The effect of exposure to sexual appeals in advertisements on memory,attitude, and purchase intention: a meta-analytic review

Researchers have often attempted to answer the question, ‘Does sex sell?’ In this article, we present a meta-analysis of studies that used an experiment to test the effect of sexual appeals in ads on memory, attitude, and purchase intention. Our analysis revealed a significant positive effect for sexual appeals on ad recognition and recall (weighted Cohen's d = .38, p < .001), but the effect on brand recognition and recall was not significant (d = .09, p = .30). We also found that the effect of sexual appeals on attitude towards the ad was not significant (d = ?0.07, p = .26); however, additional analysis showed that males (d = .27, p < .01) evaluate ads with sexual appeals significantly more positively than females (d = ?.38, p < .001). Finally, we found a small significant negative effect on brand attitude (d = ?.22, p < .05), but no effect on purchase intention (d = .01, p = .94).     

Does the Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme Foster Innovation in European Firms?

This paper studies whether environmental management systems can spur eco‐innovation, analyzing EMAS (Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme) adoption and patented innovations (at the European Patent Office) at firm level. It uses an original panel database of 30 439 European firms belonging to all sectors from 2003 to 2012. An original instrumental variable is implemented to control for potential endogeneity. The analysis reveals that EMAS adoption is conducive to more innovation at the firm level. The results vary across countries and sectors. In particular, EMAS is positively related to green patents for medium and low technology manufacturing. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Monetary and Financial Cooperation Between China and the One Belt One Road Countries

ABSTRACT

Based on the theory of optimal currency area (OCA), we calculate the OCA index between China and the OBOR partners with the expressed objective of identifying which partners exhibit monetary and financial compatibilities, and hence present the best potential in terms of cost and benefits. Our findings suggest that among South East Asia region, Malaysia exhibits the highest compatibility and profit potential, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. For the East European area, Poland and Croatia show the best potential in terms of monetary and financial cooperation; with the Czech Republic as close third. Based on our computation, currently Central Asia and the Middle East do not possess the condition or potential for beneficial financial and monetary collaboration.     

Does the Connectivity of the Belt and Road Initiative Contribute to the Economic Growth of the Belt and Road Countries?

ABSTRACT

Since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been implemented for five years, it is time to ask whether the BRI contributes to Belt and Road (BR) countries’ economic growth, and how are the five elements of connectivity implemented between China and its partner countries since the BRI was proposed. This study focuses on the development of the five elements of connectivity between China and the BR countries from 2008 to 2017 using a comprehensive connectivity index extracted from principle component analysis, and then investigating if the connectivity has contributed to the economic growth of the BR countries with quantitative analysis of the fixed effect econometrical model. It is found that Russia, South Korea, and Singapore presented the top three levels of connectivity with China with regard to the overall connectivity index, varying from 1.4 to 2.4. Madagascar and Panama have the lowest level of connectivity with China, with values of ?0.8 to ?1.1. The result of the fixed effect model shows that the connectivity of the BR countries with China contributes to their economic growth. This provides quantitative evidence that the connectivity between BR countries and China has a significant influence on the economic growth of those countries.     

Media heterogeneity and post‐earnings announcement drift: evidence from China

This paper examines how the Chinese stock market acts differently towards state‐controlled and market‐oriented media coverage. Using a setting of post‐earnings announcement drift, we find that information from state‐controlled media enters the stock price in a timelier manner, while the message from market‐oriented media needs more time to get a response from investors. The effect is also influenced by whether the type of news coverage is good or bad. Our findings suggest that the capital market underreacts when good news is reported by the market‐oriented media.     

