Tim Baker
Baker, T. & Collier, D., “The Benefits of Optimizing Prices to Manage Demand in Hotel Revenue Management Systems,” Production and Operations Management, 12(4), 502-518 (2003).
Revenue management is the art and science of maximizing short-term seller revenues given that costs are essentially fixed. Traditionally, revenue management decision support systems (DSSs) have assumed that their market segment prices are predetermined, and have focused on allocating capacity across the segments. This paper demonstrates that the DSSs could generate much more revenue by focusing on setting the prices.
Jerry Goodstein
Stephan, John; Murmann, Johann Peter; Boeker, Warrren; and Goodstein, Jerry,
"Bringing Managers into Theories of Multimarket Competition: CEOs and the Determinants of Market Entry," Organization Science, Volume 14, No. 4, July-August 2003, pp. 403-421.
In this study we explore the influence of CEOs on strategies for how organizations compete in multiple markets (multimarket competition). Drawing on a sample of 395 hospitals examined over a seven year period, we find that the degree to which firms act aggressively toward rivals or adopt a position of mutual forbearance is associated with the tenure of CEOs. In particular, newer CEOs tend to be associated with more aggressive actions in multimarket contexts, potentially undermining the competitive benefits of a strategy of mutual forbearance.
Dogan Gursoy
Gursoy, D. and Gavcar, E., “International leisure tourist’s involvement profile,” Annals of Tourism Research, 30(4): 906-926 (2003).
The involvement construct has received a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the majority of research on this topic has focused on internal tourists, recreational activities participants, or associated services and products. Using survey data collected from European leisure tourists at an international tourism destination, this study examined the underlying dimensions of international leisure tourists’ involvement. Scale unidimensionality is first revealed by an exploratory factor analysis and validated by a confirmatory factor analysis. The data suggested that international leisure tourists’ involvement is a three dimensional construct: pleasure/interest, risk probability, and risk importance. Construct validity, including discriminant, convergent and nomological validity, and reliability are also satisfactorily established.
Jenny Kim
Kim, H. J., McCahon, C, and Miller, J., “Service Orientation for Contact Employees in Korean Casual-Dining Restaurants,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 22(1), 67-83 (2003).
The purposes of this study were to validate Groves'(1992) restaurant service orientation scale, to examine contact employees' service orientation in Korean casual-dining restaurants, and to investigate the effect of employee characteristic variables on service orientation. The results indicated that Groves' scale had four dimensions (organizational support, customer focus, service under pressure, and prior customer relationship) rather than three. The additional factor of prior customer relationship was determined to be a subdimension of the customer-focus factor. Age, gender, marriage, and education did not have significant impacts on service orientation. However, employees with a longer length of service and those in supervisory positions displayed a higher degree of service orientation. In addition, each restaurant of the chain displayed significant differences in employee service orientation.
Kristine Kuhn
Kuhn, K. M. and Yockey, M., “Variable pay as a risky choice: Determinants of the relative attractiveness of incentive plans,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 90, 323-341 (2003).
Increasing numbers of American employees now work under compensation systems with uncertain components; variable pay includes performance-based bonuses, profit sharing, and other incentives that are not part of base pay. Although it has generally been assumed that most people are risk averse in their compensation preferences, this paper demonstrates that attitudes toward compensation risk depend on the nature of the variable pay plan. In particular, respondents were most optimistic about the likelihood of receiving incentives based on their own individual performance.
Gene Lai
Lai, G. and Limpaphayom, P., "Organization Structure and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from the Japanese Non-Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Risk and Insurance, December 2003, PP. 735-757.
This study examines the impact of organizational structure on firm performance, incentive problems, and financial decisions in the Japanese non-life (property-casualty) insurance industry. Stock companies that belong to one of six horizontal keiretsu groups have lower expenses and lower levels of free cash flow than independent stock and mutual insurance companies. Keiretsu insurers also have higher profitability and higher loss ratios than independent insurers. With a limited sample size, there is some evidence that mutual insurers have higher levels of free cash flows, higher investment incomes and lower financial leverage than their stock counterparts. Overall, empirical evidence suggests that each structure has its own comparative advantage.
Charles Munson
Hoegl, M. K.; Parboteeah, P. and Munson, C. L., “Team-Level Antecedents of Individuals’ Knowledge Networks,” Decision Sciences, 34(4) (Fall 2003), 741-770.
Individuals' knowledge networks are widely considered to contribute substantially to the effectiveness and efficiency of organizations. While the positive effects of knowledge networks as a primary driver of social capital have recently received considerable research attention, potential determinants of individuals' network building have not yet been adequately addressed. In this study, we investigate how certain team-level properties affect team members' development of knowledge networks through the course of a team project. Using data from 430 team leaders and team members pertaining to 145 software development projects, we test cross-level hypotheses employing Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The results indicate that the team's perception of the organizational knowledge sharing climate, the team's networking preference, and the team's perceived importance of networking for project success positively affect individuals' network building. Furthermore, a team's perception of the adequacy of its technical competency and a team's perception of the adequacy of its material resources inhibit team members' individual network development. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Gregory Rose
Rose, G. and Lyytinen, K., "The Disruptive Nature of Information Technology Innovations: The Case of Internet Computing in Systems Development Organizations," MIS Quarterly, 27(4), December 2003, pp. 557-595.
