Ponzi schemes have begun flourishing in China in recent years. However, there is a dearth of empirical research on the victims of Ponzi schemes. The current study investigated the demographic characteristics of the victims of a Ponzi scheme based on archived data of 698 people, 30 of whom were invited to participate in in-depth interviews. Based on the interview data, we investigated why the victims invested in the scheme the first time, why they invested in the same scheme repeatedly, and why many of them relentlessly participated in other similar schemes after the disclosure of the current one without effectively learning from their failures. Inspired by institutional anomie theory, the current study suggests that specific sociocultural contexts (i.e., high living expenses, a high inflation rate, fake advertisements from newspapers, an inadequate banking system, and an ambiguous legal system) play vital roles in shaping victims’ motivation, decision-making, and investment behaviors. The practical implications of the current study are also discussed.

Is a manager's likability important from an employee's perspective? Research results in this field are scant and inconsistent. The current study explored employees' response to managers' likability and the moderating effect of power distance at both the cultural and individual levels. In study 1, following the countercultural priming experimental paradigm proposed by Van den Bos et al. (2013), 121 college students from China (a high power distance culture) and 99 college students from Denmark (a low power distance culture) were randomly assigned to either a countercultural (experimental) condition or a control condition. All participants were required to complete a manager selection task using the zero-acquaintance paradigm to measure their preference for likable managers. The results confirmed the moderating role of power distance at the cultural level. Study 2 further explored the moderating effect of power distance orientation at the individual level, as well as the boundary condition of the degree of resource dependence from the employee's perspective. One hundred and three Chinese participants with work experience were randomly assigned to either the subordinate perspective (high resource dependence) or the HR department perspective (low resource dependence) condition and completed the same task as in study 1. The results suggested that high power distance-oriented participants demonstrate stronger preference for likable manager candidates than do low power distance-oriented participants. In addition, these findings hold only when employees expect a high resource dependence relation with the manager. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings and future research directions were discussed.