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This paper examines the statistical relationship between outbound Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and firm performance. We focus on how the link is influenced by sector-specific differences and geographical factors.

We compile a time-series cross-sectional dataset that includes financial variables and FDI activities of South Korean firms between 2005 and 2008 from the DART, a financial statement database. Then, we fit our data against the linear regression models that we designed to identify FDI-performance relationship in different subsamples. Our measurement of firm performance is specifically constructed to reflect excess returns in the stock market.

We found compelling differences in the degree of FDI-performance relationships across different industries. In manufacturing sectors, the flow of direct investment is more heavily associated with firm performances than accumulated stock of direct investment, and vice versa in the service sector. The impact of China factors toward performance aspects of Korea’s outbound FDI which also differs across sectors as well.

Although there have been extensive research efforts on this subject in general, our paper addresses an increasingly significant class of FDIs that have received relatively less attention, that is, direct investment originating from developing economies. Also, our analysis adds a sectoral dimension that contributes to more comprehensive understanding of a multinational-performance relationship.

The paper provides an overview of material helpful in placing the subsequent papers in context, as well as a summary of the research contributions made by the individual papers themselves.

We begin with a timeline of China’s Economic Reform, including both major events that permitted the opening and expansion of the nation’s economy, and important milestones of the historical movement. We then consider the impact of philosophy and culture (particularly, Confucianism and socialism) on China’s society and government, which leads naturally to certain observations regarding the political-economic model in which state-owned enterprises play a central role. In the final section, we briefly summarize the contents of the remaining papers.

In empirical research and practitioner guides, turnaround processes tend to be described in terms of discrete stages and strategies. Though necessary, this characterization belies the twists and turns of turnaround leadership. The purpose of this paper is to expand the assumptions of how turnaround proceeds in linear chronos time with the sensibilities of kairos time or the “right” time for turnaround leadership moves.

This study is an exploratory qualitative multi-case study with principals and their key supports (assistant principals, district leaders, teacher leaders) in four public turnaround schools. The grounded theory analysis conceptualizes the experiences of turnaround principals in flexible, complex ways.

The findings begin with a metaphor and definition of “shifting gears” at chronos and kairos times that emphasizes how turnaround principals make adaptive, agentic adjustments when moving forward through changing terrain. The second half of findings describes each principal’s experiences and reflections on their discernment of the right times for change within a chronological trajectory of turnaround. In addition, the leaders described shifting gears as strategic and responsive to contexts, sometimes taking a psychological toll.

Expanding notions of time in turnaround re-centers turnaround leaders as engaging in intellectually and emotionally demanding work. Such recognition challenges future research to address experiences and emotions in dynamic contexts. Hence, with this study, preparation programs and state and local systems may adjust holistic supports and leadership pipelines to sustain turnaround leaders.

The research aims to empirically investigate the determinants of the breadth of the corporate social disclosure (CSD).

The study adopts a multi-perspective approach, referring to different theoretical frameworks on CSD, such as the legitimacy theory, the stakeholder theory, the agency model, the asymmetric information theory, and the institutional perspective.

The empirical research is based on the sustainability reports of 80 companies in which investments were made by European socially responsible funds (SRFs) listed on the Morningstar platform during the years 2009–2008.

The theoretical hypotheses are tested by a univariate and multivariate analysis.

The breadth of the CSD depends on multiple factors, both external and internal, such as the country of origin, the industry reputation, the firm size, the frequency of the SRFs participation, the corporate social performance.

Limits inherent in this type of research are the comparability of the CSR reports and the systematization of the categories of content to be analyzed.

The chapter identifies several factors that lead to a greater completeness of the CSD, exploiting the capacity of the social reporting to trigger benefits for the firms such as a stronger social legitimacy and the reduction of asymmetric information.

The research supports the investigation of the levers of CSD to meet the demand for a broader accountability.

The reference to firms in which SRFs participated allows to focus on companies ascertained as socially responsible in accordance with a “certification function” of these funds. Findings support an approach which is not one-sided, thus enabling to look at the determinants of the CSD through different theoretical perspectives.

Past research on the immigrant health paradox suggests that children with immigrant parents may have a health advantage over those with US-born parents, especially if the parent is a recent immigrant. Other research emphasizes the social and economic challenges children with immigrant parents face, in part due to disadvantaged social class and racial/ethnic positions. Underlying physiological changes due to chronic stress exposures among children in immigrant families is one potential health disadvantage that may not yet be apparent in traditional health measures. To explore these biological disparities during childhood, I use national biomarker and survey data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) (N = 11,866) to evaluate parent nativity and educational status associations with low-grade inflammation, indicated by C-reactive protein (CRP), in children ages 2–15 years. I find that children with an immigrant parent, and particularly a low-educated immigrant parent, have higher CRP, net of birth, body mass index (BMI) and other factors, than children with a US-born parent with either a low or higher education. Comparing children with low-educated parents, those with a foreign-born parent have higher predicted CRP. The findings from this study provide new evidence that children living in immigrant families in the US may be facing higher levels of chronic stress exposure, as indicated by the increased risk of low-grade inflammation, than those with US-born parents. The physiological changes related to increased risk of inflammation, could set children in immigrant families on pathways toward mental and physical health problems later in the life course.

In light of the increasing popularity of telecommuting, this study investigates how telecommuters' organizational commitment may be linked to psychological and physical isolation. Psychological isolation refers to feelings of emotional unfulfillment when one lacks meaningful connections, support, and interactions with others, while physical isolation refers to physical separation from others.

An online survey was used to collect data from 446 employees who telecommute one or more days per week.

The results of this study indicate that telecommuters' affective commitment is negatively associated with psychological isolation, whereas their continuance commitment is positively correlated with both psychological and physical isolation. These findings imply that telecommuters may remain with their employers due to perceived benefits, a desire to conserve resources such as time and emotional energy, or weakened marketability, rather than emotional connections to their colleagues or organizations.

Organizations wishing to retain and maximize the contributions of telecommuters should pursue measures that address collocated employees' negative assumptions toward telecommuters, preserve the benefits of remote work, and cultivate telecommuters' emotional connections (affective commitment) and felt obligation (normative commitment) to their organizations.

Through the creative integration of the need-to-belong and relational cohesion theories, this study contributes to the telecommuting and organizational commitment literature by investigating the dynamics between both psychological and physical isolation and telecommuters' organizational commitment.

The aim of this paper is to critically review the most significant writings on “two” constructs that have quickly acquired the status of “important marketing topics”; that is, brand attachment (BA) and brand love (BL).

A profound and parallel inspection of highly influential articles along with ensuing essays by the same single authors is performed.

This review reveals that: hardly a year goes by without some reinventions or retouching of these constructs’ conceptual characteristics; there are several striking similarities between them; the politics of marketing theory are at work in keeping these constructs away from each other; the literature under scrutiny not only suffers from amnesia, but also from some severe schizophrenic symptoms; and that BA and BL are nothing more than the same core knowledge product offered under different brand names.

This review is limited to considering the constructs of BA and BL.

Because the literature on BA and BL has been essentially empirical, this paper has the potential to add a compulsory conceptual component to it. It also has the potential of instigating discussions, debates and, in due course, a deeper understanding of these “two” constructs.