Reputational Factors Research Articles

Blockchain enabled traceability — An analysis of pricing and traceability effort decisions in supply chains

Despite numerous use cases, enterprise-wide implementations of blockchains have seen limited success. This raises the question of when do firms adopt blockchains and do blockchains benefit supply chains. To answer this, we examine a dyadic supply chain consisting of a buyer and a supplier and analyze their traceability effort and pricing decisions. Our results show that the demand-side, supply-side and reputational factors influencing blockchain adoption are primarily complementary and in the absence of one of them, firms can still adopt blockchain. Furthermore, even in the absence of individual benefits for a supply chain partner, there exist conditions under which blockchain adoption benefits the supply chain that can incentivize players to join blockchain. Overall, we contribute by offering a framework that supply chain players can use to assess the likelihood of blockchain implementation success or failure and address the challenges pertaining to incentives and cost imbalances in blockchain implementation.

Project-Based Public-Private Collaborations.

Project-based collaborations between a single academic group and a single pharmaceutical company arguably are the most frequent form of public-private partnership in preclinical research and development of new drugs. This chapter discusses the benefits of such collaborations for both sides and potential challenges that can arise before and during the conduct of a project. This is largely based on a survey of expectations and experience by 134 academic investigators with a history of engagement in a project-based collaboration with a pharmaceutical company as well as unstructured experience directly, and learned through discussions with colleagues, from the authors. Obviously, a key benefit for both sides is achieving goals that neither could easily achieve by itself. Scientific discovery, and publications, may be a shared benefit, while for academics, funding and access to compounds, and for industry, access to assay technology and reputational factors may be important. Major hurdles can be freedom to publish and assignment of intellectual property rights. On pragmatic grounds, reaching a contract can be cumbersome, which is largely attributable to the legal expectations and needs of both parties. However, overall satisfaction with project-based collaborations appears very high for academic investigators.

Four‐party evolutionary game analysis of geographical indication product quality control issues with network media‐assisted supervision

AbstractThis study focuses on addressing quality supervision issues related to opportunistic behavior within the geographical indication product supply chain. It constructs an evolutionary game model comprising suppliers, distributors, government, and network media. Through analysis, it examines the influence of key factors on the decision‐making dynamics of game participants and presents management suggestions accordingly. The findings are as follows: firstly, the dual supervision model with the assistance of network media can compensate for the regulatory gaps of the government's single supervision model. Secondly, the credibility of network media plays a pivotal role in determining the efficacy of public opinion supervision. With high credibility, measures such as increasing the synergy coefficient, imposing higher fines or compensation amounts, and enhancing the impact of reputational factors can all restrain the misconduct of operating entities. Conversely, when credibility is low, not only does the supervisory function of network media falter, but it also leads to reputational damage for both the operating entities and the government. Thirdly, differentiated management should be adopted for entities in different nodes of the supply chain; higher constraint intensity should be imposed on distributors compared to suppliers. The outcomes of this study provide some analytical paths for supply chain quality supervision and corporate behavior management and underscore the significance of collaborative regulation for sustainable industry practices.

The influence of political disagreements and corruption on state health leader turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

PurposeGovernments faced formidable challenges in coordinating public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to enhance the understanding of effective organizational leadership during crises by investigating the factors influencing the turnover of health leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.Design/methodology/approachUsing primary data encompassing all appointments and dismissals of federal and state health secretaries, this paper conducted a quantitative analysis of the relational and reputational factors that contributed to leader turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper also examined whether leaders’ management and public health experience increase the duration of tenure.FindingsStates encountered significant challenges in retaining experienced and effective leadership during the health emergency, primarily due to political conflicts in policymaking and, to a lesser extent, allegations of corruption. Furthermore, leaders with expertise in public health were found to be less likely to be removed from office. However, managerial experience did not prolong the tenure of state health secretaries during the emergency.Research limitations/implicationsSince most health leaders have public health and management experience, the contributions of each factor to the duration of a secretary’s tenure are difficult to separate and analyze separately.Practical implicationsThis study provides empirical insights into what factors drive health leader turnover during major health emergencies.Social implicationsDuring major health emergencies, health leaders often strongly disagree with elected officials on the response. This paper test how crisis leadership theories help explain state health leaders’ duration in one of the world’s largest public health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper find that policy disagreements contributed to significant turnover.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first that are aware of that uses novel primary data on public health executive leader characteristics and turnover causes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides empirical evidence contributing to the crisis leadership literature by examining health leader turnover in one of the world’s largest public health systems.

