Spotlight on new research publications in March
02/27/2020
Photo: Shutterstock
Are you a journalist, researcher or simply interested in academic articles on business and culture?
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.
This month, you can for instance read about how we lack knowledge about sustainable packaging for food products.
Moreover, you can read about how the fashion industry can become more sustainable.
THE FOLLOWING IS THIS MONTH’S PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH – ENJOY YOUR READING:
Find the abstracts under each heading.
Skriveretreat for specialestuderende: Et produktivt rum Abstract: Specialestuderende udsættes for organisatorisk pres for at skrive speciale på normeret tid. Skriveretreat har vist sig at øge forskeres produktivitet, og fra et produktivitetsperspektiv viser artiklen gennem analyse af data indsamlet over fire år fra 12 skriveretreat afholdt på universitetet med 135 respondenter, hvordan og hvorfor Murray & Newton (2009)’s model for struktureret skriveretreat for forskere kan tilpasses til en virksom model for specialestuderende. Modellen består af en klar struktur, et fast program, et offlinerum samt facilitators lederskab og introducerer begrebet befriende tvangselement. Denne kombination gør skriveretreat til et fristed for studerende til alene at koncentrere sig om specialet. På baggrund af Murray, Steckley & MacLeod (2012)’s teoretiske model for struktureret skriveretreat vises, hvordan og hvorfor der også på skriveretreat for specialestuderende sker både en organisatorisk, emotionel og epistemologisk indkapsling, der øger de studerendes skriveproduktivitet, deres indsigt i specialearbejdsformer samt deres viden om specialeprocessen.
Journal: Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift
Published: October 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Vibeke Ankersborg
Betting Against Correlation: Testing Theories of the Low-risk EffectAbstract: We test whether the low-risk effect is driven by (a) leverage constraints and thus risk should be measured using beta vs. (b) behavioral effects and thus risk should be measured by idiosyncratic risk. Beta depends on volatility and correlation, where only volatility is related to idiosyncratic risk. Hence, the new factor betting against correlation (BAC) is particularly suited to differentiating between leverage constraints vs. lottery explanations. BAC produces strong performance in the US and internationally, supporting leverage constraint theories. Similarly, we construct the new factor SMAX to isolate lottery demand, which also produces positive returns. Consistent with both leverage and lottery theories contributing to the low-risk effect, we find that BAC is related to margin debt while idiosyncratic risk factors are related to sentiment and casino profits.
Journal: Journal of Financial Economics
Published: 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Lasse Heje Pedersen
Well-being and Entrepreneurship: Using Establishment Size to Identify Treatment Effects and Transmission Mechanisms Abstract: Using data from the European Value Survey, covering more than 300,000 respondents in 32 countries between 2002 and 2012, we offer new insight into the consequences for subjective well-being of self-employment. We hypothesize that the positive link between entrepreneurship and well-being is influenced by the extent to which the decision to engage in entrepreneurship reflects voluntary choice and by the ability of the entrepreneur to match entrepreneurial preferences for autonomy, task variety, and challenging tasks to task environments. While the hypotheses are confirmed by our empirical analysis, we also find-rather surprisingly-no evidence that the effects are mediated by autonomy. To handle the endogeneity and simultaneity problems that arise from the fact that the choice to become an entrepreneur is not random and which potentially threaten the validity of our findings, we rely on a novel econometric method which allows us to sidestep the selection problem and establish that the well-being increase associated with entering into entrepreneurial activity is at least approximately equivalent to a one-decile increase in household income.
Journal: PLoS ONE
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Nicolai J. Foss
The New Story of Changing: Exploring Dichotomies in the Field of Organizational Change Abstract: This article theoretically explores and unpacks existing dichotomies in the field of organizational change. By revisiting the dichotomies “planned-emergent change” and “major-minor change,” the article finds that only relying on one extreme of a dichotomy gives a too simplistic view on change in organizations. Instead, the article proceeds by combining the two dichotomies and further explores the exceptions: the studies that do not only rely on one extreme of the dichotomies but instead moves along dichotomies. Based on the findings, the article suggests that future studies of organizational changes take an emic approach and study organizational changes in situ in order to capture the vividness of organizational changes.
Journal: International Journal of Knowledge, Culture & Change in Organizations: Annual Review
Published: 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Signe Bruskin
“Give Less But Give Smart”: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Public Information About Quality on Giving Abstract: We conduct a laboratory experiment to test how information about charities’ qualities and its public visibility affect giving. We first show theoretically that a perceived increase in charities’ qualities represents a decrease in the price of charitable output, which could generate both an income and substitution effect on nominal giving. On the one hand positive news about charities’ qualities can increase giving, since donors realize that it is cheaper to generate charitable output. On the other hand positive news can reduce nominal giving because a smaller donation can generate an equal or higher level of charitable output. We then hypothesize and test that such negative income effect may be dominant among image-motivated donors whenever the quality of giving has a social signaling value: donors can “give less, but show that they give smart”. We find that when information is public, 34% of donors trade-off the quality and quantity of their donations. We show that these donors are relatively more motivated by social recognition, and strategically use positive public information to give less. The effect of public information is causal: when information about charities’ qualities is privately received, giving is always increasing in the quality of the news, and bad news has no effect on giving.
