Reputation Motivation Research Articles

What is the motivation of tourists to visit a destination developed with tourists’ participation? A case study of Ant Forest

ABSTRACT This study takes Ant Forest as an example to explore tourists’ new motivation types with respect to willingness to pay to visit a destination that developed with tourists’ participation. A total of 320 valid samples were analysed and four types of motivations were discovered, namely social motivation, experience motivation, novelty motivation, and reputation motivation. The results of regression analysis indicate that all four types of motivation have positive impacts on the willingness to pay to visit Ant Forest. And motivation derived from the experience showed the strongest associations with willingness to pay to visit, preceded by factors such as novelty, reputation and social aspects. The results fulfilled the theory of motivation in the tourism field and the findings contribute to the development of novel tourism products and facilitate the exploration of emerging market.

Doing good is not equal to good people: The wealth‐based gap in prosocial motive attributions

AbstractAre attributions of motives for prosocial behaviour modulated by the actor's wealth? We provide evidence for people attributing higher reputational motives to rich prosocial actors than poor ones across four studies. This effect persists across different kinds of prosocial behaviours, including helping (Study 1), volunteering (Study 2), and donating money (Studies 3–4). Furthermore, rich (vs. poor) prosocial actors are perceived to be less likely to be driven by altruistic motives and to have lower moral character than poor actors (Studies 2–3). Attribution of reputational motives and altruistic motives mediates the effect of target wealth on the perception of moral character (Study 2–3). Study 4 demonstrates that the judgement gap disappears when reputational benefits are implausible: voluntary privacy eliminates the wealth‐based gap in motive attributions and judgement of moral character. These findings highlight that suspicion of motives prevents people from giving credit to rich prosocial actors. The implications for understanding motive inferences and prosocial credit are also discussed.

Greening through social trust?

This study examines whether and how social trust affects corporate green innovation. Using the panel samples of Chinese non-financial listed companies from 2010 to 2015, this study finds that social trust has a significant positive impact on corporate green innovation, and this effect remains after a series of robustness checks. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this promotion effect is more pronounced in non-state owned enterprises, small enterprise facing severe financing constraints, and enterprises belonging to non-high-tech and non-heavily polluting industries. This positive impact is also more prominent in areas with high economic uncertainty, a strong Confucian cultural atmosphere, and non-environmentally friendly cities. Based on the theoretical framework of the trust triangle, the exploration of potential mechanisms reveals that the promotion effects of social trust on green innovation is achieved by increasing the external environmental pressure faced by enterprises, enhancing their reputation motivation and their environmental awareness. We further observe that social trust has a substitution effect on the formal institution. These results indicate that social trust plays a key role in affecting the green development of enterprises and can be used as a means of external governance.

The impact of institutional investors on ESG: Evidence from China

AbstractThis paper studies the influence of institutional ownership on the Chinese A‐shares' ESG performance. Findings reveal the positive improvement from institutional investors, and this impact is stronger in firms with better‐expected ESG performance and low initial ESG performance. Besides, heterogeneous institutional investors have different influences, and only a pressure‐resistant institution plays the promotion role. Further studies based on the period following the financial crisis and when emphasising the environmental protection policy reveal that financial motivation and reputation motivation could be the reason for institutional holding. Our findings are robust after using the instrumental variable analysis, controlling for firm fixed effects, and replacing institutional holdings, and could be beneficial for the governance of firms in China.

Being versus appearing smart: Children's developing intuitions about how reputational motives guide behavior.

Children engage in reputation management to appear favorably to others. The present studies explore when children use reputational motives to predict others' behavior. Four- to 9-year-old children (N=576; 53% female; approximately 60% White) heard stories about two kids: one who cares about being competent, and one who cares about appearing competent. Across five studies, with age, children predicted the reputationally motivated child would be more likely to lie to cover up failure (OR=1.97) but less likely to seek help in public (vs. private; OR=0.53) or downplay success (OR=0.66). With age, children also liked this character less (OR=0.56). Implications of these findings for children's reputation management and achievement motivation are discussed.

