Who Is the Loser When I Lose the Game? Does Losing an Advergame Have a Negative Impact on the Perception of the Brand?

Many computer games are based on the principle of competition, making the outcome of the game, namely, the prospect of victory and the threat of defeat, a key element. A lab experiment was conducted to study the effects of a game's outcome on the player's mood, brand attitude, and game attitude as well as the experience of flow (N = 95; between-subject design: game lost versus game won versus no induction of the game outcome). The results show that although winners are not in a better mood after the game, they rate the game as better and assess the brands advertised more positively than before they played the game. They have an increased likelihood of experiencing flow, whereas no significant effects of losing the game could be detected due to the total mediation of the flow experience in the case of the losing condition.     

Efficiency–equity tradeoffs and the scope for resource reallocation in agricultural research: evidence from Nigeria

On the basis of projected economic and poverty impacts of alternative commodity research programs, this article assessed efficiency and equity tradeoffs and the scope for research resource reallocation in Nigeria. Given the importance of major food staples to both poor and nonpoor households in production and consumption, introducing a poverty dimension revealed no significant shift in priorities compared with those implied by efficiency. The results showed that neither the additional benefits to the poor nor the foregone benefits to society are significant from prioritizing research according to equity—relative to efficiency—criteria. As current priorities are supported by neither efficiency nor equity criteria, however, there is considerable scope for maximizing research benefits to the poor through informed reallocation of research resources. The article concludes with a discussion of the patterns of resource reallocations implied by efficiency and equity criteria.     

Rezensionen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

COMPENSATION CONTRACTS OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS: DETERMINANTS OF PAY-PERFORMANCE SENSITIVITY

Compensation contracts of chief executive officers of large firms typically provide for a low linkage between compensation and stock performance. We test predictions of various theoretical models of managerial behavior using pay-performance sensitivity measures. We find that even though the sensitivity measures are low on average, they vary cross-sectionally, in a manner broadly consistent with predictions from the literature on efficient contracting.     

Understanding users' performance evaluation of IT solutions

Traditionally, buying center research in business marketing has long focused on the role of various buying center members, including users, in influencing purchasing decisions. Recent studies have also established the important role users play in successfully implementing information technology (IT) initiatives of buying organizations and its influence on future relationships with sellers. Consequently, in order to ensure future business, marketers need users to evaluate their solutions favorably. This study attempts to understand the factors influencing user evaluation of performance of sellers' IT solutions. Based on an inter-disciplinary approach, a model of antecedent factors to explain user evaluation of suppliers IT solutions is proposed and tested. Results gleaned from a survey of 361 users of Internet-based technology in an automotive supply chain indicate that user attitudes toward technology, satisfaction with the new technology, users' overall understanding of supply chain management principles, and job-related consequences influence user evaluation of IT solutions.     

Questioning the relevance of supplier satisfaction for preferred customer treatment: Antecedent effects of comparative alternatives and multi-dimensionality

Through the construct of supplier satisfaction, recent research explains the supplier's preferred treatment of a given customer. This cause-and-effect phenomenon is often not contrasted with other reasons or controlled for. This work addresses this issue and uses two tactics to elaborate upon social exchange theory, namely, construct splitting and construct contrasting, to analyse the development of preferential customer treatment. For this purpose, a structural equation model is used with data from the international automotive industry. The results extend the breadth of constructs explaining preferred customer treatment (PCT) and challenge the existing reasoning by questioning the relative importance of supplier satisfaction. While supplier satisfaction does affect PCT, the relative supplier satisfaction defined as a comparison of outcomes between the actual and the best alternative business relationships influences PCT much more.Furthermore, by distinguishing between the economic and non-economic dimensions of supplier satisfaction, the study indicate that economic satisfaction has a higher influence on the relative satisfaction whereas social satisfaction a higher one on absolute supplier satisfaction.These findings imply that despite the current debate about the importance of behavioural constructs such as supplier interaction and social capital, supplier resource allocation decisions are actually dominated by economic and relative aspects of satisfaction. This outcome calls for a more economically driven debate about behavioural supply management approaches.     

Boon or bane? Others' unemployment,well-being and job insecurity

The social norm of unemployment suggests that aggregate unemployment reduces the well-being of the employed, but has a far smaller effect on the unemployed. We use German panel data to reproduce this standard result, but then suggest that the appropriate distinction may not be between employment and unemployment, but rather between higher and lower levels of labour-market security, at least for men. Men with good job prospects, both employed and unemployed, are strongly negatively affected by regional unemployment. However, insecure employed men and poor-prospect unemployed men are less negatively, or even positively, affected. There is however no clear relationship for women. We analyse labour-market inequality and unemployment hysteresis in the light of our results.     

Improving access to health facilities in Nouna district,Burkina Faso

The Nouna health district in Burkina Faso, has a population of approximately 275,000 people living in 281 villages, and is served by 25 health facilities, as of 2006. For many people, the time and effort required in traveling to a health facility, which may demand a journey of many kilometers over poor roads on foot, is a deterrent to seeking proper medical care. In this study we examine how access to health facilities in Nouna may be improved by considering the configuration of the road network in addition to the locations of the facilities. We model the situation as a facility location–network design problem and draw conclusions about how best to improve the physical access of the health facilities. Our model shows the extent to which access can be improved when the road network is considered along with facility locations, in contrast to facility locations considered alone.