Consumer engagement with brands on social network sites: A cross-cultural comparison of China and the USA

To advance theoretical understanding of consumer engagement on social media, this cross-cultural study evaluates how culture influences consumers’ engagement levels and activities on brand pages of social network sites. It further evaluates the underlying motivations and engagement mechanisms in two culturally distinct countries, China and the USA. Specifically, social media dependency, parasocial interaction, and community identification are examined as the key antecedents of consumer-brand engagement. The results confirm the effects of the proposed antecedents and reveal both cultural differences and similarities between Chinese and American consumers’ engagement with brand pages on social network sites.     

地勘单位在国际资源配置中的重要作用

后危机时代中,我国工业化、城镇化和农业现代化的同步推进与欧债危机、美债危机引发的全球经济衰退交织在一起,使大宗商品价格大幅震荡下行,矿产勘查投资也受其关联影响。在此背景下,作为专业从事矿产资源勘查与开发的地勘单位,如何凭借其专业技术等传统优势,利用两种资源、两个市场为我国经济安全提供资源保障,在经济的周期性波动中参与全球资源配置,是需要重点考虑的问题。     

Comparison of Methods for Evaluation of the Convolution of Two Compound R 1 Distributions

In the present paper we compare four methods for evaluating the convolution of two compound R 1 distributions by counting the numbers of elementary algebraic operations required. Two of the methods are applicable in general, whereas the remaining two are restricted to the case when the two compound distributions have the same severity distribution. This case is discussed separately. We consider in particular the special case when this common severity distribution is concentrated in one, that is, evaluation of the convolution of two R 1 distributions.     

Antecedents of Global Attitude

Abstract

The term “globalization” has recently been used to explain multiple world trends. Such trends include worldwide accessibility to the same products, access to the same resources around the globe, world travel, communication, convergence of lifestyles, development of “world culture,” and worldwide fascination with environmental issues. This paper explores the population's attitude towards globalization (global attitude) and investigates antecedents that affect the level of global attitude. The antecedents examined are population's current satisfaction, opinion of governance, and future expectations. Results from structural equation modeling show that current satisfaction with life and opinion of governance have a positive and significant influence on development of global attitude.     

Educating the Global Manager

Abstract

The culturally diverse classroom would seem to be the ideal resource that educators can tap to develop their students' cross-cultural competence and bridge different cultures. However, evidence from the education literature suggests that students typically do not benefit from classroom diversity and that, in general, there is a lack of cross-cultural interactions between different cultural groups on campus. In this paper, we provide an integrated framework for developing students' cross-cultural competence by drawing on the cultural diversity in the classroom. The framework incorporates established and frequently used strategies for developing cross-cultural competence, as well as additional strategies that we have devised (such as diversity audits, self-awareness and ‘other’-awareness tools, student-generated cases and virtual linkages). We explain how this approach uses cultural diversity inherent in the classroom as a basis for students' awareness and understanding of cultural differences, knowledge of other cultures and the application of skills.     

Are tourism impacts low on personal environmental agendas?

This paper examines if tourism is an environmental priority for tourism and hospitality students. It is framed within the context of information and choice overload that may result in the need to prioritize issues and make less effective decisions. A series of open-ended questions identified the most important community and global environmental issues, the single greatest cause of climate change and whether students had changed their behaviour in general, or their travel behaviour in particular, to reduce their environmental impact. A total of 2968 useable surveys were returned from students at 63 institutions in 22 economies. Tourism emerged as a low priority issue, which explains why only a small proportion of students had changed their travel behaviour. Moreover, the study noted high knowledge variability, which in turn was closely associated with the type of actions undertaken. Students with specific knowledge were far more likely to adopt specific change actions than those who had less precise knowledge. They, in turn, were more likely to identify generic and less effective actions. The study concludes that the main challenge involved in changing tourism behaviour rests primarily with raising its status to a higher priority, a difficult task given the environmental issue overload that most people face.     

Renminbi＇s Potential to Become a Global Currency

This paper is a tentative endeavor to delineate the potential of the renminbi to become a global currency. It first analyzes the critical economic, financial and policy attributes that are required to support a currency to gain an international role. It then examines whether China has the potential to acquire these attributes. The paper concludes by offering some provisional observations on the implications for Asia and the global economy, should the renminbi evolve into a world currency in the coming decades.     

The ECFA and its expected effect on cross-strait trade and investment: a Taiwanese perspective

To come to terms with the realization of ASEAN+1, Taiwan had concluded with mainland China a special free trade agreement (FTA), the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June 2010. This framework agreement provides an early harvest agreement of near-term tariff elimination, including detailed product schedules for goods and services from each side, with the final shape of fuller trade liberalization in goods and services taking years to negotiate and realize. The conclusion of the ECFA has been considered as a major breakthrough in cross-strait talks and economic relationships, even though it is by no means free from controversies inside Taiwan. The authors are therefore motivated by hot debates in Taiwan to reflect on the expected trade effect of the ECFA by taking into account the factor of cross-strait global production networks. In particular, we examine with a proposed model and statistical robustness, the trend of Taiwan-based firms' localization in mainland China, driven in part by constant movements in global production networks, which generates complicated and dynamic relationships between Taiwan's investment-induced trade and structural shift in Taiwan's exports to mainland China. Based on our empirical findings, we reflect on the conventional views on the trade effect of the free trade agreement. The results of our analyses tend to support a cautious view about the trade effect of the ECFA. Without denying the significance of the ECFA and deepening cross-strait economic relationships, we argue that the impact of the ECFA should be interpreted in a wider context than just the trade perspective, as the conventional wisdom and the existing evaluations suggested.     

全球气候治理政策工具的比较分析——基于国别间关系的考察角度

目前应对气候变化的国际谈判处于典型的囚徒困境状态,为更有效地开展全球气候治理,作者依据能否保障全球减排目标实现、公平性、排放的静态配置效率和促进减排技术进步的动态效率等四条标准,比较了国际社会提出的三种气候治理政策工具,即行业技术标准、全球排放税和可交易排放许可。分析表明,行业技术标准类政策工具在四个评价标准方面均不如另外两类工具;而全球排放税的政策工具在排放的静态配置效率方面较行业技术标准类有优势,在其他评价方面的优势也不突出。在可交易排放许可政策工具之下,如果把历史排放纳入全球排放许可范畴并在国别间公平划分,且将所有国家都纳入到该治理工具的适用范围内,则该工具既能有效克服国别间的碳泄漏问题,体现国别间公平性原则,又能促进排放的静态配置效率达到最优,有效促进减排技术的进步,其综合优势最为突出。在可交易排放许可框架下,实行碳关税或其他边境调节措施有违世界贸易组织的原则。     

Community entrepreneurship - cases and conceptualization *

As starting and managing a small business means both social and economic risk taking so is building a robust community a social as well as an economic endeavour. Such a community is a most vital context for entrepreneurship. If located in a remote area and if the environment is hostile cooperation is stimulated between firms and other community groups. Their success is especially ascribed to qualified community entrepreneurship, i.e. personal and innovative ways of building support for local autonomous entrepreneurs. An integrative approach to local economic development is illustrated by two successful, albeit contrasting, Swedish cases.

The cases are reviewed with the help of a conceptual framework that particularly points out the importance of local and global networking in both community and autonomous entrepreneurship. In a mixed economy such networks must be carefully managed and encompass linkages on, beside the market, institutional and political arenas. The very role of the community entrepreneur is to bridge these different settings through alert leadership, if required organized as a team.