Measuring risky adolescent cycling behaviour

Adolescents are at a greater risk of being involved in traffic accidents than most other age groups, even before they start driving cars. This article aims to determine the factor structure of a self-report questionnaire measuring adolescent risky cycling behaviour, the ACBQ (Adolescent Cycling Behaviour Questionnaire). The questionnaire's structure was based on the widely used Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ). A sample of secondary school students (N = 1749; age range: 13–18 years) filled out the questionnaire. Factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure underlying the questionnaire, which was confirmed on two equally large portions of the entire sample. These three underlying factors were identified as errors, common violations and exceptional violations. The ACBQ is a useful instrument for measuring adolescents' risky cycling behaviour.     

Measuring responsible financial consumption behaviour

Sound consumption decisions determine individuals’ well‐being; responsible financial consumption behaviour (RFCB) affects not only their finances but also their societal status and emotional state. The failure to manage personal finances responsibly may result in serious long‐term consequences for individuals and society overall. In order to evaluate the concept of RFCB, this study combines two established theoretical frameworks—the family management system and the theory of planned behaviour. The paper investigates the relationships among RFCB, responsible financial attitudes, financial literacy and behavioural control. Its theoretical model is tested on a random sample of 494 respondents and analysed using PLS‐SEM. The results confirm the formation of responsible consumption behaviour by six formative elements: self‐control in spending, planning for the future, seeking information, education, rational decision‐making and solvency. The findings also indicate that all three focal variables have a direct effect on RFCB.     

Pricing risky corporate bonds: An empirical study

This paper empirically studies a model for pricing risky corporate bonds proposed by Baaquie—based on the seminal Merton. The proposed model provides an exact solution for the price of a risky corporate bond with a finite maturity and explains the market price of corporate fixed coupon bonds as being the result of the market risk that is carried by the bond. Baaquie's model is empirically tested using 42 fixed coupon bonds issued by 23 US corporations, between 2011 and 2017. It is found that the proposed model estimates most bond prices quite accurately. Market time (similar to the concept of psychological time), which is distinct from calendar time, is quantified in the paper and is an exogenous behavioral parameter that plays a pivotal role in improving the accuracy of the pricing model for long-maturity risky bonds.     

The role of multinational production in a risky environment

This paper explores the aggregate consequences of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the opportunities for risk diversification available to consumers. The crucial difference between FDI and other international financial flows is that the former involves technology flows across countries. We present a model where firm-embedded productivity can be transferred costly across countries through the activity of multinational firms. We find that risk patterns affect multinationals' location decisions and, in turn, these decisions change the scope for international risk diversification even in a world with complete financial markets.     

Measuring ease of use of mobile applications in e-commerce retailing from the perspective of consumer online shopping behaviour patterns

Scientifically judging and comparing different mobile e-commerce retailing applications (apps) are essential to increase online shopping efficiency and enhance design for system improvement. In this research, the use of mobile apps in e-commerce retailing is viewed as an information operation process, and distance of information-state transition (DIT) theory is introduced to measure the “convenience” of mobile apps to obtain service information. Thus, a novel DIT-based evaluation method for the ease of use of mobile apps in e-commerce retailing from the perspective of consumer online shopping behaviour patterns is proposed. Three representative Chinese enterprises, namely, Tianmao Mall, Jingdong Mall and Suning Easy-to-buy, are chosen as study objects. Moreover, the corresponding ease-of-use indicators of three mobile apps under typical online shopping behaviour patterns are evaluated quantitatively. Results show that this research has important implications not only for online consumers but also for designers of online shopping systems.     

