Perceptions of Offensive Advertising Elements: A China–U.S. Comparison

ABSTRACT

As China continues to rapidly expand and further open itself to market forces, the People's Republic arouses significant interest as a new mega-market. Consequently, the influx of new business opportunities and advertising has resulted in Chinese consumers increasingly exposed to potentially offensive advertising. While some products and images may seem acceptable when advertised in the West, there are some that may offend Chinese cultural sensitivities. The purpose of this study is to better understand similarities and differences that exist between American and Chinese perceptions surrounding offensive advertising. The results highlight a number of statistical cultural differences that have business implications for international marketers.     

A U.S. Manufacturing Strategy for the 21st Century: What Policies Yield National Sector Competitiveness?

The national debate over the fate of U.S. manufacturing is back, with some asking the question: Is manufacturing dead? However, the U.S. manufacturing sector has been making a surprising comeback and added jobs in 2010 and 2011 following 12 straight years of declines. Utilizing economic data, coupled with qualitative manufacturing industry information, offers a unique opportunity for the authors to present a pragmatic and strategic national manufacturing strategy based on the realities of a continually evolving R&D/high-technology-based U.S. manufacturing sector.     

A CIETAC Award ——Recognized and Enforced in U.S.A.

The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards entitled foreign arbitration awards to recognition and enforcement in United States courts.     

ICBC to Open Subsidiary Bank in the U.S.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has planned to open a subsidiary in the United States, as part of its going-global strategy which also involves Russia,Australia and the Middle East,Board Chairman Jiang Jianqing said on October 17.     

Do Global Brands Use Similar Executional Styles Across Cultures? A Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Television Advertising

A major development in global marketing research is the evolution of global consumer culture theory and the notion that global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) strategies can be effective across markets. This study compares the content of a large sample of U.S. versus Japanese television advertising and looks at several executional variables (timing and counting variables) used in prior studies to explore whether global brands use more similar executions across the United States and Japan in comparison with local brands. Results indicate fewer differences for global brands on these dimensions. This pattern of results appears to be consistent with the notion that the use of GCCP strategies aimed at responding to the trend toward global consumer culture have taken hold and that for global brands it is more possible to standardize executions, in addition to strategy, than was the case in the past. However, results suggest that the amount of time that visuals are on screen is more difficult to standardize than other elements of the ad, and that ads for services show somewhat more similarities than ads for physical products. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Factor Substitution in U.S. Manufacturing: Does Plant Size Matter?

We use micro data for 10,412 U.S. manufacturing plants to estimate the degrees of factor substitution by industry and by plant size. We find that (1) capital, labor, energy and materials are substitutes in production, and (2) the degrees of substitution among inputs are quite similar across plant sizes in a majority of industries. Two important implications of these findings are that (1) small plants are typically as flexible as large plants in factor substitution; consequently, economic policies such energy conservation policies that result in rising energy prices would not cause negative effects on either large or small U.S. manufacturing plants; and (2) since energy and capital are found to be substitutes, the 1973 energy crisis is unlikely to be a significant factor contributing to the post 1973 productivity slowdown.     

Colombian consumers’ outshopping of apparel in the U.S.

Outshopping is defined as purchasing goods outside of consumers’ trading areas. Despite threatening local economies, outshopping generates opportunities for the new trading areas in which it occurs. Studies on outshopping have reported contradictory results and academics suggest further research, especially in relation to consumers’ micro-level characteristics. Moreover, few studies have focused on the U.S. as the trading area and apparel as the traded product. Based on the theory of reasoned action, this quantitative study explores how attitudes toward international outshopping and subjective norm influence purchase intention of apparel goods among international outshoppers in the U.S. by focusing on four characteristics of international outshoppers – self-control in terms of spending, the desire for unique products, age, and gender – as antecedents of attitudes toward outshopping. Colombian consumers (South America) were chosen as respondents because market reports indicate that the U.S. is their top favorite international tourist destination. Findings suggest that more positive attitudes toward outshopping apparel in the U.S. were found among female consumers with higher self-control over their expenditures. Respondents were also influenced by the opinion of others; while age and desire for unique products were found non-significant. By understanding international outshoppers, marketers can develop unique market strategies for attracting global consumers.     

Liberalising the Movement of Natural Persons: A Lost Decade?

Liberalisation of international trade in services through the Movement of Natural Persons (Mode 4) remains one of the least negotiated issues of trade policy among the 144 members of the World Trade Organisation. Economists believe that there is a basic convergence of economic interest between the developed and the developing world for liberalising Mode 4. Yet the multilateral trading system has not facilitated greater worker mobility between the labour‐surplus and labour‐scarce countries. Is there any economic logic as to why cross‐border movements of workers have not followed the pattern predicted by international trade theory? Or are there strong socio‐political barriers that have come in the way of liberalising Mode 4? These are some of the questions the paper attempts to answer. The paper shows that the economic arguments against the free movement of natural persons are based on the narrow perspective of the welfare of domestic workers while ignoring the benefit it brings to the economy as a whole. Further, non‐economic arguments miss the point that the movement of workers under Mode 4 of GATS is temporary in nature, and so unlikely to have any lasting social and cultural spillovers. The paper gives specific illustrations from the recent past where temporary import of workers from labour‐surplus countries has enabled both developed and developing countries sustain their economic growth. It concludes by arguing that the environment for renegotiating WTO commitments under this important sector of international trade in services is better than ever before, even though the current world economic slowdown may delay actual negotiations for a while.     

