Accidents airline safety perceptions and consumer demand

This paper assesses the impact of perceptions about the safety level of airlines on enplanement. Consumer perceptions are specified with a Poisson distribution that updates over time. Using two different empirical specifications via a pooled generalized least squares procedure with fixed effects; we find no statistical evidence of a correlation between the perceived level of safety and enplanement. However, under an alternative specification in which the severity levels of accidents are ranked, we find that safety perceptions about accidents with minor injuries have no statistically significant impact on enplanement, while perceptions about accidents with serious injuries and fatalities lead to cumulative decreases in enplanement.     

Macroeconomic factors, consumer behavior, and bankcard default rates

Over the period from 1981 through 1999, we investigate the relationship between bankcard delinquencies and key macroeconomic variables. Changes in the proportion of accounts in default are statistically related to the consumer debt ratio. When the delinquency rate is calculated based on the number of dollars outstanding, it is related to the total amount of revolving debt. We also find evidence consistent with a pattern of selective default behavior, in which consumers will default on bankcard debt before defaulting on other types of installment loans.     

Precautionary behavior and consumer information: A Markov process approach

This paper explores the role of consumer confidence in the equilibrium of a dynamic macroeconomic growth model with rational expectations. Consumers face an uncertain future income stream due to a Markov stochastic process that affects production. Changes in the properties of this process change consumer information sets and optimal policies in the rational expectations format. Increases in “persistence” in the shock process are considered; this is identified with the consumer's subjective assessment of future economic conditions. Two cases are considered: where either good or bad states of the process are more likely to persist into the future, and where bad states persist unconditionally at the expense of good. Consistent with earlier treatments of savings under uncertainty (Barsky, Mankiw and Zeldes 1986, and Skinner 1988), the consumer's response to increased income uncertainty is to exhibit precautionary saving behavior. The infinite-horizon growth model format used offers significant improvement over other finite-horizon life cycle models. Specifically, the model is a full general equilibrium model and the solutions are rational expectations solutions. The technique also is easily adapted to other recursive decision problems under uncertainty.     

Information provision and consumer search behavior for products with asymmetric uncertainty

When selling multiple products with asymmetric uncertainty, should the seller disclose product information so that customers do not have to incur any cost to resolve their uncertainties; if so, which product should the seller choose? To address these questions, we consider a monopolist selling two substitutable products to a group of consumers. Each consumer has asymmetric uncertainty regarding the two products. A total of four different information provision structures are considered based on whether the seller discloses information about each product with the aim of determining which strategy provides the seller with the greatest revenue. We derive several interesting results. First, the optimal information provision strategy depends on the magnitude of uncertainty in relation to the product with lower uncertainty. Specifically, if the uncertainty regarding the product with lower uncertainty is sufficiently small, it is optimal for the seller to provide information about the product with higher uncertainty, otherwise, the seller should provide information about both products. Second, when only one product's information should be revealed, it is optimal for the seller to choose the product with higher uncertainty and charge a higher price. Third, withholding information on both products is never optimal for the seller. Finally, our main model is extended by examining the Mean-Preserving Spread setting, and the robustness of our main results is confirmed. Furthermore, we examine the situation in which a monopolist sells a single product with two main attributes. We find that each of the four information provision strategies can be optimal under various scenarios.     

安全文化——构筑安全生产的铁壁铜墙

近年来,频发的矿难牵动着亿万国人的心!矿难对我们国家的经济发展和社会稳定,无疑会产生诸多的负面影响。伤痛过后该怎样反思?如何垒筑社会、企业及人们心中安全生产的铁壁铜墙?中国企业在这一严峻的课题面前正在接受“安全文化”的洗礼。党中央、国务院十分重视安全文化建设。最近,胡锦涛总书记在中央政治局学习会上强调:“要把安全文化建设纳入精神文明建设统一部署。”这一重要思想,既为我国安全文化建设明确了方向,同时也提供了强大的动力。     

Predictors of organizational citizenship behavior in relation to environmental and health & safety issues

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in relation to the environment and health and safety, commonly shaped by individual and voluntary initiatives, are essential factors for a smooth and efficient organization in firms. Our research explores the factors affecting OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues in a Multinational Enterprise (MNE) operating in the oil & gas sector. More in detail, we tested the influence of personal attitudes, self-efficacy, organizational support and social norm on OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues. The results show that personal attitudes and self-efficacy positively influence OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues and those factors are influenced respectively by perceived organizational support and social norm. Moreover, we found that attitudes play a full mediation between social norm and OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues and that organizational support on organization citizenship behavior for the environment and health and safety that is partially mediated through the perceived self efficacy. Finally, the results of our investigation are contextualized in the theoretical and managerial frameworks pointing to a number of avenues for further research.     

