Network Rail – forward or backward? Not-for-profit in British transport

This article examines the brief and unsuccessful career of the privately-owned infrastructure company, Railtrack, and its part in the privatised railway system in the UK between 1996 and 2001. It discusses the decision of the British government to discontinue public support for Railtrack and to set up a new not-for-profit company, Network Rail, to replace it. The ongoing public debate over these events and the prospects for the new company are analysed. Two earlier, and broadly successful, examples of not-for-profit companies in British transport history, are briefly considered for comparative purposes – the Port of London Authority and the London Passenger Transport Board.     

Looking back and looking to the Future--Interview with Mr.Wan Jifei,Chairman of CCPIT&CCOIC

2007 was a year of enormous change in China＇s economy,especially in foreign trade. Many changes were made regarding reform and opening-up, as well as the overall economic development strategy, and further adjustments were also made in the economic and foreign trade policies.     

Monetary,Financial and Fiscal Stability in the East African Community: Ready for a Monetary Union?

We examine prospects for a monetary union in the East African Community (EAC) by developing a stylised model of policymakers' decision problem that allows for uncertain benefits derived from monetary, financial and fiscal stability and then calibrating the model for the EAC for the period 2003–10. When policymakers properly allow for uncertainty, none of the countries wants to pursue a monetary union based on either monetary or financial stability grounds, and only Rwanda might favour it on fiscal stability grounds; we argue that robust institutional arrangements assuring substantial improvements in monetary, financial and fiscal stability are needed to compensate.     

The trilogy of China cotton markets: The lead–lag relationship among spot,forward, and futures markets

China is a leading participant in the world cotton market. China’s distinctive regulatory structure and procedures and business environment provide an opportunity to explore some unique market dynamics. This study investigates the interrelationship among the spot, futures, and forward cotton markets in China over a period of a major policy change: A temporary State reserve program for cotton that was established in 2011 and ended in 2014. This government intervention significantly distorted the way farmers, manufacturers, and speculators interacted and was not sustainable. Overall, our results support futures market’s dominant role in the price discovery process.     

Banks,Institutional Constraints and the Limits of Central Banking: Monetary Policy in Britain and West Germany, 1950–52

This paper analyses the anti-inflationary policies which were pursued in Britain and West Germany during the Korean War boom. It argues that the institutional relationships between the government, the central bank and the banking system can have considerable impact on the implementation of policy. The war brought a major shift in raw material prices and a consequent rise in bank lending in both countries to finance the increased import bill. The German independent central bank (BdL) used technical measures to restrain short-term lending, but was frustrated by the willingness of the Landeszentralbanken (regional central banks) to discount the bills of their local banking system. In addition, the banks themselves, because they operated in a competitive system, sought ways to circumvent the restrictions. The BdL took steps to tighten these loopholes and introduce a much stronger and more well defined policy transmission mechanism. Shifts in the terms of trade reduced inflationary pressure but the BdL retained tighter control over the banking system.

In Britain, the Bank of England was nominally controlled by the government, although it was able to exercise a degree of independence. Both parties had clear ideas of how inflationary pressure could be controlled in the economy; but these ideas differed significantly and neither one was able to impose their preferred option on the other. The result was a mixture of quantitative restrictions on the banks' balance sheets and qualitative guidelines to the banking system on the nature and extent of lending. The shift in raw material prices in 1952 largely solved the problem which it had created in 1951. The authorities, however, felt that their policies had been successful in constraining inflation and they failed to improve the monetary policy transmission mechanism as the Germans had done.     

Trade openness,income levels,and economic growth: The case of developing countries, 1970–2009

This paper attempts to investigate the extent to which trade openness has had an impact on the levels of income and rates of growth in a sample of 115 developing countries for the period 1970–2009. Additionally, to assess whether there is an income level threshold for a country to benefit from international trade, the sample is broken down into three mutually exclusive groups of countries: low-income, lower middle-income, and upper middle-income countries. The main novelty of the paper lies on the use, on the one hand, of a new and better trade openness measure and, on the other hand, of non-stationary heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques to cope with the problem of cross-sectional dependence. The results show a positive bi-directional relationship between trade openness and income level in the long run, thus suggesting that trade openness is both a cause and a consequence of the level of income. The results for the short run, that is, the link between openness growth and economic growth, go in the same direction.     

