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Showing papers in "Social Science Research Network in 2012"


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors extended the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to study acceptance of technology in a consumer context and proposed UTAUT2 incorporating three constructs into UTAAUT: hedonic motivation, price value, and habit.
Abstract: This paper extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to study acceptance and use of technology in a consumer context. Our proposed UTAUT2 incorporates three constructs into UTAUT: hedonic motivation, price value, and habit. Individual differences — namely, age, gender, and experience — are hypothesized to moderate the effects of these constructs on behavioral intention and technology use. Results from a two-stage online survey, with technology use data collected four months after the first survey, of 1,512 mobile Internet consumers supported our model. Compared to UTAUT, the extensions proposed in UTAUT2 produced a substantial improvement in the variance explained in behavioral intention (56 percent to 74 percent) and technology use (40 percent to 52 percent). The theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed.

4,986 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: Gefen et al. as mentioned in this paper presented a comprehensive, organized, and contemporary summary of the minimum reporting requirements for structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) applications.
Abstract: Wold’s (1974; 1982) partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) ap-proach and the advanced PLS-SEM algorithms by Lohmoller (Lohmoller 1989) have enjoyed steady popularity as a key multivariate analysis methods in management infor-mation systems (MIS) research (Gefen et al. 2011). Chin’s (1998b) scholarly work and technology acceptance model (TAM) applications (e.g., Gefen and Straub 1997) are milestones that helped to reify PLS-SEM in MIS research. In light of the proliferation of SEM techniques, Gefen et al. (2011), updating Gefen et al. (2000), presented a compre-hensive, organized, and contemporary summary of the minimum reporting requirements for SEM applications. Such guidelines are of crucial importance for advancing research for several reasons. First, researchers wishing to apply findings from prior studies or wanting to contribute to original research must comprehend other researchers’ decisions in order to under-stand the robustness of their findings. Likewise, when studies arrive at significantly different results, the natural course is to attempt explaining the differences in terms of the theory or concept employed, the empirical data used, and how the research method was applied. A lack of clarity on these issues, including the methodological applications, contradicts the goals of such studies (Jackson et al. 2009). Even worse, the misapplication of a technique may result in misinterpretations of empirical outcomes and, hence, false conclusions. Against this background, rigorous research has a long-standing tradition of critically reviewing prior practices of reporting standards and research method use (e.g., Boudreau et al. 2001). While the use of covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) techniques has been well documented across disciplines (e.g., Medsker et al. 1994; Shook et al. 2004; Steenkamp and Baumgartner 2000), few reviews to date have investigated usage practices specific to PLS-SEM (see, however, Gefen et al. 2000). Previous reviews of such research practices were restricted to strategic management (Hulland 1999) and, more recently, marketing (Hair et al. 2012; Henseler et al. 2009), and accounting (Lee et al. 2011). The question arises as to how authors publishing in top IS journals such as MIS Quarterly have used PLS-SEM thus far, given the SEM recommendations of Gefen et al. (2011). By relating Gefen et al.’s (2011) reporting guidelines to actual practice, we attempt to identify potential problematic areas in PLS-SEM use, problems which may explain some of the criticism of how it has been applied (e.g., Marcoulides et al. 2009; Marcoulides and Saunders 2006). By reviewing previous PLS-SEM research in MIS Quarterly, we can hopefully increase awareness of established reporting standards. The results allow researchers to further improve the already good reporting practices that have been established in MIS Quarterly and other top journals and thus could become blueprints for conducting PLS-SEM analysis in other disciplines such as strategic management and marketing.

