Consumers do not always act in accordance with their environmental concerns and intentions. Researchers have posited that Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (PCE), or the belief that one’s behaviors are efficacious in ameliorating environmental impact, is a more appropriate explanatory variable. Yet, there have been contrasting results regarding the comparative effect of PCE, environmental concern, and intentions on green behavior. To address this question and to better understand the generalizability of the results to multiple cultures, the authors integrate PCE and environmental concern into a theoretical model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. The results from a meta-analysis consisting of 118 studies, and 813 effect sizes, and 26,968 respondents reveal several key insights. First, cultural characteristics, such as power distance, masculinity, indulgence, and uncertainty moderate the relationship between PCE and green behavior. Second, contrary to prevailing assumptions, both PCE and environmental concern exhibit similar magnitudes in explaining overall green behavior. Third, a model with PCE and environmental concern demonstrates greater explanatory power for green behavior when compared to the traditional Theory of Planned Behavior model. These results offer valuable insights for researchers, managers, non-governmental organizations, and policymakers seeking culturally nuanced guidance to promote consumer green behavior more effectively. Authors: Valter Afonso Vieira, Clécio Falcão Araújo, Christopher Groening

The lack of robust financial management is an integral growth constraint faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). For the sustainability and growth of SMEs, it is vital to choose the correct long-term projects. Yet, literature shows that SMEs across the globe hardly practice the sophisticated capital budgeting (CB) method. The present study identifies, prioritizes, and proposes a structural model of the barriers to CB practices. The study adopts an integrated method combining the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) and the Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (F-DEMATEL) approach to evaluate the barriers to CB practices among SMEs in India. The prioritization obtained through the F-AHP suggests that the knowledge barrier of the decision-makers and the inherent barrier associated with the CB techniques are the most weighted main barriers impeding the practice of CB among SMEs. Also, the most important sub-barriers are time consumption and high complexity of the methods, lack of financial education and training of decision-makers, and lack of computation technology. F-DEMATEL provides a reliable quantitative measure of the association of the barriers to implementing sophisticated CB practices among SMEs. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to identify, prioritize and structure the barriers to CB practices. Also, it is the first to apply multi-criteria decision-making tools in this field of research. Our findings can help financial managers/practitioners of SMEs to formulate sophisticated CB techniques in their investment decision strategies and efficiently manage their long-term funds. Authors: Sureka, Riya, Satish Kumar, Deepraj Mukherjee, and Christina Theodoraki

Automating mobile promotions facilitates customization through geo-location and temporal targeting; however, this can lead the geographic and temporal patterns of promotions to become predictable. We argue that this predictability enables customer habit formation as the promotion, the context in which it is received, and the purchase behavior become associated in the customer's memory through repeated co-occurrence. This results in the customer purchasing only when promotions are expected to occur, decreasing their overall purchase likelihood. Across four studies, including empirical data from two different industries in different global regions and two controlled laboratory experiments focused on different purchase scenarios, we find that customers exposed to predictable promotion patterns shift their purchases to when promotions are expected, decreasing overall purchase probability. These effects are stronger for customers with consistent past purchase patterns or low involvement with the product, and predictability of promotion patterns does not impact customer attitudes, providing evidence that they are driven by customer habit formation. Authors: Lamei, Pezhman, Milad Mohammadi Darani, Jennifer Wiggins, and Christopher Mahar.

The primary purpose of this research is to examine the extent to which positioning hybrid ventures as more or less congruent with their category influences perceptions of their legitimacy. To do so, we first introduce and define the notion of a hybrid category as an institutional context which combines two or more dominant institutional logics that both constrain and enable organizational action. We then construct a theoretical framework instantiated within a hybrid category, suggesting that moderate incongruence between a new venture’s identity narrative and the expectations most strongly associated with the category will positively influence perceived legitimacy. We further predict specific relationships among dimensions of perceived legitimacy, as well as their downstream effects on an individual’s willingness to contribute resources. Across three studies in which we experimentally manipulate congruence with a hybrid category, we find a consistent pattern of support for our hypotheses and reveal a unique benefit for new hybrid ventures who position themselves in a manner that is moderately incongruent with the hybrid category. In addition, our results suggest that moral legitimacy perceptions act as a precursor to cognitive legitimacy perceptions in new hybrid categories. Authors: Alexiou, Kostas, Jennifer Wiggins, and Md Fourkan

