Herding cats-Future professionals' expectations of attractive employers ** Professionals, like business consultants, have been described as crucial for modern knowledge-intensive organizations, but they are not always thought to be easy to manage or to attract. This might be due to a need for autonomy and commitment that is aimed more at the profession than at their employer. For their recruitment it is thus important for modern organizations like professional service firms (PSFs) to know what expectations applicants who are future professionals have regarding human resource (HR) principles and programmes. We refer to the institutional logics perspective to gain insights whether, in the context of PSFs, applicants' expectations are associated with the logic of the profession, the corporation or the family. This article describes a discrete choice experiment conducted to analyse the influence of HR attributes in job advertisements used by PSFs to attract business management students. We use a hierarchical Bayesian analysis to carry out the conjoint analysis, as it enabled us to measure the relative importance of attributes on an individual level. The results show that first required job-related attitudes and then company and job description are the most important features of a job advertisement. Our study also indicates that future professionals simultaneously draw on different institutional logics when deciding which employer is attractive.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. In 2005, Austria modified its group taxation regime and now provides an option for crossborder loss-offset. We analyse the combined impact of Austria's new group taxation and lossoffset limitations on cross-border investment decisions of domestic corporations. Monte Carlo simulations in an inter-temporal setting reveal that the impact on foreign real investment induced by the new group taxation is ambiguous. Whereas marginal investment projects with decreasing cash flows tend to benefit from group taxation, innovative projects with initial losses and increasing cash flows may be discriminated against. Investors should consider domestic income and repatriation policy simultaneously before opting for group taxation. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor mayJEL Code: H25, G31.

Purpose This paper aims to examine employees’ evaluative repertoires of tourism and hospitality jobs and segments them based on a set of job attribute preferences. Understanding the social–cultural underpinnings of employees’ job preferences is vital if employers are to overcome the challenging task of finding and retaining talented employees in the tourism and hospitality industry. Design/methodology/approach A discrete-choice experiment with waiters, barkeepers, cooks and front-desk employees working in the Tyrolean tourism industry was conducted. Employees were categorized into distinct segments using a hierarchical Bayesian analysis and a cluster analysis. Findings Results show that flexible working hours and the ability to balance professional and private aspirations are the most important job attributes for employees. Overall, the evaluative repertoires of the “green” and “domestic (family)” conventions are most prevalent. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to literature on talent management by providing insights into employees’ evaluations of jobs and their evaluative repertoires embedded in the broader social–cultural context. Practical implications Industry representatives and employers can adapt their recruiting and retention strategies based on employees’ job preferences. Social implications Adapting job attributes according to employees’ evaluative repertoires helps to ensure the long-term sustainability of the industry workforce. Originality/value Applying the Economics of Convention (EC) perspective, combining organizational job attributes and socially embedded evaluative repertoires provides a new approach to analysing and understanding employees’ job preferences.

This study advances a differentiated understanding of job ad pre-hire effectiveness. It analyzes the utility values for varying levels of job ad attributes through a hierarchical Bayesian approach to conjoint analysis. This method allows not only to measure the relative importance of different attributes on the individual level but also to explore heterogeneity in evaluations influenced by educational level, international career orientation and time to graduation. The main results from the experiment show that for both undergraduate and graduate business students, salary and opportunity for advancement by far outweigh employer familiarity and the description of job-related tasks. The study contributes to the recruitment literature by assessing to what extent these four core attributes of a job ad drive job pursuit intentions. It also discusses the implications of attribute trade-offs for employer branding activities.

PurposeResearch to date has reported ambiguous results on the influence of tax concessions on retirement savings decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of tax concessions on private retirement investment decisions by analyzing actual retirement decision processes and the rationales behind these decisions in‐depth.Design/methodology/approachQualitative semi‐structured interviews on actual retirement savings decisions were conducted with private investors (17) and their respective bank advisors (5). Decision‐making rationales are analysed by means of semantic and causal coding of verbal data as well as by highlighting the complexities of decision processes represented in individual investment narratives.FindingsResults indicate that taxes do not matter much, neither during the decision to join a private retirement plan, nor when choosing a specific investment product. Financial planning for retirement consists of saving disposable income instead of the required savings premium and choosing a secure type of investment which yields more than a savings account. Savers do not base their decisions on calculating and comparing rates of return or tax benefits. Instead, comparatively unqualified relatives as well as bank advisors and the desire for trust and security are of major relevance.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalization of results is limited in so far as they refer to a relatively small interview sample. The study shall thus prompt further research that takes the decision‐making context and the interrelation between several context factors systematically into account.Originality/valueThe study is of value in that it highlights the difficulties private investors' experience when making actual – rather than hypothetical – retirement savings decisions and the rationales behind seemingly “imperfect” decisions. It shows that retirement savings decisions are heavily linked with the social decision‐making context. These results are closely linked to the recent debate on “responsibilization”, critical perspectives on the tendency of states to hold individuals increasingly accountable for aspects of market governance and social security.

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Natural Law has influenced German tax theories up to the present day. It has also influenced the request for the subsistence level exemption and the granting of a basic allowance, which only developed their full persuasiveness when derived from Natural Law. This paper shows that Natural Law tax theory (mid 1600s to early 1800s), based the subsistence level tax exemption on the right to live, the individualistic state contract theory and the ability-to-pay principle. It also reveals that Adam Smith's view regarding ability-to-pay as a basis for taxation was already contained in British Natural Law and in older German traditions.Germany, taxable income, subsistence minimum, family taxation, Natural Law,

PurposeApplying the institutional logics perspective to applicant attraction, this study investigates the level of uniformity among preferences for consulting job attributes associated with the institutional logics of the corporation, the profession and the family, and tests for the influence of anticipatory socialization differences.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a discrete choice experiment with 232 business students. A hierarchical Bayes approach to conjoint analysis uncovers part-worth heterogeneity and allows for subsequent cluster and regression analysis of the choice data.FindingsThe findings identify a dominant job-oriented preference type and a minor career-oriented preference type. Anticipatory socialization through personal prior work experience and the occupation of friends decreases adherence to the logic of profession and increases the relevance of the family logic. The parents' occupation has only a minimal influence on preferences.Practical implicationsThe study provides attribute-based recommendations on how professional service firms can effectively address the complex expectations of potential applicants in their job ads for an entry position and underlines the role of intra-generational reference groups as important anticipatory socializers.Originality/valueBy testing individual socialization effects at the pre-hire stage and beyond the organizational level, the study fills a void in both the recruitment and the institutional literature.