Scott Hiller, PhD, assistant professor of economics, recently presented his research on "Music Consumption Decisions With Non-Durable Streaming Options” at the Dolan Faculty Research Seminar.
The paper considers what factors are important to consumers when choosing between listening to music in a subscription streaming bundle on a service such as Spotify, and buying through more traditional physical and digital sources.
Gregory Koutmos, PhD, Gerald M. Levin Chair of Finance and professor of Finance, presented “Measuring the Relative Return Contribution of Risk Factors,” a paper co-authored with Drs. Knif, Kolari, and Pynnomen, at the 86th Atlantic Economic Conference in New York City on October 12, 2018. The paper proposes a new quantitative approach for the evaluation of risk factors for asset pricing.
The method is applied to six common risk factors, including market, size, value, momentum, profitability, and investment. The evidence suggests that the average relative return contributions of the market factor and mispricing alpha are highest in all models and sample periods.
Mark S. LeClair, PhD, director of graduate programs and professor of economics, has had the following paper accepted for publication in Corporate Reputation Review: “Reported Instances of Nonprofit Malfeasance: Do Donors Respond to Scandals in the Third Sector?”
This article examines the rise of corrupt practices at non-profit organizations and the resulting impact on charitable giving. An empirical model is developed that demonstrates that published reports of malfeasance depress contributions over time, resulting in a significant decline in donations.
Dawn W. Massey, PhD, CPA, CGMA, professor of accounting, recently returned to the faculty after serving in 2017-18 as interim associate dean and director of graduate programs. Her paper, "Tax Fairness: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Measurement," coauthored with Jonathan Farrar (Ryerson University) and Errol Osecki and Linda Thorne (York University), has been accepted for publication in Journal of Business Ethics, a Financial Times top-50 journal.
Although it has long been accepted that taxpayers who perceive greater fairness are more likely to voluntarily report and pay their income taxes, until this study, we lacked a comprehensive understanding of what “fairness” means to taxpayers. Findings highlight that taxpayers perceive tax fairness on the basis of three factors: fairness of the tax assessment process, exchange equity, and vertical equity. These findings should be helpful to legislators and tax authorities as they consider ways to increase taxpayers' likelihood of reporting/paying income taxes.
Dr. Massey also presented her research this past August at both the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting and the 23rd Annual Ethics Research Symposium on ethics research in accounting. Additionally, in August, Dr. Massey presented “The Objectives of Accounting Ethics Education” at a CPE session entitled “Engaging Students in Accounting Ethics Education: Why? What? How? Objectives, Content and Delivery,” sponsored by the Professionalism and Ethics Committee of the American Accounting Association. This presentation focused on training accounting faculty about the objectives that they could (and could not) expect to attain in teaching an accounting ethics course.
She was also appointed chair of the American Accounting Association's Outstanding Accounting Educator Award Committee for 2018-19.
Michael McDonald, PhD, assistant professor of finance, presented his research on “Beta Dispersion and Equity Returns” at the Dolan Faculty Research Seminar.
This study examines how investors can best use mutual funds versus exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in their investment portfolios. During periods of greater volatility, mutual funds perform better than in periods of stability.
Iman Naderi, PhD, assistant professor of marketing, published “I’m Nice, Therefore I Go Green: An Investigation Of Pro-Environmentalism In Communal Narcissists,” in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Five studies suggest that while communal narcissists claim to be pro-environmental, their behaviors do not support such claims. The findings indicate that communal narcissists may see pro-environmental actions as communal means that could potentially serve their agentic, self-directed motives. However, when pro-environmental actions are expected to pose a threat to self-interest, the ‘me first’ aspect of narcissism plays a more dominant role, resulting in lack of inclinations to engage in pro-environmental actions.
Dr. Naderi also published “Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt: The Effect of Consumer Knowledge on Restaurant Evaluation” in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.
This article investigates the effect of consumer knowledge about the type of restaurant on perceived restaurant quality. The findings show that both chain and independent restaurants are equally likely to do well and their success or failure depends on what consumers know about a restaurant and how they evaluate it. In contrast, not having a clear identity and position in consumers’ minds does not help the restaurant to succeed.
Rajasree K. Rajamma, PhD, associate professor of marketing, along with Dr. Naderi, Mohammadali Zolfagharian (University of Texas), and Samaneh Torkzadesh (Indiana University South Bend) published an article, “Determinants of Medical Tourism Destination Selection Process,” in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management.
This study explores why people see medical tourism as a viable option for their healthcare needs and identifies factors influencing their choice of a destination.
Dr. Rajamma and Michael Sciandra, PhD, assistant professor of marketing, presented a paper titled “Planning and Implementing a Graduate Online Team-Taught Marketing Course” at the Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Conference in Florida.
Online courses have become an important educational delivery tool for institutions of higher learning throughout the world. While popular among students and administrators, many faculty members have expressed concerns with online courses. This paper highlights online team-teaching as a potential solution to concerns harbored by faculty members, offers guidelines for implementation, and outlines positive educator outcomes associated with the development of a team-taught course.
Debra Strauss, JD, professor of business law, published a chapter on genetically modified food and the recent federal labeling law (the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard) for the book, Ethical Tensions from New Technology: The Case of Agricultural Biotechnology. The chapter explores the ethical implications of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Dr. Strauss explores this critical question: Does the failure to require adequate, meaningful labeling, and the preemption of grassroots efforts to do so, violate our right to informed consent by not allowing consumers a choice as to whether to knowingly and willingly assume the risks of ingesting GMOs?
Jie Tao, PhD, assistant professor of information systems and operations management, presented his research, “On Analysis of Forward-Looking Statements (FLS) in Initial Public Offering Prospectuses: A Deep Learning Approach” at the Dolan Faculty Research Seminar.
The study finds that FLS features are more predictive for pre-IPO as compared to post-IPO valuation prediction. The analytical pipeline contributes to the text classification knowledge base while the findings from the predictive analysis shed light on understanding the underpricing phenomenon occurring in the IPO process.
