bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
What determines the adoption of employee empowerment practices by MNE subsidiaries in China?
Authors: Yin Yishuai 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how institutional factors determine the adoption of employee empowerment practices by multinational enterprises (MNEs) subsidiaries in China.Design/methodology/approachThis paper examines the effects of MNE subsidiaries’ external and internal institutional factors on the degree of employee empowerment practices adopted by these subsidiaries. Using hierarchical regression analysis, hypotheses were tested with a sample of 99 MNE subsidiaries operating in China.FindingsThe results show that both the informal institutions of the host country and the subsidiary’s characteristics play an important role in shaping the degree of empowerment practices adopted by MNE subsidiaries in China.Originality/valueEmployee empowerment practices have been increasingly used by MNEs to leverage human resources for organizational competitive advantage. Although a large body of work has studied a bundle of HRM practices as a whole adopted in MNE subsidiaries, there is a paucity of research on the specific empowerment practices in MNE subsidiaries. This research fills this important gap in the literature by investigating the institutional forces that influence the empowerment practices in MNE subsidiaries in China.
Employability skills for 21st-century STEM students: the employers' perspective
Authors: McGunagle Doreen , Zizka Laura 
Published: April 2020

PurposeOne of the goals of educational institutions is to prepare their graduates to be workplace-ready. The purpose of this paper is to identify the employability skills lacking in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) industry from employers' perspectives to assist STEM educational institutions in creating more relevant programs inclusive of employability skills.Design/methodology/approachThis study addresses 16 job-specific skills based on data deriving from the responses of 250 Human Resource Managers (HRMs) who represent five manufacturing industries (Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Consumer Products, Electronics and Industrial Manufacturing) located in five regions (Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, West-Mountain and Pacific) of the United States.FindingsThe median scores for all 16 skills confirmed their importance for employability in the five manufacturing industries. The five highest ranking skills were team player, self-motivation, verbal communication, problem-solving and being proactive, which align with previous studies on workplace skills.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is a call to all STEM educational institution stakeholders, both internal and external, to re-assess current curriculum and programs and collaborate to narrow the gap between graduate competencies and the practical needs of the workplace.Originality/valueThis paper attempts to bridge the gap between the competencies gained in STEM educational institutions and the competencies needed for the future workplace, as confirmed by HRM professionals. Although this study is focused on STEM educational institutions in the United States, it will be of interest to all STEM educational institutions worldwide who play a significant role in preparing the next generation of employees for the global workplace.
Children as customers in luxury hotels
Authors: Ben Lahouel Béchir , Montargot Nathalie 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThis purpose of this study was to explore two key issues in experiential marketing from an organizational perspective: the management of “strategic experiential modules” and the management of “service encounters” specific to a memorable experience for children in urban luxury hotels.Design/methodology/approachAn integrated model combining managerial and practice-oriented frameworks was used to study how luxury hotel managers design and create memorable experiences for children. The study took a qualitative approach in collecting in-depth data and interviewed 35 managers of five-star luxury hotels in Paris. The data were processed using the Alceste software, an automated lexical program that analyzed the co-occurrence of words and sentences.FindingsWith regard to the integrated model, the analysis of the interviews distinguished four main dimensions, which accounted for more than 84 per cent of the original textual data. Three dimensions, related to emotional-sensorial-physical experiential modules, described how managers strategically managed the child experience and journey while at their hotel. A fourth dimension was also identified in relation to the upstream of the service encounter. The findings highlighted a significant gap in how hotel managers were managing the experiences of children under 12 years of age and that further incorporation of various touchpoints is needed to improve the management of the service design.Research limitations/implicationsThis study demonstrated the applicability of the proposed integrated model, which offers valuable marketing implications for luxury hotel managers. It is suggested that more research on the management of the child experience and journey is conducted in the future.Originality/valueTo the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to combine these two frameworks to study the management of the child experience and journey in the luxury hospitality sector.
Institutional determinants of financial inclusion: evidence from world economies
Authors: Eldomiaty Tarek , Hammam Rasha , El Bakry Rawan 
Published: April 2020

Purpose
Financial inclusion is an approach for mobilizing saving and facilitating investments that help promote economic development and pave the way for sustainable development. This paper aims to examine the impact of world governance indicators (WGIs) on the improvement of financial inclusion across world economies.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the global database of financial inclusion indicators (global findex) for the years 2011, 2014 and 2017. The WGIs are used as proxies for the effects of governmental institutional arrangements. Using panel data analysis, a fixed generalized linear model is estimated for four common financial indicators; namely, borrowed from a financial institution, saved at a financial institution, credit card and debit card ownership.

