Spotlight on new research publications

11/09/2023

Photo: Jakob Boserup

Are you a journalist, researcher or simply interested in academic articles on business and society?
Sign up for this newsletter to receive a monthly update on the latest research publications at CBS.

The following is a rough list. If you need more information, please contact the researcher.

The academic articles have been peer-reviewed, which means they have been judged by other researchers within the same area.

THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THIS MONTH’S PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH – ENJOY YOUR READING:
Find the abstracts under each heading.

(How) Does User-generated Content Impact Content Generated by Professionals? Evidence from Local News

Abstract:
Many platforms host user-generated content (UGC) and content developed by professionals side by side. However, thus far, their impact on platform ecosystems has been mostly studied in isolation. In this paper, we use data from a network of 122 local news outlets hosted by an online news platform to study the spillover effects from UGC developed by citizen journalists to the content developed by professional journalists. We use the removal of a status index associated with citizen journalists as an exogenous shock to their supply of UGC to identify these spillover effects. We find that experienced citizen journalists reduce their production of content when this status index is removed. We then find that inexperienced professional journalists increase their output in response to this behavior. However, as a result of these changes, we find a reduction in the overall content hosted by the platform, especially in the case of local news and in more isolated regions. We further show that this is likely to have detrimental effects for the platform. In particular, there is a decline in overall viewership, and the platform may need to hire and pay salaries to more professional journalists to produce enough articles to close the gap left by the departing citizen journalists. Our work contributes to the literature on UGC and online platforms and to the literature on local news.

Journal: Management Science
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Tom GradJörg Claussen

Accounting for Time when Estimating Financed Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Investment and Lending Portfolios 

Abstract:
Because of legislation and rising public pressure, financial institutions have begun to estimate and publish their financed greenhouse gas emissions. Such emissions are indirect from financial institutions' own greenhouse gas emissions and result from those companies' financial institutions invest in or lend capital to. The current convention to allocate indirect carbon emissions of investments and loans does not reflect the duration of such loans or investment holdings, nor the variability of carbon emissions from the underlying investments. Instead, the convention is to use an outstanding loan or investment at year-end against an enterprise value including cash to estimate the portion of emissions from the investment to be allocated to the investor or a financial institution. Using such methods can result in faulty conclusions, as investment portfolios can change dynamically, where some investments may be omitted from a portfolio while others enter a portfolio later in a year. Additionally, company emissions may vary greatly throughout the year, be it because of seasonality or other factors. This pitfall results in moderately skewed financed emissions from financial institutions at best, outright wrong at worst, and opens the possibility for greenwashing. In this paper, we provide a novel way to address this, which we demonstrate through a case study.

Journal: Current Research in Environmental Sustainability
Published: January 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Olaf Sigurjonsson

Advocacy and the Search for Truth in Management Scholarship: Can the Twain Ever Meet? 

Abstract:
Scholars have long debated the merits of advocacy-based research versus research considered from the quest for objective truth. Building upon reflections from multiple sources, a set of 11 brief reflections on three posed questions are presented. Tsang concludes our discussion with additional insights on how moving beyond the “interestingness” advocacy will be beneficial to the continued professional development of the management discipline.

Journal: JournalJournal of Management Inquiry
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Nicolai J. Foss

CEO Wealth and Cross-border Acquisitions by SMEs

Abstract:
This study examines the role of chief executive officers’ (CEOs) wealth in explaining the cross-border acquisition (CBA) activity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). CBAs require substantial financial resources and expose the firm to additional risks. Within a micro-foundations framework, we integrate insights from the resource-based view and the upper echelons theory and argue that CEO wealth plays a dual role in the CBA activity of SMEs by alleviating financial constraints and increasing willingness to take risks. Using Norwegian census data for the period 2000–2013, we find consistent evidence that CEO wealth has a positive effect on the number, the geographic scope, and the likelihood of engaging in CBAs in high political risk countries.

Journal: International Business Review
Published: December 2023
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Contact CBS Researcher: Flladina Zilja

Challenges and Potentials of Evaluating Platform Work Against Established Job-Quality Measures 

Abstract:
Working conditions in platform work are often, yet rarely explicitly, assessed according to criteria similar to those applied to the quality of jobs outside the gig economy. In this article the authors argue that future research would benefit from analytical schemes that enable a systematic analysis of working conditions in platform work. They discuss the advantages and challenges of applying existing job-quality frameworks to platform work and present a suggestion for modifications that consider the particularities of platform work. The use of such a novel analytical framework could help systematise evidence from qualitative research, promote the heretofore rare initiatives of quantitative representative data collection, and inspire theoretical developments at the interface of job quality and platform work.

Journal: Economic and Industrial Democracy
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Janine Leschke

Deconsecration: Symbolic Sanctions, "Courts of Honour," and the Cleansing of Denmark's Who's who After the German Occupation, 1940-1945

Abstract:
How may elites experience a symbolic fall from grace? Elite scholarship has typically described how symbolic structures contribute to consecrate and reinforce existing power relations. Processes of deconsecration are, however, less well described. Deconsecration as a social process is distinct from déclassement, as well as from cultural or juridical processes of exclusion. It is the loss of the very status as “elite.” We address the question of deconsecration through a historical case study of the exclusion of elite groups from the Danish Who’s Who and professional bodies in the wake of the liberation after the German occupation of Denmark 1940–1945.

