Stephen F. Witt and Christine A. Martin
The objective of this study is to develop a set of econometric models for use in forecasting international tourist demand, as represented by the number of tourist visits, from the…
Abstract
The objective of this study is to develop a set of econometric models for use in forecasting international tourist demand, as represented by the number of tourist visits, from the F.R. Germany and the United Kingdom to their respective major destinations.
Ahmed Hassanein, Jamal Ali Al-Khasawneh and Hany Elzahar
Corporate managers spend on research and development (R&D) for reasons of growth and survival. However, they may be less willing to invest in R&D because of its long-term horizon…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate managers spend on research and development (R&D) for reasons of growth and survival. However, they may be less willing to invest in R&D because of its long-term horizon, high failure rate and uncertain outcomes. This study aims to explore the extent to which managerial ownership influences R&D expenditure decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Apart from the linear regression models, this study uses a semi-parametric quantile regression analysis for a sample of German non-financial firms throughout 2009–2018.
Findings
This study finds a nonmonotonic sensitivity of R&D spending to the level of managerial ownership over various quantiles of R&D distribution. That is, managerial ownership increases the expenditure on R&D at low R&D intensity firms. However, it decreases the expenditure on R&D at high R&D intensity firms. These results suggest the presence of a maximum level of R&D expenditure, after which owner-managers would be unwilling to spend on R&D.
Practical implications
The results confirm the importance of corporate ownership structure for firm R&D and innovation activities. It provides an implication for corporate policymakers to reform the corporate ownership structures to encourage corporate managers and owners to invest in R&D projects.
Originality/value
This study offers two distinct contributions study. First, it provides the first German shred of evidence on the nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and R&D expenditure decisions by distinguishing between high and low R&D intensity firms. Second, unlike prior research, it uses a semi-parametric quantile regression analysis. This method is more efficient than least-squares estimators and produces robust estimators to heteroscedasticity of the residuals.
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Abobaker Al.Al. Hadood and Farid Irani
This paper considers the role of economic sentiment and economic policy uncertainty (both domestic and European) in explaining the changes in the contemporaneous and future travel…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper considers the role of economic sentiment and economic policy uncertainty (both domestic and European) in explaining the changes in the contemporaneous and future travel and leisure stock index returns in top European Union (EU) tourism destinations, namely, in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted the ordinary least square (OLS) regression estimations to investigate the impact of changes in economic sentiment and economic policy uncertainty on travel and leisure stock returns. Furthermore, the authors used predictive regressions to determine whether economic sentiment and economic policy uncertainty are useful predictors over the short- or medium-term for travel and leisure stock returns.
Findings
Empirical results revealed that, in France and Spain, the changes in regional economic sentiments predominantly and positively affected travel and leisure stock index returns. Also, results indicated that changes in European economic sentiment have a strong positive effect on the future travel and leisure stock returns in Spain and the UK over the short run, while in France, changes in European economic policy uncertainty have a weak negative effect on the future travel and leisure stock returns over the medium-term.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides valuable practical implications for investors who trade travel and leisure stocks. Traders can use economic sentiment and economic policy uncertainty to establish arbitrageur strategies.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine the effects of economic sentiment and economic policy uncertainty (both domestic and European) on contemporaneous and future travel and leisure stock returns in a top European tourism destination.
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Testing a total of five hypotheses, the paper contributes to overall comparison of the two regimes, as it scrutinises whether these improvements have helped regulate this sector…
Abstract
Purpose
Testing a total of five hypotheses, the paper contributes to overall comparison of the two regimes, as it scrutinises whether these improvements have helped regulate this sector. Although it appears that, for the first time, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) had a more timely effect than US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), multiple parameters must be taken into consideration. The banking system has additional rules that may affect financial statements, such as the Basel Accord which sets many policies closely related to the IFRS, such as deferred tax credits. In this way, this paper aim to enrich the results of these decisions, and illuminate aspects of amendments to IFRS and US GAAP in light of the crisis. Focussing on the financial sector, the author sought to critically evaluate their reactions, and to question some of their fundamental rules in practice. This is vital for accounting researchers and analysts, allowing for the first time to compare IFRS performance between Europe and the US, and make better investment evaluations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sought to detect whether IFRS and US GAAP protected firms from abnormal sales arising from the outbreak of the crisis, whether the reclassification option under IFRS was an answer to the crisis, and whether IFRS and US GAAP succeeded in regulating shadow banking through their amendments. Therefore, it processes five hypotheses. In order to detect the effects of the crisis on accounting regimes, the analysis focused only on companies from the financial sector composed of the banking industry, insurance companies and shadow banking. The author included firms from Australia, Germany, Greece, the UK and the US, and collected information on 679 financial institutions for the period 2009–2013. The author settled on these time frames because the author aimed to capture IFRS performance surrounding the crisis effects in 2008 and the amendments that followed. In this way, the author applied quantitative methods using only numerical data over a given period.
