Strategic Behavior Research Articles

Self-regulation of resources in higher education

Abstract: Resource-management learning strategies are particularly important for performance in higher education. Despite this consideration, the current state of research still lacks evidence on the precise interplay of the different learning process components that affect academic performance. The aim of the present study was to test a mediation model derived from process theories of self-regulated learning, in which students' knowledge about resource-management strategies impacts their academic performance via its behavioural manifestations. N = 106 university students took part in an online course over the period of one semester. Students' resource-management strategy knowledge was assessed at the beginning of the semester, and their use of resource-management strategies was observed via log data of their learning behaviour during the semester while learning through the online course. Academic performance was assessed on the basis of an exam at the end of the semester. The mediation model was tested for three different resource-management strategies: time management, effort regulation, and help seeking. There was a significant indirect effect of strategy knowledge via strategy use on academic performance for all learning strategies considered. We conclude that students' strategic learning behaviour is an indispensable link in the relationship between their strategy knowledge and academic performance, and discuss implications for research and training practice.

The perverse equilibrium effects of state and federal student aid in higher education

Reflecting the ongoing public concern about strategic behavior among colleges, we develop a game-theoretic higher education model with peer effects to examine the equilibrium market response to changes in state and federal student aid. In addition to establishing perfect equilibrium existence, we find that state and federal student aid programs are vulnerable to equilibrium effects that conflict with the intended impact of policy instruments. For instance, even when college objectives are devoid of selfish intent, strict increases in state and federal student aid can induce decreased student access to higher education or even increased financial strain from college enrollment.

Effect of the Strategic Emerging Industry Support Program on Corporate Innovation among Listed Companies in China

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between the Chinese government’s Strategic Emerging Industry Support Program and the innovation level of strategic emerging industry firms. We use panel data of A-share-listed firms from 2007 to 2017 and apply a difference-in-difference model. We obtain evidence that firms exhibit strategic innovation behavior in response to the Strategic Emerging Industry Support Program, as evidenced by firms focusing solely on increasing their research and development (R&D) input and number of patent outputs, neglecting innovation efficiency and quality, and failing to convert patent results into firm profitability. Moreover, we observe that the aforementioned support program, through the provision of subsidies, tax incentives, and easy access to credit, as well as the reduction in stock liquidity, prompts increases in firm R&D input and, consequently, the number of patents firms are granted. Our results also indicate that for state-owned enterprises in strategic emerging industries, government support in the form of subsidies and tax incentives has the strongest effect on innovation; by contrast, for private firms, innovation is more strongly stimulated through convenient credit support, tax incentives, and reduced stock liquidity. This paper provides empirical evidence on whether industrial policy promotes firm innovation and argues more generally whether government industrial policy is effective.

How to systematically reduce the carbon emissions of the manufacturing industry? Evidence from four-party evolutionary game analysis.

To effectively reduce carbon emissions from the manufacturing industry and promote green and sustainable developments evolutionary game theory is widely used. This study has constructed a four-party evolutionary game model, in which the government, civil environmental protection organisations, manufacturing enterprises, and consumers participate. A local robustness analysis and numerical simulation were used to assess the stability conditions under which the strategic behaviour of the four parties reaches an ideal state, and the influence of government parameter changes on the game system were further analysed. The results show that when the government's penalty is greater, the decision-making time of civil environmental protection organisations and manufacturing enterprises is shortened to varying degrees. When the subsidy coefficient provided by the government increases, civil environmental protection organisations, manufacturing enterprises, and consumers can reduce the time required for the system to stabilise to varying degrees. As the subsidy coefficient increases, the government's strategic choice evolves and strict regulations are loosened. The government should thus actively establish a reward and penalty mechanism, according to its own actual situation, set reasonable punishment and subsidy coefficients, and actively guide the subjective initiative of civil environmental protection organisations to reduce carbon emissions in the manufacturing industry.