1,835 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a systematic review of research on academic scientists' involvement in collaborative research, contract research, consulting and informal relationships for university-industry knowledge transfer, which they refer as academic engagement.
Abstract: A considerable body of work highlights the relevance of collaborative research, contract research, consulting and informal relationships for university-industry knowledge transfer. We present a systematic review of research on academic scientists’ involvement in these activities to which we refer as ‘academic engagement’. Apart from extracting findings that are generalisable across studies, we ask how academic engagement differs from commercialization, defined as intellectual property creation and academic entrepreneurship. We identify the individual, organizational and institutional antecedents and consequences of academic engagement, and then compare these findings with the antecedents and consequences of commercialization. Apart from being more widely practiced, academic engagement is distinct from commercialization in that it is closely aligned with traditional academic research activities, and pursued by academics to access resources supporting their research agendas. We conclude by identifying future research needs, opportunities for methodological improvement and policy interventions. (Published version available via open access)

1,589 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the impact of scale format on data characteristics such as the mean, coefficient of variation, skewness, and kurtosis on customer satisfaction.
Abstract: To what extent does the number of response categories in a Likert-type scale influence the resultant data? Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the issue of whether the response category format has any influence on data characteristics such as the mean, coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis. This issue is important for several reasons. The first is that decisions are made based on outcomes such as the mean score. For example, marketing organizations and research providers use Likert type scales to measure constructs such as customer satisfaction. In this situation a higher score is better. Could the score have been comparatively better if a different scale format had been used? There is an absence of evidence on this issue. The second reason is that scale formats that are used in on-going market research projects such as tracking studies occasionally change. Can the old results be re-scaled or transformed to be comparable to data from a new scale format? Again, little is known about this. The third reason concerns data characteristics such as variation about the mean, skewness and kurtosis. Analysis tools such as regression are often used on data of this type to explain the variation in certain variables. If there is little variance in the data, this is harder to do. How does scale format affect these characteristics? The answers would be useful to both market researchers as well as academics. A literature review found that little work has been done on this issue. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the impact of scale format on data characteristics. It examined how using Likert-type scales with varying numbers of response categories affects the resultant data in terms of mean scores, and measures of dispersion and shape. Three groups of respondents were administered a series of eight questions (group n’s = 300, 250,185). Respondents were randomly selected members of the general public. A different scale format was administered to each group – either a five-point, seven-point or ten-point scale. The surveys were conducted by a professional market research organization via telephone interview. Data characteristics of mean score, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis were analyzed according to scale format. The five and seven-point scales were re-scaled to a comparable mean score out of ten. The study found that the five and seven-point scales produced the same mean score as each other, once they were re-scaled. However the ten-point format tended to produce slightly lower relative means than either the 5 or 7-point scales (after the latter were re-scaled). The overall mean score of the eight questions was 0.3 scale points lower for the 10-point format compared to the 5 and 7-point format. This difference was statistically significant at p=0.04. In terms of the other data characteristics, there was very little difference among the scale formats in terms of variation about the mean, skewness or kurtosis. Therefore each of the three formats appears comparable for the type of research project in which multiple-item scales are analyzed with multivariate statistical methods. This study is also ‘good news’ for research departments or agencies who ponder whether changing scale format will destroy the comparability of historical data. Five and seven-point scales can easily be re-scaled with the resultant data being quite comparable. In the case of comparing five or seven-point data to 10-point data, a straightforward re-scaling and arithmetic adjustment easily facilitates the comparison. Finally, it appears that indicators of customer sentiment – such as satisfaction surveys – may be partially dependent on the choice of scale format. A five or seven-point scale is likely to produce slightly higher mean scores relative to the highest possible attainable score, compared to that produced from a ten-point scale.

1,556 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the current literature on business models in the contexts of technological, organizational, and social sustainability innovations and propose examples of normative 'boundary conditions' that business models should meet in order to support sustainable innovations.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to advance research on sustainable innovation by adopting a business model perspective. Through a confrontation of the literature on both topics we find that research on sustainable innovation has tended to neglect the way in which firms need to combine a value proposition, the organization of the upstream and downstream value chain, and a financial model, in order to bring sustainability innovations to the market. Therefore, we review the current literature on business models in the contexts of technological, organizational, and social sustainability innovations. As the current literature does not offer a general conceptual definition of sustainable business models, we propose examples of normative 'boundary conditions' that business models should meet in order to support sustainable innovations. Finally, we sketch the outline of a research agenda by formulating a number of guiding questions.

