CEGE - Contribuições em Revistas Científicas / Contribution to Journals
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- The impact of the ECB’s PEPP on Euro area bond spreadsPublication . Pinto, João; Costa, TiagoWe examine the impact of the European Central Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) on euro area banks, non-financial firms, and governments’ cost of borrowing. Using a large sample of 751 sovereign bonds, 2,116 corporate bonds, 469 covered bonds, and 725 asset-backed securities, issued in the 2018-2021 period, and subsamples of eligible bonds, we find that the PEPP successfully reduced corporate, covered, and sovereign bond spreads in both the announcement and purchasing periods, consistent with signalling, direct, and portfolio rebalancing channels of monetary policy. For asset-backed securities, the findings are mixed: while we show a spread reduction during the purchasing period for the full sample, we do not find any significant impact for bonds fulfilling eligibility criteria. Finally, we show that the PEPP’s impact on bond spreads is significantly higher for those issued in GIIPS versus core European countries.
- The impact of providing non-human identity cues about sales agents on consumer responses: the role of social presence and speciesism activationPublication . Cicco, Roberta De; Elmashhara, Maher Georges; Silva, Susana C.; Hammerschmidt, MaikPurpose This work investigates how different strategies for providing cues about the non-human identity of a sales agent influence consumers’ perceptions and purchase-related outcomes, and how a social interaction style shapes these responses. Additionally, the authors explore the role of consumers’ speciesism against non-human entities in eliciting unfavourable responses to the disclosure of the agent’s artificial nature. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies were conducted using real chatbot interactions. Study 1 investigates how non-human identity cues impact consumer trust and, subsequently, attitude towards the firm and intention to purchase the product offered. Study 2 tests these effects across different levels of social presence. Study 3 examines consumer responses to different non-human identity disclosure strategies, considering speciesism’s moderating role. Findings Study 1 proves that disclosing (vs not disclosing) the artificial nature of a sales agent leads to a decline in trust towards the firm, which in turn negatively influences both attitude towards the firm and purchase intention. This finding reveals discrimination against disclosed (vs non-disclosed) artificial sales agents despite identical, flawless performance. However, Study 2 proves that the negative effects vanish when perceived social presence is high. Study 3 underlines that high speciesism leads to a trust decline if non-human identity cues are presented during the interaction but not if presented earlier in the journey before the interaction. Research limitations/implications The study highlights the negative effects of disclosure on important, firm-related outcomes. These insights advance current literature by showing that disclosing cues about the non-human nature of a sales agent can undermine psychological and behavioural responses–even when the disclosed agent performs just as effectively as its undisclosed counterpart. This result is noteworthy, as most prior research has linked aversive reactions to artificial agents with situations in which algorithms underperform, whereas this study examines agents that function flawlessly. Furthermore, the study reveals that these adverse effects are driven by speciesism–prejudices against non-human entities–offering a novel explanation for consumers’ negative responses. Practical implications The findings stress that transparency about the artificial nature of sales agents is penalised by customers and comes at a high cost for business-relevant outcomes. However, by transforming an artificial agent into a social actor through subtle design modifications, firms can overcome the unfavourable prejudice against artificial agents. By creating a social appearance, firms can harness the potential of automated sales services–even when disclosure of the agent’s artificial identity is required. As firms may soon be obliged to disclose the artificial identity of their sales agents, the critical question shifts from whether to disclose to how to disclose in order to mitigate negative consequences. Finally, we offer guidance on targeting the right consumers with artificial agents–specifically, those with lower levels of speciesism-related prejudices. Originality/value This work addresses pressing issues for managers concerned with the implementation of artificial sales agents. Results extend knowledge on speciesism towards digital agents, inform which consumers are particularly prone to respond negatively to such agents, and present levers for designing chat-based social interactions that prevent non-human-related prejudices that could undermine the effectiveness of conversational technologies.
- PortugalPublication . Feliciano, Diana; Mendes, AméricoThe evidence provided in this report shows that the Portuguese forest sector has been responsive to demands for its products, not only timber, but also cork and some other non wood forest goods and services. The area of forests almost tripled since the mid of the 1990s and the main cause of this has been that response to market conditions. Given the very high salience of private ownership, private forest owners played a major role in that response, even when there were no supported public policies, which was the case until the 1980s. Private forest owners obviously have not been alone in making up these adjustments to demand. Forest industries have been the essential connecting link between the forests and the final consumers, either in the domestic markets, or abroad. The first jump in expanding the forest resource base was the installation of the cork oak stands in the southern regions, mostly from the mid of the XIXth century until the mid of the XXth century. This was and still remains an export oriented business. It has successfully resisted the arrival of plastics, and is now facing new forms of competition from this material. Again this competition is meeting an active response from the industry and the forest owners, but a lot is still undecided about the end of this game. Pulp and paper is another story of creation of a new forest resource base and a new industry oriented essentially towards exports. Like in the case of cork, the quality of the product has been generally good, but here also new threats are arising. The resource base of the industry is under increasing risk of forest fires and the fundamentals of the Portuguese economy, in recent years, are not favouring exporting business. The wood based panel industry is another case where the forest resources built up by private forestry during the last one hundred years were able to trigger and sustain industrial conglomerates of large international scope. Nowadays the leading group in the world in this industry is Portuguese. The tree species at the base of this industry is maritime pine. This is the species which has been suffering most with forest fires and this is not good news for the industry. However, entrepreneurs here have been able to evolve towards other products and other markets. The rest of the forest industries (sawmilling, carpentry and furniture) are essentially made of small, even very small enterprises relying almost entirely on the domestic market. Rising real incomes and lower real interest rates, until the turn of the century helped these activities. These favourable conditions stopped to hold at the same time as the exposure to foreign competition became more intense. The strong dependence of these industries on the macroeconomic situation of the country is now pushing them towards improvements in labour productivity, at lower levels of employment.