Journal: Enterprise & Society
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Joachim LundAnders Sevelsted

Den nye bogføringslov 


 

Journal: Revision & Regnskabsvæsen
Published: 2023
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Contact CBS Researcher: Jeanette Willert

Dual Perspective on the Role of Xenophobia in Service Sabotage 

Abstract:
This paper contributes to the literature by examining xenophobia among tourism employees and its relationship with service sabotage, which was not previously explored. Two studies are conducted. A survey study is conducted with 194 frontline employees working in tourism, and 297 tourists participated in an experimental study. Based on the findings, xenophobia mediates the relationship between employee community attachment and service sabotage, with employees' moral identity and emotional regulation influencing this relationship. Furthermore, tourists' desire for revenge when experiencing service sabotage is both directly and indirectly affected by the attributions of cultural differences and discrimination. Notably, if tourists attribute the sabotage to xenophobia, this will not increase the desire for revenge. This research advances the understanding of the complex dynamics among employee xenophobia, service sabotage, and customer revenge in tourism.

Journal: Tourism Management
Published: April 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Selma Kadic-Maglajlic

Electricity Sector Reforms and Cost Efficiency: The Case of Small Electricity Systems in Sub-Sahara Africa 

Abstract:
The financial viability of Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) electricity sectors has become a central energy policy issue in recent years. This follows persistent under-recovery of costs which are amongst some of the highest in the world. Discussions, however, focus on tariff and utility reforms and inadequately on costs efficiency and the role of broader sector reforms in persistently high costs. Through a synthesis of reform theories and case studies and using small electricity systems as a surrogate for liberalized electricity sectors without competitive markets, this paper examines the connection between sector reforms and costs. It brings an economic perspective to the discussion on utility financial performance in SSA electricity systems and the need for a holistic policy approach for sustainable cost-recovery. In this, we recommend the promotion of mobile power plants to facilitate contestability in generation and need for non-island small systems to participate in regional power markets to neutralize the scale limitations of their autarkic demand. Utilities and regulatory agencies should form platforms to share information on cost opportunities and possibilities to inform procurement designs and regulatory benchmarks. Regional markets could partner with national governments to develop subsidy schemes such as Contracts for Differences to remove rigidities imposed by national power purchasing contracts to promote deeper participation of small systems in regional power markets. Yardstick competition in the distribution segment remains viable in many small electricity systems and should be pursued at the regional level in the short run to medium term and at the national levels in the long term following deconcentration and the introduction of private sector participation.

Journal: Economic Analysis and Policy
Published: December 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Tooraj JamasbManuel Llorca

Etnic Minorities in Advertising 

Abstract:
The literature on diversity suffers from several shortcomings, leading to conflicting views or unjustified beliefs about ethnic minorities in advertising. Evidence is needed to show whether advertising has indeed become more ethnically diverse over time, whether any cultural differences exist, and whether ethnic diversity in advertising in new media differs from that in traditional media advertisements. Building on extant research and social role theory, this study provides two empirical studies, a meta-analysis and content analysis, and questions commonly held beliefs in the diversity literature. The findings show that any increase in ethnic minority representation in advertising is fully captured by the fact that ethnic minorities in the general population have increased and that relevant changes have occurred only in Eastern societies where the overrepresentation of the white minority has decreased. Ethnic minorities are well represented in online and TV media but not in print media. Except for the product use of ethnic minority endorsers, stereotyping prevails and barely differs between old and new media. These findings have implications for both researchers and advertisers.

Journal: Journal of Advertising
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: 

Five Variations of Transformative Law: Beyond Private and Public Interests 

Abstract:
The regulation of the interfaces of private and public interests is a central and recurrent issue of modern law. The centrality of the distinction and the manifold conceptual and practical problems associated with it has moreover been exacerbated over the past fifty years through the dominance of the twin-episteme of law constituted by law and economics and human rights law. Against this background, an alternative approach to and concept of law, transformative law, is briefly introduced. An approach which implies replacing the notions of private and public interests with the concepts of legally constituted public power and societal power. In order to analyse the potential and limits of transformative law, five legal phenomena, central to the other contributions to this special issue, are analysed: public interest litigation; legal mobilisation in the preliminary ruling procedure; bankruptcy proceedings; third-party litigation and the Meta Oversight Board.

Journal: Erasmus Law Review
Published: 2023
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Contact CBS Researcher: Poul F. Kjær

Generating Collective Counterfactual Explanations in Score-based Classification via Mathematical Optimization 

Abstract:
Due to the increasing use of Machine Learning models in high stakes decision making settings, it has become increasingly important to have tools to understand how models arrive at decisions. Assuming an already trained Supervised Classification model, post-hoc explanations can be obtained via so-called counterfactual analysis: a counterfactual explanation of an instance indicates how this instance should be minimally modified so that the perturbed instance is classified in the desired class by the given Machine Learning classification model.

Most of the Counterfactual Analysis literature focuses on the single-instance single-counterfactual setting, in which the analysis is done for one single instance to provide one single counterfactual explanation. Taking a stakeholder’s perspective, in this paper we introduce the so-called collective counterfactual explanations. By means of novel Mathematical Optimization models, we provide a counterfactual explanation for each instance in a group of interest, so that the total cost of the perturbations is minimized under some linking constraints. Making the process of constructing counterfactuals collective instead of individual enables us to detect the features that are critical to the entire dataset to have the individuals classified in the desired class. Our methodology allows for some instances to be treated individually, as in the single-instance single-counterfactual case, performing the collective counterfactual analysis for a fraction of records of the group of interest. This way, outliers are identified and handled appropriately.

