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Sami Ylistö and Hanna-Mari Husu
This article deals with the negative emotional consequences of active labour market policies (ALMPs) for long-term unemployed young adults in Finland. Although such policies may…
Abstract
Purpose
This article deals with the negative emotional consequences of active labour market policies (ALMPs) for long-term unemployed young adults in Finland. Although such policies may have positive effects, an exploration of their negative impacts reveals their problematic side effects. We explore various aspects of ALMP interventions that prevent individuals from gaining such positive outcomes and thus reduce their motivation to invest in the policies.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the affect theory of social exchange, we understand that individuals seek positive rewards from social interactions. Our data is taken from life course interviews with unemployed people aged 20–31 in central Finland in 2012–2013.
Findings
We find three factors linked to ALMPs that diminish participants' emotional well-being: experiences of unfairness, lack of control and a mismatch between ALMPs and clients' needs. By paying attention to aspects of labour market policy that diminish emotional well-being, it is possible to build more functional policies that better meet the needs of long-term unemployed individuals.
Originality/value
This study fills a significant gap in the literature, because there is limited research on unintended negative outcomes of ALMP activation.
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Marconi Freitas da Costa, Claudio Felisoni de Angelo and Salomão Alencar de Farias
The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the metaphor of verticality on how individuals assess prices, having regulatory focus as a moderator of this relationship.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the metaphor of verticality on how individuals assess prices, having regulatory focus as a moderator of this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments were conducted with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design (metaphor of verticality: physically higher vs physically lower × regulatory focus: promotion vs prevention). The second study performed moderated mediation by incorporating the self-esteem variable.
Findings
The results show that the treatment group consisting of prevention-focused individuals who consider themselves physically higher assessed prices according to what was proposed for the study compared to the group consisting of promotion-focused individuals who consider themselves physically lower. Participants in Treatment Group 1 attributed the lowest prices to products, demanded more significant discounts to go to another store searching for a product and considered the prices more unfair.
Originality/value
The primary contribution of this study is to reveal that the position of one's body on the vertical axis influences their thoughts and, therefore, their decision-making in the scope of products and services prices. Moreover, regulatory focus can attenuate such effects.
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Samaan Al‐Msallam and Amal Abdelhadi
This paper examines factors that lead consumers to engage in unethical consumer behaviour (UECB) to develop a framework for understanding this phenomenon.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines factors that lead consumers to engage in unethical consumer behaviour (UECB) to develop a framework for understanding this phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The study data were collected using the qualitative approach by conducting personal interviews with 27 marketers in two Arab countries, Libya and Syria.
Findings
The findings indicate that previous models of UECB are applicable to Arab consumers. However, the effects of the examined factors on UECB adoption are influenced by the local environment. Also, the paper explored some newly factors that clearly affect UECB.
Practical implications
This study provides a model of UECB for Arab consumers to help companies to understand Arab consumers’ behaviour. This model determines the influencing factors on this behaviour that companies can use to build their marketing strategies directed at the Libyan and Syrian markets during the reconstruction phase. Moreover, the research results help companies avoid and control UECB.
Originality/value
Almost all studies of UECB have been conducted in Western countries; the present study attempts to address this gap in the ethical decision-making literature, as well as marketing literature, and examine the UECB in Arab countries. Furthermore, previous studies of UECB mostly look at one typical form of UECB; this study provides a broader contribution to the literature on UECB by using a set of scenarios; shoplifting, software piracy and pilfering from hotel rooms.
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Olga Kosheleva and Sean R. Aguilar
On the one hand, everyone agrees that economics should be fair, that workers should get equal pay for equal work. Any instance of unfairness causes a strong disagreement. On the…
Abstract
Purpose
On the one hand, everyone agrees that economics should be fair, that workers should get equal pay for equal work. Any instance of unfairness causes a strong disagreement. On the other hand, in many companies, advanced workers – who produce more than others – get paid disproportionally more for their work, and this does not seem to cause any negative feelings. In this paper, the authors analyze this situation from the economic viewpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
To analyze the problem, the authors use general mathematical models of how utility – and hence, decisions – depends on the pay-per-unit.
Findings
The authors show that from the economic viewpoint, additional payments for advanced workers indeed make economic sense, benefit everyone, and thus – in contrast to the naive literal interpretation of fairness – are not unfair. As a consequence of this analysis, the authors also explain why the labor share of the companies' income is, on average, close to 50% – an empirical fact that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, was never previously explained.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that explains the empirical fact – that the labor share of the income is close to 50%.
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Steven Davies, Gareth Reginald Terrence White, Anthony Samuel and Helen Martin
Covid-19 has caused many businesses to rethink their short- and potentially long-term workforce operations. The use of lateral flow serology can provide a clinically convenient…
Abstract
Purpose
Covid-19 has caused many businesses to rethink their short- and potentially long-term workforce operations. The use of lateral flow serology can provide a clinically convenient approach for the assessment of prior infection with Covid-19. However, its widespread adoption in organisations seeking to use it to test for workforce immunity is controversial and confusing. This paper aims to explore the paradoxical dilemmas and dialectics immunity workforce testing creates.
Design/methodology/approach
This study involved capturing the ethnographical participation of a chief executive officer (CEO) dealing with the experience of managing the outcomes of Covid-19 workforce immunity testing. The aim was to take a snapshot in time of the CEO's empirical world, capturing their lived experiences to explore how management actions resulting from Covid-19 immunity testing can played out.