- Higher social class is associated with higher contextualized emotion recognition accuracy across culturesPublication . Kafetsios, Konstantinos; Hess, Ursula; Alonso-Arbiol, Itziar; Schütz, Astrid; Gruda, Dritjon; Campbell, Kelly; Chen , Bin-Bin; Dostal, Daniel; Held, Marco J.; Hypsova, Petra; Kamble, Shanmukh; Kimura, Takuma; Kirchner-Häusler, Alexander; Kyvelea, Marina; Livi, Stefano; Mandal, Eugenia; Ochnik, Dominika; Papageorgakopoulos, Nektarios; Seitl, Martin; Sakman, Ezgi; Sumer, Nebi; Sulejmanov, Filip; Theodorou, Annalisa; Uskul, Ayse K.We tested links between social status and emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) with participants from a diverse array of cultures and a new model and method of ERA, the Assessment of Contextualized Emotion (ACE), which incorporates social context and is linked to different types of social interaction across cultures. Participants from the Czech Republic (Study 1) and from 12 cultural groups in Europe, North America, and Asia (Study 2) completed a short version of the ACE, a self-construal scale, and the MacArthur Subjective Social Status (SSS) scale. In both studies, higher SSS was associated with more accuracy. In Study 2, this relationship was mediated by higher independent self-construal and moderated by countries’ long-term orientation and relational mobility. The findings suggest that the positive association between higher social class and emotion recognition accuracy is due to the use of agentic modes of socio-cognitive reasoning by higher status individuals. This raises new questions regarding the socio-cultural ecologies that afford this relationship.
- Are morally courageous leaders more effective?Publication . Rego, Arménio; Simpson, Ace Volkmann; Bluhm, Dustin J.; Cunha, Miguel Pina eDetecting, interpreting, assuming responsibility, and being driven to act upon situations with potential ethical implications requires morally courageous leaders to be continuously ‘tuned’ to the environment. We argue that this ‘tuning’ facilitates leader respect for employees and greater receptiveness to their inputs, and that it is through these mechanisms that leader moral courage is positively related to leader effectiveness. In a multi-source study involving 102 team leaders (assessed by peers, subordinates, and supervisors), we found that leaders with higher levels of moral courage convey greater respect for team members and are more receptive to relational transparency from them, and that such respect and receptiveness enhance leader effectiveness. We also hypothesized and found that leaders who overestimate their moral courage (i.e., who self-describe as being morally courageous while others perceive them as not being so) are particularly less respectful toward team members, and thus are less effective.
- Leader expressed humility: a meta-analysis and an agenda for future researchPublication . Silard, Anthony; Miao, Chao; Rego, Arménio; Akkan, Eren; Yoon, David; Qian, ShanshanThis study meta-analyzes the empirical evidence on the topic of leader humility. Our findings suggest that leader humility makes unique contributions to explaining key followers’ outcomes beyond those provided by transformational leadership. We also find significant overlap between leader humility and authentic leadership, yet leader humility has incremental validity in predicting several outcomes. We analyze two theoretically driven moderators: individualism vs. collectivism, and high- vs. low- religiosity, and find that both emerge as moderating the relationships between leader humility and several outcomes. These findings suggest that when constructs such as leader-expressed humility, dispositional humility, honesty-humility, and humility as a component of servant leadership are conflated under the expression “leader humility”, the granularities inherent to each one of these constructs are hidden, with negative consequences for the validity of the empirical landscape. We conclude with theoretical implications of our meta-analysis for the leader humility literature and make suggestions for future research.
