Salience Theory Research Articles

Who Dominates the Coalition? Frame Salience and Public Support for Policy–Democracy Protest Coalitions under Authoritarian Rule

Abstract How does the public support a coalition in which pro-democracy advocates and policy-based protesters join forces in street protests? When policy-based and pro-democracy groups protest together, they create a collective action frame that includes a policy component and a democracy component. In this article, I develop the frame salience theory, arguing that support for a policy–democracy protest coalition depends on which component of the joint frame is perceived to be more dominant. I argue that in authoritarian regimes, the policy component typically dominates the coalition because it is more accessible and available to the public. This perception shifts public support for the alliance towards the baseline level of support for the policy movement. In other words, public support for the alliance defaults to the baseline level of support for the policy movement. I find evidence for my argument using a survey experiment administered to 1,209 Vietnamese respondents. This article highlights a dilemma pro-democracy groups face: joining policy-based movements may boost support, but sustaining democracy after the protest becomes challenging.

Some or Other: Partitive Disanaphors Across Languages

Abstract We present a cross-linguistically robust pattern of polyfunctionality between indefinite, partitive, and disanaphoric (‘another’) use of a single lexical item. In examining the connection between these different uses, we argue that a uniform semantics underlies all of them. We employ the salience theory of definiteness, with the specific implementation in a dynamic semantics with choice functions, to model the full spectrum of the attested uses without invoking implicit variables. The core meaning is the partitive implication, whereas the indefinite and the discourse-familiar disanaphoric readings are underspecified in the semantics and are argued to be additional construals conditioned by discourse factors. The partitive meaning, however, is shown itself to be subject to variable pragmatic packaging across languages, from being a part of the truth conditions to a postsupposition.

Unveiling customer choice with salience theory: The link between room price and breakfast demand

Salience theory posits that decision-makers pay more attention to the most outstanding—salient—attributes of available options, ultimately impacting decision-makers’ choices. This study proposes extending this theory to the decision of adding an extra component to a product, with special significance for the hospitality industry. Hotels tend to charge a fixed amount to add breakfast to a reservation. Drawing on the salience theory, we show that this constant surcharge makes the demand for breakfast-included rooms dependent on the room’s price. The empirical application conducted on a sample of over 22,000 reservations supports the predictions that the probability of selling breakfast-included rooms rises (1) after a room price increase and (2) less so if consumers do not anticipate the price hike. Beyond the critical theoretical extension, this paper brings relevant managerial implications for dynamic pricing strategies for breakfast, which, in turn, may become a game changer for hotel revenue management strategies.

Emotional interference and attentional bias in compulsive sexual behaviors disorder - An fMRI study on heterosexual males.

Despite the inclusion of the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases, emotional and cognitive impairments related to CSBD remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the behavioral and neuronal effects of emotional interference on cognition among CSBD patients. Thirty heterosexual males with CSBD and matched healthy controls (HC) were studied with the Emotional Stroop Task using 5 categories of emotionally arousing words (sex-related, positive, fear-related, negative, neutral) during functional magnetic imaging. At the behavioral level, we found the main effect of the condition: sex-related words evoked a stronger Stroop effect than other conditions. At the neural level, we found a significant group effect. Among CSBD patients processing of sex-related words was related to increased activity in the right putamen, right thalamus, hippocampi, and left pulvinar, when compared to HC. We also found a negative correlation between neuronal activation and time spent on sexual activity during the week preceding study and numerous group differences in brain regions connected to the emotional and motivational processing of sexually explicit material, correlating with CSBD symptoms. Behavioral results indicate a specific attentional bias toward sex-related stimuli in both groups, while neural data uncovered stronger reactivity to sex-related words in CSBD compared to HC. This reactivity is related to CSBD symptoms and provides evidence for the interference of sex-related stimuli with cognition. Such results are firmly in line with the Incentive Salience Theory and conceptualizing CSBD as a behavioral addiction.

