7/10/2017 — On March 1-2, approximately 1,000 people convened at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill for the fourth annual UNC Clean Tech Summit. Themes of the 2017 summit included clean energy, food, innovation, and water and energy.

• KEYWORD(S):
• energy
• sustainability
• technology

7/7/2017 — The study of congruence is central to organizational research. Congruence refers to the fit, match, similarity, or agreement between two constructs and is typically framed as a predictor of outcomes relevant to individuals and organizations. Previous studies often operationalized congruence as the algebraic, absolute, or squared difference between two component variables.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data project
• organizational behavior

7/1/2017 — Firms are increasingly offering engagement initiatives to facilitate firm–customer interactions or interactions among customers, with the primary goal of fostering emotional and psychological bonds between customers and the firm. Unlike traditional marketing interventions, which are designed to prompt sales, assessing returns on engagement initiatives (RoEI) is more complex because sales are not the primary goal and, often, direct sales are not associated with such initiatives.

• KEYWORD(S):
• equity markets
• global business
• marketing

6/26/2017 — How individuals manage, organize, and complete their tasks is central to operations management. Recent research in operations focuses on how under conditions of increasing workload individuals can increase their service time, up to a point, in order to complete work more quickly.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data project
• operations

6/19/2017 — Worker attrition is a costly and operationally disruptive challenge throughout the world. Although large bodies of research have documented drivers of attrition and its operational consequences, managers still lack an integrated approach to understanding attrition and making decisions to address it on a forward-going basis.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data project
• global business
• operations

6/18/2017 — This paper exploits policy discontinuities at U.S. state borders to examine the effect of R&D investments on innovative projects. We examine the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) State Match program.

• KEYWORD(S):
• economics
• north carolina
• policy

6/14/2017 — In the electronics industry and beyond, original design manufacturers (ODMs) provide a full spectrum of services, ranging from design and development to manufacturing, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

• KEYWORD(S):
• operations

6/13/2017 — This case study describes the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Durham, North Carolina – the people and organizations primarily located downtown who embrace this mission.

• KEYWORD(S):
• strategy and entrepreneurship

6/13/2017 — We evaluate the performance of two popular systemic risk measures, CoVaR and SRISK, during eight financial panics in the era before FDIC insurance. Bank stock price and balance sheet data were not readily available for this time period. We rectify this shortcoming by constructing a novel dataset for the New York banking system before 1933.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data project
• finance
• risk management

6/8/2017 — When an innovator sources for an innovative product from a supplier who is also a competitor in the end market, the potential innovation spillover may be a serious concern. Will an innovation ever source from a competitor-supplier in the presence of innovation spillover? In this paper we attempt to answer this question with an emphasis on the ex-ante uncertain values of innovations, and distinguish between technical innovations which can only spill over through sourcing and non-technical innovations which can spill over through sourcing as well as in the market.

• KEYWORD(S):
• innovation
• operations

6/8/2017 — We measure a bank’s connectedness by constructing a measure of its text similarity with other banks based on 10-K business description and MD&A discussions. We find that tail-risk comovement between a given bank and the banking system is increasing in the bank’s average similarity.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• data project
• tax

6/1/2017 — We investigate systematic changes in corporate effective tax rates over the past 25 years and find that effective tax rates have decreased significantly. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the decline in effective tax rates is not concentrated in multinational firms; effective tax rates have declined at approximately the same rate for both multinational and domestic firms. Moreover, within multinational firms, both foreign and domestic effective rates have decreased. Finally, changes in firm characteristics and declining foreign statutory tax rates explain little of the overall decrease in effective rates.

• KEYWORD(S):
• federal tax

6/1/2017 — Inspired by recent discussions of the systematic costs that external rankings impose on academic institutions, and the undeniable shifts in the landscape of institutional data, a concerted and pragmatic re-evaluation of ranking efforts has begun. In this study, multiple administrators and researchers representing both public and private institutions across the United States weigh in on these issues.

