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This study aims to investigate the influence of personality characteristics (risk-aversion and self-consciousness) on skepticism toward online services information (STOSI), consumer stress and health.

A between-subjects experiment (n = 228) was designed to compare effects based on third-party organization endorsement (TPO endorsed vs nonendorsed).

Results revealed that personality characteristics positively influenced STOSI, which in turn escalated consumer stress. Furthermore, consumer stress predicted detrimental effects on consumer health (increased blood pressure and heartbeat). Regarding TPO endorsements, both the risk-aversive and self-conscious consumers showed lesser STOSI when exposed to TPO-endorsed ads compared with nonendorsed ads.

This study is one of the first to examine the effects of consumer personality on consumer health through STOSI and consumer stress. In addition, the remedial roles of TPO in coping with STOSI and consumer stress also accumulate to the novelty of this study.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the investment choices' relationship with cognitive abilities, risk aversion, risky investment intentions, subjective financial literacy and objective financial literacy.

To examine the relationship, two investment choices were given to 256 subjects from Pakistan. Questionnaire had total 20 questions for measuring five variables. To review this nexus, discriminant analysis was used as to explore the depth of the nexus that is the ability of the variables to predict the investment choices.

This study establishes the findings that Investment choices are guided by risk aversion, risky investment intentions, financial literacy (subjective and objective) and cognitive abilities. The risk aversion has negative relation to investment choices and other variables depict positive relationship to with investment choices.

This study provides a new and useful understanding into the existing literature on investment choices. The results are significant as the cognitive abilities show a positive contribution to the investment choices. This is point of significance as the portfolio managers and advisors would get help in regards of advising investments as they are aware what factors impact the investment choices.

This study is novel in its nature to evaluate investment choices using the cognitive ability alongside risk attitudes and financial literacy.

A stylized fact in finance literature is the belief in positive relationship between ex ante return and risk. Hence, a rational investor, by utility preference axiom can only consider committing fund in asset which promises commensurate higher return for higher risk. Questions have been asked as to whether this holds true across securities, sectors and markets. Empirical evidence appears less convincing, especially in developing markets. Accordingly, the author investigates the nature of reward for taking risk in the Nigerian Capital Market within the context of individual assets and markets.

The author employed ex post design to collect weekly stock prices of firms listed on the Premium Board of Nigerian Stock Exchange for period 2014–2022 to attempt to answer research questions. Data were analyzed using a unique M Vec TGarch-in-Mean model considered to be robust in handling many assets, and hence portfolio management.

The study found that idea of risk-expected return trade-off is perhaps more general than as depicted by traditional finance literature. The regression revealed that conditional variance and covariance risks reveal minimal or no differences in sign and sizes of coefficients. However, standard errors were also found to be large suggesting somewhat inconclusive evidence of existence of defined incentive structure for taking additional risk in the market.

In terms of choice of methodology and outcomes, this research adds substantial value to body of knowledge. The adapted multivariate model used in this paper is a rare approach especially for management of portfolios in developing markets. Remarkably, the research found empirical evidence that positive risk-expected return trade-off, as known in mainstream literature, is not supported especially using a typical developing country data.

On completion of this case study, students will be able assess new venture opportunities by properly allocating expansion fund in growing the business; analyzing various scaling-up options; applying the Ansoff matrix for growth and expansion; designing a framework for scaling up; and using the business model canvas.

Mr Sreeram established Eruvaka Technologies in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh (India), in 2015 to provide products and services related to aquaculture. The company was founded with the goal of assisting prawn farmers who had trouble keeping up with the demands of the industry. Eruvaka Technologies created risk-reducing and productivity-boosting on-farm diagnostic devices for aquaculture growers. The company developed low-cost monitoring and automation solutions for aquaculture by merging sensors, mobile connection and decision tools. Eruvaka’s primary objective was to offer reasonably priced, technologically advanced goods and services to farmers. Eruvaka matured into a promising startup over time, attracting $5m in funding. Sreeram and his team had to detail their plan to their investors about how they intended to use the money from each funding rounds toward growing the business, how the company planned to achieve sustainable and competitive advantage while providing value to its consumers and how they would address critical issues including product acquisition cost, supply chain problem and customer anxiety.

