Relative age effects in political selection

We exploit a regression discontinuity design to provide causal evidence of the relative age effect (RAE) on a long-run adult age outcome: Political selection. We find strong evidence of the RAE in politics in Finland. However, the effect is heterogeneous: We find that male candidates born early in the calendar year have a significantly higher probability of getting elected to the parliament but no similar RAE applies to female candidates nor to municipal elections. Moreover, this effect only takes place in the most competitive parliamentary districts and is present only for some parties. We also find that in all the groups where the RAE does not exist, early-born candidates are under-represented suggesting attrition of talent in the candidate placement. Overall, our results show that seemingly artificial cutoffs imposed by the government have persistent consequences even on the selection to the highest positions of power within a society.     

Enrichment for retail businesses: How female entrepreneurs and masculine traits enhance business success

Studies indicate that more male entrepreneurs are pursuing business ventures than their female counterparts. Latterly, there has been increased research interest in female entrepreneurs and their positive contribution to the retail economy. The main purpose of this study was to examine how some specific masculine traits can be enculturated into individuals (i.e. female entrepreneurs). The study also reviewed literature that discussed reasons which hinder female entrepreneurs in the retail world. The reasons range from being risk averse, being too agreeable and being overly anxious about failure. Through qualitative research exploration of female entrepreneurs, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to examine and understand their experiences. Themes which emerged from questioning the ten female entrepreneurs enabled the researcher to construct a theoretical framework. Analysis of the content findings showed that female entrepreneurs were indeed willing to adopt specific masculine traits. The result of this investigation is that through implementing specific masculine traits, female entrepreneurs have greater chances of success in their retail businesses. Although the research presented valid findings regarding the benefits of masculine traits on the retail industry, the research was limited by the sample size and the location of the research. This contribution remains unique in the way that it provides valuable information to the retail industry about the process of overcoming failure through enculturating masculine traits into female entrepreneurs.     

A penny saved is a penny earned? Differences in male and female savings and consumption tradeoffs on online retail platforms

Online retailers in Asia are increasingly offering interest paying accounts to their users. Based on temporal discounting theory, however, customers might consider tradeoffs in opportunities to save money (offered yield by the online retailer × the account balance) versus withdrawing money from the account for online purchases. Based on a sample of 1.95 million transactions from 24,591 customers, when short-term savings opportunities (7-day annualized yield × account balance) are greater, customers withdraw less money for purchase. Relative to females, males tend to withdraw less money for purchase from their account when long-term savings opportunities (1-year annualized yield × account balance) are higher. The findings have implications for temporal discounting behavior in online retail saving opportunities versus purchase transactions, and implications for online retailers who may cannibalize online sales by offering higher yields to online customers.     

Cultivating sustainability consciousness through mindfulness: An application of theory of mindful-consumption

Achieving sustainable development is a significant hurdle that societies around the world face in the present era. The on-going global discourse on sustainability revolves around the dual objective of developing sustainability consciousness while fostering social and economic progress. However, despite its relevance to humankind, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions that explain what influences an individual's sustainability consciousness. To fill this void, we borrow from the theory of mindful-consumption and explain why and how mindfulness impacts sustainability consciousness. Besides, given that material wealth is experiencing an unprecedented boom, we examine the moderating role of materialism on the aforesaid relationship. Demographic factors such as age (Gen Y vs Gen Z) and gender (male vs female) were also employed as moderators in the study. A sample of 726 was collected through a survey instrument and analysed using SMART PLS to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between mindfulness and sustainability consciousness with materialism acting as a significant moderator. The model relationships did not vary across the two generational cohorts (Gen Y and Gen Z) significantly. The results further revealed that the impact of materialism was stronger for females than males, depicting gender to be a significant moderator on the proposed relationships. The current work is among the very few studies that empirically validate the influences of mindfulness on the entire gamut of sustainability (including environmental, economic, and social aspects); and has major implications for academicians, practitioners, and policy makers passionate about sustainability.     

