This article examines the role of human resources in the business strategy of Ocean Steam Ship Company (later Ocean Transport & Trading), one of the United Kingdom’s leading shipping firms. The time under review is the 1970s, a period of rapid and disruptive change for the shipping industry and of considerable difficulties for the UK economy. As a result of uncertainty over the development of the shipping industry in general, and Ocean’s business in particular, managing staff numbers and career opportunities became key elements of the company’s overall business strategy during these years. The article also examines the changing objectives of that strategy, the means by which these objectives were pursued, and the external constraints under which these objectives had to take place. It argues that Ocean found itself privileging the requirements of running a “people business” over other strategic concerns and that external constraints prevented the firm from pursuing theoretically more appropriate strategies, such as increased use of outsourcing and extricating itself from its UK-based, human resource intensive business.

Social comparison plays an important role in collective bargaining. However, due to self-serving bias, the bargaining parties rarely agree on appropriate referents. In this respect, Wisconsin teachers’ collective bargaining provides an intriguing case because there is consensus on an appropriate comparison group: the schools’ athletic conferences. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the use of athletic conferences as referents is institutionalized beyond their technical merits. Using conference realignment as a natural experiment, this paper shows that when the bargaining parties experienced conference realignment, they changed their comparison groups. Because this realignment can be regarded as exogenous to collective bargaining, such changes in comparison groups are unlikely to be accounted for by technical factors, thus providing support for institutional theory.

We present a prediction model to forecast corporate defaults. In a theoretical model, under incomplete information in a market with publicly traded equity, we show that our approach must outperform ratings, Altman’s Z-score, and Merton’s distance to default. We reconcile the statistical and structural approaches under a common framework; that is, our approach nests Altman’s and Merton’s approaches as special cases. Empirically, the combined approach is indeed the most powerful predictor, and the numbers of observed defaults align well with the estimated probabilities. With a new transformation method, we obtain cycle-adjusted forecasts that still outperform ratings.

To “ensure depth and liquidity,” the European Central Bank intervened in sovereign debt markets through its Securities Markets Programme (SMP), providing a unique opportunity to estimate the effects of large-scale asset purchases on sovereign bond liquidity premia. From reduced-form estimates, we find robust, economically significant impact and lasting reductions in sovereign bonds’ liquidity premia in response to official purchases. We develop a search-based asset-pricing model to understand our empirical results. The theory implies that bond liquidity premia fall in response to both official purchases and rising sovereign default probabilities, as seen in the data.

The impact of liquidity-motivated institutional trading on firms’ real decisions is not confined to periods of financial crisis. Firms subject to mutual fund flow-driven selling pressure reduce share issuance and investment, whereas firms experiencing buying pressure do not increase investment, although they issue more equity. Firms under extreme selling pressure cut quarterly investment by 0.075 percentage points of total assets, which is 4.3% of the average quarterly investment in our sample. We also find evidence that the effect is not attributed to managerial learning or catering incentives. Rather, flow-driven trading affects investment mainly through its impact on the financing cost.

We develop an empirical model of bilateral exchange rates. It includes normal shocks with stochastic variance and jumps in an exchange rate and in its variance. The probability of a jump in an exchange rate corresponding to depreciation (appreciation) of the U.S. dollar is increasing in the domestic (foreign) interest rate. The probability of a jump in variance is increasing in the variance only. Jumps in exchange rates are associated with announcements; jumps in variance are not. On average, jumps account for 25% of currency risk. The dollar carry index retains these features. Options suggest that jump risk is priced.

Is organizational slack good or bad for firm performance? Research addressing this question has obtained mixed results. Such studies have focused mainly on the impact of environmental conditions on the slack–performance relationship. In this study, instead of focusing on the uncontrollable external environment, we consider actions determined by firms internally, in particular strategic planning. Using data from 183 US firms, we explore the connection between organizational slack and firm performance with different levels of strategic planning. The results suggest that at low levels of strategic planning the slack–performance relationship is linear, while at high levels of strategic planning this relationship is inverse U shaped. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Museums are organizations that need to maintain relationships with several stakeholders in order to achieve their economic and social objectives. In this context, the current paper explores the effect of an organization’s bonding social capital and a manager’s social capital on the organization’s ability to build external relationships, in other words, bridging social capital. Results from the study indicate that the structure of internal social capital (cohesion and diversity) and the manager’s role as a bridging tie facilitate relations with stakeholders and other museum networks. Moreover, collective social capital (bonding and bridging) has a direct impact on innovative proposals, on the museum’s image and on incomes, all of which entail key management implications.

This article presents primary data from the GLOBE study in Pakistan and compares them with secondary data from the 61 GLOBE societies, in an effort to increase the interest of scholars of cross-cultural management in Pakistan and also provide a practically useful overview for businesses. Results based on data collected from 152 middle managers using the original GLOBE research instruments indicate that Pakistani society exhibits high power distance and in-group collectivism but low assertiveness and gender egalitarianism. The results also indicate a desire to create a more egalitarian society; however, people appear to treasure the lack of assertiveness and high in-group loyalty. In light of these findings, the authors offer implications for management in Pakistan, in accordance with cross-cultural management literature. In-depth research within Pakistan, as well as comparative cross-national studies, are needed to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of the culture on human resource practices in Pakistan.

This paper focuses on the importance of dynamic capabilities in shaping the nature of international strategies of emerging market multinationals from mid-range economies. We argue that dynamic capabilities theory provides an insightful approach to understanding the internationalization of emerging market multinationals and their strategic choices. Drawing on dynamic capability theory and unpacking dynamic capabilities into four distinct but related dimensions or facets, we develop a typology of three internationalization strategies available to emerging market multinationals in their international expansion: sequential international ambidexterity (from exploitation to exploration, and vice versa) and structural international ambidexterity (simultaneous exploration and exploitation). Success factors associated with each of the ambidextrous internationalization strategies are also considered. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the dynamic capabilities framework for theoretical implications and fruitful areas for future research endeavors.

Employing self-determination theory, in this study, we explore how workplace ostracism (being ignored and excluded by others) affects newcomer’s voice behavior. Through an empirical study with 353 matched supervisor–subordinate pairs from a large high-technology company, we find that workplace ostracism has negative influence on newcomer’s both promotive and prohibitive voice through the mediating effect of psychological needs satisfaction. In addition, narcissism moderates the effects of ostracism on psychological needs satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

By collecting and disseminating price-sensitive information, financial analysts should reduce firm insiders’ informational advantage with a consequent impact on trading dynamics and market quality. We empirically examine the impact of complete analysts’ coverage termination on stocks’ liquidity, price discovery, and insider trading profitability. Termination leads to deteriorating liquidity and price efficiency, more informed trading, and higher profitability of insider trades. The magnitude of these effects depends on the strength of insiders’ ownership and on management’s decision whether to improve the firm’s information environment after coverage termination. Institutional investors alleviate, but do not eliminate, the negative effects of termination.