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Companies are increasing their use of cause-related marketing as a means of communicating their commitment to corporate social responsibility while accomplishing their strategic goals. Although prior studies suggest that consumers react positively to cause-related marketing programs, understanding of their impact on financial performance remains limited. To address this gap, the authors employ an event study to examine the effects of cause-related marketing announcements on shareholder value using a sample of firms that appeared on Fortune's Most Admired All-Star list between 2005 and 2017. Study results show that announcement of these initiatives results in a significant loss of shareholder value. These losses are most pronounced for firms making monetary-only contributions, in comparison to those that make in-kind donations. In addition, the negative effects are mitigated for firms that have stronger reputations, have greater resource slack, and operate in more dynamic industries. Moreover, low-reputation and low-slack firms benefit most from in-kind contributions., Author(s): Parker J. Woodroof [sup.1] , George D. Deitz [sup.2] , Katharine M. Howie [sup.3] , Robert D. Jr Evans [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 2161 1001, grid.266128.9, University [...]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2008.00844.x Byline: Robert Evans (1) Keywords: Incomplete contracts; holdup problem; option contracts Abstract: This paper studies a general model of holdup in a setting encompassing the models of Segal (1999) and Che and Hausch (1999) among others. It is shown that if renegotiation is modeled as an infinite-horizon noncooperative bargaining game, then, with a simple initial contract, an efficient equilibrium will generally exist. The contract is robust in the sense that it does not depend on fine details of the model. The contract gives authority to one party to set the terms of trade and gives the other party a nonexpiring option to trade at these terms. The difference from standard results arises because the initial contract ensures that the renegotiation game has multiple equilibria; the multiplicity of continuation equilibria can be used to enforce efficient investment. Author Affiliation: (*)St. John's College, Cambridge CB2 1TP, United Kingdom;robert.evans@econ.cam.ac.uk Article History: Manuscript received November, 2005; final revision received November, 2007.

We analyze an R&D race in which, in each period, two firms each choose which of two research projects to invest in. Each observes the other's past choices and so [...]

Structural resonance modes of the head stack and suspension assembly are one of the major limiting factors for achieving higher head-positioning servo performance in hard disk drives. This paper discusses the vibration suppression control of a PZT actuated suspension dual-stage servo system. A PZT strip on a PZT actuated suspension is utilized as a vibration sensor to control both the voice coil motor (VCM) actuator butterfly mode and the suspension sway mode. The vibration suppression controller is designed using the [H.sub.[infinity]] control design method. Experimental results show that an attenuation of 15 dB can be achieved for both the suspension sway mode and the VCM butterfly mode, and the rms of the head off-track motion due to airflow excited vibration can be reduced by approximately 30% with the proposed vibration suppression control scheme. Index Terms--Dual-stage servo, hard disk drive, vibration damping control, windage.

The remotely sensed sea surface temperature (SST) estimated from the 4-km-resolution Pathfinder SST algorithm is compared to a SST locally measured by the Marine Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (MAERI) during five oceanographic cruises in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in conditions ranging from Arctic to equatorial. The Pathfinder SST is a product of the satellite-based Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, while the MAERI is an infrared radiometric interferometer with continuous onboard calibration that can provide highly accurate (better than 0.05 degrees C) in situ skin temperatures during extended shipboard deployments. Matchups, which are collocated (within 4 km) and coincident (+/- 40 min during the day; +/- 120 min during the night) data, from these two different sources under cloud-free conditions are compared. The average difference between the MAERI and Pathfinder SSTs is found to be 0.07 +/- 0.31 degrees C from 219 matchups during the low- and midlatitude cruises; inclusion of 80 more matchups from the Arctic comparisons produces an average global difference of 0.14 +/- 0.36 degrees C. The MAERI-Pathfinder differences compare favorably with the average midlatitude differences between the MAERI skin SST and other bulk SST estimates commonly available for these cruises such as the research vessels' thermosalinograph SST (0.12 +/- 0.17 degrees C) and the weekly National Centers for Environmental Prediction optimally interpolated SST analysis (0.41 +/- 0.58 degrees C). While not representative of all possible oceanic and atmospheric regimes, the accuracy of the Pathfinder SST estimates under the conditions sampled by the five cruises is found to be at least twice as good as previously demonstrated.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) will add a significant new capability for investigating the 70% of the earth's surface that is covered by oceans, in addition to contributing to the continuation of a decadal scale time series necessary for climate change assessment in the oceans. Sensor capabilities of particular importance for improving the accuracy of ocean products include high SNR and high stability for narrower spectral bands, improved onboard radiometric calibration and stability monitoring, and improved science data product algorithms. Spectral bands for resolving solar-stimulated chlorophyll fluorescence and a split window in the 4-[[micro]meter] region for SST will result in important new global ocean science products for biology and physics. MODIS will return full global data at 1-km resolution. The complete suite of Levels 2 and 3 ocean products is reviewed, and many areas where MODIS data are expected to make significant, new contributions to the enhanced understanding of the oceans' role in understanding climate change are discussed. In providing a highly complementary and consistent set of observations of terrestrial, atmospheric, and ocean observations, MODIS data will provide important new information on the interactions between earth's major components.

An analysis of the effects of reputation in the decision making process of two long-run players involved in a repeated game reveals that patience with regards the overall strategy that one or both players is directly related to the equilibrium payoff. Commitment to a particular strategy results in a greater degree of attaining an average equilibrium payoff similar to the Stackelberg payoff.

Mark Pauly wrote an editorial comment on a 1994 paper authored by R. Labelle, G. Stoddart and T. Rice which discussed the meaning and significant of supplier-induced demand. In his essay, Pauly dismissed as irrelevant an approach that is used in evaluating social structures in health care that other researchers believe are an effective normative framework. However, his interpretation of welfare economics as a source of normative propositions is problematic.

We show that, in repeated common interest games without discounting, strong 'perturbation implies efficiency' results require that the perturbations must include strategies that are `draconian' in the sense that they are prepared to punish to the maximum extent possible. Moreover, there is a draconian strategy whose presence in the perturbations guarantees that any equilibrium is efficient. We also argue that the results of Anderlini and Sabourian (1995) using perturbation strategies that are cooperative (and hence nondraconian) are not due to computability per se but to the further restrictions they impose on allowable beliefs. KEYWORDS: Common interests, repeated games, cooperation, computability, reputation.

Having a cup of green tea, a farmer watches a computer monitor at home checking his irrigation system. He is taking stock of soil moisture conditions across his field and [...]

Ripening apples are vulnerable to sun scald, which causes bronzed or bleached spots on the fruit's skin. So growers often protect their fruit from blistering heat with cooling baths from [...]