"Management as the Spirit of the Modern Age"

This paper uses Collingwood's methodology to attempt to understand those formative influences influencing Drucker within the Weimar Republic. It is intent on using this methodology to advance an historical thesis about both the origins and sources of Drucker's thought. By illuminating these formative influences on Drucker, the paper hopes to portray the implications of such influences for his theory of business management.     

秉承“一带一路”国家战略 推进“丝路超市”建设构想

值此"一带一路"国际合作高峰论坛在京成功召开之际,本文秉承"一带一路"国家战略实施的指导思想,结合对中亚五国商贸流通业发展情况实地调研的直观认识,并汇总中国流通三十人论坛(G30)专家专题研讨的相关成果,提出"丝路超市"的建设构想:阐明该构想符合各国利益诉求,代表各国民心所向,互惠双赢,前景广阔;建议支持和引导中国超市企业沿"丝绸之路经济带"进入中亚市场;并就该构想实施中的关键因素和应对策略给出相关建议。     

Paving the way for “distinguished marketing”

Over the last six decades, marketing concepts, tools, and knowledge have gone through tremendous developments. A general trend toward formalization has affected orientation and decision making and has clarified the relationship between marketing efforts and performance measures. This evolution has received strong support from concurrent revolutions in data collection and research techniques. This article outlines the formalization of the marketing discipline and proposes steps that will pave the way for future developments in marketing, toward what I call “distinguished marketing”.     

The concept of the “Big Middle”

Although several hypotheses have been proffered to explain changes in the structure and evolution of retailing institutions, none provides a comprehensive explanation of how and why retail institutions evolve. This editorial first introduces the concept of the “Big Middle,” the marketspace in which the largest retailers compete in the long run. It then hypothesizes that these large retailers generally originate as innovators or low-price retailers that focus on a particular niche but migrate into the Big Middle in search of greater revenues and profits. The goal of this editorial is to suggest an initial framework for investigating those factors that create the structure and motivate the evolution of retailing institutions.     

Supply chain management and the evolution of the “Big Middle”

The authors define the “Big Middle” as the marketspace in which the bulk of retailers compete for the majority of customers and the preponderance of expenditures occur. Therefore, it is the space in which retailers aspire to exist in their quest for increased revenues, scale economies, and profits. An enduring concept, the Big Middle appears in any economy in which large-scale retailing has developed. In general merchandise retailing in the U.S., there have been three Big Middle subperiods, each defined by a distinct branch of the general merchandising tree; driven by geographic, technological, and socioeconomic changes; and dominated by preeminent retail chains. During the variety store subperiod, the F.W. Woolworth chain dominated. In the national-chain department store subperiod, Sears Roebuck and JCPenney were the primary retailers, and in the modern discounter subperiod, Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target have emerged as leaders. The authors argue that the development of these subperiods and the success of their major retailers have depended on the efficient and effective flow of merchandise from suppliers to customers. Optimizing this flow always has entailed harnessing current technology, given the geographic and socioeconomic realities of the time. Currently, technology facilitates a comprehensive application of supply chain management, whereas previous technology only permitted a simplified version.     

财政“省直管县”能够约束基层公职人员在职消费吗

地方政府公职人员在职消费过快增长一直是困扰政府治理的一个难题,而政府治理结构改革是解决这一问题的有效途径.作为一项重要的政府治理结构改革,财政“省直管县”改革会改变县级政府的激励和约束:一方面,财政“省直管县”改革后县级政府收入分成的提高会加强县级政府之间的财政竞争;另一方面,在财政关系上减少一级政府会影响上级政府对县级政府的财政监督和管理.这种激励和约束的改变能否有效抑制基层公职人员的在职消费需要进一步实证检验.本文使用中国县级财政经济统计数据对财政“省直管县”改革与基层公职人员在职消费之间的关系进行实证研究.研究发现:财政“省直管县”改革使得县域人均行政管理费显著降低了约5％,使行政管理费支出占总财政支出的比重显著降低了约0.583％.     

"What about the Intended Consequences?"

Research that examines race-stereotyped advertising emphasizes the social impact of these representations and overlooks the potential positive effect on advertising effectiveness. The present research examines the effects of race-stereotyped portrayals on advertising effectiveness among both members and nonmembers of a group that is stereotyped in an advertisement. We integrate research on consumer identity, social categorization, and advertising persuasion to hypothesize the process underlying viewers' attitude formation when exposed to advertising featuring a race-stereotyped portrayal. Results of an experiment conducted in South Africa demonstrate that members of the group that is the subject of the stereotyped portrayal (stereotyped viewers) feel offended. At the same time, results suggest that nonstereotyped viewers experience ambivalence when exposed to stereotyped portrayals. Findings highlight the role of viewers' strength of identification and provide guidance to advertisers with regard to the use of stereotyped portrayals in advertising.     

Globalization and the ‘confidence game’

We show that governments in developing countries have an incentive to play the “confidence game” — wherein the need to win the confidence of the international capital market ‘can actually prevent a country from following otherwise sensible policies and force it to follow policies that it would normally consider perverse’. This incentive arises because of a combination of a ‘conformity bias’ and ‘good news bias’ in governmental decision making in an open economy, which results in inefficient outcomes which increases rather than decreases the threat of devaluation. While institutions that encourage greater transparency and the public revelation of information, may often mitigate this inefficiency, on some occasions increased transparency may even exacerbate the inefficiency.     