This case study can be taught as part of undergraduate- and postgraduate-level courses and Master of Business Administration courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The emphasis on short-term by project-based firms (PBFs) implies the adoption of project efficiency and impact on the team as project success drivers in PBFs context. Good performance by employees, as individuals in a team, can be explained by their behaviors, associated with goal orientation theory. Learning and performance orientations are associated with teams’ effectiveness and overall project performance. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between the dimensions of goal orientation, especially learning orientation, and project efficiency and impact on the team, in PBFs context.

A quantitative approach was adopted, based on data from a survey of 714 respondents, representing project managers, that turned into a valid sample of 315 composed only by PBFs respondents. The results were analyzed through multiple linear regression and, mainly, mediation analysis methods.

Performance-avoid orientation is a predictor of project efficiency; performance-prove orientation, a predictor of impact on the team. Learning orientation relates positively to both project success criteria. Project managers should balance/induce the proper orientation within the team, favoring learning orientation according to the results, to have short-term project success in PBFs.

There is a direct relationship between learning orientation and project efficiency, but it is fully mediated by impact on the team, which it was not found in previous studies. This study argues that they are not parallel constructs, constituent parts of equal weight in project success, but that impact on the team precedes project efficiency when learning orientation is considered.

Cute products have found market success. The literature has identified various factors of cuteness, but the effect of size is under-addressed. This study aims to investigate whether and how size perception influences consumers’ cuteness perception.

In three experiments, size was manipulated in terms of visual cue, product description and product name to determine its impact on cuteness perception.

The results of the three experiments demonstrate that a size cue of smallness can heighten consumers’ perception of product cuteness. The first two studies provided converging evidence for the main hypothesis that smaller objects are evaluated as cuter. Study 3 not only replicated the findings of the first two studies but also revealed that vulnerability acts as the underlying process for the smallness-cuteness relationship. Study 3 also showed that the purchase likelihood for an extended product warranty is higher in the small condition compared to the control condition.

While the findings were robust across product types and size manipulations, possible boundary conditions related to product types or individual characteristics were not tested.

The findings suggest how brand managers can use size perceptions to influence consumers’ perceptions of the cuteness of their products and brands.

The findings inform brand managers about the nuances of size cues that may affect how customers perceive their products and identify a more generally applicable cuteness factor that may have downstream implications for marketing practitioners.

This paper aims to develop an algorithm to pretest an industrial portfolio on a new scale. Portfolios include complex and uncertain projects at the front-end phase. The study, therefore, proposes a procedure that helps decision-makers to handle various complex projects and defines a common scale applicable to various kinds of industrial projects.

Decision-makers can employ the preference algorithm to reach a common understanding. To this end, the current paper posits the organization of criteria in various project sets. A sexagesimal scale is developed based on project complexity and its ability to achieve broad impact, both these factors being gauged on a five-point scale of user-friendly numberings.

The proposed algorithm shows the equivalence of industrial projects in different fields. Also, the algorithm articulates the status in terms of uncertainty, complexity, risk, and value of projects. The connections between decision-makers and criteria operate on the basis of the foreseen complexity, risk, and value. It can be said that this study exemplifies and visualizes the portfolio and criteria relationship.

The procedure covers contingency exercises at the front-end phase of a portfolio and supports decisions. However, updated information can change support positions.

The paper presents original scoring guidance for portfolio complexity on a new scale. The scaling and scoring are adjustable and calibrated using the proposed sexagesimal system. It presents an original classification of project risk and value. The main contribution is the presented algorithm which can be used to pretest industrial portfolios composed of projects that vary in both size and context.

Turnover in high-tech companies has long been a concern for managers and executives. Recent meta-analyses from the general turnover literature consistently show that job satisfaction is a major attitudinal antecedent to turnover intention and turnover behavior. Additionally, the available research on information technology (IT) employees focuses primarily on turnover intentions and not on a risky decision-making perspective and actual turnover (turnover behavior). The paper aim is to focus on that.

This study uses hierarchical ordinary least squares, process (Preacher and Hayes, 2004) and logistic regression.

The main predictor of actual turnover is risky decision-making, whereas job satisfaction is the main predictor of turnover intention.

The joint effects of risk and job satisfaction on turnover intention and behavior have not been studied in the IT domain. Hence, this study extends our understanding of turnover in general and particularly among IT employees by studying the combined effect of risk and job satisfaction on turnover intentions and turnover behavior. The study’s theoretical and practical implications are likewise discussed.