Spotlight on new research publications in September
01/09/2021
Photo: Bjarke MacCarthy
Are you a journalist, researcher or simply interested in academic articles on business and culture?
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The following is a rough list. If you need more information, please contact the researcher.
The academic articles have been peer-reviewed, which means they have been judged by other researchers within the same area.
THE FOLLOWING IS THIS MONTH’S PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH – ENJOY YOUR READING:
Find the abstracts under each heading...
Living with Restrictions: The Duration of Restrictions Influences Construal Levels
Abstract: Many people live with restrictions in their daily lives. Overlooked in past research is how individuals who experience restrictions construe information. We propose that individuals with temporary (permanent) restrictions adopt a more concrete (abstract) level of construal. Theoretically, perceptions of loss of control explain the construal level of consumers with temporary (vs. permanent) restrictions. We tested our hypotheses in a series of four quasi-experiment studies both in the field and online, including samples of individuals with diabetes and celiac disease. The results show that individuals who experience temporary (permanent) restrictions adopt more concrete (abstract) levels of construal, which results in their preference for products that communicate brand (category) attributes and shelves that contain only restriction-related (mixture of restriction- and no restriction-related) products. These findings extend developments in the literature on restrictions and construal level theory by showing the effects of duration of restrictions on individuals’ mindset and generate actionable implications for marketers and policymakers.
Abstract: Many people live with restrictions in their daily lives. Overlooked in past research is how individuals who experience restrictions construe information. We propose that individuals with temporary (permanent) restrictions adopt a more concrete (abstract) level of construal. Theoretically, perceptions of loss of control explain the construal level of consumers with temporary (vs. permanent) restrictions. We tested our hypotheses in a series of four quasi-experiment studies both in the field and online, including samples of individuals with diabetes and celiac disease. The results show that individuals who experience temporary (permanent) restrictions adopt more concrete (abstract) levels of construal, which results in their preference for products that communicate brand (category) attributes and shelves that contain only restriction-related (mixture of restriction- and no restriction-related) products. These findings extend developments in the literature on restrictions and construal level theory by showing the effects of duration of restrictions on individuals’ mindset and generate actionable implications for marketers and policymakers.
Journal: Psychology & Marketing
Published: August 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Gülen Sarial Abi
Do Investor Sentiments Drive Cryptocurrency Prices?
Abstract: This paper studies the dynamic network connectedness between cryptocurrency returns and sentiments using the novel cryptocurrency-specific MarketPsych sentiment data for 13 cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization. The results indicate the dominance of cryptocurrencies with higher market capitalization and information transmission from cryptocurrency returns to sentiments. Our results also show that Bitcoin is losing its dominance to alt-coins in return spillovers while still dominant in sentiment spillovers.
Abstract: This paper studies the dynamic network connectedness between cryptocurrency returns and sentiments using the novel cryptocurrency-specific MarketPsych sentiment data for 13 cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization. The results indicate the dominance of cryptocurrencies with higher market capitalization and information transmission from cryptocurrency returns to sentiments. Our results also show that Bitcoin is losing its dominance to alt-coins in return spillovers while still dominant in sentiment spillovers.
Journal: Economics Letters
Published: September 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Oguzhan Cepni
Forecasting Mid-price Movement of Bitcoin Futures using Machine Learning
Abstract: In the aftermath of the global financial crisis and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, investors face challenges in understanding price dynamics across assets. This paper explores the performance of the various type of machine learning algorithms (MLAs) to predict mid-price movement for Bitcoin futures prices. We use high-frequency intraday data to evaluate the relative forecasting performances across various time frequencies, ranging between 5 and 60-min. Our findings show that the average classification accuracy for five out of the six MLAs is consistently above the 50% threshold, indicating that MLAs outperform benchmark models such as ARIMA and random walk in forecasting Bitcoin futures prices. This highlights the importance and relevance of MLAs to produce accurate forecasts for bitcoin futures prices during the COVID-19 turmoil.
Abstract: In the aftermath of the global financial crisis and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, investors face challenges in understanding price dynamics across assets. This paper explores the performance of the various type of machine learning algorithms (MLAs) to predict mid-price movement for Bitcoin futures prices. We use high-frequency intraday data to evaluate the relative forecasting performances across various time frequencies, ranging between 5 and 60-min. Our findings show that the average classification accuracy for five out of the six MLAs is consistently above the 50% threshold, indicating that MLAs outperform benchmark models such as ARIMA and random walk in forecasting Bitcoin futures prices. This highlights the importance and relevance of MLAs to produce accurate forecasts for bitcoin futures prices during the COVID-19 turmoil.
Journal: Annals of Operations Research
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Oguzhan Cepni
Captive Power, Market access and Macroeconomic Performance: Reforming the Bangladesh Electricity Sector
Abstract: Integrating the captive capacity with the on-grid supply has been advocated as a way to improve resource utilization in the electricity market in developing and emerging countries. Despite many countries granting Captive Power Plants (CPPs) access to the grid, integration may still be hindered by other barriers to entry. In Bangladesh, CPPs are required to sell their electricity surplus, but there is no evidence of trading with the national grid, mostly due to high connectivity costs. In this paper we develop and estimate a fit-for purpose Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model to examine the effects of the Bangladeshi CPPs connecting to the national grid and selling their surplus at regulated prices. The model parameters are set through a combination of calibration and Bayesian estimation. We find that if CPPs are connected to the national grid, steady-state industrial output, GDP, and household consumption decrease due to pre-existing energy price distortions. These results support the second-best theory, which implies that merely connecting the CPPs to the national grid without firstly removing market distortions can lead to economically inefficient outcomes. Instead, government should first consider alternative reforms such as phasing out subsidised tariffs and enabling a competitive market environment.
Abstract: Integrating the captive capacity with the on-grid supply has been advocated as a way to improve resource utilization in the electricity market in developing and emerging countries. Despite many countries granting Captive Power Plants (CPPs) access to the grid, integration may still be hindered by other barriers to entry. In Bangladesh, CPPs are required to sell their electricity surplus, but there is no evidence of trading with the national grid, mostly due to high connectivity costs. In this paper we develop and estimate a fit-for purpose Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model to examine the effects of the Bangladeshi CPPs connecting to the national grid and selling their surplus at regulated prices. The model parameters are set through a combination of calibration and Bayesian estimation. We find that if CPPs are connected to the national grid, steady-state industrial output, GDP, and household consumption decrease due to pre-existing energy price distortions. These results support the second-best theory, which implies that merely connecting the CPPs to the national grid without firstly removing market distortions can lead to economically inefficient outcomes. Instead, government should first consider alternative reforms such as phasing out subsidised tariffs and enabling a competitive market environment.
Journal: Energy Economics
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Tooraj Jamasb , Manuel Llorca
Corporate Social Responsibility and Hotel Financial Performance
Abstract: This paper assesses the causal relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and corporate financial performance using a sample of 43 hotels for the period 2007–2018. The research employs a dynamic panel vector autoregressive model (PVAR) which brings more analytical insights in the CSR- Financial Performance modeling. The results show that CSR has a positive and significant impact on corporate financial performance and lend support to the theoretical underpinnings with respect to the CSR and financial performance nexus. The results suggest that growth opportunities mediate the relationship between CSR and performance. High-growth hotels will have better opportunities to engage in CSR activities which in turn positively impact on their performance. Practically, our findings suggest that CSR is an important mechanism to improve the efficiency of organizations.
Abstract: This paper assesses the causal relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and corporate financial performance using a sample of 43 hotels for the period 2007–2018. The research employs a dynamic panel vector autoregressive model (PVAR) which brings more analytical insights in the CSR- Financial Performance modeling. The results show that CSR has a positive and significant impact on corporate financial performance and lend support to the theoretical underpinnings with respect to the CSR and financial performance nexus. The results suggest that growth opportunities mediate the relationship between CSR and performance. High-growth hotels will have better opportunities to engage in CSR activities which in turn positively impact on their performance. Practically, our findings suggest that CSR is an important mechanism to improve the efficiency of organizations.
Journal: Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management
Published: July 2021
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Integration of the Buyer–supplier Interface for Global Sourcing
Abstract: While global sourcing often implies that the firm needs to, for example, redesign the procurement organization and make decisions on what to centralize and what to manage locally, global sourcing also has direct implications for management of the buyer–supplier interface. This study takes an organization design focus and addresses global sourcing organization design as well as provides illustrations on how to integrate the buyer–supplier interface for global sourcing. Integration is conceptualized as coordination and cooperation. The paper is based on an embedded unit case study of a global technical industrial product and service systems provider, TechInd (pseudonym). Data was collected from TechInd as well as from six of its suppliers. The findings indicate that the global sourcing organization structure, as well as the differences in the buyer’s sourcing and supplier’s sales organizations, pose requirements for management of the interface in terms of coordination and cooperation. Challenges arising particularly due to differences in geographical scope and level of centralization can be managed by introducing the key account role and alignment of incentives.
