Temporal influences on image change

Hunt (1971) defines state image as the impressions that a person or persons hold about a state in which they do not reside. But image is more complex than a single perception, for Brand identification as well as people's perceptions of attributes of various activities or attractions within an area will interact to form a composite state image. Research into such images is a basis for product positioning of a state's various attractions or activities against other regions. The effects of temporal influences on image change may have consequences for product positioning. Within the limits of this research design, very little image change was seen to result from short-term seasonal differences. However, the minor changes noted were in the hypothesized direction, leading to the conclusion that further research should be conducted on image change as a result of temporal influences.     

Interpreting IS alignment: A multiple case study in professional organizations

This paper centers on the interpretation attributed by organizational members to the information systems (IS) alignment concept. Its objective is to study IS alignment in professional organizations. Specifically, it reports on an interpretive study conducted in five Chilean organizations; four professional and one entrepreneurial, of which two are private and three are public. The theoretical background of our study is derived from three IS strategic alignment conceptualizations: managerial, emergent and critical. These concepts formed our theoretical framework that guided data collection and analysis. The study centers on the meanings organizational members assigned to IS strategic alignment, as well as their views on the barriers that hinder achieving this level of organizational integration. The analysis results are summarized in seven hermeneutic themes that point out the different connotations the organizations assigned to IS alignment. The significance of the findings are summarized in four insights that formulate theoretical and practical implications. These insights refer to: (1) the difficulties of achieving alignment for professional organizations, particularly public ones, (2) the limitations these organizations have in being agile, (3) the rationale for acquiring technology and determining IT skills, and (4) the imperative meaning that CIOs attribute to IS alignment. The paper concludes with a reflection on the limitations and relevance of the research.     

Brand equity in the professional service context: Analyzing the impact of employee role behavior and customer-employee rapport

The study examines whether factors related to customers' perception of employees' behavior in terms of customer perceived role ambiguity, role overload and customer-employee rapport influence the development of brand equity in the professional service context. 632 customers of one of the Big Four auditing companies participated in the study. The results of structural equation modeling show negative effects of role ambiguity and role overload on brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty, which constitute brand equity. The findings indicate a positive effect of customer-employee rapport on the enhancement of B2B brand equity. However, the negative influences of role ambiguity and role overload on customer-employee rapport transfer detrimental indirect effects on brand equity. The study contributes to an understanding of how the real interaction between service providers and customers can influence brand equity in the professional service setting.     

Transition process activities and team efficacy of flight attendants

The research goals of this study were to investigate how transition process activities among flight attendants affect team efficacy. We distributed a total of 600 questionnaires to flight teams in an airline company, which yielded a usable response of 275 fully completed questionnaires in the end. The research model and the hypotheses were tested using a structural equation modeling approach.Our findings suggest that transition team activities have emerged as an important asset in team efficacy; moreover, increasing flight attendants' job satisfaction should be a priority for airline companies. Second, communication between flight attendants requires not just the delivery of information but also receipt and comprehension of the knowledge interchange, third, the development of shared leadership should be concerned in flight teams.     

Preference for Restorative Situations: Interactive Effects of Attentional State,Activity-in-Environment,and Social Context

This study extends research on psychological restoration by encompassing a broad set of restorative situations available to urban residents. Preferences are assessed for mundane restorative situations comprising leisure activity, setting, and social context, given different levels of attentional fatigue. Attentional fatigue, activity-setting, and social context were experimentally manipulated. The settings for activities were home, park, city center, and transit. Participants (N = 70) read scenarios describing an attentional state and rated their preference for the situations. Results show interactive effects of attentional state with activity-setting and with social context. The park was most preferred given attentional fatigue. Results confirm that while residents may particularly value urban nature for restoration, their urban context also provides other mundane but attractive restorative situations.     

The determinants of hotel room rates: Another visit with Singapore's data

In this research note, volatility clustering modeling framework is used to examine the determinants of hotel room rates in Singapore. Using monthly data from January 1985 to June 2009, GARCH-M(1, 1) is identified as the appropriate model used to capture volatility clustering. The results suggest that total inbound tourists and economic performance have positive effects on hotel room rates. The main findings are (a) the occurrences of terrorist activities in the neighboring countries have negative impacts and (b) the volatility of hotel room rates has a positive effect, on hotel room rates.     

External Financing,Growth and Stock Returns

In this paper we investigate the relation of the value/growth anomaly with the anomaly on corporate financing activities. We confirm and expand earlier results that value/growth and external financing indicators are, to some degree, related predictors of stock returns in the cross section. We show that external financing indicators are incrementally informative since they pick up stock returns associated with earnings quality. Portfolios that combine information from both these indicators generate significantly higher returns than portfolios containing each individual indicator. More importantly, our analysis strongly suggests that the external financing anomaly is, to some extent, distinct from the value/growth anomaly, in that it may also reflect investors’ misunderstanding of the effects of opportunistic earnings management.     

Impact of non-traditional activities on the efficiency of Indian banks: an empirical investigation

This article investigates the relevance of the inclusion of non-traditional activities in the specification of banks' output on the efficiency of Indian banks. The results indicate that the exclusion of non-traditional activities not only understates the cost, technical and allocative efficiencies of individual banks but also affects the ranking of ownership groups in the industry. In particular, when a proxy for non-traditional activities is accounted for in the output specification, the foreign banks appear to be more efficient than public and private sector banks. Overall, the results reinforce the prevailing view in the extant literature that the exclusion of non-traditional activities causes misspecification of banks' output, and may distort the efficiency estimates.     

Toward an Integrated Model of Purchase Intention of Dietary Supplements in Sexually Oriented Advertising

This study was designed to examine antecedent factors that yielded a model of purchase intention of dietary supplements in sexually oriented advertising. Results suggested that sexual cognition, gender difference, individual attitude toward advertisements, and product involvement were yielded as key predictors toward people's purchase intention of dietary supplements. However, sexually oriented advertising did not considerably increase their purchase intention. A regression analysis also loaded sexual cognition and product involvement as two key determinants in the model of purchase intention of dietary supplements. Moreover, people with a more positive level of sexual cognition significantly resulted in their higher degree of purchase intention of dietary supplements.     

培养优秀跟单员提升外贸订单履行品质

由于合成革行业面临国内外市场需求不足,生产成本提高、环保要求高等问题,合成革外贸企业经济下行压力较大,订单量减少,国际市场份额萎缩。针对以上问题,从提高订单履行品质的角度提出了遵循帕累托法则,重视外贸跟单员培养;校企深入合作,定向培养跟单员的措施,来提升订单履行品质,增强外贸企业盈利能力。此外,跟单员应具有专业知识,熟悉产品性能和流程,高效沟通技巧和商务谈判能力,良好的职业道德。