社会保障财政风险与危机管理战略

我国正处于各种风险的频发期,给社会保障带来的影响不断加深,政府社会保障管理的难度也在不断扩大。在社会保障的常规性管理中贯穿风险意识、忧患意识、可持续发展意识,建立社会保障财政危机管理的核心价值观,是引领社会保障管理走向理性化、科学化的必要之路。以中国国情作为研究背景,探讨应对各种社会经济风险、自然灾害下的社会保障功能与政府职能问题,也从长期发展考虑,研究社会保障的战略发展模式,促使社会保障事业健康地发展。     

基于电子化金融服务创新的普惠型农村金融体系重构研究

通过对广西横县、灵山、田东3县电子化金融服务渠道的专题调研,本文分析了信息技术创新对建立普惠型农村金融体系的重要意义。研究结果表明,电子化金融服务渠道创新是建立普惠型农村金融体系的突破口;实现广大乡村地区电子化金融服务的可持续发展是当前存在的主要难题;应充分尊重自下而上的电子化金融服务模式创新;电子化金融服务具有准公共品的特征,在构建该体系的过程中应充分发挥社会各方的积极作用。     

Blessings and the spiritual life of consumers

The growing social phenomenon of ritually blessed animal companions suggests that the concept of the blessing should receive more attention in the field of consumer behavior. By documenting the importance of perceived sacred power and by capturing the words, gestures, and artifacts of the animal-blessing ritual, Holak highlights the role that these factors can play in the efforts of individuals and businesses to express, to those they care about, the wish that good should follow.     

Is bigger better? How the scale effect influences green purchase intention: The case of washing machine

To stimulate purchase of green products, retailers and marketers need to know how to effectively present benefits of green products, specifically by numerical information. Accordingly, the current study provides useful insights on how to use numerical scale to influence consumer perceptions and green purchase intention. Data from a survey of 302 consumers show that green benefits expressed with an expanded scale (versus a contracted scale) increase perceived value of green products, producing in turn an increase in green purchase intention. Furthermore, low skepticism consumers perceive more value from benefits expressed in an expanded scale, but high skepticism consumers are less likely to be influenced by framing of the numerical scale due to heightened involvement. Significant moderation of consumer skepticism reveals its tempering effect on numerosity heuristic thinking in favor of the central processing route. These findings advance knowledge in the fields of numerosity heuristic, consumer decision and green consumption and provide managerial implications for retailers to formulate effective market segmentation strategies and enhance persuasiveness of numerical information to promote green purchase behavior.     

Developing conditions for environmentally sustainable consumption: drawing insight from anti‐smoking policy

This paper starts from the premise that, particularly in industrialized countries, the consumption decisions made by individuals and households are a major source of environmental strain. Several international organizations and national governments have addressed this issue, but, thus far, their efforts have had minimal effect. This paper examines the conditions necessary for the implementation of policy able to effectively reduce the environmental impact of household consumption. It draws from the experience of American tobacco control, a relatively rare example of a public effort that succeeded in reducing the negative consequences of an entitled consumer behaviour. An extensive review of the tobacco control literature informs the conclusion that three fundamental changes brought about conditions conducive to a widespread reduction in smoking, namely, information about its negative effects became common knowledge and was widely believed as true; cigarettes became a target for taxes that raised the price of smoking while placing a penalty on a behaviour increasingly seen as ‘bad’; the public sentiment regarding smoking shifted, deglamourizing the behaviour. The paper further suggests that these changes, which were the result of a concerted public effort, have a similar potential in reducing environmentally unsustainable consumption. A closer tying of consumption to the issue of climate change is suggested as a primary facilitating strategy.     

The Big Five,happiness, and shopping

This study assessed the relationships between the Big Five dimensions of personality and individual happiness with three indicators of shopping and spending for non-grocery items using a sample of 660 U.S. adults. The data from an online survey showed that all five of the Big Five traits correlated positively with self-reported happiness, even controlling for the effects of age and gender. Regression analysis showed, however, that the positive relationships between happiness and Agreeableness and Openness to Experience were no longer significant, indicating that they are real, but redundant to the other traits. The correlations also showed that happiness, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion correlated positively with the three shopping indicators. Finally, happiness appears to have a direct effect with shopping and mediates the influence of Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, and Extraversion on happiness.