Michal Ben-Ami, Jacob Hornik, Dov Eden and Oren Kaplan
This article aims to lend insight into the consumption situation wherein consumers are unmotivated to try new products or behaviors that they perceive as too difficult to adopt as…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to lend insight into the consumption situation wherein consumers are unmotivated to try new products or behaviors that they perceive as too difficult to adopt as a result of low self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments were introduced to test hypotheses. In Studies 1 and 2, we demonstrated that enhancing specific self-efficacy (SSE) by repositioning the self, through marketing messages, increased participants’ behavioral intentions toward difficult to adopt (DTA) products.
Findings
In this research, an important issue is elucidated in consumer behavior: a phenomenon wherein consumers lack the motivation, as a result of low self-efficacy (i.e. assessing the disparity between their current situation and some desired goals as too wide to bridge over), to try a product that would benefit them. Thus, the marketer’s role in this case is to convince the consumers that they are able to achieve these goals.
Research limitations/implications
This study focuses on health and fitness products and on the effectiveness of messages targeted at raising SSE among undergraduate students through verbal persuasion. For better generalizability, it is recommended that future research focus on other product categories (e.g. do-it-yourself products, technological products) aimed at other segments (e.g. elderly consumers) and use other means of boosting consumers’ self-efficacy.
Practical implications
The practical importance of the findings is especially relevant in DTA situations in which marketers aim to motivate consumers to engage in effortful consumption tasks.
Originality/value
The uniqueness of our approach is, in addition to introducing the theoretical concepts, to demonstrate that marketers can boost individuals’ self-efficacy by means of marketing messages that emphasize their ability to face challenges and, consequently, increase their preferences, behavioral intentions and financial commitments toward a DTA product.
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Raf Orens, Walter Aerts and Nadine Lybaert
This paper seeks to examine the association between a firm's extent and precision of customer value disclosure and its implied cost of equity capital. In addition, it aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the association between a firm's extent and precision of customer value disclosure and its implied cost of equity capital. In addition, it aims to investigate whether industry competition intensity attenuates this association.
Design/methodology/approach
The content of corporate websites from four continental European countries is analysed on the presence and precision of customer value information and empirically test whether content and precision are associated with the firm's implied cost of equity capital measurement.
Findings
The results show a negative association between cross‐sectional differences in the extent of customer value disclosure and cross‐sectional differences in a firm's cost of equity capital. In addition, the precision of the customer value information disclosed affects this association. It is observed that a negative relationship between quantitative (or hard) customer value disclosure and a firm's cost of equity capital, but not for qualitative (or soft) customer value disclosure. As expected, industry competition intensity attenuates the association between quantitative customer value disclosures and a firm's cost of equity capital.
Research limitations/implications
The paper considers web placement of customer value disclosure although a firm might disclose such information through other information channels as well.
Practical implications
A firm tends to benefit economically from more precise customer value disclosure.
Originality/value
The paper extends existing evidence by considering the capital market implications of disclosing customer value information. In addition, it examines whether industry competition affects the association between customer value disclosure and the firm's cost of equity capital.
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Giovanni Schiuma, Nicola Raimo, Stefano Bresciani, Alessandra Ricciardelli and Filippo Vitolla
Social media are emerging as the ideal channel for building one-to-many communication and disseminating intellectual capital (IC) information. Their rise is bringing out new…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media are emerging as the ideal channel for building one-to-many communication and disseminating intellectual capital (IC) information. Their rise is bringing out new research challenges to investigate the implications of their use. However, there needs to be more research contributions relating to the financial benefits of using social media for IC disclosure (ICD). This study aims to bridge this gap by analyzing, under the lens of signaling theory, the effect of ICD through Twitter on firm value.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a content analysis of tweets disseminated by 262 companies aimed at examining the amount of IC information disclosed and on a regression analysis aimed at analyzing the impact of this type of information on firm value.
Findings
Empirical results show that a large ICD via Twitter favors an increase in firm value. They also demonstrate that disclosing information relating to the three IC dimensions positively affects the firm value. These findings suggest that actively and comprehensively communicating IC information via Twitter can help improve the perception and evaluation of the company by investors and other stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
This study offers empirical evidence about the financial benefits associated with using social media as disclosure tools by companies. It also enriches the literature on the relationship between ICD and firm value and consolidates the goodness of the signaling theory as an ideal theoretical perspective to frame the relationship between IC information and firm value.
Practical implications
This study offers important managerial implications for firms and investors. In light of the significant financial benefits, firms should use social media to disclose IC information and should seek to increase their visibility on such platforms to convey the information to a greater number of users. Investors should also heed social media when gathering IC information, combining the analysis of these platforms with that of traditional corporate documents.