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Published: March 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Luigi Butera
Stock Returns over the FOMC Cycle Abstract: We document that since 1994, the equity premium is earned entirely in weeks 0, 2, 4, and 6 in Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cycle time, that is, even weeks starting from the last FOMC meeting. We causally tie this fact to the Fed by studying intermeeting target changes, Fed funds futures, and internal Board of Governors meetings. The Fed has affected the stock market via unexpectedly accommodating policy, leading to large reductions in the equity premium. Evidence suggests systematic informal communication of Fed officials with the media and financial sector as a channel through which news about monetary policy has reached the market.
Journal: Journal of Finance
Published: October 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Department of Finance (Annette Vissing-Jørgensen)
Viewing Global Strategy through a Microfoundations Lens Abstract: Research Summary: The emerging microfoundations literature asserts that macro concepts and macro-outcomes, such as firm-level capabilities, performance and strategies, need to be understood in terms of the underlying actions, interactions and characteristics of micro-level entities, such as individual actors and managers. This literature has specific implications for the understanding of cross-level explanatory mechanisms; notably, it asserts that all relations between macro variables are mechanisms that involve micro variables. While the microfoundations literature has been influential in the general strategy literature, global strategy has been less impacted by it. This is paradoxical because the research challenges pointed to by the literature are often magnified in the multinational corporation and in a global strategy context, and this context may introduce novel challenges. For example, Google's strategic decision in 2018 to reenter the Chinese market (macro-level analysis) is best understood through the thinking of decision-makers in the company, as well as opposition to the move from over 1,000 of its employees. We characterize microfoundations, discuss their relevance to the global strategy, and show how the papers in this special issue fill important microfoundational gaps in the global strategy literature. Managerial Summary: For too long, studies of corporate strategies have focused on the firm as a unit of analysis, as if the firm could decide or think on its own, neglecting the fact that it is managers who think. The underlying motivations, interactions and characteristics of individual managers of companies have often been missing in explanations of global strategy formulation. This can especially be a lacuna in closely-held companies in emerging countries where decision-making is more concentrated in the minds of owners, top managers and family members. The microfoundations literature specifically tries to connect the thinking and backgrounds of individual managers with strategic decisions their firm makes. While the microfoundations literature has made some headway in the general strategy literature, the analysis of global strategy has been less impacted by it. This is paradoxical because the research challenges pointed to by the literature are often magnified in the multinational corporation and in a global strategy context. This introductory paper first refines and enunciates microfoundations theory, in its application to global business. It then also shows how the papers in this special issue fill important microfoundational gaps in the global strategy literature.
Journal: Global Strategy Journal
Published: February 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Nicolai J. Foss
Sustainable Development and Dynamic Capabilities in the Fashion Industry: A Multi-case Study Abstract: We used the dynamic capabilities approach to study environmental sustainability and development in the fashion industry. To achieve green transformation, companies need to develop effective dynamic capabilities, which entails changing their current organizational design by realigning their activities, partnerships, and routines with the changed external environment. By means of three case studies, we identified the components of dynamic capabilities that can be instrumental in companies' innovation and adaptability toward sustainability goals. In particular, we examined how companies sensed market opportunities and threats, seized such opportunities, and reconfigured their internal assets. We also investigated how structural changes in these firms reflected their strategies for supporting sustainability development.
Journal: Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
Published: December 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Nicolai J. Foss
Highly Liquid Mortgage Bonds using the Match Funding Principle Abstract: We show that pass-through funding of mortgages with covered bonds supported by strong creditor rights is one way of providing highly liquid mortgage bonds. Despite a 30% drop in house prices during the 2008 crisis, these mortgage bonds remained as liquid as comparable government bonds with high trading volume and low bid-ask spreads. Market liquidity of these covered bonds is primarily driven by the availability of funding liquidity. Funding liquidity is the main concern because the pass-through funding approach effectively eliminates other types of risks from the investor's perspective. Banking regulators should take into account the implications of these findings, particularly when it comes to the interplay between liquidity and capital requirements.
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Finance
Published: December 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Jens Dick-Nielsen
Other Stories of Resilient Safety Management in the Norwegian Offshore Sector: Resilience Engineering, Bullshit and the De-Politicization of Danger Abstract: In an environment characterized by increasing complexity and uncertainty, and faced by a never-ending barrage of change and disruption, management is continuously looking for new coping-strategies. One set of new strategies emphasizes strengths and robustness rather than weakness and failure, and with this change of perspective resilience has entered the vocabulary of a growing number of academic traditions (Dahlberg, 2015). The term has also become popular outside of academia, and a Google Ngram search shows almost 300% increase, from 1980 to 2007, in publications in English where “resilience” occurs.
Journal: Scandinavian Journal of Management
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Erik Mygind du Plessis
Leveraged Buyouts and Bond Credit Spreads Abstract: Recent decades have witnessed several waves of buyout activity. We find leveraged buyouts (LBOs) to be a significant concern for bondholders by showing that a) intra-industry credit spreads increase upon an LBO announcement, b) yields on bonds without event risk covenants are, on average, 21 basis points higher than those on same-firm bonds with such covenants, and c) structural models calibrated to historical LBO events imply an impact of 18–21 basis points on 10-year credit spreads. The impact is strongest in expansion periods and for bonds with maturities of 10–20 years.
Journal: Journal of Financial Economics
Published: July 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Peter Feldhütter
Teamwork and Individual Productivity Abstract: We propose a new method to disentangle individual from team productivity, CoScore. CoScore uses the varying membership and levels of success of all teams to simultaneously infer an individual’s productivity and her credit for each of her teams’ successes. Crucially, the productivities of all individuals are determined endogenously via the solution of a fixed point problem. We show that CoScore is well defined, and we provide axiomatic foundations for the inferred credit allocation. We illustrate CoScore in scientific research and sports.
