In the 1990s, some Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) started providing stock options for directors, following in the footsteps of the US and other countries. The intention was to signal alignment of managerial interests with those of shareholders. But rumours and reports over the years put a question mark over whether these options were bona fide. For ... Read More

Imagine being in a clothing shop and hearing the salesperson tell another customer, “You have fantastic fashion sense”. The other customer can expect to feel flattered, but simply witnessing this exchange has an effect on the observer, too: it elicits complex and conflicting emotions and ultimately could influence their purchase decision. This was the ... Read More

Work is an economic activity but also a social one, and the nature of that social side can have implications for an organisation ranging from an employee’s sense of obligation to the firm to even their task performance. Research by Riki Takeuchi, Seokhwa Yun and Kin Fai Ellick Wong shows how this happens by focusing on a specific aspect of the social nature ... Read More

French wine and video games may seem to have little in common, but they are both subject to advance sales – that is, being offered for sale to customers before the quality of the product is widely known. This can benefit the customer by giving them guaranteed availability at a discounted price, and it is good for the seller, too, because they can increase ... Read More

Internet privacy concern (IPC) is a growing field of research and, much more widely, a worry in society due to the huge amount of personal information being gathered, stored, transmitted and published on the Internet. The problem is limited agreement about what it entails, and how to gauge people’s views on this subject and respond accordingly. Consider, for ... Read More

Executive compensation is often closely linked to firm performance, and therein lies a temptation for managers to manipulate financial reports in their favour. To deter this behaviour, the US has moved towards requiring firms to have clawback provisions that authorise boards to recover compensation paid to executives if the company has to restate its ... Read More

Conventional thinking in business schools and the business world is that managers who have a tendency to be over-committed to projects – to the point they are unwilling or unable to end a loss-making proposition – are bad for firms. But one study suggests there is an upside to that tendency: when such managers are put in charge, it signals to employees ... Read More

Healthcare is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. It consumes more than 10 per cent of GDP in most developed countries, and in the US is expected to reach 19.6 per cent in 2016. How people perceive their health risks will influence consumer decisions, and also economic and public policy. Getting a better understanding of these perceptions ... Read More

Retailers are sharing more information than ever with their suppliers, according to US data. But in this day and age when things like raw data can be shared automatically, some retailers may still prefer to communicate via more traditional channels such as email, phone, fax and meetings. This gives them more opportunity to screen what they share. For Liang ... Read More

Managers and scholars alike are keen to understand the factors that affect individual acceptance and use of new technology. A lot of research has been done in this field and, while the many ideas have been unified into a single theory that can fairly reliably predict people’s behaviour towards new technology, it has mostly focused on employees at work. But ... Read More