“新常态”背景下我国出口产品结构优化的研究

在我国经济新常态背景下,优化出口产品结构具有重要的现实意义.立足于经济新常态的现实背景,在总结我国出口产品结构现状及存在问题的基础上,分析出口产品结构的国际竞争力,从升级农业产业结构、改造传统产业、完善市场制度和部署创新产业链等四个方面提出进一步优化出口产品结构的路径选择.     

顾客参与价值共创之“黑暗面”的反思

在互联网普及的背景下,本文探讨了消费者参与价值共创所产生的负面影响,并根据这一影响从供应链的标准化生产、员工管理、市场需求和市场反应、生产成本、交易冲突、消费体验等六个方面提出了促进消费者参与价值共创、减少服务失败的管理实践思路。     

Current Account ‘Core–Periphery Dualism’ in the EMU

Current account (CA) dispersion within European Union (EU) Member States has been increasing progressively since the 1990s. Interestingly, the persistent deficits in many peripheral countries have not been accompanied by a significant growth process able to stimulate a log run rebalancing as neoclassical theory predicts. To shed light on the issue, this paper investigates the determinants of Eurozone CA imbalances, focusing on the role played by financial integration. The analysis considers two samples of 22 OECD and 15 EU countries, three time horizons corresponding to various steps in European integration, different control variables and several panel econometric methods. The results suggest that within the EU group of countries financial integration contributed to explain the CA deterioration in the peripheral countries especially in the post‐EMU period creating an asymmetric behaviour within the EMU. From a financial stability perspective, this ‘divergence’ could hinder the effectiveness of monetary policy. By reducing the apparent benefits of participating in the monetary union, it also raises the risk of a break‐up.     

‘I send the wife to the doctor’– Men's behaviour as health consumers

This paper explores men's behaviour and attitudes in relation to health matters. While there has been some practical and research progress in engaging with users of health services, there is less development in the area of engaging non‐users. In effect, all members of the society can be the consumers/users of health promotion, though not all are. This paper reports on the first stage of a wider project aimed at increasing the effectiveness of skin cancer awareness messages aimed at men. The project focuses on men over 50 from an area of socio‐economic disadvantage, since these men tend to have the lowest life expectancies in general, and the highest incidences of mortality for skin cancer both at a national and international level. The research was conducted through community‐based focus groups and while the sample was relatively, small it produced some interesting outcomes in terms of how this cohort audited and responded to public health promotion campaigns; how they perceive cancer and health issues in general; how they respond to health issues; and how they view both the public health service in Ireland and the ways health professionals relate to them. It confirms many theories about how men view their health and how they respond to health promotion campaigns. Among other points, it raises questions about the possible mixed benefits of testimonial‐based advertising. It also indicates that there may be further layers of complexity connected to identity, fatalism, problem solving and respectful treatment that have not been sufficiently articulated in the literature. It points to the need for greater engagement by service planners and providers with the needs of their target audience, which may require a more encompassing definition of service user.     

Advertising & the Internet

The year 1999 could be dubbed the ‘Year of the Internet’. The medium has generated more news and comment than almost any other topic and has become a key part of many people's working and leisure lives. This article looks at the data that has been produced concerning the spread of the Internet as a medium, the Internet as a vehicle of advertising and the amount of money spent by Internet-based companies on advertising in the traditional media. However, a warning is required regarding the statistics presented below. The Internet is a very new medium and there are few, if any, consistent measurements of any of the key data. As a consequence much of the data presented does not compare like with like. The figures on penetration and Internet adspend give only an indication of the actual number online or amount spent. They are more useful as indicators of the relative development of different national markets and the growth trends in these markets. Data as robust and reliable as the adspend data collected for the ‘traditional’ advertising media is still many months or even years away.     

Trust and the don't‐want‐to‐complain bias in peer‐to‐peer platform markets

This paper addresses peer‐to‐peer (P2P) digital platform markets, often associated with the “sharing economy” or the “collaborative economy”. Such digital platforms, facilitating new purchasing channels for consumers by matching P2P supply and demand, can be considered new market places challenging the conventional markets. How are P2P platform markets evaluated by the consumers? Based on a comprehensive survey‐data material, five different P2P service markets are considered by peer buyers and the results compared to consumers’ evaluations from similar conventional service markets according to trust, comparability and consumers’ satisfaction with the transactions. Comparability seems to be one advantage for the platform markets, while trust could become a problem. Conditions for trust in P2P platform markets is particularly interesting to study because contrary to conventional markets P2P transactions cannot rely on governmental laws, regulations and security net. This trust problem has been solved by a trust‐generating rate and review system. Our data material, however, distinguishes a mechanism that we have coined as the don't‐want‐to‐complain bias. More precisely, people do not like to complain, hence buyers of P2P services often hesitate to give negative ratings when they are discontent with a service or a supplier. Therefore, positive ratings become overestimated. If consumers recognize this bias, ratings and reviews will lose credibility and no longer be considered trustworthy. Eventually, this may threaten the well‐functioning of P2P markets.