Journal: Management Science
Published: February 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Karol Szwagrzak
Ambivalences of Nationality - Economic Nationalism, Nationality of the Company, Nationalism as Strategy: An Introduction Abstract: Pending
Journal: Journal of Modern European History
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Alfred Reckendrees
Helpful Hypocrisy? Investigating ‘Double-talk’ and Irony in CSR Marketing Communications Abstract: Conventional definitions of corporate hypocrisy focus on decoupling talk and action; incidences where an organization's ‘talk’ does not match its ‘walk’. However, in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR), marketing communications are often aspirational and hence prone to accusations of hypocrisy. We therefore ask: is hypocrisy always undesirable? This case-informed conceptual paper draws upon the Diesel ‘Global Warming Ready’ campaign to investigate how humor – specifically irony – elevates conventional understandings of hypocrisy towards what we term ‘helpful hypocrisy’; the mobilization of critical reflection on complex ambiguities of CSR in non-moralizing ways. In doing so, we distinguish between idealized ‘single-talk’ and extended ‘double-talk’. We develop an analytical model to help analyze the layers of double-talk in the context of ironic CSR marketing communications, and we construct a conceptual model that explains the role of double-talk and irony. Based on our research, we propose an agenda for future research.
Journal: Journal of Business Research
Published: December 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Mette Morsing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Management Analytics Abstract: Business and management analytics as a field is rapidly evolving. AI, together with big data and machine learning are revolutionizing managerial practices for analyzing performance, developing novel insights, and decrypting ever-more challenging business realities (Kaplan and Haenlein 2019a). Combining AI and data analytics allows managers to know their customers as good as, or even better than, they know themselves. This in turn enables firms to bolster their sales and increase profitability through optimizing business processes. For example, online retail giant, Amazon, is able to predict what its clients will purchase before they are even close to pushing the ‘checkout’ button and leverages this knowledge to improve its inventory management and order forecasting. Although the abovementioned possibilities afforded by advanced AI-driven data analytics were reserved exclusively for big technology players a couple of year ago, they have become much more accessible these days, transforming all kinds of corporations, organizations, industries, and society at large (Kaplan and Haenlein 2020). Yet, while the broad idea of AI and its potential, be it positive or negative, have received significant interest, meaningful managerial applications of AI-driven data analytics remain elusive within extant literature (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2017). The aim of this Special Issue on ‘Artificial Intelligence and Management Analytics’ is to contribute towards closing this knowledge gap from both societal and technological angles.
Journal: Journal of Management Analytics
Published: 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Chee-Wee Tan
How the Interplay between Subjective and Objective Financial Risk Influences Consumers’ Expectations, Information Search, and Product Satisfaction Abstract: Consumer risk taking is central to much of the financial market literature and a deeper understanding of consumer risk behavior is essential for advancing research and managers’ and authorities’ thought and policy. Yet, relatively little research has considered the interplay between subjective financial risk (i.e., the level of risk perceived by consumers) and objective financial risk (i.e., the level of risk as stated by financial authorities) on consumer financial behavior. Based on cognitive consistency theory and cognitive congruence theory as theoretical underpinnings, we develop a conceptual model hypothesizing relationships between subjective and objective risk and consumers’ expectations, information search (from both financial and non-financial sources), and product satisfaction. This study distinguishes between high objective risk savings products (HRSP) (i.e., stocks) and low objective risk savings products (LRSP) (i.e., bank saving accounts). In the study, 269 respondents had obtained a HRSP and 573 respondents had obtained a LRSP. In the pooled sample of respondents (n=842), 46.6% were women and average age was 54.5 years. Structural equation modelling estimated the results. The results suggest that the negative influence of perceived risk on expectations was significantly higher for LRSP than for HRSP and also that the negative influence of perceived risk on product satisfaction was significantly higher for LRSP than for HRSP. Also, the positive influence of perceived risk on information search from non-financial sources was higher for HRSP than for LRSP. Several implications for future research, alongside with managerial and financial authority implications, are discussed.
Journal: Journal of Marketing Trends: Official Journal of the International Marketing Trends Conference
Published: 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Torben Hansen, Jens Geersbro and Hanne Pico Larsen
Resilience of HPV Vaccine Uptake in Denmark: Decline and Recovery Abstract: Background: Immunization programs’ resilience to shocks is central to their success, but little empirical evidence documents resilience in action. We sought to characterize the decline of HPV vaccination in Denmark after negative media coverage and recovery during a national information campaign. Methods: We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study of all girls born in Denmark from 1997 to 2006 (N = 328,779), aged 12–15. The outcome measure was HPV vaccine uptake (first dose), as reported to the Danish national health registry from 2009 to 2019, when HPV vaccine was freely available to girls in primary care clinics in Denmark. Events that created 4 natural time periods for study were HPV vaccine reaching the uptake of other vaccines in the national program (2009), some negative media coverage of HPV vaccination (2013), extensive negative media coverage (2015), and a national information campaign about the vaccine's safety and effectiveness (2017–2019). Results: In the period with some negative media coverage, HPV vaccine uptake fell to 83.6% (95% CI:78.0%–89.7%) of baseline uptake. In the period with extensive negative media coverage, uptake fell even further to 49.6% (95% CI:44.5%–55.2%) of baseline uptake. After the information campaign, HPV vaccine uptake recovered to its baseline level (109.2%, 95% CI:90.1%–132.4%) due in part to catch-up doses. Despite the recovery, an estimated 26,000 fewer girls initiated the vaccine than if uptake had not declined. Conclusions: The experience in Denmark offers one of the first opportunities to document how a nation grappled with negative media coverage of HPV vaccination and the steadying impact of action by national authorities.
