Business Commons^™

Enhancing Consistency Of Maximal Responding In Behavior Description Interviews: An Exploration Of Priming And Response Length, Allen I. Huffcutt, Satoris S. Howes, Dianne D. Murphy, Sara A. Murphy

Management Faculty Research and Publications

In a Behavior Description Interview (BDI), candidates are asked to describe past experiences that demonstrate skills and abilities important for the position (Janz, 1982). A recent study by Huffcutt et al. (2020) found that only around half of participants (48.1 percent) describe an experience reflecting maximal performance capability. Random mixing of maximal capability with day-to-day typical performance tendencies is problematic psychometrically because candidates are not all providing comparable information and top candidates could be overlooked. Given notable methodological concerns with Huffcutt et al.’s approach, our first purpose was to provide empirical confirmation that maximal responding in BDIs is, in fact, …

Being Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde: Role-Based Identity Foils In Organizational Life, Blake E. Ashforth, Beth S. Schinoff, Kristie M. Rogers, Donald Lange

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Soldier-medic. Undercover police officer. Collaborative divorce attorney. Certain jobs require an individual to enact antithetical sets of role expectations (to do X and not-X), such as saving a life and taking a life, in the case of a soldier-medic. Despite their important consequences, we lack a unifying framework for such antithetical expectations and their implied identity foils—where one is expected to be both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (a life-saver and a life-taker). To this end, we build theory on how and why antithetical expectations and their implied identity foils arise in organizations. We offer a model …

Institutional Investors And Corporate Environmental And Financial Performance, Steve M. Miller, Bin Qiu, Bin Wang, Tina Yang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We propose a conceptual framework to illustrate that when three conditions hold, institutional investors moderate a positive relation between corporate financial performance and corporate environmental performance. We explore heterogeneities across institution types to demonstrate the importance of each condition. The moderating effect works through the channels of expert consulting and effective monitoring. Our results have important policy and practical implications given the global trend of ownership concentration in institutional investors and the projection that by 2025, one out of three dollars under professional management will be invested in corporate social responsibility assets.

Impact Of Socioeconomic Values Collaboration On Performance In Franchising, Vivek K. Dubey, Joseph M. Matthes, Amit Saini

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Franchises exist within cultures and societies that establish distinct socioeconomic beliefs, values, opportunities, and threats, all of which can affect firms’ operational success. Disagreements between franchisees and franchisors about such social or economic issues potentially disrupt their cooperative equilibrium, whereas collaborations that prioritize shared socioeconomic values may facilitate successful long-term relationships. Using primary data, gathered through a survey of U.S. franchisees, the authors test a proposed model of franchisee performance. The structural equation modeling results reveal that socioeconomic values–based collaborations indirectly enhance performance, through their effects on customer relationship management cooperation and franchisor idiosyncratic investment. Control of local marketing mix …

Helping Youth Navigate Privacy Protection: Developing And Testing The Children's Online Privacy Scale, J. Craig Andrews, Kristen L. Walker, Richard G. Netemeyer, Jeremy Kees

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

As children’s and teens’ internet use has reached record highs, the protection of their online privacy is a pressing issue for parents, consumer groups, social media firms, and federal, state, and international agencies. Even with strategies to help children protect their personal information, questions remain as to what children really know about the risks of interacting online. Thus far, much of the online privacy research has relied on subjective measures of adult beliefs and attitudes, which may not be predictive of children's online privacy behaviors. To address these issues, the authors develop and test a children's online privacy scale tapping …

The Impact Of Stakeholder Orientation On Tax Avoidance: Evidence From A Natural Experiment, Gary Chen, Ani Manakyan Mathers, Bin Wang, Xiaohong Wang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We study the effect of stakeholder orientation on corporate tax avoidance. Using the staggered passage of constituency statutes across U.S. states between 1983 and 2006, we show that greater stakeholder orientation results in increased tax avoidance. We further find greater tax avoidance among firms with limited financial resources and that employees benefit from the change. Our results are consistent with stakeholder salience theory that resource-constrained managers prioritize the claims of salient stakeholders, such as employees, at the expense of secondary stakeholders, such as the government.