The implementation of the substitution principle in European chemical legislation: a comparative analysis

BackgroundThe substitution of hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives is an important objective in European chemical policy, but implementation has been slower than expected. We conduct a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the implementation of the substitution principle in European regulations for pesticides, biocides, and industrial chemicals. Specifically, we examine and compare the criteria and processes associated with the identification of candidates for substitution and the assessment of alternatives.ResultsWe find only minor differences in the criteria applied to identify candidates for substitution amongst pesticides, biocides, and industrial chemicals, but larger differences concerning the processes used. While all substances that are to be approved as a pesticide and biocide are systematically evaluated against the established criteria for substitution, the substitution process for industrial chemicals only focuses on those substances identified as substances of very high concern. The main reason candidates for substitution remain on the market is the lack of identified safer chemical alternatives and the insufficient consideration of non-chemical alternatives, caused, at least to a large extent, by the comparatively weak incentives provided by current regulations.ConclusionsThe systematic approach for the identification of industrial substances of very high concern (SVHC) under ECHAs “Integrated Regulatory Strategy” is much welcome. However, no final conclusion on SVHC properties or the need for regulatory action has been drawn for approximately 90% of the REACH-registered substances, as often even basic hazard and exposure data are missing. Hence, at least a screening-level evaluation of SVHC properties should become a mandatory part of the substance registration under REACH. To reduce the risk of strategic behaviour in the search for alternatives to industrial chemicals identified as SVHC, a setup in which regulatory authorities play a larger role as information and knowledge brokers should be considered. Investments in innovation as well as improved sharing of information and a better distribution of the workloads amongst European authorities might also improve the identification of safer alternatives. However, without stronger incentives, making it more costly for companies to continue using hazardous substances relative to safer alternatives, initiatives to promote substitution are likely to have limited success.

The impact of social exclusion on impulsive buying behaviour of consumers on online platforms: Samples from China

Social exclusion is a common phenomenon in modern social life that has significant negative effects on those who were excluded. The excluded may adopt strategic impulsive consumption behaviors in order to gain a sense of belonging and repair social relations, and the rapid development of online shopping platforms has intensified the occurrence of impulsive purchasing behaviors. Therefore, the internal mechanism between the two needs to be clarified. This study utilised SPSS 26.0, Mplus8.0 and HLM6.08 to analyse the data from 417 questionnaires, focused on exploring the internal mechanism between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour, and yielded the following conclusions. (1) Social exclusion is positively correlated with impulsive purchasing behaviour. (2) Relative deprivation plays a mediating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (3) The need to belong plays an intermediary role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (4) Self-control plays a moderating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. These conclusions could provide a basis for enterprises to formulate rational marketing strategies and create consumer demand.

Designing school choice mechanisms: A structural model and demand estimation

AbstractDesigning the markets that allocate public school seats is a crucial policy consideration. This paper compares the design of school choice mechanisms in terms of economic efficiency, stability, and strategic behavior. We estimate demand for schools using data from a large US public school system with novel indicators of students' levels of strategic sophistication. We find important benefits of reserving a set of seats to be assigned by a pure lottery. In settings that share features in common with the school system we study, our findings suggest that non‐selective criteria such as lotteries induce a large increase in truth‐telling.

