Myopic loss aversion and the equity premium puzzle reconsidered

Benartzi and Thaler [The Quarterly Journal of Economics 110 (1995) 73–92] offer a quasi-rational explanation for the equity premium puzzle. We reconsider their methodology and, making a simple modification to it, find that their analysis is not robust.     

对构建我国绿色壁垒应对平台的思考

信息渠道不畅、缺乏针对性的有效的咨询服务和技术支持等是目前我国大多数企业抗衡绿色壁垒的最大困难。政府应发挥其在抗衡绿色壁垒中的主导作用，构建由三大子系统、三大体系支撑的绿色壁垒应对平台，完善绿色壁垒风险预警管理系统，通过有效的运作，帮助企业最大限度地减少和避免产品出口遭受绿色壁垒的影响。     

Short life-cycle deteriorating product remanufacturing in a green supply chain inventory control system

Due to global warming, environmental consciousness and shortening product life-cycles, more attentions have been paid to ecological protection and resource utilization. Green products and production process designs significantly influence the environment and resource re-usage. The relevant EU regulations, such as WEEE and EuP, have reduced negative effects by controlling the disposals and the resource re-usage. In this study, green product designs and remanufacturing efforts are investigated when we develop an integrated production inventory model with short life-cycles. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the theory. We have shown that new technology evolution, remanufacturing ratios and system’s holding costs are critical factors affecting decision making in a green supply chain inventory control system.     

Going to the movies: cinema development in Singapore

Using readings of Foucault's heterotropia and Friedberg's imaginary mobility, this paper analyses movie-going as leisure practice. In highlighting the paucity of research in this area, the paper argues that such practice should be understood as a symbolic interaction between people's behaviour and the spaces that they occupy. This theorization is applied to Singapore, where per capita movie-going is amongst the highest in the world. The paper illustrates how, in Singapore, the development of cinemas has been used to underpin land use policies associated with the relocation of residential areas and social policies related to the growth in consumerism. While effectively alienating older audiences, the paper argues that the spatial and cultural metonymy of the cinema with other primary consumption sites – the mall and the fast food outlet – offers young people reassurance about the growing centrality of consumerism to contemporary social life in Singapore. We argue that the cinema offers a temporary escape from the regulation of social life – access to ‘deviant’ space. However, this same consumerism that facilitates such access simultaneously denotes conformity with the dominant ideology: acceptance of the heterotropic possibilities – and limitations – of cinema and movie-going as leisure practice.     

Presentation Format and Financial Literacy: Accessibility and Assessability of Retirement Savings Statements

While increased financial literacy may improve individual retirement savings decisions, modifying the placement of key information in retirement savings statements can produce further improvements. We examined the extent to which placement of information and financial literacy affected the accessibility of information for individuals and assisted in their financial decision making. We also disaggregated financial literacy into numeracy and knowledge to identify key drivers. Using an experimental design, we find the increased salience resulting from modifying the presentation format improved participants' ability to locate important information (accessibility) and to evaluate the relative performance of funds (assessability). However, the incremental benefits of placement are only found for individuals with moderate numeracy skills. We conclude there is value accruing from financial literacy programs as advocated by regulators, but suggest additional benefits may be reaped from focusing on numeracy skills and from using presentation formats that improve information accessibility and assessability.     

Buyer Loyalty in Business Markets: Can the Firm and Salesperson Get What They Truly Desire?

Purpose: Prior literature has acknowledged multi-foci customer loyalties (loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty) and argued that both entities (selling firms and salespersons) foster customer loyalty through respective loyalty-capturing efforts (relationship investments). However, scholars have not investigated the influences of different types of interfirm relationship-specific investment (RSI) activities and salesperson behaviors (brand-building and guanxi behavior) on customer loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, especially their simultaneous (interaction) effects. The current research attempts to address this issue and examines the impacts that RSIs and salesperson behaviors have on customer loyalties.

Methodology/approach: A survey of seller–buyer dyads was conducted to test the proposed theoretical model and hypotheses. Using 192 dyadic data from customers and salespersons in the Chinese business-to-business contexts, this study specifies the direct and interactive effects of sellers’ RSIs and salespersons’ behaviors on customer loyalties.

Findings: Results indicate that selling firms’ loyalty-capturing efforts—property-based and knowledge-based RSIs—have different influences on two types of customer loyalty. Salespersons’ relationship investments—brand-building and guanxi behaviors—also have asymmetric impacts on customer loyalty. Counterintuitively, salespersons’ loyalty-capturing efforts weaken the relationships between firms’ RSIs and customer loyalties.

Originality/value/contribution: This study specifies different types of relationship investments and examines their respective and interactive impacts on two types of customer loyalty—loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty. The findings indicate that firms’ and salespersons’ efforts may lead to unexpected and unintended effects on multi-foci loyalties. Therefore, the current study enriches our knowledge about multi-foci loyalty management and relationship marketing.

Practical implications: Because firms’ and salespersons’ loyalty-capturing strategies exert positive direct influences on loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, both entities may actively leverage relationship investments’ impact on customer loyalty. However, as the interactive effects derived from concurrent loyalty-enhancing activities are negative, firms need to clearly assess the nature and

characteristics of their relationship with buyers and properly design relationship investments and guide salesperson behaviors. Managers should use property-based RSIs as a primary safeguard of customer loyalty to the selling firm. Meanwhile, internal branding and training programs can help salespersons develop brand building behaviors and better understand the potential unintended outcomes that different behaviors may induce. Aligning a branding goal between the firm and salespersons can benefit both parties while avoiding counter-productive outcomes.     

对构建我国绿色壁垒应对平台的思考

信息渠道不畅、缺乏针对性的有效的咨询服务和技术支持等是目前我国大多数企业抗衡绿色壁垒的最大困难。政府应发挥其在抗衡绿色壁垒中的主导作用,构建由三大子系统、三大体系支撑的绿色壁垒应对平台,完善绿色壁垒风险预警管理系统,通过有效的运作,帮助企业最大限度地减少和避免产品出口遭受绿色壁垒的影响。     

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Anti‐money Laundering and Anti‐terrorism Financing Legislation: Perceptions of Bank Compliance Officers in Malaysia

The present study sought to ascertain the perceptions of anti‐money laundering and counter‐financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance officers of banks in Malaysia in order to develop an understanding of how well they understand the risks and how well they have implemented the obligations imposed by the regime. We examine these issues for the first time in the literature via the theory of crying wolf. A structured questionnaire survey of compliance officers of banks in Malaysia was followed by focus group discussions held at the Malaysian Institute of Bankers. We expect that the industry would consider suitable steps to improve the compliance culture, particularly in Islamic banks, and the regulators would watch such banks more diligently. Banks considered avoiding penalties, improving brand image and improving customer perceptions to be the rationale for implementing the AML/CFT legislation. Most conventional bank officers considered their organisations’ compliance culture to be high or very high, while this was not found to be the case in Islamic banks.     

How does investor relations disclosure affect analysts' forecasts?

We study the relationship between investor relations disclosure and analyst forecast properties in Australian firms, a setting dominated by small firms with limited analyst coverage and requiring continuous disclosure of price sensitive information. We find increasing disclosure in the time period investigated is associated with greater accuracy in firms disclosing fewer items. Disclosure was unrelated to forecast dispersion, possibly due to the low analyst following. In periods of uncertainty, the investor relations awards effectively discriminated quality from quantity of disclosure. These findings highlight the importance of active communication with analysts, particularly in firms providing less disclosure and during periods of uncertainty.