Search results

This paper examines the effect of fund manager replacement on investment performances of mutual funds. In managerial labor market of mutual fund industries with information asymmetry about the type and action of a fund manager, separating compensation may not be achievable due to imperfect evaluation of performances of fund managers. This paper extends contract theory to model the situations where a mutual fund offers pooling compensation contract to a fund manager based on his reputation. Under these environments, the fund manager has an economic incentive to acquire private benefit by manipulating performances and then to turn over to other mutual fund. Fund manager’s replacement is an aspect of adverse selection in the managerial labor market of fund industries. That is, a fund manager with low ability can select and manipulate unsuccessful investment portfolio generating loss to fund while he turns over to hide himself in the reputation under pooling contract mechanism. The empirical analysis of this paper provides the significant evidence that, differently from those of mutual funds of which managers stay in the same mutual funds, the fund performances drop after the fund managers turn over to other mutual funds. These empirical evidences support the theoretical prediction that the fund managers have incentive to manipulate short-term performances to maintain reputation for acquiring favorable compensation contracts.

The purpose of this study is to investigate user perceptions of mobile app characteristics and interrelationships among identified mobile app characteristics, perceived benefits and post-adoption behaviors.

Using a self-administered online survey (n = 503) drawn from a consumer panel of US smartphone users, this study tests the proposed model that explains why stickiness and word of mouth (WOM) are enhanced during the post-adoption stage.

The results indicate that user perceptions of mobile app characteristics, perceived ubiquity, perceived informativeness and perceived personalization are positively associated with mobile app usefulness, thereby leading to increased stickiness and positive WOM intentions. Furthermore, perceived personalization is found to become the strongest predictor of usefulness and playful engagement with the mobile app.

The findings are derived from a one-shot correlational study. There is no guarantee that the proposed model establishes causal directions among the latent constructs. Therefore, future research should test the conceptual model in an experimental setting by manipulating the degree and types of ubiquity, informativeness and personalization.

The findings of this research provide managerial guidelines for developing effective mobile app strategies involving utilitarian and hedonic benefits, thereby enhancing user stickiness and WOM intentions.

This paper is the first attempt to develop a conceptual framework that integrates user perceptions of mobile app characteristics into the underlying process of post-adoption behaviors. It empirically demonstrates the importance of ubiquity, informativeness and personalization in building and sustaining loyal relationships with mobile app users.

The purpose of the study is to examine whether and how different types of organizational culture are associated with job satisfaction and turnover intention among hospital nurses in Korea, where the work culture is often considered different from that of Western countries.

The sample for the study consists of 527 nurses working in two public hospitals in Korea. Perceived organizational culture was assessed by a previously validated 20‐item instrument, and job satisfaction and turnover intention were measured by self‐report questionnaires. Factor analysis was employed to construct four different types of culture (consensual, rational, developmental, and hierarchical). The relationship among organizational culture, job satisfaction, and turnover intention was tested by structural equation modeling (SEM).

Among the different types of culture, consensual culture and rational culture had significant, positive associations with the nurses' job satisfaction. In addition, consensual culture exhibited the strongest, negative association with the turnover intention of the nurses, while hierarchical culture showed a significant, positive association.

Consensual culture that emphasizes teamwork and values human relations was most strongly associated with higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intention of nurses in Korea. However, caution is needed in inferring that organizational culture is the cause of the nursing outcomes because this study is designed as a cross‐sectional study; thus, an association alone was proven and not causality.

Managers should be aware that understanding the organizational culture can help them to determine where to strive to help improve nurses' job satisfaction and retention rate.

The results of the study may be useful to health administrators who wish to decrease nurse turnover. Improving nurses' job satisfaction in the work environment may reduce turnover and help ensure a stable and qualified workforce.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans resolve an interpersonal conflict with their supervisors and how cultural factors explain the differences in conflict management styles.

A survey was conducted involving 275 employees from China, Japan and South Korea. A hierarchical regression analysis and A‐matrix hypothesis test were used to analyze the data.

Koreans, compared with the Chinese and Japanese, were more likely to use a compromise style. In addition, the Japanese, compared with the Chinese and Koreans, were less likely to dominate and were more likely to oblige their supervisors. The country differences in obliging and dominating styles were partially explained by goal emphasis (self vs collective) and concern for the self, respectively.

While limited to recalling specific incidents and self‐reported responses, there is evidence that East Asians differ from each other in resolving their interpersonal conflicts with supervisors. Future research needs to examine East Asian differences in resolving an interpersonal conflict with other targets such as peers and subordinates and using other kinds of conflict management styles such as mediation and arbitration.

This is one of few studies that have examined East Asian differences in conflict management styles.

The main streams of the supply chain are defined as material, information and financial flow. There have been many studies and practical cases regarding the flow of material and information including information sharing. However, financial flow related studies have not been widely examined relatively, compared with their importance.

The information sharing is recognized as the method that can reduce the Bullwhip effect in supply chain management. The author intends to analyze the impact of financial information sharing on the results of the supply chain.