Findings
The empirical results reveal that control of corruption, government effectiveness, political stability and voice and accountability are the significant WGIs that influence financial inclusion significantly.

Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this paper offers validating the results previously reported in related studies. Second, this paper offers robust estimates of the effects of the institutional WGIs on the promotion of financial inclusion.
Product market competition, oil uncertainty and corporate investment
Authors: Abdoh Hussein , Maghyereh Aktham 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effect of product market competition on the oil uncertainty–investment relation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use firm-level financial data from the COMPUSTAT database, competition proxies from Hoberg and Phillips (2016) and macroeconomic data on crude oil price uncertainty. Corporate investment is measured as capital expenditure scaled by total assets or as the annual change in (net) total fixed assets plus depreciation. Since our panel data covers a short period (22 years) and the regressions include a combination of a lagged dependent variable and firm fixed effects, the authors apply Blundell and Bond’s (1998) GMM system when regressing corporate investment on the interaction between oil uncertainty and competition.FindingsConsistent with the theories in the irreversible investment literature, the authors first show that investments are negatively related to oil uncertainty. Second, they show that firms in competitive industries decrease their investments in response to heightened uncertainty by a higher degree than firms in concentrated industries, suggesting that competition can exacerbate negative investment outcomes when success is uncertain. The authors also examine how competition relates to investment asymmetric reactions to positive and negative oil price return volatilities and find a stronger negative relationships between competition and investment-positive oil price volatility, indicating that increasing the probability of a negative outcome due to uncertainty leads firms to reduce investment to a larger extent.Practical implicationsThe findings provide useful insights to guide corporate investment decisions under oil price change uncertainty. In particular, if firms can wait for the resolution of uncertainty before deciding to pursue irreversible investment in a competitive market, they can avoid potentially large losses by foregoing investment when the outcomes are unfavorable. This is because competition brings a greater uncertainty to firm performance if the investment outcome is poor, as firms in competitive industries share a large proportion of industry-wide profits with rivals and, thus, competition could erode profit margins and increases the likelihood of being driven out of the market. Hence, firms in competitive markets should balance between strategic preemptive motives and waiting for the resolution of uncertainty before deciding to pursue investment.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine the effect of competition on the relationship between investment and oil price uncertainty. Moreover, it is the first to examine the effect of competition on the asymmetric response of investment to oil price uncertainty emanating from positive and negative changes in oil price.
Lending relationships, credit ratings and bank loan spreads: evidence from Indonesian listed companies
Authors: Chandera Yane , Setia-Atmaja Lukas 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThis study examines the impact of firm-bank relationships on bank loan spreads and the mitigating role of firm credit ratings on that impact.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample consists of Indonesian publicly listed companies for the period 2006 to 2016; bank-loan data was extracted from the Loan Pricing Corporation Dealscan database. For the degree of firm-bank relationships, the data on each loan is manually computed, using five different methods taken from Bharath et al. (2011) and Fields et al. (2012). All of the regression analyses are controlled for the year fixed effects, heteroscedasticity, and firm-level clustering. To address the endogeneity issues, this study uses several methods, including partitioning the sample, running nearest-neighbour and propensity score matching tests, and using instrumental variables in two-staged least-squares regression models.FindingsIn line with relationship theory and in opposition to the hold-up argument, this study finds that lending relationships reduce bank loan spreads and that the impact is more noticeable among non-rated Indonesian firms. Specifically, each additional unit in the total number of years of a firm-bank relationship and the number of previous loan contracts with the same bank are associated with 7.34 and 9.15 basis-point decreases, respectively, in these loan spreads.Practical implicationsCorporations and banks should maintain close, long-term relationships to reduce the screening and monitoring costs of borrowing. Regulators should create public policies that encourage banks to put more emphasis on relationships in their lending practices, especially in relation to crisis-prone companies.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of lending relationships on bank loan spreads in Indonesia. The study offers insights on banking relationships in emerging markets with concentrated banking industries, underdeveloped capital markets and prominent business-group affiliations.
Embracing the organic way: is consumer preference the same for all brands?
Authors: Mehta Ritu , Agrawal Sanket 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThe growing market for organic products presents a tremendous opportunity for marketers to extend their existing brands. However, there is hardly any research that investigates the factors extension from an organic parent brand is preferred over extension into same product category for success of such brand extensions. This paper investigates the role of two different bases consumers may use to evaluate the extension into organic product – organic status of the parent brand and its similarity to the extended product category.Design/methodology/approachThe study involved a 2 × 2 (organic versus regular parent brand and same versus different product category) between-subjects factorial design. Data collected from 164 postgraduate students presented with one of the four scenarios were analysed using ANOVA.FindingsThe results reveal that extensions from organic parent brand versus regular brand, and in the same product category versus different category, are evaluated more favourably. Moreover, extension from an organic parent brand is preferred over extension into same product category.Originality/valueThe research contributes to the extant literature on branding and retailing by building on categorisation theory to explain consumer preference for brand extension when launching a new organic product. The findings provide valuable insights to practitioners to launch a new organic product using brand extension.
Investigating sponsor decision-making: the role of schema theory, agency conflicts, and signaling theory in the persistence of naming rights agreements
Authors: Jensen Jonathan A. , Head David , Mergy Christopher 
Published: April 2020