Abstract: While global sourcing often implies that the firm needs to, for example, redesign the procurement organization and make decisions on what to centralize and what to manage locally, global sourcing also has direct implications for management of the buyer–supplier interface. This study takes an organization design focus and addresses global sourcing organization design as well as provides illustrations on how to integrate the buyer–supplier interface for global sourcing. Integration is conceptualized as coordination and cooperation. The paper is based on an embedded unit case study of a global technical industrial product and service systems provider, TechInd (pseudonym). Data was collected from TechInd as well as from six of its suppliers. The findings indicate that the global sourcing organization structure, as well as the differences in the buyer’s sourcing and supplier’s sales organizations, pose requirements for management of the interface in terms of coordination and cooperation. Challenges arising particularly due to differences in geographical scope and level of centralization can be managed by introducing the key account role and alignment of incentives.
Journal: Operations Management Research
Published: July 2021
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A Time to Print, a Time to Reform
Abstract: The public mechanical clock and movable type printing press were arguably the most important and complex technologies of the late medieval period. We posit that towns with clocks became upper-tail human capital hubs—clocks required extensive technical know-how and fine mechanical skill. This meant that clock towns were in position to adopt the printing press soon after its invention in 1450, as presses required a similar set of mechanical and technical skills to operate and repair. A two-stage analysis confirms this conjecture: we find that clock towns were 34–40 percentage points more likely to also have a press by 1500. The press, in turn, helped facilitate the spread of the Protestant Reformation. A three-stage instrumental variables analysis indicates that the press influenced the adoption of Protestantism, while the clock’s effect on the Reformation was mostly indirect. Our analysis therefore suggests that the mechanical clock was responsible – directly and indirectly – for two of the most important movements in the making of the modern world: the spread of printing and the Reformation.
Abstract: The public mechanical clock and movable type printing press were arguably the most important and complex technologies of the late medieval period. We posit that towns with clocks became upper-tail human capital hubs—clocks required extensive technical know-how and fine mechanical skill. This meant that clock towns were in position to adopt the printing press soon after its invention in 1450, as presses required a similar set of mechanical and technical skills to operate and repair. A two-stage analysis confirms this conjecture: we find that clock towns were 34–40 percentage points more likely to also have a press by 1500. The press, in turn, helped facilitate the spread of the Protestant Reformation. A three-stage instrumental variables analysis indicates that the press influenced the adoption of Protestantism, while the clock’s effect on the Reformation was mostly indirect. Our analysis therefore suggests that the mechanical clock was responsible – directly and indirectly – for two of the most important movements in the making of the modern world: the spread of printing and the Reformation.
Journal: European Economic Review
Published: September 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Battista Severgnini
The Absorption and Multiplication of Uncertainty in Machine-learning-driven Finance
Abstract: Uncertainty about market developments and their implications characterize financial markets. Increasingly, machine learning is deployed as a tool to absorb this uncertainty and transform it into manageable risk. This article analyses machine-learning-based uncertainty absorption in financial markets by drawing on 182 interviews in the finance industry, including 45 interviews with informants who were actively applying machine-learning techniques to investment management, trading, or risk management problems. We argue that while machine-learning models are deployed to absorb financial uncertainty, they also introduce a new and more profound type of uncertainty, which we call critical model uncertainty. Critical model uncertainty refers to the inability to explain how and why the machine-learning models (particularly neural networks) arrive at their predictions and decisions—their uncertainty-absorbing accomplishments. We suggest that the dialectical relation between machine-learning models’ uncertainty absorption and multiplication calls for further research in the field of finance and beyond.
Abstract: Uncertainty about market developments and their implications characterize financial markets. Increasingly, machine learning is deployed as a tool to absorb this uncertainty and transform it into manageable risk. This article analyses machine-learning-based uncertainty absorption in financial markets by drawing on 182 interviews in the finance industry, including 45 interviews with informants who were actively applying machine-learning techniques to investment management, trading, or risk management problems. We argue that while machine-learning models are deployed to absorb financial uncertainty, they also introduce a new and more profound type of uncertainty, which we call critical model uncertainty. Critical model uncertainty refers to the inability to explain how and why the machine-learning models (particularly neural networks) arrive at their predictions and decisions—their uncertainty-absorbing accomplishments. We suggest that the dialectical relation between machine-learning models’ uncertainty absorption and multiplication calls for further research in the field of finance and beyond.
Journal: British Journal of Sociology
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Kristian Bondo Hansen , Christian Borch
City-wide Scale-up of Smart City Pilot Projects: Governance Conditions
Abstract: This article's research objective is to study the combinations of governance conditions under which smart city pilot projects scale-up to an entire city. This is highly relevant for delivering city-wide urban solutions to grand challenges. The combinations of conditions (factors) for scale-up remain understudied. This paper contextualizes its research within the theoretical literature of smart cities, innovation, knowledge management, and governance and compares 17 smart city pilot projects in North America, Europe, and Asia. The cases were selected according to the research objective and analyzed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The findings show two paths of city-wide scale-up, which we term “bureaucratic tailoring” and “low-uncertainty partnering.” This article makes three important theoretical contributions. First, it is possible for smart city pilot projects to scale-up to an entire city through different paths. Second, differentiating the role and capabilities of the municipality in terms of these different paths and in relation to the other governance conditions is essential. Third, the social perception of technological uncertainty is not static but fluid, and is highly related to other governance conditions. Future-oriented policy makers might find the paths explained here useful for anticipating how projects might scale-up.
Abstract: This article's research objective is to study the combinations of governance conditions under which smart city pilot projects scale-up to an entire city. This is highly relevant for delivering city-wide urban solutions to grand challenges. The combinations of conditions (factors) for scale-up remain understudied. This paper contextualizes its research within the theoretical literature of smart cities, innovation, knowledge management, and governance and compares 17 smart city pilot projects in North America, Europe, and Asia. The cases were selected according to the research objective and analyzed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The findings show two paths of city-wide scale-up, which we term “bureaucratic tailoring” and “low-uncertainty partnering.” This article makes three important theoretical contributions. First, it is possible for smart city pilot projects to scale-up to an entire city through different paths. Second, differentiating the role and capabilities of the municipality in terms of these different paths and in relation to the other governance conditions is essential. Third, the social perception of technological uncertainty is not static but fluid, and is highly related to other governance conditions. Future-oriented policy makers might find the paths explained here useful for anticipating how projects might scale-up.
Journal: Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Published: November 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Susana Borrás
Improving the Measurement of Earnings Dynamics
Abstract: Empirically, earnings at the start or end of earnings spells are lower and more volatile than in the interior of earnings histories, reflecting mainly the effects of working less than the full year. Ignoring these properties leads to a mismeasurement of the permanent and transitory shock variances and induces the large and widely documented divergence in the estimates of those variances based on fitting the earnings moments in levels or growth rates. Accounting for these effects enables more accurate analysis using quantitative models with permanent and transitory earnings risk and improves empirical estimates of consumption insurance against permanent earnings shocks.
Abstract: Empirically, earnings at the start or end of earnings spells are lower and more volatile than in the interior of earnings histories, reflecting mainly the effects of working less than the full year. Ignoring these properties leads to a mismeasurement of the permanent and transitory shock variances and induces the large and widely documented divergence in the estimates of those variances based on fitting the earnings moments in levels or growth rates. Accounting for these effects enables more accurate analysis using quantitative models with permanent and transitory earnings risk and improves empirical estimates of consumption insurance against permanent earnings shocks.
Journal: International Economic Review
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Moira Daly
Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence for 5G-enabled Internet of Things: Challenges, Opportunities, and Solutions
Abstract: Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized the digital world by connecting billions of electronic devices over the internet. IoT devices play an essential role in the modern era when conventional devices become more autonomous and smart. On the one hand, high-speed data transfer is a major issue where the 5G-enabled environment plays an important role. On the other hand, these IoT devices transfer the data by using protocols based on centralized architecture and may cause several security issues for the data. Merging artificial intelligence to 5G wireless systems solves several issues such as autonomous robots, self-driving vehicles, virtual reality, and engender security problems. Building trust among the network users without trusting third party authorities is the system's primary concern. Blockchain emerged as a key technology based on a distributed ledger to maintain the network's event logs. Blockchain provides a secure, decentralized, and trustless environment for IoT devices. However, integrating IoT and blockchain also has several challenges; for example, major challenge is low throughput. Currently, the ethereum blockchain network can process approximately 12 to 15 transactions per second, while IoT devices require relatively higher throughput. Therefore, blockchains are incapable of providing functionality for a 5G-enabled IoT based network. The limiting factor of throughput in the blockchain is their network. The slow propagation of transactions and blocks in the P2P network does not allow miners and verifiers to fastly mine and verify new blocks, respectively. Therefore, network scalability is the major issue of IoT based blockchains. In this work, we solved the network scalability issue using blockchain distributed network while to increase the throughput of blockchain, this article uses the Raft consensus algorithm. Another most important issue with IoT networks is privacy. Unfortunately, the blockchain distributed ledgers are public and sensitive information is available on the network for everyone are private, but in such cases, third party editing is not possible without revealing the original contents. To solve privacy issues, we used zkLedger as a solution that is based on zero knowledge-based cryptography.
