Ethics in Food Advertising to Children in India—A Parental Perspective

Marketers are seen to bombard children with advertisements for unhealthy foods using sophisticated promotion techniques that have serious negative effects on health and overall well-being of children. So parents try to mediate children’s exposure to media content and call for governmental regulations in an attempt to shield them. The extent to which they mediate further determines whether they contemplate food advertisements as being ethical or unethical. Therefore, the present study tries to uncover the antecedents to ethical versus unethical perceptions of Indian parents about food advertisements directed at children. No study, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, has been conducted so far in India in this regard. Using binary logistic regression with mothers, it is found that the mothers who view food advertisements as unethical report their children to watch fewer hours of TV during weekdays and hold negative attitudes toward advertising to children. These mothers, however, do not feel that the government needs to impose restrictions on food advertisements aired on TV since they themselves indulge in mediation of TV advertising as a general parenting responsibility. The implications of the article are finally discussed.     

Saving for Retirement—A Case for Financial Education in Germany and UK? An Economic Perspective

Demographic changes, tight public budgets, and reduced generosity of occupational pension plans shift the responsibility for an adequate retirement provision towards the individual. Applying the theoretical perspectives of Behavioural Finance and New Institutionalism to the domain of retirement provision offers insights into the difficulties individuals are facing in planning for retirement, carrying out, and revising plans. Lacking financial literacy seems to lie at the heart of the problem and points to a possible solution: providing financial education to consumers through non-governmental organizations and state-related agencies. This article is examining which role consumer education and consumer advice can play to enhance financial literacy with regard to pensions and old-age provision. As two case studies Germany and the UK are compared because the institutional set-up of the pension systems and the approaches towards consumer policy are very different. The case studies show that financial education with regard to old-age provision can be successful if it reaches consumers in their environment at life-stages where important decisions need to be made. To achieve that considerable efforts have to be taken in terms of funding and organizational set-up. However, evaluation is necessary to prove the effectiveness of the education especially for vulnerable consumer groups. If evaluation reveals that these groups cannot be targeted effectively or that consumers are not taking action subsequently to attending financial education, there might be a case for changing behaviour through the institutional set-up of pension schemes (i.e., through automatic enrolment) and using financial education as a supportive policy instrument.

Suifenghe—An Important Trade Outlet to Russia

Suifenghe, with a nearly 100-year history as a trade outlet, has been listed as an open city by the State. In 1993, Suifenghe's GDP reached RMB200 million with an annual increase rate of 26.9 percent. National revenue was RMB163 million, an increase of 25.4 percent, and local revenue was R MB66.28 million, an increase of 55.7 percent.     

How to Change the Double Surplus Situation After Financial Crisis？

Reform the foreign trade policy, increase the intensity of imports For the future competitive pressures of trade in goods and the lack of competitive advantage in service trade, the policy adjustment should focus on improving the competitiveness of China＇s export products. Meanwhile, it should promote the development of appropriate import according to the needs of the economic development. This would include：     

Advertising in Malaysia—A Cultural Perspective

This article outlines, through a cultural perspective, one possible approach for advertising in Malaysia. The basis for this approach is derived from an analysis of the standardized and localized schools of advertising. Within the study, a Canadian example is used to shed light on the implications for businesses around the world for advertising in Malaysia. In addition, a comparison is drawn between Saudi Arabian and Malaysian cultures to determine if an advertising strategy used in other Islamic countries should be adopted in Malaysia. The findings suggest that although the majority of the citizens of Malaysia are Muslim, Malaysia's heterogeneous culture does not encourage a strict adherence to Islamic principles. The implication for Western businesses advertising in Malaysia is that a compromise be struck between a standardized and a localized advertising strategy.     

BRICS—A New Model

In December 2010,the four BRIC countries agreed to accept South Africa, the first African country,into its cooperation mechanism.At the BRICS Summit held in Sanya during April 13 and 14,South Africa became the new full member of the BRICS.The BRIC countries are estimated to account for 42% of the world's population and 30%of the world's trade volume,1/4 of the world's land area and 15%of the world's GDP.Besides, the BRICs group holds a huge amount of foreign exchange reserves and the number of multi-nati...     

Public Financial Expenditure——A Reflection of the Livelihood Improvement

In recent years,China＇s public finance put social construction high on the agenda and attaches more importance on livelihood insurance and improvement. The 2003-2007 public financial expendi- ture reflects a fact that the government is putting more emphasis on livelihood and issues concerning the people. Implementation of the national financial expenditure reported on NPC and CPPCC surprise people by its considerable increase in education, medical and health, its continuous support in agriculture, rural areas and farmers,     

Public Financial Expenditure——A Reflection of the Livelihood Improvement

In recent years.China's public finance put social construction high on the agenda and attaches more importance on livelihood insurance and improvement.The 2003-2007 public financial expenditure reflects a fact that the government isputting more emphasis on livelihood andissues concerning the people.     

