互联网背景下消费扶贫的商业模式创新机理

消费扶贫通过消费需求拉动贫困户的劳动供给,实现扶志、扶智和扶贫的多重效果,具有可持续的长期效应。如何构建多方共赢的商业模式是消费扶贫成功的关键。本文基于全国比较典型的13个消费扶贫项目的一手和二手数据资料,从消费者和贫困户两类主体解析“消费扶贫”商业模式,运用NVivo软件进行三阶段质性编码构建模型,根据商业模式创新路径模型解释了道德型消费力对该类商业模式的内生性驱动作用,以及模式所产生的多态价值效应,并在此基础上对模式的激活驱动机理、创新过程以及创新价值输出进行了探究。     

What drives organic food consumption in Lebanon?

To increase the sparse knowledge about what drives organic food consumers in developing markets, Lebanese consumers' reasons and motives for buying organic food are studied in the framework of means‐end chain theory. A sample of N = 180 Lebanese consumers was interviewed in several retail outlets using a hard laddering questionnaire. The data were subjected to frequency analysis, cluster analysis, and structural equation modelling. Hierarchal value maps constructed from the laddering interviews revealed that “quality of life,” “pleasure,” and “peace of mind” are the main values driving organic food consumption in Lebanon. Frequent organic consumers displayed higher concern for their family's health and for the environment, whereas occasional organic consumers cared more about their own pleasure and were more likely to perceive organic food as a traditional and nostalgic product. Structural equation modelling revealed that “care for nature” and “care for children's health” significantly affect consumers' (self‐reported) purchasing behaviour. The found means‐end chains are a useful basis for marketing campaigns for organic food products in the Lebanese market. One focus of marketing campaigns should be raising consumers' awareness on the environmental benefits of organic production and the fact that it does not allow the use of harmful chemical products.     

The Role of Public Information in Corporate Social Responsibility

Many of the attributes that make a good “socially responsible” (SR) are credence attributes that cannot be learned by consumers either through search or experience. Consumers, then, use for their purchasing decisions “noisy” information about these attributes obtained from potentially contradictory channels (media, advertisement, NGOs). In this paper we model such informational framework and show the positive relationship between the accuracy of the information transmitted to consumers and corporate social responsibility. We also show that a firm may be tempted to add noise to the information channel (through lobbying of the media), which might reduce the supply of the SR attributes and even harm the firm itself (with lower profits). It might then be profitable to the firm to commit ex ante to not manipulate the information regarding the firm's business practices (e.g., with a partnership with an NGO). Finally, we extend our model to a competition framework endogenizing the number of firms active in the SR segment. We show both that in more transparent markets a larger number of firms will be SR, and that in a market with more intense competition, a higher degree of transparency is required in order to sustain a given number of SR firms.     

Identifying some major determinants of entrepreneurial partnership, using a confounded factorial conjoint choice experiment

Many small businesses fail before their fifth anniversary, with proportionally more minority owned businesses failing than others. The bulk of these failing entities is often organized in the form of sole proprietorship, while sound business partnerships could potentially be conducive to better prospective entrepreneurships. The objective of this study was to evaluate the importance of prospective partners’ characteristics, on the willingness of business respondents to become business partners. In the process, we used a confounded factorial conjoint choice experimental design. We found “Values sharing”, “Term orientation”, and “Community membership” to be among the most influential factors for the determination of entrepreneurial partnership. The effect direction of “shared-attributes” suggested a central need for complementary diversity in the process of sound business partnership formation. Respondents were more likely to partner with technically skilled prospective partners, than with managerially skilled ones. White respondents displayed more of a preference for business partners who did not share their values, compared to their Black counterparts. The confounded factorial conjoint choice experiment approach used in this study proved to be a helpful tool for investigating factors that influence sound business partnership formation.     

Toward a circular economy: Understanding consumers' moral stance on corporations' and individuals' responsibilities in creating a circular fashion economy

For long, the fashion industry has adopted the linear economy's “take-make-use-throwaway” system, an approach that has adverse side effects, such as economic loss, environmental destruction, and threats to human society. To address these adverse consequences from fashion's linear system, governments and business leaders are advocating the societal need for a shift from the linear economy to the circular economy, which endorses the “take-make-use-reuse” system. Despite the growing demand for changing to a circular economy in the fashion business (circular fashion [CF]), two critical issues remain understudied in the current literature. First, although academic research on CF has increased in the past 5 years, the lack of scalable CF research has hindered the industry's ability to increase its adoption of a truly circular economy. Second, although the fashion industry faces complex challenges in instituting CF in that just one supply chain member's (a fashion retailer's) commitment is not sufficient to create a truly CF without the involvement of others (consumers), there is yet no empirical research that investigates whether consumers morally support the idea of a CF and feel obliged to take part in fashion businesses' CF offerings. Thus, we investigate whether and how morally grounded traits—corporate moral responsibility (H1+), consumer moral responsibility (H2+), their interaction effect (H3), and corporate hypocrisy (H4−)—influence consumers' attitudes and engagement (H5+) toward fashion corporations' CF offerings. Our empirical evidence, using a U.S. consumer survey dataset of 351 responses, shows that all of these hypotheses are supported. The results provide important theoretical and managerial implications.     

