Proprietary costs: Why do R&D-active firms choose single-lender financing?

We examine whether proprietary costs drive R&D-active firms’ choice of private loan structure. We find that R&D-active firms are more likely to choose single-lender over multi-lender private loan financing. This is consistent with the theory that high-ability entrepreneurs protect their proprietary knowledge by communicating it to a single lender while disclosing generic and less sensitive information to the public. This propensity, however, significantly decreases after the enactment of the American Inventor’s Protection Act (AIPA), which accelerated public disclosure of firms’ patent details in filings with the US Patent and Trademark Office. This accelerated public disclosure potentially caused R&D information to spill over to rivals, increasing the proprietary costs of single-lender borrowers. AIPA enactment also increased the spread on R&D-active firms’ single-lender loans. These findings contribute to the voluntary disclosure and financing-choice literature by linking R&D-active firms’ choice of single-lender financing to the proprietary costs of public disclosure.

Preference Planning and Unsustainable Desires: A Hypothesis toward 'How' Contextual and Psychological Factors Influence Travel Attitudes through Qualitative and Quantitative Measures

<p>Counter to the prevailing view that sees travel attitudes as influencing neighbourhood location decisions, this dissertation sets out to examine if where individuals choose to live has an effect on travel attitudes. To achieve this, both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the relationship between travel attitudes, place attachment and length of tenure is performed. An association between place attachment and travel attitudes would suggest that travel attitudes, and subsequent travel behaviours, are a result of neighbourhood location considerations rather than an influencing factor on them. This too is the case for an association between length of tenure and travel attitudes. While previous research identifies associations between contextual physical factors or psychological factors and travel behaviour, how these factors exert their influence is relatively undefined. With the proposition of an association between travel attitudes, place attachment and length of tenure, an underlying mechanism to these previous associates is tested. Because place attachment occurs over time and after a decision has been made to reside in a particular neighbourhood, and likewise because length of tenure is time dependent, a connection between either of these factors and travel attitudes supports the hypothesis that travel attitudes may just as likely be a result of residential location choices as they are an influence on them. For this reason, both of these variables are referred to as post-decision reasoning factors and are perceived as the mechanisms through which decisions are justified after they have been made. While travel behaviour literature is currently focused on the role latent travel attitudes have on residential location choices, housing choice literature consistently finds travel attitudes or neighbourhood factors a distant second to dwelling considerations. Dwelling size versus price, housing quality, yard and overall house size all have a greater influence on residential location decisions. Even when neighbourhood considerations are made in addition to dwelling characteristic factors, travel attitudes again rank lower than school quality, perceived safety and even the image of the neighbourhood. This dissertation is placed to add clarity to the discrepancy between travel behaviour and housing choice literature. An initial pilot study examined the relation between liveability and density and guided this dissertation toward travel behaviour, neighbourhood location decisions and the important role of attitudes to these two domains. Typically travel behaviour is compared between two neighbourhood typologies. These are either conventional or traditional. The former reflects status-quo land development with long winding cul-de-sacs, separated uses, a lack of centeredness and low connectivity. The latter is more akin to neighbourhoods developed before the Second World War and have higher densities, mixed uses, and are generally directed towards pedestrians rather than the automobile. Two traditional and two conventional neighbourhoods from Canada and New Zealand were used as case studies for the main research. Three-hundred households in each of the four case studies received a survey that inquired about residents' preferences toward travel modes and neighbourhood types and included psychological variables used for the prediction of travel behaviour as well as typical socio-demographic variables and the two post-decision reasoning factors of place attachment and length of tenure. This survey was analysed using multiple regression to determine the influence of post-decision reasoning variables. In addition to this quantitative survey, an on-line qualitative survey assessed residents' opinions for what motivates their travel and neighbourhood location decisions. The relative discourse patterns that developed from the qualitative survey provide a context against which the quantitative findings are interpreted. This provides validation to the quantitative findings as well as a theoretically robust method to infer causation. Findings indicated that attitudes were not correlated to post-decision reasoning variables but that they may still have formed after a neighbourhood selection decision was made and not prior. Here an unanticipated correlation between perceived behavioural control and travel attitudes was observed. Likewise, another unanticipated result suggests a greater mismatch between travel preferences and behaviours than previous studies have found. While the focus in environmental psychology is on segmenting survey populations into personality cohorts, with the aim of tailoring policy to these subgroups, the findings from the present study suggest a greater concentration should be paid to the context within which diverse populations develop. Here, both the qualitative and quantitative results indicate that rather than attitudes informing environmentally supportive behaviours, such as travel behaviour, an individual's social and physical context may afford them opportunities to hold environmentally supportive attitudes instead of the other way around. While the vast majority of research within this field appears satisfied with correlating varying attitudes to positive environmental behaviour rather than explaining why these differences exist, the present study explores a hypothesis toward this rationalization. Here, post-decision reasoning provides a reliable explanation of travel behaviour and this understanding further informs how to more effectively engage with groups and individuals toward increased sustainable behaviour.</p>

