Better not look too nice? Employees' preferences towards (un)likeable managers

Recent research shows that, all else equal, most people prefer likeable colleagues. In this article, two experiments are employed to analyze preferences with respect to (un)likeable superiors. We thereby focus on perceptions of likeability based on appearance rather than as a behavioral characteristic, which allows us to concentrate on the impact of quick, unconscious evaluations in zero-acquaintance situations. The results indicate that, all else equal, managers of higher perceived likeability are less preferred than managers of lower perceived likeability. Such likeability-aversion emerges among male and female respondents, affects male and female managers, and holds both for preferences expressed from the perspective of employees (Experiment 1) or a HR department (Experiment 2).     

The Effect of Competition on R&D Portfolio Investments

Although project portfolio management has been an active research area over the past 50 years, budget allocation models that consider competition are sparse. Faced with the competition, firms contemplating budget allocation for their project portfolio cannot limit their attention to the returns from their projects' target markets, as is the case for monopoly firms, but must also anticipate the competitive effects on these returns. Assuming firms allocate their budgets between projects offering incremental innovation targeting a mature market and projects offering radical innovation targeting an emerging market, we show that while the monopoly firm bases its budget allocation decision solely on the marginal returns of the markets, competing firms—as they take into account their counterparts' investment decisions—need to also consider the projects' average returns from their respective markets. This drives competing firms into incrementalism: faced with competition, firms invest larger portions of their budgets into projects targeting mature markets. This effect is amplified as the number of competing firms increases and firms allocate an even greater share of their budget into projects targeting a mature market. We further demonstrate the effects that changes to firms' individual budgets, as well as to market characteristics, have on firms' budget allocation decision.     

From Left to Right: The Changing Identity of the Chilean Political Class

This article examines the changing role of important sections of the Chilean political elites, from a Keynesian and Marxist cultural political and economic ethos, to a post-modernist set of values profoundly influenced by the ideas of free markets and state withdrawal, as proposed by Hayek and Friedman. From strong support for, and identification with, the role of the state as agent of change, social justice and social mobility, significant sections of the Chilean political class have come to accept the globalisation of the world economy and its determination of internal politics. Values such as solidarity and equalitarianism have given way to individualism and selfishness. Whether these changes reflect genuine commitment or tactical adaptation remains to be seen, but they are likely anyway to undermine the legitimacy of the democratic regime which replaced the 16 year dictatorship of the military under General Augusto Pinochet. The lack of real alternative societal models does not augur well for the fragile Chilean democracy.     

Social Bookmarking–Repository–Networking: Possibilities for Support of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

Social bookmarking, repositories, networking, and other Web 2.0 technologies have the capacity to engage enormous numbers of ordinary people in networking, sharing, and working with digital resources. The Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong has been pioneering new educational applications. Through grants from the University we have developed a social bookmarking and repository system based on Web 2.0 ideas. RISAL—Repository of Interactive Social Assets for Learning has an unrealized potential to support teaching and learning at the University level. It is designed to facilitate and encourage sharing and collaboration of teachers and students with similar interests or learning foci across levels and programs. This form of learning support builds on and encourages the Web 2.0 culture of social networking and contribution of the individual to the community. In addition, the system is designed to incorporate compliance with Hong Kong's Copyright Ordinance (Creative Commons). The authors discuss the RISAL and describe its features and benefits that this system can offer to teaching and learning.     

Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Myopic and Strategic Consumers: Theory and Experiment

We investigate retailers’ dynamic pricing decisions in a stylized two‐period setting with possible supply constraints and demand from both myopic and strategic consumers. We present an analytical model and then test its predictions in a behavioral experiment in which human subjects played the role of pricing managers. We find that the fraction of strategic consumers in the market systematically moderates the optimal pricing structure. When this fraction exceeds a certain threshold, the retailer offers relatively small late season markdowns to discourage strategic consumers from waiting and to incentivize them to buy during the early season; otherwise, the retailer offers relatively large markdowns to divert all strategic consumers to the late season, where the majority of revenue is made. Our model analyses suggest that the latter policy is optimal under fairly broad conditions. Our experiment shows that after some significant learning, aggregate behavior is able to approximate the key qualitative predictions from our model analysis, with one notable deviation: in the presence of a mixture of myopic and strategic consumers, subjects act somewhat myopically – they underprice and oversell in the main selling season, which significantly limits their ability to generate revenue in the markdown season.     

The Strategic Role of Third‐Party Marketplaces in Retailing

Retailers are increasingly adopting a dual‐format model. In addition to acting as traditional merchants (buying and reselling goods), these retailers provide a platform for third‐party (3P) sellers to access and compete for the same customers. We investigate the strategic rationale for a retailer to introduce a 3P marketplace. Our analysis provides insights into the growing prevalence of 3P marketplaces. We show that by committing to having an active 3P marketplace, the retailer creates an “outside option” that improves its bargaining position in negotiations with the manufacturer. This can explain the increasing prevalence of such marketplaces. On the other hand, the manufacturer would prefer to eliminate the retailer's outside option and should seek to limit or prevent sales through 3P marketplaces. This is consistent with actions that several manufacturers have taken to limit such sales. Interestingly, if the manufacturer fails to eliminate sales of competing products through the 3P marketplace, then the best strategy for the manufacturer is to allow the retailer to dictate the terms of their contract. This is because a powerful retailer will rely less on its outside option in generating profit, and therefore it will increase the fees charged to 3P sellers and soften the competition between 3P sellers and the manufacturer. The decrease in competition will lead to an increase in the value of outside option of the manufacturer and improve its profit. Additionally, we find that the presence of a 3P marketplace benefits consumers, but this benefit diminishes as the retailer becomes more powerful.     

Participation in Bridging and Bonding Associations and Civic Attitudes: Evidence from Flanders

Current scientific research and recent policy initiatives reveal an intense interest in the effect of social capital on a broad range of socioeconomic outcomes both at the individual level (e.g., civic attitudes) and the societal level (e.g., democratic or economic performance). Despite persistent argumentation in this debate that voluntary associations are of crucial importance in this process, empirical research usually reveals but a weak relation between membership and democratic (or civic) attitudes. In this paper, we follow recent arguments that various types of associations may play different roles. Specifically, we empirically distinguish between bridging and bonding associations based on the socioeconomic diversity within an association. Using a dataset on association membership in Flanders, we find empirical support for the view that individuals’ values and attitudes indeed differ across members in (predominantly) bridging or bonding associations.

Community Heterogeneity: A Burden for the Creation of Social Capital?*

Objective. This study examines the relationship between community heterogeneity and social capital on the local government level. Method. We apply both OLS and interval regression techniques to objective macro data of 307 Flemish municipalities for the year 2000. Results. Our results show that, after controlling for various socioeconomic characteristics of the municipality, income inequality is not significantly correlated with the municipality's level of social capital. We do find a significant negative relation between social capital and the number of nationalities within a municipality. Yet, contrary to the prevailing argument in the literature, it is not the presence of people with a clearly different ethnic‐cultural background that drives this negative relation. Conclusions. In accordance with previous international findings, municipalities with large groups of differing nationalities among its citizenry are confronted with a lower level of social capital. Importantly, however, our findings emphasize the need to distinguish between different groups of nationalities and argue for explanations beyond “simple” ethnic‐cultural disparities.