The impact of a product’s country-of-origin on compromise and attraction effects

Product information, such as country-of-origin (COO), often influences consumer choice. This research explores how valence of COO influences the magnitude of the compromise and attraction effects. The results of four experiments demonstrate that when a product’s COO denotes a negative image, the compromise and attraction effects decrease. The analysis also reveals asymmetric change of magnitude in the compromise and attraction effects.     

National information security policy and its implementation: A case study in Taiwan

Cyberspace is no longer safe. From business organizations to countries, the requirements of information security and assurance have become one of the most important functions to ensure continued operations. The goal of this study is twofold. First, we introduce the information security policy of the Taiwanese government and its current status. Then we present a successful example of governmental institute that self-adopted the information security management system (ISMS), British Standard 7799 (ISO27001). The results of this research indicate that past successful experiences, availability of documents, cost constraints, organization learning and organizational culture are important motivations of self-implementation of ISMS. Past experience of other standards, level of documentation and standardization, degree of understanding the clauses, procedures of risk management, top management support, culture of organization, existing auditing infrastructure, awareness of information security, education and compatibility with the existing procedures are the key factors of successful self-implementation of ISMS.     

Experiences of high-growth technology firms in Malaysia and New Zealand

How do technology firms experience high growth and the support available from governments? This qualitative study explores the experiences of high-growth technology-based firms in Malaysia and New Zealand. Case studies were developed for eight high-growth companies in the information and communication technology sectors of each country. The countries differ in national cultures and the forms of government support. There were no marked country differences in growth drivers. Growth was driven by innovation and flexibility within business-to-business sales relationships. These firms faced four obstacles: intense competition; liabilities of smallness; limited human capital; and funding ability. Malaysia offers broader mainstream support with favourable tax treatment of R&;D related expenditure. In contrast, New Zealand’s has been criticised for a highly targeted approach, although this is now broadening. Both countries appear to be converging on a hybrid approach combining mainstream and targeted support for growth businesses.     

A model for testing the relationship of nursing care and patient outcomes

Studying patient outcomes alone may not provide enough information to determine the associated factors that must be improved when the desired patient outcomes are not achieved. The purpose of this correlational study was to investigate the effects of perceived quality of nursing care and coordination of care on patients' comfort, satisfaction, and length of hospital stay. The overall model-data fit was good according to four indices: the chi-square value, goodness of fit index, adjusted goodness of fit index, and the Steigers root square error of approximation. The proposed model, effects of care quality on patient outcomes, was tested. The relationship between quality of nursing care and the proposed outcomes was tested. The results provide important information to the nursing profession and policymakers in meeting patient care needs.     

Bank risk in uncertain times: Do credit rationing and revenue diversification matter?

We show that bank risk rises, particularly for larger banks and those with greater interest-sensitive liabilities, during times of economic policy uncertainty through two economic channels: “credit rationing” and “revenue diversification.” The credit rationing channel shows that economic policy uncertainty increases aggregate loan spreads, exacerbating both adverse selection and moral hazard problems leading to higher bank risk. The revenue diversification channel suggests that as economic policy uncertainty reduces bank profits from traditional interest-based products, banks diversify into other non-traditional activities, thereby increasing their instability. Overall, our findings highlight the impact of economic policy uncertainty on exacerbating bank risk.     

Why passengers’ geo-demographic characteristics matter to airport marketing

Passengers’ preference and origin location data (home postcodes) can be extremely useful for marketing purposes, with the potential for more effective customer segmentation and targeting, yet traditional airport market research has often neglected these aspects. This paper utilises passenger survey data from the Gold Coast Airport in the state of Queensland, Australia, to perform a geo-demographic classification analysis in conjunction with census data. With geo-coded passenger preference data, the trip characteristics and airport decision preferences were cross-compared with demographic data with socio-economic variables. The results revealed distinctive contrasts in passenger origin location for short-haul domestic trips and long-haul international trips, in which passengers from afar are willing to travel longer distances to reach a second-tier airport to make use of cheaper airfares. One of the implications of this study is that low-cost carriers’ businesses (the airlines or the airports) should better target their customers by offering geographically targeted marketing.     

Environmental Management Practices of Hotels in Malaysia: Stakeholder Perspective

This article described the level of hotel participation in environmental management practices (EMPs) in Malaysia. It aimed to identify the level of stakeholder influence on EMP participation and whether EMPs contribute to overall hotel performance. To achieve these objectives, stakeholder theory was selected as the theoretical basis to explicate the proposed hypotheses. The analysis showed that stakeholder influence and the level of participation in EMPs among Malaysian hotels are only at a moderate stage. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring CPI's reliability: the stochastic approach to index numbers revisited

The reliability measurement of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has recently drawn much attention, as the index number has been criticized for its inaccuracy in accessing the degree of inflation. This article centers on providing a new regression specification that can help better gauge the CPI's reliability. More specifically, based on the stochastic approach to index numbers, we argue that the conventional treatment of the systematic changes in relative prices should be made time variant. We therefore propose a more comprehensive regression specification by including additional dummies that represent different general inflation rate levels and business cycle phases. Under this framework, we are more capable of avoiding possible misspecifications in the regression equation, as was experienced by Clements and Izan (1987). It also allows us to better answer the ‘Keynes’ critic’ regarding the stochastic approach to index numbers. The empirical results of Australia and the US are used to validate the merit of our specification.