Brand Reality: The Japanese Perspective

This study of the Japanese perspective on brand reality draws on personal interviews in Japanese organizations and published writings on branding in Japan. It first details the various factors which make brand reality such a natural and powerful element of the successful Japanese organizations. The study then discusses how brand reality is created by Japanese firms. It ends with the current efforts of the Japanese organizations to manage and control their future brand identity.     

Optimal generic and brand advertising efforts in a decentralized supply chain considering customer surplus

While the previous researches of advertising efforts decisions focus on only the firms' profit target, no literature introduces corporation social responsibility target into advertising efforts decisions of a supply chain (SC). To fill this gap, we consider a two-stage SC with a manufacturer and a retailer where the SC members consider the customer surplus. Both the retailer and the manufacturer can invest in generic advertising efforts to influence and increase the products' sales volumes. This paper investigates the following four scenarios: (1) The retailer cares the customer surplus (Model I); (2) The manufacturer cares the customer surplus (Model II); (3) Both the retailer and the manufacturer care the customer surplus (Model III); (4) We then extend the model III to the case that the manufacturer invests in both the generic and brand advertising efforts (Model IV). The objective of this paper is to determine the optimal retail price, the optimal advertising efforts, and the optimal profits of SC members, and find the influence of customer concern level on the SC performance. Finally, numerical examples are conducted to investigate the influence of the customer concern levels of the retailer or the manufacturer on the profits of the SC members and the entire SC. We also study the joint impacts of the customer concern levels of the retailer and the manufacturer on the SC performance. We find that the SC obtains the highest profits when the retailer's customer concern level and the manufacturer's customer concern level are relatively high, and the best cooperative strategy for the retailer and the manufacturer is that they improve customer concern level simultaneously.     

The effect of service failure types and service recovery on customer satisfaction: a mental accounting perspective

Service failure recoveries play an important role in the service process. Previous research on service recovery has focused on the development of classification schemes, such as service failure types (e.g. outcome- or process-related failure), service recovery attributes (e.g. psychological or tangible recovery), and failure magnitude. Few studies in the literature have developed a theory-driven model of customer satisfaction that considers whether different types of service failure warrant different types of service recovery. This article, which reports the results of two studies, draws on mental accounting theory to examine the effect of the relationship between service failure and service recovery on customer satisfaction. The results of Study 1 show that customer satisfaction is greater when service recovery efforts truly make up for what customers have lost and that prior experience of service failure has a significant influence on the effectiveness of those efforts. The results of Study 2 indicate that the magnitude of a service failure also has an impact on the effectiveness of service recovery efforts.     

The role of consumer knowledge,experience,and heterogeneity in fish consumption: Policy lessons from Japan

Fish supply worldwide has increased significantly in recent decades, driven by the growing demand for food in developing economies, especially Asia. Many developed countries, including Japan, have implemented health policies that promote fish consumption. Despite efforts to encourage consumers to purchase fish, Japan has not achieved satisfactory results due to competition from cheap livestock products. The purpose of this study is to understand how consumers compare fish to other protein sources and how different consumer attributes influence the purchase frequency of fish. We used factor analysis to create a perceptual map of consumers' evaluations concerning protein sources, and a Bayesian hierarchical model incorporating individual heterogeneity to model purchase frequency. Our results show that Japanese consumers place great importance on availability when evaluating protein sources, and that fish is considered less available than other livestock products. In addition, Japanese consumers still prefer wild fish to farmed fish in terms of quality. Individual consumer attributes, such as age, household structure, and eating habits, were found to influence the decision to purchase fish. Consumers’ first-hand fish-related experience is found to be an important determinant of fish consumption. However, the effect of their knowledge identified in the conventional model was not detected in the Bayesian model. These results suggest that experiences allowing consumers to feel closer to fish are more effective than exposure to excessive information campaigns. Using lessons from Japan, this research could aid policymakers and suppliers of fish products to fashion appropriate and effective strategies for encouraging greater fish consumption.     

Child motor vehicle occupant and pedestrian casualties before and after enactment of Child Restraint Seats Legislation in Japan

Problem. Prevention of injuries to child passengers is a significant public health priority, as motor vehicle-related injuries remain a leading cause of death for children in Japan. The purpose of compulsory child restraint seats legislation in April 2000 was to reduce the number of child passengers killed or injured in motor vehicle crashes.

