The Impact of a Multiple Listing Service

This article offers a theoretical investigation of the impact of a multiple listing service (MLS) and its optimal size. We study a principal‐agent model of real estate brokerage with multiple agents, where the entry of new agents imposes externalities on the other agents. We solve simultaneously for the equilibrium and socially efficient levels of agents’ effort choices, the size of the MLS and the commission rate. Introducing an MLS reduces the number of agents, increases agents’ effort levels and improves total surplus. Current commission rates of 5–7% appear much higher than the competitive commission rate, leading to too many agents, too much effort by agents and a lower overall surplus. We also find that giving a greater portion of the commission to the selling agent increases effort levels, reduces the number of agents and improves total surplus.     

Optimal Price and Selling Effort from the Perspectives of the Broker and Seller

This paper uses numerical solutions of a dynamic optimization model to examine the principal-agent relationship between the seller and broker in residential real estate markets. Potential conflict of interest is quantified in two dimensions, the level of selling effort the broker puts forth, and the reservation price for the property. The dynamic optimization model reveals that the use of a finite duration listing contract will induce the broker to increase his or her effort level compared to an unlimited duration contract, and that the broker's optimal effort will increase over time, becoming greater as the listing contract expiration time draws nearer ("rational procrastination"). The numerical analysis indicates that with plausible parameter values, conflict of interest problems regarding broker effort level are minor or nonexistent near the end of the listing contract, but potentially important near the beginning of the contract. In contrast, the conflict of interest regarding reservation price is more severe near the end of the listing contract and is exacerbated by the use of finite duration contracts, the more so the shorter the contract.     

Listing Price, Time on Market, and Ultimate Selling Price: Causes and Effects of Listing Price Changes

Information about price changes during a home's marketing period is typically missing from data used to investigate the listing price, selling price, and selling time relationship. This paper incorporates price revision information into the study of this relationship. Using a maximum-likelihood probit model, we examine the determinants of list price changes and find evidence consistent with the theory of pricing behavior under demand uncertainty. Homes most likely to undergo list price changes are those with high initial markups and vacant homes, while homes with unusual features are the least likely to experience a price revision. We also explore the impact of missing price change information on estimating a representative model of house price and market time. Our results suggest that mispricing the home in the initial listing is costly to the seller in both time and money. Homes with large percentage changes in list price take longer to sell and ultimately sell at lower prices.     

Housing Market Conditions, Listing Choice and MLS Market Share

In some housing markets, a seller may hire a broker to multiple list or exclusively list a property for sale or may bypass the brokerage industry and list the property privately as a "sale by owner." This article introduces a new model that illustrates the factors which will impact on the broker's and seller's preferred type of listing. An implication of the model is that if the choice is available, sellers and real estate brokers will employ a multiple listing service more often during slower market periods where the volume of sales is low and properties are more difficult to sell. An empirical analysis of Vancouver data yields results consistent with these arguments.     

我国服装企业上市融资问题研究

我国服装企业主要以中小型企业为主,服装企业对我国经济的增长、促进就业、增加税收、创造外汇以及对国有经济战略性调整等方面做出了贡献。但是,目前存在融资难尤其是上市融资难的问题。本文首先对我国服装企业进行了概述,介绍了服装企业普遍的融资方式。然后,指出了服装企业上市融资面临的问题。最后,根据所提出的问题叙述了这些问题的解决方法。     

Renegotiation of Listing Contracts, Seller Opportunism and Efficiency: An Economic Analysis

When a property owner engages a real estate broker to sell his or her property, the parties enter into a listing contract which entitles the broker to a commission if a ready, willing and able buyer is found before the contract expires. While a limit on the duration of the contract provides the broker with an incentive to work hard to find a buyer, it also creates the potential for seller opportunism. In particular, sellers have an incentive to renegotiate a lower commission as the end of the contract approaches. The paper concludes that, from an efficiency perspective, courts should generally enforce such renegotiations, given that transaction costs between brokers and sellers are ordinarily low.     

The President's Housing Commission and Two Tests of Realistic Recommendations

The most commendable work of the President's Housing Commission suffered from two major faults. First, the Commission failied to quantify the costs of alternative policies. This led to biased judgments about what forms of housing aids to adopt. The Commission rejected making housing vouchers for poor renters an entitlement program because that would be too costly. But it accepted continuation of present tax benefits for non-poor homeowners, though they are also entitlements vastly more expensive than the program it rejected. Second, the Commission correctly attacked local government restrictions for causing high housing costs. But it failed to provide any strong incentives for local governments to reduce such restrictions.     

The Strategic Role of Listing Price in Marketing Real Estate: Theory and Evidence

The seller of a real estate property and his broker have two primary goals: to sell the properly for as high a price as possible and as quickly as possible. While these are separate objectives, they are closely related through the listing price of the seller. The listing price affects how long it takes to find a buyer (i.e., Time On the Market = TOM), and TOM influences the price that results from the bargaining between the seller and the buyer. This leaves the seller and his agent with an important question: What is the optimal price to be asked for the property? The objective of this research is to provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the impact of listing price on TOM and the transaction price.     