Abstract: Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized the digital world by connecting billions of electronic devices over the internet. IoT devices play an essential role in the modern era when conventional devices become more autonomous and smart. On the one hand, high-speed data transfer is a major issue where the 5G-enabled environment plays an important role. On the other hand, these IoT devices transfer the data by using protocols based on centralized architecture and may cause several security issues for the data. Merging artificial intelligence to 5G wireless systems solves several issues such as autonomous robots, self-driving vehicles, virtual reality, and engender security problems. Building trust among the network users without trusting third party authorities is the system's primary concern. Blockchain emerged as a key technology based on a distributed ledger to maintain the network's event logs. Blockchain provides a secure, decentralized, and trustless environment for IoT devices. However, integrating IoT and blockchain also has several challenges; for example, major challenge is low throughput. Currently, the ethereum blockchain network can process approximately 12 to 15 transactions per second, while IoT devices require relatively higher throughput. Therefore, blockchains are incapable of providing functionality for a 5G-enabled IoT based network. The limiting factor of throughput in the blockchain is their network. The slow propagation of transactions and blocks in the P2P network does not allow miners and verifiers to fastly mine and verify new blocks, respectively. Therefore, network scalability is the major issue of IoT based blockchains. In this work, we solved the network scalability issue using blockchain distributed network while to increase the throughput of blockchain, this article uses the Raft consensus algorithm. Another most important issue with IoT networks is privacy. Unfortunately, the blockchain distributed ledgers are public and sensitive information is available on the network for everyone are private, but in such cases, third party editing is not possible without revealing the original contents. To solve privacy issues, we used zkLedger as a solution that is based on zero knowledge-based cryptography.
Journal: Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Rajani Singh , Raghava Rao Mukkamala
When Henry Met Fritz”: Rules As Organizational Frameworks: For Emergent Strategy Process
Abstract: Henry Mintzberg’s celebrated critique of the “design school” argued that strategy is the best thought of as adaptive, bottom-up, and based on dispersed knowledge and learning. Yet Mintzberg’s account lacks a clear and comprehensive theoretical underpinning, especially regarding how to guide emergent strategy in dynamic environments, and leverage it to exploit value creation. We provide this foundation by showing how Mintzberg’s critique of planning and design at the level of organizational strategy is in key ways anticipated by F.A. Hayek’s critique of planning and design at the societal level. Both writers are critical of rationalist epistemology and instead stress experiential knowledge, fallibility, and unanticipated social consequences. Hayek also extends Mintzberg’s work by showing how rules in the firm capture adaptive, experiential, tacit, and dispersed knowledge in the context of dynamic environments. A framework of rules thus creates inimitable and non-substitutable resources that enable the firm to fully exploit its competitive advantage.
Abstract: Henry Mintzberg’s celebrated critique of the “design school” argued that strategy is the best thought of as adaptive, bottom-up, and based on dispersed knowledge and learning. Yet Mintzberg’s account lacks a clear and comprehensive theoretical underpinning, especially regarding how to guide emergent strategy in dynamic environments, and leverage it to exploit value creation. We provide this foundation by showing how Mintzberg’s critique of planning and design at the level of organizational strategy is in key ways anticipated by F.A. Hayek’s critique of planning and design at the societal level. Both writers are critical of rationalist epistemology and instead stress experiential knowledge, fallibility, and unanticipated social consequences. Hayek also extends Mintzberg’s work by showing how rules in the firm capture adaptive, experiential, tacit, and dispersed knowledge in the context of dynamic environments. A framework of rules thus creates inimitable and non-substitutable resources that enable the firm to fully exploit its competitive advantage.
Journal: Journal of Management Inquiry
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Nicolai J. Foss
Behind the Stigma Shield: Frontline Employees’ Emotional Response to Organizational Event Stigma at Work and at Home
Abstract: We investigate how frontline employees manage their emotional experiences of organizational event stigma as an implication of organizational wrongdoing. Our research is based on a longitudinal case study of Danske Bank, which was involved in a money laundering scandal of historical magnitude. We evoke Goffman’s epistemological understanding of stigma as arising in social interactions in all aspects of life. We analyze the emotionally straining spillover effects of stigmatization at home, as event stigma blurs individuals’ work–home boundaries. Our study shows how frontline employees develop a “stigma shield,” that is, emotional detachment strategies used at work and home to protect against the negative implications of event stigmatization and maintain their organizational pride and loyalty. Interestingly, we find that the stigma shield enables identity protection rather than identity restructuring in response to the identity threat posed by the scandal. We contribute to the literature on organizational event stigma and identity threat by offering a theoretical lens focusing on individual-level emotional responses to “felt” stigmatization among frontline employees in an organization facing scandal.
Abstract: We investigate how frontline employees manage their emotional experiences of organizational event stigma as an implication of organizational wrongdoing. Our research is based on a longitudinal case study of Danske Bank, which was involved in a money laundering scandal of historical magnitude. We evoke Goffman’s epistemological understanding of stigma as arising in social interactions in all aspects of life. We analyze the emotionally straining spillover effects of stigmatization at home, as event stigma blurs individuals’ work–home boundaries. Our study shows how frontline employees develop a “stigma shield,” that is, emotional detachment strategies used at work and home to protect against the negative implications of event stigmatization and maintain their organizational pride and loyalty. Interestingly, we find that the stigma shield enables identity protection rather than identity restructuring in response to the identity threat posed by the scandal. We contribute to the literature on organizational event stigma and identity threat by offering a theoretical lens focusing on individual-level emotional responses to “felt” stigmatization among frontline employees in an organization facing scandal.
Journal: Journal of Management Studies
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Mette Morsing
Governing between Reason and Affects: Spinoza and the Politics of Prophets
Abstract: Through a close analysis of Spinoza's views on prophecy and the Hebrew Republic, this article contributes insights into how certain modes of governing succeed in aligning and entangling affects with reason. I argue, first, that the prophet must be seen as a political figure immersed in the imaginative-affective domain. Through the imagination, signs, and a moral compass, the prophet utilizes affects such as humility, repentance, and devotion to exhort people to live in accordance with the guidance of reason. In this way, prophetic authority underlies a mode of governing that utilizes imaginative and affective means to reach rationally expedient ends. However, since affects are inherently inconsistent and fluctuating, something needs to be invoked to make commendable affects durable, intense, and lasting. I therefore turn to Spinoza's analysis of Moses’ government of the Hebrews to argue that by commending collective, repetitive, and bodily performances of ceremonies, rituals, and liturgy, he was able to habituate individuals to certain moods, values, and virtues that conform with the prescripts of reason on an affective basis. It is my hope that the article will enhance our ability to see that, although affects are governable, not all affects can be entangled with reason and that the difference between true and false prophets is small.
Abstract: Through a close analysis of Spinoza's views on prophecy and the Hebrew Republic, this article contributes insights into how certain modes of governing succeed in aligning and entangling affects with reason. I argue, first, that the prophet must be seen as a political figure immersed in the imaginative-affective domain. Through the imagination, signs, and a moral compass, the prophet utilizes affects such as humility, repentance, and devotion to exhort people to live in accordance with the guidance of reason. In this way, prophetic authority underlies a mode of governing that utilizes imaginative and affective means to reach rationally expedient ends. However, since affects are inherently inconsistent and fluctuating, something needs to be invoked to make commendable affects durable, intense, and lasting. I therefore turn to Spinoza's analysis of Moses’ government of the Hebrews to argue that by commending collective, repetitive, and bodily performances of ceremonies, rituals, and liturgy, he was able to habituate individuals to certain moods, values, and virtues that conform with the prescripts of reason on an affective basis. It is my hope that the article will enhance our ability to see that, although affects are governable, not all affects can be entangled with reason and that the difference between true and false prophets is small.