1,477 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: A new approach for the assessment of both vertical and lateral collinearity in variance-based structural equation modeling is proposed and demonstrated in the context of the illustrative analysis, showing that standard validity and reliability tests do not properly capture lateral collInearity.
Abstract: Variance-based structural equation modeling is extensively used in information systems research, and many related findings may have been distorted by hidden collinearity. This is a problem that may extent to multivariate analyses in general, in the field of information systems as well as in many other fields. In multivariate analyses, collinearity is usually assessed as a predictor-predictor relationship phenomenon, where two or more predictors are checked for redundancy. This type of assessment addresses vertical, or “classic,” collinearity. However, another type of collinearity may also exist, called here “lateral” collinearity. It refers to predictor-criterion collinearity. Lateral collinearity problems are exemplified based on an illustrative variance-based structural equation modeling analysis. The analysis employs WarpPLS 2.0, with the results double-checked with other statistical analysis software tools. It is shown that standard validity and reliability tests do not properly capture lateral collinearity. A new approach for the assessment of both vertical and lateral collinearity in variance-based structural equation modeling is proposed and demonstrated in the context of the illustrative analysis.

1,432 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: It is shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value are positively related for firms with high customer awareness, as proxied by advertising expenditures, and this evidence is consistent with the view that CSR activities can add value to the firm but only under certain conditions.
Abstract: This paper shows that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value are positively related for firms with high customer awareness, as proxied by advertising expenditures. For firms with low customer awareness, the relation is either negative or insignificant. In addition, we find that the effect of awareness on the value-CSR relation is reversed for firms with a poor prior reputation as corporate citizens. This evidence is consistent with the view that CSR activities can add value to the firm but only under certain conditions.

1,411 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: This paper found that those with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity were not the most concerned about climate change, rather, they were the ones among whom cultural polarization was greatest, suggesting that public divisions over climate change stem not from the public's incomprehension of science but from a distinctive conflict of interest.
Abstract: Seeming public apathy over climate change is often attributed to a deficit in comprehension. The public knows too little science, it is claimed, to understand the evidence or avoid being misled. Widespread limits on technical reasoning aggravate the problem by forcing citizens to use unreliable cognitive heuristics to assess risk. An empirical study found no support for this position. Members of the public with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity were not the most concerned about climate change. Rather, they were the ones among whom cultural polarization was greatest. This result suggests that public divisions over climate change stem not from the public’s incomprehension of science but from a distinctive conflict of interest: between the personal interest individuals have in forming beliefs in line with those held by others with whom they share close ties and the collective one they all share in making use of the best available science to promote common welfare.

1,408 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a system to locate, download, and analyze the content of millions of social media posts originating from nearly 1,400 different social media services all over China before the Chinese government is able to find, evaluate, and censor the large subset they deem objectionable.
Abstract: We offer the first large scale, multiple source analysis of the outcome of what may be the most extensive effort to selectively censor human expression ever implemented. To do this, we have devised a system to locate, download, and analyze the content of millions of social media posts originating from nearly 1,400 different social media services all over China before the Chinese government is able to find, evaluate, and censor (i.e., remove from the Internet) the large subset they deem objectionable. Using modern computer-assisted text analytic methods that we adapt and validate in the Chinese language, we compare the substantive content of posts censored to those not censored over time in each of 95 issue areas. Contrary to previous understandings, posts with negative, even vitriolic, criticism of the state, its leaders, and its policies are not more likely to be censored. Instead, we show that the censorship program is aimed at curtailing collection action by silencing comments that represent, reinforce, or spur social mobilization, regardless of content. Censorship is oriented toward attempting to forestall collective activities that are occurring now or may occur in the future --- and, as such, seem to clearly expose government intent, such as examples we offer where sharp increases in censorship presage government action outside the Internet.