Litigation Risk Management Through Corporate Payout Policy, Matteo P. Arena, Brandon Julio

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

Firms modify their payout policy in anticipation of future litigation costs. We examine a comprehensive sample of U.S. corporate lawsuits and find that firms facing significant litigation risk pay lower dividends, and in some cases omit dividends while distributing more cash through share repurchases. Litigation risk changes the distribution of payouts but not the total payout yield as the increase in share repurchases offsets the decrease in dividends. Cash-poor firms cut share repurchases when settlement costs are incurred. The results suggest that firms at a higher risk of litigation increase their payout flexibility.

Challenging Racism As A Black Police Officer: An Emergent Theory Of Employee Anti-Racism, Melanie K. Prengler, Nitya Chawla, Angelica Leigh, Kristie M. Rogers

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Organizations are key mechanisms by which racism is enacted and perpetuated. Although much of the management literature has focused on organizational efforts to combat racial discrimination, some of the most transformative changes come from the everyday actions of employees themselves. In this study, we develop grounded theory on racial minority employees who choose to challenge racism from within the organizational structures that perpetuate it most (i.e., highly racialized organizations). We present a theoretical model of employee anti-racism that emerged from our analysis of qualitative data—comprising 80.7 audio hours from 48 interviews with Black law enforcement officers. This model articulates anti-racism …

Momentum Crashes And The 52-Week High, Byoung-Hyun Jeon, Suk-Joon Byun

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

Momentum strategies suffer from occasional large drawdowns referred to as momentum crashes when the market rebounds. We find that a surge of investor speculation toward stocks far from their 52-week highs can partially explain the momentum crashes. If a momentum strategy is revised to be neutral on a 52-week high effect, momentum crashes are significantly attenuated and the revised strategy does not exhibit procyclical returns. Furthermore, the revised strategy generates a higher Sharpe ratio in different sub-periods and international stock markets.

Making A List: Teaching Prospecting In Sales Courses, Alexander Milovic

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

The importance of prospecting cannot be overstated in the sales discipline. The authors introduce an exercise that allows students to develop this skill by identifying and developing a detailed prospecting list with data gleaned from real-world contact information. This project can be executed both stand-alone or as an introduction to a larger-scale sales project. Additionally, this project can be delivered beyond the classroom in a workshop-style format to assist student organizations/clubs achieve their goals (e.g., fundraising, corporate outreach). Empirical results are shared, as well as qualitative student feedback, to demonstrate the exercise’s effectiveness for teaching this vital concept.

Gender Effects On The Impact Of Colorectal Cancer Risk Calculators On Screening Intentions: Experimental Study, Jungmin Lee, Mark Keil, Jong Seok Lee, Aaron Baird

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Background:

Risk calculators are increasingly being used to promote cancer awareness and improve compliance with screening tests. Research concerning the effects of colorectal cancer (CRC) risk calculators on the intention to undergo CRC screening, however, has been limited. Some studies have shown lackluster impacts of CRC risk calculators, reporting that people tend to lower their risk perception after receiving personalized assessments from such calculators.

Objective:

We conducted an experiment to examine the mechanisms through which CRC risk calculators might influence individuals’ intentions to undergo CRC screening by examining the role of perceived susceptibility to CRC as a mediating mechanism for …

Circular Economy To The Rescue? The U.S. Corporate Disclosure Response To The Plastic Crisis, Wioleta Olczak, Dennis M. Patten, Hyemi Shin

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

Media attention to the world’s growing plastic crisis exploded in 2018, almost certainly increasing social exposures for companies heavily involved in the material’s manufacture or use. Relying on arguments from media agenda setting theory (Brown & Deegan, 1998), we explore how a sample of large U.S. plastic manufacturers and users responded to the crisis in their standalone CSR reports, with particular emphasis on their use of circular economy terminology to frame that response. Circular economy ideas have been gaining traction with governmental units, non-governmental organisations, and academic researchers, and like the plastic crisis, are seeing substantially increased coverage in media …