Under some assumptions on the classifier and the space in which counterfactuals are sought, finding collective counterfactual explanations is reduced to solving a convex quadratic linearly constrained mixed integer optimization problem, which, for datasets of moderate size, can be solved to optimality using existing solvers.

The performance of our approach is illustrated on real-world datasets, demonstrating its usefulness.

Journal: Expert Systems with Applications
Published: March 2024 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Dolores Romero Morales

From Buzzword to Biz World: Realizing Blockchain's Potential in the International Business Context

Abstract:
Initially making its name as the backbone technology of Bitcoin, blockchain has been referred to as a distributed ledger, public database, Internet of value, digital infrastructure, network, and platform. Compared with fluctuating cryptocurrency and non-fungible token (NFT) markets, applications of blockchain technology in more diverse business scenarios have received less attention. By analyzing 16 international business use cases under eight categories of blockchain-based solutions, this article offers a contextualized understanding of the potential for blockchain to become a general-purpose technology (GPT). It discusses how the extensiveness, evolvability, and enabling (3Es) aspects of blockchain influence the value, vision, and viability (3Vs) required for successful real-world applications. The article discusses how firms can draw on lessons from failed cases and good practices of existing cases to enhance the 3Vs for blockchain adoption.

Journal: California Management Review
Published: November 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Bo Bernhard Nielsen,

Gig, el poder de fijar el precio en una plataforma de servicios 

Abstract:
 

Journal: MIT Sloan Management Review Mexico
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Carmelo Cennamo

Glem generationerne: Det problematiske ved at generalisere om generationer 

Abstract:
“De unge vil ikke arbejde!” – I det danske erhvervsliv tales der ofte om en nye generation, der stiller nye og skærpede krav til deres ledere og arbejdspladser. Dette gælder ikke mindst i revisorbranchen. Branchen er kendetegnet ved at skulle rumme en stor aldersspredning i virksomhederne, og synes at drage hyppige referencer til generationsteori for at forklare de udfordringer, der er med at tiltrække ny arbejdskraft og fastholde yngre medarbejdere. Faktisk i sådan en grad, at ledere nu anvender generationsteori som en del af begrundelsen for nye organisatoriske tiltag, herunder især et øget fokus på work-life balance. I denne artikel vil vi argumentere for, at man ikke skal tage generationerne for givet og at det er problematisk at være alt for ivrig med at generalisere om generationer

Journal: Revision & Regnskabsvæsen
Published: 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Simone Hasse StavnsboThomas Riise Johansen

Global Health Expertise in the Shadow of Hegemony 

Abstract:
What enables actors to shape norms in global health governance? Scholarship on global health has highlighted the role of experts and expertise in operationalizing norms across a variety of issues. The degree of expert consensus or dissensus and the negotiation processes between expert communities—for example, in international organizations, NGOs or academia—are commonly identified as centrally important for explaining these processes. In this article, we posit that norm-making in global health governance occurs in the shadow of hegemony; a system of status and stratification that is centered on economic and security concerns and maintained by countries at the core of the world system. These countries—notably the USA and other major economies in the Global North—project their hegemonic position in the world system across areas of global organizing, including in global health. We explore the relationship between epistemic consensus and hegemonic interests as parameters that shape the outcome of norm-making processes. To pursue this argument, we examine this relationship in the context of the development of policy norms to counter non-communicable diseases in developing countries and to pursue the securitization of global health.

Journal: Studies in Comparative International Development
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Leonard Seabrooke

Greenwashing Debates on Twitter: Stakeholders and Critical Topics 

Abstract:
This study explores how the concept of greenwashing has evolved on social media and identifies the most dominant themes and stakeholders shaping these debates. Drawing on the extant literature on greenwashing and stakeholder theory, an in-depth empirical analysis was conducted on how greenwashing debates unfolded during 2006–2022 on the Twitter (now ‘X’) platform. The analysis is based on 496,276 unique tweets, which provide a detailed account of the main themes and stakeholders involved in online greenwashing debates. The findings indicate that greenwashing debates on social media are dominated by a limited number of themes, sectors, companies, and stakeholders. Over the last 10 years, three companies have consistently been in the top-10 list of tweets addressing greenwashing. Likewise, greenwashing debates on social media are often propagated by small groups of individuals, non-governmental organisations, and media outlets. This study provides new insights into the issues and stakeholders dominating greenwashing debates on social media and highlights the dynamic interplay between the accusers, accused, accomplices, and allies involved in these discussions.

Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production
Published: November 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher:  Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen

Healthy Transparancy: Dynamic Interrelations Between Credibility, Transparancy, and Trust in The Context of Danish Public Authorities' COVID-19 Communication 

Abstract:
As responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have indicated, and recent studies confirmed, the effect of transparency on credibility and trust is more complex than previously expected. To better understand and explain this complexity, the present study examines the interactions between credibility, transparency, and trust through a critical case of the Danish Health Authority’s COVID-19 communication in the spring of 2021. We work with a pooled representative sample of the Danish population (N = 2340), surveyed during a 1-month period. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), we study the dynamic effects of transparency on credibility and trust as all three concepts relate to citizens’ compliance with health authorities’ rules and recommendations. The findings demonstrate that source credibility is positively associated with both compliance and trust, but also that transparent communication does not have a significant effect on the trust levels nor the behavior of the survey participants who consistently report high levels of compliance with COVID-19 advice and restrictions. Accordingly, the study offers two contributions. First, it suggests that transparency in and of itself does not lead to higher levels of trust and compliance, but that interactions between these three factors are dynamic and depend on existing high levels of trust. Second, it advances research on public relations (especially in crisis situations) by emphasizing the importance of establishing credibility prior to crises and discussing the potential long-term benefits of transparency in this regard.

Journal: Social Sciences & Humanities Open
Published: January 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Alexander Gamerdinger

How Trust Incongruence Affects Continuance Intention in Peer-to-peer Accomodation Service: Transaction and Consumption Risks as Moderators 

Abstract:
Purpose
Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Service (P2PAS) has emerged as a novel paradigm that enables consumers to book temporary accommodation through P2PAS platforms (online transaction), and then reside in hosts' rooms (offline consumption). Due to potential variance in performance and conflict of interest between hosts and platforms, consumers may differ in their trust perceptions of the two parties, which in turn affects consumers' continuous usage of P2PAS. To this end, the authors endeavor to unravel the effect of consumers' trust incongruence on continuance intention, and to further elucidate the moderating influence of transaction and consumption risks on this relationship. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data through an online survey of 408 P2PAS consumers. Polynomial modeling and response surface analysis were conducted to validate the hypothesized relationships.

Findings
Response surface analysis reveals that trust incongruence did not significantly affect consumers' continuance intention. However, continuance intention would be greater when TP was higher than TH compared with when TH was higher than TP. Furthermore, the analytical results suggest that trust incongruence exerts greater negative effect on continuance intention when transaction and consumption risks were high.

Originality/value
First, the study marks a paradigm shift in conceptualizing the incongruence between TP and TH as a determinant of consumers' continuance intention toward P2PAS. Second, the authors derive a typology of risks that is contextualized to P2PAS. Finally, the authors establish transaction and consumption risks as boundary conditions influencing the effects of trust incongruence on consumers' continuance intention toward P2PAS.

Journal: Systems
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Chee-Wee Tan

In Which Situations Do We Eat? A Diary Study on Eating Situations and Situational Stability 

Abstract:
Eating situations are crucial for understanding and changing eating behavior. While research on individual situational dimensions exists, little is known about eating situations as a whole. This study aimed to fill this gap by identifying eating situations as combinations of multiple situational dimensions and describing how stable individuals eat in those situations. In a five-day online diary study, 230 participants reported a total of 2461 meals and described the corresponding eating situation using predefined situational dimensions. Divisive hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted separately for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, resulting in unique cluster solutions that characterized the most common eating situations. The most common breakfast situations were characterized by a combination of the dimensions social, affect, and hunger. The most common lunch and dinner situations were characterized by varying combinations of the dimensions social, affect, and activity. Based on the identified situations, a situational stability index was developed to describe how stable individuals eat in the same situations. The findings suggest high interindividual differences in situational stability, which were associated with socio-demographic characteristics like age or employment. This study enhances our understanding of the situational aspects of eating behavior while offering tools to describe eating situations and situational stability.

Journal: Nutrients
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Wencke Gwozdz

Intergenerational Sharing of Unhedgeable Inflation Risk 

Abstract:
We explore how members of a collective pension scheme can share inflation risks in the absence of suitable financial market instruments. Using intergenerational risk-sharing arrangements, risks can be allocated better across the scheme's participants than would be the case in a strictly individual- or cohort-based pension scheme, as these can only lay off risks via existing financial market instruments. Hence, intergenerational sharing of these risks enhances welfare. In view of the sizes of their funded pension sectors, this would be particularly beneficial for the Netherlands and the U.K.

Journal: Insurance: Mathematics and Economics
Published: November 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: 

Is Sustainability Governance Abetting Inequality? Reflections from the South African Wine Value Chain 

Abstract:
Private and public governance instruments seeking to ensure sustainability in agro-food value chains have become ubiquitous in the past three decades. Virtually all major retailers, agro-food processors and international commodity traders have been involved in one or another sustainability initiative or multistakeholder engagement. An emerging critical literature shows that achieving sustainability goals along value chains often comes at the cost of profitability at the production level. While some hope has been placed on South-driven sustainability standards to better reflect local needs and contexts, their record in doing so has been mixed. In this article, we examine how different kinds of sustainability governance affect inequality within and along the South African wine value chain. We show that sustainability governance is not paying off for many grape growers and wine producers in South Africa, nor is it supporting entry and ownership of historically disadvantaged persons (HDPs) – despite the government’s stated transformation objectives. We conclude that sustainability governance is abetting existing inequalities and question the ability of current initiatives to shape more just, equitable and environmentally-friendly value chains. We also argue that any future discussion of sustainability and its governance in global value chains should also be a discussion of inequality.

