More than just a utensil: The influence of drinking straw size on perceived consumption

This research replicates and extends Wansink and colleagues' research on the effect of container size on actual consumption by examining the influence of medium size of consumption (straw size) on perceived consumption. Results from two studies show that participants who used a thin straw perceived their consumption as greater than those who used a thick straw, because straw size can lead to different perceptions of consumption time. Furthermore, sip size does not moderate the effect of straw size on perceived consumption.     

More than just empathy: The influence of moral emotions on boycott participation regarding products sourced from politically contentious regions

The primary objective of this research is to assess the influence of moral emotions (empathy and anger) on consumer buying decisions of products made in disliked sources in the context of third-country national consumers. The study employs data collected from the UK, France, and Germany consisting of 260, 261, and 244 respondents, respectively. The empirical results provide evidence to the influence of moral emotions on consumers’ attitudes towards buying Israeli goods. Concurrently however, the results show that, while anger towards Israel comprises the main factor that prompts boycotting intention, empathic concerns towards Arabs in the West Bank and Golan Heights (the Territories) have negligible influence on buying decisions. In addition, the results point to differences across the populations studied in the current research, especially with respect to the influence of involvement and subjective norms on behavioral intention. Implications are identified together with consideration of the study limitations.     

Reconceptualizing cultural distance: The role of cultural experience reserve in cross-border acquisitions

Cultural distance is one of the most widely used distance construct in international business. However, scholars have long questioned the notion that cultural distance has a homogenous impact on organizational actions and performance. We redress this by examining how the relationship between cultural differences and deal abandonment in cross-border acquisitions is contingent on firm-level cultural experience reserve and industry affiliation. Drawing on the organizational learning theory and cultural friction perspective, we first propose that the cultural experience reserve of a focal firm mitigates the positive impact of cultural differences on cross-border deal abandonment. We then hypothesize that the firm's industry context affects the uncertainties associated with cultural differences. Our findings based on a sample of 197 Indian services sector firms support our theoretical predictions.     

Savings and Investment Behaviour in Britain: More Questions than Answers

Since the late 1970s successive British governments have been instrumental in cultivating a savings-friendly environment. Changes have been orchestrated in two ways: first by developing a regulatory structure in which the emphasis has been on safeguarding consumer's savings; and second by developing new types of accounts which include significant tax incentives. Despite considerable government intervention, consumer savings and investment behaviour has not received a great deal of attention from academic researchers. Some of the reasons for this lack of interest will be assessed prior to analysing two large scale datasets to ascertain levels of savings and account holding behaviour in Britain. The data indicates that while the vast majority of the British population are savings account holders, levels of regular saving are very low and savers frequently give few, if any, motives for their savings strategies.     

Balancing the scales: recovering from service failures depends on the psychological distance of consumers

The purpose of this research is to enhance knowledge about service recovery by investigating the feelings of psychological distance in the relationship between customers' perceptions of service recovery efforts of the perceived justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, and interactional justice) and attitudinal responses such as satisfaction with service recovery effort and trust in the firm. The results of structural equation modelling analyses suggested that consumers who had positive justice perceptions were likely to exhibit positive attitudinal responses. Consequently, the positive attitudinal responses generated positive word-of-mouth intention about their experiences and encouraged them to continue the service.     

Differences in Information Requirements among European Citizens: More Psychology than Socio-Demographics

A review of recent research indicates that the socio-demographic characteristics of the citizens of the EU countries can explain differences in the attitudes towards the new common currency, the euro, only to a quite limited extent, and that the relationship between particular demographic characteristics, such as age, and attitudes varies substantially from one country to the next. Thus, in choosing target groups for information campaigns in connection with the introduction of the euro as well as in choosing the themes for the campaigns, other considerations have to brought to the fore. It is suggested that more attention be paid to national values, including the role that the currency plays as a source of national identity and pride; also here, substantial differences are found among countries. Furthermore, former behavioural experiences -- which also vary among countries -- must be taken into account. Likewise, information about micro-economic and macro-economic consequences has to be adapted to the the different attitudes and beliefs prevalent in the various European countries.     

海关行政方式转变：守门不再是唯一

海关行政方式转变之一 搞"暗箱操作",将行不通依法办事就是对贸易的便利--访海关总署政策法规司司长郑跃声 记者:为迎接入世,中国海关在海关法规方面做了哪些工作?     

