Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FDI Asymmetries in Emerging Economies: The Case of Colombia

We build a DSGE model to study the asymmetries of FDI shocks in an economy like Colombia. Besides nominal wage and price rigidities, we use the fact that Colombia has two productive and differentiated regions, Bogota that produces more than 25% of Colombia GDP (DANE, 2016) and the rest of the country, Ricardian and non-Ricardian agents, habit formation, capital adjustment costs, and modeled an entire foreign sector. Empirical results show that even when in the long run results are not very different in terms of real output, the short run effects are asymmetric implying that a shock to FDI in the rest of the country might cause important microeconomic adjustments that could improve the distribution of income throughout the country.
Improving E-Retailers Performance via Social CRM Capabilities

The widespread usage of social media has deeply transformed the mechanisms that e-retailers adopt to acquire customers’ information, interact and build relationships with them. In order to be successful in this new context, e-retailers need to integrate their customer relationship management (CRM) system with social media applications in order to develop new marketing capabilities, namely social CRM capabilities that are useful to achieve a superior competitive advantage. Hence, the aim of the study is to analyze the role and the impact of social CRM capabilities on customer relationship performance and financial performance, as outcomes. Data retrieved from 102 European e-retailers that actively use Facebook to engage customers have been processed with structural equation modelling technique. Findings contribute to marketing literature highlighting a strong relationship between social CRM capabilities and customer relationship performance and suggesting that only when those capabilities improve customer relationship performance, firms can significantly increase also financial performance.
Youth political participation in the EU: evidence from a cross-national analysis

ABSTRACT Youth political disengagement continues to be a major issue facing contemporary democracies that needs to be better understood. There is an existing literature on what determines youth participation in terms of socio-demographic factors, however, scholars have not given much consideration to the macro-level determinants. In this paper, I outline an empirical analysis of what determines political participation among young people using the Eurobarometer 375 survey data from 28 European Union countries. I argue that while socio-demographic factors are crucial for youth political participation, context matters in shaping levels of political participation among young people. The results from the logistic regression analyses indicate that democratic maturity influences patterns of political participation among young people in the EU. The results show that youth engagement in different modes of political participation varies significantly across distinctive democracies, where individuals situated in established EU democracies are more likely to be politically active. The findings raise fresh concerns about existing levels of young people’s engagement in politics in advanced and new democracies. This paper also contributes to the comparative research on young people’s participation in politics.
Relative Importance of Country and Firm-Specific Determinants of Capital Structure: A Multilevel Approach

This paper evaluates the relative importance of country and firm-specific determinants of capital structure using a multilevel modelling approach. Annual data for 18,201 public and non-financial firms from 66 countries are analysed for the period 2000-2016. Variance decomposition analysis is employed in order to assess the relative importance of country and firm levels. Additionally, random intercept and random coefficient models are used to analyse direct and indirect effects of capital structure determinants. Our results showed that country and firm levels explain approximately 10% and 60% of the total variability in capital structures, respectively. This shows that managers assign a higher importance to the firm-level factors when making capital structure decisions. Also country-level variables affect leverage choices to a lower extent.
Aiming at understanding consumers´ behavior in fast food restaurants: a food values approach

Beginning with the classification of food values proposed in the relevant literature by Lusk and Briggeman (2009), this paper aimed at understanding consumers ́ behaviour at fast-food restaurants. With this research goal in mind, a sample of 400 consumers was gathered in two different leading fast-food chains operating in Spain. The empirical analysis of these data enabled us to observe not only the presence of three different consumers’ clusters in accordance with their food values ‘assessments, but also several differences between these groups with regard to diverse habits as well as satisfaction, trust and loyalty outcomes. From these results, several managerial recommendations have been proposed in order to improve the design and development of differentiated strategies in the industry.
Business Ethics in a Global Economy: A Cross-Cultural Study Among Working Adults in Russia and Vietnam

