Residents' Perception of the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Comparison of Pre‐ and Post‐Impacts

The purpose of this study is to explore any significant differences in residents' perception of the impacts before and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The findings of this study revealed that residents' perception of the positive impacts (community investment and improvement of city infrastructure) varied over two points in time, while two negative factors (inflation and tax increase) demonstrated little perceptual change. Residents had high expectations of the benefits that the Olympics would bring to the community, yet those expectations were not met. In fact, the problems caused by the Olympics were neither greater nor lesser than they expected. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Effective Service Provider Communication Style in the Formation of Restaurant Patrons' Perceived Relational Benefits and Loyalty

The purposes of this study were to examine the optimal service provider communication style for maximizing patrons' perceived relational benefits, and to examine how perceived relational benefits influence relationship quality and loyalty within the luxury restaurant industry. A review of current communication literature was conducted, and three types of communication styles were derived. Based on the theoretical causal relationships between the proposed constructs in this study, 16 hypotheses were derived, thus creating a conceptual model. The proposed model was tested utilizing data collected from 527 luxury restaurant patrons. The results of data analysis revealed two major findings: (a) a task-orientation communication style enhances patrons' perceived confidence benefits and deepens relationship quality, thus creating patron loyalty; and (b) an interaction-orientation communication style induces rapport between service provider and patrons, thus helping to maximize patrons' perceived relational benefits. Finally, it leads to patron loyalty. Based on these findings, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Effects of career barriers on career self-efficacy and career preparation behavior among undergraduates majoring in aviation tourism

Service Business - The purpose of this study was to investigate the causal relationships among career barriers, career self-efficacy, and career preparation behavior in South Korea. To conduct this...     

Reward for being an immigrant: Earnings gap between immigrant and native-born West Indians

Motivated by recent findings of a diminishing earnings gap between the West Indians and other black workers, this study examines the earnings processes of immigrant and native-born West Indians in an effort to find the role of culture traits in their earnings. The decomposition of the earnings difference between immigrant and native-born West Indians indicates that a significant amount of the gap is unexplained by the observable labor market characteristics. Most of the observable human capital endowments of the immigrants are treated unfavorably by the market compared to those of the native-born West Indians. The earnings advantage of immigrants attributable to unobserved factors, however, turns out to be more than sufficient to overcome their market treatment adversity.     

New evidence on taxes and portfolio choice

Identifying the effect of differential taxation on portfolio allocation requires exogenous variation in marginal tax rates. Marginal tax rates vary with income, but income surely affects portfolio choice directly. In systems of individual taxation – like Canada's – couples with the same household income can face different effective tax rates on capital income when labor income is distributed differently within households. Using this source of variation we find portfolio responses to taxation among more affluent households. The estimated effects are statistically significant but economically modest. In a “placebo” test, using data from the U.S. (which has joint taxation), we find no effect of the intra-household distribution of labor income on portfolios.     

Conjoint and WTP analyses of future mobile phones for digital convergence

Digital convergence for mobile phones is a hot issue. This study considers future development of mobile phones with a view toward consumers' usage and the amount they are willing to pay. In order to select preferable convergence technology, we utilize convergence concepts such as absorption, blending, and combination. The result of conjoint analysis shows that a preference for convergence technology will involve computing, media, navigation, and imaging. However, only the computing attribute increases consumers' willingness to pay. Our study results contribute to product planning and commercialization of innovative mobile phones.     

Strategic implications of the open-market paradigm under digital convergence: the case of small business C2C

This article presents the open-market paradigm in the context of digital convergence and proposes strategic directions for open-market participants. Although not a new phenomenon, open market has become the most popular e-business model, linking millions of buyer and seller individuals (Customer to Customer: C2C). This article examines the drivers of digital convergence that enable the open-market paradigm and conducts industry and Blue Ocean analyses for open-market business. Finally, a real-world application—the Cyworld market of Korea—is presented as an illustrative example.     

The relationship between persistence of abnormal earnings and usefulness of accounting information in hotel companies

This study examines whether persistence of abnormal earnings affects book value of equity and earnings. According to Ohlson (Contemporary Accounting Res. (1995) 661–687) theoretical framework, a company's market value is a function of its book value of equity, earnings and other information. The persistence of abnormal earnings has a systematic relation with book value of equity and earnings. The persistence is measured using the first auto-correlation coefficient of abnormal earnings for two consecutive periods. This study intends to measure the persistence of abnormal earnings during 1993–2000 period for hotels and manufacturing companies. The results indicate that the persistence of abnormal earnings is higher for hotels than manufacturing companies and for hotels of first class than of other classes.     

Bank Exposure to Interest Rate Risks During Financial Liberalization: Evidence from South Korea

This study documents the changing impact of long and short term interest rate risks on the equity prices of banks in South Korea during the process of financial liberalization. Consistent with the presence of regulatory constraints, Korean bank equity returns are found to be sensitive to both anticipated and unanticipated changes in interest rates in the first period (1976-81) when banks were largely under government control. However, during our last period (1989-99) of liberalization, Korean bank equity returns were found to have a positive association only with unanticipated short-term interest rates. Consistent with the ability to manage other interest rate risks successfully, in this last liberalization period, Korean bank equity returns had no association with long-term or with anticipated short-term interest rates. In view of the continued interest in banking and financial market liberalization among many Asian, African, and formerly socialist countries including China, these results should be of much banking and policy interest. JEL Classifications: G21, G28, E44, L89