Unlived to Forge a New Image in China

Uuilever is the first company in theworld to change its logo solely to meetthe needs of the local market.The once widely spread rumor thatUnilever is planning to enter China's Ashare market has finally been all to restdue to no current corresponding policyin China. However, this does not seemto have interfered with the pace forUnilever to expedite localization.Last Thursday, Unilever (China) Co.,Ltd. held a press conference at theDiaoyutai State Guest Hotel, announcing to government offi…     

How Does Consumers' Financial Vulnerability Relate to Positive and Negative Financial Outcomes? The Mediating Role of Individual Psychological Characteristics

Vulnerable consumers are at particular risk of financial detriment due to, for example, low financial literacy or numeracy, high debt, low income, or impactful changes in personal circumstances. We introduce a comprehensive and formative measure of financial vulnerability that integrates these risk factors and is grounded in definitions of vulnerability from financial regulation bodies and government agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Across three studies of US individuals, we assess the nomological validity of this measure of financial vulnerability through its relationship with positive and negative financial outcomes (e.g., savings levels, paying credit card balances in full each month, being in arrears) as well as relevant psychological characteristics (e.g., personal savings orientation [PSO], money management skills, financial self‐efficacy). Moreover, we examine whether and how these psychological characteristics mediate the relationship between financial vulnerability and financial outcomes. We conclude with an overview of implications for policy makers and business practitioners.     

How Global Are Boundaryless Careers and How Boundaryless Are Global Careers? Challenges and a Theoretical Perspective

Recent discourse in the career studies literature suggests that careers become more boundaryless and more global. The scope of these phenomena and the possible association between them remains unclear. We add to the discussion by suggesting a set of propositions to further develop the global careers discourse and use examples from contrasting global and cultural contexts. Our contribution offers a two‐dimensional framework, where not all global careers are boundaryless, and not all boundaryless careers are global. It will encourage scholars to critically reflect on national, cultural, structural, and regulatory constraints. It challenges individuals and organizations to delve into how individuals interpret their way out of their contextual systems to engage in global careers and how different contextual aspects influence the desire for and the perception of global careers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How to generalize from a hierarchical model?

Models of consumer heterogeneity play a pivotal role in marketing and economics, specifically in random coefficient or mixed logit models for aggregate or individual data and in hierarchical Bayesian models of heterogeneity. In applications, the inferential target often pertains to a population beyond the sample of consumers providing the data. For example, optimal prices inferred from the model are expected to be optimal in the population and not just optimal in the observed, finite sample. The population model, random coefficients distribution, or heterogeneity distribution is the natural and correct basis for generalizations from the observed sample to the market. However, in many if not most applications standard heterogeneity models such as the multivariate normal, or its finite mixture generalization lack economic rationality because they support regions of the parameter space that contradict basic economic arguments. For example, such population distributions support positive price coefficients or preferences against fuel-efficiency in cars. Likely as a consequence, it is common practice in applied research to rely on the collection of individual level mean estimates of consumers as a representation of population preferences that often substantially reduce the support for parameters in violation of economic expectations. To overcome the choice between relying on a mis-specified heterogeneity distribution and the collection of individual level means that fail to measure heterogeneity consistently, we develop an approach that facilitates the formulation of more economically faithful heterogeneity distributions based on prior constraints. In the common situation where the heterogeneity distribution comprises both constrained and unconstrained coefficients (e.g., brand and price coefficients), the choice of subjective prior parameters is an unresolved challenge. As a solution to this problem, we propose a marginal-conditional decomposition that avoids the conflict between wanting to be more informative about constrained parameters and only weakly informative about unconstrained parameters. We show how to efficiently sample from the implied posterior and illustrate the merits of our prior as well as the drawbacks of relying on means of individual level preferences for decision-making in two illustrative case studies.

     

A Great Deal from Continental Airlines-Beijing to New York with a RMB 616 Discount

To celebrate the first anniversary of the daily nonstop service between Beijing and New York, Continental Airlines is offering a special discount ticket for travel on June 16, 2006.     

Then And Now——How The Global Financial Crisis Will Affect Chinese Outbound investment

1. The future of outbound M＆A for Chinese enterprises
The background
As we read in the press lately, China＇s trade surplus and foreign-exchange reserves have fuelled its growing overseas M＆A activities over the last several years. Most commentators believe that this outbound activity will continue to increase. Some recent reports suggest, however, that since the current financial crisis began, there has been a slow down in China outbound M＆A activities,