Dongling Huang, Dmitri G. Markovitch and Yuanping Ying
This paper aims to identify the effects of social learning and network externalities by conditioning on product quality and early sales momentum. This approach is demonstrated…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the effects of social learning and network externalities by conditioning on product quality and early sales momentum. This approach is demonstrated using film sales data.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used econometric modeling approach.
Findings
It was found that both social learning and network externalities have significant and comparable impacts on film choice. We show that the relative effects of network externalities and social learning in the film market are robust to different momentum and quality definitions and to alternative estimation methods.
Originality/value
Scholars have long argued that social learning plays a key role in new product diffusion. In some product categories, consumer choice may also be influenced by network externalities, meaning that purchasing popular products may provide the consumer utility above and beyond that derived from product usage directly. We propose a novel identification approach to help quantify the relative magnitude of these two effects on new product sales.
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Judy Ma, Dongling Huang, Dmitri G. Markovitch and Brian Ratchford
This paper aims to investigate the moderating impacts of seasonality on the effectiveness of new product commercialization strategies in short-lifecycle markets. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the moderating impacts of seasonality on the effectiveness of new product commercialization strategies in short-lifecycle markets. The authors contextualize their theory in the vast and culturally significant entertainment industry sector and contrast the effects between independent films and big budget movies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses an econometric modeling approach.
Findings
This study finds that unlike new films by well-resourced studios, which must launch in a high season for best performance, independents can generate more revenue in low seasons under certain conditions. The study shows how seasonality moderates the effectiveness of new films’ commercialization strategies and how new product outcomes are different for small independent products than for big-budget productions with regards to distribution duration, advertising expenditure and product characteristics.
Research limitations/implications
This research extends the literature on launch timing, which examines various strategic tradeoffs. In contrast with the few extant studies whose concern is sensitizing to the effects of seasonality (Siqueiraet al., 2016), this research treats seasonality as an exploitable opportunity that can be strategically factored into business planning for small producers. Accordingly, this is the first study to theoretically and empirically investigate the moderating relationship between seasonality, marketing decisions, product characteristics and performance.
Practical implications
To achieve useful specificity, the study constructs its discussion around the highly seasonal entertainment industry sector. The study shows that seasonality moderates the effectiveness of new films’ commercialization decisions and that the strategic outcomes are different for small independent products than for major studio productions in particular.
Originality/value
In contrast with extant research whose concern is sensitizing to the effects of seasonality, our research treats seasonality as an exploitable opportunity that can be strategically factored into business planning. Accordingly, ours is the first study to theoretically and empirically investigate the moderating relationship between seasonality, marketing decisions, product characteristics and performance.
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Dmitri G. Markovitch, Dongling Huang, Lois Peters, B.V. Phani, Deepu Philip and William Tracy
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate commitment escalation tendencies and magnitude in groups of entrepreneurship-minded decision makers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate commitment escalation tendencies and magnitude in groups of entrepreneurship-minded decision makers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a software-based management simulation to expose 447 graduate business students in the USA and India to research stimuli under conditions that resemble important aspects of entrepreneurs’ business environment, such as a focus on overall firm performance. Unlike most previous escalation research that studied individuals, the primary unit of analysis is a three-person group.
Findings
The paper demonstrates a positive relationship between the groups’ entrepreneurial intentions and escalation magnitude. The paper also finds a direct relationship between sunk costs and subsequent investment amounts, suggesting an additional route through which sunk costs may impact escalation behavior – anchoring and insufficient adjustment.
Practical implications
The authors hope that the findings will stimulate further research on commitment escalation modalities and mechanisms among entrepreneurship-minded decision makers and provide impetus for efforts to develop effective debiasing strategies.
Originality/value
The study addresses a long-standing gap in entrepreneurship research, by demonstrating a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and escalation behaviors. Also noteworthy, the results are generated using a different research method (simulation) than the experimental approach used in most extant escalation research. As such, the exploration provides important triangulating evidence that is currently lacking from the rich escalation literature.
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Fujing Xue, Longzhu Dong, Baojun Gao, Zhen Yu and Vasyl Taras
This study aims to investigate the determinants of herd behavior in online hotel service evaluations, focusing on the cultural and geographic distance characteristics of customers.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the determinants of herd behavior in online hotel service evaluations, focusing on the cultural and geographic distance characteristics of customers.
Design/methodology/approach
On the basis of 381,462 TripAdvisor reviews of hotels in the USA written by more than 100,000 customers from 92 countries, this study uses the empirical analysis to explore the collective roles of cultural distance, geographic distance and hospitality experience on herd behavior in online hotel ratings.
