Business Commons^™

Helping Consumers Weather The Storm: The Impact Of Consumer-Targeted Resiliency Programs On Firm Value, Navid Bahmani, Atefeh Yazdanparast Ardestani

School of Management

Purpose: With the goal of helping consumers bounce back from the financial challenges they faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many firms developed and announced consumer-targeted resiliency programs (e.g. Walgreens waived delivery fees, Associated Bank allowed deferred mortgage payments). However, there is a paucity of research examining the unique features of these programs, and whether firms' investors (the first external stakeholder group to provide them with feedback regarding their strategies) were receptive to these programs during a period of time in which firms themselves were suffering financially. Drawing on resilience theory and stakeholder theory, the present research incorporates …

Predicting In-Hospital Mortality After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Using Administrative Data And Machine Learning, Theyab Alhwiti, Summer Aldrugh, Fadel M. Megahed

School of Management

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is the gold standard treatment for patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis. The utility of existing risk prediction tools for in-hospital mortality post-TAVR is limited due to two major factors: (a) the predictive accuracy of these tools is insufficient when only preoperative variables are incorporated, and (b) their efficacy is also compromised when solely postoperative variables are employed, subsequently constraining their application in preoperative decision support. This study examined whether statistical/machine learning models trained with solely preoperative information encoded in the administrative National Inpatient Sample database could accurately predict in-hospital outcomes (death/survival) post-TAVR. Fifteen popular binary …

Will The Reddit Rebellion Take You To The Moon? Evidence From Wallstreetbets, Ryan G. Chacon, Thibaut G. Morillon, Ruixiang Wang

School of Management

In early 2021, several stocks receiving attention from retail traders known as “meme stocks” soared in value. A primary source of information regarding these stocks is from the social media platform Reddit, specifically from a subreddit known as WallStreetBets (WSB).This paper investigates whether a simple and easily implementable trading strategy following the WallStreetBets (WSB) subreddit can produce alpha. We document no evidence this is the case. Though we do observe a positive relation between WSB submissions and abnormal trading volume, we find that a portfolio that goes long buy recommendations and short sell recommendations each day is not profitable on …

Communication Networks And Team Performance: Selecting Members To Network Positions, Jerry Guo, Linda Argote, Jonathan Kush, Jisoo Park

School of Management

This study examines how individuals come to occupy communication network positions and the effect of selection processes on group performance. Drawing on the Carnegie perspective and research on communication networks, we compare the performance of groups whose members receive their choice of who occupies which network position to the performance of groups whose members do not receive their choice. We integrate ideas from the Carnegie perspective with the social psychological literature on the recognition of expertise to theorize that when group members choose who occupies which network positions, individuals select themselves and others into network positions that best suit their …

Managing The Content Of Linkedin Posts: Influence On B2b Customer Engagement And Sales?, Roberto Mora Cortez, Wesley J. Johnston, Ayan Ghosh Dastidar

School of Management

This study investigates whether LinkedIn content in a business-to-business (B2B) service setting affects how firms generate engagement and sales revenue. Drawing on social media marketing theoretical underpinnings, we explain how a new post typology (sales, technical, and social) and customer engagement (likes, clicks, shares, and comments) are relevant to increase firm performance. We specify a VAR model with exogenous variables (VARX) using 106 weeks of data from a new, steadily growing B2B firm. We focus on the cumulative effects (i.e., short- and long-term effects) of the types of posts, website visits, new followers, and a composite of engagement behaviors over …

A Spatial Analysis Of Smart Meter Adoptions: Empirical Evidence From The U.S. Data, Yue Gao, Chao Fang, Jing Zhang

School of Management

With the increasing demand on grid modernization for improving environmental sustain-ability and grid security, the topic of smart meter adoption has attracted much attention, especially with regard to the roles of public policies. However, there is a lack of research investigating the association between the multi-layered government policies and smart meter adoption from a spatial perspective to explain the variant adoption rates across the United States. This study constructs a panel of 48 contiguous U.S. states and the District of Columbia over the period 2007–2019. Using this unique dataset and spatial econometric models, we investigate the impacts of federal and …

Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Household Financial Decisions: A Consumer Vulnerability Perspective, Atefeh Yazdanparast, Yasser Alhenawi

