Customer Equity Models for Mainland China and Taiwan's Economy Hotels

The economy hotel industry in Mainland China has grown rapidly in the last 20 years. At the same time, Taiwan has aggressively marketed development for the last five years. This work develops a customer equity model for economy hotels and compares model differences for Mainland China and Taiwan. In total, 297 completed questionnaires were collected in Mainland China and 318 in Taiwan. Model testing was conducted through structural equation modeling (SEM). Analytical results reveal that travelers focused more on relationship equity and brand equity in Mainland China, while travelers in Taiwan focused on value equity and brand equity, and that strengthening these will strengthen customer equity. Finally, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The Importance of Hotel Employee Service Attitude and the Satisfaction of International Tourists

Although there have been numerous studies dealing with service attitude and customer satisfaction, they have not specifically addressed international hotel customers. Moreover, most of them have discussed the subject from the viewpoint of the employee. This study takes a customer perception approach and emphasises critical factors (elements) of service attitude affecting the satisfaction of international tourists. It has been found that the importance of employee attitudes to service and the level of satisfaction with the service vary significantly among customers of different nationalities. For example, American travellers emphasise elements such as employees being able to solve their problems, and so are dissatisfied with the service when employees lack an adequate command of English. Taiwanese customers stress the importance of employees treating customers politely regardless of their attire. They feel that they are treated unfairly because of employee expectations of tips from well-dressed customers. These findings could furnish managers with useful information for planning marketing and personnel training.     

Implied deterministic volatility functions: An empirical test for Euribor options

This study proposes the implied deterministic volatility function (IDVF) for the volatility as the function of moneyness and time in the Heath, Jarrow, and Morton (1992) model to price and hedge Euribor options across moneyness and maturities from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2005. The IDVF models are extended to two‐ and three‐factor models, indicating that they are potential candidates for interest rate risk management. Based on the criteria of in‐sample fitting, prediction, and hedging, it is found that two‐factor IDVF models provide the best in‐sample and prediction performance, whereas three‐factor IDVF models yield the best results for hedging. Correctly specified multifactor models with the volatility as the function of moneyness and time can replace inappropriate onefactor models. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:319–347, 2009     

QoS服务质量及流量控制设备在校园网中的应用

随着信息技术的高速发展,网络流量也急剧增加,这不仅促进了网络技术的飞速发展,比如从共享10Mbps到交换10Mbps、100Mbps、1000Mbps,甚至10Gbps以太网标准也已经完成。网络带宽如何合理、高效、充分地利用等也是今天人们谈论得越来越多的话题。但是现在我们对网络的管理不应只局限于考虑整体带宽资源方面,更多的应该关心具体的网络应用流量的控制问题。     

Wasting Time? Recycling Incentives in Urban Taiwan and Japan

What makes recycling work? We study the factors driving household waste disposal and recycling in 18 cities in Taiwan and Japan in order to understand the impact of alternative waste management incentives. We show that this depends on the effect of distinct policies on the relative costs of the main alternative disposal methods: recycling, disposal to landfill and illegal dumping. The willingness both to recycle and to dispose to landfill depends on the relative costs of the waste collection regime, and these are dominated by the time cost of alternative disposal methods. The higher the frequency of waste collection, the less recycling and the more disposal to landfill there will be. This is because frequent collection reduces the marginal time-cost of disposal to landfill. Curbside collection of recyclable material, and the frequency of that collection, has a similar effect on the recycling rate. Although direct incentives, such as unit pricing are important in the waste disposal decision, recycling depends primarily on management of the time-costs it involves.     

How to Align your Brand Stories with Your Products

The role of stories and their influence on communication have been widely discussed, yet despite recent advances, the elements that constitute a good brand story and their alignment with product types remain unclear. This study uses four between-subjects experiments to test hypotheses pertaining to the appropriate stories for both search and experience products. Authenticity, conciseness, reversal, and humor are generally useful in engaging readers, though brand story elements influence customer attitudes differently for search versus experience products. Authenticity is more important for experience than search products; conciseness has a significant influence on brand attitude only for search products; reversal is more critical to improve brand attitude for experience than search products; and humor exerts a relatively greater influence for search than for experience products. These findings provide insights for marketers who want to design brand stories that align with their products.     

Measuring the Foreign Exchange Premium and the Premium for Non‐Tradable Outlays for 20 Countries in Africa

In this paper, we develop an analytical general equilibrium framework to measure the foreign exchange premium and the premium for non‐tradable outlays for a country. The framework allows us to capture in a consistent manner the impacts of the sourcing of funds and their expenditure on tradable and non‐tradable goods and services of investment projects. An application of the model is carried out for 20 countries in Africa. The results show that the foreign exchange premiums range from 2.4% to 9.0% and the premium for non‐tradable outlays from ?0.7% to 2.9%. The empirical values depend on a number of factors, including the indirect taxes, production subsidies and international trade distortions of a country. These premiums should be incorporated into the economic evaluation of investment projects.     

电网企业开展节能调度的社会效益和经济风险研究

根据节能调度办法,在满足电网火电负荷及发电量不变的前提下,模拟节能调度对节能减排的影响以及电网企业购电费用的变化。以煤耗最低为约束目标,建立二次优化模型,在保证电网备用容量和各机组负荷分配限制的条件下,重新分配机组负荷,并在合理范围内调整各机组利用小时数,结合煤耗特性曲线和购电单价,分别计算总煤耗和购电费用。由此可以对比出计划调度和节能调度两种调度方式下,总的煤耗及污染物排放变化情况以及电网企业购电费用的变化情况,即分别为电网企业通过节能调度实现的社会效益和化解经济风险。研究表明,通过节能调度,可以实现节能减排的社会效益,但会增加电网企业经济风险。     

鸡蛋王国的新发现

案例以凤栖园养鸡场作为背景，揭示了其产品特色，阐释其发展中所面临的多元问题。针对问题的多元性进行了积极探索，谋求更好的运作发展，同时，“鸡蛋王国的新发现”关乎人类福祉，言近意远。