Journal: Geoforum
Published: December 2023
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Contact CBS Researcher: Stefano Ponte

Jurisdictional Approaches to High Conservation Value Area Designation using Regulatory Instruments: An Indonesian Pilot Project 

Abstract:
Agricultural expansion is the primary driver of tropical deforestation and ecological degradation. Certification schemes for sustainable agricultural supply chains, such that of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), seek to address this issue by identifying and protecting High Conservation Value (HCV) areas within concessions. Although RSPO certification of individual concessions has been beneficial, it has had limited efficacy in arresting systemic ecological degradation at larger scales. In response, certification at a regional, ‘jurisdictional’ scale concordant with local environmental regulation has been proposed as an alternative to conventional, piecemeal certification. Jurisdictional certification schemes require alignment with local legislation to ensure integration with governmental environmental and land-use planning; yet, questions of which legislation, and at which level of government, have remained unaddressed. Here, we report on a pilot jurisdictional RSPO certification scheme implemented by an Indonesian district, based on environmental carrying capacity assessments (ECCA) as legislated by the district government. Using the ECCA, we identified likely HCV areas across the district and considered their distributions with respect to three factors of feasible HCV management: (a) similarity with alternative HCV areas identified by a conventional HCV Screening method, (b) sensitivity to aspects of underlying legislation, and (c) scope for unilateral district-wide management. Likely HCV areas were generally similar between the ECCA and HCV Screening method, as each set spanned ∼90% of the district. However, higher-confidence HCV areas according to the ECCA were much less extensive, at 51% of the district, and uniquely extensive across oil-palm concessions. HCV area designation was highly sensitive to the legislated parameters of the ECCA, namely, the selection and estimation of key ecosystem services. Potentially, subtle variations to ECCA implementation, such as those proposed by agro-industrial lobbyists, would significantly affect jurisdictional HCV designations. Finally, some three-quarters of all HCV areas and higher-confidence HCV areas designated by the ECCA fell outside of the exclusive administrative authority of the district government, being confined to agricultural zones. In politically-decentralised Indonesia, jurisdictional HCV area management would therefore be narrowly confined to agricultural areas, or cooperation between district, provincial, and central governments would be essential to the protection of HCV areas generally across districts.

Journal: Frontiers in Environmental Sciences
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Katryn N. Pasaribu

Karriereaspirationer hos unge revisorer Del 3: Hvor meget identificerer unge revisorer sig med branchen? 

Abstract:
Denne artikel er den tredje i vores artikelserie ”Karriereaspirationer hos unge revisorer”. De første artikler i serien beskriver hvilke arbejdsrelaterede aspekter er vigtige for den nye generation af revisorer. Videre har vi kastet lys over betydningen af mentoring samt mentorfunktioner. Denne artikel lægger særlig vægt på psykologiske aspekter, i.e., konkret viden om unge revisorers professionelle identitet samt deres opfattelser af revisorbranchen. Artiklen er baseret på spørgeskemadata fra 94 unge revisorer i Danmark, som har i gennemsnit været 2,8 år i revisorbranchen. Deltagerne i undersøgelsen er i gennemsnit 26 år gamle.

Journal: Revision & Regnskabsvæsen
Published: 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Caroline Aggestam PontoppidanMelanie L. Feldhues

Markets under Mao: Measuring Underground Activity in the Early PRC 

Abstract:
In this article we develop and analyse novel datasets to retrace the persistence and scale of underground market activity in Maoist China. We show that, contrary to received wisdom, Chinese citizens continued to engage in market-based transactions long after “socialist transformation” was ostensibly complete, and that this activity constituted a substantial proportion of local economic output throughout the Maoist era. This helps to explain, in part, why, when markets were officially reopened in China, private economic activity took off. We arrive at these findings through the development and analysis of novel datasets based on unconventional historical sources – namely, a collection of 2,690 cases of “speculation and profiteering” that were recovered from flea markets in eastern China. We show how these grassroots sources can be systematically analysed and used, in lieu of official statistical aggregates, to develop new insights into the macro workings of the Maoist economy.

Journal: China Quarterly
Published: July 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Adam Frost

Navigating Populism: A Study of How German and Swedish Corporations Articulate the Refugee Situation in 2015-2016

Abstract:
To study how populist sentiments have increasingly influenced businesses in society, we examine how German and Swedish corporations addressed the refugee situation in their 2015 and 2016 annual reports. We find that corporations changed their communication once refugee migration became subjected to populist political sentiments, but that they did so without subscribing to those sentiments. Although populism is based on such sharp oppositions as welcoming refugees or closing borders, our analysis shows that corporations have found ways to communicate about the refugee migration beyond these oppositions. Rather than taking a political stance, the corporations studied have primarily articulated the refugee situation as it pertains to their business operations. We identify four modes of articulation: the refugee as someone needing international aid, as a factor for economic analysis, as a benefit recipient, or as a potential stakeholder. These findings help nuance our understanding of how corporations navigate contested political issues.

Journal: Business & Society
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Christian Garmann JohnsenLena Olaison

New Hires, Adjustment Costs, and Knowledge Transfer - Evidence from the Mobility of Entrepreneurs and Skills on Firm Productivity 

Abstract:
This paper evaluates the productivity impacts and the subsequent adjustment costs associated with hiring different knowledge workers. I focus on the difference between hiring former entrepreneurs, employees who change jobs, and unemployed individuals. I am the first to evaluate the direct impact that hiring former entrepreneurs has on firm productivity and the heterogenous adjustment costs associated with the different types of new hires. I find no difference between the first-year adjustment costs of entrepreneurs and those of regular-wage employees. Hiring former entrepreneurs is a way to increase productivity after the first year of employment only if the former entrepreneurs are from the highest end of the ability distribution.

