Market Context Research Articles

Determinants of Director Remuneration: Monitoring Human Capital and Social Embeddedness

The determinants of director compensation have been studied across the theoretical spectrum with varying findings. Agency theory suggests that monitoring human capital enhances the ability of the individuals to be effective monitors and should be associated with higher director compensation. At the same time, social embeddedness impedes the ability to monitor, and it should be associated with lower director compensation. In contrast, behavioral theory of corporate governance suggests ingratiating behavior and social embeddedness of directors increases their likelihood of higher value, and thus it should lead to higher director compensation. We attempt to reconcile these contradictory predictions of the agency theory and behavioral theory of the firm. We examine the same through the labor market for directors in India using a unique longitudinal dataset of director appointments and compensation in India over 2007-2016. We also exploit a natural experiment brought about by the implementation of the significant corporate governance reforms (Companies Act of India, 2013) to test the labor market norms posited by agency theory versus the behavioral theory of the firm. The finding of our study indicates the importance of monitoring human capital and social embeddedness as they positively affect directors' compensation. Our results also highlight that in emerging market contexts marked by the presence of institutional voids, when the implementation of corporate governance reform increases the risks for individual directors on account of corporate misconduct, they respond by optimizing their structural positions in the interlock network by increasing their reach but reducing their influence/salience in the network.

Skilled Workforces and Law-abiding Organizational Climates in Emerging Markets

Scarcity of skilled workers in the emerging market context is considered a severe challenge facing organizations since it limits the quality and depth of their labour force. Despite the prevalence of the issue, and the wide-spread illegality that often characterizes emerging markets, the relationship between skilled workers at the organizational-level and law-abiding climate, a measure of an organization's adherence to the rule of law, has not been examined. In this paper, we investigate this relationship, hypothesizing that skilled workforce negatively affects law-abiding organizational climate, by reducing an organization's ability to adapt to its environment. Furthermore, we explain the impact that managerial ties have on this relationship, hypothesizing how ties with industry firms and ties with government influence a firm’s adherence to law-abiding norms. Hypotheses were tested with survey data collected from 150 Mexican companies.

Reducing Hospitalizations Among Nursing Facility Residents: Policy Environment and Suggestions for the Future in Seven States.

The current study examined the policy and market context existing in the seven states where the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Facility Residents took place. Stakeholder organizations with knowledge of the skilled nursing facility environment but who were not directly involved with the CMS Initiative were interviewed to assess the impact of policies and programs affecting transfers to the hospital from long-term care facilities. Focused interviews were used to identify areas of quality improvement as well as market forces that contributed to hospitalization rates. Interviews were qualitatively coded and emerging patterns and themes were identified. Market pressures were similar across states. Few policies were found that may have affected the Initiative, but most states had regional coalitions focused on improving some aspect of care. When asked what else could be done to reduce hospitalizations among nursing facility residents, participants across the stakeholder organizations suggested greater presence of physicians and nurse practitioners in nursing facilities, better training around behavioral health issues for frontline staff, and more advance care planning and education for families regarding end of life. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 48(8), 10-16.].

The Complementarity Between Imports and R&D for Emerging Market Firms

Innovation is vital to firms from emerging markets to compete successfully with more technologically advanced companies from developed economies. The primary focus of recent IB research has been on the unique strategies of emerging markets MNEs used in the final stage of the internationalization process, e.g. buying technological and market capabilities abroad, to overcome the latecomer handicap. We still know little about the early-stage strategies that emerging market firms can utilize to build up initial capabilities to enable internationalization. In this study, we focus on importing as an option for firms to build and accumulate the needed technological competencies. We argue that firms’ importing and internal R&D activities are complementary for innovation performance in the emerging market context and such complementarity is contingent on external competition dynamics. We test our predictions using a large sample of Chinese firms from high-tech industries. We find that firms, which combine importing and in-house R&D efforts, achieve better innovation performance. This complementary effect is more salient for firms in industries with intense competition. The presence of inward FDI in an industry also enhances the synergistic effect of imports and R&D. Lastly, accounting for heterogeneity of local competitors along the technological dimension, we find that technology laggards are more likely to benefit from the complementary effect compared to technological leaders. Our findings highlight the importance of imports as a channel for emerging market firms to enhance innovation performance in their quest for internationalization.

