BAR - Brazilian Administration Review

22

Authors: Alan Diógenes Góis (in memoriam), Márcia Martins Mendes De Luca, Gerlando Augusto Sampaio Franco de Lima, Jislene Trindade Medeiros

In view of the influence of corporate reputation on investors’ choices and risk concerns, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between corporate reputation and bankruptcy risk in public firms. The investigation is a contribution to the burgeoning literature on corporate reputation associated with accounting, despite reputation being classified as an intangible asset capable of generating competitive advantage. Our sample included 4,578 observations (441 firms) covering the period 2005-2016. The overall score on the World’s Most Admired Companies ranking was used as a proxy for reputation. Bankruptcy risk was quantified by Altman Z-scores (Zang, 2012) and accounting information for each year in the period was retrieved from the database Compustat Global. Our results reveal that corporate reputation has a negative influence on bankruptcy risk, reiterating the importance of risk management. When firms attract and strive to secure the favor of stakeholders, they increase risk for the same reason. However, this effect is counterbalanced by good reputation. Thus, corporate reputation is a valuable strategic resource with which managers can boost confidence among investors, increase the firm’s credit worthiness and perpetuate the organization on the market. Furthermore, these results expand the literature on corporate reputation and risk of bankruptcy, and show signs that companies with high reputation have lower risk of bankruptcy and tend to honor their debts.

26

Authors: Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes, Bruno Brandão Fischer, Matheus Leite Campos, Paola Rücker Schaeffer

Research on the concept of entrepreneurial universities has dedicated significant attention to understand how academic ecosystems shape the propensity of its members to establish new ventures. In this article we look at a prior step of the entrepreneurial event, i.e., how universities’ dynamics and initiatives related to entrepreneurship affect the proclivity of faculty to engage in entrepreneurship support. We propose and validate a conceptual model that directly relates the university ecosystem with faculty engagement, having entrepreneurial experience of faculty as a moderator and analyzing differences between public and private institutions. Data comprises information from 680 faculty members of over 70 higher education institutions from all regions of Brazil. Analyses were performed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equations Modeling. Results point to a strong positive relation between developed university ecosystems and the engagement of faculty with entrepreneurial activities, especially for individuals with stronger entrepreneurial experience. No differences were found between private and public institutions. From a practical standpoint, it is possible to identify more effective, innovative, and systematic ways to implement intrapreneurial practices in universities.

33

Authors: Vinicius Andrade Brei, Leonardo Nicolao, Maria Alice Pasdiora, Rodolfo Coral Azambuja

Past research on product upgrades has focused either on understanding who and when will upgrade or on figuring out why consumers will upgrade, but seldom on all. It has also neglected the interplay between these matters with decision context and timing. This manuscript depicts a comprehensive approach where, for the first time, product characteristics, individual differences, process, and contextual variables are analyzed on a predictive model of real product upgrades, identified through the systematic collection of primary data from a panel of smartphone consumers. We tested one traditional linear logistic regression model and two types of non-linear, state-of-the-art machine-learning models (extreme gradient boosting and deep learning) to explain upgrading behavior. Results provide an integrative, yet parsimonious, product-upgrade model showing the importance of resources; news about the smartphone brand; sentimental value; predicted, current, and remembered enjoyment; update capacity; and how much the smartphone meets the user’s current needs as the most relevant variables to determine which consumers are more prone to upgrade their smartphones. Our findings advance upgrade decision theory by taking a holistic approach to the phenomenon and bridging different theoretical accounts of the replacement decision literature.