Journal: Distinktion
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Jonathan Harmat
Familiar Strangers: Managing Engagements in Public-private Partnerships in Education
Abstract: Various forms of public-private collaborative organizations have been emerging in the education sector, a development that has made managing public-private partnerships an unavoidable imperative for school managers today. Addressing interactions between the partnership manager of and partners in a public-private innovation partnership, this article explores the attachments public and private actors establish in the framework of such partnerships. While formal structures often bind partnerships together, open innovation partnerships have a more fluid organization in which the participants have to establish the ground for their common work. Specifically, the article presents a study of a Danish partnership project aimed at developing a new secondary school. Drawing on the sociology of engagements, the article sketches out the differing forms of mutual engagements at stake between the actors involved and the challenges they face. As the partnership studied lacked formal agreements, the manager’s and partners’ locally performed acts of proximity became a means of binding the partnership together. In these acts, a mutual explorative engagement intertwined with a familiar engagement, thus creating a distinct attachment of familiar strangers between the public and private actors – an attachment through which ideas on education and common educational visions could traverse the public and private sectors.
Abstract: Various forms of public-private collaborative organizations have been emerging in the education sector, a development that has made managing public-private partnerships an unavoidable imperative for school managers today. Addressing interactions between the partnership manager of and partners in a public-private innovation partnership, this article explores the attachments public and private actors establish in the framework of such partnerships. While formal structures often bind partnerships together, open innovation partnerships have a more fluid organization in which the participants have to establish the ground for their common work. Specifically, the article presents a study of a Danish partnership project aimed at developing a new secondary school. Drawing on the sociology of engagements, the article sketches out the differing forms of mutual engagements at stake between the actors involved and the challenges they face. As the partnership studied lacked formal agreements, the manager’s and partners’ locally performed acts of proximity became a means of binding the partnership together. In these acts, a mutual explorative engagement intertwined with a familiar engagement, thus creating a distinct attachment of familiar strangers between the public and private actors – an attachment through which ideas on education and common educational visions could traverse the public and private sectors.
Journal: Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Mathilde Hjerrild Carlsen
Sustainability Beyond Instrumentality: Towards an Immanent Ethics of Organizational Environmentalism
Abstract: In research on organizational environmentalism, there has been a repeated call for ways to go beyond the business case for sustainability frame. While the business case frame assumes that developing eco-friendly solutions can benefit firms financially, this article highlights the importance of challenging established understandings of sustainability. To this end, I introduce Deleuze’s distinction between morality and ethics. Morality involves passing judgements on the basis of values. Ethics provides an immanent evaluation of the principles by which specific solutions are considered sustainable. Analysing interviews with architects, building engineers and business developers, the article shows how these actors reflect on the values that form the basis of their practice, but also try to imagine new ways of working with sustainability. In conclusion, the article suggests that an immanent ethics of organizational environmentalism can allow for the values that inform environmental efforts in organizations to be evaluated as well as alternative visions of sustainability to be created.
Abstract: In research on organizational environmentalism, there has been a repeated call for ways to go beyond the business case for sustainability frame. While the business case frame assumes that developing eco-friendly solutions can benefit firms financially, this article highlights the importance of challenging established understandings of sustainability. To this end, I introduce Deleuze’s distinction between morality and ethics. Morality involves passing judgements on the basis of values. Ethics provides an immanent evaluation of the principles by which specific solutions are considered sustainable. Analysing interviews with architects, building engineers and business developers, the article shows how these actors reflect on the values that form the basis of their practice, but also try to imagine new ways of working with sustainability. In conclusion, the article suggests that an immanent ethics of organizational environmentalism can allow for the values that inform environmental efforts in organizations to be evaluated as well as alternative visions of sustainability to be created.
Journal: Journal of Business Ethics
Published: August 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Christian Garmann Johnsen
Applying Responsible Ownership to Advance SDGs and the ESG Framework, Resulting in the Issuance of Green Bonds
Abstract: This study aimed to contribute to the strand of literature encompassing governance, sustainability, and stakeholder theory by addressing an inchoate element of responsible ownership: collective action by different stakeholders. Our study’s originality rests on the introduction of an ownership strategy as a governance mechanism for collective action and responsible ownership in order to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework. Using a twofold empirical methodology—studying of archival data and qualitative case work—we provide empirical evidence from a case study of a Nordic energy company showing that applying an ownership strategy helped to strengthen the approach to SDGs and ESG while leading to positive benefits: in this case, the issuance of green bonds. Our theoretical contribution is the addressing of a gap in the literature exploring how an ownership strategy can be a uniting point for collective action, based on the hypothesis that an ownership strategy provides an important reinforcement of a “virtuous cycle”. Policymakers who are interested in promoting long-term commitment of different stakeholders with a focus on sustainability and improved agency should encourage the formulation of an ownership strategy that explains the owners’ commitment to the environment, social causes, and/or governance guidelines. Therein lies the practical contribution of this work. In this study, we found that an ownership strategy with these elements helped to strengthen the firm’s commitment to SDGs and ESG.
Abstract: This study aimed to contribute to the strand of literature encompassing governance, sustainability, and stakeholder theory by addressing an inchoate element of responsible ownership: collective action by different stakeholders. Our study’s originality rests on the introduction of an ownership strategy as a governance mechanism for collective action and responsible ownership in order to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework. Using a twofold empirical methodology—studying of archival data and qualitative case work—we provide empirical evidence from a case study of a Nordic energy company showing that applying an ownership strategy helped to strengthen the approach to SDGs and ESG while leading to positive benefits: in this case, the issuance of green bonds. Our theoretical contribution is the addressing of a gap in the literature exploring how an ownership strategy can be a uniting point for collective action, based on the hypothesis that an ownership strategy provides an important reinforcement of a “virtuous cycle”. Policymakers who are interested in promoting long-term commitment of different stakeholders with a focus on sustainability and improved agency should encourage the formulation of an ownership strategy that explains the owners’ commitment to the environment, social causes, and/or governance guidelines. Therein lies the practical contribution of this work. In this study, we found that an ownership strategy with these elements helped to strengthen the firm’s commitment to SDGs and ESG.
Journal: Sustainability
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Olaf Sigurjonsson
Taking Matters into One’s Own Hands? Addressing the Relational Nature of FLE Autonomy
Abstract: Frontline autonomy, commonly defined as decision-making power distributed to frontline employees (FLEs), has received an increasing amount of attention from scholars and practitioners alike. Despite the many fruitful efforts within this longstanding field of study, the literature is divided on the proper conceptualization of FLE autonomy. One way to integrate extant insights may be to see FLE autonomy as a relational phenomenon. Hence, the present study suggests that research on FLE autonomy should examine the dynamic and relational interplay among management, FLEs, and customers. In this paper, I address this issue by reviewing the extant literature in order to develop a relational model of FLE autonomy.
Abstract: Frontline autonomy, commonly defined as decision-making power distributed to frontline employees (FLEs), has received an increasing amount of attention from scholars and practitioners alike. Despite the many fruitful efforts within this longstanding field of study, the literature is divided on the proper conceptualization of FLE autonomy. One way to integrate extant insights may be to see FLE autonomy as a relational phenomenon. Hence, the present study suggests that research on FLE autonomy should examine the dynamic and relational interplay among management, FLEs, and customers. In this paper, I address this issue by reviewing the extant literature in order to develop a relational model of FLE autonomy.
Journal: Journal of Business Research
Published: November 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Carsten Lund Pedersen
“Isn't It Ironic…!?!” - Mobility Researchers Go Sedentary: A Group Auto-ethnography on Collective Coping and Care in Pandemic Times
Abstract: We moved places and places moved us, until force majeure detained us on the spot. Signed-up to be hyper-mobile PhD-candidates, we became hyper-reflective pandemic intimates. We moved together into a space that felt safe, OUR safe space. Suspended. Did the pandemic open this door, or had this space always existed, even back in the old days? Probably the latter, although we were not sensitive enough to perceive it, too busy to push the door, too lonesome to CARE. Not attentive to its possibilities, not imaginative of its POWER, too confident to be capable of succeeding alone. Even if we might have secretly wished for this space to exist. The present piece of work, and JOY, might be described by others as a ‘side-step’, a ‘hobby project’, a “shadow activity”. For us, it is a recollection of shocks and wonders, a sentience of precious, ephemeral instances that last.