The Influence of Stock Market Listing on Human Resource Management: Evidence for France and Britain

We use data from the Relations Professionnelles et Négociations d'Entreprise survey of 2004 and the Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2004 to analyse how far approaches to human resource management differ according to whether an establishment is part of a company with a stock exchange listing. In both countries we find that listing is positively associated with teamworking and performance‐related pay, while in France, but not in Britain, it is also linked to worker autonomy and training. Our findings are inconsistent with the claim that shareholder pressure operates as a constraint on the adoption of high‐performance workplace practices. The pattern is similar in the two countries, but with a slightly stronger tendency for listing to be associated with high‐performance workplace practices in France.     

Multiple Job Holding,Skill Diversification,and Mobility

In this article, we investigate the interrelated dynamics of dual jobholding, human capital, occupational choice, and mobility, using a panel sample (1991–2005) of UK employees from the British Household Panel Survey. The evidence suggests that individuals may be using multiple jobholding as a conduit for obtaining new skills and expertise and as a stepping‐stone to new careers, also involving self‐employment. Individuals doing a different secondary job than their primary occupation are more likely to switch to a new primary job in the next year, and a job that is different than their current primary employment. The results show that there are human capital spillover effects between primary and secondary employment.     

创造服务美化生活

<正>随着社会生产的发展,人们生活水平的不断提高,对服装的要求也越来越高,不只要求满足遮体御寒,还要求穿得好些、美些、舒服些。努力搞好服装设计、生产、销售,满足人民群众的要求是我们服装行业的光荣使命。     

公共服务、外部性与工业集聚

本文在新经济地理学框架内,通过引入政府部门构建了一个空间均衡模型,理论研究表明,公共服务支出的提高可以促进工业集聚,并且受偏好的影响存在外部性,而集聚优势则通过循环累积因果关系进一步扩大。通过使用1999～2014年中国省际面板数据,检验了相关变量对工业集聚所产生的外部性影响,研究发现：公共服务、市场潜能均与工业集聚呈正相关,随着工业集聚程度的提高,公共服务对集聚的影响是递减的,反映了低集聚地区公共服务支出不足的现状,而市场潜能对集聚的影响存在一个上升的趋势。     

Why Customers Value Self‐Designed Products: The Importance of Process Effort and Enjoyment*

This study analyzes which factors prompt customers to attribute value to products they design themselves using mass‐customization (MC) toolkits. The assumption that self‐design delivers superior customer value is fundamental to the concept of MC toolkits and can be found in almost any conceptual work in this field. However, spectacular failures reinforce the practical relevance of developing a deeper understanding of why and when MC toolkits generate value for customers—and when they do not. Research to date has assumed that the closer fit between the self‐designed product's characteristics and the preferences of the customer is the dominant source of value. In this research, it is asked whether the enjoyment and perceived effort of the self‐design process have an additional impact on the perceived value of self‐designed products. This question is interesting because one could argue that a rational actor would hardly be willing to pay ex post for an economic good already consumed. The hypotheses are tested on 186 participants designing their own scarves with an MC toolkit. After completing the process, they submitted binding bids for “their” products in Vickrey auctions. Therefore, real buying behavior, not merely stated intentions, is observed. The present study finds that the subjective value of a self‐designed product (i.e., one's bid in the course of the auction) is indeed impacted not only by the preference fit the customer expects it to deliver but also by (1) the process enjoyment the customer reports, (2) the interaction of preference fit and process enjoyment, and (3) the interaction of preference fit and perceived process effort. In addition to its main effect, preference fit can be interpreted as a moderator of the value‐generating effect of process evaluation: in cases where the outcome of the process is perceived as positive (high preference fit), the customer also interprets process effort as a positive accomplishment, and this positive effect adds (further) value to the product. It appears that the perception of the self‐design process as a good or bad experience is partly constructed on the basis of the outcome of the process. In the opposite case (low preference fit), effort creates a negative effect that further reduces the subjective value of the product. Likewise, process enjoyment is amplified by preference fit, although enjoyment also has a significant main effect, which means that regardless of the outcome, customers attribute higher value to a self‐designed product if they enjoy the process. In a way, this effect resembles of the classic story of Tom Sawyer and the fence, in which Tom manages to “frame” the tedious chore of whitewashing a fence as a rare opportunity—thus persuading his friends to pay him for letting them work. Manufacturers designing an MC system therefore are advised to designing MC toolkits in a way that they elicit positive affective reactions that make their customers value their work.     

