Across five studies, the current research demonstrates that imbuing money with humanlike characteristics can enhance charitable giving. Based on mind perception theory, we propose that anthropomorphizing money can induce people to attribute to money the capacity to feel and sense (i.e., warmth) and the capacity to do things (i.e., competence). Further, we argue that enhanced warmth perception increases charitable giving. Studies 1a and 1b provided initial evidence that money anthropomorphism increased charitable giving by measuring real monetary donation behavior (study 1a) and by adopting a practical method to anthropomorphize money in charitable appeals (study 1b). Study 2 showed that money anthropomorphism enhanced both warmth and competence perceptions of money, but that only enhanced warmth perception increased donation intention. Study 3 showed that money anthropomorphism did not enhance other types of charitable giving, such as signature provision. Study 4 showed that the money anthropomorphism effect was unique to money and that anthropomorphizing other financial instruments, such as a credit card, did not induce the same effect.
February 2019
Journal of Consumer Research
This study uses two distinct quasi-natural experiments to examine the effect of institutional shareholders on corporate social responsibility (CSR). We first find that an exogenous increase in institutional holding caused by Russell Index reconstitutions improves portfolio firms’ CSR performance. We then find that firms have lower CSR ratings when shareholders are distracted due to exogenous shocks. Moreover, the effect of institutional ownership is stronger in CSR categories that are financially material. Furthermore, we show that institutional shareholders influence CSR through CSR-related proposals. Overall, our results suggest that institutional shareholders can generate real social impact.
February 2019
Journal of Financial Economics
We investigate the roles played by unexpected demand shocks, besides productivity, on firms' capital investment and exit decisions. We propose a practical approach to recover unexpected firm‐level demand shocks using inventory data. The recognition of demand shocks and inventory also improves the productivity estimation. The empirical results indicate that although productivity and demand shocks are both significant factors determining firm behavior, the former is more dominant for investment decision and the latter is more salient for firm exit. These findings confirm that unexpected demand shocks, besides persistent productivity, are important factors when analyzing capital investment and firm exit decisions.
February 2019
International Economic Review
Digital distribution introduces many new strategic questions for the creative industries—notably, how the use of new digital channels will impact sales in established channels. We analyze this question in the context of e-book and hardcover sales by exploiting a natural experiment that exogenously delayed the release of a publisher’s new Kindle e-books in April and May 2010. Using new books released simultaneously in e-book and print formats in March and June 2010 as the control group, we find that delaying e-book availability results in a 43.8% decrease in e-book sales but no increase in print book sales on Amazon.com or among other online or offline retailers. We also find that the decrease in e-book sales is greater for books with less prerelease buzz. Together, we find no evidence of strong cannibalization between print books and e-books in the short term and no support for the sequential distribution of books in print versions followed by e-book versions.
January 2019
Management Science
研究人员发现焦虑与工作表现之间存在不一致的关系。尽管职场焦虑与工作表现呈负相关,而大多数人亦视职场焦虑为“黑暗面”,然而研究发现职场焦虑也有其“光明面”。本文通过一个名为职场焦虑理论 (TWA) 的综合多层次、多路径的职场模型,理顺以往有关职场焦虑的研究。此模型强调职场焦虑可能削弱或促进工作表现的过程和条件,当中亦包括十九个理论性假设。借鉴以往有关焦虑、资源枯竭、认知动机处理和表现的理论,我们把情绪耗竭、自我调节处理和认知干扰视为处理职场焦虑和工作表现关系的截然不同的方式,并发现削弱或促进职场中性格焦虑和情境焦虑的特性。透过延伸理论模型,我们确定动机、能力和情商是导致职场焦虑的关键因素,有可能削弱或促进工作表现。同时,我们也发现引致性格焦虑和情境焦虑的员工、工作和情境的特征。职场焦虑理论为研究职场焦虑提供新视野及奠定未来的职场研究基础。
May 2018
Journal of Applied Psychology