Unveiling Agricultural Shifts through Stakeholder Interactions and Strategic Dynamics in Green Rice Production

This study explores the strategic interactions among the government, growers, and the public within the context of green rice production, employing an evolutionary game theory framework. Recognizing the intricate dynamics of agricultural sustainability, we construct a three-party evolutionary game model to investigate the strategic decision-making processes and stability conditions of each stakeholder. The model assesses how various strategies evolve under the influence of economic incentives, regulatory measures, and public engagement. Through analytical and numerical methods, including stability analysis and MATLAB 2020b simulations, we identify the Evolutionarily Stable Strategies (ESS) that signify sustainable practices in green rice production. The results reveal that as government incentives for green production increase and fines for non-green practices are enforced, the likelihood of growers adopting sustainable practices significantly rises. Furthermore, the strategic enhancement of economic incentives and reputational factors not only bolsters governmental regulatory commitment but also reduces the necessity for public supervision, demonstrating a systemic shift towards self-regulation and market-driven sustainability. The simulations demonstrate the system’s evolution towards a stable state where governmental regulation is fully enforced, growers adopt green production universally, and public supervision becomes redundant. The findings underscore the importance of designing policy interventions that harmonize economic and environmental objectives, suggesting that well-structured incentives and regulatory measures can catalyze the transition towards sustainable agricultural practices. Additionally, our study highlights the pivotal role of establishing effective incentive structures that ensure the economic benefits of green production outweigh the costs, facilitating an autonomous regulatory system. This study contributes to the understanding of how strategic interactions shaped by policy and market forces can foster agricultural sustainability.

Evolutionary Game Analysis on Cooperative Behavior of Major Projects’ Technology Innovation Subjects under General Contracting Mode

Major projects are the important platform for enhancing a country’s comprehensive national power and strengthening its capacity for independent innovation. Although major projects in China have made remarkable achievements, willingness to cooperate and innovate has not achieved the desired target. In this paper, the evolutionary game model of cooperative innovation behavior of general contractors and subcontractors is constructed by considering reputational factors. Through theoretical derivation, the influence of the distribution ratio of collaborative innovation benefit, spillover technology absorption capacity, and reputation discounting coefficient on innovation behavior is analyzed. Finally, MATLAB software is used to simulate the dynamic evolution process of strategy selection. The results show that (1) a reasonable benefit distribution coefficient can promote the evolution of innovation behavior in a positive direction; (2) both the reduction of innovation cost and the increase of spillover technology absorption capacity can make the innovation subject more inclined to choose the active collaborative innovation strategy; and (3) it is the higher-than-threshold reputation loss that can effectively inhibit the “free-rider” behavior. The research conclusions and managerial implications can provide reference for improving the willingness to cooperate in major projects’ technology innovation.

Green renovation of existing public buildings in China: A synergy mechanism of state-owned enterprises based on evolutionary game theory

The high carbon emissions of public buildings owned by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) pose challenges to achieving carbon peaking and neutrality goals. Hence, the active participation of SOEs in green renovation is crucial. The literature mainly focuses on private enterprises and considers stakeholders' benefits from the perspective of economic incentives while neglecting SOEs, which are heterogeneous from private enterprises. To fill this gap in the literature, we propose a synergy mechanism underlying how the parent company and the operations and construction subsidiaries of a typical SOE cooperate and compete with each other to promote the completion of green renovation projects. We use an evolutionary game model to describe the synergy mechanism by analyzing political, economic, and reputational factors. We make the following conclusions: (1) Under the conditions of asymmetric game power, three equilibrium stable strategies are identified. The behavior of the parent company, which is notably influenced by political factors, is critical for the success of green renovation. (2) Political penalties are the fundamental factor breaking the dilemma of low implementation efficiency in green renovation. This event occurs when political penalties for non-incentive management exceeds the cost of incentive management. (3) Each factor exerts varying impacts on the synergy mechanism, with the impact of political, economic, and reputational factors decreasing sequentially. The government can rely on environmental benefit preference and reputational incentives to drive SOEs to actively participate in green renovation. The parent companies of SOEs can enhance political promotion penalties, increase political preference, and reduce decision-making error costs in green renovation to ensure smooth implementation.