PurposeNaming rights sponsorships of sport facilities are among the most highly visible marketing agreements in the world. However, factors that may lead one sponsorship to persist for decades, while others end after just a few years, have yet to be investigated. Thus, this study examines the decision-making of brand marketers by investigating the predictors of a sponsoring brand's decision to either continue or dissolve such agreements.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing a global data set of 219 naming rights agreements, an empirical approach is utilized to isolate whether a variety of factors increase or decrease the probability of sponsorship dissolution.FindingsResults indicate that agreements entered into with new, as of yet-unnamed facilities lead to a reduction in the probability of dissolution, with a high level of brand equity also reducing the probability of dissolution. Agency conflicts may also play a role, as the sponsoring firm being headquartered in the same metropolitan area as the facility also contributes to the persistence of such agreements.Originality/valueThese results are intended to assist both sides of what is ideally a long-term relationship in better understanding the factors that may either contribute to or inhibit longer-term partnerships.
Drivers of consumer-based brand equity: a two-country analysis of perceived brand origin and identity expressiveness
Authors: Cho Eunjoo , Hwang Jiyoung 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how the effects of cognitive, sensory and affective brand associations on brand love (a core driver of brand loyalty) differ by perceived brand origin (domestic vs imported) and identity expressiveness (low vs high) in two different national contexts.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study were collected through an online survey in the US and China. A total of 711 responses (n = 362 for the US, n = 349 for China) were used for data analysis. A multiple-group structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsCognitive and sensory associations are significant drivers of US consumers' brand love while affective associations are important for Chinese consumers' brand love. Also, perceived brand origin and identity expressiveness moderate the three brand associations–brand love relationship. For US consumers, cognitive associations significantly influence brand love for both domestic and imported brands, but sensory associations are important for domestic brand love. For Chinese consumers, affective associations significantly influence brand love for both domestic and imported brands, but cognitive associations are important for imported brand love. The impacts of the three brand associations on brand love differ by the degree of identity expressiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThis empirical study offers important insights into the differing effects of perceived brand origin and identity expressiveness in enhancing brand love across cultures in order to establish strong international brand equity.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the scarce cross-cultural research on brand equity by testing the extended brand equity model. The findings provide more specific, meaningful insights into the role of perceived brand origin and identity expressiveness, leading to more effective international brand management.
Decision-aids for non-expert decision makers
Authors: Beck Grant , Farkas Maia , Wheeler Patrick , Arunachalam Vairam 
Published: April 2020

Purpose
This study extends prior accounting research on decision aids (DAs) relating to face validity. Specifically, this study aims to examine the effects of face validity through the presence of two levels of bias in DA output. The presence of bias in a DA will not affect how statistically informative an aid is but will decrease the face validity. The findings suggest that non-expert DA users recognize the bias in the DA’s suggestions as evidenced by users’ low agreement with the aid; however, they do not adjust for the bias in their performance, suggesting that non-expert users do not learn from the DA.

Design/methodology/approach
This repeated-measures experimental design allows us to examine performance effects over time in response to different levels of bias in the DA output. The participants in the study are provided with outcome feedback to examine learning effects.

