Click on paper Title to show / hide Abstract and Author(s) details.
The Political Context of Employee Appraisal: Effects of Organizational Goals on Performance Ratings
Ted Shore, Judy Strauss |
599 |
The Political Context of Employee Appraisal: Effects of Organizational Goals on Performance Ratings
Ted Shore
California State University San Marcos
Judy Strauss
California State University Long Beach
The current study investigated the impact of the political context of performance appraisal by examining the effects of organizational goals on performance ratings. A second purpose of the study was to investigate whether it is possible to reduce the effects of political influences by providing raters with normative information. Participants rated a “subordinate’s” performance subsequent to receiving lenient or harsh organizational goals and normative performance information (present or absent). Results suggest that leniency goals resulted in significantly higher performance ratings than severity goals. However, normative information had no effect on performance ratings, attesting to the robust effect of political motives on performance appraisals. Implications for human resource management were discussed.
|
The Impact of Environmental Information Disclosures on Shareholder Returns in a Company: An Empirical Study
Srinivasan Ragothaman, David Carr |
613 |
The Impact of Environmental Information Disclosures on Shareholder Returns in a Company: An Empirical Study
Srinivasan Ragothaman
University of South Dakota
David Carr
University of South Dakota
The Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (1986) has mandated Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) disclosures in the United States. This Act requires all manufacturing companies (SIC code 20-39) who employ more than 10 people to provide an annual report about the release of more than 300 specified toxic chemicals. Similar legislation exists in other countries as well. How is this information used by investors and corporations? We develop and test a regression model to answer this question. We also perform a few robustness tests. Our sample comes from TRI disclosures for “top 100” corporate polluters based on COMPUSTAT data. Descriptive statistics and correlation measures are also provided. The higher the return on assets the higher is Tobin’s q (a proxy for firm value or shareholder wealth). The waste disposal variable (toxic air release) is a statistically significant predictor of Tobin’s q. As expected, the sign of the regression coefficient for waste disposal is negative. In addition, firm size has a significant impact on Tobin’s q. A firm’s beta, P/E ratio, and the corporate governance variable are all statistically insignificant.
|
Changes in Academic Dishonesty among Business Students in the United States, 1999-2006
Bob S. Brown, Marjorie McInerney |
621 |
Changes in Academic Dishonesty among Business Students in the United States, 1999-2006
Bob S. Brown
Marshall University
Marjorie McInerney
Marshall University
While the popular press in the United States has often claimed that the level of student academic dishonesty is increasing, the results of the research on the subject have been mixed. This has been attributed to various methodological problems, including measuring different behaviors, using different sample and class sizes, and conducting studies in different types of institutions. This study overcame many of these objections by using the same questionnaire to measure the academic dishonesty of business students in the same courses in 1999 and 2006. Significant differences were found between 1999 and 2006 for seven of 16 practices included in the study. All seven differences were increases, with a mean increase of 19.2%. The practices having the highest increases were having information programmed into a calculator during an exam at 22.5% and visiting a professor to influence a grade at 21.3%. The practices showing the lowest increases were asking about the content of an exam from someone who has taken it at 11.7% and giving information about the content of an exam to someone who has not yet taken it at 18.4%. It was also found that academic dishonesty was less dependent on the students’ gender, GPA, and class rank in 2006 than it was in 1999.
|
The Effects of Idolatry and Personality Traits on Impulse Buying: An Empirical Study
Chyan Yang, Yau De Wang, Han Jen Niu |
633 |
The Effects of Idolatry and Personality Traits on Impulse Buying: An Empirical Study
Chyan Yang
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Yau De Wang
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Han Jen Niu
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Marketers have long recognized the significance of impulse buying, but most studies focus on adult consumers. Idolatry means the extent to which people have and are influenced by idols in their behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between idolatry and impulsive buying tendency in the case of Taiwan’s 13 to 20 years old adolescents.We conducted a survey of 337 high school and college students. The research employed the nine-item scale of Rook and Fisher (1995) to measure impulse buying behavior and the self-assessment question “Do you have an idol?” to distinguished idolatrous and nonadolartous. The results indicate that impulsive buying is significantly associated with idolatry. In addition, the factors of economic independence(e.g. pocket money available and part-time job) are also significantly correlated with adolescents’ impulsive buying tendency. Marketers should utilize theinfluences of idols as a strategicattempt to strengthen adolescents’ brand image.