Green Tweets or Not? The Sustainable Commitment of Higher Education Institutions

Higher education organizations are increasingly playing a key role in promoting Sustainable Development within society by disclosing information about applied strategies and achieved sustainable performance via social media. Consequently, platforms like Twitter have evolved into decisive tools for fostering accountability, establishing legitimacy, and displaying engagement to environmental sustainability. First, this paper aims to analyze the impact of published sustainable content on Twitter on the stakeholders’ online engagement level within British green universities ranked by the People & Planet University League. Second, the study intends to investigate the influencing factors that enhance online interactions. To attain the purpose a theoretical framework was established and a text mining analysis of 145,941 tweets was conducted to construct both a sustainable and a general online engagement index. Finally, a multivariate regression analysis was employed to create two models based on content type. The results reveal a heightened interest in engaging with sustainable content shared on the official Twitter profiles of the sampled universities in comparison to general information tweets. Furthermore, the findings indicate that organizational attributes, reputational factors, and considerations related to strategy design and implementation of sustainable policies, along with the sentiment polarity of the disseminated content, contribute to elucidating the attained level of online engagement. These factors work together to involve stakeholders in the pursuit of sustainable development goals within Green Universities.

HERDING BIAS INVESTOR MASA NEW NORMAL PANDEMI COVID-19

This study examines the determinants of herding bias in investors in Indonesia during the Covid-19 New Normal period. This study was conducted for six months to survey the behavior of 232 investors with a single investor identification in the Indonesian capital market who were haphazardly selected to test the herding bias model. The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis show that reputational factors, social proof, lack of awareness, volatility in global markets, underconfidence, optimism, bandwagon effect, and speculation are the determinants of investor herding bias in Indonesia. The results of this study also prove that the reputation factor is the dominant factor determining herding behavior, where investors will follow the behavior of their community to maintain their reputation. The second factor that contributes highly to determining herding bias is social proof, which means that Indonesian investors consider social roles in the decision-making process. We hope the results of this study can provide researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of herding behavior which is part of the theory of financial behavior.

The Reputation Factor in the Valuation of Startups

This paper analyses the relationship between corporate reputation and valuation, with a special focus on startups. Considering the most accredited scientific and professional literature regarding startup valuation, an attempt has been made to understand if and to what extent reputation can be a value driver in the estimate of startups during the first phases of their life cycle. The authors conducted a systematic literature review, which showed a modest interest in the subject on the part of the scientific community, while – on the contrary – practitioners developed ad hoc methods for valuing startups in their very early stages also considering reputational drivers. These methods are not based on the forecasting of flows and rates, but instead explain the value of the startup with a series of qualitative parameters that are explicitly identified and individually quantified/valued, acting as indicators of the value of the entity. Among the most used approaches are the Berkus Method, the Scorecard Method, and the Risk Factor Summation Method. These methods include reputational factors among qualitative parameters, that is among the value drivers. The analysis and the conclusions reached offer a conceptual contribution and identify a research path that deserves attention.

What are you reading? From core journals to trendy journals in the Library and Information Science (LIS) field

In this study, we present an objective, replicable methodology to identify trendy journals in any consolidated discipline. Trendy journals are those most read by authors who are currently publishing within the scope of the discipline. Trendy journal lists differ from consolidated lists of top core journals; the latter are very stable over time, mainly reflecting reputational factors, whereas the former reveal current influences not yet captured by studies based on bibliometric indicators or expert surveys. We apply our methodology to identify trendy journals among 167 titles indexed in the Web of Science category of the Information Science & Library Science (LIS) research area. Our list of trendy journals represents the most influential journals nowadays in the LIS discipline, challenging to some extent the core LIS journal list and journal category lists ordered by citations (e.g., by the Journal Impact Factor). Our results show that Scientometrics is the journal that bears the most influence on current production when not corrected for journal size and that Quantitative Science Studies—a small, relatively new journal not yet assigned a Journal Impact Factor nor present on any list of core LIS journals—is the journal that has shown the most significant recent influence when controlling for size.

A survey of pediatric urology fellowship applicants: past priorities to guide future possibilities