Preference Planning and Unsustainable Desires: A Hypothesis toward 'How' Contextual and Psychological Factors Influence Travel Attitudes through Qualitative and Quantitative Measures

<p>Counter to the prevailing view that sees travel attitudes as influencing neighbourhood location decisions, this dissertation sets out to examine if where individuals choose to live has an effect on travel attitudes. To achieve this, both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the relationship between travel attitudes, place attachment and length of tenure is performed. An association between place attachment and travel attitudes would suggest that travel attitudes, and subsequent travel behaviours, are a result of neighbourhood location considerations rather than an influencing factor on them. This too is the case for an association between length of tenure and travel attitudes. While previous research identifies associations between contextual physical factors or psychological factors and travel behaviour, how these factors exert their influence is relatively undefined. With the proposition of an association between travel attitudes, place attachment and length of tenure, an underlying mechanism to these previous associates is tested. Because place attachment occurs over time and after a decision has been made to reside in a particular neighbourhood, and likewise because length of tenure is time dependent, a connection between either of these factors and travel attitudes supports the hypothesis that travel attitudes may just as likely be a result of residential location choices as they are an influence on them. For this reason, both of these variables are referred to as post-decision reasoning factors and are perceived as the mechanisms through which decisions are justified after they have been made. While travel behaviour literature is currently focused on the role latent travel attitudes have on residential location choices, housing choice literature consistently finds travel attitudes or neighbourhood factors a distant second to dwelling considerations. Dwelling size versus price, housing quality, yard and overall house size all have a greater influence on residential location decisions. Even when neighbourhood considerations are made in addition to dwelling characteristic factors, travel attitudes again rank lower than school quality, perceived safety and even the image of the neighbourhood. This dissertation is placed to add clarity to the discrepancy between travel behaviour and housing choice literature. An initial pilot study examined the relation between liveability and density and guided this dissertation toward travel behaviour, neighbourhood location decisions and the important role of attitudes to these two domains. Typically travel behaviour is compared between two neighbourhood typologies. These are either conventional or traditional. The former reflects status-quo land development with long winding cul-de-sacs, separated uses, a lack of centeredness and low connectivity. The latter is more akin to neighbourhoods developed before the Second World War and have higher densities, mixed uses, and are generally directed towards pedestrians rather than the automobile. Two traditional and two conventional neighbourhoods from Canada and New Zealand were used as case studies for the main research. Three-hundred households in each of the four case studies received a survey that inquired about residents' preferences toward travel modes and neighbourhood types and included psychological variables used for the prediction of travel behaviour as well as typical socio-demographic variables and the two post-decision reasoning factors of place attachment and length of tenure. This survey was analysed using multiple regression to determine the influence of post-decision reasoning variables. In addition to this quantitative survey, an on-line qualitative survey assessed residents' opinions for what motivates their travel and neighbourhood location decisions. The relative discourse patterns that developed from the qualitative survey provide a context against which the quantitative findings are interpreted. This provides validation to the quantitative findings as well as a theoretically robust method to infer causation. Findings indicated that attitudes were not correlated to post-decision reasoning variables but that they may still have formed after a neighbourhood selection decision was made and not prior. Here an unanticipated correlation between perceived behavioural control and travel attitudes was observed. Likewise, another unanticipated result suggests a greater mismatch between travel preferences and behaviours than previous studies have found. While the focus in environmental psychology is on segmenting survey populations into personality cohorts, with the aim of tailoring policy to these subgroups, the findings from the present study suggest a greater concentration should be paid to the context within which diverse populations develop. Here, both the qualitative and quantitative results indicate that rather than attitudes informing environmentally supportive behaviours, such as travel behaviour, an individual's social and physical context may afford them opportunities to hold environmentally supportive attitudes instead of the other way around. While the vast majority of research within this field appears satisfied with correlating varying attitudes to positive environmental behaviour rather than explaining why these differences exist, the present study explores a hypothesis toward this rationalization. Here, post-decision reasoning provides a reliable explanation of travel behaviour and this understanding further informs how to more effectively engage with groups and individuals toward increased sustainable behaviour.</p>

Faith-Inspired Muslim Parents’ School Choices and Attitudes in the Cultural West and Australia

All parents want the best accessible, available and affordable school for their children. Yet, the literature highlights that school choice for middle-class parents in the cultural West is a deliberate decision and a reflection of their salient identities. For racialised middle-class Western parents, school choice is an instrumental investment to secure social upward mobility and minimise the harms of racism for their children. Research focusing on Western middle-class Muslim parents highlights that accommodation of Muslim identities and ethno-religious values is pivotal in parental school choice. This is expected due to the rise of Islamophobia in the cultural West since 9/11. The semi-structured interviews with faith-inspired middle-class Muslim parents in Australia bring a new dimension to the parental school choice literature. Regardless of carrying more or less similar concerns for their children in an Islamophobic climate, middle-class Muslim parents’ school choices vary based on their childhood schooling experiences in the Australian context, diverse parenting styles and mentalities and their children’s varying personalities demanding a particular type of school setting. This article demonstrates there is no one size fits all Muslim parent in terms of deciding which school is the best for their children in an Islamophobic climate.