Social Motives and Risk-Taking in Investment Decisions

A pervasive feature in the finance industry is relative performance, which can include extrinsic (money), intrinsic (self-image), and reputational (status) motives. In this paper, we model a portfolio decision with two assets and investigate how reputational motives (i.e., the public announcement of the winners or losers) influence risk-taking in investment decisions vis-a-vis intrinsic motives. We test our hypotheses experimentally with 864 students and 330 financial professionals. We find that reputational motives play a minor role among financial professionals, as the risk-taking of underperformers is already increased due to intrinsic motives. Student behavior, however, is mainly driven by reputational motives with risk-taking levels that come close to those of professionals when winners or losers are announced publicly. This indicates that professionals show higher levels of intrinsic (self-image) incentives to outperform others compared to non-professionals (students), but a similar behavior can be sparked among the latter by adding reputational incentives.

The Political Economy of the International Tax Transparency Agenda in the G20/OECD Context

This paper empirically analyses the motives underlying progress in implementing multilateral tax transparency standards. The results point to the protection of domestic special interests as a potential motive behind slower and less rigorous implementation. In particular, jurisdictions with a significant share of global offshore wealth and to some extent those that host shell company activity, progress less in adopting and implementing the AEOI and EOIR standards. High tax jurisdictions seem to make more progress, while those with significant wealth held offshore seem to lag behind. These special interest considerations, however, may have declined over time as participation became more global and compliance improved. There is also evidence that reputational motives and preceding bilateral collaboration mattered for the speed and comprehensiveness of participation.

Fund-Raising Management of Chinese University Foundations from the Perspective of Alumni Donation Willingness: A Case of Universities in Hennan Provice

This article reviews the research results of a large number of Chinese and foreign scholars, and combines social identification theory, social exchange theory, social capital theory, stakeholder theory, and principal-agent theory to build a model of individual donation willingness in Chinese universities. The questionnaire was designed, and after collecting and analyzing the data, the hypothesis was verified, and the regression relationship between willingness to donate and different motivations was obtained through response analysis. In addition, this article takes alumni identity as an intermediary variable, and studies the interaction between donation motivation, alumni identity, and willingness to donate.
 
 Based on the above research, this article concludes that there is a strong correlation between the motivation and willingness of individuals to donate to universities. Among them, reputation motivation, social responsibility realization, consolidate the relationship, tax incentives, and warm motivation have a significant effect on the willingness to donate. In addition, there is a strong correlation between alumni identity and willingness to donate. It is believed that these research conclusions can enable universities to recognize the purpose of individual donations, and to raise funds more effectively and reasonably for these motivations, thereby expanding the source of school funding and achieving sustainable development of the school.

Двухуровневая игра процесса обеспечения ответственности за нарушение права ЕС

This article seeks to reveal the role of compliance in the functioning of the European Union as a system of multi-level governance and to observe the factors determining the differentiation of EU member states by the level of compliance with the European Union law. In order to determine this level, it is necessary to concentrate on three main stages of compliance: (1) transposition of the norm, (2) implementation of the norm and (3) application of the norm. The author concludes that, within the framework of the compliance process, member states and institutions of the EU, primarily the European Commission, participate in a “two-level game”, in which they evaluate the gains and costs of choosing one or another strategy associated with the three stages of compliance. The European Union countries choose between: (1) unconditional compliance, (2) negotiation of better compliance conditions, and (3) ignoring the normative requirements for the longest possible period of time. In turn, supranational regulators, in their attempts to combat violations of the EU law, choose between the “soft” instruments of enforcement to compliance and the “hard” instruments of infringement. The choice of compliance strategies at the lower (national) level of power is determined by the following factors: (1) the level of economic development of the state, (2) the influence and role of the state within the framework of EU institutions, (3) the strength of the administrative apparatus of the state, (4) the coalition potential of the state and (5) legal fit. Thus, some states violate the European Union law intentionally (voluntary non-compliance), while the difficulties of the compliance process for other countries are determined by objective reasons of a socio-economic nature (involuntary non-compliance). In turn, the supranational level of the “two-level game” when choosing a compliance strategy is guided by both administrative and reputational motives. Acknowledgements. The article uses the results of the Project “Strategies and Mechanisms of Maintaining the Stability in Multi-Level Political Systems”, conducted as part of the HSE University Fundamental Research Program in 2019.