Harnessing stakeholder engagement for sustainable agricultural intensification: contemporary evidence from northern Ghana

This article analyses the indispensable role of sustainable agricultural intensification practices (SAIP) in meeting the needs of a burgeoning human population with limited planetary resources and examines the role of various stakeholders in the adoption of these practices by local farmers. The study setting is the Upper West, a semi-arid region of Ghana. The study employs a stakeholder salience theory and a mixed-method design. Firstly, qualitative data were collected and analysed as a basis for formulating a structured questionnaire administered to beneficiary farmers, which were then analysed using marginal effects from logistic regression. Notably, the study found four sustainable crop cultivation practices and three eco-friendly crop storage methods promoted in the area. Furthermore, the engagement of stakeholders like selected farmers, Traditional authorities, and implementing NGOs had statistically significant effects on the adoption of SAIP. However, these effects were smaller when compared to the direct involvement of all beneficiary farmers in the planning and implementation of the intervention. This suggests that while technocrats and authorities are important, they alone cannot achieve the desired impact of development interventions. Beneficiary farmers are the most critical stakeholders in adopting and promoting SAIP. The article further proposes a conceptual framework for implementing SAIP in agro-based rural communities. This research therefore underscores the importance of sustainable agricultural intensification practices in a resource-constrained world and emphasizes the central role of beneficiary farmers in driving the success of such initiatives.

Salience, psychological anchors, and stock return predictability

This study examines whether salience theory predicts the effect of a 52-week high (WH) on stocks in the Taiwanese stock market. The evidence indicates enhanced profits for WH when stocks with extremely salient payoffs are excluded. Salience-induced overvaluation mitigates investors' underreaction to good news when prices are near the WH, thus leading to non-significant positive returns for stocks with salient upsides. In contrast, salient downsides exacerbate investors' underreactions to good news when prices are close to their WHs, leading to greater positive returns. These findings do not result from short-term return reversals or investor attention. This effect is more pronounced for the stocks with higher arbitrage limits. The overestimation of the salient upsides dominates the underreaction to the WH when investors experience capital losses, high-sentiment, and upward market states.

Salience management

Abstract This article zooms in on metadiscourse resources to explore their salience management in online new product launch (hereafter NPL) conferences, adopting the salience theory of socio-cognitive approach (hereafter SCA) as the theoretical foundation. Drawing on data from 16 online NPL conferences presented by non-native English speakers, it is found that different types of metadiscourse resources are employed to manage the salience of specific contextual factors in metacognitive, metarepresentational and metacommunicative dimensions, motivated by the presenter’s inherent salience and awareness of recipient design. This article not only strengthens the assumption that the salience theory of SCA can provide a new perspective for metadiscourse research, but also sheds light on how to understand the effectiveness of online business communication in the intercultural context.

Testing Europe Salience and Second-Order Election Theories: 2019 European Parliamentary Elections in Lithuania

Abstract The article assesses the 2019 elections to the European Parliament (EP) in Lithuania and their theoretical relevance. The analysis presents the political stances of parties and the electorate towards the EU. The focus then shifts to information and political campaigns, the parties participating in the EP elections, and the electoral results. These aspects serve to evaluate the theoretical relevance of Second-order election theory and the Europe salience theory, revealing the absence of Eurosceptic, protest, populist, and postmaterial mood in the 2019 EP elections in Lithuania.

2019 European Elections in Cyprus: An Empirical Exploration of Second-Order Election Effects and Europe Salience

Abstract By focusing on Cyprus’ constitutional and political system in light of the most recent European elections, this article explores and empirically analyses the second-order election theory and the European salience theory. The study applies these theories to identify key trends in Cypriot voters’ electoral behavior, including their attitudes toward European integration. The contribution starts with a brief preliminary section on the country’s historical background, geopolitical profile, and political landscape. It then provides insights on Cyprus’ electoral system, the political parties’ campaigns, and election results. The findings seek to unveil voter attitudes and political trends in Cyprus, feeding public discussion and academic dialogue on the issue in anticipation of the upcoming 2024 European election. The article aims to clarify the European South’s attitudes toward voting and what to expect in the upcoming 2024 elections, considering challenges, threats, and volatility.1

Investigating the varying relevance of CSR dimensions on firm leverage: The implications for internationalized firms

We empirically investigate the varying role of CSR dimensions such as community, diversity, employee relations, environment, human rights, and product on US firms’ leverage. Overall CSR performance and dimensions relating to diversity, employee relations and environment are negatively associated to firm leverage, implying easier access to equity financing. Contrastingly, the human rights dimension is positively associated to firm leverage. For internationalized firms, particularly operating in non-environmentally sensitive industries, the relationship is however reversed for overall CSR performance and dimensions related to diversity, employee relations and environment, while community performance is negatively associated to firm leverage. Drawing on the stakeholder theory of capital structure and stakeholder salience, we highlight the heterogeneous consequences of CSR dimensions as channels that both enable and limit access to equity financing. Our results are robust to alternative explanations and proxies and highlight the need for managing specific CSR dimension performance, the more so when operating multi-nationally.

