Erratic strategic decisions: when and why managers are inconsistent in strategic decision making

While decision makers in organizations frequently make good decisions rooted in stable and consistent preferences, such consistency in outcomes is not always the case. In this study, we adopt a psychological perspective of judgment to investigate managers' erratic strategic decisions, which we define as a manager's inconsistent judgments that can shape the direction of the firm. In a study of 2,048 decisions made by 64 CEOs of technology firms, we examine how both metacognitive experience and perceptions of the external environment (hostility and dynamism) could affect the extent to which managers make erratic strategic decisions. The results indicate that managers with greater metacognitive experience make less erratic strategic decisions. The results also indicate that in hostile environments managers make more erratic strategic decisions. But contrary to our expectations, in dynamic environments managers make less erratic strategic decisions. Similarly, hostility and dynamism interact in their effect on erratic strategic decisions in that the positive relationship between environmental hostility and erratic strategic decisions will be less positive for managers experiencing high environmental dynamism than those experiencing low environmental dynamism. These results have important implications for strategic decision‐making research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国主要木材产品的需求收入弹性测算与启示

木材产品是重要的林产品,是国家经济建设和人民生活主要的资料,在国民经济与社会发展中发挥积极作用。通过构建双对数模型,采用实证分析的方法,估算出2005²012年间原木、锯材和人造板这三种木材林产品的平均需求收入弹性分别为0.301、1.100和1.338,总结出中国木材产品消费和国民经济增长的作用规律,并得到加速森林资源培育、继续优化产业结构和建立可持续贸易机制几点启示。     

Financial Deregulation and the Role of Statecraft: Lessons from Britain’s 1971 Competition and Credit Control Measures

Within the financialisation literature, a number of approaches identify the coexistence of financial expansion and productive stagnation. Yet there is no consensus on which direction causality operates between these two phenomena. This impasse has been widened by the lack of attention paid to the role of statecraft strategies in mediating possible causal mechanisms. This article contributes to rectifying this shortcoming by focusing on the governance advantages granted to states through financial deregulation. By presenting archival evidence on Britain’s 1971 Competition and Credit Control deregulation, this article lends support to financialisation accounts that argue that weaknesses in the productive economy spurred financial expansion, yet it also indicates that the state’s desire for depoliticised forms of governance played a crucial role in mediating this relationship. This further suggests that International Political Economy should focus on the strategic manner in which states relate to markets.     

英语寝室:大学英语教学的新模式

多年来,传统的语言教学课堂令英语教与学缺乏重要的衔接环节---语言的实践。"英语寝室"这种新型的教学模式为大学英语教学提供了充分的交流与应用的文化平台,更对当今学生的英语听说能力的培养起着不可忽视的重要作用。本文将对"英语寝室"作为语言实践平台的作用加以分析,控制影响因素,旨在探讨"英语寝室"作为语言教学补充的实践教学模式。     

Does Web 2.0 utilisation lead to knowledge quality,improvisational creativity,compositional creativity,and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises? A sense-making perspective

A few attempts were made to investigate how sense making is triggered through Web 2.0 utilisation and how it enables the accomplishment of key organisational outcomes. The objective of this research is to examine the structural relationship between Web 2.0 utilisation, knowledge quality (KQ) aspects, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) innovativeness in an emerging market – Malaysia. Built upon sense-making theory, this study proposes that sense making is a progression of four formative constructs. Empirical analyses are based on a sample from SMEs’ top management (N?=?358, response rate?=?21%) using partial least squares approach. The findings indicate that Web 2.0 utilisation influences business entities’ sense-making activities in the way they realise the intrinsic value of knowledge and take action to apply the organisational knowledge. These sense-making activities are conducive to improvisational and compositional creativity of SMEs as well. Contributions, managerial implications, and limitations are discussed.     

Aims and Scope

<正>The focus of the China Journal of Accounting Research is to publish theoretical and empirical research papers that use contemporary research,methodologies to...     

Can Arabic Proverbs Enhance Arabic-Speaking Students’ Comprehension of Financial Concepts?: An Empirical Study in Randomly Selected Business Schools in Dubai

In this study, we investigated the use of Arabic proverbs and quotes for teaching finance courses to Arabic-speaking students who are nonnative speakers of English. The study found that the use of Arabic proverbs and quotes greatly enhances the students’ comprehension of the finance topics covered. Similarly, the study revealed that the use of Arabic proverbs and quotes for Arabic-speaking students in teaching finance courses creates rapport between the student and instructor, thus enhancing learning. Finally, the study confirmed that the use of Arabic proverbs and quotes for Arabic-speaking students in teaching finance courses does not lead to confusion or complicate matters, but enhances comprehension and bolsters retention.     

Beyond Dutch disease

How does the deterioration of rule of law in Russia in recent years affect its ability to move away from an export pattern dominated by natural resources? We investigate this question using three datasets for Russia's bilateral trade relations for goods, services and investment at disaggregated level with its partner countries over the world. Our empirical analysis shows that the deterioration of the rule of law in Russia since 2003 has affected the long‐run trade performance of Russia in sophisticated and technology‐intensive manufactured goods, as well as its inward investments with advanced economies. It is precisely this type of trade that Russia should nurture to diversify away from hydrocarbons export dependence. Our statistical analysis also shows that Russia remains to a large extent an outlier within the multilateral trading system. It exports disproportionately less to partner countries which are or had become members of the WTO over our period of analysis. Russia's trade appears to have been negatively affected by the accession of these countries to the WTO. Russia itself finally acceded to the WTO in July 2012 amidst signs of a modest improvement of its rule‐of‐law indicators.     

Product Touch and Consumers’ Online and Offline Buying: The Role of Mental Representation

As offline retailers struggle to compete with online ones, the importance of a consumer’s ability to touch a product prior to purchase becomes important to study. Prior research has found inconsistent results on whether product touch facilitates consumers’ product-related decision making. Some studies report a positive effect, whereas others do not. The current research reconciles this inconsistency and draws retailing implications. Across three experiments, we show that the effect of product touch on consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to pay for a product being evaluated is evident when consumers’ mental representation of the product is concrete, but not when abstract. We further show that perceived risk and perceived ownership simultaneously mediate this moderating effect of mental representation. Implications are drawn for both offline and online retailers.     

以政府职能转变推动收入分配改革

收入和财富分配的不平等一直是中国改革发展中的重要问题。针对中国经济的特点,可以从政府改革的角度来研究如何更好地进行收入分配改革。地方政府主导推动地方经济的做法对收入不平等的扩大起了重要作用,加快政府职能转换,是使收入分配改革真正落到实处的破局之处,也是实现收入分配合理化可行的第一步。要改变地方政府的经济职能,降低它直接参与基础设施的程度,改革地方土地财政,建立垂直管理机构,以分散它的一部分经济管理职能,为收入分配改革打开空间。