Vienna University of Economics and Business
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What is in a price? Evidence on quality signaling for experience goods
Get PDFWe study the effect of quality disclosure on prices using quality tests released by the main consumer protection agency in Germany. Both durable and non-durable consumer products are covered, representing about 5 percent of weighted expenditures for all products in the German CPI. Cross-section results of the price-quality relation before quality disclosure show that higher prices are positively correlated with higher quality for durable goods, and negatively correlated for non-durable goods; both results are in line with theoretical models of price signaling. In the dynamic analysis, we employ a RD-type approach around publication of the quality evaluation for identification. Results show a positive effect of quality disclosure on prices for high quality durable products and a negative effect for low quality products suggesting that the information improves matching. Opposite results hold for non-durable products. Survival estimates show that products of low quality leave the market earlier.Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie
Control In Agile IS Development Projects: Looking Beyond Agency Theory
Get PDFInformation systems development (ISD) project control has been traditionally seen as a tool against agency concerns, i.e. to align the interests of project participants with the organization’s interests. However, this perspective barely fits into the agile worldview. Agile methods, that became popular choices for ISD projects, shifted away from the commander role of project leaders, and propagate the importance of collaboration and facilitation. Therefore, it became ambiguous why project managers of agile ISD projects engage in control activities. This qualitative study employs the “Gioia method” to investigate managerial reasons for these exercises and draws attention to the range of problems and needs these procedures can address. The analysis found that control mechanisms are enacted not only due to agency concerns, but also to enhance cooperation and communication, to signal to senior management and to become isomorphic with other projects
When do threats mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability? An Environmental Belief Model
Get PDFIn pursuit of counteracting today's environmental problems, corporate management will have to implement organizational changes factoring in sustainability, which is why it is important to understand exactly what leads managers to initiate these changes. It has been established that managers' personal values are critical for their behavior and that threats to these values can mobilize managers to change their actions. However, when confronted with environment-related threats, managers may face value conflicts and various tensions between their aim to implement sustainable changes and their desire to fulfill business requirements of their job positions. Only recently have researchers begun to investigate the underlying beliefs that may leadmanagers to initiate organizational change toward sustainability. Borrowing theoretical assumptions from the domain of health psychology (from the well-established health belief model), the present conceptual article develops an environmental belief model that specifies when exactly threats lead managers to initiate organizational change. The environmental belief model proposes that environment-related threats trigger change (i) when managers believe that their firms are susceptible to these threats, (ii) the threats are considered as serious for the company, (iii) the perceived benefits of the change outperform (iv) the perceived barriers, and when there is(v) an external cue (e.g., an information campaign). All these propositions are supported with empirical findings from business contexts. Besides theoretical advancement on the role of environmental threats as precipitators of organizational change, the model provides guidance on how to frame environment-related threats that will mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability
Implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards in Europe. Variations on a Global Theme
Get PDFAs part of introducing accrual accounting in the public sector, many governments have–voluntarily–implemented the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for financial reporting. Amongst other claimed benefits, IPSAS have been argued to facilitate comparison of adopters’ financial reports and to lead to favourable conditions on credit markets. However, governments that are confronted with the implementation decision face a trade-off between unaltered adoption, partial adoption, adaptation and non-adoption of standards. Drawing on insights from the literature on standardization and practice variation, this paper analyses the reasons, expressed by various actors from nine European countries, for deviating from implementing unaltered IPSAS and proposes a taxonomy of these reasons. The results show that, first, substantial deviations exist, and second, there is aplethora of reasons for them. These deviations are presented and then structured in the further course of the paper. As aconsequence of deviations, achieving comparability as the central aim of standardization runs the risk of being undermined
Evolutionary Political Economy: Content and Methods
No full textIn this paper we present the major theoretical and methodological pillars of evolutionary political economy. We proceed in four steps. Aesthetics: In chapter 1 the immediate appeal of evolutionary political economy as a specific scientific activity is described. Content: Chapter 2 explores the object of investigation of evolutionary political economy. Power: The third chapter develops the interplay between politics and economics. Methods: Chapter 4 focuses on the evolution of methods necessary for evolutionary political economy
