to be negatively related to affective and normative commitment to change and positively related to continuance commitment to change. These results were replicated in a chemical and pharmaceutical company undergoing a technological change (N = 113), except that concerns about change were unrelated to normative commitment to change. In addition, employees' innovative work behavior moderated the relationship of concerns about change to affective commitment to change such that the relationship was negative when innovative behavior was low but nonsignificant when innovative behavior was high. This study provides scholars and practitioners with a theoretically and empirically grounded framework for assessing employees' concerns about change, and moves research a step forward into identifying the behaviors that organizations should support to counteract this psychological threat.     

Reputational cheap talk with misunderstanding

We consider a cheap talk game with a sender who has a reputational concern for an ability to predict a state of the world correctly, and where receivers may misunderstand the message sent. When communication between the sender and each receiver is private, we identify an equilibrium in which the sender only discloses the least noisy information. Hence, what determines the amount of information revealed is not the absolute noise level of communication, but the extent to which the noise level may vary. The resulting threshold in transmission noise for which information is revealed may differ across receivers, but is unrelated to the quality of the information channel. When information transmission has to be public, a race to the bottom results: the cut-off level for noise of transmitted information now drops to the lowest cut-off level for any receiver in the audience.     

Return freight strategies and selling formats in e-commerce supply chain: The perspective of consumer fairness concerns and online shopping returns

Returns and consumer fairness concerns put a huge pressure on manufacturers who sell their products online. The optimal selling format and return freight strategy become particularly important for manufacturers in an e-commerce supply chain. Therefore, we build game models for the following scenarios under different selling formats: the seller bearing the return freight costs or the return-freight insurance premiums, consumers buying insurance for themselves, and no one buying insurance. By comparing the optimal solutions of the game models under reselling and agency formats, several conclusions are derived. In the agency format, if the return-freight insurance premium is higher than a particular threshold, then the optimal strategy of the manufacturer is to decrease the selling price to encourage consumers to purchase the insurance, otherwise, the manufacturer should purchase the insurance. As the level of consumer fairness concerns and platform commission rates increase, the manufacturer should gradually move from the agency to reselling format. In the reselling format, if the return-freight insurance premium is lower than a particular threshold, then consumers will purchase insurance and this will make the platform more profitable, and conversely, the platform should bear the return freight costs.     

Addressing privacy predicaments in the digital marketplace: A power‐relations perspective

The utilization and governance of the internet and adjacent disruptive technologies have created numerous challenges to ensuring consumer online privacy. This study employs the power–responsibility equilibrium theory to explore emerging online privacy issues in the data‐driven marketplace. This exploratory study, based on semi‐structured interviews, explains why online shopping consumers are increasingly worried about their privacy and why they behave in a manner that could be detrimental to the consumer–vendor relationship. The findings suggest that deficiencies of corporate privacy responsibility and regulatory protection have deprived consumers of privacy empowerment. These deficiencies have also accentuated perceived privacy contract violations to trigger privacy concerns and subsequent defensive responses. We identify enhancement of consumer privacy empowerment and assuagement of privacy contract violations as two separate mechanisms of addressing online privacy issues. We also highlight the importance of addressing power and responsibility dynamics for maintaining a healthy information‐exchange environment.     

A project-level analysis of value creation in firms

This paper analyzes value creation in firms at the project level. We present evidence that managers facing short-termist incentives set a lower threshold for accepting projects. Using novel data on new client and product announcements in both the U.S. and international markets, we find that the market responds less positively to a new project announcement when the firm's managers have incentives to focus on short-term stock price performance. Furthermore, textual analysis of project announcements shows that firms with short-termist chief executive officers use vaguer and generically positive language when introducing new projects to the marketplace.     

情感计算的信息隐私法律风险及其应对

情感计算是指以人类情感为机器学习对象，具有情感识别和情感分析功能的智能科技。情感计算不以信息主体的身份识别为前提，旨在通过对输入端生物反馈信息或状态的分析处理而输出情感信息。为应对情感信息不当获取与利用所带来的情感操纵风险，需以信息隐私理论为框架展开风险应对之探讨。然而，现行信息隐私规范却存在风险应对不足的问题。情感信息因其具体类型的多样性而难以划入敏感个人信息的保护范围；生物反馈信息因其情感识别而非身份识别的目的难以作为生物识别信息而被保护；作为信息处理之合法性基础的告知同意也因情感信息的特殊性存在被架空的风险。鉴于欧盟《人工智能法案（草案）》中规制情感识别的经验，我国可尝试在算法治理中构建“生物数据”的概念并以之为媒介展开技术风险的分级分领域规制，从而构建可信赖情感智能的数字环境。     

Why do people buy organic food? The moderating role of environmental concerns and trust

Although consumer interest in organic food has risen over time, resulting in a generally positive attitude toward these organic food products, scholarly research suggests a comparatively low volume of its consumption in the market. This has resulted in an urgent need to study the motivations which enhance consumers’ proclivity to purchase food items produced organically. The current research attempts to understand potential associations between motivations (intrinsic and extrinsic), attitude, and buying behaviour towards organic food. Self-determination theory (SDT) was applied to develop a theoretically grounded framework which was evaluated with 378 organic food consumers. The hypotheses were tested by analyzing the data through structural equation modelling (SEM), wherein environmental concerns and trust were the moderating variables. The study results demonstrate the significant influence of intrinsic motivation, integrated and external regulation on consumer attitude, and buying behaviour. But, attitude had no significant association with buying behaviour. The findings indicate consumers’ motivation may be stimulated to encourage higher frequencies of purchasing organic food by emphasizing values that reflect motivations arising from ethical or green consumerism, health, and social benefits. Furthermore, policymakers should focus on avenues to integrate organic food as permanent parts of individual lives and a socially exalting behavioral action.     

Impact of privacy concerns on resistance to smart services: does the ‘Big Brother effect’ matter?

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the factors that explain consumer resistance to smart services from a privacy perspective. To this end, an exploratory qualitative study and a quantitative study were carried out. 653 French consumers answered an online questionnaire regarding smart services in the banking sector. Structural equation modelling was used to test the conceptual model. The findings show that information privacy, the unauthorised secondary use of personal information and perceived intrusion have an impact on consumer resistance to smart services. Moreover, our research highlights the major role of the ‘Big Brother effect’ as an antecedent to these various privacy concerns.     

Managing privacy paradox through national culture: Reshaping online retailing strategy

Data privacy is a threat to the future of e-commerce. Consumers face a dilemma in balancing the risks and benefits associated with online privacy, leading to a phenomenon termed the privacy paradox. The study interviewed 30 Millennials representing 13 countries using a grounded theory approach to explore the influence of national culture on the information disclosure attitude in the context of online retailing. The study presents a novel framework, Privacy Paradox Pyramid, to manage the privacy paradox through the lens of national culture, enabling retailers to segment the customers and design a tailored approach to create a competitive advantage.     

宅基地使用权收回的流程规范

宅基地使用权收回制度在整个宅基地使用权制度中处于重要的节点地位。宅基地使用权收回流程的现行法律规定与实践比较混乱,需要进一步规范。宅基地使用权收回程序的启动者应是集体经济组织。对因公共利益而收回和因非公共利益而收回的不同情形,应采用不同的程序。政府负责审查和涂销登记。宅基地使用权收回后,被收回人有获得补偿和重新申请宅基地使用权的权利。未来立法应对宅基地使用权收回流程做出规范,切实保护农民合法权益。