Findings
The results suggest that the reclassification option was successful, helping firms to perform better amid the crisis, indicating that the manipulation of the crisis was appropriate. It seems therefore that US GAAP should have activated this option for US firms. However, the US may not have hurried to act because its banking sector seemed to recover more quickly than in Australia and Europe. Either way, both regimes need to consider speculative market cases that might have appeared during the crisis, as the author have detected cases of abnormal returns. Finally, concerning regulation of the shadow banking sector, the results seem to be encouraging only with regard to the latest improvements and only for all countries examined.
Originality/value
The project contributes to debate on the reactions of both IFRS and US GAAP during and after the economic crisis. For this, it addresses several questions to investigate the performance of the financial sector under both regimes, identifying possible additional effects and considerations. More specifically, it answers if the fair value orientation actually contributes to the financial crisis through contagion effects, while it addresses additional questions. Have these two global accounting regimes succeeded in overcoming the consequences of the crisis? Have amendments and the introduction of new standards to IFRS and US GAAP achieved regulation of shadow banking? Which of the two has performed better? As aforementioned, the analysis focused only on companies from the financial sector composed of the banking industry, insurance companies and shadow banking firms from Australia, Germany, Greece, the UK and the US, for the period 2009–2013.
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This chapter shows how different recycling locations influence closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) cost and carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), as well as reveal competitive recycling…
Abstract
This chapter shows how different recycling locations influence closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) cost and carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), as well as reveal competitive recycling and manufacturing locations, including relevant distance- and location-related factors, for achieving very low cost and CO2e CLSCs supporting circular economy. Exploratory data analysis is used to analyze results from simulations based on empirical data and market rates relating to textile and clothing CLSCs. The results show that most very low-cost and CO2e CLSCs consist of fabric and garment manufacturing located at the same or nearby locations, and whose labor costs and electricity CO2e are low, whether fiber recycling facilities are located in proximity to used garment sorting facilities or not. Scenario and sensitivity analyses of important cost and CO2e factors for recycling location competitiveness reveal that increasing used garment prices makes locations with high import duties lose competitiveness, and that varying water freight CO2e changes comparative location competitiveness.
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John Thøgersen and Susanne Pedersen
Filling a gap in extant research regarding the measurement of an export country's environmental image and investigating its importance for consumers' evaluation of an…
Abstract
Purpose
Filling a gap in extant research regarding the measurement of an export country's environmental image and investigating its importance for consumers' evaluation of an environmentally differentiated imported product.
Design/methodology/approach
Online surveys carried out in Denmark (Study 1), Germany and France (Study 2; N˜500 from each country). In Study 1, we develop an environmental country image instrument and investigate its nomological validity vis-à-vis other country image constructs and Danish consumers' evaluation of organic milk from Germany. In Study 2, we validate the instrument with consumers from Germany and France, evaluating organic milk from Denmark.
Findings
Consumers differentiate between a country's environmental image and its general and production-related images. The country's environmental image is important to consumers' evaluation of an environmentally differentiated product from the country. Specifically, we find that a country's environmental image strongly influences its product-specific images and, through these, the consumer's evaluation of an organic food product from the country.
Practical implications
Consumers' use of a country's environmental image as a cue to the credibility of environmental claims gives competitive advantages to exporters from countries with a favorable environmental image, while exporters from countries with an unfavorable environmental image need measures to compensate. Companies and countries should monitor how the environmental image of their country evolves in important markets and be ready to act when facing damages to their country's environmental image.
Originality/value
This article is the first to propose a measure of environmental country image and to document that consumers use the environmental image of an exporting country to assess environmental claims on imported products.
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Mbaye Fall Diallo, Christine Lambey, Vuesal Hasanzade and Victoria-Sophie Osburg
The aim of this research is to investigate the positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on loyalty to retailers through trust dimensions (competence, benevolence…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to investigate the positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on loyalty to retailers through trust dimensions (competence, benevolence and integrity) taking into account socio-cultural factors (social norms and collectivism) across nations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors carried out three quantitative studies (N = 948) in three countries (France, Germany and the United Kingdom [UK]). They then used structural equation modelling to test the model and hypotheses.
