Recent social spending inflation in China has led to its growth rate far exceeding that of income and other consumption. In this paper, we estimate private returns to social spending, such as higher social status and larger social network that serve as certain functions. In almost all...

This dissertation studied the determinants and consequences of corporate reputation. It explored how firm-, industry-, and country-level factors influence the general public’s assessment of a firm’s reputation and how this reputation assessment impacted the firm’s strategic actions and...

Good reputation management is becoming increasingly important as organisations and the social environments in which they function become more complex (Caruana, 2000; Fombrun & van Riel, 2003). Organisations are being evaluated by far more demanding standards than in the past, and are increasingly...

The development and evolution of labor market structures and institutions. Particular focus on competing explanations of recent developments in the distribution of wage and salary income and in key institutions and organizational structures. Special attention to theories of worker motivation and...

This Thesis contains three essays on the economic behavior of individuals. The first essay, co-authored with Andreas Blume and Douglas DeJong is an experimental investigation into the contribution of cognition in a strategic setting where the goal is to coordinate by choosing different courses...

Drawing on the social embeddedness perspective, this paper examines the impact of entrepreneurs' social capital on their firm performance in post-Soviet Russia. Based on face-to-face interviews with 75 Russian entrepreneurs in 1995, and the follow-up study in 1999, the study contrasts the...

Development literature has recently promoted the use of producer organization in linking farmers to better-paying commodity markets. However, empirical studies find mixed performance of such organizations. This study examines the producer organization’s internal factors that may explain the...

Institutional problems and the corruptive use of social capital give ground for misuse ofinstitutional gaps and cause intentional failures for financial benefits. Based on socialcapital theory and transaction cost economics (TCE) this paper describes how theinstitutional environment in the...

Objective of this paper is to analyse themotivations in the purchase of Fair Trade (FT) foodproducts sold in the World Shops (WS) in order tocharacterize WS consumer profiles according to theethical content of their motivations. A questionnaire hasbeen distributed, at this end, to a sample of...