Don't Interfere With My Rights! Employee Rights Violation And The Cost Of Bank Loans, Amirhossein Fard, Ibrahim Siraj, Bin Wang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We study the relationship between the cost of bank loans and the charges filed to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) due to managerial interference in employee rights. Loans issued after the filing of the allegations are associated with significantly higher loan spreads than loans initiated before the filing of allegations. Strong allegations that result in withdrawal with adjustments or compliance tend to positively affect the loan pricing. Further, interfering firms tend to experience higher default risks in the years following the filing of charges. Our paper is the first in the literature to show the impact of violation of …

Monitoring Institutional Ownership And Corporate Innovation, Steve Miller, Bin Qiu, Bin Wang, Tina Yang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We document a positive effect of monitoring institutional ownership on firm innovation after controlling for traditional measures of institutional ownership. We further find that monitoring institutions enhance firm innovation by: (1) incentivizing CEO risk-taking and reducing intense board monitoring, (2) alleviating agency problems, (3) attenuating managerial career concerns, and (4) mitigating corporate misvaluation. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of considering institutions’ monitoring incentives when examining the outcomes of their portfolio firms’ activities associated with high information asymmetry.

Who They Are Versus What They Want: How Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, And Compliance Profiles Can Aid In Developing Employability, Bonnie S. O'Neill, Jason Fertig, Pamela Wells, Carelle B. Bassil

Management Faculty Research and Publications

This paper draws attention to a behavior-based assessment instrument that is frequently utilized in industry settings but less utilized in the academic classroom. The authors argue that this instrument, the dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance (DISC) profile, can be useful in training and developing soft skills desired by employers. They also examine the effects of gender and work experience on the various DISC patterns to better understand how this instrument may be useful for coaching and mentoring in those academic and organizational contexts. In this study, DISC pattern data were gathered from 1547 undergraduate and graduate students across multiple universities …

Riding The Waves Or Rocking The Boat? Benefits And Unintended Consequences Of Customer Growth Strategies, Andrew T. Crecelius, Justin M. Lawrence, Jessica Ogilvie, Adam Rapp

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Suppliers can grow sales by offering expanded solutions to specific, promising customer accounts via relationship expansion proposals. Extant perspectives offer conflicting advice on which accounts to target and how to price such proposals. The authors investigate how expansion proposals can be strategically targeted and designed to enhance supplier financial outcomes. A novel conceptual framework provides direction for targeted account growth based on three relationship metrics: sales potential, prior profitability, and service level. Two studies with a major industrial supplier assess the effects of relationship expansion proposals contingent on these three metrics. A quasi-experiment in Study 1 reveals that higher sales …

The New World Of Philanthropy: How Changing Financial Behavior, Public Policies, And Covid-19 Affect Nonprofit Fundraising And Marketing, Eric Van Steenburg, Nwamaka A. Anaza, Ahmed Ashhar, Andres Barrios, Ashley R. Deutsch, Meryl P. Gardner, Preeti Priya, Abhijit Roy, Anu Sivaraman, Kimberly A. Taylor

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Evolving financial behavior, an unpredictable public policy atmosphere, and an unparalleled global pandemic have collaborated to disrupt nonprofit fundraising. The COVID-19 pandemic alone exacerbated consumer demands for nonprofit services while curtailing nonprofit organizations' ability to fundraise. Without fundraising, nonprofit organizations cannot achieve their mission or support their causes, leading to a precarious situation for societal well-being. Meanwhile, consumers are changing their financial behaviors, with younger generations often going cashless. At the same time, governments continue to change policies that affect nonprofit organizations. In keeping with the transformative consumer research movement, the present study provides a conceptual framework for the state …

Perception Of Internal Controls Helps Explain Whistleblowing, Andrea M. Scheetz, Tonya D.W. Smalls, Joseph Wall, Aaron B. Wilson

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

The nonprofit sector may suffer financially from inconsistency in regulations and polices surrounding internal control implementation. To address this issue, our study explores how perceived internal control strength differs between nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Furthermore, we examine three components of the Committee of Sponsoring Organization framework to determine which components might significantly influence whistleblowing for nonprofit organizations. As expected, all three components appear to significantly influence whistleblowing for those in for-profit organizations. For those in nonprofit organizations, the perception of control activities and monitoring activities significantly mediates the relationship between organization type and whistleblowing intentions. Finally, the data indicate that …