Journal: Industrial and Corporate Change
Published: July 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Emma Lappi

Organizational Identity and Performance: An Inquiry into Nonconforming Company Names 

Abstract:
Choosing the right company name is challenging and may have major consequences for firm prospects. Drawing on the strategic conformity literature, we investigate the implications of “nonconforming” company names, i.e. foreign sounding and family-unrelated, for family firms’ performance. Consistent with the idea that such names endow the business with greater visibility and recognition, we find that nonconforming names are positively associated with financial performance. This association is stronger when the firm operates in an industry with a low share of nonconforming peers and a high share of eponymous peers, in a crowded product class, and is smaller than industry peers. Collectively, our analysis provides new evidence on the strategic implications of company names.

Journal: Long Range Planning
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Orsola Garofalo

Organizational Implementation of AI: Craft and Mechanical Work 

Abstract:
Recent years have brought major technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), and firms are expected to invest nearly $98 B in 2023. However, many AI projects never leave the pilot phase, and many companies have difficulties extracting value from their AI initiatives. To explain this contradiction, this article reports on a study of 55 projects implementing AI in organizations. It shows that organizational challenges in implementing AI projects are a result of a paradoxical tension created by two different perspectives on data science work: craft and mechanical work. Executives, managers, and data scientists should actively manage this tension to enable and sustain value creation through AI.

Journal: California Management Review
Published: November 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Arisa Shollo 

Organizing for Smart City Development: Research at the Crossroads. Introduction to the Special Issue 

Abstract:
Introduction to the Special Issue.
Worldwide, smart city projects have emerged as a response to urban crisis conditions with the aim of leveraging digital technologies for urban innovation and sustainable development. However, these projects involve complex organizational challenges that have received little attention in existing smart city research, particularly in the exploration of interorganizational collaboration. The disconnect between organization studies and smart city research means that these two knowledge fields have yet to maximize the valuable insights that each one can offer to the other. To address this gap, this Special Issue seeks to foster cross-fertilization. Elaborating on the contributions in our Special Issue, we present potential and actual research crossroads conceptual and theoretical arenas in which collaborative efforts between organization studies and smart city research can thrive. We aim to bridge knowledge gaps and generate mutual benefits by stimulating interdisciplinary encounters. This approach offers opportunities for empirical research that can expand organization studies and their theories while deepening our understanding of organizations, organizing, and the organized in smart city projects, thereby contributing to theoretical and practical advancements.

Journal: Organization Studies
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Nicolai J. Foss

Overpersistence Bias in Individual Income Expectations and Its Aggregate Implications 

Abstract:
Using microlevel data, we document systematic forecast errors in household income expectations that are related to the level of income. We show that these errors can be formalized by a modest deviation from rational expectations, where agents overestimate the persistence of their income process. We then investigate the implications of these distortions on consumption and savings behavior and find two effects. First, these distortions allow an otherwise fully optimization-based quantitative model to match the joint distribution of liquid assets and income. Second, the bias alters the distribution of marginal propensities to consume which makes government stimulus policies less effective.

Journal: American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Kathrin Schlafmann

Promoting Innovation: The Differential Impact of R&D Subsidies 

Abstract:
We investigate the efect of R&D subsidies on frms’ innovation by ownership, industry, and frm size using German frm-level data. The impact of R&D subsidies is heterogeneous across industries for multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic frms. This heterogeneity is robust using various estimators. Domestic frms have a larger response in R&D spending in low-tech and medium-term manufacturing, while the efect in high-tech manufacturing is larger for both domestic and foreign MNCs. In knowledge-intensive services and technological services, the response of domestic frms and in some cases foreign MNCs, is greater than that of domestic MNCs. In terms of patents, foreign MNC subsidiaries tend to have a larger count in high-tech manufacturing.

Journal: Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Christoph Grimpe,Wolfgang Sofka

Realizing Subsidiary Initiatives: A Network Mobilization View 

Abstract:
Subsidiaries draw on different networks to undertake entrepreneurial initiatives. While previous literature has emphasized the subsidiary's relational embeddedness as a key factor enabling initiatives, we know much less about the selective network mobilizations of different groups of actors. Our research takes a network mobilization view and uncovers the practices of network mobilization and avoidance across initiative phases. Ten in-depth case studies of realized initiatives reveal how subsidiaries activate multiple networks for different purposes, that networks are ‘fluid’ across different phases, and that initiatives follow different pathways for local and global impact. These insights extend the literature on subsidiary initiatives and shed light on subsidiary initiative processes.

Journal: Journal of International Management
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Phillip C. Nell

Security-as-service in the Management of European Border Data Infrastructure 

Abstract:
Today, large-scale IT systems play a central role in the management of European borders. These systems not only support and enable the management of mobility but also require expert management as complex data infrastructures. Drawing on fieldwork carried out at the headquarters of the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), this article engages with growing calls to explore the politics of data infrastructure management. Focusing on the expert discourses and practices of eu-LISA, I show that, in line with a logic of service, it seeks to establish its legitimacy and authority as the manager of data infrastructures by sharing its expertise with its stakeholders. By attending to a logic of service, I show that the management of data infrastructures is neither exclusively depoliticising nor politicising; rather, it is often simultaneously both.