Findings
The results show contingent positive effects of CSR perception on customer loyalty. They underscore indirect effects of CSR on loyalty through the mediation of specific dimensions of trust (competence, benevolence and integrity). The authors also identify significant moderations such that the effects of social norms on CSR and loyalty are stronger in France/Germany than in the UK. The effects of collectivism on CSR and loyalty are stronger in France than in Germany and the UK.
Practical implications
Retailers can rely on CSR and trust to increase loyalty directly. When communicating CSR activities, retailers have to account for cultural differences in their main markets and adopt adjusted strategies to convince consumers about their CSR efforts. Retailers should understand the social norms of their customers in order to determine the effectiveness of disclosing CSR initiatives.
Originality/value
Using a cross-cultural perspective, this article extends and enriches knowledge on the relationship between CSR, social norms and loyalty in retailing in different cultural settings. It also underscores the role of trust in building loyalty across nations.
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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the integration of intelligences plays a great role in changing the organisational and national culture and, in consequence, in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the integration of intelligences plays a great role in changing the organisational and national culture and, in consequence, in changing governmental intelligence (GI). This paper investigates the impact of national culture (NC) and knowledge management (KM) on GI.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores the development of a culture knowledge intelligence model (CKI) to test a number of propositions through web-based survey methodology administered to 101 civil servants of two national public administrations, Brazil’s Planning Ministry and Germany’s Bundesanstalt. The data were analysed quantitatively through SPSS and SmartPLS (CFA and SEM). In this paper, the relationships between the variables (hypotheses) were empirically tested using structure equation modelling (SEM).
Findings
The high correlation between organisational/national culture on GI raises the discussion of these relationships in the academic community. The impact of organisational/national culture on GI is much higher in Brazil than in Germany. In opposition to Germany, in Brazil, the GI is more influenced by culture than by knowledge. This is related to the fact that German culture, in opposition to Brazil, is future- and performance-orientated, getting information from facts, books and statistics, instead of being people-oriented, getting the first-hand (oral) information. The major practical implication is to demonstrate the importance of integration of intelligences to improve GI.
Originality/value
The influence of NC on decisions of governments is paramount to understand failures in government decisions, mainly because of the difficulty of public leaders to learn by comparison and collaboration from a global, participative and integrative vision and action. Despite the importance of the relationship between NC and GI, this intuitive juxtaposition has not received attention in the literature.
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Auditing is a traditional function in the German system of local public finance. Its’ basic mission is to control local finances for accuracy, to avoid misuse of public resources…
Abstract
Auditing is a traditional function in the German system of local public finance. Its’ basic mission is to control local finances for accuracy, to avoid misuse of public resources and to support local councils. The priority of auditing is the annual financial statement and accounting, still. Performance is of limited relevance. Given the federal setting of 13 territorial states, the system is complex and fragmented. Another German peculiarity is a parallel structure of financial supervision executed by different public bodies having a particular focus on balanced budget and debt. Local auditing, generally, organises in a two-level structure. The lower level is part of the respective local government, the higher-level is part of the state administration. Beyond this basic setting, there are manifold structural options in place lacking transparency and a clear separation of duties. Private involvement in local auditing is very limited. Legislation guarantees independence of auditing with regard to personal independence, autonomy in auditing issues and methods. Local auditing faces several challenges, as local governments do. However, there is no sound discussion on reforms.
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Manoella Antonieta Ramos, Svante Andersson and Ulf Aagerup
This study describes how a multinational enterprise (MNE) gains acceptance after rebranding acquired brands from different countries among its internal and external stakeholders…
Abstract
Purpose
This study describes how a multinational enterprise (MNE) gains acceptance after rebranding acquired brands from different countries among its internal and external stakeholders and identifies factors that influence this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a single case-study approach, including 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees of a firm involved in the rebranding process in six countries. The countries are Sweden, Germany, the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
Findings
The findings reveal how the MNE integrated brands it acquired in different international markets into one overarching corporate brand. The study shows that in emerging countries, external legitimation (external implementation process, country profiles and customer buy-in) constitutes the most significant challenge. By contrast, in developed countries, internal legitimation (employee buy-in and internal implementation process) is more challenging.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to and extends the rebranding literature by using a legitimation lens to analyze the rebranding process. This lens shows how internal and external stakeholders are both crucial to successful rebranding. The study provides a comprehensive perspective of the process, identifies challenging factors and differentiates between their importance in emerging and developed countries.
Originality/value
To address the dearth of research on how firms legitimize a new brand in different national contexts, the study compares the rebranding process in multiple countries and discusses the factors influencing the rebranding process.