What Exactly Is Marketing And Public Policy? Insights For Jppm Researchers, J. Craig Andrews, Scot Burton, Gregory T. Gundlach, Ronald Paul Hill, Jeremy Kees, Richard G. Netemeyer, Kristen L. Walker

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

In this article for the 40th Anniversary of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPPM), the authors first share what is meant by “policy,” “public policy,” and “marketing and public policy” for researchers in our field. The authors then offer examples of JPPM research informing policy across different stages of the policy-making process: problem identification, agenda setting, policy formulation, budgeting, implementation, and evaluation. They also discuss important sources of public policy (e.g., federal, state, and international agencies; self-regulation; the courts; nonprofits; society; industry standards; company policies; personal ethics) and their role in the marketing and public policy …

Does Corporate Lobbying Benefit Society?, Rami Kaplan, David L. Levy, Kathleen Rehbein, Brian Kelleher Richter

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Lobbying, defined as an effort to influence policy through strategic communication, has grown dramatically in recent years. This paper presents three viewpoints regarding the societal impact of corporate lobbying on society: one perspective argues that lobbying will be primarily beneficial, an alternative perspective contests this viewpoint and suggests that it is generally harmful, and the third argues that the impact is contingent on a number of factors. Proponents of lobbying argue that it is a vital mechanism to transmit valuable information and expertise to policymakers, leading to substantive legislative solutions for resolving complex societal issues. Critics, on the other hand, …

Influence Of Social Media Posts On Service Performance, Carol L. Esmark Jones, Stacie F. Waites, Jennifer Stevens

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

Much research regarding social media posts and relevancy has resulted in mixed findings. Furthermore, the mediating role of relevancy has not previously been examined. This paper aims to examine the correlating relationship between types of posts made by hotels and the resulting occupancy rates. Then, the mediating role of relevancy is examined and ways that posts can increase/decrease relevancy of the post to potential hotel users.

Design/methodology/approach

Within the context of the hotel industry, three studies were conducted – one including hotel occupancy data from a corporate chain – to examine the impact of social media posts on relevancy …

Risky Business? Shareholder Value Effects Of Service Provision, Antonios Karatzas, George Daskalakis, Marko Bastl, Mark Johnson

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Business model innovation by manufacturing firms, through the addition of services to the core product offerings, has been steadily on the rise. However, this can pose risks for the firms’ long-term viability and profitability. Here, we examine the short-term financial effects of the sale of different product-service combinations. We use the event study methodology to investigate the stock market reaction to 1025 new contract announcements by 41 large manufacturers from 1987 to 2016.679 of these announcements involve the sale of standalone products, while the remaining 346 are product-service deals which we classify as low-, medium- or high-risk depending on whether …

Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing And Its Marketing: Emergent Ethical And Public Policy Implications, Alexander Nill, Gene R. Laczniak

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This paper provides a marketing ethics analysis that addresses the practice of selling genetic tests (GT) directly to the consumer (DTC). It details the complexity of this emergent sector by articulating the panoply of evolving ethical/social questions raised by this development. It advances the conversation about DTC genetic testing by reviewing the business and healthcare literature concerning this topic and by laying out the inherent ethical complications for consumers, marketers, and regulators. It also points to several possible public and company policy adjustments. Because this area is relatively new and incredibly dynamic, its current discussion is necessarily an exercise in …

Navigating The Ethically Complex And Controversial World Of College Athletics: A Humanistic Leadership Approach To Student Athlete Well-Being, Johnette (Jay) Caulfield, Felissa K. Lee, Catharyn Baird

Management Faculty Research and Publications

The college athletics environment within the USA is ethically complex and often controversial. From an academic standpoint, athletes are often viewed as a privileged class receiving undue benefit. Yet closer inspection reveals that student athletes are at risk psychologically, physically, and intellectually in ways that undermine development and flourishing. This reality stands in troubling contrast to the prosocial, virtue-based goals expressed by university mission statements. Given the role of sport in many university business models, college athletics invites scrutiny from a business ethics standpoint. Using a humanistic leadership perspective (Pirson in: Humanistic management: protecting dignity and promoting well-being, Cambridge University …