油气安全监督企业用户满意度测评研究

买方市场条件下,用户满意度成为现代企业真正的生命线。油气安全监督企业作为重组后的专业化机构,其本质上提供的是一种技术服务,其服务质量始于用户需求,终于用户满意。我国油气安全监督企业开展用户满意度测评,不仅有助于树立安全监督服务意识,提高安全监督服务质量,减少和杜绝安全事故发生,从而更好地满足用户需求,创造更多的客户价值,而且有助于改善和构建和谐的客户关系,树立良好形象,改进质量管理体系,增强竞争力,实现安全监督企业的可持续发展。本文在强调这一重要性的基础上,分析了其测评目的,确立了以安全监督品质、安全监督能力、安全监督履职和企业监管形象为主要因素的测评体系,着重论述了测评方法即加权平均法,并结合具体案例予以说明,最后指出了测评中应注意的若干问题,为加强和改善安全监督企业经营管理,提高用户满意度和忠诚度,提升经济效益与社会效益,实现安全生产和促进社会和谐提供新思路。     

Sustainable product innovation and changing consumer behavior: Sustainability affordances as triggers of adoption and usage

This conceptual paper argues that for sustainable product innovation to make a contribution to addressing sustainability issues, we need to understand not only why consumers adopt sustainable products but also what makes them use these in sustainable way. To explain how specific product features can change the ways in which consumers engage with sustainable products in the adoption and usage phase, we draw on affordance theory. Affordances refer to the potential for agentic action of users in relation to a technological object. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how sustainable product innovation can lead to the design of sustainability affordances that stimulate adoption and sustainable usage. The framework shows how three forms of agency—material, firm, and user agency—interact and together influence a product's sustainability affordances that drive adoption and a change in consumer behavior. The framework explains how trade-offs between a product's environmental features and consumer expectations regarding desired functionalities and user experience can be overcome.     

Exemption laws and consumer delinquency and bankruptcy behavior: an empirical analysis of credit card data

In this paper, we examine how homestead, personal property, and garnishment exemption laws affect consumer’s delinquency and bankruptcy behavior by focusing on the credit card market. In particular, after controlling for credit supply and shock effects like unemployment we investigate whether consumer propensity for delinquency, formal bankruptcy, and informal bankruptcy changes with respect to the exemption levels those resident cardholders enjoy. Our results show that loose garnishment and property exemption laws increase delinquency. Furthermore, while loose garnishment and property exemption laws encourage informal bankruptcy, loose homestead and property exemption laws encourage formal bankruptcy. These results imply a certain degree of substitutability between formal and informal bankruptcy.     

Food safety knowledge,behavior and attitude of Libyan consumers

This research aims to study and analyze the relationship between consumer awareness and consumer protection issues relating to food safety; the researcher defined a set of variables associated to consumer awareness in this research to study the relationship between this awareness and between some of the economic and social characteristics of consumers such as the level of income for the head of household, level of education for the research samples and some other characteristics related to awareness of the consumers. To achieve this goal the researcher prepared a questionnaire for this purpose which been fulfilled from a random sample of Libyan students who are studying at Near East University in various specialist and stages of university study. To analysis these data the researcher has used non-parametric statistical analysis for the previous relationship, due to the nature of metadata where Chi square has been used to study the moral awareness of the relationship between the consumer and all of the level of income and level of education. These results showed the presence of statistically significant relationship between the level of consumer awareness and the level of income and the level of education, the results also showed that there were significant correlation between consumer awareness and all of the level of income and level of education. The study concluded that consumer protection policies should be directed to teach and educate consumers with a focus on lower-income segments of society and in the lower level of education.     

Evaluating consumer sentiments as predictors of UK household consumption behavior: Are they accurate and useful?

This paper investigates empirically whether consumer sentiments indices, based on surveys complied by GfK, forecast household consumption types for the UK. Firstly, we use a quantitative equation approach to assess whether the indices are able to forecast household consumption growth in addition to traditional variables, which are included as control variables. Subsequently, using qualitative directional analysis, we investigate whether the indices are accurate and useful predictors as well. We find that, broadly speaking, both the headline, or aggregate, and the major purchasing indices have some predictive powers in addition to the control variables and are also directionally accurate and useful.     

Understanding sustainable consumption in an emerging country: The antecedents and consequences of the ecologically conscious consumer behavior model

For past few decades, consumers have lately started to adapt sustainable consumption in emerging countries. The increasing importance of sustainable consumption led the researchers to analyze green purchase and ecological behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine the antecedents of ecologically conscious consumer behavior model and show the relationships among ecologically conscious consumer behavior, green purchase conspicuous behavior, and green purchase intention based on the theory of planned behavior in an emerging country. Data were collected from 650 consumers in Turkey, one of the emerging countries, by using face‐to‐face survey technique and analyzed by factor analyses and structural equation modelling. In findings, environmental concern, altruism, and perceived consumer effectiveness were found as the antecedents of the model, and there were significant effects of ecologically conscious consumer behaviors on green purchase conspicuous behaviors and green purchase intentions.     

