Managerial approaches towards service quality: the case of three service organisations

Using a multiple case study, this paper is concerned with assessing the impact of senior management's approach and attitudes on service quality and its implications for middle and firstline managers. Date from 52 semi-structured interviews representing a variety of managerial levels suggests that there exist many conflicts and differences in senior management's orientation and approach towards quality management (QM) with that of middle and firstline managers. The results further indicate that getting such consistency appropriate to the needs of top, middle, and firstline management, and of the QM itself, is one of the key problems of current management of service quality. However, the findings highlight that where there is consistency between senior managers' underlying approaches towards service quality goal with that of middle and firstline managers, service quality programmes will highly likely produce expected results. Finally, the implications of these findings as well as future research are put forward.     

A general class of distortion operators for pricing contingent claims with applications to CAT bonds

ABSTRACT

The current paper provides a general approach to construct distortion operators that can price financial and insurance risks. Our approach generalizes the (Wang 2000) transform and recovers multiple distortions proposed in the literature as particular cases. This approach enables designing distortions that are consistent with various pricing principles used in finance and insurance such as no-arbitrage models, equilibrium models and actuarial premium calculation principles. Such distortions allow for the incorporation of risk-aversion, distribution features (e.g. skewness and kurtosis) and other considerations that are relevant to price contingent claims. The pricing performance of multiple distortions obtained through our approach is assessed on CAT bonds data. The current paper is the first to provide evidence that jump-diffusion models are appropriate for CAT bonds pricing, and that natural disaster aversion impacts empirical prices. A simpler distortion based on a distribution mixture is finally proposed for CAT bonds pricing to facilitate the implementation.     

Regional Transfer of Haze Pollutants Embodied in China’s Foreign Trade and Factors Affecting It: A GMRIO-Based Empirical Analysis

The paper estimated the balance of emissions embodied in bilateral trade and the pollution terms of trade between China and six major world economies, including USA, Japan, and others, from 1995 to 2009, and then discussed the factors affecting them using the Structural Decomposition Analysis method. We find that, with the exception of Taiwan, the balances of the haze pollutants emissions embodied in bilateral trades were negative between China and the each of the rest five, and this was mainly resulted from the China export scale effect and intermediate input structural effects. We also find that China has become the “Pollution Refuge” for the economies like USA and Japan.     

An Empirical Evaluation of Investment Income under the Equity Method of Accounting

This study investigates the valuation implications of equity method earnings among Chinese listed firms, which are often perceived by the Chinese business press of employing the equity method to avoid reported losses. Our results show that firms with declining core earnings are more likely to have equity method investments than firms with increasing core earnings. Also, firms with lower core earnings report higher equity method earnings. Moreover, equity method earnings do not improve earnings persistence but are found to be relevant. Investors act as if they naively fixate on equity method earnings. A portfolio constructed on the basis of core earnings and equity method earnings generates a hedged return of 8%.     

Combining value averaging and Bollinger Band for an ETF trading strategy

The decision-making of investors is highly influenced by their feelings. According to behavioural finance, investor greed and fear would form irrational behaviour and affect their portfolio allocation. Although well-known mechanical investment strategy of dollar cost averaging (DCA) and value averaging (VA) could eliminate the problems of when to purchase, there are still some disadvantages to consider. For example, using a DCA strategy may be able to decrease volatility in portfolio so as to not effect investment decision, but it gives no rule for selling and may increase the opportunity cost of time if investors start deducted at peak prices. On the other hand, VA gives more aggressive sell signals to control the value of the portfolio to the level desired, but the investor may not have enough money purchase of a large number of shares in sharp decline period. Therefore, we use VA as main strategy and Bollinger Band as assist indicator for check for volatility for entry or exit. Through analysis and simulation, the new strategy we design does improve the performance during both bull and bear market periods.     

Kaldorian Disaggregation,Temporary Migration and Domestic Welfare

We build a model with two agents: domestic residents and temporary immigrants. The model incorporates Kaldorian disaggregation, with the two groups consuming different goods produced in the economy. It is established that, under certain conditions, an increase in immigrant labor lowers the welfare of the domestic residents. This runs against conventional wisdom that temporary immigration enhances the welfare of domestic residents.     

R/S分析与中国股市的分形特征

应用R／S分析法对中国股票市场实进行实证研究,探究中国股市的自相似性和长程相关性等分形特征;通过计算深圳成指、上证综指及各行业指数每日收益序列所对应Hurst指数及相关统计量,证实中国股市存在分形特征。但沪深两市平均循环周期存在着明显的差异。同时,各行业指数间也存在着明显的差异。     

王国维悲剧思想之转变——以《〈红楼梦〉评论》与《宋元戏曲考》为中心的考察

王国维是近代中国首先从西方引进悲剧理论的学者,为中国后来的悲剧研究开了先河.从《〈红楼梦〉评论》到《宋元戏曲考》,王国维的悲剧思想在考察视角的选择、悲剧精神的阐释和结构标准的界定方面虽然已经发生了转变,但却有一以贯之之处.随着对中国古典戏曲研究的系统深入,其悲剧思想从受叔本华的强烈影响到真正走进中国戏曲,从推崇出世解脱到看重“主人翁之意志”,从结构上的机械认定到灵活处理,已然发生了转变、发展而进一步成熟了.     

Technological position in alliances network

The purpose of this research was to examine the interactions between the focal firm (FF) and its technological alliance, and to enquire into the technological alliance network in shaping the firm position from innovative dynamics environment. 2-Mode network analysis was employed to explore the question of how technological position emerged from alliance interaction. Specifically, we looked at the network structure of the sample by examining the interactions of technological alliance. Our empirical data were from the ‘Strategic Alliance Database’ established by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan. We identified technological position of firms from the 2-mode network analysis to resolve the highlighted question. Some results that we found were as follows: (1) The alliance network of IT technology approximated an ideal core/periphery structure. (2) The network structure apparently demonstrated that FF with a higher centrality has better opportunity to locate in the central position of FFs or in the core position in the technological network. (3) Alliance in core with a dense structure can better facilitate the utilisation of existing knowledge in refinement and extension of existing technologies. Alliance in the periphery with a non-dense structure is in a favourable position for matchmaking of experimentation and to serve as a bridge to introduce novel technologies.     

Customer perception and response to ethical norms in legal services marketing

The study here examines the relationship between ethical marketing norms, relationship quality (RQ), and commitment in the context of legal services. Through a survey of customers of legal services providers in Malaysia, data were collected. Results from a standard analysis of data show that the four dimensions of ethical marketing norms contribute significantly and explain a significant amount of variance in RQ and commitment. The results further show that three dimensions of ethical norms namely price and distribution norm, information and contract norm, and general honesty and integrity norm are significantly associated with relationship quality and commitment. Product and promotion norm has no significant relationship with relationship quality and commitment. RQ plays a mediating role in the relationship between marketing norms and commitment. The study reveals that the same three dimensions of marketing norms predict both RQ and commitment, and are useful for effective legal services marketing. These findings lead to research, managerial, contextual and policy implications that conclude the paper.