1,228 citations


BookDOI
TL;DR: The first analysis of the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database is presented in this article, which measures how adults in 148 economies save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk.
Abstract: This paper provides the first analysis of the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) Database, a new set of indicators that measure how adults in 148 economies save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. The data show that 50 percent of adults worldwide have an account at a formal financial institution, though account penetration varies widely across regions, income groups and individual characteristics. In addition, 22 percent of adults report having saved at a formal financial institution in the past 12 months, and 9 percent report having taken out a new loan from a bank, credit union or microfinance institution in the past year. Although half of adults around the world remain unbanked, at least 35 percent of them report barriers to account use that might be addressed by public policy. Among the most commonly reported barriers are high cost, physical distance, and lack of proper documentation, though there are significant differences across regions and individual characteristics.

1,156 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: For example, Flyvbjerg as discussed by the authors argues that the success of the natural sciences in producing cumulative and predictive theory simply does not work in any of the social sciences, and argues that social scientific research should be transformed into an activity performed in public for publics, sometimes to clarify, often to intervene, and always to serve as eyes and ears in ongoing efforts to understand the present and to deliberate about the future.
Abstract: If we want to empower and re-enchant social scientific research, we need to do three things. First, we must drop all pretence, however indirect, at emulating the success of the natural sciences in producing cumulative and predictive theory, for their approach simply does not work in any of the social sciences. (For the full argument see Flyvbjerg, 2001.) Second, we must address problems that matter to groups in the local, national and global communities in which we live, and we must do it in ways that matter; we must focus on issues of context, values and power, as advocated by great social scientists from Aristotle and Machiavelli to Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu. Finally, we must effectively and dialogically communicate the results of our research to our fellow citizens, the ‘public’, and carefully listen to their feedback. If we do this – focus on specific values and interests in the context of particular power relations – we may successfully transform social scientific research into an activity performed in public for publics, sometimes to clarify, sometimes to intervene, sometimes to generate new perspectives, and always to serve as eyes and ears in ongoing efforts to understand the present and to deliberate about the future. We may, in short, arrive at social research that matters.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the impact of firms' financial roadmaps (e.g., pre-planned exit strategies such as IPOs or acquisitions), external certification (awards, government grants and patents), internal governance (such as board structure), and risk factors ( such as amount of equity offered and the presence of disclaimers) on fundraising success.
Abstract: This paper presents an initial empirical examination of which start-up signals will induce small investors to commit financial resources in an equity crowdfunding context. We examine the impact of firms’ financial roadmaps (e.g., preplanned exit strategies such as IPOs or acquisitions), external certification (awards, government grants and patents), internal governance (such as board structure), and risk factors (such as amount of equity offered and the presence of disclaimers) on fundraising success. Our data highlight the importance of financial roadmaps and risk factors, as well as internal governance, for successful equity crowdfunding. External certification, by contrast, has little or no impact on success. We also discuss the implications for successful policy design.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors empirically examined how capital affects a bank's performance (survival and market share), and how this effect varies across banking crises, market crises, and normal times that occurred in the U.S over the past quarter century.
Abstract: This paper empirically examines how capital affects a bank’s performance (survival and market share), and how this effect varies across banking crises, market crises, and normal times that occurred in the U.S. over the past quarter century. We have two main results. First, capital helps small banks to increase their probability of survival and market share at all times (during banking crises, market crises, and normal times). Second, capital enhances the performance of medium and large banks primarily during banking crises. Additional tests explore channels through which capital generates the documented effects. Numerous robustness checks and additional tests are performed.

Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors proposed a framework for gross exports accounting that breaks up a country's gross exports into various value-added components by source and additional double counted terms, identifying which parts of the official trade data are double counted and the sources of the double counting.
Abstract: This paper proposes a framework for gross exports accounting that breaks up a country's gross exports into various value-added components by source and additional double counted terms. By identifying which parts of the official trade data are double counted and the sources of the double counting, it bridges official trade (in gross value terms) and national accounts statistics (in value added terms). Our parsimonious framework integrates all previous measures of vertical specialization and value-added trade in the literature into a unified framework. To illustrate the potential of such a method, we present a number of applications including re-computing revealed comparative advantages and the magnifying impact of multi-stage production on trade costs.

Posted Content
TL;DR: This study provides a practical guideline for evaluating and using PLS and uses examples from the operations management literature to demonstrate how the specific points in this guideline can be applied.
Abstract: The partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modeling (SEM) has been widely adopted in business research fields such as information systems, consumer behavior, and marketing. The use of PLS in the field of operations management is also growing. However, questions still exist among some operations management researchers regarding whether and how PLS should be used. To address these questions, our study provides a practical guideline for using PLS and uses examples from the operations management literature to demonstrate how the specific points in this guideline can be applied. In addition, our study reviews and summarizes the use of PLS in the recent operations management literature according to our guideline. The main contribution of this study is to present a practical guideline for evaluating and using PLS that is tailored to the operations management field.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the factors leading to a resource-based advantage also predict who will appropriate rent and that knowledge-based assets are promising as a source of sustainable advantage because firmspecificity, social complexity and causal ambiguity make them hard for rivals to imitate.
Abstract: Most theories of competitive advantage seek to explain rent capture at the firm level but ignore which internal stakeholders will appropriate this rent. For example, IO economics focuses on market structure and the resource-based view focuses on unique firm-level capabilities that rivals cannot imitate or acquire. As researchers apply these frameworks, they either: 1) assume rent is captured by shareholders, 2) treat within-firm rent appropriation exogenously, or 3) ignore internal rent appropriation altogether. However, internal rent appropriation determines how much of the rent will be observable in measures of firm performance and is therefore central to empirical research focused on firm performance. What if rent from a competitive advantage is appropriated internally so it cannot be observed in performance measures? The resource-based view was not formulated to examine who will get the rent. Yet, this essay argues that the factors leading to a resource-based advantage also predict who will appropriate rent. Knowledge-based assets are promising as a source of sustainable advantage because firm-specificity, social complexity and causal ambiguity make them hard for rivals to imitate. Accordingly, these strong roles for internal stakeholders may grant them a great deal of bargaining power especially relative to investors who contribute the most fungible of all resources. This article integrates the resource-based view with the bargaining power literature by defining the firm as a nexus of contracts. This lens can help to explain when rent will be generated and, simultaneously, who will appropriate it. In doing so, it provides a more robust theory of firm performance than the resource-based view alone. This lens might also be useful for examining other theories of firm performance.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that the implicit null of the CD test depends on the relative expansion rates of N and T. When T = O(N^ϵ), for some 0
Abstract: This paper considers testing the hypothesis that errors in a panel data model are weakly cross sectionally dependent, using the exponent of cross-sectional dependence α, introduced recently in Bailey, Kapetanios and Pesaran (2012). It is shown that the implicit null of the CD test depends on the relative expansion rates of N and T. When T=O(N^ϵ), for some 0

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors model the dynamics of risk premia during crises in asset markets where the marginal investor is a financial intermediary and evaluate the effect of three government policies: reducing intermediaries borrowing costs, injecting equity capital, and purchasing distressed assets.
Abstract: We model the dynamics of risk premia during crises in asset markets where the marginal investor is a financial intermediary. Intermediaries face an equity capital constraint. Risk premia rise when the constraint binds, reflecting the capital scarcity. The calibrated model matches the nonlinearity of risk premia during crises, and the speed of reversion in risk premia from a crisis back to pre-crisis levels. We evaluate the effect of three government policies: reducing intermediaries borrowing costs, injecting equity capital, and purchasing distressed assets. Injecting equity capital is particularly effective because it alleviates the equity capital constraint that drives the model's crisis.

Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors highlighted the stylised empirical features of the financial cycle, conjectures as to what it may take to model it satisfactorily, and considered its policy implications in the discussion of policy.
Abstract: It is high time we rediscovered the role of the financial cycle in macroeconomics In the environment that has prevailed for at least three decades now, it is not possible to understand business fluctuations and the corresponding analytical and policy challenges without understanding the financial cycle This calls for a rethink of modelling strategies and for significant adjustments to macroeconomic policies This essay highlights the stylised empirical features of the financial cycle, conjectures as to what it may take to model it satisfactorily, and considers its policy implications In the discussion of policy, the essay pays special attention to the bust phase, which is less well explored and raises much more controversial issues

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined corporate financial and investment decisions made by female executives compared to male executives and found that male executives undertake more acquisitions and issue debt more often than female executives, while female executives place wider bounds on earnings estimates and are more likely to exercise stock options early.
Abstract: We examine corporate financial and investment decisions made by female executives compared to male executives Male executives undertake more acquisitions and issue debt more often than female executives Further, acquisitions made by firms with male executives have announcement returns approximately 2% lower than those made by female executive firms, and debt issues also have lower announcement returns for firms with male executives Female executives place wider bounds on earnings estimates and are more likely to exercise stock options early This evidence suggests men exhibit relative overconfidence in significant corporate decision-making compared to women

Posted Content
TL;DR: The logical choices available in research methodologies; which enable the drawing of correct inferences to answer the various research questions that are asked by accounting researchers are introduced.
Abstract: The present paper introduces the logical choices available in research methodologies; which enable the drawing of correct inferences to answer the various research questions that are asked by accounting researchers.It starts with an overview of research paradigms as fundamental beliefs that affect the ways to conduct social research, including the choice of a particular research methodology. The paper then details the elements of case study design, including the justification to choose case organizations. The sections that follow present an overview of the required data and collection methods and discuss the methods used to analyze the collected data. Considerations regarding research quality are also presented. This paper is a useful reference or a starting point for researchers considering qualitative multi-method case study research designs.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline a framework that will enable crowd work that is complex, collaborative, and sustainable, and lay out research challenges in twelve major areas: workflow, task assignment, hierarchy, real-time response, synchronous collaboration, quality control, crowds guiding AIs, AIs guiding crowds, platforms, job design, reputation, and motivation.
Abstract: Paid crowd work offers remarkable opportunities for improving productivity, social mobility, and the global economy by engaging a geographically distributed workforce to complete complex tasks on demand and at scale. But it is also possible that crowd work will fail to achieve its potential, focusing on assembly-line piecework. Can we foresee a future crowd workplace in which we would want our children to participate? This paper frames the major challenges that stand in the way of this goal. Drawing on theory from organizational behavior and distributed computing, as well as direct feedback from workers, we outline a framework that will enable crowd work that is complex, collaborative, and sustainable. The framework lays out research challenges in twelve major areas: workflow, task assignment, hierarchy, real-time response, synchronous collaboration, quality control, crowds guiding AIs, AIs guiding crowds, platforms, job design, reputation, and motivation.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that U.S. CEOs are significantly more optimistic and risk-tolerant than the rest of the population, and that their behavioral traits such as optimism and managerial risk-aversion are related to corporate financial policies.
Abstract: We administer psychometric tests to senior executives to obtain evidence on their underlying psychological traits and attitudes. We find U.S. CEOs differ significantly from non-U.S. CEOs in terms of their underlying attitudes. In addition, we find that CEOs are significantly more optimistic and risk-tolerant than the lay population. We provide evidence that CEO’s behavioral traits such as optimism and managerial risk-aversion are related to corporate financial policies. Further, we provide new empirical evidence that CEO traits such as risk aversion and time preference are related to their compensation.

