IBM：价值引领成功

在过去的九十多年里,世界经济不断发展,现代科学日新月异,IBM始终走在全球信息工业的最前列IBM,即国际商业机器公司,1911年创立于美国,是全球最大的信息技术和业务解决方案公司,目前拥有全球雇员31万多人,业务遍及160多个国家和地区。在过去的九十多年里,世界经济不断发展,现代科学日新月异,IBM始终以超前的技术、出色的管理和独树一帜的产品领导着全球信息工业的发展,保证了世界范围内所有行业用户对信息处理的全方位需求。     

相变存储——关于存储的新可能

自从1950年由冯·诺依曼博士领导设计出世界上第一台具有存储程序功能的计算机EDVAC以来,存储技术的每个跨越式进步都促成了计算机和电子事业的阶段性革命。时间进入后PC时代,各方面的技术都获得了较大的突破:网络上,Wi-Fi和Wimax给人们带来了前所未有的宽带无线互联体验;     

数字家庭进行时

2005年刚过一半,我们已经目睹了一场关于娱乐科技的突然爆发。从这场爆发的能量、内容以及特色等各个角度都可以看出,数字家庭的梦想正在一步步地变成现实。     

The Telling Trades of Mutual Funds

Under the assumption that mutual funds trade at quarter commencement, some funds exhibit and exploit persistent stock selection talent; that is, the stocks purchased consistently outperform the stocks sold, and the higher turnover of these funds indicates that managers are capitalizing on their forecasting abilities. However, any evidence of sustained stock selection skill disappears when alternate trade‐timing assumptions are considered, suggesting that some skilled managers are electing to trade earlier than previously assumed. Overall, the results question the appropriateness of the quarter‐end trading assumption and the validity of existing studies that employ it.     

The Total Product Design Concept and an Application to the Auto Market

As traditional sources of competitive advantage shrink, firms seek new ones. One such source of competitive advantage is product design because of its effects on customer experience. To understand the role and impact of product design on customer experience, we propose an integrated, customer‐based framework for product design that we call the total product design concept (TPDC). We define a product's TPDC as consisting of three elements, namely functionality, aesthetics, and meaning, each of which arises from more elemental product characteristics. We elaborate on the structure of a product's TPDC, its three elements, and the links between those elements and customers' experience with a product. We provide an illustrative application of the TPDC using data from the U.S. auto market. The findings from that application support the proposed three‐dimensional view of the TPDC, and demonstrate heterogeneity both in the TPDC's structure and its effects on customer satisfaction. For all three segments, functionality enhances customer satisfaction. For the largest segment of customers, functionality is the most important factor, followed by aesthetics. For the other two segments, customer satisfaction is most influenced by the meaning element of TPDC. We discuss the implications of these findings for the auto industry in particular, and the potential use of the TPDC more generally.     

Perspectives on Advertising From the Geographical Literature: A Critical Review

In recent years, geographers have been devoting increasing attention to the field of advertising, and in particular to advertising imagery. The authors of this article offer a critical review of articles with substantial advertising content that have appeared in geography journals, and assess their relevance to advertising practitioners, scholars and students. These writings are reviewed under three headings: considerations of place and space; issues related to gender and race, and aspects of international advertising. Although many geographers are critical of advertising, there is nevertheless much in their work to interest an advertising readership.     

Using the PET Assessment Instrument to Help Students Identify Factors that Could Impede Moral Behavior

We present an instrument developed to explain to students the concept of the personal ethical threshold (PET). The PET represents an individual’s susceptibility to situational pressure in his or her organization that makes moral behavior more personally difficult. Further, the PET varies according to the moral intensity of the issue at hand, such that individuals are less vulnerable to situational pressure for issues of high moral intensity, i.e., those with greater consequences for others. A higher PET reflects an individual’s greater likelihood of adhering to the morally correct path, even in the face of high situational pressures (personal costs) and low moral intensity (collective importance). PET questionnaires were completed by 506 students representing eight business schools throughout the United States. Relationships between respondents’ PET and their gender, age, and major field of study, as well as the geographical location of their school, are explored. Results indicate that older students have higher PETs and that students attending schools in the northeastern part of the United States have lower PETs. These findings are discussed. It is argued that the PET instrument can be used to help students identify organizational pressures and intrapersonal processes that can impede their moral behavior in organizations.     