Findings
Providing staff with immunity tests at first glance appears sensible, decent and a caring action to take. Nevertheless, once such knowledge is personalised by employees, they can, through dialectic dialogue, feel disadvantaged and harbour feelings of unfairness. Subsequently, this paper suggests that immunity testing may only serve to raise awareness and deepen the original management dilemma of whether testing is a worthwhile activity.
Originality/value
This paper aims to be amongst the first works to empirically explore the workforce management challenges that arise within small businesses within the service sector following the completion of Covid-19 immunity testing of their staff. It seeks to achieve this via utilising the robust theoretical framework of the paradox theory to examine Covid-19's impact upon small business workforce management thinking and practice.
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Fabio Cassia, Sven A. Haugland and Francesca Magno
While studies about business-to-business (B2B) relationships have mainly addressed buyer–supplier long-term exchanges, focusing on social outcomes such as trust, commitment and…
Abstract
Purpose
While studies about business-to-business (B2B) relationships have mainly addressed buyer–supplier long-term exchanges, focusing on social outcomes such as trust, commitment and cooperation, there is little research that explores the social outcomes which stem from short-term B2B transactions. The purpose of this paper is to explain buyers’ intention to renew a contract after discrete and time-delimited transactions by suggesting a model that complements social exchange theory with theories of fairness. In detail, this study aims to determine how evaluations of economic and social outcomes are complemented by both procedural fairness and distributive fairness.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested in the social couponing industry with a survey of a sample of 199 firms purchasing advertising services from daily deal websites. Data are analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM).
Findings
The findings reveal direct effects of procedural fairness on social outcomes (satisfaction) and distributive fairness on the intention to renew a contract, negative moderating effect of procedural fairness on the relationship between economic outcomes (campaign effectiveness) and social outcomes (satisfaction).
Research limitations/implications
In discrete, time-delimited transactions, high levels of procedural fairness may partially compensate for low levels of economic outcomes and prevent a reduction in social outcomes. Hence, when economic outcomes are influenced largely by external, uncontrollable conditions, the buyer seems to appreciate the supplier’s efforts to behave fairly.
Practical implications
Social outcomes matter even in discrete transactions and considerations of fairness should be integrated in the management of discrete transactions. Sharing economic outcomes fairly is not sufficient to secure the buyer’s intention to renew the contract.
Originality/value
This study proposes and tests a model that complements social exchange theory with theories of fairness and explains contract renewal in discrete, time-delimited transactions, encompassing both economic outcomes and social outcomes.
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Krishna Prasad, K. Sankaran and Nandan Prabhu
The purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical relationship between gray directors (non-executive non-independent directors) and executive compensation among companies…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical relationship between gray directors (non-executive non-independent directors) and executive compensation among companies listed in India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE). The paper also examines the possible interplay of relationships between controlling shareholder duality (controlling shareholder being the CEO), ownership category and executive compensation.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 438 firms listed in the NSE of India was studied using data spanning five financial years, 2012–2013 to 2016–2017.
Findings
Empirical evidence suggests that there is a positive association between the proportion of gray directors on the board and executive compensation. The sensitivity of executive compensation to gray directors is found to be higher among family controlled firms. This research has also found that CEOs who belong to controlling shareholder groups received higher pay than professional CEOs. The authors conjecture that these results suggest cronyism and may contribute to lower levels of corporate governance practices in the country.
Research limitations/implications
The hybrid board structure, which India has adopted with the desire to bring the best of Anglo Saxon and Japanese board philosophies, has paradoxically led to self-serving boards. Exploration of alternative thinking to bring about changes in the regulatory framework is, therefore, necessary.
Originality/value
Serious problems are identified with the philosophy behind board composition mandated by Listing Requirements for Indian firms with empirical evidence showing how the existing rules generate cronyism and unfairness to minority shareholders.
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Kathrin Mayr, Teresa Schwendtner, Christoph Teller and Ernst Gittenberger
Unethically behaving customers deviating from morally acceptable norms have posed an additional challenge to retailers, frontline employees (FLEs) and other customers in recent…
Abstract
Purpose
Unethically behaving customers deviating from morally acceptable norms have posed an additional challenge to retailers, frontline employees (FLEs) and other customers in recent crisis-dominant environments. While research concerning customer behaviour ethicality focusses on purchasing modes and consumption behaviour, unethicality in all its facets receives limited attention, leaving dimensions of unethical customer behaviour (UCB) and effective managerial strategies unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to describe dimensions of UCB, investigate its causes, explore its consequences for customers and FLEs and infer practical implications for retail management by collecting customers' and FLEs' views in collaboration of each other.
Design/methodology/approach
Due to the explorative nature of this research, qualitative semi-structured interviews with 45 customers and 51 FLEs were conducted, following a content analytical approach and the establishment of inter-rater reliability coefficients.
Findings
The findings reveal multiple UCB dimensions operating on situational and individual behavioural levels, targeting mainly employees, followed by customers. The reasons for UCB arising correspond to customers' attitudes, social influences and egoistic motives. UCB imposes risks of financial losses for retailers, due to the wasting of resources as a consequence of employees' stress and emotional exhaustion, demanding managerial boundary-spanning activities. Further, it negatively impacts customers' shopping behaviours, provoking online shopping and shopping avoidance.
Originality/value
The study fills the research gap regarding perceived unethicality of customer behaviour by describing and explaining differing forms of UCB, considering customers' and FLEs' views in retail stores. It develops a UCB framework, identifies UCB dimensions beyond current academic research and derives specific practical implications to make the phenomenon manageable for retailers. The originality of this paper lies in the synthesis of the three UCB dimensions, consisting of antecedents, forms of UCB and consequences for customers and FLEs.
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