Diversity,organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior: An organizing framework

Experts generally agree that workforce diversity can produce positive outcomes such as novel and diverse ideas. However, research evidence indicates that workforce diversity can lead to undesirable outcomes as well. The main aim of this paper is to put forward an analytical framework that can help to explain why certain categories of employees, namely perceived low status minorities (PLSMs), might not always produce desirable outcomes. A number of theories such as social exchange, organizational justice, status, and reciprocity theories are used to illustrate why PLSMs would react to perceived injustice in a unique way leading to lower commitment and withdrawal from Organizational Citizenship Behavior.     

Customer Response to Carbon Labelling of Groceries

Thirty-seven products were labelled to indicate embodied carbon emissions, and sales were recorded over a 3-month period. Green (below average), yellow (near average), and black (above average) footprints indicated carbon emissions embodied in groceries. The overall change in purchasing pattern was small, with black-labelled sales decreasing 6% and green-labelled sales increasing 4% after labelling. However, when green-labelled products were also the cheapest, the shift was more substantial, with a 20% switch from black- to green-label sales. These findings illustrate the potential for labelling to stimulate reductions in carbon emissions.     

Expert judgements of sea-level rise at the local scale

Whilst local projections of sea-level rise (SLR) are necessary to facilitate targeted climate change adaptation and communication strategies, downscaling from global climate models can be problematic. Here, we use expert probability judgement to elicit a suite of local projections, and associated uncertainties, for future SLR on the Severn Estuary in the south-west of the UK. Eleven experts from a range of policy and academic backgrounds took part in a structured probability elicitation exercise for the years 2050, 2100 and 2200. In addition to the quantitative elicitation, the experts’ reasoning during the task was qualitatively analysed. Quantitative analyses show that although there is consensus that sea levels will rise on the Estuary in future, there is wide variation between judgements and much uncertainty regarding the magnitude of future rise. For example, median estimates of SLR (compared to the 2011 level) range from 9.6 to 40 cm in the year 2050; 20 to 100 cm in 2100; and 35 to 300 cm in 2200. Fifty per cent confidence intervals and ninety per cent confidence intervals vary even more. Qualitative analyses indicate that experts’ judgements may have been influenced by their choice of methods and information sources, the ways in which they thought about the future, and heuristics. The study shows the merits of integrating qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the reasoning behind uncertainty judgements. We conclude that where expert probability judgements are to be used to characterise uncertainty such reasoning should be made explicit.     

The use of an interim CEO during succession episodes and firm performance

Our study investigates an unexplored succession process—interim CEO successions. We define an interim CEO succession as a case where the title of chief executive officer is vacated by the incumbent and the board of directors has not announced a permanent successor, but instead designates a particular individual as ‘interim CEO,’ or ‘acting CEO,’ or ‘CEO until a permanent successor is named.’ Theory predicts that interim CEO successions will lead to the type of disruption that can harm firm performance, even after a permanent successor is appointed. Our data show that interim CEO succession processes are widely employed by publicly‐traded U.S. firms, and that they are associated with lower performance during the period in which the interim serves. However, whether the interim CEO also simultaneously serves as chairman moderates the impact of this type of succession on firm performance, as well as on long‐term firm survival. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Saving behavior and cognitive abilities

Experiments on saving behavior reveal substantial heterogeneity of behavior and performance. We show that this heterogeneity is reliable and examine several potential sources of it, including cognitive ability and personality scales. The strongest predictors of both behavior and performance are two cognitive ability measures. We conclude that complete explanations of heterogeneity in dynamic decision making require attention to complexity and individual differences in cognitive constraints.     

RISK PREFERENCES AND INFORMATION FLOWS IN RACETRACK BETTING MARKETS

Racetrack betting markets provide a unique environment to study risk preferences of investors. In this paper, we define the effects of different risk preferences on the subjective and objective probabilities of winning at racetracks. Our results indicate that up to three groups of bettors participate in these markets: risk loving, risk averse with an entertainment value in their utility functions, and risk averse with superior information or analytical ability. We find that information flows from the tote board concerning the three groups' behavior may be used to earn abnormal and possibly positive returns.