Methods. The objectives of this preliminary evaluation are to measure the effectiveness, benefits and usage of safety seats for child passengers aged 1–5 years by analysing the child casualty data for the period of 1997–2002. Population and vehicle miles travelled based injury and fatality rates were used to compare before and after legislation trends in child casualties.

Results. Despite overall increases in the use of child restraint seats (as observed by different national surveys), overall casualty rates in motor vehicle occupants in the 1–5 year age group did not change (fatalities and serious injuries) or even increased (minor injuries).

Conclusions. Casualties among restrained children have not decreased since the law came to effect in the year 2000, perhaps because of incorrect usage of the seats. Given that exposure to crash environments is increasing, traffic safety advocates and public health community need to be aware of the importance of child restraints as a means of reducing the likelihood of injury. It is necessary to implement effective community-based child safety seat campaigns to disseminate the information on appropriate restraint use and to increase efforts to enforce the existing legislation.     

Fitness Apps's purchase behaviour: Amalgamation of Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence framework (S–O–B–C) and the innovation resistance theory (IRT)

With the rise in popularity and use of fitness apps, more research is needed to learn more about how people use the apps so that they keep using them. Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence framework (S–O–B–C) and the Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT) together in this study to learn more about how people make decisions about how to use apps for fitness. Eight hundred and fifty-eight users of various fitness apps have responded to the questionnaire. Results show that people who are open to changing their fitness systems from traditional to app-based services enjoy new experiences and new product behaviours. For them, the perceived functional barriers to service adoption don't hold them back. At the same time the users of fitness apps try to get health and fitness information from as many sources as possible, like friends, peer groups, the newspaper and social networking apps. Users with a high level of health consciousness are more likely to be active in their health and fitness. People who use apps make decisions based on new information from the integrated model. App providers should think about how to get and keep users interested in their apps, personalise their experience, and design features that make users invested in the apps.     

Roles of a hospital for community safety promotion

It is not easy for any health professional to be aware of injury problems and safety issues within their own communities if their main responsibility is not in this field. Health professionals, however, can play an important role in all aspects of injury prevention and safety promotion. This includes not only medical or surgical treatment for the injured patients but also risk assessment, health education, community action, organisational development and advocacy for policy to promote safety at a multi-level in the society. This can be accomplished most efficiently through collaboration with diverse sectors within a community, including hospitals, public health professionals, policy makers, school boards, police departments, fire departments, citizens' coalitions and others. Since 2002, Ajou University School of Medicine and Public Health in Suwon, Korea, has introduced a Safe Community model to many countries in Asia, including Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, among others, which is led by The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.     

Shopping in the omnichannel supply chain under price competition and product return

In recent years, omnichannel retailing has created value for prospective consumers. The rise of omnichannel retailing has changed consumers' buying habits, and manufacturers are facing stiff competition from retailers. To reduce this competition effect, manufacturers and retailers often work together to reduce showroom display costs. Despite this practice, there is little understanding of how omnichannel retailing impacts supply chain (SC) profit under competitive conditions. We investigate the test-in-store-and-buy-online (TSBO) retailing strategy and its impact on SC profit and price competition between manufacturers. The retailer sells products of both manufacturers through its website but displays products of only one manufacturer in the showroom, which bears the displaying cost. The retailer adopts a return policy for the other manufacturer. Stackelberg game was used to examine how members of the chain interact, and Nash equilibrium was used to find optimal strategies for players under decentralized and integrated channels. The results show that the TSBO strategy in retailing benefits all supply chain players under the integrated channel. A further interesting finding is that omnichannel SC profits are highest when retailers adopt a return policy. When two manufacturers compete and adopt different sales models, the manufacturer who uses the TSBO retail model reaps the most profit. Several other managerial insights are drawn from sensitivity analyses.     

I guess that is fair: How the efforts of other customers influence buyer price fairness perceptions

Past research has demonstrated that consumers' price fairness judgments are influenced by comparisons between the offer price they receive and the prices paid by other consumers for the same product offering. In today's digital age, reference points for purchases are more prevalent than ever. However, investigations on how certain inputs of the transaction affect these judgments is lacking. Specifically, extant research has failed to account for how the purchase efforts of other consumers can influence one's own price fairness evaluations. Moreover, relatively little empirical research has endeavored to understand the simultaneous cognitive and affective processes that explain how consumers arrive at price fairness judgments. To address these gaps in the literature, we introduce two studies aimed at understanding the process through which the salient efforts of referent consumers serve to mitigate perceptions of price unfairness when two customers pay different prices for the same product. The findings support a dual‐process model whereby the efforts of other (referent) customers serve to simultaneously reduce buyer anger and increase buyer understanding of the price disparity, ultimately mitigating perceptions of price unfairness.     