Findings
Cultural and geographic distances between customers and product and service locations positively affect herding and these two effects are substitutable. The hospitality experience of customers attenuates the impacts of distances on herding. These results are robust for multiple hotel service ratings.
Practical implications
Findings help hotels understand perceptual biases of customers on hotel services under the social influence and consequently develop effective marketing strategies to boost hotel revenues and increase profitability.
Originality/value
The research contributes to hospitality and online review literature by understanding how cultural and geographic distances shape online hotel service evaluations under the root of the uncertainty of decision-making and the observation of others’ behavior. The research also contributes to the distances in international business literature by deepening the understanding of the substitution and heterogeneity of distance effects. Methodologically, a time-varying and monotonously increasing variable is constructed to depict customers’ hospitality experience. The extensive data volume ensures the generalizability of our results.
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Dongling Cai, Leonard Fengsheng Wang and Xiaokai Wu
The purpose of this study is to investigate the interplay between economic governance and privatization, and how these two instruments affect the entry mode choice of the foreign…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the interplay between economic governance and privatization, and how these two instruments affect the entry mode choice of the foreign firm and the social welfare of the host country.
Design/methodology/approach
This study constructs a mixed duopoly model wherein one domestic public firm competes with a foreign firm and investigates the influence of economic governance investment on the domestic government’s optimal degree of privatization choice and the foreign firm’s entry mode choice.
Findings
This study shows that (1) better economic governance enhances the effect of privatization on output, thus resulting in a lower degree of privatization; (2) the optimal privatization policy of the domestic government is partial privatization irrespective of the foreign firm’s entry mode choice; (3) with optimal investment by the domestic government on economic governance, the optimal degree of privatization is higher under FDI than export, and the host-country welfare is also higher under FDI. In particular, this study demonstrates that better economic governance decreases the threshold of the degree of privatization when the foreign firm switches from export to FDI, implying that better economic governance stimulates the foreign firm to undertake FDI in the host country.
Practical implications
The findings shed some light on both the mixed ownership reform of the SOEs in China and attracting foreign capital inflow to improve the host country’s social welfare.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study constitutes the first attempt to build a theoretical framework to explore how the interactions between economic governance and privatization influence the entry mode choice of the foreign firm.
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Heping He, Yanni Liu and Zhimin Zhou
With the rapid development of social media in the past few years, some dark aspects of usage have appeared, e.g., Weibo addiction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rapid development of social media in the past few years, some dark aspects of usage have appeared, e.g., Weibo addiction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to address the question of how Weibo keeps users hooked.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilizes the netnography method to explore the symptoms of Weibo addiction and how it is formed.
Findings
First, some Weibo users have typical symptoms of addictive behavior, such as withdrawal, loss of control and general living problems; second, narcissism plays an important role in the process of Weibo addiction and has a stronger effect on content generation than content consumption; third, some users use Weibo as a means to alleviate anxiety, but they can then become more anxious owing to addiction; and fourth, the effect of comments has two sides – on the one hand, comments are one kind of feedback to posts, satisfying posters’ social needs, while on the other hand, a storytelling system consists of one post and its comments, upon which some Weibo users become more dependent.
Research limitations/implications
This research is only a preliminary, exploratory study. Therefore, care should be taken when interpreting these findings.
Practical implications
This study should help social media service providers and users to pay attention to the risk of social media addiction. Social media service providers should take social responsibility, design more user-oriented guidelines for marketing ethics and launch more responsible marketing activities. Users should enhance self-control and better balance social media use and offline real life.
Originality/value
Netnography has not been widely used as an addictive behavior research technique. This study is further bolstered because it has also noticed the difference of addiction mechanisms between addictive micro-bloggers and their followers.
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Binyue Kang, Qiuyu Shao, Hengkang Xu, Fengyan Jiang, Xiaoting Wei and Xinqing Shao
Grassland in Qinghai as the main type of ecosystem in this region is located in arid and semi-arid areas. The ecosystem is fragile and sensitive to climate change. Grassland…
Abstract
Purpose
Grassland in Qinghai as the main type of ecosystem in this region is located in arid and semi-arid areas. The ecosystem is fragile and sensitive to climate change. Grassland ecosystem not only provides essential ecological and life functions for human society but also plays a vital role in mitigating and adapting to climate change. The empirical literature on grassland ecosystem services value (ESV) does not consider the impact of climate change and regional economic development level factors, which prevents policymakers from making appropriate decisions. This paper aims to analyze the influencing factors of grassland ESV assessment, and, based on the meta-prediction model, account the grassland ESV in Qinghai province.