|
Importance of Job Characteristics among Future Businesspersons: A Comparative Study of Russian and Polish Students
Mariusz Sagan, Joseph Tomkiewicz, Tope Adeyemi-Bello, Robert Frankel |
641 |
Importance of Job Characteristics among Future Businesspersons: A Comparative Study of Russian and Polish Students
Mariusz Sagan
Higher School of Economics & Innovation in Lublin and Warsaw School of Economics
Joseph Tomkiewicz
East Carolina University
Tope Adeyemi-Bello
East Carolina University
Robert Frankel
University of North Florida
As the European Union and eastern European economies continue to expand, there is a need for a body of research that focuses on job expectations of the potential employee pools in countries. In the present study, university students from Poland and Russia were surveyed. They responded to the 25 item job expectation scale developed by Manhardt (1972). This scale provides a specific method of measuring differences in job orientation. While both groups of students ranked the 25 items similarly, there were significant differences on 11 individual items. When the job characteristics were dichotomized into extrinsic and intrinsic factors, it was found that Polish students had a greater preference for intrinsic factors while Russian students had a greater preference for extrinsic factors. The results of this research indicate that there are significant differences in the job expectations of Poles and Russians for those organizations that would seek to employ them.
|
Relationship between Corporate Governance and Financial Distress: An Empirical Study of Distressed Companies in China
Huang Hui, Zhao Jing-Jing |
654 |
Relationship between Corporate Governance and Financial Distress: An Empirical Study of Distressed Companies in China
Huang Hui
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Zhao Jing-Jing
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Because of the effects of the internal and external environment on companies, it is argued that the way in which a company governs itself should make a difference to its susceptibility to financial distress. It is argued that companies with appropriate corporate governance should be less likely to suffer from the costs of financial distress than companies whose governance is inappropriate. Within this framework, we examined the relationships between selected aspects of corporate governance and the indirect costs of financial distress, using panel data of 193 financially distressed listed companies in China from 2000 to 2006. We find that ownership balancing at the governance level reduced the indirect costs of financial distress, while each of the following three aspects of corporate governance--the proportion of the company’s shares that were held by the state, the percentage of independent directors on the board, and the proportion of total costs that were overhead costs--increased the indirect costs of financial distress. The results suggest that companies benefit from better corporate governance and that such improvements can help the companies to become financially healthy.
|
Travel Motivations and Destination Activities of Young Travelers of Different Ages: An Empirical Study in the United States
Michael J. Dotson, J. Dana Clark, Dinesh S. Dave |
665 |
Travel Motivations and Destination Activities of Young Travelers of Different Ages: An Empirical Study in the United States
Michael J. Dotson
Appalachian State University
J. Dana Clark
Appalachian State University
Dinesh S. Dave
Appalachian State University
Several studies have investigated the differences in tourism anddestination activities of different age groups of the travelers in the United States. Previous research studies suggest different segments of American travelers exist based upon generational groupings. The findings of the study, based upon 744 respondents, clearly identified two distinct segments of tourists in the age group of 18-23 and 24-30 in terms of travel motivation and destination activities. The results can be used by managers to improve the experience of these two distinct groups of young travelers.
|
The Impact of Undesired Self-Image Congruence on Consumption-Related Attitudes and Intentions
Michael Bosnjak, Christian Brand |
673 |
The Impact of Undesired Self-Image Congruence on Consumption-Related Attitudes and Intentions
Michael Bosnjak
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Christian Brand
WWP Group, Dornbirn, Austria
In understanding the symbolic value of consumption, negative associations held by consumers have largely been neglected. Accordingly, to explore the incremental contribution of undesired stereotypical images, we conducted a questionnaire-based study among 107 participants in a Web-based consumer survey. Consumption-related attitudes and intentions related to the car brand ´Chevrolet´ were regressed on subjects´ perceived match between their own self-concept and different positive as well as negative image facets. We demonstrate that the propensity to avoid undesired stereotypical images (the ‘undesired self’) contributes substantially to explaining consumption-related attitudes over and above the antecedents that have already been established in the symbolic consumption area. The results indicate the significant role played by negative stereotypical images in the early stages of decision making.
|
Building Relational Wealth in the New Economy: How can Firms Leverage the Value of Organizational Social Capital
Harry J. Van Buren III |
684 |
Building Relational Wealth in the New Economy: How can Firms Leverage the Value of Organizational Social Capital
Harry J. Van Buren III
University of New Mexico
The new economy with industries like telecommunications, e commerce, and various computer based technologies leading the way is supposed to change the way that every business operates. However, it is also the case that there are fundamental principles of organizing that are just as relevant for new economy businesses and the new economy itself as they are for more established firms and industries. In this paper, how firms can build relational wealth’ by leveraging the value of an intangible asset called organizational social capital is discussed. This discussion leads to an examination of the ways in which the new economy differs from the old -and how the two economies are very much alike in terms of the best methods for organizing collective action.