• KEYWORD(S):
• marketing
• organizational behavior

6/1/2017 — An experienced investment committee can put an institution on course to gain higher endowment returns.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance

6/1/2017 — This special issue is intended to present the state-of-the-art research progress on related subjects and to foster additional research in this important emerging area in production and operations management.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• operations

6/1/2017 — In this paper, we study the problem of allocating inventory procured using donor funding to patients in different health states over a finite horizon with the objective of minimizing the number of disease‐adjusted life periods lost.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• management
• operations

5/30/2017 — A pooled Public Use Microdata Sample File of the Census Bureau’s Annual American Community Survey (2011-2015) is used to (1) create a demographic profile of the nation’s older adult population; (2) develop an older adult household typology which encapsulates both generational dynamics and diverse living arrangements; and (3) identify older adults who face the greatest barriers to aging in place. Policies and strategies that support and facilitate successful aging in place for the most vulnerable older adults are discussed.

• KEYWORD(S):
• aging
• disruptive demographics
• inclusive development

5/29/2017 — We consider the allocation of inventory to stores in a “merchandise test,” whereby a fashion retailer deploys a new product to stores in limited quantities in order to learn about demand prior to the main selling season. Our problem formulation includes practical considerations like fixed costs and multiperiod inventory considerations but is challenging to analyze directly. Instead, we take a bounding approach that isolates the novel aspect of our problem: the impact of test inventory allocation on demand learning.

• KEYWORD(S):
• operations
• supply chain
• technology

5/26/2017 — This study examines the effects of mandatory IFRS adoption on accounting-based prediction models for CDS spreads for a sample of 357 firms in 16 IFRS-adopting countries. We do this by estimating accounting-based prediction models for CDS spreads separately for financial and non-financial firms before and after mandatory IFRS adoption. We find that mean and median absolute percentage prediction errors are larger for both financial and non-financial firms after mandatory IFRS adoption. We also estimate accounting-based prediction models for CDS spreads separately for financial and non-financial US firms before and after mandatory IFRS adoption to obtain prediction errors serve that as a benchmark.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• global business

5/23/2017 — Prior studies attribute analysts' forecast superiority over time-series forecasting models to their access to a large set of firm, industry, and macroeconomic information (an information advantage), which they use to update their forecasts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis (a timing advantage).

• KEYWORD(S):
• earnings
• finance

5/20/2017 — Across the globe, every workday people commute an average of 38 minutes each way, yet surprisingly little research has examined the implications of this daily routine for work-related outcomes. Integrating theories of boundary work, self-control, and work-family conflict, we propose that the commute to work serves as a liminal role transition between home and work roles, prompting employees to engage in boundary management strategies.

• KEYWORD(S):
• innovation
• operations
• organizational behavior

5/13/2017 — Industry evolution scholars define industry inception as first instance of product commercialization, focusing on subsequent time periods of growth and maturity. Left understudied are the triggers, actors, and actions preceding industry inception.

• KEYWORD(S):
• strategy and entrepreneurship

5/10/2017 — This paper documents a set of stylized facts about leverage and financial fragility in the non-financial corporate sector in emerging markets since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Corporate debt vulnerability indicators prior to the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) attributed to corporate financial roots provide a benchmark for comparison. The firm-level data suggest that emerging markets post-GFC have lower leverage ratios than the five Asian crisis countries (Asian Five) in the run-up to the AFC.

• KEYWORD(S):
• emerging markets
• global business

5/6/2017 — Amendment of IAS 39 by the IASB in 2008 provided an option to reclassify investments from fair value to historical cost. We predict that too-important-to-fail (TITF) banks took less advantage of this option because the political protection they enjoyed insulated them from regulatory pressure. Banks that did not enjoy this protection had greater reason to make use of this option since doing so would protect their Tier 1 capital.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• investments
• management

5/6/2017 — We empirically study the spatiotemporal location problem motivated by an online retailer that uses the Buy-Online-Pick-Up-In-Store fulfillment method. Customers pick up their orders from trucks parked at specific locations on specific days, and the retailer’s problem is to determine where and when these pickups occur. Customer demand is influenced by the convenience of pickup locations and days.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data project
• operations

5/4/2017 — Linguistic features of a firm’s regulatory filings, taken at face value, convey valuable information about the firm. In this paper, we examine whether a manager-specific, non-economic component also exists within these filings and whether investors consider this component when assessing firm value. To do so, we build on prior research that shows founders have unique personality attributes, including excessive optimism.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• management