Vulnerable options,risky corporate bond,and credit spread

In the current literature, the focus of credit‐risk analysis has been either on the valuation of risky corporate bond and credit spread or on the valuation of vulnerable options, but never both in the same context. There are two main concerns with existing studies. First, corporate bonds and credit spreads are generally analyzed in a context where corporate debt is the only liability of the firm and a firm’s value follows a continuous stochastic process. This setup implies a zero short‐term spread, which is strongly rejected by empirical observations. The failure of generating non‐zero short‐term credit spreads may be attributed to the simplified assumption on corporate liabilities. Because a corporation generally has more than one type of liability, modeling multiple liabilities may help to incorporate discontinuity in a firm’s value and thereby lead to realistic credit term structures. Second, vulnerable options are generally valued under the assumption that a firm can fully pay off the option if the firm’s value is above the default barrier at the option’s maturity. Such an assumption is not realistic because a corporation can find itself in a solvent position at option’s maturity but with assets insufficient to pay off the option. The main contribution of this study is to address these concerns. The proposed framework extends the existing equity‐bond capital structure to an equity‐bond‐derivative setting and encompasses many existing models as special cases. The firm under study has two types of liabilities: a corporate bond and a short position in a call option. The risky corporate bond, credit spreads, and vulnerable options are analyzed and compared with their counterparts from previous models. Numerical results show that adding a derivative type of liability can lead to positive short‐term credit spreads and various shapes of credit‐spread term structures that were not possible in previous models. In addition, we found that vulnerable options need not always be worth less than their default‐free counterparts. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 21:301–327, 2001     

Measuring Effort

Efficiency-wage theory has been criticized recently for its treatment of “effort”. According to Currie and Steedman (Metroeconomica, 1993), effort is an ordinal variable, and ordinality implies that some standard assumptions become meaningless. This criticism is unfounded. The numerical representation of effort must be consistent with the specifications of the production function and workers' preferences. As long as this requirement is met, the results of the analysis are independent of the choice of representation.     

Japanese consumers' use of extrinsic and intrinsic cues to mitigate risky food choices

The stated preference data were used to simulate and examine consumers' valuation of important extrinsic and intrinsic cues that are associated with risky foods. This analysis generates information on how consumers assess trade‐offs between price and selected intrinsic and extrinsic cues to determine their choice among alternative products. From this, optimum level of product quality attributes (i.e. intrinsic cues) and optimum price level for import products can be derived. Also, most effective sources of communicating food safety and risk management can be identified. The results show that the country origin cue is a key factor in understanding consumers' choice behaviour for food product that entails potential risk, which may suggest that consumers are using this information as a risk‐reduction strategy.     

Modernity and the Singaporean adolescent

This article investigates the effects of modernity on the purchase intentions of Singaporean adolescents. As a component of subjective norms, modernity had a positive impact on the purchase intention for party clothes among Singaporean Chinese teens. It was also found that the socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of modernity interacted with attitude and subjective norm. Specifically, attitude had a greater effect and subjective norm had less influence on the purchase intention for party clothes among more modern teens who resided in private homes and were English speaking than those who lived in public housing and were non‐English speaking. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Measuring corporate internationalisation

Measures of corporate internationalisation have gained crucial importance in the recent debate on globalisation, since many scholars link globalisation to a quantitative increase in the international activities of firms. Opinions on the extent of this increase differ widely, however, depending on what measurement concept is used. As there is no universally applicable measurement concept, researchers face the difficult task of bringing research questions, measurement concepts and data availability into line. For useful comments the author would like to thank Douglas van den Berghe (University of Rotterdam), Dieter Plehwe (WZE), Stefano Vescovi (WZB) and Michael Wortmann (FAST e.V., Berlin). An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the workshop “Dimensionen der Internationalisierung von Unternehmen” at the Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Cologne 16th/17th December 1999.     

Measuring Purchase-decision involvement

Purchase-decision involvement is distinguished from product-class involvement. Literature on consumer involvement is shown to be lacking a measure of purchase involvement. Therefore, a scale of purchase-decision involvement is developed. Two empirical studies are described and are shown to furnish tests of convergent and discriminant validities. The individual items of the proposed scale are explicitly embedded in the purchase-decision context, and the scale is simple and parsimonious, making it especially useful to practitioners.     

Measuring Financial Literacy

Financial literacy (or financial knowledge) is typically an input to model the need for financial education and explain variation in financial outcomes. Defining and appropriately measuring financial literacy is essential to understand educational impact as well as barriers to effective financial choice. This article summarizes the broad range of financial literacy measures used in research over the last decade. An overview of the meaning and measurement of financial literacy is presented to highlight current limitations and assist researchers in establishing standardized, commonly accepted financial literacy instruments.