Journal: Vaccine
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Peter Hansen
Consumers’ Response to Environmentally-friendly Food Packaging: A Systematic Review Abstract: Consumers play an important role in the market penetration of environmentally-friendly food packaging because it is they who decide whether or not to buy a particular product. The objective of this paper is to analyse the state of the art regarding consumers’ response to environmentally-friendly food packaging in order to identify existing barriers to purchase and potential measures to overcome these barriers. The paper is based on a systematic synthesis of 46 scientific journal articles on consumer studies related to environmentally-friendly packaging. The literature review applies a conceptual framework regarding the ways consumers respond to product stimuli and the psychological processes involved. Three important barriers to purchasing environmentally-friendly packaging are identified. First, consumers need guidance in recognizing environmentally-friendly packaging; for while consumers primarily consider the packaging material itself and any eco-labels, they also consider other packaging design elements such as colours and pictures of ‘nature’ that can be misleading. Second, it became obvious that consumers lack knowledge, in particular about new packaging materials like bio-based packaging. Third, many of the studies reviewed provide evidence that other product attributes such as price and product quality are more important to consumers than environmentally-friendly packaging. Nevertheless, some studies recorded a significantly higher willingness on the part of consumers to buy and pay for environmentally-friendly packaging and products with reduced packaging compared to products with standard packaging, signalling an overall positive attitude. The literature review revealed many research gaps. For example, it became obvious that consumers’ response to environmentally-friendly food packaging is not yet well understood, in particular with regards to purchasing behaviour (in the real world as opposed to in a survey setting) and measures for overcoming existing barriers.
Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production
Published: May 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Meike Janssen
An Explanation of Negative Swap Spreads: Demand for Duration from Underfunded Pension Plans Abstract: The 30-year U.S. swap spreads have been negative since September 2008. We offer a novel explanation for this persistent anomaly. Through an illustrative model, we show that underfunded pension plans optimally use swaps for duration hedging. Combined with dealer banks' balance sheet constraints, this demand can drive swap spreads to become negative. Empirically, we construct a measure of the aggregate funding status of defined benefit pension plans and show that this measure helps explain 30-year swap spreads. We find a similar link between pension funds' underfunding and swap spreads for two other regions.
Journal: Journal of Finance
Published: April 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Sven Klingler
Automation, Performance, and International Competition: A Firm-level Comparison of Process Innovation Abstract: The automation of production processes is an important topic on the policy agenda in high-wage countries, and Denmark is no exception. However, the knowledge of the adoption of automation technologies across firms, of drivers of investments in automation, and on the association between automation and firm performance are limited. This paper uses a new survey to collect data on automation combined with register data to examine these issues. The variation in the adoption of automation technologies is high, the change in adoption over time is slow, and almost half of Danish manufacturing firms relied greatly on manual production processes in 2010. Increasing international competition from China is a driver for investments in automation, i.e., the manufacturing firms that are exposed to intensifying competition from China in their output markets invest more in automation than firms that are not exposed to this type of competition. We conduct external validation of the automation survey by examining the association between the automation measures and firm performance measures constructed from completely independent data sources. We find that the measures of automation are significantly associated with productivity and profitability.
Journal: Economic Policy
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Anders Sørensen
Varieties of Green: On Aesthetic Contestations Over Urban Sustainability Pathways in a Copenhagen Community Garden Abstract: Alongside kindred civic-driven and place-based urban greening initiatives, studies document an upsurge over the last decade in urban gardening and alternative food initiatives across a range of Euro-American settings. Meanwhile, historical and cultural inquiries into urban design, planning and politics suggest that the place and role of ‘nature’ in the city is now undergoing significant shifts. In this article, we deploy a case study of a civic-driven permaculture garden in Copenhagen in order to suggest a novel analytical grid of the imaginative and material domain of public aesthetic norms shaping current-day tensions over interventions in and valuations of the fabric of multiform green-spaces in the city. Reading across existing literatures, we model this domain along two structuring axes – of ‘orderliness’ versus ‘wildness’ and ‘pastoral nature’ versus city-nature ‘imbrication’ – and illustrate the usefulness of the resulting grid for making sense of internal debates and external criticisms in the Copenhagen permaculture gardening case. By assisting us in explaining how and why this garden struggled to carve out a legitimate space in a city otherwise committed to urban nature, we argue that attention to variable urban-green aesthetic commitments helps recast questions of urban sustainability politics in important ways.
Journal: Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
Published: February 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Jakob Laage-Thomsen
Exploring the Impact of Initial Herd on Overfunding in Equity Crowdfunding Abstract: Outcome of equity crowdfunding campaigns often exceeds original fundraising goals, leading to market inefficiency. This undesirable phenomenon of overfunding garnered little attention in past studies. Synthesizing extant literature on crowdfunding and herding, we identified the initial herd made visible by funding progress indicator as the main cause of overfunding. The impact of the initial herd can be quantified by three dimensions: maturity, intensity, and persistency. We then advance and validate a research model for examining how dimensions of the initial herd affect overfunding in equity crowdfunding. Findings from this study can shed light on plausible remedies for the overfunding issue.