Retail market structure and the threat by the manufacturer to sell goods directly to the consumer

When a manufacturer and its retailers and consumers are spatially separated, the retailers’ market size may be limited by the manufacturer who provides consumers with an option to purchase goods directly from them. The manufacturer uses this tactic to increase profit when a few retailers dominate the market. The mill price of a manufacturer, that is, the price of the good at delivery from a manufacturer’s factory, is critical under these circumstances.If the manufacturer charges a franchise fee, thus absorbing the retailer’s profit, this fee is a function of the mill price. Mill price policy can be used to maximize profit on the sale of goods and collection of the franchise fee. The resulting retail market structure becomes preferable for the manufacturer and consumers since the manufacturer’s profit is larger, as is the quantity purchased, compared with a competitive equilibrium in which every firm entering the market area is assumed to move its location instantly without cost.     

Perceived risk and consumer decision making related to health services: a comparative study

It is acknowledged[Weinstein, N. and Nicolich, M. (1993) ‘Correct and Incorrect Interpretations of Correlation Between Risk Perceptions and Risk Behaviours’, Health Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 235–45.] that with the development of services marketing specifically related to health services comes a need to understand the aspects of consumer risk behaviour. This paper examines differences in perceived risk between health services, general services and goods and will seek to substantiate and develop a previous US study,[Murray, K. B. and Schlacter, J. L. (1990) ‘The Impact of Services Versus Goods on Consumer's Assessment of Perceived Risk and Variability’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 51–65.] utilising a quantitative methodology with repeated measures and nested factors. The conclusions support the hypotheses that there are significant differences in perceptions of social and psychological risks when purchasing health services. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications     

重视交易安全 慎用合同形式

速度、效益与安全是衡量企业经营管理水平的三项重要指标,其中安全性是企业运营的基本出发点,决定着企业发展的速度与效益,而企业的合同行为是企业安全的一个重要方面。企业在签订合同时不应仅着眼于经济目标,要时刻注意合同行为的安全性。大量事实表明,许多企业因为对合同订立环节缺少安全意识,而给企业带来了麻烦,甚至是经营危机。可以说,草率的合同行为已成为目前企业经营风险中的重要变量。合同行为的安全性很大程度上取决于合同的订立形式。企业在订立合同时应根据合同的不同性质选择适当的合同形式,以维护交易行为的安全。2005年12月2…     

Nonlinear budget constraints and consumer demand: An application to public programs for residential housing

This study presents a methodology for exploiting the nonlinear hedonic nature of housing prices to estimate the compensated demands of households for particular housing attributes. The methodology is employed to provide Hicksian benefit measures of a particular housing subsidy program typical of those undertaken recently in developing countries.     

Employer responses to union organising: patterns and effects

This article presents original research on employer responses to trade union organising campaigns in the United Kingdom. The evidence indicates that there is no single response, with employers in some cases seeking to block and in others support union activity. These different patterns are strongly path dependent and reflect the prior degree of exposure to trade unionism of workplaces targeted for organising. Another finding is that employer responses co-vary with union approaches to organising, such that when the employer adopts adversarial tactics so does the union. The militancy of both parties, it seems, is mutually reinforcing. Finally, the evidence points to substantial influence of employer responses over the outcomes of organising. When employers are supportive then campaigns tend to be more successful, measured on a range of criteria. When the employer is hostile unions find it difficult to make progress and encounter particular difficulties in securing recognition.     

Yield curve responses to market sentiments and monetary policy

Central banks recently started to target longer term interest rates. The empirical failure of the rational expectations theory of the yield curve, however, limits its applicability to monetary policy analysis. The success of agent-based behavioral asset pricing models and behavioral macroeconomic models in replicating statistical regularities of empirical data series motivates to apply them to yield curve modeling. This paper analyses how the interaction of monetary policy and market sentiments shape the yield curve in a behavioral model with heterogeneous and bounded-rational agents. One result is that the behavioral model replicates empirical facts of term structure data. Moreover, it overcomes one major deficiency of rational expectations models of the yield curve in explaining the empirically observed uncertain responses of longer term yields to changes in the central bank rate. These are explained by the behavioral model’s ability to generate different responses of market sentiments to shocks at different times which lead to a variety of interest rate responses. Further results of this paper can be used as policy advice on how central banks can target the level, slope and curvature of the yield curve by targeting market sentiments about inflation and the business cycle.     

The impact of access to consumer data on the competitive effects of horizontal mergers and exclusive dealing

We examine the influence of firms’ ability to employ individualized pricing on the welfare consequences of horizontal mergers. In a two‐to‐one merger, the merger reduces consumer surplus more when firms can price discriminate based on individual preferences compared to when they cannot. However, the opposite holds true in a three‐to‐two merger, in which the reduction in consumer surplus is substantially lower with individualized pricing than with uniform pricing. Further, the merger requires an even smaller marginal cost reduction to justify when an upstream data provider can make exclusive offers for its data to downstream firms. We also show that exclusive contracts for consumer data pose significant antitrust concerns independent of merger considerations. Implications for vertical integration and data mergers are drawn.