The diffusion of credit cards may have relaxed households' liquidity constraints, thereby stimulating the diffusion of commercial insurance. By investigating Chinese urban households who had no commercial insurance in 2013, we find that their initial access to credit cards significantly increased the likelihood of their holding commercial insurance in 2015. Our instrumental variable (IV) estimations confirm the causality. This positive effect is more pronounced among more liquidity-constrained households and among households with more financial knowledge. Last, the initial access to credit cards also significantly enhanced commercial insurance renewal in 2015 among those households who had commercial insurance in 2013.
Using executives' decision horizon as a measure of internal governance, this study examines the association between customer's internal governance and supplier's extension of trade credit. Suppliers may extend more trade credit to customers with strong internal governance because of their lower operational risk, higher firm performance, and better information environment. However, firms with better internal governance may have easier access to other sources of financing, and thus may need less trade credit. Using a sample of US listed firms between 1992 and 2021, we find that suppliers extend more trade credit to customers with strong internal governance. We also find that the association between internal governance and trade credit is more pronounced for financially, and informationally constrained firms. Our results are robust to alternative measures and specifications. Incremental to prior studies, we show that effectiveness of customers' internal governance affects suppliers' lending decisions.
South African Journal of Psychology, Ahead of Print. The relationship between sources of acute pain and its persistence as chronic pain is complex, involving multiple systems that include emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal functioning. This study explored the lived experiences of male patients (N = 14) at an interdisciplinary chronic pain clinic and is based on two major themes: (1) the journey to chronic pain; and (2) experiences within treatment settings. The purpose of the study was to investigate the lived experiences of men living with chronic pain conditions in relation to masculine identity in their everyday contexts. Interview material was collected in 2019 from 14 male patients at a chronic pain clinic using a life-world interviewing approach. Participant validation interviews took place to verify the findings. Team data analysis, thematic network diagrams, and tabulations were used for thematic analysis of transcripts and interview data. The narratives included distress, losses, adjustment, and other psychosocial sequelae linked to the meaning of living with chronic pain in relation to masculine identity and ageing. The men experienced the chronic pain clinic to be supportive and helpful, although with significant challenges of access and treatment, which they associated with having to adjust and adapt. The affective, cognitive, and social components were highly relevant in the participants’ accounts and therefore crucial considerations for the effective, contextualized, and responsive management of chronic pain among persons living with chronic pain.
There is concern that accounting standards are difficult to understand by those who use them. We investigate factors that enhance and inhibit the ability of the standards' users to comprehend their meaning and requirements. Readability statistics reveal that Australian accounting standards are difficult or very difficult to read. Interviews with experienced financial statement preparers and auditors from the for-profit, not-for-profit private, and public sectors reveal that ‘understandability’ is a function of many inter-related factors, only some of which relate to how standards are written and presented. We offer recommendations to standards-setters about how the understandability of standards could be improved.
South African Journal of Psychology, Ahead of Print. Students’ reasons for attending university are likely to impact their participation, academic engagement, and learning outcomes. This study aims to investigate undergraduate students’ motivations for attending a South African university and its association with specific socio-demographic factors. The study used a cross-sectional survey design. Participants were undergraduate students (N = 220) who completed a socio-demographic survey and the Student Motivations for Attending University Questionnaire-Revised scale. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and analysis of variance were used to determine associations between the study variables. The reasons for attending university were significantly related to racial identity, student generational status, parental educational status, and family characteristics. Students in their first and second years of study were motivated to attend university to prove their self-worth. Students who identified as Black as well as those coming from a single- or double-parent household and students whose parents had a school-level education were more likely to attend university to help their families. The findings suggest that students are motivated beyond the immediate benefits of employment and personal earnings and that the upliftment of their families is a central reason for attending university. For universities striving to connect with their students, understanding students’ motivational orientation can inform intervention efforts aimed at enhancing retention and throughput.
Control and trust issues are at the heart of collaboration in and between organizations. In this introduction to the Special Issue (SI) on the control-trust dynamics, we first propose an integrative framework to take stock of the main themes discussed in both the micro and macro literature. We then contextualize how the papers in this issue flesh out key mechanisms underlying the interplay between control and trust over time. The remainder of the introduction highlights directions for future research by refining and extending our understanding of control and trust as mechanisms of collaboration across levels of analysis. Our future research suggestions are organized around the main building blocks of control-trust research: (1) constructs, (2) interactions, (3) actors, (4) temporal dynamics, (5) outcomes, and (6) context.
The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Ahead of Print. This article examines homeless youth as a specific category of disadvantaged entrepreneurs in the Châtelet-les-Halles district in central Paris. It proceeds by showing how the investigation into the informal economic activities of homeless youth, examined through the lens of disadvantaged entrepreneurship and geography, represents a novel research area, particularly within the Parisian context. It is distinguished by its original four-year ethnographic and geographic methodology, encompassing street observations, recorded and unrecorded interviews, and the use of Facebook and geographic information systems to observe and understand 10 homeless youths and their environment. After presenting and exploring the sociological, economic, and geographic context of Châtelet-les-Halles, specifically focusing on the activities of homeless youth, the article provides an analysis of the informal entrepreneurial endeavors pursued by these individuals. Finally, the discussion articulates the notion of geographical context with entrepreneurial creativity and resilience, to better understand how informal entrepreneurial activities are developed in urban environments.