Hiding in plain sight: Surge pricing and strategic providers

Many on‐demand service platforms employ surge pricing policies, charging higher prices and raising provider compensation when customer demand exceeds provider supply. There is increasing evidence that service providers understand these pricing policies and strategically collude to induce artificial supply shortages by reducing the number of providers showing as available online. We study a stylized mathematical model of a setting in which an on‐demand service platform determines its pricing and provider compensation policies, anticipating their impact on customer demand and the participation of strategic providers, who might collectively decide to limit the number of providers showing online as available. We find that collusion can substantially harm the platform and customers, especially when the potential demand is large, and the supply of providers in nearby regions is limited. We explore two pricing policies that a platform could employ in the presence of (potential) provider collusion: a bonus pricing policy that offers additional provider payments on top of the regular compensation and the optimal pricing policy that maximizes the platform's expected profit while taking strategic provider behavior fully into consideration. Both policies feature a compensation structure that ensures that total provider earnings increase in the number of providers available, thereby encouraging all providers to offer their service. We show that both policies can effectively mitigate the impact of potential provider collusion, with the bonus pricing policy often performing near‐optimally. As it might be difficult for a platform to accurately estimate the propensity of providers to collude, we numerically evaluate how platform profits are affected if the pricing policy is designed based on possibly incorrect estimates of the providers' propensity to collude. Our observations suggest that a platform should design its pricing policy under the assumption that all providers are strategic and consider collusion, as the losses associated with implementing such a policy in settings with minor risk of collusion are limited, while the potential losses from failing to consider rampant collusion can be significant.

Operating Strategy of LNG Terminal in Interdependent Electricity and Natural Gas Markets

With the ever strengthening interdependence between electricity and natural gas (NG) systems, the outcomes of the two energy markets could be affected by market entities from both markets. The existing studies mainly discuss the strategic behaviors of market entities participating in directly the two energy markets, lacking the concentration on the market entities participating in one single market while they could still pose impacts on the other market via the interdependence between the two markets. This paper studies the operating strategy of liquified NG (LNG) terminal, by describing the problem as a NG market game and an electricity market game. The problem is then reformulated as a bi-level single-leader multi-follower mix-integer programming (MIP) model where the LNG terminal acts as the leader while the NG fired power plants (NGPPs) as the followers. The model could be converted to a single-level one with the value-function method, and the interaction between the leader and followers is addressed with the sample-based algorithm, combined with the diagonalization algorithm to find the equilibrium among followers. The case studies further demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methodology and illustrate the outcomes of the interdependent electricity and NG markets with the strategic LNG terminal.

Serious About Getting Old?: Variability of Individual Old Age Risk Management in Czechia

ABSTRACT The global trend of transferring responsibility for dignified aging from the state to individuals is conducive to a variability of alternative attitudes and strategies. Despite having important implications for both the state and individuals, the variability of old age risk management has not been fully appreciated by social policy. Social policy cannot adapt to every individual, but it can reflect various categories of citizens and their patterns of old age risk management. In this article, we navigate the plethora of individual choices by identifying patterns of strategic behavior in old age risk management in society. Based on our data from the original 2018 survey, representative for the Czech population, we identify four distinctive strategies: risk taking, risk avoiding, risk neglecting, and risk preventing. We conclude by discussing how the data gathered and analyzed through our research may help social policy actors better understand sources of variability and design more effective policy interventions.

Investigating Strategic Cognitive Behavior In Simultaneous Interpreting of Collocation

Simultaneous interpreting is regarded as a complex task as it entails comprehension of the source language, storage at the short-term memory and reproduction of the message according to target language norms. During SI, many concurrent cognitive processes take place to reflect the complex and demanding characteristics of the task. Due to this complexity, SI cause various problems for interpreters in all discourse levels which require online strategies to overcome these problems. The interpretation of collocations as being language-specific elements is considered among the major problems interpreters encounter during the interpreting task. The study aims at identifying the strategies applied by professional and student interpreters as well as studying the effect of directionality during rendering collocations in English-Arabic-English SI tasks. The study hypothesizes that collocations do not need much cognitive efforts if the interpreter is well acquainted with a great deal of them. Otherwise, s/he is very likely to face some difficulties and problems in translating them. The study is qualitatively analyzed according to Seleskovitch (1968) model which considers the transference of meaning is the interpreter’s main concern rather than transferring the linguistic elements between SL and TL. It also used Lörscher’s (1991) model to identify the strategies and the percentage of each strategy that was applied by the participants. The analysis showed that professionals were able to provide adequate renderings for collocations as they are ready made chunks that do not require great processing effort. Moreover, they used their experience and knowledge to apply the strategy of inference which was mainly used to derive the meaning of the collocation from the context while studentsresorted to literal translation and omitting the collocations which have negative effects on the their performance and consequently led to distort the process of interpreting.