Posted Content
TL;DR: Strategies for improving scientific practices and knowledge accumulation are developed that account for ordinary human motivations and biases and can reduce the persistence of false findings.
Abstract: An academic scientist’s professional success depends on publishing. Publishing norms emphasize novel, positive results. As such, disciplinary incentives encourage design, analysis, and reporting decisions that elicit positive results and ignore negative results. Prior reports demonstrate how these incentives inflate the rate of false effects in published science. When incentives favor novelty over replication, false results persist in the literature unchallenged, reducing efficiency in knowledge accumulation. Previous suggestions to address this problem are unlikely to be effective. For example, a journal of negative results publishes otherwise unpublishable reports. This enshrines the low status of the journal and its content. The persistence of false findings can be meliorated with strategies that make the fundamental but abstract accuracy motive – getting it right – competitive with the more tangible and concrete incentive – getting it published. We develop strategies for improving scientific practices and knowledge accumulation that account for ordinary human motivations and self-serving biases.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Corporate governance failures are surely not the cause of the financial crisis, but they did not prevent and may have even facilitated some of the risky and misguided corporate practices that had such severe effects once the downturn started.
Abstract: The turmoil that struck financial institutions in 2007 has, by the end of 2011, significantly deteriorated the fundamentals of the global economy, eroding trust in sustainability of the markets, solvency of banks and even the credibility of sovereign states and monetary unions. Whether this is the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression only history will tell, but it is clear by now that the damage to the global economy has been extraordinary. This chapter looks into some of the corporate governance lessons that could prevent this from happening again and presents the main findings and conclusions of the OECD Corporate Governance Committee as reflected in several OECD publications as well as in G.Kirkpatrick (2010).Corporate governance rules and practices of many of the financial institutions that collapsed have often been blamed to be partly responsible for the crisis. The failures of risk management systems and incentive schemes that encouraged and rewarded high levels of risk taking are key factors in this context. Since reviewing and guiding risk policy is a key function of the board, these deficiencies point to ineffective board oversight. And since boards are accountable to shareholders, they also have been put under the spotlight, as many of them seemed to have no interest in expressing their views on the functioning of companies as long as returns were within targets.Corporate governance failures are surely not the cause of the crisis, but they did not prevent and may have even facilitated some of the risky and misguided corporate practices that had such severe effects once the downturn started. Importantly, much of what we have learnt from the demise of some of these financial institutions can serve as an important lesson for non-financial corporations in general. Some of the key lessons from the corporate governance perspective are described in this article.This paper is structured as follows. In the first section we describe the macro-economic as well as the corporate governance dimension of the financial crisis, particularly the way remuneration practices, risk management procedures, limited board oversight as well as shareholder passivism contributed to the poor performance of some major banks. The second section explains how existing corporate governance principles and national corporate governance codes have been re-evaluated against this background, and some of the recent developments are presented. We finish offering some general conclusions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the relationship between corporate governance and the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures in the annual reports of Bangladeshi companies and find that corporate governance attributes play a vital role in ensuring organisational legitimacy through CSR disclosures.
Abstract: We examine the relationship between corporate governance and the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures in the annual reports of Bangladeshi companies. A legitimacy theory framework is adopted to understand the extent to which corporate governance characteristics, such as managerial ownership, public ownership, foreign ownership, board independence, CEO duality and presence of audit committee influence organisational response to various stakeholder groups. Our results suggest that although CSR disclosures generally have a negative association with managerial ownership, such relationship becomes significant and positive for export oriented industries. We also find public ownership, foreign ownership, board independence and presence of audit committee to have positive significant impacts on CSR disclosures. However, we fail to find any significant impact of CEO duality. Thus, our results suggest that pressures exerted by external stakeholder groups and corporate governance mechanisms involving independent outsiders may allay some concerns relating to family influence on CSR disclosure practices. Overall, our study implies that corporate governance attributes play a vital role in ensuring organisational legitimacy through CSR disclosures. The findings of our study should be of interest to regulators and policy makers in countries which share similar corporate ownership and regulatory structures.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and real GDP for 12 Middle East and North African Countries (MENA) over the period 1981-2005.
Abstract: This article extends the recent findings of Liu (2005), Ang (2007), Apergis et al. (2009) and Payne (2010) by implementing recent bootstrap panel unit root tests and cointegration techniques to investigate the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and real GDP for 12 Middle East and North African Countries (MENA) over the period 1981–2005. Our results show that in the long-run energy consumption has a positive significant impact on CO2 emissions. More interestingly, we show that real GDP exhibits a quadratic relationship with CO2 emissions for the region as a whole. However, although the estimated long-run coefficients of income and its square satisfy the EKC hypothesis in most studied countries, the turning points are very low in some cases and very high in other cases, hence providing poor evidence in support of the EKC hypothesis. Thus, our findings suggest that not all MENA countries need to sacrifice economic growth to decrease their emission levels as they may achieve CO2 emissions reduction via energy conservation without negative long-run effects on economic growth.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, a framework for business model innovation is proposed as a means to strategically create business cases on a regular basis as an inherent, deeply integrated element of business activities, which may be required to support a systematic, ongoing creation of business cases for sustainability.
Abstract: A considerable body of literature deals with the creation of economic value while increasing corporate environmental and social performance. Some publications even focus on the business case for sustainability which aims at increasing corporate economic value through environmental or social measures. The existence of a business case for sustainability is, however, mostly seen as an ad hoc measure, a supplement to the core business, or simply a coincidence. As a contrast, this paper argues that business model innovations may be required to support a systematic, ongoing creation of business cases for sustainability. A framework for business model innovation is proposed as a means to strategically create business cases on a regular basis as an inherent, deeply integrated element of business activities.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors provide a survey of 31 quantitative measures of systemic risk in economics and finance literature, chosen to span key themes and issues in systemic risk measurement and management, and present concise definitions of each risk measure -including required inputs, expected outputs, and data requirements -in an extensive appendix.
Abstract: We provide a survey of 31 quantitative measures of systemic risk in the economics and finance literature, chosen to span key themes and issues in systemic risk measurement and management. We motivate these measures from the supervisory, research, and data perspectives in the main text, and present concise definitions of each risk measure - including required inputs, expected outputs, and data requirements - in an extensive appendix. To encourage experimentation and innovation among as broad an audience as possible, we have developed open-source Matlab code for most of the analytics surveyed.

