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Examines the attitude of the consumer and local authorities to out‐of‐town shopping centres by means of results of a survey carried out in two suburbs of Bournemouth in the UK. Reveals that both the consumer and local authorities have reservations about the role of out‐of‐town shopping centres and its effect on the overall pattern of retail distribution, despite the apparent benefits of this kind of shopping.

Relying on Social Identity Theory (SIT), Relative Deprivation Theory (RDT) and System Justification Theory (SJT), this study aims at examining identity enhancement strategies of blue-collar workers who might be described as members of low-status groups having negative social identity. In the scope of this study, individual and collective strategies for identity enhancement of blue-collar workers have been proposed with the support of above mentioned theories. First of all, factors determining identity enhancement strategies have been described. Then, individual mobility conditions were explained and informal workplace learning was suggested as an individual mobility strategy for blue-collar workers to enhance social identity. In addition, it was argued that high self-monitoring blue collars are more likely than low self-monitoring blue collars to use individual mobility strategy. It was also emphasized that through union membership, high identifier blue collars will adopt a collective identity enhancement strategy. Finally, acceptance of low-status strategy was proposed for blue-collar workers in case they perceive their group’s low status as stable and legitimate.

As one of the most influential theories in strategic management, Hambrick and Mason’s Upper Echelons Theory has yielded significant conceptual and empirical advancements linking executive characteristics and perceptions to decision-making. Specifically, work on this theory consistently shows that CEOs’ decisions are biased by personal characteristics to the benefit and detriment of firms. While this stream of research links executive decision processes to outcomes such as executive dismissals, analyst evaluations, and press coverage, surprisingly little is understood about if and whether the information CEOs convey is subject to the same filtering process by a firm’s key evaluators. Thus, in this chapter, we aim to extend Upper Echelons Theory by positing that a double filtering process occurs whereby the cognitive aids CEOs use can be informed by not only their cognitive base and values but also the characteristics and priorities of those who evaluate the nonverbal and verbal signals they send. To do so, we build on recent conceptual and empirical advancements to make a case for the decision-making biases and tendencies that influence signal interpretation by three key evaluator groups internal and external to the firm: boards of directors, financial analysts, and the media. We conclude by considering the implications of evaluators’ information filtering and how this more holistic view of Upper Echelons decision-making can enable executive teams to be strategic with the cognitive aids they use to influence evaluations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine affective events theory (AET) by testing the mediating effect of employees’ positive affect at work in the relationships of leaders’ use of positive humor with employees’ work engagement, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs); and the moderating effect of transformational leadership style on the relationship between leaders’ use of positive humor and subordinate’s positive affect at work.

Data were obtained from 235 full-time employees working for a large information technology and business consulting corporation. Moderated mediation (Hayes, 2013) was performed to test the proposed model.

Leaders’ positive humor was related to creation of subordinates’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Positive emotions at work did not mediate between leaders’ humor and performance or OCBs. In addition, leaders’ use of transformational leadership style made the relationship between leaders’ positive humor and employees’ positive emotions at work stronger.

This study provides evidence of the positive relationship of leaders’ positive humor with employees’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Such knowledge may help to inform the training workshops in humor employed by practitioners and potentially create a more enjoyable and fun workplace, which can lead to greater employee engagement.

AET helps explain effects of leader humor, but the effects of are complex. Leader’s use of even positive humor is most likely to have favorable effects mainly depending on their leadership style (transformational) and if their humor successfully leads to positive emotions among employees.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how CEO narcissism can be related to the usage of an abnormal optimistic tone in financial disclosures. Drawing on upper echelons theory, this paper suggests a link between CEO characteristics, such as narcissism, and accounting choices, such as optimistic financial reporting language.

To measure the narcissistic trait of a CEO, the study builds on a model using a set of 15 archival indicators. The usage of an abnormal optimistic tone is assessed quantitatively when looking at firms’ 10-K filings, where “abnormal” refers to tone that is unrelated to a firm’s performance, risk, and complexity. This approach allows for the use of firm-fixed effects for a sample of US listed firms over the period 1992-2012.

The results show that CEO narcissism is significantly positively related to abnormal optimistic tone in 10-K filings. If a highly abnormal optimistic tone is present, the level of CEO narcissism is positively related to the likelihood of future seasoned equity offerings and larger future investments in research and development.

The findings are relevant for shareholders and stakeholders as well as auditors and legislators. All stakeholders should be aware of the overly optimistic reporting language resulting from CEO narcissism and need to make allowances for it when assessing firm performance based on financial disclosures.

This study is the first to show in a large-scale sample how CEO narcissism can be related to a firm’s use of optimistic language, and thus contributes to the question of how personality traits affect an organization’s financial reporting strategy.

This chapter examines disability rights movement's rejection of a right to physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Supporters of PAS frame the right to enlist a physician's help in determining the nature and timing of one's death as a fundamental liberty interest and as a right to privacy. The disability opposition counters this with disparate impact and slippery slope arguments and stories of disability pride as a rhetorical rejection of a right it deems dangerous and discriminatory. In examining this clash of rights talk, this chapter analyzes the legal and political consequences of anti-rights rhetoric by a movement that is grounded in notions of autonomy and self-determination.

This study aims to investigate the impact of chief executive officers' (CEO’s) core self-evaluation and grandiose narcissism on firm performance. This work combines bright and dark personality sides to explore how complex CEO's behavioral characteristics affect firms' outcomes. In addition, top management team (TMT) behavioral integration is considered as an organizational setting that acts as a conductive device bridging CEOs behavioral characteristics with firms' performance.

The data for this study are based on 187 respondents, including CEOs and TMTs, across medium and large firms in Turkey through an online survey using a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data collected.

The study finds that only CEO-TMT narcissism and TMT behavioral integration have a positive direct effect on firm financial performance. Contrary to expectations, CEO-TMT core self-evaluation has a negative direct effect on firm performance. Moreover, the results show that environmental dynamism interacts positively and significantly with CEO-TMT narcissism. Thus, the claim that TMT behavioral integration has a mediating effect is not supported in the context of medium and large firms in Turkey.

This study contributes to the upper echelons theory (UET) literature by highlighting the boundary conditions under which narcissistic CEOs can interact with more behaviorally integrated TMT members to exchange information, make joint decisions and collaborate in a relatively dynamic environment, as well as aggregating the bright side and dark side of CEOs personality traits and examining their effects alongside those of TMT behavioral integration on the firm performance. Finally, this study enriches the upper echelons literature by providing evidence from Turkey.

This study challenges contentions that rights are limiting through an analysis of grassroots rights talk in the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer) community in the 1980s. I argue that rights talk can be an important source of constructing community within local, nonmainstream, noninstitutional spaces through a discourse analysis of a forum for LGBTQ community-building in the past: the letters to the editor columns in Gay Community News. This study enhances law and social movement scholarship on the role of rights in social movements by exploring how rights discourse is employed by everyday people in a noninstitutional community-building venue rarely addressed in contemporary research.