VC’s in an Emerging Market: Becoming Increasingly Diversified with Experience:

How do diversification strategies of Indian VCs change with time as they gain more experience? VC diversification literature has focused primarily on mature environments and suggests that VCs specialize with experience. However, literature on corporate diversification shows that emerging markets tend to have findings that contradict the trend in established markets towards greater specialization. In emerging markets, the presence of institutional voids in supply, labor, and capital markets and the importance of generalized skills results in firms diversifying over time and enjoying performance benefits from diversification. We propose that the same drivers apply in the context of VC diversification, and contrary to prior research on VC diversification, we predict greater diversification with experience in the emerging market context. In addition, we predict that, given the importance of generalized versus specialized skills driving VCs towards greater diversification, VCs focused on investments requiring more specialized skills (early-stage investments), the positive impact of experience on diversification will be less. We find support for both the above predictions using longitudinal data of 1080 investments made by 275 VCs on Indian start-ups from 1999 to 2018. Our findings suggest boundary conditions on prior research, which suggests that VCs specialize with experience, pointing to essential differences in emerging markets and adding to our understanding of entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

Platforms and Prejudice: The Cycle of Racial Disparities on a Labor Platform

We examine a multistage evaluation process to understand the conditions under which racial minorities are at risk for disparate work outcomes using data from a platform-based skilled labor market for small business entrepreneurs. Analyzing various evaluative outcomes including job cancellations, ratings, and job allocation for nearly 100,000 jobs, we find that workers perceived as racial minorities (relative to white) receive significantly more cancellations, as well as more one-star ratings and fewer five-star ratings, even among top performers. Factors that reduce uncertainty, including worker quality, and both worker and customer experience, help attenuate the disparity in cancellations but not in ratings. Further, we demonstrate the cyclical nature of bias entrenchment and the interplay of bias with formal practices—ratings and cancellations are mutually reinforcing, and feed back into priority algorithmic work assignments. Our research illustrates the critical role that uncertainty plays in magnifying bias against racial minorities in labor market contexts and that the mechanism driving bias is a function of the evaluation stage. We contribute to the sociological literature on bias in labor market processes, status and inequality in organizations, and work precarity.

An Analysis of the Institutional Development of the SSA Region and Strategic Implications for MNCs

Research on emerging markets has proliferated considerably over the past two decades, yet there is no clear consensus in the fields of academia, business practice or public policy of what constitutes an emerging market. While early conceptualizations of emerging markets focus primarily on the level of economic development and the pace of economic growth to distinguish emerging from emerged markets, more recent work has attempted to employ a broader lens when examining these markets. Based on institutional theory, this study attempts to contribute to a more fine-grained analysis of what constitutes an emerging market by analyzing the formal and informal institutional development of countries in the emerging market context of the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region and the specific industry context of oil exploring countries in the region. In so doing, this study aims to develop a preliminary framework of institutional clusters based on the formal and informal institutional quality of emerging markets, and discusses the strategic implications for multinational corporations (MNCs).

Marketing Against Extremism: Identifying and Responding to Moral Disengagement Cues in Islamic State Terrorist Propaganda

This study presents selective moral disengagement as a paradigm for analyzing extremist marketing messages and developing effective countermessages. Selective moral disengagement explicates eight mechanisms common to extremist media content that can influence seemingly ordinary people to support and commit atrocities. Through a qualitative content analysis, the author investigates the use of moral disengagement mechanisms in an online propaganda magazine ( Rumiyah) of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization. This article demonstrates the extensive use of the eight moral disengagement mechanisms throughout a variety of genres of IS propaganda articles. In addition, a ninth moral disengagement strategy—humanization of perpetrators—emerged. The analysis reveals internal inconsistencies in IS’s approach to moral disengagement. The author argues that careful consideration of the use of these mechanisms in IS propaganda clarifies the understanding of IS’s marketing strategy and informs countermessaging efforts. Specific countermessaging approaches are proposed for combatting IS given these findings. Further, a roadmap is given for extending the selective moral disengagement analysis paradigm into other extremist marketing contexts, including U.S. domestic terrorism.

The Work Experience of Graduates as a Motivating Element in the Teaching-Learning Process

The current labour market context requires Universities to continuously adapt to changes to train students who can respond to the market's needs. Based on their professional experience, university graduates can and must be an essential element for university education to be in line with the labour market. This article presents a proposal for integrating graduates in the teaching-learning process, playing an active role. The study has been developed in the context of a bachelor's degree (Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering) and a master's degree (Master's Degree in Secondary School Teaching). The satisfaction survey results show that the experience has been very positive for our students. At the same time, it helps reduce the students' insecurity concerning their professional future.

