Embrace the debate: Goals,de-marketing overconsumption,and conflicting information

When faced with conflicting information, consumers often wonder what the “right” consumption level is. A highly relevant context that is often associated with such uncertainty is food consumption (e.g., of meat or dairy products), where consumers seek information to determine whether and how much to consume, and often a recommended goal from health experts is to reduce overconsumption. We apply the theory of goal settings as reflecting such information, focusing on specific goals (e.g., “eat meat twice a week”) versus general goals (“eat less meat”). Based on a series of three experiments in both online and field settings with 674 participants overall, we show that in food consumption contexts with conflicting information, general goals set by health experts are less effective than specific goals in battling overconsumption. Perceived value of information was identified as the underlying mechanism as it mediated the effect of conflicting information on reduced overconsumption. Prior work suggests conflicting information is typically disadvantageous for consumers. Our research demonstrates how consumers can benefit from communication emphasizing specific goals when information conflicts. It contributes to policymakers, health experts, and social marketers that search for effective marketing strategies to reduce overconsumption of items that may be associated with conflicting information.     

The global recession issue: Introduction—Part II

The global economic crisis clearly highlighted that a multinational enterprise (MNE) must understand the national environment no less than its core business. Articles in this part deal with the impact of the crisis on five national economies: two small (Iceland and Israel), two developing (China and India), and one extremely poor (Bangladesh). This introduction also contains empirical research on the most important variable in the global crisis, the saving rate. Differences in savings between countries are not adequately explained in the current economic literature. As we show, culture variables from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study help explain the difference between saving rates in various countries. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Estimating the Precision of Information on Earnings and Non-earnings Announcement Days,and Its Relation with the Cost of Equity

ABSTRACT

Using daily stock returns, we estimate the precision of information during earnings and non-earnings announcement days, and find that although the precision of information in daily stock returns increases during earnings announcement days, it explains less of the variation in expected returns than the precision of information on non-earnings announcement days. Our findings suggest that the precision of earnings disclosures has a small effect on the cost of equity relative to the precision of information on other days of the year.     

Choosing Brands: Fresh Produce versus Other Products

Assuming that brands contribute to quality risk reduction, prestige, and design, we derive and test hypothesis on the willingness to pay (WTP) for brands across different product categories (electronics, clothing, packaged food, and fresh produce). Using the random effect tobit model on the stated point value of WTP and the ordered probit model on the stated range of WTP, we find that WTP for brands of fresh produce is least among the four product categories controlling for relevant demographic variations. Simulations show that fresh produce has a higher optimal price premium for brands but with a much smaller market share.     

Corporate social responsibility,stock prices,and tax policy

We model a market in which some investors get utility from owning shares of firms that engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). In equilibrium, investors' CSR considerations influence portfolio choices, stock prices, and CSR spending. We study tax policy designed to maximize total giving (individual and corporate) net of government tax breaks and find that its effectiveness is non‐monotonic in the proportion of altruistic investors: with few or many altruistic investors, it has little impact on giving, but, at intermediate levels, effective tax policy intuitively relates the corporate tax rebate rate on giving and the cap on allowable tax savings.     

An analysis of reported driver behaviour in samples of domestic and expatriate Iranians

Objective: Few studies have examined the differences in self-reported driver behaviour between drivers of one nationality who live in their country of origin (domestic drivers) and those who live abroad (expatriate drivers). This study aimed to explore the differences in self-reported driver behaviour among domestic and expatriate Iranian drivers. In addition, we explore the factors associated with self-reported accident involvement including personal injuries in these groups. Methods: A web-based version of the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) measuring self-reported driver errors and violations was distributed to respondents by availability sampling in social networks and by bulk email services. About 1000 individuals living in all provinces in Iran were invited to participate in the survey. We also invited Iranians living in more than 20 countries. A total of 634 domestic Iranians and 135 expatriate Iranians responded to our enquiry. The measure of driving behaviour asked the respondents about violations and error conduct during the last two years on any kind of road. The sample of domestic and expatriate drivers did not differ significantly in gender, age, education and driving hours per day. Domestic drivers were more likely to have experienced an accident in their lifetime. Both samples were relatively young of age (Domestic M integer?=?28.53, SD?=?6.85; Expatriate M integer?=?29.21, SD?=?7.71). Results: The results suggested that emotional violations were more common among the drivers living in Iran. Emotional violations and driver errors were related to self-reported accident involvement among domestic drivers while ordinary rule violations were associated with such accidents in the expatriate group. Conclusions: Iranian expatriate drivers reported less emotional violations than domestic drivers. A potential reason is that road traffic infrastructure and regulation enforcement in high-income developed countries do not facilitate emotional violations. Implications for road traffic safety and methodological limitations of the study are discussed.     

Correlation between gross domestic product,utilization of in vitro fertilization,and pregnancy success rate across the world

Abstract

Background: IVF is now a wide spread procedure globally, and currently 65 countries report annually all or part of their IVF/ICSI cycles, from which the International Committee Monitoring progress in Assisted Reproduction Technology (ICMART) published its report. There is considerable variation in the utilization (number of cycles per population) globally.

Aims: The objectives of this study were to assess whether utilization is related to national wealth, presented as gross domestic product (GDP), and whether the GDP has any effect on success in IVF treatment, mainly delivery and clinical pregnancy rates.

Results: The results demonstrated a significant positive correlation between utilization and GDP (CC = 0.563, p?=?0.00000194), and both utilization and GDP have strong negative correlations to successful outcome of the treatment-clinical pregnancy rate (CC: ?0.460, p?=?0.00015; CC: ?0.399, p?=?0.0012, respectively) and delivery rates (cc = ?0.396, p?=?0.00484; cc = ?0.3, p?=?0.0179, respectively).

Conclusions: Poor nations have less utilization of IVF, probably due to the limited affordability of the treatment, but reassuringly do not seem to have less success in the treatment. Further research is required to fully understand the implications of these correlations and to better design national and international fertility policies.     

A system dynamics model for the assessment of the effects of advertising and sales promotion on profitability

Advertising and sales promotion have significant impact on raising customer awareness. They are tools by which customers become acquainted with new and innovative products and services of the companies. Despite the importance of these tools in increasing sales, it is not easy to evaluate their effect on sales. One of the problems confronted by the marketing managers is the determination of a clear relationship between the effectiveness of advertising and sales promotion on profitability. In this article, considering the relationship between these tools and brand equity, we have attempted to determine the relationship between effectiveness of these two factors and profitability. Next, a system dynamics model for representing the effects of marketing communication tools on company profitability is offered. Finally, using the data from a corporation and the numeric values related to each of the elements in the model, an attempt has been made to determine a number representing the magnitude of the effect of advertising and sales promotion on the corporation＇s revenue and profitability and to draw the respective curves related to the effects of these two factors.     

Discussion of “Earnings Management and the RevelationPrinciple”

Review of Accounting Studies -     

Accounting, Valuation and Duration of Football Player Contracts

Abstract:   FRS 10 requires investments in player contracts by football companies to be capitalized and amortized. Given the high degree of uncertainty associated with such contracts, it is not clear that this treatment is consistent with asset capitalization criteria. The evidence provided in this paper does not support inconclusively this capitalization requirement in that it indicates weak association of investment in player contracts with three measures of future benefits. In particular, the duration of this association is at most two years, which is shorter than the duration implied by the amortization period reported by sample companies. Nonetheless, other findings suggest that market participants seem to agree with the treatment prescribed by FRS 10 . These results should be of interest to practitioner and standard setters who (axiomatically) regard intangibles acquired in an arm's length transaction as assets.