Journal: Journal of Common Market Studies
Published: September 2023 
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Simple Roads to Failure, Complex Paths to Success: An Evaluation of Conditions Explaining Perceived Fit of an Organizational Occupational Health Intervention 

Abstract:
Organizational occupational health interventions (OOHIs) that are perceived by employees as relevant for their workplace are more likely to be implemented successfully, yet little is known about the conditions that produce such perceptions. This study identifies the conditions that create a perception among employees that an intervention fits their organization as well as the conditions that result in low levels of perceived fit. We used two-wave data from 40 Danish preschools that underwent a quasi-experimental OOHI. Perceived fit was assessed through employee ratings at follow-up, while survey responses from implementation team members at five time points were used to assess four context and 14 process factors. The results of a coincidence analysis showed that high levels of perceived fit were achieved through two paths. Each path consisted of a lack of co-occurring changes together with either very high levels of managerial support (path_1) or a combination of implementation team role clarity, staff involvement, and team learning (path_2). In contrast, low levels of perceived fit were brought about by single factors: limited leader support, low degree of role clarity, or concurrent organizational changes. The findings reveal the complexity involved in implementing OOHIs and offer insights into reasons they may fail.

Journal: Applied Psychology
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Johan Simonsen Abildgaard

Student and Teacher Performance during COVID-19 Lockdown: An Investigation of Associated Features and Complex Interactions using Multiple Data Sources 

Abstract:
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, testing what is required to support teachers and students while subject to forced online teaching and learning is relevant in terms of similar situations in the future. To understand the complex relationships of numerous factors with teaching during the lockdown, we used administrative data and survey data from a large Danish university. The analysis employed scores from student evaluations of teaching and the students’ final grades during the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020 as dependent targets in a linear regression model and a random forest model. This led to the identification of linear and non-linear relationships, as well as feature importance and interactions for the two targets. In particular, we found that many factors, such as the age of teachers and their time use, were associated with the scores in student evaluations of teaching and student grades, and that other features, including peer interaction among teachers and student gender, also exerted influence, especially on grades. Finally, we found that for non-linear features, in terms of the age of teachers and students, the average values led to the highest response values for scores in student evaluations of teaching and grades.

Journal: PLOS ONE
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Sine Zambach

Subsidiary Performance Measurement in International Business Research: A Systematic Review and Future Directions 

Abstract:
Subsidiary Performance (SP) remains central to International Business (IB) research. Yet, exactly how to measure SP is a matter of some confusion in the academic literature. Indeed, to date, no review has offered a systematic overview of the variety of SP measures deployed in the IB literature. Based on a bibliometric study of 193 quantitative research articles published in top-tier journals from 1982 to 2022, this review provides a science mapping overview of SP measurements. By use of bibliographic coupling analyses, the review finds high variability of measurements within thematic clusters of research, for example within studies of knowledge transfer. This variation hampers the ability to both build and test IB theory. Furthermore, it is highly problematic in view of recent debates about replication within the social sciences. Therefore, the review proposes a range of questions to guide researchers in selecting the most appropriate SP measure(s) for future studies.

Journal: Journal of Business Research
Published: December 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Henrik GundelachBo Bernhard Nielsen

Tasty Vibes: Uncovering Crossmodal Correspondences Between Tactile Vibrations and Basic Tastes 

Abstract:
The interest in crossmodal correspondences individually involving the sense of touch and taste has grown rapidly in the last few decades. Several correspondences involving different tactile dimensions (e.g., hardness/softness, roughness/smoothness) have been uncovered, such as those between sweetness and softness and between roughness and sourness. However, a dimension that has been long overlooked, despite its pervasiveness and importance in everyday experiences, relates to tactile vibrations. The present study aimed to fill this gap and investigate crossmodal correspondences between basic tastes and vibrations. In the present study (N = 72), we uncovered these associations by having participants sampling basic taste (i.e., sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami) aqueous solutions and chose the frequency of vibrations, delivered via a consumer-grade subwoofer wristband on their dominant hand, that they most strongly associated with each taste. We found that sourness was most strongly associated with frequencies around 98 Hz, and that sweetness and umami were associated with frequencies around 77 Hz. These correspondences may, to different extents, be based on affective and semantic mechanisms. The findings have relevant implications for theoretical research on multisensory integration and perception and the potential future applications of these associations, through wearable technologies, to enhance eating experiences and promote healthier eating habits.

Journal: Food Research International
Published: December 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Francisco Jose Barbosa Escobar

The Editor and the Algorithm: Recommendation Technology in Online News

Abstract:
We run a field experiment to study the relative performance of human curation and automated personalized recommendation technology in the context of online news. We build a simple theoretical model that captures the relative efficacy of personalized algorithmic recommendations and curation based on human expertise. We highlight a critical tension between detailed, yet potentially narrow, information available to the algorithm versus broad (often private), but not scalable, information available to the human editor. Empirically, we show that, on average, algorithmic recommendations can outperform human curation with respect to clicks, but there is significant heterogeneity in this treatment effect. The human editor performs relatively better in the absence of sufficient personal data and when there is greater variation in preferences. These results suggest that reverting to human curation can mitigate the drawbacks of personalized algorithmic recommendations. Our computations show that the optimal combination of human curation and automated recommendation technology can lead to an increase of up to 13% in clicks. In absolute terms, we provide thresholds for when the estimated gains are larger than our estimate of implementation costs.