Design/methodology/approach
To understand the value of grassland ecosystem services in China under climate change, this paper used 61 research literature on the evaluation of grassland ESV in China, including a total of 564 value observations to establish a value transfer database. Based on the meta-analysis method, this study has constructed a value transfer model, to evaluate the grassland ESV in Qinghai province, and an interpretation model, which can analyze if the independent variables affect the grassland ESV significantly.
Findings
The study finds that the evaluation methods, types of ecosystem service functions, climate change and grassland types can affect the grassland ESV significantly. Based on the meta-regression prediction model to evaluate the grassland ESV in Qinghai is US$1,542.67/ha/year. It indicates several targeted approaches to increase the grassland ESV, and climate change also has a specific impact on the value of grassland ecosystem services.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a scientific basis for grassland management related to the development of grasslands and ecological compensation, as well as promote the sustainable development of grassland ecosystems.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the field of grassland ESV assessment in at least three aspects; first, it innovatively introduces the meta-analysis to carry out an integrated analysis of previous research results; second, it includes a broader set of influence variables in the analysis, including meteorological and economic factors; and third, it establishes a methodological basis for the field of grassland ESV accounting.
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Ernesto Tavoletti, Eric David Cohen, Longzhu Dong and Vas Taras
The purpose of this study is to test whether equity theory (ET) – which posits that individuals compare their outcome/input ratio to the ratio of a “comparison other” and classify…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to test whether equity theory (ET) – which posits that individuals compare their outcome/input ratio to the ratio of a “comparison other” and classify individuals as Benevolent, Equity Sensity, and Entitled – applies to the modern workplace of global virtual teams (GVT), where work is mostly intellectual, geographically dispersed and online, making individual effort nearly impossible to observe directly.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 1,343 GVTs comprised 6,347 individuals from 137 countries, this study tests three ET’s predictions in the GVT context: a negative, linear relationship between Benevolents’ perceptions of equity and job satisfaction in GVTs; an inverted U-shaped relationship between Equity Sensitives’ perceptions of equity and job satisfaction in GVTs; and a positive, linear relationship between Entitleds’ perceptions of equity and job satisfaction in GVTs.
Findings
Although the second prediction of ET is supported, the first and third have statistically significant opposite signs.
Practical implications
The research has important ramifications for management studies in explaining differences in organizational behavior in GVTs as opposed to traditional work settings.
Originality/value
The authors conclude that the main novelty with ET in GVTs is that GVTs are an environment stingy with satisfaction for “takers” (Entitleds) and generous in satisfaction for “givers” (Benevolents).
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Bilal Afsar, Yuosre F. Badir and Bilal Bin Saeed
The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating role of self-construal (independent and interdependent) on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating role of self-construal (independent and interdependent) on the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ innovative work behavior (IWB).
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 639 followers and 87 leaders filled out questionnaires from cross-industry sample of five most innovative companies of China. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relations.
Findings
Results revealed that psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and IWB. The research established that transformational leadership positively influences IWB which includes idea generation as well as idea implementation. The results also showed that the relationship between transformational leadership and IWB was stronger among employees with a higher interdependent self-construal and a lower independent self-construal.
Originality/value
This study adds to IWB literature by empirically testing the moderating role of self-construal and the mediating role of psychological empowerment on transformational leadership-IWB link.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to determine optimal investing stopping time in a stochastic environment, such as with stochastic returns, stochastic interest rate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to determine optimal investing stopping time in a stochastic environment, such as with stochastic returns, stochastic interest rate and stochastic expected growth rate.
Design/methodology/approach
Transformation method was used for solving optimal stopping problem by providing a way to transform path‐dependent problem into a path‐independent one. Based on option pricing theory, optimal investing stopping time was thought of as an optimal executed timing problem of American‐style option.
Findings
First, the authors transform a path‐dependent stop timing problem to a path‐independent one with transformation under very general conditions, to directly use the existing conclusion of optimal stopping time literature. Second, when dynamics of capital growth is homogeneous, the authors changed the two dimensional optimal stop timing problem into a single dimension problem based on the assumption of zero exercise costs. Third, the authors investigated the comparative dynamics about asset selling boundary on asset value, state variable and return predictability. With constant discount rate and growth rate, the optimal selling timing depends on the simple comparison between capital cost and growth rate.
Originality/value
The paper's contributions to analysis method may be as follows. The authors demonstrate how to transform a path‐dependent stopping problem into a path‐independent one under general conditions. The transform method in this article can be applied to other path‐dependent optimal stopping problems. In particular, a Riccati ordinary differential equation for the transformation is set up. In most examples commonly met in finance, the equation can be solved explicitly.