A decision support model for buying battery electric vehicles considering consumer learning and psychological behavior

Developments in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have received more and more attentions in the last decades due to alleviating carbon emissions and energy crisis. Consequently, how to rank alternative BEVs to assist consumers make better purchasing decisions is a worthy research study. However, there are still some defects in the existing studies for ranking of BEVs: 1) the evaluation index system of BEVs is not comprehensive; 2) the determination of criteria weights cannot be well applied to the actual purchase scenarios; and 3) the psychological behavior of consumers is ignored. To address those shortcomings, this paper proposes a decision support model to assist with consumers to buy BEVs. First, a systematic evaluation criteria system of BEVs including quantitative and qualitative indicators from parameter configurations and online reviews is constructed. Then, a weight algorithm considering consumer learning is proposed to determine the criteria weights. Furthermore, a decision support process considering consumers' regret avoidance behavior is proposed. Finally, an actual BEV purchase case is given to illustrate the practicability of the decision support model. This can be seen in case studies the proposed support model can be well applied to consumers with different regret avoidance behaviours.     

考虑声誉效应的科技服务业与制造企业合作创新行为策略分析

采用博弈论的方法，考虑声誉效应对博弈双方效用、策略的影响，建立信号博弈模型，并分析精炼贝叶斯均衡，证明声誉水平、对声誉的态度以及技术市场价值的高低是影响建立合作关系的重要因素。探讨双方建立合作关系的行为策略，提出实现合作达成双赢的建议。     

The daughter effect: do CEOs with daughters hire more women to their board?

Using a sample of S&P 100 firms, we find that CEOs with a daughter are more likely to hire new women to their board of directors than CEOs without a daughter. Our results provide additional evidence that parents’ attitudes and actions are affected by the gender of their children and that the effect is strong enough to influence important decisions at large corporations.     

The antecedents of tourists’ gaming spend: does the brand prestige matter?

This study endeavors to empirically analyse the influential effect among brand prestige, service quality, casino visitor satisfaction and spend. Data from 304 tourists who had travelled to Macau and had participated in gambling activities were used and structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis were employed in hypotheses testing. The findings demonstrated that both brand prestige and perceived service quality are determinants of satisfaction and gaming spend, and that brand prestige also affects service quality positively. Furthermore, past experience moderates the service quality and visitors’ satisfaction relationship, also service quality and visitors’ gaming spend relationship.     

Support for the underdog brand biography: Effects on consumer attitude and behavior

Conflict between favorites and underdogs is an everyday phenomenon. Research suggests that people support the underdog as they see a reflection of their own self in the person at a disadvantaged position. Two studies examine the effect of underdog brand biography in two different contexts. Study 1 provides support for the notion that underdog brand biographies for established brands elicit stronger consumer response than underdog brand biography for new brands. In study 2, a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design measured respondents’ reaction toward an underdog brand biography over a top dog brand biography under conditions of public versus private consumption. Results demonstrate that consumers exposed to underdog brand biographies in the private consumption condition will be more likely to respond favorably than when they are exposed to the public consumption condition. Based on the results it is suggested that advertisers make use of underdog brand biographies in case of established brands. Furthermore, choice of underdog brand narratives is likely to bring positive results under conditions of private consumption.     

The signaling effects of education in the online lending market: Evidence from China

In this study, we use data from an online lending platform named Xinxindai in China to empirically study the signaling effects of education for the default risk of borrowers. Three dependent variables are created, namely, the probability of default, overdue payments and overdue amount, and probit models, count models and Tobit models are employed correspondingly. The number of universities in the “211 Project” of China at the city level is employed as the instrumental variable. The empirical evidence shows that education generally plays a strong signaling role in the identification of borrowers’ default risk in China. The negative marginal effect of education declines as borrowing times increase and as the marketization of regions deepens. This study helps to fill an important gap in the existing literature. Platforms and lenders can use educational level for reference in identifying the default risk of borrowers.     

Institutions and the financial development–economic growth nexus in sub-Saharan Africa

Using a sample splitting approach that does not impose an exogenous quadratic term, we examine the effect of financial development on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa by allowing the link to be mediated by the level of institutions. Our findings reveal a disproportionate growth-enhancing effect of finance, given countries’ distinct level of institutional quality. More specifically, when the International Country Risk Guide-based measure of institutions is used as the threshold variable, below the optimal level of institutional quality, financial development does not significantly promote economic growth. For countries with institutional quality above the threshold, higher finance is associated with growth. However, when institutions are measured by World Governance Indicators proxy, we find a significant effect of financial development, irrespective of whether a country is below or above the threshold. Interestingly, the growth-enhancing effect of finance is greater for low-institution countries relative to high-institution countries. Thus, through its ability to provide some crucial roles, the well-developed financial sector may also perform the function of sound institutions in influencing economic growth.     

The angel investment decision: insights from Australian business angels

While much has been written about the investment criteria of business angels, few studies explore why these particular criteria are important to them. The Australian context has a diverse range of actors along with complex jurisdictional arrangements, making for an interesting background for investigation of the angel finance phenomenon. We examine 12 business angels in the rapidly changing Australian context and use nine corroborating participants to validate responses and identify four key drivers – personal experience, trust, the need to contribute and realistic expectations – that influence business angels during the initial investment process.     

A Common Base Answer to the Question “Which Country Is Most Redistributive?”*

We believe that what most authors have in mind when referring to the “most redistributive country” is a tax and transfer schedule that is most redistributive across all pre-tax and transfer income distributions. In order to measure each country's tax and transfer redistribution according to the same baseline, we suggest using the transplant-and-compare method of Dardanoni and Lambert (2002, Journal of Public Economics 86, 99–122) to establish a common base. The redistributive effects of countries’ tax and transfer schedules are illustrated by employing microdata on eight countries from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Of these eight countries, Finland is found to be the most redistributive country, according to the common base method.