Catch and Shoot: The Influence of Advergame Mechanics on Preference Formation

The use of advergames for the purpose of brand and product promotion is growing in popularity as the mobile gaming industry expands. The extant research on advergames, however, has focused primarily on factors influencing the effectiveness of in‐game advertising (e.g., banner and pop‐up ads appearing beside gameplay). Therefore, this research seeks to examine the impact of branded content integrated directly into the mechanics of a game. Across two studies, the influence of common game mechanics (e.g., shooting, collecting, avoiding) on affective and attentional processes are investigated by manipulating the design elements of a custom advergame. The results suggest that advergame mechanics can influence subsequent choices through perceptual fluency and affective transfer. Additionally, perceived difficulty was found to moderate the relationship between affective response and choice.     

探讨地铁电力监控系统设计与实现

本文以国内典型的地铁城市的地铁电力监控系统为分析依据,简要叙述了地铁电力监控系统内容,就软件选择、数据库建立与用户界面设计与实现等内容进行了较为深入的探讨分析,希望能为我国城市地下轨道交通的建设工作提供必要的技术支持。     

Assessing Gender Differences in Computer Professionals’ Self-Regulatory Efficacy Concerning Information Privacy Practices

Concerns with improper collection and usage of personal information by businesses or governments have been seen as critical to the success of the emerging electronic commerce. In this regard, computer professionals have the oversight responsibility for information privacy because they have the most extensive knowledge of their organization’s systems and programs, as well as an intimate understanding of the data. Thus, the competence of these professionals in ensuring sound practice of information privacy is of great importance to both researchers and practitioners. This research addresses the question of whether male computer professionals differ from their female counterparts in their self-regulatory efficacy to protect personal information privacy. A total of 103 male and 65 female subjects surveyed in Taiwan responded to a 10-item questionnaire that includes three measures: protection (protecting privacy information), non-distribution (not distributing privacy information to others), and non-acquisition (not acquiring privacy information). The findings show (1) significant gender differences exist in the subjects’ overall self-regulatory efficacy for information privacy, and, in particular, (2) that female subjects in this study exhibited a higher level of self-regulatory efficacy than males for the protection and non-acquisition of personal privacy information. The identification of the factorial structure of the self-regulatory efficacy concerning information privacy may contribute to future research directed to examining the links between privacy efficacy and psychological variables, such as ethical attitude, ethical intention, and self-esteem. Studies can also be extended to investigate how different cultural practices of morality and computer use in men and women may shape the different development patterns of privacy self-efficacy. Understanding the different cultural practices may then shed light on the social sources of privacy competence and the appropriate remedies that can be provided to improve the situation. Feng-Yang Kuo holds a B.S. degree in Management Science from Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan and a Ph.D.degree in Information Systems from University of Arizona. He was a faculty of Information Systems at University of Colorado at Denver from 1985 to 1997 and is currently an associate professor of Information Management in Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan. He has published articles in Communications of ACM, MIS Quarterly, Communications of AIS, Journal of Business Ethics, Information & Management, Journal of Systems and Software, Decision Support Systems, and Sun Yat-Sen Management Review. Among his current interests are information ethics, managerial cognition, and human-computer interfaces. Cathy S.Lin Professor Cathy S.Lin is an assistant professor of Information Management at National University of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her Ph.D.is in Management Information Systems from National Sun Yat-Sen University. She has published articles in the Information & Management, Journal of Information Management, and Sun Yat-Sen Management Review. Among her current interests are information ethics, ethical decision making, electronic commerce, and information management. Meng-Hsiang Hsu Professor Meng-Hsiang Hsu is a professor of information management at National Kaohsiung of First University of Science and Technology. His Ph.D. is in Management Information Systems from National Sun Yat-Sen University. He has published articles in the J. of Business Ethics, Behavior & information Technology, Decision Support System, and Industrial Management and Data Systems. Among his current interests are knowledge management, information ethics, strategic information systems, and electronic commerce.     