Journal: Management Science
Published: October 2023
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Contact CBS Researcher: Jörg Claussen

The internationalisation of R&D: Past, Present and Future 

Abstract:
In this perspective paper we discuss major trends that will shape the internationalisation of business R&D in the future. New scientific discoveries will provide new opportunities to innovate; the growing scientific capabilities in emerging economies will create new hot spots for relevant knowledge; new research activities will emerge from the need to combat climate change; digital technologies including artificial intelligence will further facilitate coordination and knowledge exchange within MNEs and help to create new products and services. Finally, techno-nationalism and new geo-political tensions urge for more attention to the interactions between MNEs and nation-states in science and technology. A perspective that considers science as a source of national superiority may be at odds with the global organization of R&D and innovation in multinational enterprises. As a conclusion, we see most trends that contribute to the growth of R&D internationalisation as intact. IB research should bring nation-states back into the analysis as actors, not as mere locational factors, and build on its own rich tradition of embracing multifaceted approaches and transcending intellectual boundaries and explore the dynamics of MNE R&D internationalisation

Journal: International Business Review
Published: September 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Max von Zedtwitz

Udlodning i danske børsnoterede selskaber: Udvikling og graden af "smoothing" 

Abstract:
Denne artikel betragter de danske selskabers udlodning – dvs. udbytter og aktietilbagekøb. Resultaterne viser, at i perioden fra 2000 til 2020 er den samlede udlodning cirka vokset med en faktor tre. Selv om aktietilbagekøb har fået meget større udbredelse, så er udbytter stadig den foretrukne udlodningsmetode. Endvidere viser resultaterne, at smoothing (udjævning) også er et relativt udbredt fænomen i Danmark – mere tydeligt ved de traditionelle udbytter end ved de samlede udlodninger, der også inkluderer aktietilbagekøb. Samlet set indikerer selskabernes fortsatte anvendelse af udbytter og smoothing heraf, at udbytter spiller en selvstændig rolle udover ”bare” at betale overskud ud til aktionærerne.

Journal: Finans/Invest
Published: October 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Ken L. Bechmann

What is Risk to Managers?

Abstract:
In an online experiment with a sample of 4287 managers from small- and medium-sized enterprises in Denmark, we present participants with scenario-dependent outcomes of a hypothetical investment prospect and elicit their perception of risk and their perception of the investment’s attractiveness (as a proxy for investment preferences). The experimental data is merged with a set of background variables on the company from the Danish registry which allows controlling for firm-specific effects. We find that risk perception is driven by the likelihood and the return associated with the worst-case scenario as well as the size of the required investment. Furthermore, we provide evidence that managers’ perception of the project’s attractiveness is significantly associated with their individual-level risk preferences and the interaction effect between risk preferences and risk perception. This implies that not only the characteristics of the different scenarios but also individuals’ risk preferences play an important role when assessing the attractiveness of a business opportunity.

Journal: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance
Published: December 2023 
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Contact CBS Researcher: Jeppe ChristoffersenThomas Plenborg

What We Know about Open Innovation, Unresolved Issues, and a Checklist for Future Research 

Abstract:
We synthesize and provide a critical overview of the set of quantitative papers on open innovation which have had an influence on analyses of open innovation in a corporate strategy context. We categorize the literature into (a) firms’ external search and knowledge sourcing activities, (b) absorptive capacity, and (c) appropriability. We discuss the firm and individual level contributions to each of these literature streams, identifying those contributions specific to knowledge about open innovation and unresolved issues which represent future research opportunities. In addition, we try to draw some lessons in terms of future challenges for open innovation research in relation to the growth and influence of this domain. Specifically, we discuss some specific problems related to the robustness, validity, reliability, and causal identification of open innovation research, and how these might be overcome through a new research approach. We conclude by proposing a checklist for future quantitative empirical studies of open innovation.

Journal: Economia e Politica Industriale
Published: October 2023
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Contact CBS Researcher: Keld Laursen

Zones of Compounded Informality: Migrants in the Megacity

Abstract:
This paper introduces the term zones of compounded informality to demarcate locations wherein regulatory exclusions in distinct domains interact to escalate the impact of exclusions for people who live and work in these areas. Based upon a study of India's Delhi, National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR), I explain how the interaction of flexible planning and employment in particular locales produce zones of compounded informality as a technique of governance. Circular migrant workers in Delhi-NCR overwhelmingly live and work in these zones, wherein unstable employment and housing contribute to nomadic migration. Legal exclusion from housing protections interacts with other procedural pathways, creating barriers to accessing social protection and citizenship rights. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), and a survey of 981 workers, I consider how zones of compounded informality in Delhi-NCR interact with India's Aadhar biometric identification system to variegate access to the franchise and Targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) for migrant and other low-wage workers.

Journal: PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review
Published: September 2023
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Contact CBS Researcher: Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee
 

The page was last edited by: Sekretariat for Ledelse og Kommunikation // 12/08/2023