Gender and herding

This study uses a unique dataset from a large anonymous brokerage firm to examine the herding behavior of Chinese individual investors. The empirical evidence reveals that females are more inclined to follow the behavior of ‘same-sex’ investors. Market conditions and stock characteristics affect females and males similarly in that individual investors herd more intensively in the bull market, on stocks with better liquidity and larger market capitalization. We find female investors generally yield lower returns than males when they herd intensively, and this finding is more pronounced during a bull-market period. Outcomes from individual-level herding measurements suggest that portfolio turnover drives the difference in herding between genders.     

Effects of crisis response tone and spokesperson's gender on employer attractiveness

Timely apologies to key publics on social media are becoming an important aspect of crisis recovery but little is known of how the spokesperson’s characteristics and the tone of apology may influence the outcome. Recognising the importance of the need to attract quality workforce, this study examines the impact of social media response to a preventable crisis on organisational attractiveness. Specifically, a 2 (message tone: corporate/formal vs. human/informal) x 2 (spokesperson’s gender: male vs. female) between-subjects factorial design was used to test the effectiveness of an apology. The results suggest a significant moderated mediation effect. We find that account acceptance mediates the relationship between message tone and organisational attractiveness, and this effect is conditional on gender of the spokesperson. The results are relevant to crisis managers and brand managers that seek to attract and retain talents.     

Food insecurity,gender, and international migration in low- and middle-income countries

The determinants of migration have been widely studied but research has rarely addressed the roles of food insecurity and gender in the migration decision process. To address these gaps, we examine these relationships for 135,078 individuals across 94 low- and middle-income countries. We use a series of binary-choice models with sample selection and data from the 2014–2015 waves of the Gallup World Poll Survey, which includes the first global measure of individual-level food insecurity. Results, which are robust, indicate that food insecurity is an important determinant of both migration intentions and preparations, and the probability of migration intentions increase monotonically with the severity of food insecurity, and the probability of migration preparations decrease. These relationships also differ significantly by gender and level of gross national income. Evidence suggests a need for increased coordination between the international food security and migration policy agendas.     

Does gender matter? The association between gender and the use of management control systems and performance measures

Literature shows that female (male) managers are more likely to adopt a transformational (transactional) leadership style, as well as make greater (lesser) use of information for decision-making. We draw on this research to investigate whether gender is related to a manager's use of management control systems (MCS) and performance measures. We surveyed the head of school of all schools across all Australian public universities. Our results indicate that females use MCS in an interactive manner to a greater extent than their male counterparts and make greater use of non-financial performance measures. We conclude with contributions to theory and practice.     

The role of gender and its potential channels to affect self-employment in Taiwan

This research investigates the gender differences in the self-employment sector by employing a dynamic panel model with county- and city-level data from 1998 to 2016 in Taiwan. Our study is distinct from most others in this issue in that we explore not only the inter-gender difference, but also the intra-gender differences in self-employment. Following this framework, we first find that women are on average less likely to self-employ than men, and further find that older men, married men, men living in lower income regions and women living in higher income regions are more likely to become self-employed compared to their respective reference groups. We thus argue that gender influences self-employment not only directly but also through interactions with other demographic variables. Separate evaluation of different groups based on demographics should therefore result in better targeting of policies.     

Community forest management,gender and fuelwood collection in rural Nepal

This paper investigates how Forest User Group (FUG) management of community forests and household characteristics influence household allocation of male and female labor to fuelwood collection in rural Nepal. FUG collection bans are found to displace both landed and landless female fuelwood collection labor to other forests that are typically further away, but lower restrictions do not. A higher female FUG executive committee share has both conservation and equity enhancing effects by lowering the likelihoods that landless, Dalit, landed and non-Dalit women collect in other forests, and increasing the likelihood landless males collect in the FUG forest.