Reviewing half a century of measuring cross-cultural competence: Aligning theoretical constructs and empirical measures

We provide a comprehensive review of how cross-cultural competence (CCC) has been measured over the past half-century in order to more closely align theoretical constructs and empirical measures. Based on a content analysis of 68 academic and commercial CCC instruments and a supplemental survey of 160 experts, we review the approaches used in these instruments to conceptualize and quantify CCC, discuss their limitations, and recommend best practices and directions for future researchers and practitioners when selecting and using CCC instruments or developing new alternatives.     

DEA efficiency in agriculture: Measurement unit issues

The selection of inputs and outputs in DEA models represents a vibrant methodological topic. At the same time; however, the problem of the impact of different measurement units of selected inputs is understated in empirical literature. Using the example of Czech farms, we show that the DEA method does not provide consistent score estimates, neither a stable ranking for different popular measurements of labour and capital factors of production. For this reason, studies based on DEA efficiency results for differently measured inputs should be compared only with great caution.     

高管团队知识隐藏结构模型与量表开发

针对已有研究中缺乏高管团队知识隐藏量表的不足，在扎根理论研究基础上,通过小规模问卷调查、半结构化访谈和参与式观察,收集可三角验证的数据资料，经过开放式编码、主轴式编码、选择式编码和理论饱和度检验，将高管团队知识隐藏划分为高管知识隐藏行为预估、高管知识隐藏策略选择和高管知识隐藏行为演化3个维度，构建并验证高管团队知识隐藏测量量表，不仅可为研究高管团队知识隐藏行为奠定理论基础，提供工具支持，而且可为团队运行中合理规避高管知识隐藏行为提供理论指导。     

Measuring the impact of online reviews on consumer purchase decisions – A scale development study

Consumers' exposure to online reviews influences their online retail shopping behavior. They search for reviews while evaluating products for purchase decisions. Past studies have indicated that online reviews affect the credibility and trust of the sellers and the products they sell on online platforms. Keeping this in view, the current paper aims to develop and validate a scale to understand the impact of online reviews on consumer purchase decisions. Data were collected from 431 young online shoppers for this research. The initial exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results helped identify four factors, viz. source credibility, volume, language and comprehension, and relevance which constitute the scale. The scale was validated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The study's findings fill the gap of having a standardized scale that online retailers can use as indicators to assist consumers in their online decision-making. The discussions and implications support consumers' susceptibility to online reviews, an essential source for product and brand information in facilitating online consumers' purchase decisions.     

秘密握手协议、生产率传递与工资的规模溢价

头部企业为什么能打破市场均衡而将生产率优势转化为工资租？理论分析表明,市场份额越大,雇主与雇员之间越易达成“秘密握手协议”,即通过联合来操纵劳动供给,以抬高人均生产率并进行分割。在这一过程中,员工分割比例虽有所下降,但不足以抵消人均生产率上升的影响,进而产生工资租。以上市公司为例,市场份额位于前10%的头部企业,人均生产率对工资的传递力度仅比市场份额位于中位值附近的企业低4%,但人均生产率却高出40%以上,直接导致了较高的工资优势。进一步借鉴Blanchard and Summers(1986)的方法进行检验,发现头部企业确实存在更明显的“合谋”迹象,程度比中位值附近的企业高出近一倍。“秘密握手协议”的本质是通过限制劳动力流动阻碍工资均等化,在扎实推进共同富裕的道路上,不仅要反产品市场垄断,也要防范不合理攫取生产率红利的行为。     

Tracing the regional dual value chains: Measurement on the production position and evidence from China

When there is insufficient internal and external impetus for developing countries’ economy, building a domestic and international dual circulation is conducive to promoting the regional industrial growth. On the basis of regional embedded international input-output tables, this paper extends the measurement framework of production position and proposes the concept of the dual value chain, which measure production position that unifies the national and global value chains from forward and backward industrial linkages. We decompose the national and global value chains into three categories and investigate the production position characteristics of China with a multi-dimensional perspective. Consistent evidence shows that a feasible path of technological progress in optimizing the production in value chains in which technological progress plays a crucial role on the pure national value chain across the high-tech manufacturing sector, the eastern and central regions. Their posterior probabilities are 0.96, 0.21and 0.86, respectively. Moreover, the impact on the dual production is nonnegligible that the posterior probability of technological progress on the eastern and central regions is 0.40 and 0.92. In addition, the impact of the Chinese economic stimulus program and technological progress on the economic crisis has a certain moderating effect. Our proposed evaluation framework sheds new light that national value chain production can boost economic growth，and further promote the coordinated of regional industries for developing countries.     