Consumer Information,Insurance, and Doctor Shopping: The Elderly Consumer's Perspective

One possible strategy to minimize costs of health care is to provide consumers with information pertaining to its relative cost. However, the effectiveness of programs to dispense information on medical services has been difficult to evaluate because very little is known about incentives for doctor shopping. The demand for medical services information (doctor shopping) among elderly consumers and the effect of health insurance purchases on shopping decisions are assessed.     

Self-Regulatory Safeguards and the Online Privacy of Preteen Children

Online advertisers are increasingly enjoying the ability to target messages to specific segments based on information collected at Web sites. Information collection, particularly from children, has been an ongoing concern of regulators, consumer advocates, and advertising industry organizations. Although the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has advocated the implementation of safeguards (such as warnings, threats, and barriers) designed to limit children's online disclosure of sensitive information, little research to date has examined the effectiveness of these safeguards. We address this issue by first examining the current state of online safeguards for Web sites that target preteen children, a group shown to be particularly vulnerable to the persuasive efforts of marketers. We then present a quasi-experimental investigation of online safeguard types and how their effectiveness in limiting preteen information disclosure is moderated by the mediation strategies of parents. Implications for advertisers, policymakers, parents, and educators are discussed.     

Workplace Spirituality Facilitation: A Comprehensive Model

This article specifies a comprehensive model for workplace spirituality facilitation that integrates various views from the existing research on workplace spirituality facilitation. It outlines the significance of workplace spirituality topic and highlights its relevance to the area of ethics. It then briefly outlines the various directions the existing workplace spirituality research has taken. Based on this, it indicates that an integration of the elements from various existing research works on workplace spirituality facilitation into a comprehensive workplace spirituality facilitation model could make relevant contributions to the existing workplace spirituality research. It then indicates that there are various points of focus in workplace spirituality conceptualization and facilitation views. It outlines various views from the existing research on workplace spirituality facilitation. Drawing on the elements of these various workplace spirituality facilitation views, it specifies a comprehensive model of workplace spirituality facilitation. It outlines how the various parts and linkages depicted in the comprehensive model of workplace spirituality facilitation are consistent with and are supported by the various views of workplace spirituality facilitation that it seeks to integrate. It then outlines how the comprehensive model specified can guide the future research in the area of workplace spirituality and how it can provide inputs to leadership and organization development (OD) efforts for workplace spirituality facilitation.     

上海市少子老龄化与可持续发展

在概述21世纪上半叶上海市户籍少子老龄化主要特点的基础上,从实施可持续发展战略高度,建议探讨充分发挥少子老龄化的正面效应,尽可能把负面效应转化为正面效应的政策措施;采取既有利于更多吸纳年轻人才,又不使未来老龄化水平过高的替代性人口流迁战略;制定既不使未来中国总人口过多,又有利干减缓老龄问题的现行生育政策调整方案;寻求既不会加重失业问题,又有利于减缓城镇职工基本养老保险基金压力的推迟职工退休年龄的最佳时机;切实推进以“终身保健”为基础、大病保障为重点的医疗卫生服务体系;不断完善以居家养老为主,按适度比例加快养老设施发展的生活照料体系。     

The effects of detailing on prescribing decisions under quality uncertainty

Motivated by recent empirical findings on the relationship between new clinical evidence and the effectiveness of detailing, this paper develops a new structural model of detailing and prescribing decisions under the environment where both manufacturers and physicians are uncertain about drug qualities. Our model assumes (1) a representative opinion leader is responsible for updating the prior belief about the quality of drugs via consumption experiences and clinical trial outcomes, and (2) manufacturers use detailing as a means to build/maintain the measure of physicians who are informed of the current information sets. Unlike previous learning models with informative detailing, our model directly links the effectiveness of detailing to the current information sets and the measures of well-informed physicians. To illustrate the empirical implications of the new model, we estimate our model using a product level panel data on sales volume, prices, detailing minutes, and clinical trial outcomes for ACE-inhibitors with diuretics in Canada. Using our estimates, we demonstrate how the effectiveness of detailing depends on the information sets and the measures of well-informed physicians. Furthermore, we conduct a policy experiment to examine how a public awareness campaign, which encourages physicians/patients to report their drug experiences, would affect managerial incentives to detail. The results demonstrate that the empirical and managerial implications of our model can be very different from those of previous models. We argue that our results point out the importance of developing a structural model that captures the mechanism of how detailing/advertising conveys information in the market under study.     