We are a group of eight early career researchers who study global mobility and labour migration from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. With prior international mobility experience, we left our previous countries of residence in 2018 to join an EU-funded research project, whilst being located in different European cities. One could classify us, for example, as highly qualified, privileged migrants. The present paper is the outcome of a collaborative, auto-ethnographic study, conducted in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when we suddenly were forced not to travel anymore. We got together online every week to ‘refaire le monde,’ and we conducted virtual, dialogical self-interrogations and group reflections. Based on an emic approach, in line with Chang, Ngunjiri, and Hernandez (2013), we applied an iterative process of data collection and analysis. Our weekly conversations naturally emerged as a safe space for exchange and understanding, as we were facing similar situations, despite staying at different places. Suddenly, as the privilege of ‘always being on the move,’ ‘always socializing and networking’ disappeared due to closed borders and pandemic threats, we experienced anxieties and isolation and had to re-evaluate our perceptions on life, work, and international mobility. The very purpose and meaning of our broader research endeavors and employment perspectives suddenly faded away. We realized more than ever before, what it means to us to be allowed to move, to travel freely across continents.
Abstract: We moved places and places moved us, until force majeure detained us on the spot. Signed-up to be hyper-mobile PhD-candidates, we became hyper-reflective pandemic intimates. We moved together into a space that felt safe, OUR safe space. Suspended. Did the pandemic open this door, or had this space always existed, even back in the old days? Probably the latter, although we were not sensitive enough to perceive it, too busy to push the door, too lonesome to CARE. Not attentive to its possibilities, not imaginative of its POWER, too confident to be capable of succeeding alone. Even if we might have secretly wished for this space to exist. The present piece of work, and JOY, might be described by others as a ‘side-step’, a ‘hobby project’, a “shadow activity”. For us, it is a recollection of shocks and wonders, a sentience of precious, ephemeral instances that last.
We are a group of eight early career researchers who study global mobility and labour migration from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. With prior international mobility experience, we left our previous countries of residence in 2018 to join an EU-funded research project, whilst being located in different European cities. One could classify us, for example, as highly qualified, privileged migrants. The present paper is the outcome of a collaborative, auto-ethnographic study, conducted in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when we suddenly were forced not to travel anymore. We got together online every week to ‘refaire le monde,’ and we conducted virtual, dialogical self-interrogations and group reflections. Based on an emic approach, in line with Chang, Ngunjiri, and Hernandez (2013), we applied an iterative process of data collection and analysis. Our weekly conversations naturally emerged as a safe space for exchange and understanding, as we were facing similar situations, despite staying at different places. Suddenly, as the privilege of ‘always being on the move,’ ‘always socializing and networking’ disappeared due to closed borders and pandemic threats, we experienced anxieties and isolation and had to re-evaluate our perceptions on life, work, and international mobility. The very purpose and meaning of our broader research endeavors and employment perspectives suddenly faded away. We realized more than ever before, what it means to us to be allowed to move, to travel freely across continents.
Journal: Gender, Work & Organization
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Kerstin Martel
Breaking Out of the Kirznerian Box: A Reply to Sautet
Abstract: What is now called the judgment-based approach to entrepreneurship (JBA) has a rich pedigree in Austrian economics and continues to grow rapidly in that tradition as well as in various research fields in business and management. The JBA has also attracted some criticisms. Frédéric Sautet’s recent review essay is an example. Sautet’s main concern is that the JBA rejects Israel Kirzner’s alertness/discovery approach which, in Sautet’s view, provides a more compelling basis for theorizing. Unfortunately, we do not find Sautet’s criticisms of the JBA convincing. They frequently ignore our arguments about entrepreneurial judgment and its manifestation in the business firm, fail to address our criticisms of the alertness/discovery approach, and are rooted in a flawed understanding of the history of economic thought.
Abstract: What is now called the judgment-based approach to entrepreneurship (JBA) has a rich pedigree in Austrian economics and continues to grow rapidly in that tradition as well as in various research fields in business and management. The JBA has also attracted some criticisms. Frédéric Sautet’s recent review essay is an example. Sautet’s main concern is that the JBA rejects Israel Kirzner’s alertness/discovery approach which, in Sautet’s view, provides a more compelling basis for theorizing. Unfortunately, we do not find Sautet’s criticisms of the JBA convincing. They frequently ignore our arguments about entrepreneurial judgment and its manifestation in the business firm, fail to address our criticisms of the alertness/discovery approach, and are rooted in a flawed understanding of the history of economic thought.
Journal: Review of Austrian Economics
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Nikolaj J. Foss
Artificial Intelligence in Government: Taking Stock and Moving Forward
Abstract: The use of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in government is receiving increasing attention from global research and practice communities. This article, introducing a Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence in Government published in the Social Science Computer Review, presents an overview of some of the main policy initiatives across the world in relation to AI in government and discusses the state of the art of existing research. Based on an analysis of current trends in research and practice, we highlight four areas to be the focus of future research on AI in government: governance of AI, trustworthy AI, impact assessment methodologies, and data governance.
Abstract: The use of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in government is receiving increasing attention from global research and practice communities. This article, introducing a Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence in Government published in the Social Science Computer Review, presents an overview of some of the main policy initiatives across the world in relation to AI in government and discusses the state of the art of existing research. Based on an analysis of current trends in research and practice, we highlight four areas to be the focus of future research on AI in government: governance of AI, trustworthy AI, impact assessment methodologies, and data governance.
Journal: Social Science Computer Review
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Rony Medaglia
Addressing Tensions in Coopetition for Sustainable Innovation: Insights from the Automotive Industry
Abstract: Developing solutions to sustainability challenges requires cooperation among various firms and actors in different industries and sectors (e.g., regulatory authorities, nonprofit organizations). Prior studies investigate sustainability-related coopetition tensions in bilateral relationships; this article instead considers tensions at a broader, value net level and highlights the dark side of business relationships for firms engaged in coopetition. Qualitative analyses, based on interviews with 31 experts from the automotive industry, highlight how innovative efforts to achieve environmental sustainability can generate detrimental environmental and societal impacts. Specifically, the authors identify four sustainable innovation tensions, at the firm level and the value net level. They outline the aggregate economic, social, and ecological sustainability impacts, as well as the critical need for an exhaustive definition of the value net and which factors influence coopetition in sustainability efforts.
Abstract: Developing solutions to sustainability challenges requires cooperation among various firms and actors in different industries and sectors (e.g., regulatory authorities, nonprofit organizations). Prior studies investigate sustainability-related coopetition tensions in bilateral relationships; this article instead considers tensions at a broader, value net level and highlights the dark side of business relationships for firms engaged in coopetition. Qualitative analyses, based on interviews with 31 experts from the automotive industry, highlight how innovative efforts to achieve environmental sustainability can generate detrimental environmental and societal impacts. Specifically, the authors identify four sustainable innovation tensions, at the firm level and the value net level. They outline the aggregate economic, social, and ecological sustainability impacts, as well as the critical need for an exhaustive definition of the value net and which factors influence coopetition in sustainability efforts.
Journal: Journal of Business Research
Published: November 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Adam Lindgreen
Assessing and Managing the Impact of COVID-19: A Study of Six European Cities Participating in a Circular Economy Project
Abstract: Purpose: This paper aims to explore the role of performance measurement systems as technologies of government for the assessment and management of the effects of COVID-19 in the context of six cities involved in a large European project.
Design/methodology/approach: Based on the field study of a large European project, this paper relies on a comparative case study research approach (Yin, 2003). This research design allows insights into the role of central and local key performance indicators (KPIs) in managing the ongoing pandemic.
Findings: This paper explores the role of accounting in the assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its findings illustrate how the “adjudicating” and “territorialising” roles (Miller and Power, 2013) of local and central accounting technologies rendered the COVID-19 pandemic calculable.
Originality/value: This paper connects central and local performance management systems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It relies on a governmentality approach to discuss how different programmes and the relative KPIs were impacted by the ongoing global crisis.
Abstract: Purpose: This paper aims to explore the role of performance measurement systems as technologies of government for the assessment and management of the effects of COVID-19 in the context of six cities involved in a large European project.
Design/methodology/approach: Based on the field study of a large European project, this paper relies on a comparative case study research approach (Yin, 2003). This research design allows insights into the role of central and local key performance indicators (KPIs) in managing the ongoing pandemic.
Findings: This paper explores the role of accounting in the assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its findings illustrate how the “adjudicating” and “territorialising” roles (Miller and Power, 2013) of local and central accounting technologies rendered the COVID-19 pandemic calculable.
Originality/value: This paper connects central and local performance management systems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It relies on a governmentality approach to discuss how different programmes and the relative KPIs were impacted by the ongoing global crisis.