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TL;DR: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a pervasive topic in the business literature, but has largely neglected the role of institutions as discussed by the authors, which suggests going beyond grounding CSR in the voluntary behaviour of companies, and understanding the larger historical and political determinants of whether and in what forms corporations take on social responsibilities.
Abstract: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a pervasive topic in the business literature, but has largely neglected the role of institutions. This introductory article to the Special Issue of Socio-Economic Review examines the potential contributions of institutional theory to understanding CSR as a mode of governance. This perspective suggests going beyond grounding CSR in the voluntary behaviour of companies, and understanding the larger historical and political determinants of whether and in what forms corporations take on social responsibilities. Historically, the prevailing notion of CSR emerged through the defeat of more institutionalized forms of social solidarity in liberal market economies. Meanwhile, CSR is more tightly linked to formal institutions of stakeholder participation or state intervention in other advanced economies. The tensions between business-driven and multi-stakeholder forms of CSR extend to the transnational level, where the form and meaning of CSR remain highly contested. CSR research and practice thus rest on a basic paradox between a liberal notion of voluntary engagement and a contrary implication of socially binding responsibilities. Institutional theory seems to be a promising avenue to explore how the boundaries between business and society are constructed in different ways, and improve our understanding of the effectiveness of CSR within the wider institutional field of economic governance.