Does country matter in urban organic food products consumption?

The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the possibility of finding international consumer segments in the organic food product (OFP) market. For that purpose, the power of country of residence in discriminating between urban frequent, occasional and non‐consumers of OFP was evaluated; and the most appropriate international segmentation bases for that market were studied. In order to achieve this goal, a survey of organic food consumers from Lisbon (Portuguese) and Berlin (German) was implemented through a structured questionnaire. Upon this, factorial and discriminant analysis was applied to the data. The results highlight the significance of the “Country” variable when distinguishing between groups of urban OFP consumers and non‐consumers as well as between frequent and occasional urban OFP consumers. The different levels of OFP consumption are mostly explained by the level of declared “OFP knowledge”. Therefore, we can conclude that in order to increase the consumption of OFP and dilute the effect of the country variable and to be able to work with international segments, marketers should aim to increase awareness and knowledge on these products. It is important to mention that this study was based on a non‐probabilistic sample and, consequently, generalizations of its conclusions must be made with care.     

Logistic Regression, a review

A review is given of the development of logistic regression as a multi-purpose statistical tool.
A historical introduction shows several lines culminating in the unifying paper of Cox (1966), in which theory as developed in the field of bio-assay is shown to be applicable to designs as discriminant-analysis and case-control study. A review is given of several designs all leading to the same analysis. The link is made with epidemiological literature.
Several optimization criteria are discussed that can be used in the case of more observations per cell, namely maximum likelihood, minimum chi-square and weighted regression on the observed logits. Recent literature on the goodness of fit problem is reviewed and finally, comments are made about the non-parametric approach to logistic regression which is still in rapid development.     

国际银行资本充足性管制有效性探析——兼评《巴塞尔协议》的资本充足率标准

按照存在破产成本和税收情况下的MM理论分析,只有管理当局确定的资本比率和银行最佳资本结构一致时,资本充足性管制才是完全有效的。实证检验表明,各国银行的最佳资本结构并不完全相同,资本比率与资本收益率之间也不存在协整关系,不存在一个适于所有银行的最佳资本比率。《巴     

上市公司制造业财务预警实证研究

选取了2003-2006年上海、深圳交易所A股市场制造业90家财务危机公司和90家所配对的正常公司为样本。选取了能够体现公司四方面业绩的8个指标,通过因子分析和判别分析,建立企业财务预警模型来对公司情况进行预测。预测精度达到83%,所建立的模型具有较好的预测效果。     

Big Data,Official Statistics and Some Initiatives by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Official statisticians have been dealing with a diversity of data sources for decades. However, new sources of data in the Big Data domain provide an opportunity to deliver a more efficient and effective statistical service. This paper outlines a number of considerations for the official statistician when deciding whether to embrace a particular new data source in the regular production of official statistics. The principal considerations are relevance, business benefit, and the validity of using the source for official statistics in finite population inferences or analytic inferences. The paper also describes the Big Data Flagship Project of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which has been established to provide the opportunity for the ABS to gain practical experience in assessing the business, statistical, technical, computational and other issues in using Big Data. In addition, ABS participation in national and international activities in this area will help it share experience and knowledge, while collaboration with academics will enable ABS to better acquire the capability to address business problems using the new sources of data as part of the solution.     

公开选拔党政领导干部制度有效性的文献综述

公开选拔党政领导干部制度作为干部人事制度的重要组成部分,其有效性问题值得我们关注,将这一问题分解为＂公开选拔制度能做什么＂和＂公开选拔制度做了什么＂问题分别从规范研究和经验研究两个方面,对相关研究进行综述,通过分析,可得出＂公开选拔制从应然状态是非常有效的,但是从实然角度来看其作用有限,因此该制度有效性上无法作出定论＂的结论。因此,未来研究框架是将应然状态看作是公选制度的收益,将实然状态中的各种因素视作是公选制度的成本,进而通过成本收益的方式来分析公开选拔制度的有效性问题。     

关于《毛泽东思想和中国特色社会主义理论体系概论》教学的几点思考

提高教学实效性是高职思想政治教育的一个永恒的主题,该文从教法、学法和教师自身三个角度介绍了作者的经验,提出教师要有正确合理的教学方法,要教会学生正确合理的学习方法和教师要研究自身,教学要体现自身特色。     

The Latino Assumption: A Research Note

The Latino assumption refers to the presumption that individuals residing in the United States and its commonwealths who have descended from Latin American countries and Spain constitute a homogeneous panethnic social identity. Inappropriately studying individuals of Latin American and Spanish descent as a homogeneous group in leisure research may result in threats to internal validity, statistical conclusion, and external validity. This article examines these issues and the historical context of the Latino assumption.     

Pioneering the Development of a Scale to Measure E-Tailer Image

ABSTRACT

Given the risks and returns associated with conducting business online, practitioners and academics alike are urged to gain an understanding of the strategic variables that can offer firms competitive advantages. A strategic variable of importance to traditional retailers is the image that is promoted to consumers. To date the concept of online retail or “e-tail” image has not been assessed in marketing literature. This study forwards the development of a multi-dimensional scale to measure e-tailer image. By way of extensive review of retail image literature, the authors develop a six-dimensional definition of e-tailer image consisting of the functional dimensions of price, merchandise, and service, and the affective dimensions of atmosphere, self/site image congruence, and convenience. Through interviews with online consumers and experts in the field, an item pool is generated to represent e-tailer image. The results of three empirical tests, the first consisting of a student sample and the second and third consisting of online shoppers, are reported. Utilizing exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis, findings confirm the proposed dimensionality, reliability and validity of the e-tailer image scale. The most important contribution of the study revolves around the fact that it takes the first logical step in measuring a very illusive, yet crucial, strategic marketing variable.     

“Just Trying to Keep the Customer Satisfied”

SUMMARY

The paper compares the predictive validity of six models used in the measurement of satisfaction; it is concerned with their application at destination level, with particular reference to Orlando, Florida. Using factor analysis and multiple regression, the ‘performance only’ model was clearly identified as the best predictor of satisfaction. The incorporation of ‘importance’ and ‘performance’ ratings did not improve the predictive power of the ‘performance only’ solution. From tourists' ‘performance’ ratings, five ‘dimensions’ of Orlando's tourism offering were identified: ‘primary,’ ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ attractions, ‘facilitators’ and ‘transport plus.’ Notwithstanding Orlando's reputation as the world's theme park capital, Orlando's ‘secondary’ attractions (such as shopping and dining opportunities) and ‘facilitators’ (such as accommodation and customer service) were identified as having the most influence on overall tourist satisfaction with Orlando.