Journal: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Cristiana Parisi , Justyna Bekier
Positive institutional Changes through Peace: The Relative Effects of Peace Agreements and Non-market Capabilities on FDI
Abstract: Despite the fragile economic and political environment in conflict-affected countries, a significant number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) enter these markets, particularly as conditions begin to improve. To better understand how MNEs respond to positive institutional changes in challenging markets, we examine the relative effects of peace agreements and MNE capabilities on foreign direct investment. We expect that MNEs can engage in institutional arbitrage by leveraging political capabilities in their home market as well as their environmental, social, and governance capabilities to enter conflict-affected countries. Thus, rather than focusing solely on managing downside risk, we also analyze the relative value of MNE capabilities as countries strive to become more peaceful. Specifically, we hypothesize and find that peace agreements and the associated positive changes in the political environment in the host country are less important for MNEs with political capabilities and strong environmental and social governance than they are for other MNEs. The results raise important questions about why and how certain firms may thrive in challenging environments and reveal the differential impact of positive institutional change.
Abstract: Despite the fragile economic and political environment in conflict-affected countries, a significant number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) enter these markets, particularly as conditions begin to improve. To better understand how MNEs respond to positive institutional changes in challenging markets, we examine the relative effects of peace agreements and MNE capabilities on foreign direct investment. We expect that MNEs can engage in institutional arbitrage by leveraging political capabilities in their home market as well as their environmental, social, and governance capabilities to enter conflict-affected countries. Thus, rather than focusing solely on managing downside risk, we also analyze the relative value of MNE capabilities as countries strive to become more peaceful. Specifically, we hypothesize and find that peace agreements and the associated positive changes in the political environment in the host country are less important for MNEs with political capabilities and strong environmental and social governance than they are for other MNEs. The results raise important questions about why and how certain firms may thrive in challenging environments and reveal the differential impact of positive institutional change.
Journal: Journal of International Business Studies
Published: September 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Joao Albino-Pimentel
Inversión en energías eólicas en el Istmo de Tehuantepec: Continuidad del colonialismo interno en las disputas territoriales
Abstract: Governments and companies argue that investing in wind energy contributes to global sustainable development and ecological conservation. However, vulnerable groups, such as indigenous peoples - traditionally excluded and marginalized - suffer the consequences of wind energy investment. This is a historical continuity of oppression and repression of indigenous peoples by elite groups, conceptualized as “Internal colonialism”. This article, based on a longitudinal study (2013–2021) developed in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca (Mexico), discusses the internal colonialism exerted on vulnerable communities in relation to wind investments in the region. It also provides a historical perspective on the dispute over indigenous communal land in the conflictive dynamics of such investments. The study provides a critical analysis of the interaction between vulnerable groups and elite groups (individuals with government or business power).
Abstract: Governments and companies argue that investing in wind energy contributes to global sustainable development and ecological conservation. However, vulnerable groups, such as indigenous peoples - traditionally excluded and marginalized - suffer the consequences of wind energy investment. This is a historical continuity of oppression and repression of indigenous peoples by elite groups, conceptualized as “Internal colonialism”. This article, based on a longitudinal study (2013–2021) developed in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca (Mexico), discusses the internal colonialism exerted on vulnerable communities in relation to wind investments in the region. It also provides a historical perspective on the dispute over indigenous communal land in the conflictive dynamics of such investments. The study provides a critical analysis of the interaction between vulnerable groups and elite groups (individuals with government or business power).
Journal: Iberoamericana, Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Published: 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Jacobo Ramirez
The Executive Revolving Door: New Dataset on the Career Moves of Former Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries
Abstract: Concerns have been raised that transfers of bureaucrats and politicians into the private sector might create unfair advantages for their future employers and even lead to distrust in government. Not surprisingly, the study of the revolving door has therefore gained prominence in the academic literature. Importantly, however, less attention has been paid to the executive branch. We add to the study of the revolving door by presenting the first dataset on the executive revolving door in Denmark. To do so, we trace the frequency, timing and character of the career moves of Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries who held office from 2009 to 2019. Our data document that the Danish executive revolving door is widespread: more than a third of Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries end up in a private job within the same year or the year after they stop their job. If we extend the period and investigate the entire period after public service, the number is above 60 percent. Moreover, a substantial share of the jobs obtained is in companies and at a senior level. Our note concludes with reflections on how our data can be used to fill existing research gaps and should be complemented in future research.
Abstract: Concerns have been raised that transfers of bureaucrats and politicians into the private sector might create unfair advantages for their future employers and even lead to distrust in government. Not surprisingly, the study of the revolving door has therefore gained prominence in the academic literature. Importantly, however, less attention has been paid to the executive branch. We add to the study of the revolving door by presenting the first dataset on the executive revolving door in Denmark. To do so, we trace the frequency, timing and character of the career moves of Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries who held office from 2009 to 2019. Our data document that the Danish executive revolving door is widespread: more than a third of Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries end up in a private job within the same year or the year after they stop their job. If we extend the period and investigate the entire period after public service, the number is above 60 percent. Moreover, a substantial share of the jobs obtained is in companies and at a senior level. Our note concludes with reflections on how our data can be used to fill existing research gaps and should be complemented in future research.
Journal: Scandinavian Political Studies
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod
Non-compliance Behavior of De-risking Force the EU to Enhance Anti-money Laundering Regulation
Abstract: Purpose: Recent research shows that because of money-laundering risks, there has been an increase in the off-boarding of certain types of corporate clients in the financial sector. This phenomenon known as “de-risking” has been argued to have a negative impact on society, because it increases the possible risk of money laundering. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether the de-risking strategy of financial institutions results in an expansion of the regulatory framework concerning anti-money laundering focusing on off-boarding of clients and, if so, is there a way to avoid further regulation by changing present behavior.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies functional methods to law and economics to achieve higher efficiency in combating money laundering.
Findings: In this paper, it is found that the continuing of de-risking by financial institutions because of the avoidance strategy of money-laundering risks will inevitably result in further regulatory demands regarding the off-boarding process of clients. The legal basis for the introduction of further regulatory intervention is that some of the de-risking constitutes a direct contradiction to the aim of the present regulatory framework, making the behavior non-compliant to the regulation.
Originality/value: There has been very little research concerning de-risking related to money laundering. The present research has focused on the effect on society and not the relationship between the financial institutions and the regulator. This paper raises an important and present problem, as the behavior of the financial institutions constitute a response from the regulator that is contradicting the thoughts behind the behavior of the financial institutions. It is found that the paper is highly relevant if an expansion of regulation is to be hindered.
Abstract: Purpose: Recent research shows that because of money-laundering risks, there has been an increase in the off-boarding of certain types of corporate clients in the financial sector. This phenomenon known as “de-risking” has been argued to have a negative impact on society, because it increases the possible risk of money laundering. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether the de-risking strategy of financial institutions results in an expansion of the regulatory framework concerning anti-money laundering focusing on off-boarding of clients and, if so, is there a way to avoid further regulation by changing present behavior.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies functional methods to law and economics to achieve higher efficiency in combating money laundering.
Findings: In this paper, it is found that the continuing of de-risking by financial institutions because of the avoidance strategy of money-laundering risks will inevitably result in further regulatory demands regarding the off-boarding process of clients. The legal basis for the introduction of further regulatory intervention is that some of the de-risking constitutes a direct contradiction to the aim of the present regulatory framework, making the behavior non-compliant to the regulation.
Originality/value: There has been very little research concerning de-risking related to money laundering. The present research has focused on the effect on society and not the relationship between the financial institutions and the regulator. This paper raises an important and present problem, as the behavior of the financial institutions constitute a response from the regulator that is contradicting the thoughts behind the behavior of the financial institutions. It is found that the paper is highly relevant if an expansion of regulation is to be hindered.
Journal: Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Kalle Johannes Rose
How to Engage Reflexively with Messy Presents and Potential Futures: An Audio Walk for Planners
Abstract: This article calls for planning practitioners to engage in future-making practices that move from projection to reflexive engagement. We demonstrate how the audio walk, as a method for reflexive engagement, can assist planners in developing future-making practices that 1) strengthen planners’ ability to see places and issues through local perspectives, 2) help planners accommodate the messy present in future plans and 3) make planners recognize their own roles and responsibility as active generators of specific images of the future. We conclude that any representations of the future are performative; they bring the future into being and therefore enable or constrain certain (re)configurations of it.
Abstract: This article calls for planning practitioners to engage in future-making practices that move from projection to reflexive engagement. We demonstrate how the audio walk, as a method for reflexive engagement, can assist planners in developing future-making practices that 1) strengthen planners’ ability to see places and issues through local perspectives, 2) help planners accommodate the messy present in future plans and 3) make planners recognize their own roles and responsibility as active generators of specific images of the future. We conclude that any representations of the future are performative; they bring the future into being and therefore enable or constrain certain (re)configurations of it.
