Social media and sustainable purchasing attitude: Role of trust in social media and environmental effectiveness

The role of social media in promoting sustainable attitudes is currently understudied. Underpinned by social learning theory, this study unveils the effect of social media usage and browsing on sustainable purchasing attitude, the underlying mechanism, and the boundary condition. Drawing on a sample of 693 experienced respondents analyzed using structural equation modeling, this study reveals that social media usage and browsing have a significant positive association. Both constructs significantly impact sustainable purchasing attitudes with complementary partial mediation of the drive for environmental responsibility. Further, trust in social media and perceived environmental effectiveness significantly moderate the relationships belongs to the browsing and drive for environmental responsibility. Contrary to the theorization, moderating constructs cannot substantially impact the proposed associations of social media usage. In this manner, the present research is innovative and provides valued knowledge to comprehend social media's role in encouraging sustainable attitudes.     

The benefits and implementation of performance transparency: The why and how of letting your customers ‘see through’ your business

While some organizations swear by the benefits of transparency and are eager to learn and implement transparency practices, many managers are still reluctant or even afraid to use them. Our research reveals that only a few innovative companies have taken steps to leverage a potentially useful form of transparency: the provision of accessible and objective information to customers (e.g., sharing unbiased benchmark data, publishing unfiltered customer comments, or providing candid product reviews that may praise but also criticize the company’s products). Our study also shows that many companies remain wary and view greater calls for transparency as a challenge to be managed rather than an opportunity to be traded upon. This is partly due to limited research into the performance benefits of giving customers access to objective information, and lack of practical guidelines on how to actually implement it. This article addresses these shortcomings. First, we investigate whether performance transparency leads to customer outcomes that can be profitable for an organization and, second, we analyze the characteristics of successful transparency initiatives in a wide range of industries. Our research shows that customers exhibit more trust and are willing to pay a premium to deal with transparent businesses. Also, it uncovers seven effective strategies to leverage transparency. This article provides convincing empirical evidence for the benefits of performance transparency and the ways in which management may implement it successfully.     

Non-stationary additive utility and time consistency

Within a continuous time life cycle model of consumption and savings, I study the properties of the most general class of additive intertemporal utility functionals. They are not necessarily stationary, and do not necessarily multiplicatively separate a discount factor from “per-period utility”. I prove rigorously that time consistency holds if and only if the per-period felicity function is multiplicatively separable in $t$, the date of decision and in $s$, the date of consumption, or equivalently, if the Fisherian instantaneous subjective discount rate does not depend on $t$. The model allows to explain “anomalies in intertemporal choice” even when the agents are time consistent and various empirical regularities. On the other hand, the model allows to characterize mathematically the “effective consumption profile” of naive, time-inconsistent agents.     

Cultural distance and international trade in services: A disaggregate view

In this paper, we estimate the effect of “cultural distance” on bilateral trade in services. The measure of cultural distance we use is based on scores that reflect country averages of individuals’ attitudes towards inequality, self-orientation, competition, uncertainty, traditions, and indulgence. Controlling for standard ingredients of gravity equations, we show that an aggregate measure of cultural distance has a significantly negative effect on total bilateral services trade. Once we take a more disaggregate view, we find that the strength of this effect differs across various types of services and various aspects of cultural distance.     

Financial analyst coverage for U.S. firms facing foreign competition: Evidence from trade liberalization

This study examines financial analyst coverage for U.S. firms following an increase in foreign product market competition. To capture exogenous shocks to domestic firms' competitive environments, we exploit a quasi‐natural experiment from large import tariff reductions over the 1984 to 2005 period in the manufacturing sector. Using data for the years before and after large tariff reductions, our difference‐in‐differences analysis shows evidence of a significant decrease in analyst coverage for incumbent U.S. firms when they face greater entry threat from foreign competitors. We also find that analysts with less firm‐specific experience and less accurate prior‐period forecasts are more likely to stop following the domestic firm when foreign competition intensifies. Overall, the findings suggest that foreign product market competition from global trade liberalization is an important determinant of financial analysts' coverage decisions.     

交通运输行业超限超载与黑车治理困境及突围——来自赏金猎人制度的借鉴

交通治理现代化是交通强国建设的重要支撑。交通运输行业超限超载与黑车现象屡禁不止的现实困境,一方面源于早期制度设计阶段遗留的逻辑障碍,一方面源于目前缺乏行之有效的规则来对此类问题进行限制和制约。尽管各级政府对黑车治理高度重视并采取了多种措施,但依然存在黑车辨识难、管理成本高、效率低等问题,尚未达到我国现有施政路线的要求。鉴于此,可抓住管理型政府向服务型政府转型的契机,遵循合法、合理、高效、经济的原则,通过比较分析美国赏金猎人制度来形成制度改革的借鉴。赏金猎人模式作为国外长期摸索得到的经验,有很多值得参考之处。现阶段,赏金猎人模式在我国已经具备试行的基础条件,不仅能够开拓视野,为当前我国面临的交通运输行业治理问题提供制度层面的启示,而且更为重要的是,能够为解决我国超限超载与黑车治理问题提供新的思路。当然,为避免简单借鉴或全盘照搬而导致的水土不服等落地性难题,需要围绕黑车治理困境和超限超载运输这两个具象背景,对不同国别法律解释上的差异加以创新并实现本地化,使之在立法层面稳固的前提下展示其优越性。     

20世纪50—60年代的中国财政学:一个传统的移入与退出

20世纪50—60年代既是新中国财政学初建时期,也见证了苏联财政学传统移入和退出的过程。就其理论和实践来源看,苏联财政学是苏联化的马克思主义、苏联特殊年代政治实践和计划经济体制等诸多因素的混合物。虽然它在发展和创新马克思主义财政理论方面作出了首创性的贡献,但其历史局限性也不可避免。在苏联财政学移植中国之时,其中一些负面特征也参与了新中国财政学的重建,并对其后中国财政学的发展起到了长久的羁绊作用。20世纪50年代后期以来,中国财政学“去苏联化”的目标未能完全实现,这一方面源于塑造苏联财政学的思维模式仍然在当时的中国财政学界起着支配作用;另一方面在那些影响财政学发展的主要因素上,当时的中苏两国极为雷同。吸取20世纪50年代中国移植苏联财政学的历史经验和教训,对当下中国合理借鉴域外学术资源、发展和创新马克思主义财政理论,有着重要的借鉴意义。     

土木工程房屋建筑施工管理问题与策略评价

土木工程房屋建筑一直以来是建筑行业的一大重点,其中施工管理的具体落实对整个工程的质量起着决定性的作用。随着人们生活水平的不断提升,土木工程房屋建筑也在持续地发展。一旦施工管理环节出现问题,在降低工程质量的同时还会危及人员的生命安全。因此,论文通过对当前土木工程房屋建筑施工管理存在的问题进行简要的分析,综合当前建筑工程发展的局势,提出针对性的整改建议。     

房屋土建工程质量监督管理问题与强化建议探究

随着社会经济的快速发展,我国的房屋建筑工程也随之发展起来。建筑施工中无论是技术还是人员的配置都日趋合理,但同时一些问题也逐渐显现出来,如工程施工人员的素质水平不高、建筑市场混乱等,使得工程质量受到了影响,所以我们必须要加强对房屋土建工程的质量监管。