The U.S. immigration debate: what’s all the shouting for?

Potential GDP growth has slowed by 1.3% a year. The main culprit is labor force decline. It follows logically that a more welcoming immigration policy would be responsive to our demographic challenges and thereby complementary to macroeconomic growth. Ironically, anger at immigration has grown in inverse proportion to actual immigration flows. There is little evidence that immigrants have negative impacts on the wages of native-born workers, and increased immigration would likely have a net positive fiscal impact. Based on these economic considerations, the U.S. immigration debate seems driven by much more heat than light.     

Pray local and act global? Christian religiosity in the U.S. and human rights

This study examines the influence of Christian religion on corporate decisions related to human rights in the United States. Specifically, it examines the empirical association between a company's human rights practices and the Christian religiosity in its local community, as well as individual CEO religiosity in the United States, both of which have not been tested in prior studies. Employing a large sample from the United States, we find a congruent association between the “human rights friendly” practices of a company and the Christian religiosity of the local community. This novel finding is robust to a diverse set of tests. In addition, we find that the association between Christian religiosity in the United States and human rights is more significant in reducing human rights concerns, than it improves human rights strengths. This study interprets these results as upholding the religious morality hypothesis, namely, that companies located in areas with higher religiosity are likely to engage in more human rights‐friendly practices, and the United States. Christians consider religion as an influencing factor that encourages managers to embrace human rights. Furthermore, this study finds that individual religious managers tend toward more human rights‐friendly practices, supporting our religious manager hypothesis.     

Explaining the slow U.S. recovery: 2010–2017

This paper argues that the slow U.S. recovery after the 2008–2009 recession was due to sluggish government spending. The analysis uses a structural macroeconometric model. Conditional on government policy, the errors in predicting output for the 2009.4–2017.4 period are within what one would expect historically. Productivity and labor force participation are endogenous variables in the model, and so their behaviors in this period are a consequence of the slow growth rather than a cause.     

Social commerce: Is interpersonal trust formation similar between U.S.A. and Spain?

In social commerce, interpersonal trust when individuals communicate is key among the parties. The main objective of this study is to investigate how the consequent variables, “interpersonal trust” and “users’ intention”, are impacted by the antecedents of trust-building and cultural dimensions when people are engaged in social commerce. The research model is substantiated using data collected in the U.S.A. and Spain. While all the trust-building antecedents have significant positive impact upon trust, there are cultural differences between the countries. The findings can be of interest to global marketing managers and information officers.     

U.S. intelligence system: model for corporate chiefs?

A fully dedicated intelligence support function for senior management is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Companies can enhance their intelligence capabilities by using the government model as a rough blueprint to structure such a program.     

The Accounting Standards Setting Process in the U.S.: Examination of the SEC–FASB Relationship

In the U.S. there is a close relationship between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a governmental agency legally responsible for setting accounting standards, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), a private sector body to whom the SEC has delegated this responsibility. In this paper we examine the influence of the SEC on the FASB as evidenced by all major statements issued by the FASB. Minor statements, amendments, and strictly technical pronouncements were omitted because of their limited exposure to the political process. Our analysis reveals that the SEC applied substantial pressure on the FASB in the standard setting process and has not adopted a position of benign neglect.     

How Ethical are U.S. Business Executives? A Study of Perceptions

Not much has been written about how the ethics of U.S. business executives are perceived by the American public, yet the perception of integrity is important to both businesses and their investors. This study examines the U.S. public’s perceptions of the ethics of American business executives using Gallup Poll data for the past thirty years. Organizations with unethical executives have trouble attracting investors, customers, and new managerial talent. They suffer lawsuits, market share deterioration, and often prison time for the once-revered leaders. This study also looked at the U.S.’s relative standing on the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Edelman Trust Barometer. Confidence in the ethics of the U.S. business executive remains fairly low on the Gallup Poll surveys and the U.S. has declined on the CPI and Edelman Trust Barometer.     

Do taxes level the playing field?: How U.S. tax policy affects the investment decisions of foreign affiliates in the United States

Recent research has suggested that tax reforms in the United States in the last decade have increased taxes on U.S. investors, but left foreign investors unscathed, fueling a boom in foreign investment. Other researchers claim that uneven enforcement of U.S. corporate tax laws and the opportunity to shift income to artificially lower tax locations give foreign investors yet another advantage over U.S. domestic firms. Willard examines these theories and shows how reforms can create competitive advantages—or disadvantages—for foreign firms relative to domestic firms.