Market Learning and Radical Innovation: A Cross Case Comparison of Eight Radical Innovation Projects

Does customer input play the same key role in every successful new-product development (NPD) project? For incremental NPD projects, market information keeps the project team focused on customer wants and needs. Well-documented methods exist for obtaining and using market information throughout the stages of an incremental NPD project. However, the role of market learning seems less apparent if the NPD project involves a really new product—that is, a radical innovation that creates a line of business that is new not only for the firm but also for the marketplace. In all likelihood, customers will not be able to describe their requirements for a product that opens up entirely new markets and applications. To provide insight into the role that market learning plays in NPD projects involving really new products, Gina Colarelli O'Connor describes findings from case studies of eight radical innovation projects. Participants in the study come from member companies of the Industrial Research Institute, a consortium of large company R&D managers. With a focus on exploring how market learning for radical innovations differs from that of incremental NPD projects, the case studies examine the following issues: the nature and the timing of market-related inquiry; market learning methods and processes; and the scope of responsibility for market learning, and confidence in the results. Observations from the case studies suggest that the market-related questions that are asked during a radical innovation project differ by stage of development, and they differ from the questions that project teams typically ask during an incremental NPD effort. For example, assessments of market potential, size, and growth were not at issue during the early stages of the projects in this study. Such issues came into play after the innovations were proven to work under controlled conditions and attention turned to finding applications for the technology. For several projects in the study, internal data and informal networks of people throughout relevant business units provide the means for learning about the hurdles the innovation faces and about markets that are unfamiliar to the development group. The projects in this study employ various techniques for reducing market uncertainty, including offering the product to the most familiar market and using a strategic ally who is familiar with the market to act as an intermediary between the project team and the marketplace.     

Investigating the marketing impact of consumers’ connectedness to celebrity endorsers

Consumers enjoy following famous media personalities, discovering details about their habits, food preferences, or designer brands that they wear. Consumers model their consumption behaviors based on their favorite celebrities’ preferences. Marketers are aware of such celebrity admiration and frequently use celebrities as part of marketing communication strategies. Grounded in parasocial relationship and social connectedness theories, this study tests a model of connectedness to the celebrity, attitude toward the celebrity, receptivity toward the celebrity‐endorsed message, and purchase intentions of the celebrity‐endorsed market offering. These relationships were investigated using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate an individual's level of connectedness to their favorite celebrity is positively linked with both their receptivity toward the celebrity‐endorsed message and purchase intentions of the celebrity‐endorsed market offering. On the theoretical side, the integration of parasocial relationship and social connectedness theories explain the processes through which celebrity endorsements impact consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. On the practical side, the findings suggest marketers should carefully choose the best celebrity endorsers for advertisements after considering how constituents from within their key target markets are likely to connect with the chosen celebrity. However, beyond consumers’ connectedness to the celebrity, the findings also suggest that receptivity toward the celebrity‐endorsed message is an essential link to purchase intentions of the endorsed offering.     

Same Direction,Different Paths: a Phenomenological Study of Employees who are Religious yet Open to Religious Pluralism

While there is a growing interest in workplace spirituality, much of that focus excludes religion even though the vast majority of people are affiliated with a religious tradition. Attempts to bring one’s “whole self” to work can be problematic for those who are religious because of concerns of offense or proselytizing. This phenomenological study explored the lived experience of a group of 15 professional employees who were personally religious while also remaining open to religious pluralism in the workplace. This group was largely Christian, and was chosen from participants in leadership seminars and graduate courses in the United States. Analysis revealed four different postures used by participants to express openness toward religious difference. These approaches are described in detail, and the implications of these finding for the advancement of pluralism in the workplace are considered.