Search results

Borrowers are usually presented with a menu of similar-looking options when selecting a loan plan. However, it remains unclear whether they are able to choose the most cost-effective plan. This study aims to investigate whether people select loan plans optimally, whether their choices are influenced by the informational cues provided to them and how their selections change with the provision of additional loan-related information.

The study uses a within-participant experimental design, where participants are presented with similar-looking loan plans but with different present discounted costs. Subjects are asked to rank those plans, with the minimum present discounted cost plan maximizing their experimental payoff. The loan plans across different rounds are presented with different informational cues to see whether that influences participants' ability to select the cost-minimizing loan plans.

The author finds that participants were 78% likely to state a suboptimal preference ordering and 68% likely to select a loan plan that does not minimize cost. There is suggestive evidence regarding the role of attribute substitution in the decision-making process, wherein participants substituted annual percentage rate (APR) and total cost attributes for the present discounted cost of a loan plan. Additionally, the author presents causal evidence demonstrating how providing additional information can influence the choice of the substituted attribute.

Research has indicated that individuals often make suboptimal financial decisions, particularly in complex decision contexts. Examples include selecting medical insurance, a retirement savings plan, a student loan or borrowing on a credit card. This paper demonstrates that similar biases are present when individuals borrow using a loan plan, wherein they tend to substitute the APR or total cost of the loan plan for the present discounted cost of the loan plan. Furthermore, the study reveals that the impact of providing more information to borrowers can vary, depending on the combination of loan plans being considered.

The study directs attention to the psychological conditions experienced and knowledge management practices leveraged by faculty in higher education institutes (HEIs) to cope with the shift to emergency remote teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By focusing attention on faculty experiences during this transition, this study aims to examine an under-investigated effect of the pandemic in the Indian context.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis is used to analyze the data gathered in two waves through 40 in-depth interviews with 20 faculty members based in India over a year. The data were analyzed deductively using Kahn’s framework of engagement and robust coding protocols.

Eight subthemes across three psychological conditions (meaningfulness, availability and safety) were developed to discourse faculty experiences and challenges with emergency remote teaching related to their learning, identity, leveraged resources and support received from their employing educational institutes. The findings also present the coping strategies and knowledge management-related practices that the faculty used to adjust to each discussed challenge.

The study uses a longitudinal design and phenomenology as the analytical method, which offers a significant methodological contribution to the extant literature. Further, the study’s use of Kahn’s model to examine the faculty members’ transitions to emergency remote teaching in India offers novel insights into the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on educational institutes in an under-investigated context.

Ethereum-based blockchain technology (EBT) affords members of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) a market advantage in deploying blockchain within their organizations, including cybersecurity and operational benefits, that leads firms to strategically invest in this nascent technology. However, the impact of such strategic investments in EBT has yet to be explored in the context of its relationship to firm value. Therefore, this study explores EBT-specific firm-level characteristics that result in a stock market reaction to announcements of strategic investments.

The authors use the event study methodology, strategic investment literature and signaling theory as contextualizing frameworks for their study. Additionally, the authors explore a new method for examining technology investments as a strategic counter to cybersecurity threats.

Firms that signal to the market their strong commitment to their strategic investment by developing an EBT proof of concept see significantly higher market returns. Firms that have had prior cybersecurity incidents are rewarded by the market for strategically investing in EBT, and when firms with large undistributed free cash flows utilize this cash for strategic EBT investment, the market is more likely to reward these firms, indicating the market views EBT investment positively in these circumstances.

The results of this study provide new evidence of the value impact of EBT for firms that suffered cybersecurity events in the past. The authors provide empirical evidence of firm-level characteristics that investors use to discern whether a strategic investment in EBT will drive organizational value. Likewise, the authors demonstrate how signaling affects investor perceptions of strategic information technology (IT) investments in EBT.