电子商务技能型人才需求与高职教育培养匹配研究

产业转型升级发展对专业技能型人才的需求发生变化,作为技能型人才重要培养主体的高职院校,面临着如何培养新时代高素质技能人才的挑战。通过招聘大数据挖掘电子商务技能型人才的需求特征,同时调研相关高职院校电子商务专业人才培养现状,分析供需匹配度。结果表明:电商企业需要德技并修的高素质技能型人才,而高职院校的课程体系以专业技能、商务技能等硬技能教学为主,忽视综合素养软技能教育,同时,高职院校电子商务专业课程开设未能根据行业技术更新和产业转型发展及时调整。基于研究结果,从课程体系建设、校企合作深化、工匠精神培育等方面提出相关建议。     

决策可靠性分析及在SAR图像目标识别中的应用

决策融合是提高合成孔径雷达（Synthetic Aperture Radar,SAR）目标识别性能的重要手段，然而，可靠性较弱的决策往往会导致最终决策融合的效果变差。将可靠性分析引入基于决策融合的SAR目标识别方法中，分别计算各个决策的可靠性系数并选取可靠性的决策参与最终的决策融合。为了验证方法的有效性，分别将提出的可靠性分析应用于多特征决策融合以及多分类器决策融合并基于MSTAR（Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition）数据集进行了目标识别实验。在基于主成分分析、线性鉴别分析和非负矩阵分解三种特征进行多特征决策融合的条件下，所提方法和直接进行决策融合的方法的识别率分别为97.47%和96.50%。在基于K近邻、支持向量机和稀疏表示分类器的多分类器决策融合中，所提方法和直接进行决策融合的方法的识别率分别为97.10%和96.28%。实验结果充分证明了所提方法的有效性。     

Hotel environmental management initiative (HEMI) scale development

Owing to a lack of construct reliability and validity of environmental management measurements, advancements in understanding hotels’ environmental management practices have been somewhat limited. The goal of this paper is to propose a uniform and parsimonious scale that captures Hotels’ Environmental Management Initiative (HEMI) with the most common three dimensions in the hotel industry: environmental resource conservation efforts, environmental policy and training, and environmental public relation efforts. After the refinement of the initial items, the scale was confirmed with cross-cultural data obtained from full-time hotel employees in two Asian countries. The twenty-one item HEMI scale demonstrated a satisfactory level of content, convergent, discriminant, cross, and criterion-related validity. The proposed HEMI scale will serve as a useful tool for future hospitality scholars who would like to further explore the impact of hotels’ environmental management initiatives on employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward the environment and their environmental performance.     

Failure to learn from failure: The 2008 mortgage crisis as a déjà vu of the mortgage meltdown of 1994

This article traces the developments in the market for residential mortgage-backed securities (MBS) during the period 1970–2008. Drawing on an analysis of trade publications, business press, and interviews with practitioners, it shows that an MBS market meltdown in 1994 provided clear signals of problems with MBS. The market participants did not re-evaluate their use of risk management tools or adjust security design in response to the 1994 crisis, suggesting a lack of understanding of the implications of the crisis. The 1994 meltdown showed that MBS were vulnerable to systematic risks and that these risks could precipitate an MBS market crash. Furthermore, the 1994 meltdown demonstrated that large-scale investment in MBS could affect the primary mortgage market, thereby rendering the MBS risks unpredictable. After 1994, MBS investment shifted to MBS backed by mortgages with default risk – a development that led to the crash of 2008. By drawing parallels between the 1994 and 2008 crises, this article shows how the MBS market failed to self-correct. The results suggest that financial market participants do not always incorporate relevant information in their decision-making and that market participants have difficulties in both foreseeing the effect of financial innovations on markets and interpreting these effects.     

A Kaleckian Perspective on Financialisation and Distribution in Three Main Eurozone Countries before and after the Crisis: France,Germany and Spain

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we examine if, and to what extent, a general Kaleckian analysis of the potential effects of financialisation on income shares in advanced capitalist economies is of relevance for the three Eurozone countries under investigation—France, Germany and Spain—in the period before the recent financial and economic crisis. Second, we study changes in the financialisation–distribution nexus that have occurred in the course of and after the financial and economic crisis. We find that the countries examined here have shown broad similarities regarding redistribution before the crisis, although there are some differences in the underlying determinants. These differences have continued during the period after the crisis and have led to different results in the development of distribution since then.