Cute brand logo enhances favorable brand attitude: The moderating role of hope

A brand logo has significant influences on consumer evaluations of a brand. However, little research has examined the effectiveness of brand logo design. The present research thus seeks to extend the literature in this area by examining how cuteness associated with a brand logo might produce a more favourable brand attitude. Across two experimental studies, this research provides empirical evidence that a cute (vs. non-cute) brand logo can increase positive consumer attitude toward a brand, especially among those experiencing the emotion of hope (but not happiness or a neutral emotional state). Further, this effect is driven by the perceptions among consumers feeling hopeful (but not happy) that a cute (vs. non-cute) brand logo has higher levels of growth potential. The findings of this research thus make theoretical implications on the literature on brand logo, cuteness, and emotion literature, and offer managerial implications in terms of brand logo design effectiveness.     

高校财务管理专业人才培养与就业策略研究

当前高校财务管理专业人才的培养及就业已经逐步成为了高校日常工作的重点及难点,一直以来,我国对人才的市场需求和高校目前的人才培养模式之间存在着不衔接的问题。究其原因主要在于应届毕业生实践能力普遍较差,在岗位上难以满足工作需求以及我国高校的人才培养模式存在实践和理论相脱节等方面。各高校应当在教学过程当中大力的开展素质教育、职业教育和技能教育,明确基本的方向和定位,真正意义上打造出具有自身特色的教学模式,关注教学的重点及难点,树立起科学的发展观念,明确服务的方向,打造出具有品牌观念的教育理念,加强对创新和创业精神的教育,从而更好适应当前社会经济发展的根本需求,培养出综合型的、高素质的人才。     

新贸易保护主义的新发展与中国的战略性贸易政策选择——基于弱势产业与贸易保护有效性的分析

本文在弱势产业划分与贸易保护有效性分析的基础上,探讨新贸易保护主义的新发展及其对中国进出口贸易的影响,分析我国的战略性贸易政策选择。本文认为:是否值得与能否对弱势产业进行贸易保护,在大国与小国的答案并不完全相同,可以利用大国规模经济效应提升弱势产业的比较竞争优势;对优势产业与“夕阳产业”同时进行保护、贸易保护的意识形态工具创新是新贸易保护主义新发展的主要特点;为了应对新贸易保护主义新发展对我国进出口贸易的冲击,必须制定符合我国国情的战略性贸易政策。     

A study of the effect of OHSAS 18001 on the occupational injury rate in Iran

The occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) has been a widely used approach for managing occupational health and safety more effectively worldwide. Despite the interest of organizations in implementing OHSMS in recent decades, few studies have examined the effectiveness of these interventions. This study presents an empirical investigation of the effect of occupational health and safety assessment series (OHSAS) 18001 as a worldwide-accepted OHSMS on the occupational injury rate (OIR) in Iran. This study was carried out in six companies: three OHSAS 18001-certified, and three non-certified, including 998 occupational injuries for 15,842 person-months. A before–after analysis showed a positive safety performance change in one out of the three certified companies. For all 66 study years in the six companies, a negative binomial regression did not indicate a lower occupational injury during the certified years and a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) did not confirm the effect of certification. The results of this study indicated that the implementation of OHSAS 18001 is not a guarantee of improved safety.     

具有大规模天线选择与功率分配的协作通信

在瑞利衰落信道下研究了采用前向译码转发协议的三节点协作模型,分析了中继分布大规模天线阵列时系统的可靠性能。为了有效地降低系统复杂度,同时又能获得大规模天线带来的分集增益,给出了中继选择合并(SC)与天线选择空间调制(SM)相结合的组合传输方案。为了进一步提高可靠性能,研究了SC/SM组合方案如何通过功率分配优化其误比特率性能。仿真分析表明,大规模中继SC/SM方案的功率分配能够有效改善系统的误比特率性能。     

社会治理、环境治理与老年人主观幸福感研究——基于CGSS(2013)数据的实证分析

基于中国社会综合调查(CGSS)2013年的数据,运用Logit回归模型,系统分析社会治理、环境治理对老年人主观幸福感的影响.研究结果发现,社会治理、环境治理对老年人主观幸福感产生显著影响,对城乡老年人主观幸福感的影响既呈现一致性,也存在差异性;性别、健康状况和收入水平对老年人主观幸福感同样产生显著影响.基于此,本文提出相关的政策建议.