Information Technology (IT) innovation can be defined as the creation and new organizational application of digital computer and communication technologies. The paper suggests that IT innovation theory needs to be expanded to analyze IT innovations in kind that exhibit atypical discontinuities in IT innovation behaviors by studying two questions. First, can a model of disruptive IT innovations be created to understand qualitative changes in IT development processes and their outcomes so that they can be related to architectural discontinuities in computing capability? Second, to what extent can the observed turmoil among systems development organizations that has been spawned by Internet computing be understood as disruptive IT innovations? To address the first question the paper develops a model of disruptive IT innovation.
The study also shows that the adoption of Internet computing in 7 firms has radically impacted their IT innovation both in development processes, and services.
Jae Shin Shung
Shin, S. J., & Zhou, J., “Transformational Leadership, Individual Values, and Creativity: Evidence from Korea,” Academy of Management Journal, 46: 703-714 (2003).
Using a sample of 290 employees and their supervisors from 46 Korean companies, we found that (1) transformational leadership was positively related to follower creativity, (2) followers’ “conservation,” a value, moderated that relationship, and (3) intrinsic motivation mediated the contribution of the interaction of transformational leadership and conservation and partially mediated the contribution of transformational leadership to creativity. We discuss implications of these results for research and practice.
Richard Sias
Bennett, J.; Sias, R. and Starks, L., “Greener Pastures and the Impact of Dynamic Institutional Preferences,” Review of Financial Studies, Volume 16, number 4, Winter 2003, pp. 1203-1239.
Although institutional investors have a preference for large capitalization stocks, over time they have shifted their preferences toward smaller, riskier securities. These changes in aggregate preferences have arisen primarily from changes in the preferences of each class of institution, rather than changes in the importance of different classes. Evidence also suggests that recent growth in institutional investment combined with this shift in preferences helps explain why markets in general, and smaller stocks in particular, have exhibited greater firm-specific risk and liquidity in recent years. Additional analyses suggest that institutional investors moved toward smaller securities because such securities offer “greener pastures.”
Richard Sias
Parrino, R.; Sias, R. and Starks, L., “Voting with Their Feet: Changes in Institutional Ownership Around Forced CEO Turnover,” Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 68, number 1, April 2003, pp. 3-46 (lead article).
We investigate whether institutional investors “vote with their feet” when dissatisfied with a firm’s management by examining changes in equity ownership around forced CEO turnover. We find that aggregate institutional ownership declines an average of 12 percent and the number of institutional investors holding a firm’s shares declines an average of 7 percent in the year prior to forced CEO turnover. Because many institutional investors maintain or increase their positions, the selling of shares by institutions is far from universal. Overall, there is an increase in shareholdings of individual investors and a decrease in holdings of institutional investors who are more concerned with holding “prudent” securities, are better informed, or are engaged in momentum trading. Moreover, we document negative relations between the change in institutional ownership and the likelihoods that the CEO will be forced from office and replaced by an executive from outside the firm.
Nancy Swanger
Swanger, N., and Rutherford, D., “Foodborne Illness: The Risk Environment for Chain Restaurants in the United States,” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 23 (1), 71-85 (2003).
This study examines a series of foodborne illness lawsuits filed between 1985 and 1999—causes, outcomes, payments—along with the perceptions of hospitality industry affiliates about the degree of liability and level of training associated with certain foodborne pathogens. Of the 214 cases analyzed, approximately 109 or 50.9% named chain restaurants as the defendant, of which 52 (47.7%) resulted in payment to the plaintiff. Ways that operators can minimize the risk environment, based on laws governing the handling and serving of food, are included in the paper.
Joe Valacich
Speier, C.; Valacich, J.S.; and Vessey, I.., “The Effects of Interruptions, Task Complexity and Information Presentation on Computer-Supported Decision Making Performance,” Decision Sciences, 34(4), 771-797 (2003).
Interruptions are a frequent occurrence in the work life of most decision makers. This paper investigated the influence of interruptions on different types of decision-making tasks and the ability of information presentation formats to alleviate them. Results indicate that interruptions facilitate performance on simple tasks, while inhibiting performance on more complex tasks. Interruptions also influenced the relationship between information presentation format and the type of task performed: spatial presentation formats were able to mitigate the effects of interruptions while symbolic formats were not.
David Whidbee
Farrell, K. A. and Whidbee, D. A., “The Impact of Firm Performance Expectations on CEO Turnover and Replacement Decisions,” Journal of Accounting and Economics 36, 2003, 165-196.
Our analysis suggests that boards focus on deviation from expected performance, rather than performance alone, in making the CEO turnover decision, especially when there is agreement (less dispersion) among analysts about the firm’s earnings forecast. In addition, our results suggest that boards use long-term earnings growth prospects to assess the likely success or failure of the firm’s policies and strategies. Specifically, boards are more likely to appoint a CEO that will change firm policies and strategies (i.e., an outsider) when forecasted five-year EPS growth is low and there is greater uncertainty (more dispersion) among analysts about the firm’s long-term forecasts. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the board distinguishing between performing CEOs and the failure of the firm's policies and strategies.