The iconicity of celebrity and the spiritual impulse

Celebrity has a powerful material presence in contemporary consumer culture but its surface aesthetic resonates with the promise of deeper meanings. This Marketplace Icon contribution speculates on the iconicity of celebrity from a spiritual perspective. The social value or authenticity of contemporary celebrity, and the social processes through which it emerges, are matters of debate amongst researchers and competing approaches include field theory, functionalism, and anthropologically inflected accounts of the latent need for ritual, myth and spiritual fulfillment evinced by celebrity “worship.” We focus on the latter area as a partial explanation of the phenomenon whereby so many consumers seem so enchanted by images of, and stories about, individuals with whom they, or we, often have little in common. We speculate that the powerful presence of celebrity in Western consumer culture to some extent reflects and exploits a latent need for myths of redemption through the iconic character of many, though by no means all, manifestations of celebrity consumption.     

Quantitative impact of correlation errors on basket options with time‐varying correlations

This study examines the quantitative impact of correlation errors on basket options with time‐varying correlations and the risk measures (conditional) value‐at‐risk (VaR) in the framework of Basel II. The results show that risk measure misestimation due to correlation errors are the largest and most asymmetric for the at‐the‐money and out‐of‐the‐money basket option. Delta hedging of the basket option reduces risk but increases size and asymmetry effects substantially. Finally, the square‐root‐of‐time rule for VaR does not adjust adequately to correlation errors and consistently underestimates risk measures, which could lead to the VaR exceedance clustering observed during the recent financial crisis. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark     

Enhancing value for Chinese shoppers: The contribution of store and customer characteristics

This study tested the relationships between store and customer characteristics with perceived value and customer loyalty in retailing in China. Survey data were collected from shoppers in department stores (n=200) and supermarkets (n=200) in the tier 2 coastal city of Tianjin. Data for each type of store were analysed separately using structural models. In supermarkets, value was predicted by quality and price, but for department stores, only the customer orientation of the store was significant, suggesting that customers seek different shopping experiences in each context. In each case, value mediated the links to loyalty and, for supermarkets, choice of merchandise and consumer time pressure demonstrated direct links to loyalty. The paper discusses the implications of the findings, and concludes with possible future research.     

Shifting cultivation and forest pressure in Cameroon

Shifting cultivation is often blamed as a principal cause of deforestation in tropical Africa. It is claimed that the practice is unsustainable because shortened fallow lengths result in soils too degraded to support forest vegetation. The decline in fallow lengths is often attributed to increases in population density and greater market participation. The conventional wisdom makes several claims that are as yet unsubstantiated. This article investigates whether there is evidence to support two of these claims in southern Cameroon. First, using both cross‐sectional and panel data, I find that there is indeed a robust negative association between fallow lengths and population density in the study area and weaker evidence for a negative relationship between fallow lengths and market participation. Second, a stochastic frontier production function approach is used to investigate the marginal contribution of fallow to output. Results indicate that fallow lengths are not low enough to be affecting yields and therefore do not appear to be resulting in declines in soil fertility. Thus overall, while some of the assumptions of the conventional wisdom appear to be true, there is little evidence to support its dramatic conclusion that shifting cultivators are causing deforestation in the forested region of Cameroon.     

Are we operating effectively? A lean analysis of operating theatre changeovers

Hospital operating theatres are a critical but costly resource in healthcare processes. Their efficiency and utilisation impact upon hospital finances, clinical effectiveness and patient outcomes. Operations management techniques have now been applied widely to optimise flow. An important challenge is to balance the needs of process flexibility, efficiency and work standardisation with clinical requirements. This paper applies operations management methods to analyse elective orthopaedic surgery at five international hospitals to describe the issues that affect operating theatre productivity. It utilises an innovative method of video analysis to observe patient changeovers over 29 days of surgery and data is analysed to understand the causes of variability and waste. The findings suggest that processes which are standardised via operations management methodologies can improve productivity in a process that exhibits wide variation in practice. There are apparent trade-offs associated with efficiency and clinical concerns such infection control, that lead to different standard process archetypes being utilised. Recommendations for standardising patient changeovers are provided.     

麦肯锡全球调查创新与商业化

随着企业开始重新关注增长,创新冉一次成为了优先要务:在最近进行的麦肯锡全球调查中1,84%的高管称创新对于其企业的增长战略极为重要或非常重要.调查结果还显示,与危机前相比,企业用于产生出色创意并将这些创意转变为产品或服务的方法变化不大,而这并非因为高管们认为这些方法非常有效.此外,发现合适的人才、鼓励协作与承担风险,以及从头到尾组织创新流程等挑战也依然如故,这一点值得大家注意.事实上,过去几年的调查显示,成功创新的核心障碍一直没有变化,而企业在克服这些障碍方面也没有什么进展.     

Coordination with a backup supplier through buy-back contract under supply disruption

This paper studies a buy-back contract between a buyer and a backup supplier when the buyer’s main supplier experiences disruptions. The expected profit functions and the optimal decisions of the contract players are derived through a sequential optimization process. The common properties of the contract as well as the differences under the demand uncertainty and the main supplier’s recurrent supply uncertainty are explored through comparative studies and numerical examples. The study contributes to the literature by providing a better understanding of the impacts of demand and supply uncertainties and by shedding insights on the value of a backup supply.     

WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF HOUSEWORK ON THE MARKET WAGE,AND CAN IT EXPLAIN THE GENDER WAGE GAP?

Abstract Does housework reduce the market wage, and if so, does it have a similar impact for males and females? In this paper, we survey and evaluate the recent and growing empirical literature on the linkages between housework and the wage rate. The review is motivated by unexplained gender wage gaps across studies, which consider personal and market‐related factors. We focus on this less‐studied aspect of wage determination. We consider the required modelling framework, and provide standardized estimated effects of housework on the hourly wage across studies. We evaluate how this literature has addressed potential estimation problems, in particular, the endogeneity of housework, concavity of the housework–wage function, threshold effects and work effort effects. We conclude that the evidence across ordinary least squares, instrumental variable, fixed effects and two‐stage least squares results casts serious doubt on the idea that the negative female housework–wage relationship is only driven by endogeneity bias or individual‐specific characteristics. Yet, much more needs to be done to address modelling and data requirements, and we point out likely and promising future research directions.