Findings
The findings suggest that non-expert DA users recognize the bias in the DA’s suggestions as evidenced by users’ low agreement with the aid; however, they do not adjust for the bias in their performance, suggesting that non-expert users do not learn from the DA. Although users of an unbiased DA strongly agree with the DA’s output, individual performance deteriorates over time. Initially, the users of an unbiased DA perform better than those who use a biased DA; however, over time, the performance of users of an unbiased aid deteriorates and the performance of users of the biased aid does not improve.

Practical implications
Companies developing DAs may need to consider the effects of using a DA under circumstances different from those under which the aid was developed and that may lead to the biased DA output. This study has implications for firms that design, develop and use DAs.

Originality/value
This study considers a yet unexamined face validity issue – observable bias in DA output. This study examines deterministic DAs designed to assist the decision-maker through their ability to combine multiple cues in a systematic and consistent manner. This study has implications for firms that design, develop and use DAs. Firms need to consider the effects of using a DA under circumstances different from those under which the aid is developed, thereby, potentially leading to biased DA output. Each additional variable added to the DA will be associated with an incremental cost in a DA’s development, use and modification. The results of this study provide insights contributing to the information available for cost–benefit analyses conducted when developing a DA or when considering the modification of existing aid. Failure to change a DA because of face validity issues alone may result in a decline in user performance. Thus, the cost of modifying a DA must be weighed against the benefits resulting from improved performance. This study contributes insights into how users’ responses to DA bias could affect the assessments of the benefits of including an omitted variable in a DA.
Strategising identity in the accounting profession:
Authors: Tomo Andrea , Spanò Rosanna 
Published: April 2020

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how accountants manage the processes of identity (re)construction after identity crisis, resulting from increasing pressures and regulatory requirements, considering both introspective and the extrospective issues.Design/methodology/approachThe study drew on an integrated framework drawing on Luigi Pirandello’s views about identity crises and the search for individual coherence and possible representation strategies. It used an ethnographic approach based on photo-elicitation, conversations and documentary sources to explore the identity reconstruction processes of Italian Commercialisti.FindingsSeveral conditions caused an identity crisis among Commercialisti, including regulatory requirements, public administration demands and increasing power of IT providers. Commercialisti reacted to these circumstances by re-constructing their image through strategies designed to impress both themselves and others.Practical implicationsThe paper has implications for the accounting profession in general and in Italy, suggesting that further pressure may result in rapid change efforts among accountants. It provides a broader and more systematic understanding of the threats to the role of accountants and suggests how they can manage complexity to create new opportunities. It also encourages accountants to focus on alternative roles as a possible new strategy that few have tried.Originality/valueThe paper provides a novel contribution to the understanding of identity crisis issues and related representation strategies in the accounting profession. Unlike past contributions, it made a full assessment of both the dynamics of an identity crisis and the micro-level responses to it, in a new, non-Anglo-Saxon context.
The Magellan effect – training future naval officers for mission command
Authors: Sjøvold Endre , Nissestad Odd Arne 
Published: April 2020

PurposeOfficers in post-cold war military operations frequently encounter situations that are not easily handled through central control and chain of command, but demand a more flexible leadership style and the ability to yield some control to subordinates. This study aims to investigate what it takes to train military leaders to master such Maneuver Warfare skills in a culture that still, unconsciously, fosters a chain of command structure.Design/methodology/approachUsing a quasi-experimental pre-post design, the authors studied 30 teams of naval cadets (n= 228) in three separate Leadership Development Programs, each of 12 months full time duration. In the three otherwise identical programs, the authors varied one of the major exercises (sailing) both in duration and degree of structure and challenge. Parameters of team interaction were measured using the Systematizing the Person-Group Relation method and summarized in a construct labeled synergy.FindingsOne of the cohorts showed a significant positive effect. This cohort sailed a barque for ten weeks, crossing the Atlantic during winter storms. Apart from the clear mission of sailing the ship safely back to its home haven, they received no further instructions or training. Although the duration and the challenge likely count for part of the result, the authors argue that the lack of initial structure combined with a shared mission were more important.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the cost and time involved in each program, it was not possible to independently vary duration, structure and mission. As a result, conclusions as to the reason for the greater positive effect seen in one of the programs cannot be definitively determined.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the understanding of the effect of unstructured situations on building Maneuver Warfare skills.