Materialism, status signaling, and product satisfaction

The consumer satisfaction literature has not, for the mos part, integrated individual values into the product evaluation process. Yet a comprehensive understanding of consumer satisfaction can best be attained by including both consumer and product factors. To demonstrate the usefulness of including individual values, this research focuses on one consumer value, namely, materialism. The authors empirically explore how this individual value is linked to consumers’ evaluations of products they have purchased. Using surveys, the authors collected data from a sample of college students (n=211) and a sample of adults (n=270). Across these two studies, using divergent samples and products, they find consistent evidence that materialism is negatively related to product satisfaction in product categories with high potential for status signaling, but unrelated to product satisfaction in product categories with lower potential for status signaling. The consumption goals that produce these product evaluations are empirically addressed Jeff Wang (jianfeng76@yahoo.com; PhD, City University of Hong Kong) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Faculty of Business at the City University of Hong Kong. This work was conducted when he was a doctoral student of marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. His research interests include social networks and consumer behavior, consumer satisfaction and well-being, materialism and consumption meanings, and consumer interests and public policy issues. His dissertation studies credit card debt as a socially embedded phenomenon and investigates how consumers leverage their interpersonal ties as they accumulate and repay their debt. Melanie Wallendorf (mwallendorf@eller.arizona.edu) is Soldwedel Professor of Marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. She holds an MS in sociology and a PhD in marketing from the University of Pittsburgh. Her articles on the sociocultural aspects of consumption have been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Advertising and Society Review, Addiction, Journal of Macromarketing, andAmerican Behavioral Scientist, among others. Her coauthored article on “The Sacred and Profane in Consumer Behavior” won theJournal of Consumer Research Best Article Award in 1992. Her research has been featured in theWall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, American Demographics, andFortune, and has been funded by the Marketing Science Institute, the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission, and the Office of Earth Science at NASA.     

以需求为导向完善我国农村金融组织体系

改革开放以来，农村金融的供求发生了很大的变化，但是从当前的情况来看，供需是不平衡的．现实中比较注重金融服务的供给，需求往往被忽略。由微观经济学中“消费者统治”的原理，应该以农民需求为导向，提供农村金融供给，不断完善我国农村金融组织体系。     

民营企业劳资冲突的形式及其原因分析

该文基于对36家民营企业的调查数据，对引起民营企业劳资冲突的原因和职工在劳资冲突中的行为方式进行分析，并从微观层面提出缓和民营企业劳资冲突的建议。     

我国银行业的市场结构与竞争行为

本文运用产业组织理论对我国银行业的结构、行为与市场绩效进行分析 ,认为目前我国银行业的市场结构具有较为明显的寡头垄断特征 ,国有产权占绝对垄断地位。国有银行的垄断来自传统惯性、行业进入管制与较高的退出壁垒。从行业集中度指标判断 ,我国银行业现存的产业化进程迟滞、行业规模不经济、国有商业银行盈利能力下降等因素制约着整个银行业市场绩效的提高。一旦政策性进入壁垒放开 ,高效的进入者将对原行业成员构成强有力的竞争威胁。同时 ,法律规制不力、信用低下、信息不对称、激励约束机制不健全等制度框架 ,导致银行业市场竞争不足、市场行为异化。要解决上述诸多问题需要各方的共同努力。     

论风险投资行为及其规律

章从作提出的行为统计结构理论出发，认为包括风险投资行为在内的风险行为都遵循三条规律，即风险行为的预期效益引导规律，风险责任承担的制约规律，风险效用规律。     

论绿色消费与可持续发展

绿色消费是实现人与自然和谐的可持续发展的重要保证，而要实现绿色消费，关键是在生态意识的支配下实施绿色消费行为。     

美国社会规制研究的三种路径

当西方社会规制研究兴起于20世纪70年代初,除了规制经济学中的公益理论和规制捕获理论影响到社会规制研究外,经济学的成本效益分析、公共选择、政治学的制度主义都渗入到社会规制的研究中.本文主要介绍这三种分析路径在西方社会规制研究中运用,并作出简要的评论.     

技术内生化、长期经济增长与财税政策选择

新古典经济理论认为,由于资本边际收益递减以及不变要素假定,一国经济增长将最终达到稳态均衡和零增长。内生增长理论则表明,由于人力资本、知识存量、生产性公共资本、研究与开发等内生性因素的不断积累,长期经济增长不会出现新古典理论预言的悲观情况,并且合适的财政政策在一国经济长期增长中发挥着重要作用。我国要保持持续的长期经济增长,就必须采取有效的财税政策,增加人力资本、生产性公共资本、研究与开发等方面的投资,加快人力资本积累和促进技术进步。     

消费税制的国际比较及其对我国的启示

消费税制改革是我国新一轮税制改革的任务之一。改革和完善我国消费税制，应借鉴国外一些成功经验，丰富和完善我国消费税的立法原则，适当扩大征税范围，调整税收负担，改革计税依据和征税方法。     

改革与完善我国现行消费信贷制度的几点思考

在我国，消费信贷发展缓慢，其原因是：消费者承贷能力较弱；消费信贷操作不够规范；缺乏消费信贷的防范机制和完善的社会保障制度。若扩大消费信贷就必须营造有利于消费信贷发展的法制环境，并借鉴西方发达国家经验。