Gaia Rubera | Università Bocconi (original) (raw)

Papers by Gaia Rubera

Capital Markets: Market Efficiency eJournal, 2021

How does central bank communication affect financial markets? This paper shows that the monetary ... more How does central bank communication affect financial markets? This paper shows that the monetary policy announcements of three major central banks, i.e. the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, trigger significant discussions on monetary policy on Twitter. Using machine learning techniques we identify Twitter messages related to monetary policy around the release of monetary policy decisions and we build a metric of the similarity between the policy announcement and Twitter traffic before and after the announcement. We interpret large changes in the similarity of tweets and announcements as a proxy for monetary policy surprise and show that market volatility spikes after the announcement whenever changes in similarity are high. These findings suggest that social media discussions on central bank communication are aligned with bond and stock market reactions.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

This research compares innovation-related spinoffs and buyouts. Innovation-related divestitures a... more This research compares innovation-related spinoffs and buyouts. Innovation-related divestitures are companies created with the intent of better developing and marketing new products in new or existing markets. We investigate how and why spinoffs' and buyouts' strategic emphasis, radicalness of products, and profits diverge over time. Using longitudinal data on 126 spinoffs and 102 buyouts over 5 years, this study provides three critical findings. First, spinoffs and buyouts have similar profits in the first two years after divestiture; afterwards buyouts have much higher profits than spinoffs. Second, divestiture type influences performance through two routes: a one-step mediated effect via strategic emphasis; and a two-step mediated effect via strategic emphasis and radicalness. The two routes have opposite effects on performance. Third, strategic emphasis is the central, causal mechanism that generates heterogeneity in the evolution of spinoffs' and buyouts' performance.

La propensione al comportamento imitativo delle imprese: una revisione critica - What drives imit... more La propensione al comportamento imitativo delle imprese: una revisione critica - What drives imitation among firms? A literature review by Andrea Ordanini, Gaia Rubera, Robert De Fillippi The management literature is paying increasing attention to the phenomena of imitation. However, there are several gaps in understanding what drives firms’ imitative behaviours. Furthermore, a fragmented array of disciplinary perspectives has investigated imitation phenomena in the past. This paper reviews the literature on imitation and offers a unifying framework to understand what theory has said about the predictors of imitative behaviours, in terms of purposes, driving forces, and target. At the end of the review, two over-arching rationales for imitation seem to emerge: risk reduction and search for effectiveness. Implications and indications for future research are offered in the final section of the paper. JEL Classification: M100 M200

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2018

Journal of Marketing, 2018

The marketing–finance interface literature has investigated the direct link between innovativenes... more The marketing–finance interface literature has investigated the direct link between innovativeness and stock returns. The authors extend this research by focusing on two open questions: How and under what conditions is innovativeness associated with stock returns? Answering these questions is important for managers who have to defend innovation investments to board members and time the introductions of new products. The authors investigate large individual investors and their national culture in the food and beverage industry. Combining multiple data sets, they first examine the relationship between innovativeness and large individual investors’ stock holding decisions (i.e., to sell, hold onto, or buy a firm’s stocks). The results indicate that national culture moderates this relationship. At the firm level, the authors show that large investors’ stock holding partially mediates the innovativeness–stock returns relationship and that the culture of a firm’s large investors moderates...

Journal of Service Research, 2013

Service innovation is a primary source of competitive advantage and a research priority. However,... more Service innovation is a primary source of competitive advantage and a research priority. However, empirical evidence about the impact of innovativeness on new service adoption is inconclusive. A plausible explanation is that service innovation has thus far been studied using new product frameworks that do not fully capture the complexity of new service assessments by customers. We propose a different, holistic framework, which posits that new service adoption does not depend on individual service attributes, but on specific configurations of such attributes. We investigate this framework in a luxury hotel service context, using qualitative comparative analysis, a set-membership technique that is new to service research and suitable for configuration analyses. Results confirm that individual service attributes have complex trade-off effects and that only specific combinations of attributes act as sufficient conditions for new service adoption. Moreover, the composition of such combin...

