Consumers’ willingness to disclose their personal data in e-commerce: A reciprocity-based social exchange perspective

While personal data is invaluable to firms, the drivers of e-commerce customers' willingness to disclose their personal data remain tenuous. Using social exchange theory, we develop a model that explores the impact of consumers' perceived benefit, and relative power, on store trust, in turn driving their willingness to disclose their personal data. We collected our empirical data using a representative online survey, with the results being analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The results corroborate that (a) consumer-perceived e-commerce store trust drives their willingness to disclose their personal data, and (b) perceived e-commerce provider reciprocity outweighs consumers’ perceived data disclosure benefit, suggesting the existence of symbolic (vs. purely instrumental) social exchange.     

跨国并购执行阶段财务风险研究

改革开放以来,中国经济持续高速增长,国内市场逐步开放,国家对“一带一路”的推进也使越来越多的企业试图通过海外并购的方式扩大其国际市场份额,以此提高企业竞争力。但即便有国家政策的支持,想要完成海外并购依旧是困难重重,因此,系统分析所存在的财务风险并加以控制变成重中之重。论文对跨国并购现状进行概述,随后重点分析在执行阶段所存在的几点财务风险,并提出相应的防范建议。     

中国与“一带一路”沿线中东欧国家物流绩效对比分析

“一带一路”沿线国家间物流合作对“设施联通、贸易畅通”意义重大,如何加强物流合作,需要进行科学决策。世界银行发布的物流绩效指数(LPI)已成为评价各国跨境物流绩效综合水平的工具,利用该工具进行分析研究,可以为跨区域物流合作提供决策参考。中国与“一带一路”沿线中东欧国家的合作是目前最具区域板块价值的合作机制,即“17+1合作”,需要进行系统性的合作机制研究。利用“一带一路”沿线中东欧17国的LPI,通过多维分析,可探索中国加强与中东欧国家之间的跨境物流合作新路径。在验证LPI6个子要素衡量一个国家物流绩效水平合理性的基础上,通过对中东欧17国LPI的平均值、增长率和变异系数进行分析发现,影响中东欧与中国物流绩效的重要因素依次为基础设施水平、物流质量和服务能力、货物追踪性、国际运输能力、海关效率、货物运输时效性。另外,对中东欧17国LPI的6个子要素进行聚类,并对不同群类进行针对性分析。在“一带一路”建设背景下,中国应充分发挥亚洲基础设施投资银行平台和丝绸之路基金的主导优势,提升跨境物流通道设施水平,加快建设“一带一路”自贸区,构建物流大数据信息中心,打造中东欧物流枢纽网络,促进中国与中东欧国家之间的跨境物流、供应链合作。     

人民币跨境流动自由度的测算——基于资本项目名义开放指数的借鉴

长期以来,人们只看重货币国际化结果,以占全球贸易计价结算比重、外汇交易比重、国际债券比重、外汇储备比重等相关指标衡量一国货币的国际化程度,而忽视货币跨境流动放松过程,即一国货币的跨境流动自由化程度。货币国际化是一个过程又是一种结果,包含进程和结果两个层面,在货币国际化进程中,过早过快放松本币流出入会引发经济金融风险,某些情形下进程比结果更值得关注。构建人民币跨境自由度指数涉及强度赋值、项目设置和权重确定三方面内容。在梳理2019年第2季度前我国货币政策基础上,对2008年至2019年经常项目下的人民币跨境流动自由度、证券投资项目下的人民币跨境流动自由度以及资本项目下的人民币跨境流动自由度进行评估,并以美国近5年各项目下的资金流动平均占比为权重,构建了人民币跨境流动自由化指数,考察2008—2019年人民币跨境流动自由化程度,结果显示人民币国际化进展较快,跨境流动已得到很大程度放松,而且人民币流入自由程度显著高于流出自由度。我国人民币国际化进程应持续遵循先经常项目后资本项目、先流入后流出、先机构后个人、先大额后小额、先风险小项目后风险大项目的次序,提高人民币跨境流动的稳定性,降低无序流动的投机风险;严格管控证券投资、其他投资、衍生品项目下人民币跨境流动,并依据我国利率市场化程度、金融市场发达程度及审慎监管能力进行调整;大力提升经常项目的人民币结算比重,发展人民币离岸市场,提高非居民间的人民币使用频率和使用规模;充分评估各项目下人民币跨境流动和本外币兑换自由度,提高两者的协同匹配程度,降低因两者不匹配而产生的负面影响。     