The carrot or the stick: Self-regulation for gender-diverse boards via codes of good governance
Get PDFScholars have emphasized the potential of self-regulation, realized through "codes of good governance", to improve gender diversity on boards. Yet, unconvinced of the effectiveness of this self-regulation, many regulators have implemented mandatory quota laws. Our study sheds light on this dilemma. Seeking to broaden our conceptual knowledge of how such "codes" work in the specific case of gender diversity on boards, we ask: Under which conditions is self-regulation via voluntary principles of good governance effective? Expanding recent institutional-theory perspectives from the literature of women on boards, we show that, in the case of Austria, self-regulation via code recommendations is ineffective unless supported by additional forces. The primary reason for this, we argue, is that nominators do not expect benefits from gender-diverse boards. Furthermore, non-compliant companies face little pressure to change due to the small number of companies that have already adopted respective code recommendations. We identify two potential alternatives to boost the effectiveness of voluntary self-regulation for gender diverse boards: First, the introduction of concrete targets for female representation and the public monitoring of fulfillment; and, second, the establishment of a credible threat that mandatory quotas will be imposed if diversity goals are not achieved. Drawing on longitudinal data from 2006-2016 on listed and state-owned companies in Austria, we give an empirical account of the conditions that assure effective self-regulation. Arguing that codes suffer from what we call "opportunity bias", we conclude that political goals (such as gender equality) based on ethical rather than instrumental considerations are unlikely to be effectively implemented solely by codes of good governance
The Antecedents, Consequences, and Mediating Role of Workload among Chinese Courier Drivers
Get PDFThe growth of e-commerce in China can be regarded as a significant factor in the increase in occupational stress and the voluntary turnover of courier drivers. This paper aims to investigate selected occupational stress factors behind the turnover intentions of Chinese courier drivers. Using data from 229 couriers employed at the largest delivery companies in China, this study applies structural equation modelling to investigate not only the direct relationships between job-stress factors and turnover intentions but also the extent to which workload indirectly mediates turnover intentions among couriers. The results indicate that a combination of high workload with social stressors leads to turnover intentions. In particular, it was found that workload completely mediated the relationship between both the independent variables and the intention to leave the industry, suggesting that when workloads are high, the net effect of negative work experiences with regard to verbal aggression and ambiguous customer expectations increases the likelihood of an intention to leave the industry. Although restricted to China, this is one of the first studies investigating the effects of courier drivers’ job stressors which highlights the importance of delivery companies working with staff to mitigate job stressors to reduce turnover intention
The Power of Brand Selfies
Get PDFSmartphones have made it nearly effortless to share images of branded experiences. This research classifies social media brand imagery and studies user response. Aside from packshots (standalone product images), two types of brand-related selfie images appear online: consumer selfies (featuring brands and consumers’ faces) and an emerging phenomenon the authors term “brand selfies” (invisible consumers holding a branded product). The authors use convolutional neural networks to identify these archetypes and train language models to infer social media response to more than a quarter-million brand-image posts (185 brands on Twitter and Instagram). They find that consumer-selfie images receive more sender engagement (i.e., likes and comments), whereas brand selfies result in more brand engagement, expressed by purchase intentions. These results cast doubt on whether conventional social media metrics are appropriate indicators of brand engagement. Results for display ads are consistent with this observation, with higher click-through rates for brand selfies than for consumer selfies. A controlled lab experiment suggests that self-reference is driving the differential response to selfie images. Collectively, these results demonstrate how (interpretable) machine learning helps extract marketing-relevant information from unstructured multimedia content and that selfie images are a matter of perspective in terms of actual brand engagement
Women’s economic rights in developing countries and the gender gap in migration to Germany
Get PDFThere is a large variation across countries of origin in the gender composition of migrants com-ing to Germany. We argue that women’s economic rights in developing countries of origin have three effects on their migration prospects to a place like Germany that is far away and difficult to reach. First, the lower are women’s economic rights the fewer women have access to and control over the resources needed to migrate to Germany. Second, the lower are the rights the lower is women’s agency to make or otherwise influence migration decisions. These two con-straining effects on the female share in migrant populations dominate the opposing third effect that stems from low levels of women’s economic rights generating a potentially powerful push factor. We find corroborating evidence in our analysis of the gender composition of migration to Germany over the period 2009–2017