Earnings management around equity issuances in Vietnamese listed firms

This study examines accrual earnings management in Vietnamese listed firms around equity issuances. Using a matching approach, we find that issuers tend to report higher earnings by aggressive recognition of discretionary current accruals before and during the years of equity offering. This results in significantly larger abnormal stock returns for the issuing firm-years, as the capital market overvalues firms with higher accrual earnings. However, regression results show that investors are subsequently disappointed by negative reversals in earnings, and suffer from significant negative abnormal returns in the third year after the issuance. These results provide additional empirical evidence in an emerging and transition market context, and caution investors against fixation on reported earnings in equity offerings.

THE RISING VALUE OF CUSTOMER CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

Purpose- Customer citizenship behavior (CCB) is an increasingly important behavior in the digital marketing context. This behavior positively affects company performance and also provides benefits for other customers. In this study, CCB is handled in the context of mobile applications through mobile food ordering applications example in order to understand its reflections in the digital world. The aim of this study is to propose a conceptual model that shows how customer citizenship behavior can be revealed in mobile applications. Methodology- The population of research consists of customers who experience mobile applications used to order food from various restaurants and cafes. It is aimed to reach these customers through an online survey method. The questionnaire will be created through the adaptation of the scales accepted in the consumer behavior literature; it will also include questions for understanding demographics. In the first part of the survey, in addition to information such as age, gender, education level, and monthly average income, questions such as whether they used a mobile food ordering application before, which mobile application they last used, how long, and how often they used this application will be asked. It is planned to include scale expressions to be used for testing hypotheses in the second part of the questionnaire. With the help of the data to be obtained as a result of the online survey analysis, scale validity and reliability tests will be carried out, and the relationships predicted in the relevant model will be tested with the structural equation modeling. In this context, SPSS and AMOS programs will be used. Findings- Within the scope of the study, a conceptual model is presented to explore the emergence of customer citizenship behavior in the context of mobile food ordering applications. This model focuses on the customer experience in these applications as a starting point. In this conceptual model, customer experience dimensions are discussed as education, entertainment, escape, and aesthetic factors. It is estimated that these experience factors are positively related to customer satisfaction; it is predicted that customer satisfaction will also positively affect brand commitment and mobile application commitment. It is thought that this two-way customer commitment will eventually lead to customer citizenship behavior towards the relevant application and restaurant brand. It is believed that as a result of testing the presented propositions, useful findings will be obtained for businesses to gain competitive advantage. Conclusion- The proposed model will make significant contributions to both service businesses such as restaurants/cafes, mobile application developers, and customer citizenship behavior researchers. The findings regarding the relationship between the dimensions of experience and satisfaction will contribute to the regulations and improvements to be made in the relevant sector in an increasingly difficult competitive environment. Understanding the commitment of customers who are satisfied with their experience to the brand and/or mobile application shows a way to establish a long-term relationship between the customer and the business and to make this relationship sustainable. The study will also contribute to the industries in which businesses using food ordering applications operate, by exploiting new potential markets for online purchasing, obtaining an improvement strategy for online services, and making new investment decisions. In addition, this study will contribute to the fields of marketing and consumer behavior by expanding the literature on mobile food ordering applications and customer citizenship behavior, about which there is no intensive literature study yet, although there has been an increasing interest in the digital world recently. These contributions will continue by drawing attention to the variables within the scope of the proposed model, examining the relationships between them, and obtaining the findings through the relevant tests to be carried out in the future. Keywords: Customer citizenship behavior, customer experience, commitment, satisfaction, mobile food ordering applications. JEL Codes: M10, M30, M31

Predicting investors’ intention to invest in the stock market during COVID-19: can we use an extended theory of planned behavior?