新经济环境下员工忠诚度管理——论心理契约构建的重要性

现代企业管理中,企业员工的忠诚度会影响企业经营目标的实现,而心理契约对员工的行为、忠诚度有着决定性的影响。本文主要探讨新经济环境下企业管理中员工的忠诚和"心理契约"的关系,并阐述了有效的心理契约管理如何提升员工的忠诚度,最后根据研究结果给出员工与企业如何共建"心理契约"的建议,为企业领导者及后续研究者提供参考。     

An evaluation of business survey indices for short-term forecasting: Balance method versus Carlson–Parkin method

When questions in business surveys about the direction of change have three reply options, “up”, “down”, and “unchanged”, a common practice is to release the results as balance indices. These are linear combinations of the response shares, i.e., the percentage share of the respondents who answered “up” minus the percentage share of those who answered “down”. Forecasters traditionally use these indices for short-term business cycle forecasting. Survey response shares can also be combined non-linearly into alternative indices, using the Carlson–Parkin method. Using IFO and ISM data, this paper tests the relative performance of Carlson–Parkin type indices versus balance indices for the short-term forecasting of industrial production growth. The main finding is that the two types of indices show no difference in forecasting performance during the Great Moderation. However, the Carlson–Parkin type indices outperform the balance indices during periods with higher output volatilities, such as before and after the Great Moderation.     

The criticality of risk factors in customer relationship management projects

Customer relationship management (CRM) remains an area of considerable interest in contemporary project management literature, due to its association with high failure rates. This research examined the criticality of four risk factors. Quantitative data analyzed using PASW17 were collected from a sample of 250 CRM project practitioners. Although we found strong evidence to support the focus on these risk factors, which include “user training,” “top management support,” “business strategy and technology alignment,” and “effective project feedback,” the authors found that, although some risk factors may be identified as “critical,” their criticality is dependent on the context of the project.     

The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research network

This article summarizes the results and conclusions reached in studies of the relationships between race and gender diversity and business performance carried out in four large firms by a research consortium known as the Diversity Research Network. These researchers were asked by the BOLD Initiative to conduct this research to test arguments regarding the “business case” for diversity. Few positive or negative direct effects of diversity on performance were observed. Instead a number of different aspects of the organizational context and some group processes moderated diversity‐performance relationships. This suggests a more nuanced view of the “business case” for diversity may be appropriate. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Disassembling the influences of perceived family relational conflict on business family offspring’s intrapreneurial intentions

Entrepreneurial business family offspring are key figures in helping family businesses achieve transgenerational entrepreneurship. However, a global survey reveals that entrepreneurial offspring avoid the family business when conducting entrepreneurial activities. Our study makes the first effort to explore what reduces business family offspring’s intrapreneurial intentions in the family business context. Applying a mixed-method approach, we conduct 18 explorative interviews, a pretest of 124 Chinese business family offspring, and a formal survey of 131 Chinese business family offspring approaching their career decision point. We realize that growing up in family businesses often exposes offspring to two types of perceived family relational conflicts that their parents’ entrepreneurial endeavors incur, which we define as “big-family” and “parent-offspring” relational conflicts. Our empirical results suggest that the relationship between perceived family (i.e., parent-offspring and big-family) relational conflict and family business intrapreneurial intentions were serially mediated by family relational outcome expectation and family relational self-efficacy. Contributions to family business research and social cognitive career theory are discussed.

     

Ansätze und Ergebnisse anglo-amerikanischer M&A-Forschung

Based on a review of established U.S. management journals (1995–2003), six schools of thought are identified within the Anglo-American M&;A research: “Capital Market”, “Principal/Agent”, “Industrial Organization”, “Organizational Behavior”, “Human Resources” and “Strategic Management”. The literature review shows that the definition of M&;A success, the methods applied, and insights from empirical research differ according to the respective school of thought. Empirical studies focus on the resource combinations of merger partners, the specific circumstances of merger negotiations, and on integration management as antecedents of merger performance. Unfortunately, empirical findings have not yet provided reliable explanations for M&;A success. Based on the current state of Anglo-American M&;A research, the authors discuss implications for business practice, identify research gaps, and propose areas for future research.     

Benefits of Environmental Stewardship

Abstract

Environmental sensitivity has gained much attention in business organizations; however, there is little empirical evidence on the business benefits from environment oriented measures. Some of the many promised benefits from environmental sensitivity are categorized and rated. The framework proposed by the Management Institute for Environment and Business (MEB) is used to assess company environment stewardship. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from 66 business organizations in the United States and from 31 organizations in Pacific Rim nations. These organizations were known to have undertaken at least some “green business” activities. The results suggest that companies showing higher degrees of environment stewardship will derive greater business benefits than organizations which aim at minimum compliance with government regulations in this area. While, compared with American organizations, on the average the Pacific Rim companies show significantly less environmental stewardship and derive significantly less benefits from it, “their efforts in the area have also been rewarded.”     