The Effect of Scarcity on the Purchase Intentions of Prevention and Promotion Motivated Consumers

This study investigates the influence of consumers’ motivational orientations (“prevention” vs. “promotion”) on their susceptibility to demand‐based versus supply‐based scarcity, measured by purchase intention scores. Prevention‐focused participants were more inclined to adopt a product when it was perceived to be demand‐scarce rather than supply‐scarce, while those who were identified as promotion‐focused responded positively to scarcity attributed to supply shortfall. In addition, products that could be associated with a prevention motive enhanced purchase intentions when presented as demand‐scarce but not if perceived to be supply‐scarce; conversely, products associated with the promotion motive scored better if the scarcity was seen to be supply‐generated rather than demand‐generated. Lastly, messages focused on prevention were more effective than those focused on promotion in the case of perceived demand scarcity, whereas the converse holds true for supply scarcity. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the motivational differences underlying the effectiveness of scarcity appeals. They furthermore suggest the strategic implication that improved intention to purchase occurs when the regulatory focus evoked by a scarcity‐related message is compatible with the appeal it communicates.     

Firm Resources and Corporate Venturing Investment

Corporate venturing (CV) in which established firms invest in new entrepreneurial businesses involves identifying opportunities and creating new combinations of resources to seize opportunities. Moving beyond literature that has focused predominantly on the consequences of CV, we adopt a resource‐based view to examine how knowledge‐based and organizational‐slack resources relate to the level of firm CV. The implications of the findings for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The momentum effect on Chinese real estate stocks: Evidence from firm performance levels

This paper investigates the momentum effects under different firm performance levels for Chinese real estate stocks using quantile regression with a dummy variable estimator. This paper finds that regardless of the momentum horizon, the momentum effects are positive under high-performing individual stocks, but they are negative under low-performing individual stocks. While prior literature only finds that this asymmetric phenomenon appears under different market states, and the findings on different horizons are inconsistent. Furthermore, this paper finds that the positive (negative) momentum effect under high (low) firm performance levels is stronger than that under bullish (bearish) markets. This implies that superior (inferior) fundamental business performance and bullish (bearish) markets can cause the stock prices to go up (down); however, the effect of the former is stronger than that of the latter. Moreover, this paper finds that the relation between future returns and past turnover ratios is positively correlated under high-performing stocks, but negatively correlated under low-performing stocks. Based on the above findings, this paper regards past turnover ratios as a leading indicator of stock returns and suggests two profitable investment portfolios which are superior to the average returns of real estate stocks.     

Consumers’ responses to ambivalent online hotel reviews: The role of perceived source credibility and pre-decisional disposition

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is prevalent in today's lodging market and has potential to influence consumers’ decision making. This study investigated how the presence of online reviewers’ personal identifying information (PII) may affect consumers’ processing of ambivalent online hotel reviews and hotel booking intentions. The results of an experiment with a sample of 274 undergraduate students indicate that the presence of PII positively affects the perceived credibility of the online reviews. When coupled with ambivalent online reviews, the presence of PII significantly lowers consumers’ hotel booking intentions.     

The Development of the Economy of Taiwan

The development of the Taiwanese economy over the past five decades was manifested in rapid growth, export expansion, stable prices, full employment, and relatively equitable income distribution. In this development, the government has played an important role. This paper sets out to report the important features of the Taiwanese economy during the post-war period to 1998, and to examine the policies which crucially contributed to its successful development.     

The managerial implications of an analysis of tourist profiles and international hotel employee service attitude

Numerous studies indicate that customer satisfaction is closely related to hotel employees’ service attitude, and that distinct segments of a target tourist market require distinct customer service emphases. The enclosed study finds, for example, that Taiwanese tourists generally appreciate friendliness and enthusiasm, Japanese tourists admire courteousness and propriety, and American tourists value immediacy and efficiency. Marketers and personnel managers are therefore well advised to develop training strategies emphasizing empathy, gracious problem solving, and prompt individual attention for Taiwanese, Japanese, and American tourists, respectively. Importance–performance analysis (IPA) can be used to identify crucial aspects of appropriate service and recommend managerial strategies to support their implementation.     

Evaluating the Relative Impact of Fiscal Incentives and Trade Policies on the Returns to Manufacturing in Taiwan, 1955–1995*

In the present paper, an integrated cash flow model is developed to examine the relative impact of tax incentives, financial subsidies, and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of industrial investments. It allows for the variables in the model to interact with each other. An application of the model is carried out for Taiwan, which has implemented a variety of fiscal incentives over the past 40 years. The principal policy conclusion is that trade and macroeconomic policies are much more important than income tax incentives or subsidized finance policies in determining the success of Taiwan's industrialization process. The effects of all of the fiscal incentives are found to be much smaller than those of the trade policies or the fundamental trends in macroeconomic variables such as the movement of the real exchange rate and the real wage rate.