- Audit quality and the market value of cash: the role played by the Big 4 auditor in Latin AmericaPublication . Manoel, Aviner Augusto Silva; Moraes, Marcelo Botelho da Costa; Perez-de Toledo, Eloisa; Pündrich, Gabriel PereiraDespite the extensive discussion in the accounting literature regarding the importance of internal control for the proper allocation of corporate resources, little is known about the role of auditors as a governance mechanism in reducing agency costs related to cash resources. This study extends the literature that explores differences in audit quality by examining whether perceived audit quality, measured by the Big 4/non-Big 4 dichotomy, mitigates the value destruction associated with cash. To the extent that investors do not perceive Big 4 auditors, as opposed to non-Big 4 auditors, as effective in preventing the potential value destruction associated with cash holdings or enhancing the contribution of cash to firm value in Latin America, our article is the first to document that investors do not assign a statistically significant premium to the cash balances of Big 4 clients. The results hold after a series of robustness checks and additional analyses. Our article enriches the literature on audit quality, corporate governance and cash holdings by demonstrating no statistically significant influence of auditor choice on the value investors place on cash reserves in a weak legal environment, i.e., where minority shareholders are poorly protected. Our conclusions have important implications for investors and lenders looking to Latin America to diversify their investments, as our findings about audit quality can influence their investment decisions. This study also has practical implications for the debate concerning the role played by audit quality.
- A multinational study of social attitudes, moral beliefs, and personality traits: a network analysis approachPublication . Ramos-Vera, Cristian; Grigoropoulos, Iraklis; Barrientos, Antonio Serpa; Calle, Dennis; Olivera-Cercado, Royer; Hualparuca-Olivera, Luis; Gruda, DritjonThis study investigates psychological variables central to promoting social cohesion and prosocial behavior across cultures. Using network analysis on data from 44,407 participants in 54 countries, we examined relationships among seven constructs: social belonging (SB), individual narcissism (Nrc), national narcissism (NrN), trait optimism (TrO), self-esteem (SE), moral identity (MI), and morality as cooperation (MC). Positive relationships were found among SB, SE, and TrO. Notably, individual narcissism was negatively associated with SB and TrO, highlighting its detrimental impact on social cohesion. Centrality analysis identified moral identity (MI) as the most interconnected variable, linking both forms of narcissism and contributing to greater SB, TrO, and MC. Self-esteem also played a significant role by bridging connections with narcissistic traits. Overall, the findings underscore a distinction between individual and social motives: while narcissists may use self-esteem and moral identity for self-serving purposes, positive traits like social belonging enhance and contribute to societal well-being and progress.
- Optimizing advance care planning in dementia: recommendations from a 33-country Delphi studyPublication . European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC); Steen, Jenny T. van der; Block, Lieve Van den; Nakanishi, Miharu; Dening, Karen Harrison; Parker, Deborah; Larkin, Philip; Giulio, Paola Di; Schmitten, Jürgen in der; Sudore, Rebecca L.; Mimica, Ninoslav; Holmerova, Iva; Pereira, Sandra Martins; Korfage, Ida J.Context: Advance care planning (ACP) is relevant yet challenging with cognitive decline. Objective: To provide evidence and consensus-based clinical recommendations for how to conduct ACP in dementia. Methods: International Delphi study conducted by the European Association for Palliative Care ‘ACP in dementia’ taskforce with four online surveys (September 2021-June 2022). A panel of 107 experts from 33 countries and seven individuals with dementia contributed. The recommendations specific for dementia were initially based on two earlier Delphi studies and literature searches addressing guidance including the right timing and how to personalize ACP. We used conservative preregistered criteria for consensus. Results: Thirty constitutive elements of ACP were identified (e.g., ‘assess understanding of ACP’). Only five were deemed ‘optional.’ The panel estimated a median of four conversations could address elements to be addressed at least once. Recommendations included to assume capacity as a principle, conscious of the need to explore its fluctuation, to encourage engaging and playing active roles, and to establish connection and inform and prepare family. There was a consensus to offer ACP around dementia diagnosis, to raise end-of-life issues later, and to personalize ACP with flexibility, providing of information and exploring understanding. The advice of the persons with dementia pointed to a wish for a well-coordinated holistic approach. Conclusion: Consensus was reached, including in areas of ambiguity, to guide ACP in dementia. ACP should be embedded in a nonprescriptive, individualized approach that involves both the person with dementia and their families. Future studies may evaluate trade-offs between optimal ACP and feasible implementation.
- Parametric models for distributional dataPublication . Brito, Paula; Silva, A. Pedro DuarteWe present parametric probabilistic models for numerical distributional variables. The proposed models are based on the representation of each distribution by a location measure and inter-quantile ranges, for given quantiles, thereby characterizing the underlying empirical distributions in a flexible way. Multivariate Normal distributions are assumed for the whole set of indicators, considering alternative structures of the variance–covariance matrix. For all cases, maximum likelihood estimators of the corresponding parameters are derived. This modelling allows for hypothesis testing and multivariate parametric analysis. The proposed framework is applied to Analysis of Variance and parametric Discriminant Analysis of distributional data. A simulation study examines the performance of the proposed models in classification problems under different data conditions. Applications to Internet traffic data and Portuguese official data illustrate the relevance of the proposed approach.