Retaining College Students Experiencing Shocks: The Power Of Embeddedness And Normative Pressures, David B. Wangrow, Kristie M. Rogers, Delia Saenz, Peter W. Hom

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Why do college students persist with their education, especially when facing challenges? We answer this question by exploring the complexities surrounding college student retention, using the organizational research lenses of job embeddedness, normative pressures, and the unfolding model of turnover. We first developed a college embeddedness scale and adapted a measure of normative pressures on college persistence. Then, we surveyed 287 first-year students from a broad range of racial and ethnic groups to understand their re-enrollment intentions and behavior. We found a positive relationship between re-enrollment intentions and normative pressures. Additionally, both college embeddedness and normative pressures predicted actual re-enrollment. …

Prosocial Messaging During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Examination Of Email Advertisements, Ashley Deutsch Cermin, Ashton Mouton

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate how brands communicate with consumers through the COVID-19 pandemic and how messaging has shifted over time. The authors identify a typology drawn from extant literature and use it to understand how brands shape consumers’ behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a mix of interpretive and thematic analysis, the authors examine 858 US email advertisements and how these messages have evolved throughout the pandemic.

Findings

The authors findings demonstrate brand communication ranges from prosocial to brand messaging and brands employed different strategies at different phases of the pandemic. Specifically, while brands started out emphasizing socially desirable behavior before …

When Does Ceo Succession Lead To Strategic Change? The Mediating Role Of Top Management Team Replacement, David B. Wangrow, Donald J. Schepker, Vincent L. Barker Iii

Management Faculty Research and Publications

While mandates for strategic change may accompany the selection of new Chief Executive Officer (CEOs), the broader set of leadership changes necessary for strategic change remains unclear. Motivated by upper echelons and resource dependence theories, direct relationships between three structural events associated with CEO succession and strategic change are examined, as well as whether these relationships are mediated by replacing top management team (TMT) members. Significant mediated relationships are found in which TMT replacement mediates the relationships of pre-succession firm performance and hiring an outsider as CEO with post-succession strategic change. Involuntary CEO turnover is found to be directly related …

Institutional Investors And Bank Governance: An International Analysis Of Bank Earnings Management, Steve M. Miller, Rabih Moussawi, Bin Wang, Tina Yang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

Despite the growing importance of institutional investors in global capital markets and the link between bank earnings management and financial crash risk, little is known about the role of institutional investors in mitigating bank earnings management. We conduct the first international analysis of this issue using a broad sample of banks and institutional investors. We find a negative relation between institutional ownership and bank earnings management, after controlling for the stringency of a country's bank regulations and other relevant bank and country characteristics. Additionally, institutional ownership is more negatively related to earnings management in countries with more-stringent bank disclosure requirements …

Executive Dismissal Or Retention? A Study Of Performance, Power, And Survival For College Basketball Coaches, David B. Wangrow, Evan Schwartz, Margaret Hughes-Morgan

Management Faculty Research and Publications

This study applies upper echelons theory associated with executive dismissal and power to examine the relationships of performance and four types of executive power—structural, prestige, expert, and governance concentration—with dismissal. Using the context of National Collegiate Athletic Association college basketball, in which coaches are completely responsible for strategies and human capital acquisition and retention, a curvilinear relationship between performance and dismissal is found. Significant relationships for prestige and expert power with dismissal are also found, but the “honeymoon period” is longer than prior studies of executive and coach dismissal have shown. Surprisingly, concentrated governance is found to …

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: How Investors Respond When Violation Severity And Corresponding Penalty (Mis)Match, Wioleta Olczak

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has become a major focus for corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Department of Justice (DOJ), as indicated by the dramatic increase in the number of FCPA enforcement actions and the level of civil and criminal penalties. Prior regulatory practice shows that the SEC and the DOJ struggle not only to evaluate the severity of a company's FCPA violation, but also to establish the penalty amount. Given the difficulty in assessing penalties, the severity of a company's FCPA violation at times appears mismatched with the size of the penalty. Leveraging signaling …