Abstract The purpose of the present study is to empirically examine the personal perception of working adults on business ethics in Russia and Vietnam. Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire from 487 working adults (248 Russian and 239 Vietnamese adults). Significance of differences in Clark and Clark’s Personal Business Ethics Scores based on gender, management experience and ethics training was analysed with the help of univariate analysis of variance method (two-way analysis of variance method). Findings of the present study indicate that there is a significant difference in the level of ethical maturity among the Vietnamese and Russian working adults. Vietnamese respondents have higher business ethics perception than Russian respondents. Female adults demonstrate higher ethical maturity level than their male counterparts in the overall sample. Additionally, there is no significant difference in the business ethics perception of respondents in Russia and Vietnam on the basis of ethics training and management experience. This study provides global business leaders an opportunity to better understand business ethics perception of working adults across Russia and Vietnam.
Choral conducting competences: Perceptions and priorities

Choral conducting is a complex and multi-faceted leader role. Leading music is a particular kind of leadership through the prominence of gestural communication, and it is a ubiquitous phenomenon across a variety of social settings, musical genres, and ensemble types. Despite the variety, colloquial writing as well as academic research implicitly assumes that there is a common underlying competence base. Most research on conducting looks at a particular aspect, such as gestures, error correction, or rehearsing approach. What is largely wanting, is an overall view of how the competence elements come together and their relative importance. This article is an exploratory study of 17 competence elements, viewed by conductors in the context of their own practice. The study is based on a survey of 294 choral conductors across Norway, with a wide spread in terms of formal education, experience and working situation. The study supports previous research by how the role of conducting gesture takes a seemingly contradictory position; emblematic of the role, but still scores low in terms of importance. Our analysis shows that the views on key competence elements, such as gestural skills, vary with contextual factors, whereas other elements, such as error detection and rehearsal organisation, do not. The two contextual factors that explain most variation for several competence elements are the length of the conductor’s experience and the level (amateur/professional) of the conductor’s choirs. Conductors’ views on the importance of each competence element are closely related to their own competence level for the same element. This suggests that the prominence that competence elements are given in conducting practice is highly adaptable, as conductors cope with the situation at hand. Although an academic degree in conducting has an impact on how conductors view the various competence elements, practice and experience seem to rule over education.
Shisha smoking in selected nightclubs in Nigeria

Introduction Shisha consumption is a growing public health issue all over the globe and public health awareness about its deleterious health consequences is still not sufficiently raised. Methods In this location-based study of nightclubs in Ibadan, Nigeria, 633 patrons of selected nightclubs were interviewed in order to obtain information on prevalence, correlates and predictors of shisha smoking. Results The overall prevalence of shisha smoking was 7.1%. The age of initiation into shisha smoking was lower among women, p = 0.03, but men were significantly more likely to be more frequent users, daily or weekly users, p < 0.001 and also to be current cigarette smokers, p = 0.03. There was no significant gender variability in the stage of readiness to quit. Regression analysis showed that after adjusting for age, the predictors of shisha smoking were: cigarette smoking, OR = 4.83, 95% CI (1.49-15.70) and more than 12 years of education, OR = 7.55, 95% CI (1.88 - 30.37), while being a rural dweller was a protective factor, OR = 0.05, 95% CI (0.01-0.20). Conclusion Shisha smoking has emerged as a prevalent public health issue in Nigeria. There is a need for an immediate response from policy providers towards shisha smoking intervention in Nigeria.
Why does Female Underrepresentation Persist in Nigerian Architecture?

This study aims at examining lingering issues concerning gender in the architectural profession, particularly on underrepresentation and visibility of women in various hierarchies of architectural practice. The findings from a pioneering field study of gender in Nigerian architecture were juxtaposed with literature analysis and summarised reviews of several leading published studies on gender in the profession to provide a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the stumbling blocks for women and the impact of diversity on the outlook of the profession at large. The study identified a trifecta relationship of age, the nature of work done and job satisfaction as impediments to the participation of women which require holistic, all-inclusive, workable solutions for the creation of professional environments made up of diverse perspectives and ideologies. The study recommends: 1) women speak up for what they need from the profession and find active ways to satisfy themselves; 2) equity, equality and diversity in decisions that affect professional growth; 3) willingness to balance families and free time in order to develop professional and personal relationships; and 4) formation of schemes and policies to foster inclusion based on the finding from this and other similar studies.
Student study techniques and the generation effect.