Lemon laws in the United States: More hype than help?

Lemon laws are a recent phenomenon in the United States. Over thirty states have passed such laws since 1982 to give purchasers a refund/replacement remedy for a defective new motor vehicle. Prior to the passage of lemon laws, existing law provided little hope of consumer redress in this situation. This article reviews the various characteristics found in United States lemon laws and offers criticism in the areas of third-party dispute resolution mechanisms, objective quantification of what constitutes a lemon, and the refund/replacement remedy.     

Effects of cultural institutes on bilateral trade and FDI flows: Cultural diplomacy or economic altruism?

The number of cultural institutes from major developed and developing countries increased significantly in the last twenty years. In this paper, using cross-sectional and panel data analysis on bilateral trade in goods and services, and FDI inflows and outflows, we examine the economic effects of 1,266 cultural institutes from China, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and UK for the period of 1990–2015. The empirical results suggest that cultural institutes have significantly positive trade and FDI enhancing effects, which are persistent over time. However, these effects are most robust only with goods exports and FDI outflows. Furthermore, the economic effects of cultural institutes are not homogenous across destinations and are the strongest for developed rather than developing host countries. There is also significant heterogeneity among cultural institutes with significant differences in their economic effects on different types of bilateral trade and FDI flows.     

More than meets the eye: videography and production of desire in semiocapitalism

ABSTRACT

In the light of the recent proliferation of interest in videographic methods in marketing and consumer research, we wish to make a call for thinking critically about the medium. In this article, we challenge traditional means of semiotic analysis and consider contexts outside aesthetic symbolism that take into account wider agencements of videographic inquiry. We sensitise thinking about videographic production to include a broad scope of influence beyond production and spectatorship. By positing a mode of desiring relationalities in ‘semiocapitalist’ markets, and through the illustrative example of pop-music videos, we show how videography not only produces symbols, but also has the tendency to discipline the viewer into particular subjective positions. We hope to add to the conceptual toolkit of aspiring video scholars and encourage them to be increasingly critical and reflexive about their potential impact.     

EC Competition Law After Modernisation: More than Ever in the Interest of Consumers

In this paper it is argued that even though the consumer cannot (anymore) be reduced to a homo oeconomicus, competition law is the cornerstone of consumer law and that the decentralised application of EC competition law since 1 May 2004 (pursuant to Regulation 1/2003) gives new opportunities for an effective application of the EC competition rules to the benefit of consumers. While the EC Treaty (and the future Constitution for Europe) aim to protect consumers in the framework of the internal market programme, as well as on the basis of a genuine consumer protection policy, it is submitted that an effective competition policy remains crucial for consumers in a market economy. Consumer interests are generally diffuse and therefore difficult to protect via legal procedures. Nevertheless a further development of remedies which are already available in Community law (nullity of restrictive agreements, claims for damages, actions for a cease and desist order, and so on) will contribute to an increased application of the competition rules in the interest of consumers.     

Formal international contracts in the presence of cultural distance: An empirical analysis of biopharmaceutical alliances

Formal contracts are designed to manage the moral hazard issues and inherent risks that come with relationships between organizations. These contracts play an important role in nonequity international alliances, where greater cultural distance between the partners gives rise to more uncertainty in the relationship. At the same time, the contract is the outcome of a negotiation process, and this process is affected by the cultural distance between the partners. This article addresses whether cultural distance affects contract design and content. Rather than test an established model, we use an inductive approach to conduct a detailed empirical analysis of 135 two‐party international research‐and‐development contracts for clinical development in the biopharmaceutical industry. The results show that cultural distance wields complex effects on the contract and its content. They also indicate that a contract will be less detailed—with fewer monitoring clauses and a narrower definition of the collaborative scope—when the partnering firms operate in highly distant national cultures.     

Acting More Generously than the Law Requires: The Issue of Employee Layoffs in halakhah

In this paper, the issue of plant closings is analyzed from the perspective of halakhah (the Written Law of Judaism). Two levels of analysis in halakhah must be differentiated: the legal (enforced by courts) and the moral (not enforced by law, but rather framed in terms of duty to God). There is no legal mandate to keep an unprofitable plant open, but there are a number of moral imprecations (particularly "acting more generously than the law requires") that might influence an employer's decision making. Using analogical reasoning to infer moral and/or legal obligations may be a fruitful means for businesspeople to analyze business situations in terms of ethical implications.     