|
Effects of Career Mentoring Experience and Perceived Organizational Support on Employee Commitment and Intentions to Leave: A Study among Hotel Workers in Malaysia
Yin Teng Chew |
692 |
Effects of Career Mentoring Experience and Perceived Organizational Support on Employee Commitment and Intentions to Leave: A Study among Hotel Workers in Malaysia
Yin Teng Chew
Monash University, Malaysia
This study examined the effects of received career mentoring (CM) and perceived organizational support (POS) on hotel workers’ organizational commitment (OC) and intention to leave. It was found that, consistent with past research, CM and POS are highly interrelated and yet have different behavioural outcomes. CM directly predicts all of the three dimensions of self-reported OC. While CM has a medium correlation with intention to leave, it did not significantly predict turnover intention. Instead it was POS. POS has significant relationships with all the variables in this study. These findings have implications for how organizations might improve these outcomes.
|
Does High External Financing Cause High Liability? A Deposit Insurer’s Perspective
Yeh-Jui Fey, Yu-Chih Chen, Hui-Chieh Wu |
701 |
Does High External Financing Cause High Liability? A Deposit Insurer’s Perspective
Yeh-Jui Fey
Ling Tung University, Taiwan
Yu-Chih Chen
Fo Guang University, Taiwan
Hui-Chieh Wu
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Taiwan
When an insured bank’s repayments from earning-asset portfolio are insufficient to cover its payments to depositors, the depository authority will usually pay the difference. This paper examines the relationship between bank external financing and “state contingent” deposit insurance programs. In a model where an insured bank provides loan commitments for borrowers by issuing external funds, we argue that an increase in the insured bank’s external funds has a negative effect on the deposit insurer’s expectation about its liability (and hence its burden). Our finding provides an alternative argument that expanding a bank credit line via external fund issuing is encouraged by the depository insurance authority.
|
Effects of Size on Operating Results of Audit Firms with Strategic Alliances: An Empirical Study
Chia-Chi Lee |
706 |
Effects of Size on Operating Results of Audit Firms with Strategic Alliances: An Empirical Study
Chia-Chi Lee
National Taipei College of Business, Taiwan
Over the past ten years an increasing number of audit firms have entered the management service industry typically through strategic alliances with consulting firms. This study assesses audit firms of different sizes which have formed such alliances in terms of their operating performances, their business practices revenues, practice sales quantities, audit fees, market shares and the education levels of the professionals who work for them. The sample comprised 370 audit firms data about which was obtained from the 1998-2002 Census Report of Audit Firms in Taiwan. The total sample was classified into four categories in terms of size, in order from international, large, and medium sized firms to relatively small firms. The results indicated significant differences in the operating results between the international, large-sized and medium-sized audit firms, but insignificant differences between the medium-sized and small-sized firms. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their usefulness to firms in the making of decisions that impact on their operating performance.
|
The Effects of Economic Value Added and Intellectual Capital on the Market Value of Firms: An Empirical Study
Chunghuey Huang, Mao-Chang Wang |
722 |
The Effects of Economic Value Added and Intellectual Capital on the Market Value of Firms: An Empirical Study
Chunghuey Huang
National Taipei University, Taiwan
Mao-Chang Wang
Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
Roos et al. (1998) maintain that firm value is composed of financial capital and intellectual capital. According to current Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), however, intellectual capital is seldom capitalized in financial reports, and the cost of equity capital has been neglected in deriving accounting earnings. This study extends Ohlson’s model by adopting Economic Value Added (EVA®) for excess earning abilities and adding intellectual capital for firms listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange. The research sample comprised 14 firms in traditional industries (42 observations) and 23 firms in the electronic industry (67 observations), with a total of 37 firms (109 observations). The research results show residual income based on EVA® is no better than that based on current GAAP in its capacity to explain variations in a firm’s market value. Moreover, we also find intellectual capital does provide incremental information for the evaluation of stocks.