Optimal Resort to Court-Appointed Experts

Abstract Departing from the observation that neutral experts are increasingly appointed by courts, this paper investigates the incentives of courts to appoint experts, and the interactions between the judge’s and the expert’s efforts to discover the truth about a given case. Judges seek to make correct decisions and may choose to appoint experts in order to do so. Experts are assumed to be guided by both reputational and truth-finding motives. We highlight the determinants of the judge’s and the expert’s effort levels and of the judge’s decision whether to appoint an expert. We find that the expert’s effort is decreasing in the judge’s effort, which implies potential freeriding from the judge. Moreover, we find that (i) the judge’s effort is generally suboptimal, and (ii) they might resort to an expert appraisal too frequently, thereby contributing to increased court congestion and higher costs for society. Our results therefore suggest that, under conditions that we discuss, it may be socially beneficial to apply a principle of proportionality to the use of expert testimony, depending on the complexity of the case.

When Does the Family Matter? Institutional pressures and corporate philanthropy in China

This paper investigates whether family firms display corporate giving practices significantly different from nonfamily firms. Our two-stage model theorizes, and finds empirical support from a survey of 3,075 Chinese private firms, that firms sensitive to institutional pressures (as a result of firm visibility and political linkages) are more likely to engage in philanthropy (stage 1) and to donate larger amounts (stage 2). In stage 1, family and nonfamily firms display similar conforming behaviors, aimed at maintaining sociopolitical legitimacy. In stage 2, family ownership intensifies the effect of institutional pressures on firms’ philanthropic giving, as reputational motives overlay legitimacy concerns. Our study integrates institutional analyses of socially responsible practices and family business theories to yield insights on the role of the family variable as a key moderator of institutional effects.

Venture Capital and Capital Allocation

ABSTRACTI show that venture capitalists' motivation to build reputation can have beneficial effects in the primary market, mitigating information frictions and helping firms go public. Because uninformed reputation‐motivated venture capitalists want to appear informed, they are biased against backing firms—by not backing firms, they avoid taking low‐value firms to market, which would ultimately reveal their lack of information. In equilibrium, reputation‐motivated venture capitalists back relatively few bad firms, creating a certification effect that mitigates information frictions. However, they also back relatively few good firms, and thus, reputation motivation decreases welfare when good firms are abundant or profitable.

Social Status and Risk-Taking in Investment Decisions

A pervasive feature in the finance industry is relative performance, which can include extrinsic (money), intrinsic (self-image), and reputational (status) motives. In this paper, we model a portfolio decision with two assets and investigate how reputational motives (i.e., the public announcement of the winners or losers) influence risk-taking in investment decisions vis-a-vis intrinsic motives. We test our hypotheses experimentally with 864 students and 330 financial professionals. We find that reputational motives play a minor role among financial professionals, as the risk-taking of underperformers is already increased due to intrinsic motives. Student behavior, however, is mainly driven by reputational motives with risk-taking levels that come close to those of professionals when winners or losers are announced publicly. This indicates that professionals show higher levels of intrinsic (self-image) incentives to outperform others compared to non-professionals (students), but a similar behavior can be sparked among the latter by adding reputational incentives.