上海自贸区跨境服务贸易负面清单制定的法律问题

上海自贸区跨境服务贸易负面清单的制定是落实《全面深化中国(上海)自由贸易试验区改革开放方案》,顺应国际服务贸易规则重构的重要举措之一。国民待遇的例外、市场准入的例外以及当地存在的要求是跨境服务贸易负面清单的涵盖范围;市场准入的例外不仅包括形式上的管理措施,还包括效果上的管理措施;当地存在与商业存在既有联系又有区别;跨境货物贸易与跨境服务贸易之间的界限值得厘清;兜底条款可纳入清单但适用应当谨慎。     

Drivers and barriers to cross-border e-commerce: Evidence from Spanish individual behavior

This paper explores the determinants of the individual's decision to perform cross-border e-commerce (CBeC). The European Union (EU) is especially interested in the promotion of CBeC because it is an important tool in its strategy to achieve the Digital Single Market in Europe. In this paper official data is used from a representative survey of 16,209 individuals on ICT usage by households and individuals that was carried out in Spain by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) for the year 2016. Using a standard neoclassical utility maximization framework, and logistic regression techniques, the results show that being a male is positively related to the probability of practicing CBeC. Education is positively and significantly related to the probability of being involved in CBeC with EU countries. Computer and Internet Skills are significant and positive factors in explaining CBeC (either with EU countries or with the rest of the world). The variable “how often the consumer sees other customer reviews before buying online”, has a positive effect. Foreign nationality also increases the likelihood of using CBeC. To promote CBeC in Spain measures towards developing digital skills, Internet trust and use of online information reviews of goods and services are discussed.     

Factors predicting attitude toward disclosing personal data online

To test a theoretical model, this study explores the effect of anxiety, trust, personality, and perceived benefits on the disclosure of personal information online. An online survey conducted among participants in the United States (n = 248, age range: 20–82 years) examined attitudes toward disclosing personal data online. Specifically, the study researches the impact of anxiety disclosing personal data, trust (both in the Internet and in institutions), the Big Five personality traits, and four sets of perceived shopping benefits (opportunity, bargain, purchase, and expected privacy benefits) in e-commerce disclosure and their role as antecedents for adoption and use of e-commerce. The study aligns with existing trust literature and corroborates other findings on how perceived purchase benefits impact individuals’ attitudes toward disclosing personal data online. The data suggest that both trust in the Internet and trust in institutions positively influence attitude toward disclosing personal data online. Perceived purchase benefits were also significant positive predictors for attitude toward disclosing personal data online. Furthermore, personality dimensions can affect attitude toward disclosing: the more neurotic a person is, the more negative their attitude is about disclosing personal data online. The study underscores that consumers have a responsibility to educate themselves about online disclosure and marketing practices, and about how to protect their online privacy. Most importantly, fostering trust, reducing anxiety, and promoting benefits are essential to the future of e-commerce. Implications for theory, consumers, marketing practice, and public policy are also discussed.     

A new perspective on the exporter productivity premium: online trade

We use a unique firm-level data set including 9000 companies from 26 European Union countries covering four different sectors to take a close look at the relationship between online exports and productivity. The online exporter productivity premium is estimated using different techniques (ordinary least squares, quantile regressions and robust estimation). Results consistently indicate that the estimated online exporter productivity premium is statistically different from zero, positive and significant from an economic point of view. European online exporters, according to these results, are approximately 2% more productive than non-online exporters. Productivity differences between firms could be related to variables that are not included in the empirical model. More research would be needed to address this issue in the future.     

R&D Investments and Tax Incentives: The Role of Intra-Firm Cross-Border Collaboration*

U.S. multinational corporations increasingly use intra-firm, cross-border research collaboration to disperse R&D across different countries. This paper investigates the implications of such collaboration on the abilities of firms to garner benefits from R&D tax incentives. We find that the association between R&D intensity and tax incentives is three to five times larger when firms have extensive cross-border collaboration connected to a country. We also find that the effect is stronger when local intellectual property protection is weaker and when local innovation resources are higher. Our results suggest that cross-border collaboration helps firms achieve more tax-efficient R&D investments both by reducing the nontax frictions posed by weak intellectual property protection and by increasing the nontax benefits of foreign R&D.