Exploring the Complicated Relationship Between Values and Behaviour

Research on values conducted worldwide and based to a large extent on Schwartz’s model has produced some well-established conclusions about value structure and preferences. The knowledge about values can be a point of departure for the research on value-behaviour relations. In such studies two intuitive assumptions are usually made: (1) the unity of values and motivation (because of the motivational content of values) and (2) the separation of values and behaviour (because of the influence of values on behaviour). In this chapter, another possibility is described and considered: (1) the separation of values and motivation and (2) the partial unity of value preferences and behaviour. This proposal, on one hand, is compatible with current research and Schwartz’s model of values, and on the other hand, opens some new possibilities for theoretical conceptualization and empirical research on value-behaviour relations

Earnings Management in Europe Post IFRS: Do Cultural Influences Persist?

We investigate the extent to which the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has restricted the previously documented association between national culture and international differences in earnings management practices. We analyze the earnings management behavior of publicly listed firms in 14 member countries of the European Union during the period 2000–2010. Our findings show that the tendency to engage in earnings management continues post IFRS and that cultural factors remain influential in explaining differences in the magnitude of earnings management behavior across countries

The "why"\u80\u9d of international entrepreneurship: uncovering entrepreneurs personal values

Previous studies investigating the "why"\u80\u9d of entrepreneurial internationalization have focused on firm-level motivations, overlooking the relationships between firm-level and individual-level motivations and why entrepreneurs differ in the goals they intend to achieve. We investigate the role of personal values as desirable end states that motivate international entrepreneurship by functioning as superordinate cognitive structures that underlie the practical internationalization goals set by entrepreneurs. By adopting an idiographic approach based on a laddering methodology in a sample of 140 new domestic technology-based firms located in Northern Italy, we uncover and map the hierarchies of goals that motivate entrepreneurs' internationalization intentions, which are anchored in five personal values: achievement, power, self-direction, benevolence, and security. We discuss our theoretical and methodological contributions and the policy implications of our findings