PurposeThis study aims to explain investors’ intention to invest in the stock market amid the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a quantitative approach, and a questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect responses from existing and potential individual investors. To test the relationships between variables, structural equation modeling was used.FindingsThe findings indicated that investors’ attitude and perceived behavioral control had a significant influence on investment intentions. Further, perceived knowledge of COVID-19 improved the ability to predict the intention to invest. Moreover, psychological risk significantly moderated the association between subjective norms related to investors and their attitudes. Overall, the tested model was able to better account for the intention of investors in stock market investments.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study, only the investor reactions in the context of an emerging market were evaluated, and future studies could focus on different market contexts and perform comparative studies. Financial markets could be considered as a mechanism that has a direct impact on the wealth distribution of society, and the key findings of this study could be used to promote investment in emerging markets, where participation is comparatively low.Originality/valueThe TPB was expanded by incorporating investors’ perceived knowledge of COVID-19 and psychological risk dimensions, which were then tested in an emerging market context to fill the knowledge gap identified in the contemporary behavioral finance literature.

Digital platforms in the news industry: how social media platforms impact traditional media news viewership

ABSTRACT We examine how social media plays the role of an attention driver for traditional media. Social media attracts and channels attention to a topic. This attention triggers people to seek further information that is reported professionally in traditional media. Specifically, the volume of social media posts about a stock influences the attention to this stock the next day, proxied by the viewership of news articles on the same stock published the next day. We test this hypothesis in the stock market context because social media is less likely than traditional media to diffuse fundamental information in the stock market. Analysing stock-related news articles and stock-related social media posts from Sina Finance and Sina Weibo, we find that the social media post volume of a stock at time t-1 is associated with the traditional media viewership of the same stock at time t. This effect is amplified when social media sentiment about the stock is more intense or positive, and with an increase in the volume of verified social media posts about the stock. Our results provide evidence that social media platforms act as attention drivers, which differ from the information channel functions discussed in prior literature.

Investigating the antecedents and outcome of commitment in a business-to-consumer service environment

Orientation: Over the past two decades, a new school of thought has emerged that requires investigation into the multidimensional nature of commitment on loyalty.Research purpose: The study explores the extent to which the affective and calculative commitment of retail banking customers is influenced by selected antecedents, on the one hand, and its influence on loyalty on the other.Motivation for the study: Greater knowledge of the factors that influence the affective and calculative commitment of bank customers becomes important to enhance their loyalty in the competitive banking industry of South Africa.Research design, approach and method: The collection of data was secured from 400 retail bank customers through self-administered questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics and standard multiple regression.Main findings: Perceived value, customer orientation, and expertise have a significant and positive influence on affective commitment and calculative commitment. Furthermore, affective commitment has a positive and significant influence on calculative commitment, while both affective and calculative commitment have a positive and significant influence on customer loyalty.Practical/managerial implications: The study guides South African retail banks in developing an improved understanding of the importance of commitment (affective and calculative) as a precursor to loyalty in an emerging African market context. Moreover, it emphasises the importance of selected commitment stimuli that influence the future strengthening of the commitment-loyalty link.Contribution/value-add: Through the application of a relationship marketing and social exchange theoretical framework, selected commitment (affective and calculative) stimuli are investigated to uncover their influence on strengthening the commitment-loyalty link.

Linking Authentic Leadership to Transactive Memory System, Team Innovativeness, and Selling Performance: A Multilevel Investigation

In today’s complex selling environment, it is challenging for sales leaders to enhance the effectiveness of their sales teams. The aim of this study is to observe the impact of authentic leadership on salespersons’ internal and external behaviors under B2B selling context [i.e., transactive memory system (TMS), innovative work behavior, and customer-directed OCB] and their consequences in team selling performance. Respondents of our survey included salespersons and managers working in the sales departments of pharmaceutical companies. By using structural equation modeling, the dyad responses from 348 matched salespeople–managers were analyzed. The findings disclose that authentic leadership behavior has a stronger relationship with the TMS, innovative work behavior, and customer-directed OCB. Our results also indicate that innovative work behavior and customer-directed OCB are potentially mediated between authentic leadership and team selling performance relationship. The theoretical implication of these results for managerial practice is also discussed.

