Humor and ad memorability: On the contributions of humor expectancy,relevancy, and need for humor

Humor is often used in advertising to make messages more entertaining and memorable. There are circumstances, however, under which humor can impede the acquisition of information from ads. This study explores these circumstances by examining how the interplay of humor expectancy, humor relevancy, and individuals' need for humor influences message claims recall. Results of experimentation show that recall is damaged when humor is expected—especially when expected humor is conceptually related to the message. Additionally, the deleterious impact of humor expectancy on recall is more pronounced among individuals characterized by low need for humor. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A conditional version of working's model

Working's (1943) model is shown to imply conditional Engel curves of the Working form when the income elasticity of demand for the group of goods as a whole is about unity.     

VAN DE HULST ON ROBUST STATISTICS: A HISTORICAL NOTE

This paper provides a discussion of an unpublished set of notes written in 1942 by the Dutch astronomer H.C. VAN DE HULST. In these notes VAN DE HULST derives the asymptotic variances of M– estimators as well as trimmed means and concludes that the asymptotic variance of what is now called HUBER'S estimator is the same as that of a trimmed mean. This conclusion is usually ascribed to BICKEL (1965). A letter written by D. VAN DANTZIG in 1943 providing a critical evaluation of. VAN DE HULST'S results, adds interest to this suprisingly early contribution to the theory of robust statistics.     

Individual career planning: Managerial help for subordinates

Personal career expectations have risen, and more individuals are showing initiative and demanding career opportunities. Turnover is increasing, and white-collar unions have been suggested. The author suggests that managers provide adequate support and guidance for individual career planning through human resource planning and development. Career planning begins with choices concerning occupation and organization, the job assignment, performance and development, and, ultimately, retirement. Management supports these choices through the way it attracts, recruits, and orients new talent; matches individual interests and talents with opportunities; helps individuals perform effectively and develop their capabilities; and helps individuals prepare for a satisfying, secure retirement. The author offers several guidelines for influencing career behavior, the core of the human resource management process.     

Chambers as Educator and Mentor

Adopting a personal tone, this article explores Ray Chambers' impact on accounting and management education and through that his impact on accounting thought and practice. As mentor and colleague for over a quarter of a century, Chambers left many wonderful impressions, some of which are described here. The article describes some of the influences on the innovations and approaches of a great teacher. Familial and early working life experiences are shown to have greatly influenced his views on accounting, finance and management, and hence his innovations in accounting and management education at both the Sydney Technical College and the University of Sydney. His research, writings and teachings continually stressed the need to apply common sense to common experience. The article concludes by noting Chambers' perennial pursuit of seeking evidence to test his ideal solution to eradicate the follies and infelicities that plagued then (and still plague today) accounting thought and practice. Chambers regarded having such an ideal as the essence of being a researcher.     

The Interstate River Compact as a Water Allocation Mechanism: Efficiency Aspects

Interstate river compacts are widely used to allocate water among riparian states. Twenty-one compacts are currently in force in the western United States, and these compacts are mostly of two types: those that allocate a fixed amount or flow of water to individual states; and those that allocate percentages of available water to the riparian states. This study compares the performance of the two resulting allocations with that resulting from basin-wide optimization without compact constraints. While widely varying hydrologic and economic characteristics of river basins create a large set of possible outcomes, a range of stylized case studies indicates that percentage compacts are likely to generate greater net benefits and to result in more equitable risk-sharing than fixed compacts under many circumstances. In light of recent compact negotiations in the southeastern United States, it is recommended that efficiency analyses under present and future conditions be made a part of all compact negotiations.