The motivation and impact of polluting Enterprises' diversifications: Quasi-natural experiments from environmental protection interview

In the background of China's central government's intensive efforts to prevent and control pollution, a deep understanding of the enterprises' short-term strategic behavior is essential to the implementation of environmental policies. This paper identifies the impact of Environmental Protection Interview (EPI) on the diversification of polluting enterprises using a difference-in-differences method with a sample of listed companies in A-share market from 2010 to 2020. The study finds that: First, EPI significantly contribute to the diversification of polluting enterprises in the interviewed areas. Second, sewage charges increase the cost of compliance with environmental regulations and push back diversified behaviors of polluting enterprises, while environmental subsidies help enterprises to identify the pathways to cleaner production and weaken the level of diversification of polluting enterprises. Finally, the inherent motivation for the diversified practices of the polluters in the interviewed areas is not to alleviate the financing constraints of the enterprises but is the benefit encroachment by major shareholders and the self-interest pursuit of high remuneration by the senior managers, and it ultimately leads to a decrease in the value of polluting enterprises and the scale of environmental protection investment. This paper not only extends the study on the short-term strategic behavior of firms in response to environmental regulation but also provides important empirical evidence to understand the drivers and consequences of corporate diversification.

Brazil’s pragmatic equidistance: hedging and the Second World War

Can hedging be applied to non-Asia-Pacific regions and historical contexts? And, to what extent did Brazil operationalize hedging behavior during the Second World War? Taking these questions, the purpose of this paper is to expand the discourse on hedging twofold: First, to employ it within a South American context; second, to verify hedging historically as a widespread strategic unit-level behavior of small and middle powers amid systemic-level great power competitions. Here, by unboxing Brazil’s hedging behavior during the Second World War, specifically President Getúlio Vargas’s ‘ equidistância pragmática’ (pragmatic equidistance) coping strategy, it is found that Brazil employed hedging behavior with omnidirectional engagement with both the United States and Nazi Germany, yet later abandoned this strategy to fully align with Washington and the Allies in 1942, once Brazilian security and economic interests were aligned.

Effects of Government Systems on Voter Behavior and Strategic Voting Behavior (A Comparative Analysis on Turkey and France)

Bu çalışma farklı hükümet sistemlerinin seçmen davranışları üzerindeki etkilerinin karşılaştırmalı yöntem kullanılarak analizini içermektedir. Çalışmada kullanılan karşılaştırmalı yöntemde her iki ülkede uygulanan farklı hükümet sistemlerinin nedensellik bağları kullanılarak seçmen davranışları üzerinde yaratacağı etki yürütme organlarının yapısı, seçim tarihleri ve seçim sistemleri üzerinden kavramsal soyutlama yapılarak açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. Hükümet sistemleri temel olarak devletin temel organları olan yasama ve yürütme arasındaki ilişkinin niteliğine göre başkanlık, yarı başkanlık ve parlamenter sistem olarak üçe ayrılmaktadır. Çalışmaya konu hükümet sistemleri Fransa’da uygulanan yarı başkanlık sistemi ile Türkiye’de uygulanmakta olan başkanlık sistemidir. Çalışmada Fransa ve Türkiye’de uygulanan farklı hükümet sistemlerinin seçmen davranışları üzerindeki etkisi stratejik oy verme davranışı üzerinden üç ana başlık altında incelenmiştir. İlk olarak her iki ülkede yürütme yetkisinin ne şekilde kullanıldığı ve bu yetki kullanımının özellikle seçimlerde seçmen davranışları üzerinde yarattığı etki ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. İkinci olarak yürütme gücü üzerinde etkili olan cumhurbaşkanı ve parlamento seçimlerinin yapılış tarihleri üzerinden seçmen davranışlarına yönelik bir değerlendirme yapılmıştır. Son olarak her iki ülkede uygulanan farklı hükümet sistemleri ile uygulanmakta olan farklı seçim sistemlerinin seçmen davranışları üzerindeki etkisi incelenmiştir.