Insurers' climate change risk management quality and natural disasters

AbstractWe perform a textual analysis of insurers' climate risk disclosures and construct a climate change risk management quality index. Our index captures to what extent insurers identify, manage, and adjust their business model to climate change risk. We find that natural disasters in an insurer's home state lead to an increase in climate change risk management quality. The effect of natural disasters in an insurer's geographic markets on climate change risk management seems to be less pronounced. Overall, these results are consistent with salience theories of choice.

A behavioral economics approach to enhancing HIV preexposure and postexposure prophylaxis implementation.

The 'PrEP cliff' phenomenon poses a critical challenge in global HIV PrEP implementation, marked by significant dropouts across the entire PrEP care continuum. This article reviews new strategies to address 'PrEP cliff'. Canadian clinicians have developed a service delivery model that offers presumptive PEP to patients in need and transits eligible PEP users to PrEP. Early findings are promising. This service model not only establishes a safety net for those who were not protected by PrEP, but it also leverages the immediate salience and perceived benefits of PEP as a natural nudge towards PrEP use. Aligning with Behavioral Economics, specifically the Salience Theory, this strategy holds potential in tackling PrEP implementation challenges. A natural pathway between PEP and PrEP has been widely observed. The Canadian service model exemplifies an innovative strategy that leverages this organic pathway and enhances the utility of both PEP and PrEP services. We offer theoretical insights into the reasons behind these PEP-PrEP transitions and evolve the Canadian model into a cohesive framework for implementation.

Salience theory, investor sentiment, and commonality in sentiment: Evidence from the Chinese stock market

Investors pay more attention to a stock when the absolute return difference between the stock and the market is substantial, and consequently investors overweight this salience attribute when assessing the expected payoff from the stock. We demonstrate that the salience theory measure, which reflects this phenomenon, serves as a reliable proxy for firm-level investor sentiment and that the aggregate salience theory measure effectively represents market investor sentiment in the Chinese stock market. Furthermore, our findings reveal that the quintile portfolio with salient upsides underperforms the one with salient downsides by 1.26% (1.19% after risk adjustment) per month from 2002 to 2021. Moreover, we illustrate that the investor sentiment component of the salience theory measure significantly contributes to the negative salience premium. Finally, we provide evidence that the commonality in sentiment is priced significantly and positively, even after we control for the salience theory measure, firm risk characteristics, and lottery characteristics.

The integration of education for sustainable development into accounting education: stakeholders’ salience perspectives

PurposeThis paper applies a stakeholder salience theoretical framework to facilitate the understanding of the roles salient stakeholders can have in the integration of education for sustainable development, one of the important Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), into Jordan’s university accounting education.Design/methodology/approachWe used stakeholder salience theory to inform our study. This study adopted a qualitative research method. The study used semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative, open-ended data that explored the salient stakeholders’ thoughts, beliefs and feelings about their roles in influencing the integration of education for sustainable development into the Jordanian accounting curriculum.FindingsThe results indicate that education for sustainable development in accounting is important; however, most Jordanian salient stakeholders indicate their inability to integrate sustainable education into the accounting curriculum due to their lack of power to do so. The findings show that there is currently an inappropriate distribution of power, legitimacy and urgency amongst the salient stakeholders, who indicate that a progressive education solution is required in the critical area of education for sustainable development in accounting. This research indicates that a significant number of salient stakeholders would like the Jordanian government to provide power, legitimacy and urgency to enable accounting educators to become definite stakeholders as this will enable them to integrate sustainable education into the accounting curriculum.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to Jordan only. The paper draws attention to the need for an appropriate distribution of power, legitimacy and urgency amongst salient stakeholders in Jordan.Practical implicationsThis paper provides evidence that the salient stakeholders in this emerging economy want to make changes in their education system to address climate change concerns, an important SDG, through a better education curriculum for sustainable development in Jordanian universities.Social implicationsAccounting educators should be given the power to make changes in the accounting curriculum, such as integrating education for sustainable development.Originality/valueThere is an inappropriate distribution of power, legitimacy and urgency amongst the Jordanian salient stakeholders and this imbalance hinders the integration of education for sustainable development into the accounting curriculum.