The number of applicants to pediatric urology fellowships is often lower than the available positions (chart), giving applicants significant influence over where they ultimately match. Historically, interviews were conducted at individual hospitals, in-person, with residents bearing most costs. The objective of this study was to understand the factors associated with where applicants decide to apply, interview, and match for fellowship, as well as barriers within this process. A 24-question survey was sent via email to all applicants who successfully matched into pediatric urology fellowship from 2013 to 2019. Questions included: demographics; factors associated with where they applied, interviewed, and ranked; and barriers within the application process. A total of 126 recent and current fellows were contacted, and 73 (60%) completed the full survey (51% male and 49% female). On average, respondents applied to 10 programs, interviewed at 9, and ranked 8. The most important factors in choosing where to apply/interview were: volume of surgical cases, diversity of surgical cases, and advice from mentors. The most important factors when making a rank list were: clinical autonomy, reputation of program, and structure of program. Hospital facilities were only rated "important" by 12% of respondents. 82% (60 respondents) faced at least one personal or professional barrier during the application process. The most common barrier was "cost of interviewing" (59%, 43 respondents). Personal vacation time was used by 61% of applicants during interviews, with 37% using more than 5 days. This study is the first to explore the factors that applicants consider when choosing where to apply, interview, and rank for pediatric urology fellowship. This information is important to understand due to the current supply and demand of fellowship positions. We are limited by extrapolating more general conclusions about applicants as a whole from a survey with a 60% response rate and the lack of an available validated survey in this realm. This study has shown that most pediatric urology fellowship applicants apply to programs primarily based on perceived surgical volume and reputational factors. These same factors are used when making a rank list. Many applicants faced personal or professional barriers during the application process, largely due to costs and time away from work and family. While recent interviews have transitioned to a virtual format by necessity, prior applicants did not rate hospital facilities as important to them. Overall, there is room to improve this process based on such feedback.

Explaining domestic student enrolment growth in Australian private universities and colleges

ABSTRACT Australia established a demand-driven funding model for government-subsidised undergraduate places at public universities between 2012 and 2017. This allowed public universities to expand subsidised undergraduate places over this period. However, private universities and colleges did not have access to demand-driven funding but nonetheless grew domestic student enrolments by 38% over the same period, an unexpected difference given that demand-driven funding allowed public universities to expand enrolments with few limitations. To explain differences in growth by institution type, a supply and demand model relevant to public universities and private universities and colleges is developed. The model is used to understand enrolment dynamics and how providers responded to the demand-driven funding environment. Drawing on novel higher education statistics, four hypotheses for the unexpected enrolment growth in private universities and colleges are tested: reputational factors; disciplinary specialisation; price; and appeal to disadvantaged student groups. The data reveal some support for each hypothesis but show disciplinary specialisation is the strongest explanation of enrolment growth outside public universities. The findings illustrate how less established private institutions can grow and compete with more established public universities by responding to market demand and offering specialised programmes to meet that demand.

Репутационные факторы субъекта Российской Федерации: социокультурный и политический аспекты

The process of institutionalizing the concept of “reputation of a subject of the Russian Federation” in the socio-cultural and political context is considered. The special role of publicity capital in determining the competitive advantages and political positioning of the Russian Federation subjects is emphasized. The main reputational factors are identified: the KPI system, new information technologies, the image or brand of a region. Five main groups of stakeholders that may influence the stability of the reputation of a Russian Federation subject are identified.

Reputation Management in Times of the Pandemic - Empirical Analysis of Selected Health Care Providers Operating in the Slovak Market

The issue of corporate reputation management is one of the key areas in the process of building trust between the supply and demand side of the market. The services sector, which, as a rule, works predominantly with intangible products, is particularly vulnerable to reputational damage. The presented study aims to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the overall level of reputation of eleven Slovak teaching hospitals. The data sources used in the form of publicly available databases cover both the traditional factors of the brick-and-mortar market, as well as the factors related to the virtual Internet environment. The results of the analysis point to the fact that while the traditional level of reputation of the entities reflected changes in the market only to a relatively limited extent, the level of the online reputation of the analysed entities decreased significantly due to the pandemic. This finding underscores the fact about the fragility of reputation in the Internet environment. By comparing individual reputational factors in the pre-pandemic period with the situation during the peak of the third wave of the pandemic, the study offers a relatively compact knowledge base for formulating basic transformations for comprehensive research into the impact of a pandemic on corporate competitiveness.

Effects of social support on performance outputs and perceived difficulty during physical exercise

Perceptions of social support influence adaptive self-regulatory processes that maintain health, produce feelings, and motivate behavior. Although associations between sociality and health are increasingly well-understood, there is little systematic research into the effects of social support on fatigue, physical discomfort, exertion, and output regulation in physical activity. We conducted an experimental study to investigate the effect of social support on performance and perceived difficulty in a handgrip force task while controlling for audience and reputational factors. Effects were compared with those of another established psychogenic performance enhancer (a placebo ergogenic supplement). During handgrip trials over varying levels of objective difficulty, participants viewed photographs of a support figure or stranger while in a placebo or control condition. Results revealed a significant main effect of the social support cue on handgrip performance outputs, and a significant interaction with objective trial difficulty – relative to the stranger cue, the support-figure cue significantly increased handgrip performance outputs and the effect was larger in more objectively difficult trials. Moreover, despite producing greater handgrip outputs, participants perceived trials to be significantly less difficult in the social support condition. Though there was a non-significant main effect of placebo (vs. control) on performance outputs, participants perceived trials in the placebo condition to be significantly less difficult. The research contributes new evidence and theory on the role of perceived social support – an important (energetic) resource – in human performance and motivates further enquiry into how cues to support alter perceived effort and performance outputs in strenuous physical challenges.