Rejection-proof mechanisms for multi-agent kidney exchange

Kidney exchange programs (KEPs) increase kidney transplantation by facilitating the exchange of incompatible donors. Increasing the scale of KEPs leads to more opportunities for transplants. Collaboration between transplant organizations (agents) is thus desirable. As agents are primarily interested in providing transplants for their own patients, collaboration requires balancing individual and common objectives. In this paper, we consider ex-post strategic behavior, where agents can modify a proposed set of kidney exchanges. We introduce the class of rejection-proof mechanisms, which propose a set of exchanges such that agents have no incentive to reject them. We provide an exact mechanism and establish that the underlying optimization problem is Σ2P-hard; we also describe computationally less demanding heuristic mechanisms. We show rejection-proofness can be achieved at a limited cost for typical instances. Furthermore, our experiments show that the proposed rejection-proof mechanisms also remove incentives for strategic behavior in the ex-ante setting, where agents withhold information.

Corporate climate change disclosures and capital structure strategies: evidence from Türkiye

PurposeThere has been an increase in research examining whether and how companies disclose climate change impacts and how these disclosures influence capital structure strategies in recent years. However, prior literature has generally focused on developed countries. This paper proposes to examine the impact of voluntary climate change disclosures on corporate financing decisions in an emerging economy.Design/methodology/approachThe dataset includes 335 firm-year observations listed in the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) 100 manufacturing industry firms that participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaire from 2016 to 2020, characterized by high public awareness of greenhouse gas emissions in Turkey. To accomplish this aim, two models have been constructed that link capital structure strategies with voluntary corporate climate change disclosures while controlling for firm-level attributes in terms of size, profitability, market value and free float ratio (FFR).FindingsThe significant and negative relationship between the voluntary disclosure of climate-related activities and long-term borrowing is consistent with the arguments that companies with high commitments are unlikely to reduce default risk in emerging markets. This paper also provides empirical evidence that the high size and the level of low profitability magnify this relationship between CDP and financial leverage.Originality/valueThe Paris Agreement seems to be a significant point where corporate lenders have become aware of the commitment of policymakers to fight climate change. The results have significant implications for both managerial strategies and environmental regulatory policy-making issues. In addition, the findings shed light on the strategic behavior of managers in the consideration of climate change risks and related transparency.

Cross-cultural examination of successful entrepreneurial small and medium-sized enterprises

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential variances in strategic entrepreneurial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across different countries while also exploring the cultural implications that may arise.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, a qualitative research approach was used, involving semi-structured interviews conducted with seven technology start-ups from two countries – Portugal and France.FindingsThe results of this study demonstrate significant differences in opportunity-seeking, performance and long-term orientation behaviors between the technology start-ups in Portugal and France.Practical implicationsThis knowledge can help entrepreneurs and investors make informed decisions when developing strategies, entering new markets or seeking partnerships with start-ups from different countries. Furthermore, policymakers can use these findings to support entrepreneurship initiatives and foster an environment that encourages strategic entrepreneurship practices.Originality/valueThis study offers a unique perspective by focusing on the firm level of entrepreneurial SMEs and the strategic practices adopted by technology start-ups in Portugal and France. In contrast, prior studies have predominantly centred on analysing individual motivations for entrepreneurship, such as personal traits or attitudes, rather than exploring the actual strategic behaviors and practices of start-ups in various countries. By shifting the emphasis to the firm level, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of how strategic entrepreneurship practices differ across different cultural contexts. As such, it represents a significant contribution to the existing literature on strategic entrepreneurship.