Originality/value
This study enriches the limited literature on ICD via social media and extends knowledge about the relationship between IC information and firm value. In this regard, the originality also lies in the individual analysis of the impact of the three IC dimensions on firm value.
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We compare the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients and the developmentally disabled in the United States and demonstrate that there were two path-dependent processes…
Abstract
Purpose
We compare the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients and the developmentally disabled in the United States and demonstrate that there were two path-dependent processes with significant qualitative and quantitative differences, ultimately leading to better outcomes for developmentally disabled individuals.
Design
Using secondary literature, we construct a sustained comparison of the two processes in terms of outcomes, timing, tempo, extent, funding, demographic composition, and investment in community services. We then reconstruct the strategies of de-stigmatization and framings of moral worth deployed in the two cases, analyzing their effects on deinstitutionalization in terms of conceptions of risk, rights, and care.
Findings
Deinstitutionalization began later for developmentally disabled individuals than for psychiatric patients, and was a more gradual, protracted process. It was not driven by fiscal conservatism, discharges, and the trans-institutionalization of the senile aged, as was deinstitutionalization for psychiatric patients, but primarily by the prevention of institutionalization of young children, and increased investment in infrastructure. Consequently, the deinstitutionalization of the developmentally disabled was far more thorough and successful. The process was shaped by the framing of the developmentally disabled as “forever children” by parents’ organizations that demanded a balance between autonomy, protection, and the provision of care. In contrast, the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients was shaped by their framing as autonomous citizens temporarily suffering from “mental health problems” that could be prevented, treated, and cured. This frame foregrounded the right to choose (and also refuse) treatment, while undervaluing the provision of care.
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Lei Dong, Y. Ken Wang and Kai Du
This study examines whether the source from which nonprofessional investors obtain corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure influences their investment-related judgments…
Abstract
This study examines whether the source from which nonprofessional investors obtain corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure influences their investment-related judgments and decisions and whether that influence depends on the company's financial performance. In an experiment, we find an asymmetrical effect of information source that varies with financial performance. In particular, information source affects investors' management credibility judgments when the firm announces unfavorable earnings result but not when the announced result is favorable. The mediation analysis reveals that investors' management credibility judgments mediate the joint effect of information source and financial performance on investors' investment decisions. Our findings highlight that the effectiveness of CSR communication can be complicated and that investors are sensitive to other factors that exist in the communication setting, such as the context in which CSR is disclosed (contextual factor) and information source of CSR disclosures (attributional factor).
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Raf Orens, Walter Aerts and Nadine Lybaert
The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the impact of web‐based intellectual capital (IC) reporting on firm's value and its cost of finance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the impact of web‐based intellectual capital (IC) reporting on firm's value and its cost of finance.
Design/methodology/approach
A content‐analysis of corporate web sites is conducted from four continental European countries (Belgium, France, Germany and The Netherlands) on the presence of IC information. Simultaneous regression modelling is used to control for endogeneity within a firm's disclosure strategy.
Findings
The data show that cross‐sectional differences in the extent of IC disclosure are positively associated with firm value. Greater IC disclosure in continental Europe is associated with lower information asymmetry, lower implied cost of equity capital and lower rate of interest paid.
Research limitations/implications
The study is restricted to an analysis of firm's benefits of increased web‐based disclosure without considering related costs.
Practical implications
The results of the study show that firms tend to benefit economically from better IC disclosure.
Originality/value
Existing evidence is extended by considering the capital market implications of IC related disclosure and web‐based related disclosure.
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Marie‐Josée Ledoux and Denis Cormier
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) on stock market assessment of intangibles and voluntary disclosure…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) on stock market assessment of intangibles and voluntary disclosure about innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop three regression models. The first model investigates the stock market valuation of intangible assets and disclosure about innovation. The second model desegregates earnings to assess the relevance of components related to intangibles. The third model investigates how intangible expenses and voluntary disclosure affect analysts forecast dispersion.
Findings
Results show that the value relevance of intangible assets and expenses improves with the adoption of IAS 38. Overall, results indicate a decrease in the value relevance of voluntary disclosure about innovation under IFRS. More specifically, results suggest some overlap in the information content of mandated and voluntary disclosure for stock market valuation of intangible assets under IFRS. Findings also suggest that voluntary disclosure moderates market's assessment of expensed intangibles under both Canadian GAAP and IFRS.
Research limitations/implications
IAS 38 requires entities to recognize an intangible asset if certain criteria are met and to disclose specific information about it. In such a context, market participants may refer to a greater extent to financial reporting and to a lesser extent to voluntary disclosure when valuating intangibles.
Practical implications
Managers will have an incentive to better target their communications to ensure a degree of complementarity with financial reporting. In this sense, this study contributes to the voluntary disclosure literature.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure about intangibles and evaluate the impact of IFRS on this matter.