The study aims to investigate how recommender systems shape providers’ dynamics and content offerings on platforms, and to provide insights into algorithm designs for achieving better outcomes in platform design. The study reveals that recommender systems have the potential to introduce biases in providers’ understanding of user preferences, thereby impacting the variety of offerings on platforms. Moreover, it identifies algorithm design as a critical factor, with item-based collaborative filters showcasing superior performance in contexts where customers exhibit selectivity. Conversely, user-based models prove more effective in scenarios where recommendations significantly sway user decisions, ultimately boosting sales. Authors: Mohammadi Darani, Milad, and Sina Aghaie

We examine how disclosure delivery mode, oral versus written, influences investors’ reactions to managers’ tone language. We hypothesize that listening to disclosures, relative to reading them, causes managers’ qualitative word choices to have a greater impact on investors’ judgments. We theorize that this effect occurs because oral delivery mode promotes heuristic processing and qualitative tone language is an easy-to-process disclosure element. The results from an experiment in a conference call setting are consistent with our hypothesis and suggest a boundary condition. Specifically, the interaction of mode and tone language is significant in a setting where heuristic processing is likely (good earnings news) but not in a setting where investors are likely to scrutinize the disclosure (bad earnings news). Our results inform investors about the potential consequences of how they consume disclosures. Specifically, we show that investors are more susceptible to managers’ tone language when listening to disclosures containing good news than reading them. Authors: Elliott, W. Brooke, Serena Loftus, and Amanda Winn

A consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is that workers increasingly want work that aligns with their values. Given that Gen Z, the next generation of accountants, is characterized by a focus on ESG issues, we use an experiment to test whether emphasizing sustainability assurance roles attracts individuals to the profession and which types of individuals are most attracted. We find individuals are more interested in becoming accountants when sustainability assurance positions are emphasized, relative to financial positions. We further find individuals with a prosocial (but not proself) social value orientation drive this result due to the greater intrinsic appeal of sustainability jobs to these individuals. We also find some evidence that prosocial individuals exhibit lower professional skepticism than proself individuals, highlighting a potential negative consequence of attracting prosocial individuals to the profession. Our findings illuminate how the accounting profession can attract prosocial individuals and one implication of doing so. Authors: Horne, Eric, Serena Loftus, Sarah Shonka McCoy, and Amanda M. Winn.

We provide a conceptual framework for analyzing studies on management controls and management control systems (MCSs). This framework describes and analyzes the directing and activating processes of management controls and MCSs. Because our focus is on why management controls are effective, our conceptual framework complements earlier frameworks that focus on specific empirical methods, controls, and literature maps. We discuss several applications of the framework, such as depicting an individual research study, comparing multiple research studies examining the same control, and organizing an area of research. Our approach benefits consumers of management accounting research by increasing understanding and access to extant research. In addition, the application of our approach can reveal gaps in the literature or the potential for mediating factors to explain conflicting findings and can thus inform future research. Authors: Bol, Jasmijn C., and Serena Loftus

A significant portion of the global adult population, particularly in developing markets, lacks access to formal credit due to the absence of traditional credit histories. This presents a major challenge for financial institutions, FinTech companies, and policymakers aiming to promote financial inclusion. While conventional credit scoring models are built on established financial data, the growing penetration of mobile phones offers an alternative means to assess credit risk. Unlike prior research focused on Call Detail Records (CDRs)—data generated by telecommunication providers capturing users' call and message activities, such as duration, frequency, and timing—this study investigates the predictive power of a broader spectrum of mobile usage data, including non-CDR attributes like social media engagement and web browsing habits, in assessing credit risk. Using a broad range of machine learning algorithms on actual mobile usage data from over 1,500 demographically diverse individuals over a two-week period, we find that while these mobile usage attributes alone cannot fully replace FICO scores in regression models (R²=0.30), they significantly enhance the accuracy of classification models, especially when combined with CDR data (Accuracy=0.89). These findings have important implications for credit markets in emerging economies, pathways for financial institutions and FinTech companies to engage with unbanked populations and support the growth of alternative credit assessment tools. Authors: Razavi, Rouzbeh, and Nasr G. Elbahnasawy.

We employ a dynamic regression discontinuity design comparing business outcomes in areas that passed additional school property taxes to business outcomes in areas that failed to do so. On average, these referenda increase local property taxes by approximately 8 percent. We find little evidence that passage of a property tax referendum influences the total number of establishments in the district in the following years. Further, there is little evidence that property taxes affect total establishment births or deaths. Heterogeneity analysis does not find differences across various measures of firm exposure to property taxes. Authors: Enami, Ali, C. Lockwood Reynolds, and Shawn M. Rohlin