5/2/2017 — Caller abandonment could depend on their past waiting experiences. Using Cox regressions we show that callers who abandoned or waited for a shorter time in the past abandon more in the future. However, Cox regression approach does not shed light on callers’ prior belief about the duration of their delays.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data project
• operations

5/1/2017 — In modern work teams, successful performance requires adaptation to changing environments, tasks, situations, and role structures. Although empirical studies of team adaptive performance have generated key inferences about team adaptation in specific contexts, there are important conceptual differences across the adaptive stimuli examined in the literature (e.g., novel environments vs. downsizing).

• KEYWORD(S):
• organizational behavior

5/1/2017 — We document that prior portfolio choices influence investors’ expectations about asset values, and their future choices. We find that people update more from information consistent with their prior choices, leading to sticky portfolios over time.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• risk management

5/1/2017 — Millions of employees face work schedules and wages that change frequently as firms try to match labor to demand. Here, we use personnel records from the retail industry to examine whether workers’ income precariousness impacts firm performance.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• workforce development

5/1/2017 — The design and use of standard processes are foundational recommendations in many operations practices. Yet, given the demonstrated performance benefits of standardized processes, it is surprising that they are often not followed consistently. One way to ensure greater compliance is by electronically monitoring the activities of individuals, although such aggressive monitoring poses the risk of inducing backlash.

• KEYWORD(S):
• organizational behavior

5/1/2017 — As waste from used electronic products grows steadily, manufacturers face take‐back regulations mandating its collection and proper treatment through recycling, or remanufacturing. Environmentalists greet such regulation with enthusiasm, but its effect on remanufacturing activity and industry competition remains unclear. We research these questions, using a stylized model with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) facing competition from an independent remanufacturer (IR).

• KEYWORD(S):
• policy
• risk management
• sustainability

5/1/2017 — We discuss firm-level evidence based on UK data showing that within-firm pay inequality--wage differentials between top- and bottom-level jobs--increases with firm size. Moreover, within-firm pay inequality rises as firms grow larger over time. Lastly, using wage data from 15 developed countries, we document a positive association between aggregate wage inequality at the country level and growth by the largest firms in the country. We conclude that part of what may be perceived as a global trend toward more wage inequality may be driven by an increase in the size of the largest firms in the economy.

• KEYWORD(S):
• inequality

5/1/2017 — We conduct what is, to our knowledge, the first systematic examination of Chinese-based firms that utilize a variable interest entity (VIE) structure to evade Chinese regulation on foreign ownership to list equity in the U.S. The use of the VIE structure is not only questionable under Chinese laws but also exacerbates the agency costs within the firm. We find that Chinese VIE firms have a Tobin’s Q as much as 35% lower than Chinese non-VIE firms, and this discount is concentrated in firms with higher risks of government intervention and managerial expropriation. To remediate these risks, VIE firms are more likely to have a politically connected director on the board, hire a Big N auditor and have higher levels of institutional ownership.

• KEYWORD(S):
• corporate finance
• finance
• global business

4/25/2017 — We investigate the effect of CFO narcissism, as measured by signature size, on financial reporting quality. Experimentally, we validate that narcissism predicts misreporting behavior, and that signature size predicts misreporting through its association with narcissism.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• c-suite
• ethics
• management

4/22/2017 — This paper examines the impact of NPD make/buy choices on product quality using data from the automobile industry. While the business press laments that NPD outsourcing compromises product quality, there is no systematic evidence to support or refute this assertion.

• KEYWORD(S):
• marketing

4/14/2017 — In times when elevated government debt raises concerns about dimmer global growth prospects, we ask: How can the government provide incentives for innovation in a fiscally sustainable way? We address this question by examining the Ramsey problem of finding optimal tax and subsidy schemes in a model in which growth is endogenously sustained by risky innovation.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• innovation

4/5/2017 — Attempts to improve gender parity at workplaces are more effective when organizations mobilize their entire workforce, including men, to participate (i.e., speak up with ideas, volunteer, or serve as champions) in gender-parity initiatives. Yet, frequently, men are hesitant to participate in such initiatives. We explicate one reason for such hesitation on the part of men and suggest ways organizations can address this challenge.

