Recently, several new mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have entered the European mobile telecommunications markets. These service providers do not own a mobile network, but instead they buy capacity from other companies. Because these virtual operators do not possess an infrastructure of...

Latvian employees have to choose a pension fund for the second-pillar of the Latvian pension system. These pension funds invest about 85% in domestic assets. In this paper, we address the question why this strong home bias might exist. Firstly, we conclude that the Latvian pension law is strict...

Diffusion of mobile communication has induced great societal changes in China. Factors at global market, communications industry and end-user market levels are driving the adoption at a high rate. Firstly, China’s economic emergence together with e.g. accession to WTO has led to foreign...

In this paper, we draw on the literature about gift exchange to suggest a conceptualization of the emergence, maintenance and use of social capital (SK). We thus open up the black box of how social relations are established, and are able to indicate what can be meaningfully ascribed to social...

FIRST-ORDER STOCHASTIC DOMINANCE (FSD) is one of the fundamental concepts of decision making under uncertainty, relying only on the assumption of nonsatiation, or decision makers preferring more to less. There exist well-known, simple algorithms for establishing FSD relationships between a pair...

The tension between (social) order and change, or, alternatively formulated, between structure and agency, has a long history in the social sciences (e.g. Verburg 1991). The discussion has substantial philosophical overtones. In this article we recount the history of the discussion. We both...

Royal Ahold (Koninklijke Ahold NV) was one of the major success stories in the 1990s and is one of the major failures in corporate governance, suffering a complete meltdown in 2003. This clinical study analyzes Ahold’s growth strategy through acquisitions and isolates the cause of the failed...

We propose that weather conditions can influence consumers’ engagement in lottery play. A longitudinal study on the extent of lottery play in Belgium shows that lottery expenditures are indeed higher after reduced exposure to sunshine, even after controlling for people’s inertia,...

The current research addresses the psychological benefits of superstitious rituals in top sport, examining the circumstances under which top-class sportsmen are especially committed to enacting rituals prior to a game (ritual commitment). Consistent with hypotheses, findings revealed that ritual...

Developments in the management education environment present business schools with several challenges. Among these, perhaps the most important to address relates to a mission-critical resource for business schools: faculty retention. In this paper, we position and examine this problem within the...