In 2 experiments, the generation effect, which occurs when individuals remember materials they have generated (and, thus, targeted) better than materials generated (and targeted) by others, was investigated. The effect has not generally been found in natural settings when total test performance was examined. The examination of total performance rather than just targeted items may mask the effect because items not studied (nontargets) are included. In Experiment 1, groups were compared that generated their own outlines or study questions with groups that received experimenter-generated materials. Test scores showed generation effects for target items. In Experiment 2, students who generated questions were compared with yoked students who used those student-generated questions
A Defect Detection Approach in Thermal Images

This paper proposes an enhancement method to increase the contrast of thermal images leading to an improvement in defect detection. First, pre-processing methods are used to eliminate the reflection noise and increase the quality of thermal images. Then we propose to use a combination of inspection techniques, such as thermographic signal reconstruction, pulse phase thermography and principal component thermography, to achieve better distinction between defect and non-defect areas. Moreover, the segmentation techniques are used to show the effectiveness of the suggested approach for detecting defects.
An Analysis of Behavioral Biases in Investment Decision-Making

Individual investor’s behavior is extensively influenced by various biases that highlighted in the growing discipline of behavior finance. Therefore, this study is also one of another effort to assess the impact of behavioral biases in investment decision-making in National Stock Exchange. A questionnaire is designed and through survey responses collected from 243 investors. The present research has applied inferential statistics and descriptive statistics. In the existing study, four behavioral biases have been reviewed namely, overconfidence, anchoring, disposition effect and herding behavior. The results show that overconfidence and herding bias have significant positive impact on investment decision. Overall results conclude that individual investors have limited knowledge and more prone towards making psychological errors. The findings of the study also indicate the existence of these four behavioral biases on individual investment decisions. This study will be helpful to financial intermediaries to advice their clients. Further, study can be elaborated to study other behavioral biases on investment decisions.
How important are beliefs about gender differences in math ability? Transmission across generations and impacts on child outcomes

We study the transmission of beliefs about gender differences in math ability from adults to children and how this affects girls’ academic performance relative to boys. We exploit randomly assigned variation in the proportion of a child’s middle school classmates whose parents believe boys are innately better than girls at learning math. An increase in exposure to peers whose parents report this belief increases a child’s likelihood of believing it, with similar effects for boys and girls and greater effects from peers of the same gender. This exposure also affects children’s perceived difficulty of math, aspirations, and math performance, generating gains for boys and losses for girls. ∗Eble (corresponding author): Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W 120th St, New York, NY 10027. Phone: 212-678-7478. Email: eble@tc.columbia. edu Hu: School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing. Email: feng3hu@gmail.com. Author names are shown alphabetically; both authors contributed equally to this research. We are grateful to seminar audiences at Columbia, FRBNY, NEUDC, Northwestern, Queens College, Rutgers, Texas A&M, and UT Austin, and Manuela Angelucci, Peter Bergman, Peter Blair, Sarah Cohodes, Jishnu Das, Jen Doleac, Alejandro Estefan, Mark Hoekstra, Justin Keller, Leigh Linden, Jason Lindo, Robin Lumsdaine, Jordan Matsudaira, Jonathan Meer, Kiki Pop-Eleches, Randy Reback, Jonah Rockoff, Judy Scott-Clayton, Miguel Urquiola, and Tom Vogl for helpful comments. This paper was previously circulated under the title: “The sins of the parents: Persistence of gender bias across generations and the gender gap in math performance. ”
Elevating Student Understanding: Irish Occupational Therapy Students’ Experience of a Service Learning Project

Service learning is a pedagogy that embraces learning in action and addresses community needs. Since the adoption of the Occupational Therapy Competencies in 2008 and the launch of national occupational therapist registration in Ireland in 2015, there has been limited research on the effectiveness of service learning pedagogies in Irish higher education for meeting core competencies. The majority of research focusing on evaluating service learning have been North American studies which brings to question the relevance of these service learning outcomes beyond North America and specifically Ireland. This qualitative study examined 11 occupational therapy students’ journal reflections, portfolio entries, and focus group discussions to illuminate their experience of participating in a peer coaching program called Elevate at a major Irish university. Results indicated the experience of working with a “buddy” allowed them to apply skills learned in the classroom to the “real world”, navigate between personal and professional boundaries, and struggle with “taking a step back” to empower the client. Students reported the experience helped them to prepare for future practice and increased their confidence going into clinical placement. Professional programs might consider service learning as a signature pedagogy, providing scaffolding between in-class activities and clinical placements and elevating student levels of understanding.
CEO power and corporate social responsibility