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2012

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2013

This research investigates the impacts on firm performance of (1) technology versus design innova... more This research investigates the impacts on firm performance of (1) technology versus design innovation and (2) their potentially synergistic interaction. Synergies could arise from complementarities, in particular the utilization of technology innovation as a platform for design innovations. Both sales and Tobin's q are examined as dependent performance variables, with sales tapping consumer responses and Tobin's q reflecting investor responses. Moderation by branding strategy (i.e., Corporate Branding versus Mixed Branding versus House of Brands) is analyzed because innovation may impact performance differently depending on branding strategy. Advertising effects, the number of new product introductions, their interaction, R&D expenditures, operating margins, and firm size are also modeled as covariates. The results show that all main and interaction effects are significant in at least one of the branding groups, and that moderation of model paths by branding strategy was pervasive. Overall, except for technology innovation → Tobin's q, Corporate Branding coefficients for technology innovation, design innovation, and their interaction were almost always significantly different from Mixed Branding and House of Brands coefficients, which were not significantly different from each other. Since Mixed Branding and House of Brands proved very similar, these groups were combined under “Non-Corporate.” First, for technology innovation, the impact on both sales and Tobin's q for Corporate Branding was less than or equal to Noncorporate. Noteworthy was that the technology innovation → Tobin's q relationship was equal across all branding strategies; technology innovation appears to be key for investors. Second, for design innovation, the impact for Corporate Branding was positive while for Noncorporate it was null; the same pattern was observed for sales and Tobin's q. Third, for the interaction, the impact for Corporate Branding was significantly less than the positive impacts for Noncorporate. For Noncorporate, the marginal impact of design innovation on sales or Tobin's q increased with the level of technology innovation. For Corporate Branding however, there was no interaction in the case of sales and a negative interaction for Tobin's q. Thus, the marginal impact of design innovation on Tobin's q decreased with increasing levels of technology innovation. These decreasing marginal effects could reflect limits to corporate brand name extensions, as perceived by investors.

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2011

Journal of Marketing, 2012

Drawing on the chain-of-effects model as a unifying framework, this meta-analysis indicates that ... more Drawing on the chain-of-effects model as a unifying framework, this meta-analysis indicates that firm innovativeness indirectly affects firm value through its effects on market position and financial position. In addition, the findings suggest that innovativeness has direct positive effects on financial position and firm value. Moreover, the meta-analysis provides evidence of reverse causality in the innovativeness–firm value relationship. Importantly, the results also reveal that the positive effects of firm innovativeness on market position and financial position are stronger for larger firms, for firms that invest more in advertising, for firms in high-tech industries, for innovativeness outputs and for radical innovations. Finally, the meta-analytic evidence also indicates that the relationship between innovativeness and firm value is stronger for smaller firms, for firms that invest more in advertising, for firms in low-tech industries, for innovativeness inputs, for innovative...

Journal of International Business Studies, 2011

Abstract Extending our understanding of the effects of perceived product creativity, this study c... more Abstract Extending our understanding of the effects of perceived product creativity, this study contributes to the literature by empirically investigating the influence of cultural values on the relationship between the creativity dimensions of novelty and meaningfulness and intention to buy. Schwartz&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s values framework is employed to theorize cultural differences. The results, based upon 206 Italian and 201 US consumers surveyed via a mall-intercept approach, indicate that novelty is a more important dimension of product creativity in the US (ie, a low ...

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

International new product launch speed is a crucial goal for firms, as it has major implications ... more International new product launch speed is a crucial goal for firms, as it has major implications for their performance. The authors examine whether and how (1) the price and number of attributes of a new product, (2) the number of developed (emerging) countries in which it has been launched, and (3) the nature of the firm that originally launched it (i.e., multinational versus not) affect the new product's speed of launch from developed countries to emerging ones (i.e., trickle-down) or vice versa (i.e., reverse innovation). In order to test the hypotheses, the authors use data on new product launches in the global packaged food industry in 2001-2014. The results indicate that a lower price accelerates trickle-down, while a higher price and more attributes accelerate reverse innovation. Further, having been launched in more countries and having been launched by a multinational firm both accelerate trickle-down and reverse innovation.