A STRATEGY OF POSITIVE EMOTIONAL INFLUENCE IN THE SPEECH OF A POLICE DETECTIVE

The present article reports on the analysis of the communicative strategy of positive emotional influence in the speech of the detective — the hero of English language detective discourse. The object of the paper is the speech episodes, in which the detective interrogates witnesses and suspects. The purpose of the paper is cognitive pragmatic analysis of the contexts in which the communicative strategy of positive emotional influence is actualized, as well as the communicative tactics that manifest it in the speech of the detective. The investigation is based on the general and special linguistic methods: synthesis and analysis, method of observation, descriptive method, pragmatic and linguistic method, cognitive method, analysis of contextual interpretation. The cognitive-pragmatic analysis of the strategic speech behavior of the police detective — the protagonist of the detective discourse — has shown that the strategy of positive emotional impact is realized in the detective’s speech by the following communicative tactics: promise, request, reassurance, forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, reproach and mitigation. These tactics have been singled out and interpreted. These communicative tactics enable the detective to create favorable and friendly atmosphere and achieve the desired result: sincerity of the witnesses, especially those who used to conceal the information, lied, or refused to cooperate. As a result, a witness or a suspect tells the information necessary for the investigation and the culprit is found. The perspective for further research is seen in the analysis of the detective’s inner speech that unveils his communicative intentions.

A top-secret game: metadiscourse analysis of the contractual discourse of purchasing 100 shares of the Suez Canal Company in 1947

Abstract This paper examines categories and functions of interactive and interactional textual elements used in the contractual discourse of selling/purchasing 100 shares of the Suez Canal Company in 1947. The exchanged documents between the involved parties, the Egyptian (buyer) and the American (seller), are analyzed using Metadiscourse Analysis (MDA) as an approach to analyzing the textual resources used in the selected corpus. Game Theory is also used in conjunction with MDA to allocate the strategic behaviors of the players within the competitive contextual surroundings of the selected discourse. The analysis explains the structural constructions of the correspondences exploring how interactional relations between the participants are linguistically crafted. The analysis of the contract discourse is argued to contribute to econo-linguistics by examining how MDA and Game Theory can be integrated to construe/construct discourses about economics. The article concludes that metadiscourse resources enable the discourse of contracts to maintain a dialogic interactional language between the seller and the buyer. This interaction assimilates a game where the author and the reader (or players) exchange moves strategically to reach the target payoff. Thus, it can be argued that integrating MDA and Game Theory benefits econo-linguistics in highlighting hidden agendas and understanding interactive and interactional meanings in the discourse.

Responsible leadership toward garnering legitimacy from stakeholders in India: an institutional perspective

PurposeUnderstanding societal expectations of a leader's responsibility and context-specific challenges in less-researched emerging economies has become imperative for foreign Multinational enterprises (MNEs) to survive in these contexts while developing globally responsible leaders. Identification of institutionally sanctioned characteristics, competencies and strategies that assist leaders in dealing with such challenges while achieving shared value has wider implications for academics, practitioners and the literature on responsible leadership (RL), which is the purpose of this paper.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted in-depth interviews of 28 senior indigenous leaders in 3 Indian Multinational corporations (MNCs) in construction sector, following a grounded theory approach.FindingsThe authors identified three vital institutionally driven challenges and four individual-level societal-driven factors, subsequently influencing leaders' strategic decisions and choices to deal with such challenges beyond passive conformance. Contrary to the previous findings, this study also briefly discusses that a mere ethical climate is insufficient; organizations must develop a holistic values climate that works as contextual factors to influence RL.Originality/valueContrary to the previous findings suggesting Indian leaders' conformance to constraining forces to RL, by adopting a multilevel approach, the authors identify the context-specific strategic behaviors that responsible leaders adopt in dealing with such forces responsibly. Thus, it is the first multilevel inductive approach conducted in a non-Western context, offering a discrete understanding of RL while addressing some of the inconsistencies in the literature and contributing to cross-cultural leadership research. Also, findings highlight the factors of RL that are more emic and etic for generalization.