央视:创新2013,深耕2014

正在新媒体整合上,"看广告拿钱"这是2014年黄金时段广告上将出现的变化,通过智能手机应用程序APP,观众届时将在央视固定时段看到广告画面上的APP图标,搜寻企业品牌,观众收看广告,将得到企业的促销奖励,这一互动形式被命名为"找大牌"。2014年广告招标;稳中有增央视2014年招标签约总额稳中有增,超过了2013年。2014年广告招标预售有很多新变化,比如产品大力度的创新,现场招标比例进行调整等。     

杨波:2009,惊险的一跃

2009年,无论对奇瑞还是杨波本人来说,都是“惊险的一跃”。这一年,奇瑞推出了自己的多品牌战略,杨波也迎来了新的挑战;这一年,奇瑞在转型的路上迈出关键性的一步,而杨波却还坚守着自己营销的岗位,以“不变应万变”。在汽车产业高速发展的2009年,作为奇瑞汽车副总经理、麒麟汽车销售有限公司总经理,杨波正带领奇瑞向中高端品牌的惊险跨越。     

Popular Research Topics in Marketing Journals, 1995–2014

During the past two decades, the focus of marketing has moved from the tactics of persuasion to the strategies of value cocreation. After moving toward cognitive science and corporate strategies in the early 2000s, marketing research returned to its traditional domains of consumer psychologies and customer management. While conscientious consumers are gradually restraining themselves from selfish indulgence, marketers have refocused on a new set of values that encompass mental, experiential, and societal well-being. In this regard, we adopt an unprecedented approach by incorporating topic modeling with social network analysis. The results show that, in terms of topic heterogeneity, the most impactful journals are the most diverse, whereas each runner-up has a unique focus. Among the journals, we detect two major co-authorship communities, and among the topics, we detect three. Further, we find that the communities of the most cited papers are composed of heterogeneous clusters of similar topics. The pivots within, and the bridges between, these communities are also reported. In the spirit of collaborative research, our topic model and network analysis are shared via online collaboration and visualization platforms that readers can use to explore our models interactively and to download the dataset for further studies.     

Theory of Monetary Intelligence: Money Attitudes—Religious Values,Making Money,Making Ethical Decisions,and Making the Grade

This study explores (1) the effect of a short ethics intervention—a chapter of business ethics in a business course—on perceptions of business courses and personal values toward making money and making ethical decisions and (2) Monetary Intelligence (MI). Since attitudes predict intentions and behaviors, Monetary Intelligence, a form of social intelligence, is defined as the extent to which individuals monitor their own monetary motive, behavior, and cognition; apply the information to evaluate critical concerns and options; select strategies to achieve financial goals; and reach ultimate success and subjective well-being. I theorize that the affective (love of money motive) aspect of MI is unrelated to perceptions of “course work,” yet it is positively related to their “personal values” toward making money, but negatively related to making ethical decisions. Individuals with high MI (low affective love of money motive) have low interests in making money, but high levels of intrinsic religiosity and recall of the Ten Commandments and high interests in making ethical decisions and making the grade (objective academic performance). Based on data from multiple panels and multiple sources, this study provides the following discoveries. Contrary to expectations, there are no differences in students’ perceptions of course work and their personal values toward making money and making ethical decisions between two measures—before and after the ethics intervention. Results of this study not only provide empirical supports for the bright side of theory of Monetary Intelligence (MI, Monetary Quotient, MQ) but also reveal a new paradox—recall of the Ten Commandments (the priming effect) is positively related to making ethical decisions, but negatively related to making money. Results illustrate important theoretical, empirical, and practical implications to the literature of money attitudes, religiosity, intrinsic motivation, and business ethics.     

2014:创新、贴心,一拖自信前行

<正>今年,中国一拖欲以雄厚的研发实力,务实的服务态度再次令市场刮目相看,为用户传递温暖。在此前举行的全国农机展上,体型庞大、技术先进的东方红LW-4004拖拉机极其惹人关注。这款拖拉机采用了目前国际上先进的CVT无级变速技术。当前我国大多数拖拉机生产厂家还没有进入动力换挡时代,一拖即又一次走在了行业与技术的最前沿。     

A retrospective on the state of international advertising research in advertising,communication, and marketing journals: 1963–2014

Scanning from the earliest to the recent literature on international advertising research, this study aimed to provide a more comprehensive and detailed picture of the research trends and patterns across the advertising, marketing, and communication disciplines over the past half century. Findings exhibit continuous growth in terms of the quantity of international advertising studies. While theoretical foundations need to be further solidified and elaborated, methodological and statistical rigors have been increasingly underpinned in international advertising research. Further, this study recognized authorial and institutional productivity, and influential articles in the field of international advertising research. The finding indicates that scholarly endeavors are necessary for diversity of countries studied in future research.     