Salience theory value spillovers between China’s systemically important banks: evidence from quantile connectedness

Analyzing the interdependencies among financial institutions is critical for designing systemic risk monitoring mechanisms; however, most existing research focuses on the first moment of the return distribution, which falls into the conventional models of choice under risk. Previous literature has observed the scarcity of investors’ attention and processing power, which makes the traditional theory of choice under risk more vulnerable and brings the salience theory that accommodates investors’ cognitive limitations to our attention. Motivated by evidence of salience theory value (STV) containing unique information not captured by traditional higher-order moments, we employ a quantile connectedness approach to examine the STV interconnectedness of China’s systemically important banks (C-SIBs). The quantile approach allows us to uncover the dynamic STV interconnectedness of C-SIBs under normal, bearish, and bullish market conditions and is well-suited to extreme risk problems. Our results show that the C-SIBs system is asymmetrically interconnected across quantiles and at higher levels under bullish than bearish market conditions. Principally, a bank’s performance in the C-SIBs system depends on its systemic importance and market conditions. Furthermore, the comparative analysis indicates that STV could provide more information than higher-order moments in capturing the dynamic change in the C-SIBs system and detecting some market events more precisely. These results have important implications for policymakers and market participants to formulate regulatory policy and design risk management strategies.

Climate change disclosure and evolving institutional investor salience: Roles of the Principles for Responsible Investment

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between climate change disclosure and institutional investors. A particular focus of the present study is the question of if and how the relationship is affected by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). A relevant context to the question is shareholder engagement, where institutional investors' legitimacy affects the outcomes. Thus, this study examines Japan, where shareholder engagement is the main pathway for institutional investors to convey their ESG‐related influence to investee companies. Using the stakeholder salience theory as a theoretical framework, the empirical results of analyzing 17,604 firm‐year eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) documents of listed Japanese companies provide evidence for the following. First, institutional stakeholders' holding ratio has positively influenced corporate climate change disclosure (power). Second, the positive influence of institutional investors is more significant when PRI‐signed institutional investors are present (legitimacy). Third, the aforementioned relations gained statistical significance gradually during the analysis period (urgency). Fundamentally, this study shows that the stakeholder salience theory contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship.

Seismic Shifts in Property Valuations: A Salience Theory Approach to Understanding Market Reactions to Earthquake Risk

Seismic Shifts in Property Valuations: A Salience Theory Approach to Understanding Market Reactions to Earthquake Risk

Volume Versus Returns: Reevaluating the Predictive Power of Salience Theory in the Cryptocurrency Market

Volume Versus Returns: Reevaluating the Predictive Power of Salience Theory in the Cryptocurrency Market

Salience and Erasure in Environmental Advertisements: An Ecolinguistic Study

Ecolinguistics is a twofold field in which ecology and language are its two major concerns. That is, this field is concerned with the way through which our thoughts, ideologies and the like influence the environment. The present study aims at analyzing (6) constructive and destructive environmental advertisements to find out how the techniques of erasure and salience operate in these types of advertisements. It studies the linguistic expressions that achieve these techniques in the constructive and destructive advertisements. The qualitative and quantitative methods are exploited in the current study. Analyzing (6) constructive and destructive environmental advertisements in accordance with Stibbe’s (2015) model of salience and erasure accomplishes the qualitative approach whereas accounting the frequencies and percentages of salience and erasure occurrences in constructive and destructive environmental advertisements accomplishes the quantitative approach. The model of the analysis used in the present study is of Stibbe’s (2015) theory of erasure and salience. The main finding shows that the technique of salience is employed more frequently in constructive advertisements than that of erasure, whereas the same techniques are equally used in destructive advertisements. The main conclusion of the present study reads that the technique of salience is appropriate for constructive advertisements since it highlights the important aspects of the environmental advertisements

When and how does decoy effect work? The roles of salience and risk aversion in the consumer decision-making process

The decoy effect has attracted much attention in the field of marketing and indicates that consumers’ preferences between two options will change after adding a third asymmetrically decoy option. Marketers usually hope for the decoy strategy to help improve a consumer’s preference for a target product. However, both empirical evidence and real-world examples show that the effectiveness of the decoy effect is not uniform. This paper proposes an adjusted consumer decision model based on salience theory and presents the results of an eye-tracking experiment to provide empirical evidence for it. The results show that risk aversion can moderate the effect of a decoy on salience and further impact preferences for a target product. Our study makes theoretical contributions that extend salience-based explanations for the decoy effect and have practical implications for marketers seeking to formulate effective decoy strategies, especially in the electronic commerce environment.