|
Relations between Team Work and Innovation in Organizations and the Job Satisfaction of Employees:A Factor Analytic Study
Yuan-Duen Lee, Huan-Ming Chang |
732 |
Relations between Team Work and Innovation in Organizations and the Job Satisfaction of Employees:A Factor Analytic Study
Yuan-Duen Lee
Chang-Jung Christian University, Taiwan
Huan-Ming Chang
Chang-Jung Christian University, Taiwan
This paper examines the relationship between organizational culture and employee job satisfaction in wire and cable manufacturing companies. The subjects of the study were 339 employees, working in a variety of jobs, for 10 cable and wire companies quoted on the Taiwan stock exchange. The key variables were assessed by the Wallach (1985) Organizational Culture Index and the Job Satisfaction Survey of Lyons, Laptin & Young (2003) respectively. The two scales were factor analyzed to indicate the main ‘aspects’ or ‘dimensions’ that underlie each of the two measures. Significant correlations were found between the two aspects of organizational culture and the two aspects of job satisfaction uncovered by the factor analyses. It is argued that the results suggest that the industry needs an innovative and group-oriented culture which promotes employee job satisfaction. In addition, it is argued from the findings that the job satisfaction of these Chinese employees will be strengthened by their organization gaining external recognition and respect.
|
Key Factors Used by Manufacturers to Analyse Supply-Chain Operational Models: An Empirical Study among Notebook Computer Firms
Cheng-Min Feng, Chi-Hwa Chern |
740 |
Key Factors Used by Manufacturers to Analyse Supply-Chain Operational Models: An Empirical Study among Notebook Computer Firms
Cheng-Min Feng
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Chi-Hwa Chern
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Operational models of global supply chains consist primarily of the business model (OEM/ODM) and the process model (BTF/BTO/CTO). This study aims to understand the specific characteristics within different operational models used by to firm to achieve operational targets. An empirical study was conducted in Taiwan to identify the key factors used by managers in analyzing such supply chain models. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews with 36 senior managers in 12 notebook computer firms in Taiwan. In the interviews managers used the four dimensions of ‘supply chain targets, ‘supply chain management efficiency’, “strategic alliances’ and ‘logistics facility locations’ and 64 initial factors to analyse and compare each of six main operational models, and thus to help them decide whether or not they should use the model in their attempts to achieve their various targets. The Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) method was used to identify the key factors in the global supply chain models upon which the mangers decisions were based. The results suggest that different factors were identified and used to analyse different operational models and to serve as reference points in making decisions about practical global operations. The results suggest that ‘hidden knowledge’ of the cooperative relationship between manufacturers and multinational brand companies plays an important role in the analysis and that it can be systematically described. A number of managerial implications are developed from the results, which could be helpful to further strategic analysis.
|
Relationship between Trainee Attitudes and Dimensions of Training Satisfaction: An Empirical Study with Training Institute Employees
Jin-Ton Chih, Ching-Hsiang Liu, Hung-Wen Lee |
756 |
Relationship between Trainee Attitudes and Dimensions of Training Satisfaction: An Empirical Study with Training Institute Employees
Jin-Ton Chih
National Chiayi University, Taiwan
Ching-Hsiang Liu
National Formosa University, Taiwan
Hung-Wen Lee
National Chiayi University, Taiwan
The way in which attitudes to learning affects employee training satisfaction makes a difference to employee innovation and development in organizations. The present research investigates the relationship n between such attitudes and trainee satisfaction among 401 employees of a Training Institute in Taiwan. Both attitudes and satisfaction were measured by specially-developed questionnaires. Correlation and regression analysis of the results indicated positive relationships between learning attitudes and a number of dimensions of satisfaction with training. It is argued that the results suggest that through improving the learning attitudes of their employees, managers can get them to be more satisfied with aspects of their training and thereby make the learning process more effective.
|
Evaluating the Efficiency of Business Integrative Strategies among Companies in the Telecommunications Network Industry using Data Envelopment Analysis
Shing-Ko Liang, Jyun-Lin Jiang |
766 |
Evaluating the Efficiency of Business Integrative Strategies among Companies in the Telecommunications Network Industry using Data Envelopment Analysis
Shing-Ko Liang
Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, Taiwan
Jyun-Lin Jiang
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
This research investigates the efficiency of different ways in which companies can join and integrate with each other in the telecommunications industry in Taiwan, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We compared four different forms of joining and integration between companies in the industry in a sample consisting of 12 wire companies and 10 wireless companies in the industry, each of which was quoted on the Taiwan stock exchange. We compared the efficiencies of: the different wire companies joining together, the different wireless companies joining together, and of both of these forms of joining before the integration of all companies in the indus and after such integration. On the basis of the ‘sensitivity results’ from the DEA, best or most efficient form was for all the wire companies to join together and for with all the wireless companies to join together before integration. The implications of the findings for optimum operation of the industry are discussed.
|