Reputation and financial reporting in Finnish public organizations

PurposeThis article analyzes the links between financial reports and reputation in the context of Finnish public sector organizations. In general, the paper discusses the accounting treatment of intangible and tangible assets and the quality and relevance of public sector financial reporting.Design/methodology/approachFor data, we combine three data sets: financial statement information of eight anonymous Finnish public organizations, the results of a reputation survey among their key stakeholders (N = 914) and a sample of the social media sentiment around the organizations.FindingsOur findings suggest that a decrease in spending and, surprisingly in the nonprofit sector, an increase in the surplus, indicate better perceived financial performance. An increase in surplus is positively linked with the reputational factors, for example, trust. However, disclosing excessive amounts of information, for example, in financial reporting seems to contribute to negative discussions on social media.Practical implicationsWe highlight the importance of managing intangibles, including those not recognized in the balance sheet, such as reputation. We present three propositions with potential managerial relevance.Originality/valueDespite the considerable amount of financial information disclosed by public sector organizations, few studies have analyzed its relevance or connection to reputation. This first-of-a-kind paper combines intangible and tangible assets by analyzing how financial data and intangible reputation are linked in the public sector accounting context. Six reputational factors were discovered, and financial performance was found to correlate with trust in the public sector.

How is open access publishing going down with early career researchers? An international, multi-disciplinary study

This study explores early career researchers’ (ECRs) appreciation and utilisation of open access (OA) publishing. The evidence reported here results from a questionnaire-based international survey with 1600 participants, which forms the second leg and final year of a four year long, mixed methods, longitudinal study that sought to discover whether ECRs will be the harbingers of change when it comes to scholarly communications. Proceeding from the notion that today’s neophyte researchers, believed to hold millennial values of openness to change, transparency and sharing, may be best placed to power the take-up of OA publishing, the study sought to discover: the extent to which ECRs publish OA papers; the main reasons for their doing or not doing so; and what were thought to be the broader advantages and disadvantages of OA publishing. The survey data is presented against a backdrop of the literature-based evidence on the subject, with the interview stage data providing contextualisation and qualitative depth. The findings show that the majority of ECRs published in OA journals and this varied by discipline and country. Most importantly, there were more advantages and fewer disadvantages to OA publishing, which may be indicative of problems to do with cost and availability, rather than reputational factors. Among the many reasons cited for publishing OA the most important one is societal, although OA is seen as especially benefiting ECRs in career progression. Cost is plainly considered the main downside.

Sold, not bought: Market orientation and technology as drivers of acquisitions of private biotechnology ventures

Acquisitions are an important exit strategy for technology entrepreneurs and investors, but what can technology ventures do to increase their chances of achieving an acquisition? We draw on signaling theory to examine the role that market orientation plays behind acquisitions. We test our hypotheses in a sample of young biotechnology ventures, and our findings are three-fold. First, we show that a target's market orientation is an important direct driver of acquisitions, thus incorporating a marketing perspective into a literature that has hitherto focused primarily on technological and reputational factors. Second, we find a substitutive interaction effect between market orientation and new product development stage, indicating that for exits through acquisitions, a high level of market orientation can compensate for an early stage of product development. Third, a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) shows that in some contexts, the monopoly power afforded by patents can further amplify the positive effect of market orientation on acquisition likelihood. Taken together, our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how different signals interact, and suggest that technology ventures should invest in market orientation early on in their life cycle.

Inter-ranking reputational effects: an analysis of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) reputational relationship

Global university rankings have become a critical factor in the higher education sector, engendering increasing interest and exerting a notable influence over a wide variety of stakeholders. They are presented to different audiences as tools that evaluate and rank universities according to quality. However, some authors are of the opinion that rankings express reputational factors to a large extent. This article presents a model of the intra- and inter-ranking relationships from the perspective of reputation along with an empirical study on two of the most influential rankings: the Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Data from these two rankings between 2010 and 2018, and the application of ordinal regressions, provide evidence that both rankings are mutually influential, generating intra and reciprocal reputational effects over time.