Competition,agglomeration, and performance of Beijing hotels

Generally the function of marketing in many different types of organisations has been widely recognised in recent years, and accordingly various studies have described the development of the marketing department in both the manufacturing and service industries. However, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to delineating or describing the role of the marketing department in retailing organisations, in spite of evidence of increasing employment of marketing personnel to implement proactive retailer marketing strategies, and correspondingly large increases in marketing expenditures by retailers. This article seeks to redress the balance by reporting the findings of a survey of the operation of marketing departments by 70 of the largest retailing organisations in the UK.     

Analysis of real GDP growth rates of greater China: An asymmetric conditional volatility approach

Most empirical studies of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates exclude the dimension of conditional volatility shocks. In this paper, we search for evidence of conditional volatility in the quarterly real GDP of greater China, which comprises the economies of Mainland China, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), and Taiwan. The widely accepted exponential GARCH model of Nelson [Econometrica 59 (1991) 347–370] is employed to capture the possible existence of asymmetric conditional volatility in real GDP. It is found that negative real GDP shocks may induce a greater impact on future volatilities compared with positive shocks of the same magnitude. Policy implications from our findings are discussed.     

The simple analytics of optimal growth with illegal migrants: A clarification

This paper reexamines the welfare effects of illegal immigration studied by Hazari and Sgro [The simple analytics of optimal growth with illegal migrants. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 28(1) 141–151]. In contrast to their negative conclusion, we obtain ambiguous welfare prediction which is due to the presence of two opposing effects at work: a positive exploitation effect and a negative intertemporal effect. With Cobb–Douglas production technology, we show that per capita domestic consumption rises in the presence of illegal migration.     

Economic Growth and Medicare Funding Systems

This article compares the long-run effects of changes in health conditions, population growth, price of medical care, and Medicare indemnity rate on capital formation and medical expenditures under fully funded and pay-as-you-go Medicare. Surprisingly, it is found that population growth, rising medical prices, and increasingly adverse health conditions may or may not raise medical expenditures in the long run. Moreover, the directions of some of these effects under the pay-as-you-go Medicare system are reversed under the fully funded system. Finally, it is shown that fully funded Medicare results in higher steady-state capital than pay-as-you-go Medicare; however, the welfare effect of the former may or may not be higher than that of the latter in general. (JEL H550 , E620 )     

Managing global accounts

Global account management--which treats a multinational customer's operations as one integrated account, with coherent terms for pricing, product specifications, and service--has proliferated over the past decade. Yet according to the authors' research, only about a third of the suppliers that have offered GAM are pleased with the results. The unhappy majority may be suffering from confusion about when, how, and to whom to provide it. Yip, the director of research and innovation at Capgemini, and Bink, the head of marketing communications at Uxbridge College, have found that GAM can improve customer satisfaction by 20% or more and can raise both profits and revenues by at least 15% within just a few years of its introduction. They provide guidelines to help companies achieve similar results. The first steps are determining whether your products or services are appropriate for GAM, whether your customers want such a program, whether those customers are crucial to your strategy, and how GAM might affect your competitive advantage. If moving forward makes sense, the authors' exhibit, "A Scorecard for Selecting Global Accounts," can help you target the right customers. The final step is deciding which of three basic forms to offer: coordination GAM (in which national operations remain relatively strong), control GAM (in which the global operation and the national operations are fairly balanced), and separate GAM (in which a new business unit has total responsibility for global accounts). Given the difficulty and expense of providing multiple varieties, the vast majority of companies should initially customize just one---and they should be careful not to start with a choice that is too ambitious for either themselves or their customers to handle.     

Balanced‐budget rules and aggregate instability: The role of consumption taxes in a monetary economy

In a real macroeconomic model, it is well established that a balanced‐budget rule based on consumption tax can rule out indeterminacy. The present paper shows, both analytically and numerically, that such a balanced‐budget rule induces indeterminacy and, hence, aggregate instability in a standard one‐sector cash‐in‐advance economy. From a policy perspective, our results raise possible concerns that balanced‐budget rules with endogenous consumption tax could have destabilizing effects under the current over‐easy monetary environment.     

Civic Engagement in the Performance Evaluation of the Public Sector in China: Building horizontal accountability to enhance vertical accountability

Abstract

This article accounts for the logic of building of an accountability mechanism with elements of civic engagement in an authoritarian regime. It is elaborated by a performance evaluation programme ‘Democratic Review of Administrative and Business Style’ (DRABS) in Wuhan in central China. The author argues that the DRABS does help form government agencies’ responsiveness to the public with various public scrutiny instruments including mass media and the internet, and that it is more accurate to frame the mechanism as having the function of building horizontal accountability to enhance vertical accountability.     

The Influence of Distributive Justice on Lying for and Stealing from a Supervisor

In a controlled laboratory experiment, we found evidence for our predictions that participants who received fair distributive treatment were more likely to lie to give a supervisor a good performance evaluation than those treated unfairly, and those who received unfair distributive treatment were more likely to steal money from a supervisor than those treated fairly. We further proposed that the presence of an ethical code of conduct would moderate these relationships such that when the code was present these relationships would be weaker than when the code was absent, but we failed to find support for these moderating effects. Our findings suggest that the relationship between distributive justice and unethical behavior is likely more complex than previously considered. Both researchers and managers may benefit from a broader understanding of the factors that motivate and inhibit unethical behaviors intended to benefit and harm supervisors and/or organizations.     

Volume,volatility and information linkages in the stock and option markets

This paper examines the relationship between option trading activity and stock market volatility. Although the option market is uniquely suited for trading on volatility information, there is little analysis on how trading activity in this market is linked to stock price volatility. The bulk of the discussion tends to focus on whether trading activity in the stock market is informative about stock volatility. To analyze the information in option trading activity for stock market volatility, a sample of 15 stocks with the highest option trading volume is selected. For each stock, it is noted that the trading activities in the put and call option markets have significant explanatory power for stock market volatility. In addition, the results indicate that the call option trading activity has a stronger impact on stock volatility compared with that of the put options. Our results demonstrate that information and sentiment in the option market is useful for the estimation of stock market volatility. Also, the significance of the effects of option trading activity on stock price volatility is observed to be comparable to that of stock market trading activity. Furthermore, the persistence and asymmetric effects in the volatility of some stocks tend to disappear once option trading activity is taken into account.     

Content Analysis of the ‘Clean Your Plate Campaign’ on Sina Weibo

ABSTRACT

At the beginning of 2013, a Beijing non-profit group launched a ‘Clean Your Plate Campaign’ on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like microblogging site, with aims to reduce food waste. This paper examines social media users’ reactions during two periods of the first three years of the campaign. Upon examination of topic content, supporting participation was the most popular topic in January 2013 and showcasing individual achievement was the most frequently discussed topic in March 2016, with socialising as the common purpose for posting in both months. Users mentioning the campaign most in January 2013 belonged to private organisations, with posts from ordinary people becoming more predominant by March 2016. This study sheds light on the use of social media to raise public awareness regarding food waste in China. The findings will help campaigns aiming to promote food waste reductions or other social movements that use social media as a platform for citizen involvement.