Journal: Information & Management
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Albert Fei Liu
Geopolitical jockeying: Economic nationalism and multinational strategy in historical perspective Abstract: Research Summary: We explore multinational strategy formation in the context of rising economic nationalism. Specifically, we examine how firms develop strategies to capitalize on the historical and aspirational attributes of national identity. Analyzing the histories of two German multinationals in late colonial India, we find that these firms engaged in “geopolitical jockeying” to delegitimize rival multinationals and position themselves as complementary to the economic and political goals of the host nation. Toward that end they employed “aspirational political practices,” addressing the inherently future‐oriented character of nationalism, and invested in the development of political capabilities to gather information and shape perceptions of national contexts. The paper contributes to a more robust conceptualization of nations and nationalism and their role in the formation of international competition and strategy. Managerial Summary: Rising economic nationalism can create political and economic opportunities as well as threats for multinational firms. Through a historical analysis of the emerging strategy of two German companies—Siemens and Bayer—in late colonial India, we show how firms can engage in “geopolitical jockeying” to delegitimize rival multinationals and position themselves as complementary to the economic and political goals of host nations. To do so the companies engaged in “aspirational political practices,” addressing the inherently future or goal‐oriented aspects of nations, and created political capabilities designed to both gather intelligence on and shape the nationalist movements. The paper uses history as a mirror for reflecting on the causes and consequences of economic nationalism for international strategy in our own time.
Journal: Strategic Management Journal
Published: March 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Christina Lubinski and Dan Wadhwani
A Project-based Perspective on Strategic Renewal Abstract: This paper adopts a project-based perspective to analyze how strategic renewal evolves in organizations over time. Projects are temporary resource-committing activities that deliberately impose changes on existing business operations and, thereby, generate strategic renewal. Projects can be empirically identified and are, therefore, suited for analyzing manifestations of deliberate and emergent strategies driven by employee behaviors that either comply with or deviate from the official strategy. In the paper, we present ten theoretically derived project categories that can be used to analyze strategic renewal through the enactment of different projects. We also discuss the implications and limitations of the project-based perspective for strategy research and management practice.
Journal: Strategic Management Review
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Carsten Lund Pedersen, Thomas Ritter and Torben Juul Andersen
The Role of Photograph Aesthetics on Online Review Sites: Effects of Management- versus Traveler-generated Photos on Tourists’ Decision Making Abstract: Tourists searching for information about destinations on online review sites are concurrently exposed to two different photograph aesthetics, professional (produced by destination managers) and amateur (generated by travelers). While the former is glossy and sharp, the latter is often grainy and overexposed. Although aesthetics are important factors in tourist decision making, the effects of the exposure to both types of photograph aesthetics remain largely unexamined. This research investigates how both types of aesthetics, either singularly or in combination, affect a destination’s visual appeal and tourists’ booking intentions through four controlled experiments (N = 1,282). Our results show that despite the “messy” beauty in amateur aesthetics, photos with professional aesthetics make a depicted destination appear more visually appealing, ultimately driving booking intentions. However, the negative effects of amateur aesthetics are mitigated when (1) viewed by risk-averse tourists, (2) presented alongside positive reviews, and (3) accompanied by a greater number of professional photos.
Journal: Journal of Travel Research
Published: December 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Antonia Erz
The Bandwidth Problem in Telecoupled Systems Governance: Certifying Sustainable Winemaking in Australia and Chile Abstract: Telecoupled systems connect consumption and other choices in one part of the world with land-use and land-cover change in another. While such connections are increasingly well documented, research on governing telecoupled systems is in its infancy. Drawing on recent discussions in sociology, we argue that models for governing telecoupled systems must consider two types of information flows. Low-bandwidth flows allow for limited information transfer but can take place over greater distances. High-bandwidth flows, by contrast, allow for more complex knowledge transfer but tend to be geographically localized due to the costs of maintaining robust connections. Using a mixed-methods case study of national sustainability certification in the wine sector in Australia and Chile, we argue that Chile's counterintuitive success in diffusing its national sustainability certification relates to its geography, which facilitated high-bandwidth connections. We conclude that telecoupling governance measures, such as jurisdictional commodity certification, need to consider the unique requirements and costs of high-bandwidth connections in allocating institutional investments.
Journal: Ecological Economics
Published: May 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Kristjan Jespersen
Standing the Test of Time: External Factors Influencing Family Firm Longevity in Germany and Spain during the Twentieth Century Abstract: While most research on family business longevity focuses on how internal corporate governance issue impact resilience, the aim of this article is to foreground the relevance of external environmental factors, and to do so in an internationally comparative perspective. By historically comparing the largest family businesses in Germany and Spain in the twentieth century, we find that they differ significantly in age and ask how external factors help us better understand these variances. After analysing the institutional framework of the two countries during the second part of the 20th century, we explore the strategic responses developed in reaction to that framework by four of the largest family businesses in the two countries. With this, we strive to capture the interdependent nature of internal decision-making processes and external environmental changes, ultimately arguing for a more holistic understanding of family business resilience over time.