US small retail businesses’ perception of competition: Looking through a lens of fear,confidence, or cooperation

The U.S. retail industry has undergone dramatic changes, leading to the closing of brick-and-mortar retail stores on a large scale. Understanding perceived market competition among small retail businesses may help explain why certain businesses survive or fail in the altered retail environment. This study investigates small retail businesses' perceptions of competition within/outside the community, underlying reasons for their perceptions, and variations in perceptions by different business characteristics. Contrary to common expectations, we found that more than half of businesses interviewed were optimistic in the face of competition. Our data reveal two salient underlying reasons for pessimism and five for optimism. These perceptions tended to differ by operational locality (urban clusters vs. urban areas), business revenues, and innovativeness. Based on the findings, we developed propositions and a framework of small businesses' perceived competition and sustainable competitive advantage. We discussed theoretical and practical implications for small retail businesses’ sustainable growth in the challenging retail environment.     

Adolescent homicide victimization in Johannesburg,South Africa: incidence and epidemiological characteristics (2001–2009)

This study describes the incidence and epidemiological characteristics of adolescent homicides (15–19 years) in Johannesburg, South Africa. A retrospective population-based study was conducted on cases drawn from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System. A total of 590 adolescent homicides were registered for 2001–2009 corresponding to an average annual homicide rate of 23.4/100,000. The average annual rate was 39.8/100,000 for males and 7.9/100,000 for females. Black and coloured adolescents had the highest homicide rates. There was a considerable decline in the firearm homicide rates over the study period. In contrast, sharp instrument and blunt force homicides increased. Public places were the predominant scenes for male deaths, while female homicides occurred primarily in residential locations. Most male homicides took place over weekend nights. Alcohol was a prominent feature of homicides. The high homicide rates reported in this study underscore the need to develop interventions directed specifically at adolescents. Prevention efforts are required to pay particular attention to black and coloured adolescent males, and to address the availability of weapons and alcohol use among adolescents.     

Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Content Analysis of United States Magazine Advertising, 1980–2009

There has been widespread and growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR). This study examines how CSR practices have changed, corresponding to the changes in social issues by tracking back to the prevalence of CSR advertising in print magazines from 1980 to 2009 when CSR had thrived. Our findings from content analyses of print CSR advertising with Time Magazine and Better Home and Garden suggest that there are significant relationships between social issues and CSR practices by year, target audiences, and industry types. With recent increasing needs for CSR practices in society, this study lays the theoretical and practical groundwork for strategic CSR communication by documenting historical data on CSR advertising.     

2014西南偏南:营销来,极客出?

正虚拟货币、机器人、物联网这样的科技大命题与营销者们关注的零售、内容、移动互联网碰撞在一起。今年的奥斯汀格外火热,超过3万人齐聚2014年度西南偏南艺术节,大会的话题纷繁复杂:虚拟货币、机器人、物联网这样的科技大命题与营销者们关注的零售、内容、移动互联网碰撞在一起,激发灵感同时也多少让人抱怨信息量太大,看不过来。那么,对于品牌营销者们,今年的西南偏南又有哪些趋势与话题值得关注?今年大会电影展映环节播放了传奇音乐人夏普·戈登的传记电影《超级戈登》,这位一手打造多位摇滚巨     

The 2007–2009 Financial Crisis: An Erosion of Ethics: A Case Study

This case study examines five dimensions of the 2007–2009 financial crisis in the United States: (1) the devastating effects of the financial crisis on the U.S. economy, including unparalleled unemployment, massive declines in gross domestic product (GDP), and the prolonged mortgage foreclosure crisis; (2) the multiple causes of the financial crisis and panic, such as the housing and bond bubbles, excessive leverage, lax financial regulation, disgraceful banking practices, and abysmal rating agency performance; (3) the extraordinary efforts of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Department of the Treasury to stem the financial freefall triggered by the crisis and resuscitate financial institutions, (4) the ethical implications of the unprecedented actions by government institutions to rescue financial institutions and drag the country back from the brink of global financial collapse, and the conduct of the various parties contributing to the financial crisis, such as the shoddy behavior of mortgage brokers, the massive securitization of mortgages into overly complex bonds, the excessive leverage of financial institutions, the disgraceful work of bond rating firms, the abysmal risk management systems employed by financial institutions, and the massive operations of the shadow banking and over-the-counter derivatives markets; and (5) the major provisions of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law to in response to the financial crisis and for the purpose of correcting the egregious conduct of major financial institutions.