Does Slack Buffer? Market Performance after Environmental Shock

Abstract

Slack is a resource held by a firm but exceeds its needs. It is crucial for a firm to raise more attention on slack when facing environmental shocks, which are one of the causes of unsustainability. Based on agency theory and behavioral theory, this paper analyzes the buffer effect of slack on market performance under different periods and degrees of environmental shocks. Taking two major earthquakes that occurred in China as the natural experimental background and the listed firms in hit areas as the sample, we find that environmental shock is exposed to acts as a positive contingency for the impact of unabsorbed slack on market performance, and as a negative contingency for absorbed slack’s effect. The severity of environmental shock promotes the unabsorbed slack to act as a buffer in the immediate post-shock period and absorbed slack in the during-shock period. These findings contribute to answering the question of how to configure slack to protect firms and even achieve sustainable development when facing environmental shock.

High activity of NiCo2O4 promoted Pt on three-dimensional graphene-like carbon for glycerol electrooxidation in an alkaline medium

“…33 We have reported that the spinel oxide NiCo 2 O 4 has been rst used to enhance the activity of Au for glycerol electrooxidation. 34 The addition of NiCo 2 O 4 into the Au/HPG (hierarchically porous graphene-like carbon) catalyst can signicantly improve the catalytic performance for glycerol oxidation. When NiCo 2 O 4 is added to Au/HPG, the value of E onset is 108 mV more negative than that on Au/HPG.…”

Artificial Intelligence and Green Total Factor Productivity: The Moderating Effect of Slack Resources

“…To further increase the depth of the study, we selected corporate slack resources as the moderating variable from the perspective of behavioral theory. Based on the classification of slack resources in the existing literature [53], the moderating roles of absorbed, unabsorbed, and potential slack in the relationship between AI and corporate GTFP were explored. The boundaries of the relationship between the two were further expanded to enhance the practical value of this study and guide enterprises on how to apply enterprise resource conditions to enhance the contribution of digital technology to the sustainable development of enterprises.…”

“…As the digital economy continues to develop, the ability of enterprises to reintegrate and reconfigure resources is directly related to their sustainability. According to resource availability, this study classifies slack resources into unabsorbed, absorbed, and potential slack resources [52,53] to explore the impact of different types of slack resources on the relationship between AI and enterprise GTFP.…”

The Research Venation Analysis and Future Prospects of Organizational Slack

“…In recent years, scholars have carried out a series of discussions in the field of organizational slack. Some scholars believe that organizational slack plays a buffer role when the environment changes [6], which can protect firms and even achieve sustainable development when facing environmental shock [7,8]. Others believe that slack will reduce the efficiency of firms [9].…”