The effectiveness of using e-collaboration tools in the supply chain: an assessment study with system dynamics

Developments in information technology, in recent years, have enabled major advances in electronic commerce, which is growing at a very fast pace. Although business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce seems to be slowing down due to economic conditions, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce still represents the next generation of business automation.Taking advantage of new technologies, today provides an opportunity, but will be a must in the future. The use of Internet e-collaboration tools will increase in this new era. They play a role of “value creation enabler”, but at the same time they generate a wide range of new business and market “complexities” that companies have to face.This paper presents a classification of “managerial spaces” where multiple trading partners share critical information using e-collaboration tools and assesses the possible local and global impact on the supply chain (SC) performance. This is made by means of a SC model conceptualization and a simulation study with system dynamics.     

On the corporate use of green bonds

When do wholesalers issue green bonds to finance their socially responsible activities instead of charging a premium for the products they produce? We show that in less competitive retail markets when retailers can “skim” more of the premium that end consumers pay for socially responsible products, green bonds provide additional funds to help cover the cost of a wholesaler's socially responsible activities. Similar incentives arise if the wholesaler's input is a small component of the end consumers’ product, or if it is difficult for end consumers to identify the wholesaler's socially responsible activities.     

Verifying the state of financing constraints: Evidence from U.S. business credit contracts

Many policymakers are concerned that tight financing constraints for small businesses are stalling the recovery from the Great Recession. This paper empirically assesses two agency problems that induce such financing constraints—one resulting in a “firm balance sheet channel” and one resulting in a “bank balance sheet channel”. Evaluating specific models of these two agency problems against a comprehensive data set of U.S. small business credit contracts, I find strong support for the firm balance sheet channel but only weak support for the bank balance sheet channel. A complementary regression analysis confirms this result. Hence, policies seeking to improve firms’ balance sheets may be desirable to support small business lending in the recovery from the Great Recession.     

From Partners to Players: Extending the HR Playing Field

HR professionals must always be “becoming” or constantly changing and adapting. For the last decade, many have argued the business partner role as a complement to traditional HR administrative work. We argue in this paper that HR professionals should move beyond partners to become players. HR professionals as players are “in the game, on the field, making a difference” through their HR work. In this article, we suggest that to become players, HR professionals must learn to coach, architect, build, facilitate, lead, and provide a conscience to business leaders. Specific knowledge and tools for each of these roles are described. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Throwaway Culture in the Economy of Exclusion: Pope Francis and Economists on Waste

An essential part of Pope Francis’s critique of the “economy of exclusion” is the concept of the “throwaway culture,” which is an attitude and a reality that goes beyond mere exclusion. Francis is building on critiques of consumerism (what John Paul II called “economism”) that noted both the environmental impacts of unnecessary waste and the social and human impact of reducing humans to mere consumers—the idea that happiness is shopping. Francis adds to this a concern for the people on the margins of society who are treated as disposable and for the consequences of climate change, both of which are connected to the throwaway attitude. This article looks at Francis’s views within the tradition of Catholic social thought and at how economists, especially Adam Smith, who provided the foundation for modern economics, looked at waste and consumerism.     

The quality of credit ratings: A two-sided market perspective

This paper presents a formal model of a credit rating agency. I study the consequences of the transition from an “investor-pays” model to an “issuer-pays” model on the quality standard of credit ratings chosen by the agency. I find that such a transition is likely to generate a degradation of the quality standard, which may fall below the socially efficient level. Finally, I discuss empirical implications and several reform proposals to the business model of credit rating agencies.     

Interfirm Channel Relationships,Influence Strategies and Performance in China

Abstract

This paper empirically examines the relationship between inter-firm channel relationships, influence strategies and suppliers' performance. A survey of 103 foreign partners from Sino-foreign joint ventures in the food industry in China shows that channel relationships have a major positive effect on supplier's channel performance. While the influence strategy of “threats” is negatively related to supplier's channel performance and channel relationships, “suggestive litigation” has a positive influence on performance, on the contrary to findings in Western countries. Although a business relationship with an emphasis on “legal effect” is not desired on the part of distributors, it enhances channel relationships. The influence strategy of “request” as a Western phenomenon does not work well in China, and has an inverse effect on channel relationships. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.     

The professional manager of the future

It's just possible that a businessman's role in the year 2000 will erode seriously due to little involvement in the growing “leisure values” of an affluent culture and failure to contribute directly to the needs of what will be a strongly post-industrial society. But if we want to train managers who are able to meet the needs and interests of the wider community, how do we prepare them for something as conceptual as “social responsibility”? Is it enough to superimpose on the business curriculum some courses in the social, political or technical-environmental forces affecting the individual and his firm, i.e. make the student study more and longer before he becomes an operative “professional”?