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of chief executive officer (CEO) power on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors use regression analysis to investigate the research question. Findings Using a 23-year panel sample with 1,574 unique US firms and 8,575 firm-year observations, the authors find a significant and negative relation between CEO power and CSR, suggesting that firms with more powerful CEOs engage in less CSR activities. Originality/value The results reveal that more powerful CEOs become less responsive to the needs of stakeholder groups, confirming the validity of the stakeholder theory of CSR.
Self-discipline or self-interest? The antecedents of hotel employees' pro-environmental behaviours

Abstract Motivating employees to engage in pro-environmental behaviours is an essential topic in the tourism and hotel fields. This paper advances this research direction by integrating the mechanisms of cognition and incentives from the externalities/spillovers perspective. This paper argues that we can view the environmental and financial benefits received by hotels and natural environment as positive spillovers from employees' voluntary pro-environmental behaviours. Accordingly, internalization (the subject of positive spillovers cognitively perceives oneness with beneficiaries like hotels and physical environment) and compensation (beneficiaries offer incentives for positive spillovers' subject) are two leading solutions to the positive spillovers issue, which can improve employees' engagement in pro-environmental behaviours. Hence, this paper explores the impact of employees' cognitive internalization (work ethic) and positive incentives from the organization and nature (hotel's environmental benefit sharing and health rewards rooted in employees' ecological embeddedness) on employees' pro-environmental behaviours in the hotel industry. The empirical analysis of a sample of 324 employees working in Chinese luxury hotels suggests that employees' work ethic, hotel's environmental benefit sharing and employees' ecological embeddedness are significantly positively related to employees' pro-environmental behaviours and that the interplay of employees' work ethic and ecological embeddedness significantly and negatively affects employees' pro-environmental behaviours.
Destination Image and Relationship: The Moderating Role of Local Cuisine Experience

Destination branding has increased its importance in recent years due to intense competition in international tourism. As such, understanding of which attributes contribute to destination branding is especially important to identify and differentiate the destination. As a result, the purpose of this study is to explore the moderating role of local cuisine on the relation between destination image and relationship. In doing so, this study employed an empirical causal research design using structural equation modeling along with multi-group analysis. Data were collected from foreign travelers visiting İstanbul. Even the results did not confirm the moderating role of local cuisine experience, the study evidenced the direct and indirect effects of local food on image, satisfaction and trust. That is, from the point of destination branding, the current research validates the argument that local cuisine can be positioned as a separate peak experience rather than being a component of overall travel experience.
Sinusoidal Current Control of Single-Phase PWM Converters under Voltage Source Distortion Using Composite Observer

In this paper, a high-performance current control for the single-phase PWM converter under distorted source voltages is proposed using a composite observer. By applying the composite observer, the fundamental and high-order harmonic components of the source voltage and current are extracted without a delay. The extracted fundamental component is used for a phase-lock loop (PLL) system to detect the phase angle of the source voltage. A multi-PR (proportional-resonant) controller is employed to regulate the single-phase line current. The high-order harmonic components of the line current are easily eliminated, resulting in the sinusoidal line current. The simulation and experimental results have verified the validity of the proposed method.
The 2015 student mobilizations in South Africa. Contesting post-apartheid higher education

In October 2015, a student protest at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), a historically white university (HWU), arising in opposition to the decision taken by the University Council to increase tuition fees, spurred a massive wave of mobilizations across the country. The protests drew national and international media attention to what became the #FeesMustFall movement, named after the most popular twitter hashtag adopted by the protesters. Why did a local mobilization at WITS in 2015 trigger a national wave of student protests? After ten days of protests, the South African President intervened directly to calm down the situation by announcing a 0% increase in tuition fees for 2016. To all appearances, ten days of protests allowed South African students to win their battle over the hike in tuition fees. How and why did they obtain this concession? To answer the questions above, I have combined various qualitative methods of analysis. I carried out several in-depth interviews with relevant actors involved in the issue; I analysed movement documents elaborated by the students in the year of the protest (2015) as well as the main policy documents on higher education in post-apartheid South Africa (1994-2016) released by the government.