Analysis of Charitable Donation Behavior Based on Neuroscience

Charitable donation is the material foundation of philanthropy. This paper systematically reviews and combs the research literature on charitable donation behavior, and finds that traditional economics has bias between altruistic motivation and rational assumption of charitable donation behavior and actual experience observation, so it is unable to accurately grasp the real motivation of human behavior. The theory of cranial nerve science brings a brand-new research perspective to economics. Altruism motivation, warmth effect and reputation motivation have been proved in the research of cranial nerve science, provide important clues to study the development of motivation tendency of charitable donation behavior, and offer unlimited possibilities for further understanding the internal mechanism of economic behavior.

Consumer Protection in South Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for Furniture Retailers in Cape Town, South Africa

Five years ago, the government of South Africa enacted the Consumer Protection Act which is a piece of legislation that seeks to protect consumers in their day-to-day dealings with retailers and other businesses. Heralded as the best consumer legislation in the world, the new Consumer Protection Act was received with mixed reactions by many businesses in general and furniture retailers in particular. This study therefore endeavoured to unearth the challenges and opportunities that this new consumer protection legislation provides to furniture retailers in Cape Town, South Africa. Using triangulation as the research methodology, semi-structured questionnaires were administered on 150 respondents from the population of study. 20 in-depth interviews were also carried out with customer service and branch managers from selected furniture retailers in Cape Town. The study found out that corporate chain (national) retailers are more aware of the Consumer Protection Act than small independent furniture retailers and that most retailers have already started implementing the new act. The study also found out that the new Consumer Protection Act poses major challenges for furniture retailers. These challenges include financial report instability, increased transaction costs and also the need for continuous staff development and training. On the other hand, this study also found that, if properly implemented, the new legislation may lead to an improvement in reputation, product quality, customer service and staff motivation. Many furniture retailers have thus taken a leading role in pushing the frontiers of their businesses in order to comply with the act. This study will add to the body of knowledge of customer service and consumer protection by uncovering some specific strategies which furniture retailers can adopt to counter the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new Consumer Protection Act. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1p224

Death That Builds: Death Awareness and Family Firms’ Social Orientation

Researchers have attributed the unique social orientation of family firms to the reputational motives of family members. However, little is known about how such an enduring characteristic could persist beyond the lifetimes of those individual members. Using an inductive, qualitative approach and comparing letters to shareholders from family and nonfamily Fortune 500 firms, we combine theory on succession in family firms and recent work on death awareness to derive a model linking the organizational identity to a reflective approach to death. We discuss implications for research and practice in the areas of sustainability, family firms, and organizational identity.

Social Simulation That 'Peers into Peer Review'

This article suggests to view peer review as a social interaction problem and shows reasons for social simulators to investigate it. Although essential for science, peer review is largely understudied and current attempts to reform it are not supported by scientific evidence. We suggest that there is room for social simulation to fill this gap by spotlighting social mechanisms behind peer review at the microscope and understanding their implications for the science system. In particular, social simulation could help to understand why voluntary peer review works at all, explore the relevance of social sanctions and reputational motives to increase the commitment of agents involved, cast light on the economic cost of this institution for the science system and understand the influence of signals and social networks in determining biases in the reviewing process. Finally, social simulation could help to test policy scenarios to maximise the efficacy and efficiency of various peer review schemes under specific circumstances and for everyone involved.

Availability Cascades and Risk Regulation

An availability cascade is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation by which an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that gives the perception of increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse. The driving mechanism involves a combination of informational and reputational motives: Individuals endorse the perception partly by learning from the apparent beliefs of others and partly by distorting their public responses in the interest of maintaining social acceptance. Availability entrepreneurs - activists who manipulate the content of public discourse - strive to trigger availability cascades likely to advance their agendas. Their availability campaigns may yield social benefits, but sometimes they bring harm, which suggests a need for safeguards. Focusing on the role of mass pressures in the regulation of risks associated with production, consumption, and the environment, Professor Timur Kuran and Cass R. Sunstein analyze availability cascades and suggest reforms to alleviate their potential hazards. Their proposals include new governmental structures designed to give civil servants better insulation against mass demands for regulatory change and an easily accessible scientific database to reduce people's dependence on popular (mis)perceptions.