Journal: Planning Theory & Practice
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Christina Juhlin
The Use of Blockchain as a Resource for Combating Corruption in Global Shipping: An Interpretive Case Study
Abstract: Corruption is one of the most troubling societal challenges facing businesses today. Businesses have been combating corruption in fragmented ways, sometimes by creating anti-corruption policies applicable to certain stakeholders and, at other times, by harnessing digital technologies. Recently, the power of blockchain, with its capacity to provide full transactional disclosure and thereby reduce uncertainty, insecurity, and ambiguity in transactions, has been touted as being a game changer in the fight against corruption. Based on a study of the global shipping industry, we find that blockchain mitigates both process and document-related corruption. Based on these findings, we develop an understanding of how corruption may be combated using both social and digital/informational resources, including blockchain technology. Our model, drawing on past work on corruption, shows the complex interplay between identity, institutional actors, technical and other resources, and practices, and we develop conditions that could be effective in fighting corruption by using technologies such as blockchain.
Abstract: Corruption is one of the most troubling societal challenges facing businesses today. Businesses have been combating corruption in fragmented ways, sometimes by creating anti-corruption policies applicable to certain stakeholders and, at other times, by harnessing digital technologies. Recently, the power of blockchain, with its capacity to provide full transactional disclosure and thereby reduce uncertainty, insecurity, and ambiguity in transactions, has been touted as being a game changer in the fight against corruption. Based on a study of the global shipping industry, we find that blockchain mitigates both process and document-related corruption. Based on these findings, we develop an understanding of how corruption may be combated using both social and digital/informational resources, including blockchain technology. Our model, drawing on past work on corruption, shows the complex interplay between identity, institutional actors, technical and other resources, and practices, and we develop conditions that could be effective in fighting corruption by using technologies such as blockchain.
Journal: Journal of Management Information Systems
Published: 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Jonas Hedman , Stefan Henningsson , Thomas Jensen
The Sharing Economy at the Base of the Economic Pyramid: How Access-based Services Can Help Overcome Ownership Risks
Abstract: The sharing economy provides short-term access to products without the risks associated with ownership. While extant research primarily examined it in the context of affluent consumer segments, the sharing economy may offer opportunities for consumers at the base of the economic pyramid, where ownership risks prevent access to products that could create societal benefits. Drawing from risk perception theory, we examine how access-based services, as an alternative to ownership, can mitigate perceived risk dimensions. An experimental study reveals that, in contrast to consumers with higher income, low-income consumers perceive access-based services to entail less financial risk, resulting in a greater inclination to access a good than to own it. In a second study, we explore these differences by comparing access with a risk mitigation strategy. We find that at the base of the pyramid, access is perceived to entail less financial risk than both ownership and ownership with a warranty. The results indicate the importance of the sharing economy for addressing the limited availability of resources for alleviating poverty. Based on our findings, we derive implications for consumers and service providers at the base of the pyramid, and discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic may be detrimental to the identified opportunities.
Abstract: The sharing economy provides short-term access to products without the risks associated with ownership. While extant research primarily examined it in the context of affluent consumer segments, the sharing economy may offer opportunities for consumers at the base of the economic pyramid, where ownership risks prevent access to products that could create societal benefits. Drawing from risk perception theory, we examine how access-based services, as an alternative to ownership, can mitigate perceived risk dimensions. An experimental study reveals that, in contrast to consumers with higher income, low-income consumers perceive access-based services to entail less financial risk, resulting in a greater inclination to access a good than to own it. In a second study, we explore these differences by comparing access with a risk mitigation strategy. We find that at the base of the pyramid, access is perceived to entail less financial risk than both ownership and ownership with a warranty. The results indicate the importance of the sharing economy for addressing the limited availability of resources for alleviating poverty. Based on our findings, we derive implications for consumers and service providers at the base of the pyramid, and discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic may be detrimental to the identified opportunities.
Journal: Psychology & Marketing
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Tobias Schäfers , Marina Leban
Same Data, Different Conclusions: Radical Dispersion in Empirical Results when Independent Analysts Operationalize and Test the Same Hypothesis
Abstract: In this crowdsourced initiative, independent analysts used the same dataset to test two hypotheses regarding the effects of scientists’ gender and professional status on verbosity during group meetings. Not only the analytic approach but also the operationalizations of key variables were left unconstrained and up to individual analysts. For instance, analysts could choose to operationalize status as job title, institutional ranking, citation counts, or some combination. To maximize transparency regarding the process by which analytic choices are made, the analysts used a platform we developed called DataExplained to justify both preferred and rejected analytic paths in real time. Analyses lacking sufficient detail, reproducible code, or with statistical errors were excluded, resulting in 29 analyses in the final sample. Researchers reported radically different analyses and dispersed empirical outcomes, in a number of cases obtaining significant effects in opposite directions for the same research question. A Boba multiverse analysis demonstrates that decisions about how to operationalize variables explain variability in outcomes above and beyond statistical choices (e.g., covariates). Subjective researcher decisions play a critical role in driving the reported empirical results, underscoring the need for open data, systematic robustness checks, and transparency regarding both analytic paths taken and not taken. Implications for organizations and leaders, whose decision making relies in part on scientific findings, consulting reports, and internal analyses by data scientists, are discussed.
Abstract: In this crowdsourced initiative, independent analysts used the same dataset to test two hypotheses regarding the effects of scientists’ gender and professional status on verbosity during group meetings. Not only the analytic approach but also the operationalizations of key variables were left unconstrained and up to individual analysts. For instance, analysts could choose to operationalize status as job title, institutional ranking, citation counts, or some combination. To maximize transparency regarding the process by which analytic choices are made, the analysts used a platform we developed called DataExplained to justify both preferred and rejected analytic paths in real time. Analyses lacking sufficient detail, reproducible code, or with statistical errors were excluded, resulting in 29 analyses in the final sample. Researchers reported radically different analyses and dispersed empirical outcomes, in a number of cases obtaining significant effects in opposite directions for the same research question. A Boba multiverse analysis demonstrates that decisions about how to operationalize variables explain variability in outcomes above and beyond statistical choices (e.g., covariates). Subjective researcher decisions play a critical role in driving the reported empirical results, underscoring the need for open data, systematic robustness checks, and transparency regarding both analytic paths taken and not taken. Implications for organizations and leaders, whose decision making relies in part on scientific findings, consulting reports, and internal analyses by data scientists, are discussed.
Journal: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Florence Villeséche
Coming of Age: Watching Young Entrepreneurs Become Successful
Abstract: The primary goal of this paper is to show that a young entrepreneur, or one who first opens a firm in his or her mid-20s to early 30s, can learn and invest over time to run new, more successful firms with higher productivity and sales. It has been shown by other researchers that most entrepreneurs who are successful started firms in their mid-40s, but what about those founders who are under the age of 35 and are running 42% of all new firms? How successful do they become, and what factors are consistent with their success? Using newly available data from Denmark on firm sales from 2001 to 2016, this paper shows that young founders who become serial entrepreneurs see their sales revenues nearly double between their first and second firms. Commensurate with this sales increase are two underlying factors: (1) young founders become more inclined to register new firms as limited liability corporations (LLCs), which protects them from personal losses if the firm fails; and (2), young founders who are the most successful are portfolio founders, or those who keep their first firms open when they found their second firm. Furthermore, for small firms, the productivity of the firm is often also the productivity of the founder, so just as the personal productivity of wage earners rises with age over their lifecycles, so too does the personal productivity and implied income of young entrepreneurs.
Abstract: The primary goal of this paper is to show that a young entrepreneur, or one who first opens a firm in his or her mid-20s to early 30s, can learn and invest over time to run new, more successful firms with higher productivity and sales. It has been shown by other researchers that most entrepreneurs who are successful started firms in their mid-40s, but what about those founders who are under the age of 35 and are running 42% of all new firms? How successful do they become, and what factors are consistent with their success? Using newly available data from Denmark on firm sales from 2001 to 2016, this paper shows that young founders who become serial entrepreneurs see their sales revenues nearly double between their first and second firms. Commensurate with this sales increase are two underlying factors: (1) young founders become more inclined to register new firms as limited liability corporations (LLCs), which protects them from personal losses if the firm fails; and (2), young founders who are the most successful are portfolio founders, or those who keep their first firms open when they found their second firm. Furthermore, for small firms, the productivity of the firm is often also the productivity of the founder, so just as the personal productivity of wage earners rises with age over their lifecycles, so too does the personal productivity and implied income of young entrepreneurs.
