Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of authentic leadership on the work–family balance (WFB) of followers by focusing on the mediating roles of leader–member exchange (LMX) and work-to-family enrichment (WFE) and the moderating role of traditionality in China.

Keyword

Authentic leadership ;  Leader-member exchange ;  Work-family issues ;  Work-life balance

Abstract

Is there a correlation between the composition of the board of directors and the quantity and quality of information disclosed to the market, and in particular with respect to the disclosure of privileged, price-sensitive information? Our work examines this question with respect to the Italian Stock Exchange, also considering the role of minority-appointed directors in light of the Italian rules on slate voting that facilitate the election of directors by institutional investors and other minority shareholders. Based on a unique dataset of hand-picked data, we answer the basic research question in the affirmative. Independent directors and minority-appointed directors appear to have a positive impact on the amount and, to some extent, quality of disclosure, in particular if they have specific professional and educational qualifications (‘highly skilled directors’). We also tested if the market reacts to the information that is made public in order to consider the possible objection that outside directors simply require more disclosure of unimportant information. The event studies we conducted, however, indicate abnormal returns in the correspondence on the announcements we considered. The study sheds light on the role of independent and minority-appointed directors suggesting that they foster corporate transparency.

Keyword

Board of directors ;  Disclosure ;  Independent directors ;  Minority-appointed directors ;  Corporate governance ;  Inside information

Abstract

We study the long-run effects of conflict on social attitudes, with World War II in Central and Eastern Europe as our setting. Much of earlier work has relied on self-reported measures of victimization, which are prone to endogenous misreporting. With our own survey-based measure, we replicate established findings linking victimization to political participation, civic engagement, optimism, and trust. Those findings are reversed, however, when tested instead with an objective measure of victimization based on historical reference material. Thus, we urge caution when interpreting survey-based results from this literature as causal.

Keyword

Conflict ;  social attitudes ;  World War II

Abstract

China's outward FDI reached a peak in 2016, making it as important a foreign investor as Germany, France and the United Kingdom. In this paper, we investigate the main motivations behind Chinese investments in developing countries, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in particular. Although the size of Chinese investment in CEE is small, the region is strategic for China as it is a gateway into Western Europe under the Belt Road Initiative. As new or future members of the EU, the CEE countries also provide access to the single market. We find that the motivations to invest in developing countries differ according to regions. Based on outward FDI data provided by the Chinese authorities, the number of Chinese FDI greenfield and M&A projects fromFinancial TimesandZephyrrespectively, as well as face-to-face interviews with companies with investments in CEE, we find that for the case of CEE, domestic markets, access to the larger EU market, strategic assets like technology and prior relationship with the CEE are main reasons for investing.

Keyword

Central and Eastern Europe ;  China ;  Outward FDI

Abstract

While marketing literature highlights both short- and long-term detrimental effects of marketing myopic management on firm performance, understanding of its antecedents is rather limited. This paper aims to determine if a certain level of transient institutional investor ownership influences a firm's marketing as well as research and development (R&D) investment decisions. Drawing on agency theory, the effects of institutional investor are examined using a two-stage panel logit regression with instrument variables (IV). Empirical results show that a strong presence of short-term institutional investors leads to the practice of marketing myopic management. The transient institutional investors encourage managers to invest less in marketing and R&D as an effort to artificially inflate current-term performance. We propose some policy suggestions that might be used to reduce the practice of myopic management.

Keyword

managerial myopia ;  marketing ;  R&D

Abstract

We present a novel measure of firm-level employment stability, defined as one minus a firm's employment elasticity with respect to its sales. We find that employment stability is positively associated with innovation output, measured by the number of patents and subsequent citations, and the originality and generality of the patents. Our findings suggest that employment stability enhances employees' incentives for innovation by providing tolerance for failure.

Keyword

Employment stability ;  innovation ;  patenting ;  tolerance for failure

Abstract

The leadership literature suggests that followers are likely to be autonomously motivated when working for servant leaders, leading them to experience greater psychological empowerment. Guided by self-determination theory, we predicted that this empowerment would then heighten individuals' perceptions of their teams' transactive memory systems. When subordinates perceive that discrimination is occurring in their workgroup, however, we expected that the empowerment-transactive memory systems link would be weakened. This moderated mediation model was tested at multiple timepoints using 211 employees from a variety of industries and job types. The results generally supported our predictions, and the implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Keyword

empowerment ;  perceived discrimination ;  self-determination theory ;  servant leadership ;  transactive memory systems

Abstract

In the literature on monetary economics, there is the ‘inflationary bias’ result which predicts that the rate of inflation will be biased towards a higher level under discretionary monetary policy than under a rule‐based policy regime. It is established that a credible nominal target can eliminate this ‘inflationary bias’. In this paper, we examine the case of nominal GDP targeting, which is a rule‐based monetary regime. Depending on the degree of conservativeness by the central bank, we show in a stylized model the choice of different combination of inflation and real GDP targets can still result in an ‘inflationary bias’, and there also exists the possibility of a ‘dis‐inflationary bias’.

Keyword

monetary policy ;  nominal GDP targeting ;  central bank ;  conservatism ;  inflationary bias ;  E52 ;  E58

Abstract

Purpose Chinese investments abroad are being scrutinized more stringently because host governments fear that Chinese companies would steal domestically grown technology and know-how or be duped into a debt trap. The purpose of this paper is to provide a narrative of Chinese investments in a region that is neither developed nor underdeveloped – Central and Eastern Europe. The authors aim to provide an alternative view of Chinese investments abroad. Design/methodology/approach The authors base their narrative on face-to-face semi-structured interviews with eight Chinese firms that carried out mergers and acquisition activities in the region. Findings The respondents claim that they saved companies and jobs in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Access to the China market and elsewhere has increased as a result of these investments. Transfer of technology has gone both ways depending on which partner had superior technology. Research limitations/implications It is important that Chinese investors emphasize the positive spillover effects from their investments, such as jobs saved, potential technology transfer and increased exports, when applying for FDI approval from host governments. Host governments, on the other hand, should evaluate each Chinese investment on its individual merits. Originality/value There is little that has been researched on the contributions of FDI from developing countries to host economies. This paper is an early attempt in this direction.

Keyword

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the variations in the transaction-specific investments made in logistics outsourcing relationships and explore how such variations are related to outsourcing cooperation. Based on the assumption that the vendor and the client always make some level of investment in outsourcing relationships, we develop a cluster model that illustrates four situations that indicate varying levels of vendor-specific investment and client-specific investment. We use data from client firms in logistics outsourcing relationships from China to test the theorised configurations through cluster analysis. The results validate our proposed matrix of specific investments and confirm that systematic configurations of the investment taxonomy and corresponding cooperation behaviours of information sharing, joint action, opportunism and conflict exist in each situation.

Keyword

conflict ;  information sharing ;  joint action ;  logistics outsourcing relationships ;  opportunism ;  Research paper ;  Transaction-specific investment