• KEYWORD(S):
• organizational behavior

4/1/2017 — Workplace humor is ubiquitous, yet scholars know little about how it affects employees' behaviors in organizations. We draw on an emerging psychological theory of humor—benign violation theory—to suggest that a leader's sense of humor often conveys counter-normative social information in organizations.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• organizational behavior

4/1/2017 — We investigate the influence of bank competition on agency costs by examining whether earnings management in the form of loan loss provision smoothing increases as the wedge between control rights and cash-flow rights increases.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• earnings

3/28/2017 — This paper illustrates the major challenges faced by globally recognised classical art forms through the examination of Kutiyattam, a centuries old renowned theatre form of India, Kutiyattam was declared by the UNESCO in 2001 as an intangible heritage of humankind. During the mid-twentieth century, Kutiyattam performers came out of their traditional performing space in Hindu temples, encouraged by the proactive support of the State. In the wake of the UNESCO recognition for the theatre form, State support measures underwent further strengthening. However, in spite of this, India’s Kutiyattam institutions are confronted with a serious economic crisis that threatens their very existence.

• KEYWORD(S):
• global business
• strategy and entrepreneurship
• sustainability

3/28/2017 — We present institutional change as a creative and experimental response to emergent or competing logics.

• KEYWORD(S):
• entrepreneurial ecosystems

3/21/2017 — We investigate the response of small businesses operating as sole proprietorships to Form 1099-K, an information report introduced in 2011 which provides the Internal Revenue Service with information about electronic sales (e.g., credit card sales). The overall impact of the policy appears to be relatively small. However, theory and distributional analysis isolates a subset of taxpayers expected to be especially sensitive to reporting, who report receipts equal to or slightly exceeding the receipts reported on 1099-K.

• KEYWORD(S):
• federal tax
• small business

3/20/2017 — Professional service executives who base their professional relationships on individual ties bring more value to the firm.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• strategy and entrepreneurship
• workforce development

3/16/2017 — Markets today are flooded with an increasing number of products and brands, making it difficult for companies to track how their products compete in the market. In this article, the authors describe how they used clickstream data to visualize competition in product categories containing more than 1,000 products.

• KEYWORD(S):
• marketing
• technology

3/16/2017 — Can decision-maker roles—roles with responsibility for allocating resources toward ideas—shape which ideas people in those roles view as creative? Prior theory suggests that expertise should influence creativity assessments, yet examples abound of experts in different roles disagreeing about whether the same idea is creative. We build and test a social context model of creative idea recognition to show how decision-maker roles can shift creativity assessments. In an experimental study, we show that relative to non-decision-making roles, decision-making roles inculcate an economic mindset and so lead to downgrading otherwise creative ideas with cues of low social approval.

• KEYWORD(S):
• decision making

3/10/2017 — We study the response of international investment flows to short- and long-run growth news. Among developed G7 countries, positive long-run news for domestic productivity induces a net outflow of investments, in contrast to the effects of short-run growth shocks.

• KEYWORD(S):
• economic development
• finance
• global business

3/8/2017 — This paper investigates how institutions impact tie formation, arguing that institutions can direct firm strategies towards exploration or towards exploitation.

• KEYWORD(S):
• entrepreneurial ecosystems

3/6/2017 — In this paper we investigate the effect of offshore supply dependence (OSD) on offshoring–reshoring profit comparisons. We find that OSD hampers a reshoring manufacturer’s responsiveness to demand information updates and may significantly affect offshoring–reshoring comparisons, such that reshoring may yield lower profits than offshoring in many cases, including when offshoring has no baseline-cost advantage.

• KEYWORD(S):
• global business
• operations
• supply chain

3/2/2017 — We document that higher measures of liquidity risk on banks balance sheets are associated with lower expected stock returns. We first calculate a measure of liquidity risk, referred to as the liquidity gap (LG), which reflects how much of a bank's volatile liabilities are covered by its stock of liquid assets.

• KEYWORD(S):
• equity markets
• finance
• risk management