全球价值链视角下我国制造业生产长度与产业动态调整

伴随着世界贸易格局的多极化发展,尤其在制造业层面,自由与多样化分工的产业制造与要素资源的流动特性,正逐步取代传统贸易体系。在推行制造业升级与新兴产业发展的背景下,我国制造业如何在全球价值链体系下实现价值链地位的攀升,得到了学界的广泛关注。基于全球价值链核算理论,利用世界投入产出数据库,测算我国制造业生产长度,研究发现:我国制造业整体在全球价值链中参与度持续增加;技术密集型制造业生产长度要高于劳动密集型;从制造业生产所创造的增加值流向来看,技术密集型行业生产专业化程度有所提升,而劳动密集型行业则相对较弱。在数字化发展背景下,提出创新制造业技术,引领制造业服务化转型等对策建议。     

The polarization and constraints of scale farming in China under the impact of rising wages

For small-peasant economy countries in Asia, scale farming, characterized by land transfer, helps achieve scale economies and improve productivity. However, the scale farming development is hindered by the increasing farm labor cost because of the rising wages. Based on a panel dataset of 458 tenant farmers in Jilin, Jiangsu, and Sichuan provinces in China, we investigate heterogeneity in the impact of rising wages on tenant farmers’ farm size and machinery investment of different initial farm sizes. Additionally, we further analyze the different constraints they face in adapting to wage increases. Our results show the antithetical impact of rising wages on tenant farmers with different farm sizes. This results in the polarization of tenant farmers’ farm size in China. Meanwhile, tenant farmers face various constraints in the adjustment process of farm size and machinery investment. Specifically, large-scale tenant farmers increase their farm size and invest in agricultural machinery given the rising wages. The extent of this adjustment depends on farming seasons and their liquidity. In contrast, small-scale tenant farmers reduce their farm size and machinery investment. Their choices are limited by the availability of off-farm employment opportunities. Therefore, the government should consider the heterogeneity of tenant farmers and help mitigate the constraints they face to promote the development of scale farming.     

Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China

The resources misallocation among firms is serious in China, our calculation shows it has resulted in the total factor productivity (hereafter, TFP) loss of over 200% and has been gradually increasing in recent years, based on the firm-level data from National Tax Survey database from 2007 to 2016. This paper further investigates empirically the impact of digital finance on resources misallocation, by measuring resources misallocation with firm’s capital deviation and labor deviation, as well as measuring digital finance with the number of searches for fintech keywords on Baidu's webpage. Results suggest that digital finance can significantly mitigate resources misallocation among firms to improve the aggregate TFP by redistributing resources from over-resourced firms to under-resourced firms, although it cannot improve the TFP within a representative firm. The findings remain robust after addressing the endogeneity and using alterative variables of digital finance and value of labor output elasticity. Moreover, digital finance can rectify the credit-market discrimination, where its mitigating effect on resources misallocation prefers to non-state-owned firms and small and medium-sized firms. However, traditional finance, as measured by the number of offline bank branches, can also optimize resources allocation, but this effect is gradually diminishing and it also fails to rectify the credit discrimination.     

Increasing customer loyalty and WOM in an age of terror: Cross-cultural development and validation of the customers’ reactions to terror scale (CRTS)

The threat of terror places customers in a vulnerable situation, giving rise to a variety of protective behaviors. The ability to employ these behaviors dictates customers' preferences for specific services. To enable a better understanding of this dynamic and its implications for positive customer outcomes, the current study developed a customers’ reactions to terror scale (CRTS) in a four-stage process. Data were collected from customers in France and Israel across two service contexts, hospitality and public transportation. Nomological examinations showed that services that enable customers to employ protective behaviors under the threat of terror can facilitate increased loyalty and word of mouth (WOM).