More than Just an Opinion: The Effect of Verbal Self‐Expression on Consumer Choice

In an ever‐widening range of occasions, consumers have the opportunity to comment and express their opinions on brands and products. However, little is known about how voicing opinions about the choice options before actually choosing might affect consumer choice, and specifically liking of choice. This paper proposes that pre‐choice opinion expression undermines the effect of post‐choice bolstering, because opinion sufficiently satisfies self‐expressive needs and therefore supersedes the use of subsequent choice as a self‐expressive resource. This proposition is based on the assumption that opinion can psychologically substitute for choice, because the two represent alternative routes to self‐expression. Two experiments provide empirical support for this hypothesis. Study 1 showed that after articulating their opinions about the choice options, participants were less likely to idealize their choices, and this effect was mediated by a change in the construal of choice as self‐expression. Study 2 further showed that this effect is moderated by public versus private occasions of opinion voicing and by individual differences in the value of expression. Together, findings support that opinion is enough to express the self, and if such an opportunity is made available prior to choosing, consumers’ liking of their choices is weakened.     

把握资本进出关--我国利用外资中的国家经济安全问题分析

外资带来的国家经济安全问题主要包括市场垄断、产业控制、技术依附和金融危机以及由此带来的宏观经济不稳定。外资对我国产业安全、技术安全和金融安全的影响问题,主要是负面影响问题。由于我国近70％的外资集中在制造业,制造业是产业安全争论的焦点,因此,关于外资对产业安全影响的讨论也主要放在制造业上。     

More than what meets the eye: Understanding the effects of poly-contextual cues in online fashion retailing

While previous studies have examined the presence (vs. absence) of contextual cues or the product-context fit, the effect of multiple cues (poly-cue) remained underexplored. In response, this study investigated the effects of poly- (vs. mono-) cues on the valuation of a product and the underlying mechanism behind these effects. Findings suggest that a poly-cue increases the product valuation via increased consumption vision (Study 1–3), which was pronounced for global processors (Study 2) and attenuated for a product with low contextual versatility (Study 3). This study provides actionable insights for online retailers as well as enrich the relevant literature.     

The impact of espoused national cultural values on innovative behaviour: an empirical study in the Chinese IT-enabled global service industry

In this article, we explore the different roles that knowledge sharing and exploitative learning play in employees’ innovative behaviour, and investigate the different moderating effects of employees’ espoused national cultural values on the relationship between exploitative learning and innovative behaviour in the Chinese IT-enabled global service firms with different ownerships. We propose a theoretical model to characterize these antecedents of innovative behaviour. A structured research survey was conducted and data were collected from a sample of 484 full-time employees in 3 IT-enabled global service firms in the PRC. Results indicate that knowledge sharing is positively associated with innovative behaviour in multinational corporations and private IT-enabled global service; espoused power distance has a significant positive moderating effect on exploitative learning–innovative behaviour relationship in state-owned and private firms; espoused collectivism has a significant moderating effect only in state-owned firms in China. Last, we explore the implications of our findings for theory and practice of innovation.     

Revisiting the role of cultural distance in MNC's foreign ownership mode choice: the moderating effect of experience attributes

This study investigates potential moderating effects of firm's experience levels in the relationship between cultural distance and foreign ownership mode choice. Using the well established Japanese FDI data base, it is found that higher levels of experience, particularly decision-specific experience (prior experience with a particular ownership structure mode), mitigates potential impacts of uncertainty and costs caused by the high level of cultural distance, thus uncovering one possible answer to the ‘national cultural distance paradox’ reported in the literature. These findings reinforce similar findings of interaction effects between key variables and cultural distance in studies involving other important strategic decisions of the MNC. The ‘decision-specific experience-moderated cultural distance’ variable, and not the ‘absolute cultural distance’ variable, is found to be an important determinant of a firm's foreign ownership mode choice. Furthermore, this variable dominates the other experience-moderated cultural distance variables (international business experience and host county experience-moderated cultural distance variables) in the ability to discriminate between full ownership and shared ownership modes. Based on this moderated cultural distance measure, we find strong evidence that cultural distance is positively associated with full ownership of Japanese foreign manufacturing entities.