How More Options Decrease the Compromise Effect: Investigating Boundary Conditions for the Compromise Effect in Travel Decisions

Travelers often demonstrate the compromise effect—a tendency to choose the intermediate option(s) when facing difficult trade-off decisions. The compromise effect has been replicated in very specific settings where typically only two or three options were available. This research extends our understanding of the compromise effect by examining the impact of the number of options on travelers’ choices. Based on two different accounts (i.e., attribute distance account vs. decision complexity account), we predict that the compromise effect will be attenuated as the number of options in a choice set increases. Four experimental studies provide supporting evidence for this argument and support the attribute distance account as the main underlying mechanism. This research contributes to the extant tourism and travel choice literature by responding to the call to investigate the compromise effect in complex buying contexts.

Host-Country Parent Perspectives on International Schooling: A study from Bahrain

Despite the rapid growth in international schooling worldwide, little attention has been paid to understanding why parents choose this kind of schooling and what they believe their choice has meant for their child. Most saliently, the extant literature has not considered the views of Arab parents, although a number of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries are seen as hubs of international schooling. This study explores international school choice in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Drawing on survey and interview data from Bahraini parents whose children attend international schools in Bahrain, this paper contributes to school choice literature, exploring what the parents see as the consequences of their choice. The concepts of acculturation strategies (Berry, 2003; Berry, 2005) and school choice as a technology of subjectification (Leyton & Rojas, 2017) are used to understand the social meaning of these parental decisions.

Trade-Offs in Choice

To explain trade-offs in choice, researchers have proposed myriad phenomena and decision rules, each paired with separate theories and idiosyncratic vocabularies. Yet most choice problems are ultimately resolved with one of just two types of solutions: mixed or extreme. For example, people adopt mixed solutions for resolving trade-offs when they allow exercising to license indulgence afterward (balancing between goals), read different literary genres (variety seeking), and order medium-sized coffees (the compromise effect). By contrast, when people adopt extreme solutions for resolving these exact same trade-offs, they exhibit highlighting, consistency seeking, and compromise avoidance, respectively. Our review of the choice literature first illustrates how many seemingly unrelated phenomena actually share the same underlying psychology. We then identify variables that promote one solution versus the other. These variables, in turn, systematically influence which of opposite choice effects arise (e.g., highlighting versus balancing). Finally, we demonstrate how several mistakes people purport to make can potentially instead be reinterpreted as mixed solutions for resolving trade-offs. We conclude with guidance for distinguishing mistakes from mixed solutions.

Something’s Missing? A Procedure for Extending Item Content Data Sets in the Context of Recommender Systems

The rapid development of e-commerce has led to a swiftly increasing number of competing providers in electronic markets, which maintain their own, individual data describing the offered items. Recommender systems are popular and powerful tools relying on this data to guide users to their individually best item choice. Literature suggests that data quality of item content data has substantial influence on recommendation quality. Thereby, the dimension completeness is expected to be particularly important. Herein resides a considerable chance to improve recommendation quality by increasing completeness via extending an item content data set with an additional data set of the same domain. This paper therefore proposes a procedure for such a systematic data extension and analyzes effects of the procedure regarding items, content and users based on real-world data sets from four leading web portals. The evaluation results suggest that the proposed procedure is indeed effective in enabling improved recommendation quality.

A Rational Choice Perspective on Political Executives

Rational choice theory has shaped the study of executive politics in important ways. We contend most of the rational choice literature on executive politics can be seen as exploring the consequences of two related problems that all executives confront: credible commitment and delegation. The credible commitment problem arises because executives require political support. This support is forthcoming only to the extent that the executive can assure potential supporters that the executive will faithfully advance their interests. How, then, does an executive make a credible commitment to advance his or her supporters’ interests? The delegation problem arises because executives must rely on subordinates to carry out their agenda. Such delegation is efficient from executive’s perspective only to the extent that subordinates competently and faithfully execute their orders. How, then, does an executive choose and monitor his or her subordinates? We briefly review the key components of rational choice theory that distinguish it from other theoretical approaches. We then examine how the two different problems have different expressions in parliamentary and presidential systems.

Evaluating Approval-Based Multiwinner Voting in Terms of Robustness to Noise

Approval-based multiwinner voting rules have recently received much attention in the Computational Social Choice literature. Such rules aggregate approval ballots and determine a winning committee of alternatives. To assess effectiveness, we propose to employ new noise models that are specifically tailored for approval votes and committees. These models take as input a ground truth committee and return random approval votes to be thought of as noisy estimates of the ground truth. A minimum robustness requirement for an approval-based multiwinner voting rule is to return the ground truth when applied to profiles with sufficiently many noisy votes. Our results indicate that approval-based multiwinner voting can indeed be robust to reasonable noise. We further refine this finding by presenting a hierarchy of rules in terms of how robust to noise they are.