Journal: Journal of Evolutionary Studies in Business
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Christina Lubinski
Policymakers’ Views on Sustainable End-user Innovation: Implications for Sustainable Innovation Abstract: This paper seeks to ascertain why the role of end-user (consumer) within sustainable innovation remains largely overlooked by policymakers in spite of their significant potential in driving socio-technical transitions. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with policymakers, the paper finds that conceptual vagueness and a lack of clear definitions within the field have led to a myriad of terms being used to refer to the engagement of end-users in the sustainable innovation process. This lack of clarity has generated a confused policy narrative when discussing the role of end-user in sustainable innovation, making it difficult for insights to be shared with and drawn from others and resulting in a fragmented policy toolset. In addition to this ambiguity, the interviews revealed that policymakers often take a traditional view of innovation and its main actors, wherein end-users are seen as playing the role of ‘the informed consumer’ who drives the demand side but does not contribute to supply. Thus, despite significant evidence to the contrary, policymakers remain apprehensive about the potential of end-users driving sustainable innovation. The paper concludes that existing policy concerns are less about whether end-users innovate or not than whether this form of innovation can actually translate into public goods. The key takeaway for proponents of sustainable end-user innovation is that, from a policy perspective, the larger impact and business case has yet to be made.
Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production
Published: May 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Kristian Roed Nielsen
Situating Zelizer: A Beginners’ Guide Abstract: This short text could work both as a long footnote that contextualizes the interview with Viviana Zelizer published in this issue, and as a very brief beginner’s guide to Zelizer’s economic sociology. The premise is that a good way of introducing Zelizer’s contribution to the study of economic life is by situating her oeuvre in the context of recent research. The main argument is that Zelizer’s work is not simply a cultural counterbalance of the mostly structural “new economic sociology”. She has constructed an original angle to the study of economic life. From this perspective, sociologists learn to focus on the frictions in which economic life unfolds.
Journal: Sociologica
Published: 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: José Ossandón
A Bait-and-Switch Model of Corporate Social Responsibility Abstract: The notion that transparency forces organizations to eschew decoupling and embrace substantive adoption represents an important assumption in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature. Conversely, research on learning and social control has considered opacity—understood as a lack of transparency—to be conducive to substantive CSR adoption. These opposing viewpoints highlight a fundamental tension: Is transparency good or bad for substantive adoption? This paper resolves this tension by asking an alternative question: When is transparency good or bad, and why? We advance a dynamic perspective, which conceives transparency and opacity as transitory phenomena, and we specify the boundary conditions for which either enduring or transitory forms of transparency and opacity further the substantive adoption of CSR. Our analyses reveal that, for circumstances under which the motivation of ceremonial adoption is hypocritical (rather than opportunistic) and where both substantive adoption and practice abandonment are difficult, the former can be maximized by first allowing organizations to adopt a CSR practice ceremonially under opacity (“bait”), and then prompting ceremonial adopters to become substantive adopters through a shift to transparency (“switch”). Specifying this bait-and-switch mechanism and its underlying contingencies reveals a hitherto unexplored, and potentially more effective, pathway towards the institutionalization of CSR.
Journal: Academy of Management review
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Dennis Schoeneborn
‘It's all about Time’: Temporal Effects of Cancer Pathway Introduction in Treatment and Care Abstract: In the last decades, increased focus on time optimisation in healthcare services has led to introduction of new standardising technologies that alter the temporal structures of treatment-trajectories and work-practices. This paper presents a qualitative study of the temporal effects of introducing cancer pathways at a university hospital and a cancer rehabilitation centre in Denmark. Building analytically on a combination of Eviatar Zerubavel's and Norbert Elias's sociological studies on time, we show how the introduction of pathways has intensified the separation of cancer treatment and psychosocial support into two decoupled but mutually interdependent temporal orders. We furthermore demonstrate how pathway introduction has increased the focus on time as an overarching quality standard for treatment and care across organisational boundaries. Based on this analysis, we suggest that to understand current standardisation and optimisation processes and their unintended organisational effects, temporality should be treated as a research object of its own. Rather than analytically pre-empting temporal dichotomies or a priori assigning normativity to particular temporal structures, we call for thorough empirical investigation of temporal patterns in and between healthcare organisations.
Journal: Social Science & Medicine
Published: February 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Kirstine Zinck Pedersen
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) i den eksterne rapportering – med fokus på Danske banker Abstract: Indblik i hvordan danske bankers frivillige ESG-rapportering har udviklet sig gennem de sidste år, med fokus på SDG og brug af andre frivillige rapporteringsstandarder (GRI, UNCC)
Journal: Revision & Regnskabsvæsen
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Caroline Aggerstam Pontoppidan
Mind the Gap: The Role of Gender in Entrepreneurial Career Choice and Social Influence by Founders Abstract: Women continue to be disproportionately underrepresented in new venture creation. We investigate whether and how founders can differently influence future entrepreneurial career choices of their male and female joiners. Using a large sample of startup firms with personnel where founders interact closely with joiners, we demonstrate that founders have a strong influence on a joiner's entrepreneurial career choice if both are female. We find empirical support for role modeling as a key underlying mechanism, accounting for alternative explanations such as selective matching based on gender and push‐driven factors. These findings increase our understanding of the roles of socialization and organizational context in shaping the career outcomes of employees, and provide evidence of a multiplier effect of female entrepreneurs.
Journal: Strategic Management Journal
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Vera Rocha and Mirjam Van Praag
Disclosing Anti-money Launderers Through CSR Regulation – a New Way to Combat Money Laundering Abstract: Recent research questions the innocence of companies outside the current EU money laundering regulation in terms of contributing to the externality problem of money laundering. The purpose of this paper is to examine how including anti-money laundering as an element of the EU corporate social responsibilities (CSR) directive can contribute to solving the externality problem of money laundering. Based on the principles of CSR and the economic effects of disclosure duties, this paper analyzes the implications an introduction of anti-money laundering policies and disclosure duties can have on corporate clients and the combatting against money laundering. Furthermore, it is the intention of this paper to argue how such a regulatory change can help the financial companies dividing “good” and “bad” clients to prevent money laundering from happening.
