Workplace deviance such as theft, lateness at work, drug abuse and abuse of co-workers, collectively costs organizations billions of dollars a year. But attempts to identify and explain the triggers of the problem have often been frustratingly inconclusive. One key contributor is thought to be the employee’s level of self-esteem but the propositions behind ... Read More

One of the great consumer benefits of the Internet has been the development of technology-based self-service, which enables individuals to access services electronically, anytime and anywhere. Governments around the world have appreciated this phenomenon and many of them have started to offer e-government services, i.e., government services that can be ... Read More

Boards of directors typically consist of people who are recognised as leaders by the corporate community. But just as too many chefs spoil the soup, so may too many people trying to lead at the same time fail to benefit a firm's financial performance. Instead, boards that sort themselves into clear "informal hierarchies" can have a better impact on firms ... Read More

Marketing has the power to influence consumer evaluations of products and persuade people to buy, but some forms of marketing have a reverse effect. For instance, exposure to the brand name "Walmart", which is typically associated with saving money, reduces subsequent spending, but exposure to the brand’s slogan "Save money. Live better" induces more ... Read More

In today's globalised world, investors are often advised to hold a combination of domestic and foreign equity to spread out and balance their risk. However, numerous reports have shown a bias towards home equity as a result of either institutional barriers or investor behavior. What has not been clear is how home bias affects asset pricing in equilibrium ... Read More

In 2009 Apple increased the price of its best-selling iTunes tracks from 99 cents to $1.29, triggering a more enduring than expected sales decline. What did the company do wrong? For one thing, it may have gone too far too soon in increasing prices, according to research by Javad Nasiry and Ioana Popescu. They looked at dynamic pricing when there are loss ... Read More

Analysts are very important in the investment process. Investors pay hundreds of millions of dollars for their recommendations and forecast data so there is understandably keen interest in identifying the better performing analysts. Two measures with a high profile are the annual rankings by Institutional Investor (II) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Both ... Read More

One of the primary functions of markets is to aggregate information to help investors make investment decisions. This aggregation, however, is usually imperfect as evidenced in the dispersion of market prices. But the advent of Wikipedia may be shaking that up. Wikipedia allows users to not only consume but contribute information, thus providing a platform ... Read More

Clawback provisions allow firms to recover compensation from corporate executives involved in accounting improprieties. But are they a deterrent? Do they improve financial reporting? These are important questions at a time when executive compensation is under the microscope. Lilian H. Chan, Kevin C.W. Chen, Tai-Yuan Chen and Yanxin Yu have been investigating ... Read More

Unemployment is an emotional and negative experience that disrupts not only a person's income, but also their routine, identity and daily social connections. But what happens next, when the job search starts? While there has been considerable research interest in this topic, most of it has focused on a specific moment in time. Yet the job search can extend ... Read More