Journal: Labour Economics
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Anders Sørensen
The Environmental Impacts of Clothing: Evidence from United States and Three European Countries
Abstract: Because of the near doubling of clothing purchased and the shift toward fast fashion in recent decades, clothing induces increasingly significant global environmental impacts throughout its entire life cycle. To measure the environmental impacts of clothing across the major life cycle phases of production, purchase, transportation, usage, and disposal, we apply life cycle assessment (LCA) to detailed survey data on jeans and t-shirt consumption by 4,591 consumers across four countries: Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the United States. The results reveal that, except for jeans in the United States, the production phase is consistently responsible for the largest share of the environmental impacts associated with clothing. Nevertheless, the use phase, which includes washing and drying, also induces sizable environmental impacts, especially when laundering is frequent and, as in Poland and the United States, the associated electricity consumption comes from carbon-intensive energy sources. Taken together, our results suggest that future efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of clothing must comprehensively address the production, acquisition, and use of clothing through not only technological and efficiency improvements but changes in both purchasing and usage behavior.
Abstract: Because of the near doubling of clothing purchased and the shift toward fast fashion in recent decades, clothing induces increasingly significant global environmental impacts throughout its entire life cycle. To measure the environmental impacts of clothing across the major life cycle phases of production, purchase, transportation, usage, and disposal, we apply life cycle assessment (LCA) to detailed survey data on jeans and t-shirt consumption by 4,591 consumers across four countries: Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the United States. The results reveal that, except for jeans in the United States, the production phase is consistently responsible for the largest share of the environmental impacts associated with clothing. Nevertheless, the use phase, which includes washing and drying, also induces sizable environmental impacts, especially when laundering is frequent and, as in Poland and the United States, the associated electricity consumption comes from carbon-intensive energy sources. Taken together, our results suggest that future efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of clothing must comprehensively address the production, acquisition, and use of clothing through not only technological and efficiency improvements but changes in both purchasing and usage behavior.
Journal: Sustainable Production and Consumption
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Wencke Gwozdz
The Potentials of a Dialogical Reframing of Personality Testing in Hiring
Abstract: Personality testing is highly disputed, yet, widely used as a personnel selection tool. In most research, it is taken for granted that personality tests are used with the purpose of achieving a more objective assessment of job candidates. However, in Danish organizations the personality test is often framed as a ‘dialogue tool’. This paper explores the potentials of a dialogical reframing of the use of personality testing in personnel selection by analyzing empirical material from an ethnographic study of the hiring processes in a Danish trade union that declaredly uses personality tests as a dialogue tool. Through an affirmative critique we identify five framings that interact during the test-based dialogue: The ‘meritocratic’, ‘disciplinary’, ‘dialogical’, ‘pastoral’, and ‘con-test’ framing. Our study suggests that being committed to a dialogical reframing nurtures the possibility of focusing on what we call the ‘con-test’: Either as exploring the meta-competences of the candidate or as co-creating embryos through joint reflections on organizational issues. We argue that the long-lasting debates in the field of selection-related personality testing should be much more interested in the question of how personality tests in hiring are used, rather than whether or not they should be used.
Abstract: Personality testing is highly disputed, yet, widely used as a personnel selection tool. In most research, it is taken for granted that personality tests are used with the purpose of achieving a more objective assessment of job candidates. However, in Danish organizations the personality test is often framed as a ‘dialogue tool’. This paper explores the potentials of a dialogical reframing of the use of personality testing in personnel selection by analyzing empirical material from an ethnographic study of the hiring processes in a Danish trade union that declaredly uses personality tests as a dialogue tool. Through an affirmative critique we identify five framings that interact during the test-based dialogue: The ‘meritocratic’, ‘disciplinary’, ‘dialogical’, ‘pastoral’, and ‘con-test’ framing. Our study suggests that being committed to a dialogical reframing nurtures the possibility of focusing on what we call the ‘con-test’: Either as exploring the meta-competences of the candidate or as co-creating embryos through joint reflections on organizational issues. We argue that the long-lasting debates in the field of selection-related personality testing should be much more interested in the question of how personality tests in hiring are used, rather than whether or not they should be used.
Journal: International Review of Theoretical Psychologies
Published: 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Kathrine Solgaard Sørensen
Why Salespeople Avoid Big-Whale Sales Opportunities
Abstract: Contrary to the intuition that salespeople gravitate toward big-whale sales opportunities, in reality they often avoid them. To study this phenomenon, the authors integrate contingent decision-making and conservation-of-resources theories to develop and test a framework of salespeople's decision making when prospecting. Study 1 reveals that the performance impact of salesperson initial judgment of opportunity magnitude follows an inverted U shape, indicating that salespeople's avoidance of large opportunities results from rational benefit–cost analyses due to their conservation of resources. Interestingly, salespeople use a calibration decision-making strategy (i.e., calculating expected benefits by accounting for conversion uncertainty) at the portfolio rather than prospect level, in solution- but not product-selling contexts. Ignoring this calibration effect can lead to under- or overestimation of conversion rates of up to 100%. Study 2 shows that salespeople's past performance success and experience bias this calibration. Simulations reveal that when high performers or inexperienced salespeople believe their portfolio magnitude is large and conversion uncertainty low, they are less concerned about resource conservation and improve their quota attainment by 50%. Study 3 confirms the theoretical mechanism. These findings shed new lights on salespeople's decision making and suggest ways for sales professionals to improve effectiveness when prospecting.
Abstract: Contrary to the intuition that salespeople gravitate toward big-whale sales opportunities, in reality they often avoid them. To study this phenomenon, the authors integrate contingent decision-making and conservation-of-resources theories to develop and test a framework of salespeople's decision making when prospecting. Study 1 reveals that the performance impact of salesperson initial judgment of opportunity magnitude follows an inverted U shape, indicating that salespeople's avoidance of large opportunities results from rational benefit–cost analyses due to their conservation of resources. Interestingly, salespeople use a calibration decision-making strategy (i.e., calculating expected benefits by accounting for conversion uncertainty) at the portfolio rather than prospect level, in solution- but not product-selling contexts. Ignoring this calibration effect can lead to under- or overestimation of conversion rates of up to 100%. Study 2 shows that salespeople's past performance success and experience bias this calibration. Simulations reveal that when high performers or inexperienced salespeople believe their portfolio magnitude is large and conversion uncertainty low, they are less concerned about resource conservation and improve their quota attainment by 50%. Study 3 confirms the theoretical mechanism. These findings shed new lights on salespeople's decision making and suggest ways for sales professionals to improve effectiveness when prospecting.
Journal: Journal of Marketing
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Michel Van der Borgh
Beyond the Block: A Novel Blockchain-Based Technical Model for Long-Term Care Insurance
Abstract: The insurance business is characterized by complicated transactional interrelationships among various stakeholders involved in insurance-related activities. Given this unique nature, the century-old challenge in the insurance industry is to effectively reduce transaction costs among the stakeholders while maintaining business privacy and trust. Although blockchain is a promising technology to mitigate this challenge, two technical issues, namely (1) inefficiency in data auditing and (2) difficulty in verifying encrypted data, are of strategic importance when applying blockchain to the insurance industry. To address these technical challenges, we propose an innovative blockchain-based technical model, InsurModel, in the context of newly initiated long-term care insurance in China. Specifically, we utilize cryptographical methods including “zero-knowledge-proof” to 1) represent business interdependence and 2) verify confidential business information without disclosure of specifics. We demonstrate the scalability and applicability of InsurModel and explore its strategic implications in constraining adverse behaviors of the stakeholders.
Abstract: The insurance business is characterized by complicated transactional interrelationships among various stakeholders involved in insurance-related activities. Given this unique nature, the century-old challenge in the insurance industry is to effectively reduce transaction costs among the stakeholders while maintaining business privacy and trust. Although blockchain is a promising technology to mitigate this challenge, two technical issues, namely (1) inefficiency in data auditing and (2) difficulty in verifying encrypted data, are of strategic importance when applying blockchain to the insurance industry. To address these technical challenges, we propose an innovative blockchain-based technical model, InsurModel, in the context of newly initiated long-term care insurance in China. Specifically, we utilize cryptographical methods including “zero-knowledge-proof” to 1) represent business interdependence and 2) verify confidential business information without disclosure of specifics. We demonstrate the scalability and applicability of InsurModel and explore its strategic implications in constraining adverse behaviors of the stakeholders.
Journal: Journal of Management Information Systems
Published: 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Qiqi Jiang
Pilgrimage Zionism: The Maccabean Pilgrimage to Palestine and the Divergent Processes of Zionist Meaning Making
Abstract: Pending
Abstract: Pending
Journal: Jewish Culture and History
Published: July 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Maja Gildin Zuckerman
Sidst opdateret: Sekretariat for Ledelse og Kommunikation // 11/07/2023