Journal: Journal of Money Laundering Control
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Kalle Rose
Attitudes Matter: Welfare Work and Migration in Sweden Abstract: This paper investigates the factors that influence Swedish welfare workers’ attitudes towards migrants and how these attitudes are associated with their encounters with migrant users. Due to increased migration over the last decade, Sweden is now considered an immigrant nation. Migrants with the right to reside in Sweden are included within the larger welfare system. This paper argues that preconceived notions about migrants can affect the welfare services that they receive. Results from an online survey with a sample of 1,319 welfare practitioners reveal that welfare workers’ attitudes play a significant role when it comes to how they perceive their encounters with migrant users. The findings demonstrate that more favourable attitudes towards migrants were predicted mainly by personal contact with migrants and that different organisational contexts result in different experiences of encounters with migrant users. Less favourable attitudes towards migrants were primarily predicted by a strong ethnic national identity. Most importantly, the findings show that welfare workers’ who have more favourable attitudes towards migrants are less likely to perceive their encounters with migrant users as difficult. This paper contributes to welfare and migration research in two ways. First, this study provides additional support for previous claims from qualitative research by supporting the assumptions that preconceived negative ideas about migrants have meaning for practical welfare work. Second, this paper integrates two streams of research—attitude formation theory and street-level bureaucracy theory—thus expanding existing assumptions about what determines welfare practices with migrants.
Journal: Migration Studies
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Carolin Schütze
The Importance of Discretion for Welfare Services to Minorities: Examining Workload and Anti-immigration Attitudes Abstract: Migration influx in Western countries resulting in increasingly diverse societies results in more complex situations for bureaucrats in their client interactions in welfare organizations. The role of discretion for services to clients has received much attention in the public administration research and therefore this study explores the relation among perceived workload, anti‐immigration attitudes, perceived discretion, and perceived difficulty in working with migrants. The paper examines the function of perceived discretion as moderator or mediator variable in this constellation. The relations are examined by using structural equation modelling based on a survey among Swedish welfare bureaucrats (N = 1,319). The results show that heavier perceived workload increased the likelihood of experiencing work with migrants as difficult and that greater perceived discretion decreased the likelihood of experiencing work with migrants as difficult. The results suggest that perceived discretion functions as a mediator for the relation between perceived workload and difficulty in work with migrants: potentially functioning as a ‘buffer’ for organizational pressure. We also found that bureaucrats who hold negative attitudes towards migrants were more likely to express their work with migrants as more difficult. This paper contributes to the public administration literature by increasing our knowledge on how discretion has significance in relation to when bureaucrat's behaviour is determined by specific organizational and personal factors.
Journal: Australian Journal of Public Administration
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Carolin Schütze
Investment Ties Gone Awry Abstract: Forming early relationships increases entrepreneurial ventures’ chances of survival and success by allowing access to critical resources from partners. However, since not all ventures achieve their desired goals through collaboration due to uncertainty, such relationships are sometimes abandoned. This paper investigates the costs of ties that have gone awry in the context of venture capital investments. We conjecture that the adverse perceptions of signals associated with tie discontinuation reduce an investee venture’s valuation in the follow-on round of financing by partially deterring prospective investors, particularly higher-quality ones, from joining the syndicate. By examining large-sample evidence that supports our theory, we suggest that early entrepreneurial ties to venture capitalists may be a double-edged sword, especially in light of the costs of tie discontinuation.
Journal: Academy of Management Journal
Published: February 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Ali Mohammadi
Samskipti fagfjárfesta við félög sem þeir eru hluthafar í Abstract: A significant change in ownership of listed Icelandic companies has taken place over the past decade or so. The majority of the ownership is in the hands of institutional investors. The aim of this research is to improve understanding of how Icelandic institutional investors interact with companies in which they are shareholders and use their ownership to influence those companies, especially corporate governance. The main findings are that investment stewardship by Icelandic institutional shareholders happens behind the scenes with meetings and informal communication. It does also happen with public dissent of shareholder proposals and/or by voting for or against proposals at shareholder meetings. These findings are in line with how investment stewardship is in neighbouring countries,with the exception that transparency outside of Iceland is a more meaningful part of the stewardship process.
Journal: Tímarit um viðskipti og efnahagsmál (Icelandic Journal of Business and Economics)
Published: 2019
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Olaf Sigurjonsson
The Decreased Popularity of the Teaching Sector in the 1970s Abstract: In the 1970s, the proportion of male college freshmen who planned to become teachers dropped from 15% to 3%, and that of female freshman from 45% to 12%. In this paper, I use nationally representative survey data on the career plans of college freshmen to look at the roles played by increased access to fertility controls and the unionization of the teaching sector, in the decline in the popularity of the teaching sector during this period. I find that the overall impact of these factors on men was small and insignificant, whereas early legal access to contraceptives increased women's likelihood of planning to become teachers. Looking at the actual career outcomes of the same cohorts in the census data, I find that access to the pill had a negative impact on the share of men in teaching and positive impact on the share of women. I use information on high school grades and college selectivity in the freshmen surveys to separate students by academic ability in the analysis. I find that unionization had a negative impact on plans to become teachers among high-ability men and low-ability women. Increased access to the pill had a negative impact on the share of low-ability men who planned to teach and a positive impact on the share among low- and medium-ability women.