School of Management

This study joins a rapidly growing body of research that investigates the multi-faceted impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumers' behavior. Specifically, we examine how the pandemic-induced state of vulnerability impacts consumers' saving, investing, and spending decisions. Using survey data from four different countries (i.e., USA, UK, South Africa, and Mexico), we examine the role of personality on consumer vulnerability, create an index of consumer vulnerability, and establish the role of vulnerability in impacting important financial decisions. We report evidence that perceptions of vulnerability and the pandemic-induced changes in financial and consumption behaviors vary across residents of developed and developing …

Consequences Of Moral Transgressions: How Regulatory Focus Orientation Motivates Or Hinders Moral Decoupling, Kirsten Cowan, Atefeh Yazdanparast

School of Management

How can firms mitigate the impact of moral violations on consumer evaluations? This question has pervaded the business ethics literature. Though prior research has identified decoupling as a moral reasoning strategy where consumers separate moral judgments from evaluations (avoiding moral compromise and dissonance), it is unclear what motivates individuals to decouple. It is the objective of this research to explore regulatory focus theory (i.e., a framework examining consumer mindsets as prevention or promotion orientated) as a motivating factor for moral decoupling. Three experiments are undertaken. Study one demonstrates that with a prevention mindset (e.g., analytical thinking) as opposed to promotion …

Advertising And Pseudo-Culture: An Analysis Of The Changing Portrayal Of Women In Print Advertisements, Atefeh Yazdanparast, Iman Naderi, Nancy Spears, Robert O. Fabrize

School of Management

This study investigates the use of mass media, specifically advertising, in cultural transformation projects to weaken cultures and replace them with a crafted pseudo-culture. We rely on Adorno’s theory of pseudo-culture to examine how political ideologies shape cultural transformation using mass-mediated ad images. Following a content analysis and a semiotic analysis of print advertisements over a period of 48 years, we identify five major themes underlying pseudo-culture formation and the advertising strategies implemented to support these themes. This work also identifies four major tools used in pseudo-culture formation and demonstrates how pseudo-cultures may be formed, promoted, and abolished.

The available …

Understanding The Intention To Trust Product Information And Certifications To Promote Sustainable Consumption: Applying The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Djoko Sayogo, Jing Zhang, Sergio Picazo-Vela, Babak Bahaddin, Luis Luna-Reyes

School of Management

This paper explores consumers trust in sustainable product and certification information included in the product’s package and label by using Azjen’s theory of planned behavior as a framework. We used 327 observations collected from an international survey distributed to students in the U.S., Mexico and Indonesia as proxy of consumers’ view. Our results demonstrate that the consumer’s general predisposition toward trust, social normative pressure, and the presence of factors that facilitate consumer’s perceptions to perform trust behavior significantly increase the consumer’s intention to trust sustainable product and certification information. Although we found some country variations in terms of the propensity …

Introduction To “Ict4d: Icts And Sustainable Development” Minitrack, Mathias Hatakka, Devinder Thapa, Jing Zhang

School of Management

No abstract provided.

Is Organic Labelling Enough? Information Disclosure As Policy Instrument To Empower Consumer Choices, Jing Zhang, Lin Boldt

School of Management

Governments have been advocating for an open approach to encourage private sector disclosing relevant information in order to create more efficient market. However, it is not always clear what information are needed by consumers. Policy makers need to develop measures that help decide what information should be disclosed and whether a disclosure should be mandated. In this research, we focus on information disclosure in organic products, where consumers find the complex organic labeling hard to understand. Through two studies, we show that feed origin makes a significant difference in consumers' choice; and sellers with feed from non-USA countries would be …

Exploring Stakeholders' Expectations Of The Benefits And Barriers Of E-Government Knowledge Sharing, Jing Zhang, Sharon S. Dawes, Joseph Sarkis

School of Management

Purpose - The issue of varying stakeholder expectations has significant implications for successful enterprise information system implementation. This issue becomes more prevalent in e-government situations where a variety of stakeholders are influenced by inter-organizational knowledge sharing. This paper presents an exploratory investigation of the diverging and converging expectations of various stakeholders at the initiation of e-government projects with regard to the benefits of and barriers to interorganizational knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach - Survey data were collected from seven cases within the New York State (NYS) government setting. We identified two sets of stakeholder groupings in this paper; core/key project participants and …