The effectiveness of deservingness‐based advertising messages: The role of product knowledge and belief in a just world

Are advertisements that tell consumers they deserve a product effective? Given evidence showing people are motivated to get what they deserve, we argue that for certain consumers this is the case. In two experiments, we manipulated the type of ad participants viewed for a luxury product and then assessed ad effectiveness. We also measured participants’ belief in a just world (BJW) and product knowledge. Deservingness‐based ads were (a) more effective for strong BJW participants, mediated by the degree to which the ads matched participants’ worldview and justified buying the product, and (b) less effective for high knowledge participants. We conclude that deservingness‐based advertising can be successful, depending on consumer characteristics. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emerging Market Footholds and Knowledge: An Examination of New Product Launch Performance

As developed markets become more saturated, managers increasingly recognize the value of emerging markets as venues for growth opportunities. Yet, launching products into these markets is extremely risky due to weak institutional environments (e.g., lack of physical infrastructure), making success more uncertain. To alleviate this challenge, theory points to using emerging market footholds that yield market-specific knowledge. However, it is unclear whether knowledge is realized and, if so, what facets of harvested knowledge are effective in driving performance. Accordingly, we used data collected from a survey of business professionals to examine emerging market footholds and market-specific knowledge (i.e., customer, competitor, and logistics knowledge). Our results show that the extent of market presence held by an emerging market foothold is positively associated with all types of knowledge, yet only competitor and logistics knowledge—not customer knowledge—is positively associated with product launch performance. A supplemental sample of new product launches in developed markets revealed the opposite results wherein customer knowledge was the only significant predictor. Viewed collectively, the results suggest a market maturity threshold wherein logistics and competitive knowledge becomes less influential in driving performance, and customer knowledge becomes more influential.     

Under what institutional conditions does overseas business knowledge contribute to firm performance?

We examine the extent to which the impact of the overseas business knowledge transferred by returnee entrepreneurs on firm performance is conditional on institutional factors. The findings show that informal institutional differences between the home and host countries strengthen the positive impact of overseas business knowledge on the performance of returnee-founded firms. There is a complementarity between informal institutional differences and local government policy support which jointly enhance the positive impact of overseas business knowledge. However, a well-developed local business infrastructure substitutes for the impact of informal institutional differences on the relationship between overseas business knowledge and returnee venture performance.     

Polls to probabilities: Comparing prediction markets and opinion polls

The forecasting of election outcomes is a hugely popular activity, and not without reason: the outcomes can have significant economic impacts, for example on stock prices. As such, it is economically important, as well as of academic interest, to determine the forecasting methods that have historically performed best. However, the forecasts are often incompatible, as some are in terms of vote shares while others are probabilistic outcome forecasts. This paper sets out an empirical method for transforming opinion poll vote shares into probabilistic forecasts, and then evaluates the performances of prediction markets and opinion polls. We make comparisons along two dimensions, bias and precision, and find that converted opinion polls perform well in terms of bias, while prediction markets are good for precision.     

Knowledge sources and recombination capabilities in developing new convergent products

Recent surge in technological convergences has generated great interests from scholars, managers and policy-makers. Yet, few literatures have investigated firm-specific factors behind developing convergent products. This research has empirically analysed the role of firms’ knowledge recombination capabilities and external collaborations in developing convergent products by using a survey data from 858 Korean firms. The findings suggest that presence of interdisciplinary employees and the strong commitment of CEOs are among the important knowledge recombination capabilities for developing convergent products. When compared to other types of collaboration, the inter-firm collaboration turned out to be the most effective in developing convergent products. We suggest that firms should understand that knowledge generations are becoming more interdisciplinary and employees with interdisciplinary research background are an important enabler of knowledge recombination. We suggest that policy-maker should continue to allocate its resources in supporting inter-disciplinary research programmes.     

Organizational leadership practices in MNCs: the effect of the HRs value as a competitive factor and the FDI structure

The main goal of the paper is to present the research results on the impact that the value ascribed to human resources (HRs) as a strategic competitive factor of a company and the structure of FDI may exert on the advancement level of organizational leadership practices (as one of the HRM subfunctions) in multinational companies (MNCs). The structure of FDI covered: legal form of the foreign entities, type of investment, i.e., brownfield vs. greenfield, and four indices, i.e., internationalization index (II), geographical spread index (GSI), country’s economic development index (EDC), and culture distance index (CDI). The research sample was composed of 200 headquarters of MNCs located in Poland. All in all, three variables seem to have the most visible impact on the activities in the area of organizational leadership development practices, i.e., ownership structure, centralization vs. decentralization practices and cultural distance. Less important, but identifiable influences come from the GS index, EDC index and the smallest one from II index.     

Multinational mining companies,employment and knowledge transfer: Chile and Norway from ca. 1870 to 1940

Abstract

This article compares employment at multinational mining companies in Chile and Norway from ca. 1870 to 1940. I find that multinationals in Chile recruited foreigners to managing and middle-management positions, while Norwegian workers were heavily involved in management of multinationals in Norway. The exclusion of Chileans encouraged enclave tendencies and prevented knowledge transfer, while strong networks were created between multinationals and the local industry in Norway through job switching. Evidence suggests that local workers were employed if they were qualified and that discrepancies in institutions stimulating capacity building in the two countries largely explain the different employment patterns.     

Boundary spanners,HRM practices,and reverse knowledge transfer: The case of Chinese cross-border acquisitions

This paper investigates the role of boundary spanners in reverse knowledge transfer in EMNEs’ cross-border acquisitions. Applying a micro-foundational approach and building on boundary spanning as theoretical perspective, we conducted case studies of acquisitions by Chinese companies in Germany and the UK. We find reverse knowledge transfer is a collective endeavour that relies on both the ability and motivation of individual boundary spanners as well as team-based international collaborations. We propose a conceptual framework of reverse knowledge transfer with two mechanisms—enabling and materializing. Their successful implementation depends not only on the personal characteristics of boundary spanners, but on supportive HRM practices.     

Soft or hard information? A trade-off selection of environmental disclosures by way of peer imitation and geographical distance

With the public pressure increasing, increasingly more number of studies explore how managers respond to outer pressures by using the environmental disclosure tool. However, previous studies ignore systematic research on the condition, duplicity and consequences of environmental disclosures. This article studies how geographical distance and peer imitation influence managers’ selection of soft and hard environmental disclosures and their economic consequences based on cost-benefit trade-off models and empirical data. The results indicate that when public pressure increases sharply, geographical distance has a negative influence on hard environmental disclosures, and peer imitation has a positive influence on soft environmental disclosures. Under the joint effect of two factors, managers tend to disclose soft environmental information more than hard environmental information, which cannot only mitigate potential risks but also ensure good economic consequences. To restrict managers’ opportunistic disclosure behaviour and improve the disclosing level and quality of environmental information, detailed standard norms and heavy punishment measures should be established, and regulating departments should regulate the disclosure behaviour of distanced firms and check the redundancy of soft environmental information to ensure whether the same information is repeatedly disclosed in the annual reports.