Journal: Economics of Education Review
Published: January 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Herdis Steingrimsdottir
The Contingent Role of Interproject Connectedness in Cultivating Open Source Software Projects Abstract: The quest for having a good understanding of the key to successful open-source software (OSS) development continues to motivate research. Aligned with works that build on the notion that an OSS development is tightly interrelated with its social environment (i.e., the OSS community), this research examines the relationship between interproject structure and OSS project success. We conceive OSS project success to be reflected in two forms, namely popularity (i.e. market success) and knowledge creation (i.e. technical success). We surveyed the OSS literature and theorized a contingent role of interproject connectedness in cultivating OSS projects. We posit (1) OSS project with more structural holes achieves higher popularity; (2) OSS project with fewer structural holes yields higher knowledge creation; and (3) these two relationships are enhanced with an increase in project maturity. Using a dataset longitudinally collected from SourceForge.net, we found that OSS projects with sparse connectedness to be more popular, which was prominent for those OSS projects at the mid-mature stage. Cohesive connectedness helped the OSS project, irrespective of its maturity, achieves higher knowledge creation. Findings from the study can provide a structural purview to identify OSS projects that are more likely to be successful.
Journal: The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Published: February 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Qiqi Jiang
Power and Politics in Plastics Research: A Critique of ‘Whither Plastics? Petrochemicals, Plastics and Sustainability in a Garbage-riddled World Abstract: The article ‘Whither Plastics? - Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’ discusses a number of recent issues around plastics, including plastics’ dependence on fossil fuels, its contribution to ocean waste, and its possible impact on human health [M. Jefferson, “Whither plastics? - Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world,” Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 56 (2019)]. Despite these multiple ways in which plastics are framed as (potentially) problematic, the author is clear in his recommendations: the most important form of action is behavioural change. While we strongly welcome social science research into plastics, we have several issues with the study in question which we deem significant enough for us to write this response. At the heart of our concern is the paper's handling of extant research. There are three aspects to our critique: (1) conflations and misrepresentations of the data presented; (2) disregard of academic social science research on plastics; and (3) the resultant promotion of over-simplistic solutions to a complex set of problems.
Journal:Energy Research &Social Science
Published: March 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Jacob Hasselbalch
Time Reliability of the Maritime Transportation Network for China’s Crude Oil Imports Abstract: To evaluate the transportation time reliability of the maritime transportation network for China’s crude oil imports under node capacity variations resulting from extreme events, a framework incorporating bi-level programming and a Monte Carlo simulation is proposed in this paper. Under this framework, the imported crude oil volume from each source country is considered to be a decision variable, and may change in correspondence to node capacity variations. The evaluation results illustrate that when strait or canal nodes were subject to capacity variations, the network transportation time reliability was relatively low. Conversely, the transportation time reliability was relatively high when port nodes were under capacity variations. In addition, the Taiwan Strait, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Strait of Malacca were identified as vulnerable nodes according to the transportation time reliability results. These results can assist government decision-makers and tanker company strategic planners to better plan crude oil import and transportation strategies.
Journal: Sustainability
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Liping Jiang
Subjective Well‐Being and Peaceful Uprisings Abstract: This study analyzes whether subjective well-being measures can explain variation in peaceful uprisings, in addition to the objective measures typically used in analyses of uprisings. Using a database combining data on uprisings and subjective well-being for 118 countries over the period 2007 to 2014, we find evidence of a positive effect of life dissatisfaction on the incidence of peaceful uprising, but not its violent counterpart. This effect does not depend on the type of political regime, nor the stage of development and reflects, to a large extent, changes to perceived satisfaction with living standards and the ability to have a purposeful and meaningful life.
Journal: Kyklos
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Caroline T. Witte
Second Use Value of China’s New Energy Vehicle Battery: A View Based on Multi-Scenario Simulation Abstract: Nowadays, many countries are actively seeking ways to solve the energy crisis and environmental pollution. New Energy Vehicle (NEV) has become an important way to solve these problems. With the rapid development of NEV, its batteries need to be replaced with new batteries after 5–8 years. Therefore, whether the second use of NEV’s battery has commercial or social value becomes a research hotspot. The innovation of this paper is to use the cost-benefit method to determine the value influencing factors of NEV’s battery second use, and use system dynamics to perform scenario simulation analysis. The methods used in this paper are the cost-benefit method and system dynamics method. Firstly, this paper systematically analyzes the cost and benefit factors that affect the second use value of China’s NEV batteries and uses system dynamics to establish the relationship and value model among various factors. Then, this paper compares the value of battery energy storage between old batteries and new batteries. According to the cost-income factor analysis, this paper eventually selects specific factors and uses VENSIM software to carry out the multi-scenario simulation. The results show that NEV’s battery second use has commercial and social value compared to new battery energy storage. Moreover, battery cost, government subsidies, and electricity prices are three important factors that affect the second use value of China’s NEV battery. Changing the government’s cash subsidy methods, such as providing free batteries or combining new energy to reduce on-grid tariffs, will help increase the second use value of the NEV battery. In the future, the second use value of China’s NEV battery industry will be more significant, with the update of the technology, the surge in the number of NEV’s used batteries, and government support.
Journal: Sustainability
Published: 2020
Read more
Contact CBS researcher: Ari Kokko
The page was last edited by: Communications // 03/11/2020