Greenwash and green brand equity: The mediating role of green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust and the moderating role of information and knowledge

AbstractThis work examines the impact of greenwash on green brand equity and analyses the mediation effects of green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust as well as the moderating effect of information and knowledge based on the legitimacy theory and signalling theory. This study adopts a questionnaire‐based survey design to gather data from 445 respondents using a cluster random sampling technique. Data collection focuses on Vietnamese consumers who had purchased electronic products in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The findings show that although greenwash is not significantly related to green brand equity possibly due to the halo effect, greenwash is adversely related to green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust, which would positively influence green brand equity. In other words, green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust play a full mediation role in the relationship between greenwash and green brand equity. In addition, information and knowledge actually moderate the relationship between greenwash and green brand equity, and it strengthens the adverse relationship between greenwash and green brand equity. This research is the first to combine green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust as mediators to shed light on the understanding of different impact mechanisms in the greenwash–green brand equity relationship. Furthermore, this research is also the first to study information and knowledge as a moderator in the greenwash–green brand equity relationship. This provides a better insight into the process and context by which greenwash affects green brand equity. Taken together, the findings of this study extend and advance the understanding regarding the different mechanisms and the dynamics in which green brand image, green satisfaction, green trust as mediators and information and knowledge as a moderator can play in the emerging market context of consumers of electronic products in Vietnam. The findings enrich the growing body of green marketing literature and contribute significantly towards a unified theory of brand equity.

Investigating the association of mission statement and performance using the component and stakeholder approaches in an emerging market

Abstract This study explores the mission statement–performance relationship of 247 Philippine-listed firms by employing the practical component and theoretical stakeholder approaches to studying mission statements. Using content and regression analyses, results indicate that: (1) the existence of a mission statement and the inclusion of customer in the statement are positively and significantly associated with performance; and (2) the inclusion of society and public image is negatively and significantly associated with performance. Aside from contributing to the growing body of theory-based, quantitative research on mission statements, this study offers another view within an emerging market context. Furthermore, it reinforces the value of having a mission statement and the importance of acknowledging salient and dominant stakeholders in the statement.

Social Media Influencers as Mediators of Commercial Messages

Social media influencers are integral to contemporary organizations’ marketing strategies. Despite growing interest in the topic, there is scant knowledge of how organizations manage and collaborate with influencers in their content production during commercial collaborations. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and a semiotic analysis of social media content, this study elucidates the dynamics of organizations’ commercial collaborations with influencers and discusses how influencers decode and transmit organizations’ commercial messages to their followers in the destination marketing context. Social reality and commercial messages are enmeshed in the content narrative and interpreted by the influencer and their knowledge of their audience into what they could mean and become in the semiotic and symbolic landscapes of social media environments. Thus, an influencer’s interpretation of organization’s commercial messages is embedded in the social media environment.

Innovation ecosystems in developing markets: empirical evidence from Russian electric power industry

ABSTRACT Following the rise of innovation ecosystems (IEs) in various sectors around the world, we observe a corresponding increase in IE-related studies. And while the existing body of knowledge provides a rather solid conceptualisation of the phenomenon and its distinctive characteristics, we still lack an understanding of its structure, the behaviour of participants, governance, and regulation. At the same time, most of the IE-related studies are conducted within developed contexts, which limits the generalizability of available evidence. Our study aims to fill the abovementioned gaps in the literature and makes several contributions. First, our results shed more light on the structure of IE and the role of the focal firm. Second, the study provides important empirical evidence on peculiarities of behaviour among IE participants and the composition of various IEs thus enhancing our understanding of IE development processes. Third, this research provides insights into tactics and governance mechanisms within the studied IEs, therefore, expanding the current body of knowledge on IE governance and regulation. Finally, we complement the existing body of literature with additional empirical evidence from an emerging market context. Results of this study also include valuable empirical implications for managers and policymakers in the context of the expanding IE-related activities.

Earnings generation and strategic alliance-building and as a means of achieving scalability of social enterprises in South Africa

While scaling of social impact is a key element in social entrepreneurship (SE), many social enterprises fail to scale-up their impact meaningfully. This is an opportunity to investigate earnings generation (EG) and strategic alliance-building (SAB) as potential predictors of scalability of social enterprises. The study context is South Africa where SE has much relevance due to the many social ills, which plague the country. Initially, the study instrument is tested for validity and reliability, whereupon hypotheses are tested using multiple regression analyses. Results show that EG is a significant and positive predictor of social enterprise scaling. This finding is important considering that many social enterprises in South Africa are challenged by financial resource constraints. This study, conducted in an African emerging market context, allows social entrepreneurs to more deeply understand the relevance of EG and SAB in their scaling efforts. Indeed, developing a strong body of evidence that validates the effectiveness of policy in supporting social enterprise scaling is pivotal for both theory and practice.