In the point of supply chain risk management view, the author examined the impact of financial flow among the various factors that can impede the stability of the supply chain.

In this study, the author embodied the simulation regarding the impact of financial information flow on supply chain performance and stability based on the system dynamics methodology and analyzed the performance.

Assuming the supply chain, composed of supplying company, manufacturing company and sales company , the author embodied the simulation model and assumed that working capital and cash information sharing were achieved. The author embodied the model to affect the settlement conditions according to the results of financial information sharing.

Prosocial advertisers widely use assertive messages to encourage prosocial attitudes and behaviors, but ironically, assertive messages may cause reactance. By applying cultural theories and the reciprocity principle, this study aims to observe whether consumers’ responses to assertive messages hold across culturally different audiences (Americans vs South Koreans) and different consumption situations (price discount vs no discount).

American and Korean participants take part in three experimental studies examining the interactions of nationality, price discounts and assertive messaging for influencing consumer responses, first to a prosocial ad encouraging recycling (Study 1), the second for a campaign requesting donations for disadvantaged children (Study 2) and the third to prosocial messages encouraging water conservation (Study 3).

The three experiments strongly support the moderating role of price discounts and cultural backgrounds in the persuasiveness of assertive prosocial messages. American consumers generally dislike assertive messages, but feel reciprocal obligations if marketers include price discounts, whereas South Korean consumers accept both assertive and nonassertive messages without resistance, and discounts have no effects on persuasion.

The findings make two key contributions to the literature and to prosocial advertising practices. First, although many corporations have adopted philanthropic strategies, few researchers have examined how specific consumption contexts determine the effectiveness of prosocial persuasion. The findings show how price discounts and message framing potentially alter the effectiveness of prosocial messages across Eastern and Western cultures. Second, assertive language evokes reactance, but the findings suggest that reactive responses to prosocial advertising are culture-specific.

International nonprofit organizations and brands using philanthropic strategies might use the guidelines of this study for tailoring strategic, practical prosocial messages that will appeal to consumers from diverse cultural backgrounds. In particular, pro-environmental and charity campaigns targeting North American or Western European populations may consider bundling discounts into promotions to evoke reciprocity.

Findings provide novel implications for social marketers regarding on how to couple message assertiveness and price discounts to maximize the success of prosocial messages in different cultures.

The authors aim to examine how emojis interact with assertiveness in social media posts to encourage social media engagement and cooperation in environmental campaigns.

Two experiments were used to test three hypotheses.

Study 1 shows that when assertive Twitter messages include the smiley-face emoji, study participants indicate stronger social media engagement and behavioral intentions to recycle used jeans. In Study 2, participants indicate stronger social media engagement and behavioral intentions to sign a petition for reducing plastic pollution when (non) assertive Facebook messages (do not) include emojis.

The current research advances our understanding about how emojis interact with assertive and nonassertive message tonality in environmental social media campaigns. This research also provides new insights showing that positive emotion is the psychological mechanism underlying matching effects of emoji and message assertiveness.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to explore what kinds of social media content public libraries create to communicate with users online, and to examine the relationships between social media content types and corresponding levels of user engagement.

The sample comprises 4,637 Facebook posts collected from 151 public libraries across the USA. The authors identified ten types of Facebook posts based on the open coding, and calculated the degrees of user engagement for each type of Facebook post, represented by the numbers of likes, shares and comments. Also, The authors examined the effects of the inclusions of images or video clips on user engagement.

The authors observed that the most frequent type of post was related to announcing upcoming events held in libraries. This study also found that posts about community news or emotionally inspiring messages elicited much engagement from users. Posts having an image or images tend to receive more user engagement.

Based on the findings of this study, the authors discussed practical strategies for public libraries to effectively use social media to better facilitate user engagement.

This study is one of a few attempts that examine the relationships between the types of social media content and the degrees of user engagement in public library environments. Also, the authors have proposed a coding scheme useful to analyze social media content in the context of public libraries.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the framework of brand credibility effects is applicable to service categories and to examine if brand credibility's impact differs according to service type and involvement level.

Using a self‐administered survey (n=385), this study tests the proposed model, including six latent constructs: brand credibility, perceived quality, perceived risk, information costs saved, perceived value for money, and purchase intention.

The results indicate that brand credibility exerts a strong effect on purchase intention by increasing perceived quality, perceived value for money, and information costs saved, and by decreasing perceived risk across multiple service categories. The results also indicate that the magnitude of brand credibility's impact on purchase intention varies under different conditions with regard to utilitarian and hedonic services.

This study is based on student samples with a limited number of service categories. Future research is needed to examine the generalizability of the proposed model by using non‐student samples with different service classifications.

Establishing brand credibility seems to be especially effective in utilitarian services when marketing communication campaigns have the consistency of brand attributes that invoke either value for money or lower service brand‐related information efforts.

This study offers an initial attempt to explain how brand credibility influences its key outcomes under different service classes. Perceived value for money could be considered a new mediator of a causal relationship between brand credibility and purchase intention in service sectors.