企业家社会资本、竞争战略选择与企业绩效--基于中国制造业上市公司的实证研究

本文把企业家社会资本分为两个维度,即企业家的制度性社会资本和企业家的市场性社会资本,并分别考察两者对企业绩效的影响效应。企业家通过利用他们在社会结构中这种特有的资源形成了企业在竞争战略层面提高企业价值的不同路径选择。本文以中国制造业上市公司数据对所提假设进行检验,结果表明,企业家制度性社会资本通过差异化战略提升企业绩效,市场性社会资本则通过低成本战略的中介效应提升企业绩效。即拥有制度性社会资本的企业家更容易从政府、科研机构获取知识、信息等优势资源而选择差异化战略,进而提高企业绩效;发展拥有更多市场性社会资本的企业家则可通过与客户供应商等良好的关系降低产品成本而选择低成本战略,实现企业的成功。     

国际石油天然气工业产品,过程和服务的分等及符合性评价

对ISO/PDTR 13881.2《石油天然气工业——产品、过程和服务的分类和符合性评价》的主要内容进行了摘编,重点介绍了符合性评价体系的评价依据、体系特征及其与产品、过程或服务等级的关系;并具体介绍了产品、过程或服务的等级分类方法,包括计算法和判断法(含实例).     

中电联：扎实服务 创新发展

2005年中电联开展的主要工作2005年是中电联第四届理事会的开局之年。在电监会的直接领导和有关政府部门的关心指导下,在各常务理事和理事单位的大力支持下,我们圆满完成了预定的各项工作目标。服务水平和质量有新的提高,在行业和社会的影响力、权威性和公信度进一步增强,受到企业的欢迎、政府的肯定和社会的认可。2005年主要做了以下几方面的工作。1、积极组织或参与电力行业相关专业“十一五”发展规划的制订和电力产业政策的研究,维护行业企业合法权益,推进电力法律法规体系建设,为促进电力行业的可持续健康发展做出了积极的努力开政和成…     

Union Presence, Union Service and Membership Participation

Much of the literature on the determinants of union activism has focused on biographical and attitudinal precursors or correlates of several measures of union participation. Although interactionist theory emphasizes the importance of social context, little attention has been paid to union presence. The argument of this paper is that union presence, defined by certain structural arrangements, and the quality of union service, influences measures of workplace and non-workplace union participation through the mediating influence of union orientation. The paper begins by reviewing the literature on union presence and participation, before presenting a model of the joint impact of union service and union presence on both on- and off-the job union participation. Data are drawn from a study of membership involvement within the Irish-based Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU). The main findings are that there are significant relationships between presence and service level variables and measures of union participation. In particular, service variables appear to affect workplace union participation largely through the mediating influence of union orientation. Presence variables, by contrast, have both direct and indirect influence on participation in union activities within and outside the workplace.     

农村零售区域评价、商店态度与消费者购物地选择

以山东省农村居民为调查对象,探讨了零售区域评价、商店态度与消费者购物地选择之间的关系。通过问卷调查,利用因子分析及多元线性回归分析验证了研究假设。实证分析结果表明,零售区域评价对商店态度产生显著影响,而商店态度是影响农村居民购物地选择决策的关键因素。     

The Locus of Innovation: The Effect of a Separate Innovation Unit on Exploration,Exploitation, and Ambidexterity in Manufacturing and Service Firms

This paper investigates the effects of having a separate innovation unit on exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity in manufacturing and service firms according to traditional paradigms of the innovation management discipline that innovation units should be organized in a separate department. Many manufacturing firms have such a unit while few service firms do. This paper sets out to investigate the advantages of having such a unit for exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity, and whether there are differences between manufacturing and service firms that could help explain why such units are present or absent. The literature suggests that a separate innovation unit has a positive effect on exploration and ambidexterity in manufacturing firms. However, the effect on improving operational activities, that is, exploitation, is unclear. If exploration and exploitation are two ends of a continuum, as the literature suggests, more exploration comes at the cost of exploitation. On the other hand, others have suggested the possibility of an orthogonal relationship, where a separate unit can simultaneously enhance exploration and exploitation. In this paper, the Dutch Community Innovation Survey (CIS) is used to investigate these relationships for manufacturing and service firms, with a question added to the survey regarding the locus of innovation within each firm, that is, mostly within a dedicated innovation unit or dispersed throughout the firm. Our findings show that a separate innovation unit increases exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity in both manufacturing and service firms. It thereby provides support for the orthogonal view of ambidexterity. A separate unit enhances the ability to exploit and be ambidextrous equally in service and manufacturing firms, but has a weaker positive effect on exploration, and exploratory and ambidextrous performance in service firms. This finding implies that both manufacturing and service firms benefit from having a separate innovation unit, with the advantages being greatest for manufacturing firms. In service firms, such an innovation unit alone may not be sufficient, as such units are expensive to maintain, while they contribute less to ambidextrous performance than in manufacturing firms. Based on the latter finding, future studies should make a distinction between the ability to be ambidextrous in creating exploratory and exploitative innovations, and ambidextrous performance, the ability to gain financially from engaging in both types of activities simultaneously.