Consumer attitudes and acceptance of genetically modified organisms in Korea

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were first used to designate micro organisms that had had genes from other species transferred into their genetic material by the then‐new techniques of ‘gene‐splicing.’ Cultivation of GMOs has so far been most widespread in the production of soybeans and maize. The United States holds almost three‐fourths of the total crop area devoted to GMOs. Because many crops have been imported from the US, there is a large possibility for consumers to intake the products of GMOs in Korea. The safety of GMOs is not scientifically settled at this time, however. Additionally, the research regarding the GMOs issue of consumers has rarely been conducted in Korea. This study therefore focused on the consumer attitudes about GMOs and willingness to purchase them. The data were collected from 506 adults living in Seoul, Daegu and Busan, Korea, by means of a self‐administered questionnaire. Frequencies and chi‐square tests were conducted by SPSS. The results of the survey were as follows. First, the consumer concerns about GMOs were high but recognition was low; many respondents answered they did not have exact information about GMOs, although they had heard about them. Second, almost 93% of the respondents desired the labelling of GMOs. Third, the level of acceptance of GMOs was high; two‐thirds of the respondents showed that they were willing to buy GMOs. Finally, many respondents worried about the safety of GMOs in that 73% of the respondents primarily wanted to be informed about safety of GMOs. This study suggests that the consumer education about GMOs should be conducted through mass media and consumer protection organisations.     

Common factors in international securitized real estate markets

This study investigates the presence of common factors in the securitized real estate markets of the Untied States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Hong Kong (HK), and Singapore (SG). Using a combination of factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis on 10-year monthly return data for 142 real estate securities in the four markets, more common risk factors among real estate securities within a country than across countries are detected. In addition, there is at least one common securitized real estate market factor that is moderately correlated with the world real estate market, and to a lesser extent, with the world stock market. However, the degree of linkage across the four securitized real estate markets is much weaker than the strong linkages present across the four economies. It further appears that the extent to which correlations are found in international securitized real estate markets might largely be due to the increasing integrated nature of the world real economy, rather than a result of the globalization of financial markets. The results are preliminary, but indicative, and suggest that more studies exploring how common factors, together with the local market portfolio, could help explain the return-generating process of securitized real estate.     

完善结构性减税政策的着力点与路径选择

根据目前我国所面临的新形势、新任务,完善结构性减税政策的着力点应该放在三个方面:针对特定税种进行有增有减的调整,促进税制结构的优化;针对特定群体实行减税或增税政策,实现税收负担的公平;将结构性减税与经济结构调整对接,助推经济结构的优化。立足于这三大着力点,完善结构性减税政策的基本路径选择为:推进增值税扩围改革;调整消费税;减免部分进口环节税收;实行综合与分类相结合的个人所得税制;进一步完善企业所得税优惠政策;深化个人住房房产税改革;全面推广资源税;研究开征环境保护税等新税种。     

主权财富基金对外直接投资的选择

针对主权财富基金对外直接投资的选择问题,提出从行业和企业两个层面对值得入股的国内企业进行选择。首先论述了主权财富基金在对外直接投资时进行行业选择的思路,分析了我国主权财富基金对外直接投资的行业战略,进一步确定了行业组合的优先次序;然后针对所选行业中的国内上市公司,运用DEA模型对其进行了效率评价,最终确定主权财富基金的国内企业选择。     

试论武汉城市圈建设中失地农民社会保障权的实现

武汉城市圈"两型"社会建设的目标是实现社会和谐、有序和可持续地发展。然而,在武汉城市圈建设中也存在一些矛盾和问题,政府对土地的征收和征用,致使社会出现了失地农民这个弱势群体,失地农民的权利被弱化和被漠视的现象严重。该文试图从失地农民的社会保障权角度,论述如何为武汉城市圈"两型"社会建设提供法治保障机制,分析产生的原因及完善的路径选择,以期为失地农民的生存权和发展权的实现有所裨益。     

The Business Case for Gender Diversity: Examining the Role of Human Resource Management Investments

Integrating opposing theoretical perspectives from the past literature, the authors hypothesize and test a U‐shaped curvilinear relationship between gender diversity and workforce productivity. They further propose that the curvilinear effects vary depending on the levels of an organization's human resource management (HRM) investments in pay, benefit, training, and communication; that is, the patterns are more salient when HRM investments are high rather than low. To enhance understanding of how HRM investments have impact on diverse employees, the authors also examine the moderating influence of organizational identification of diverse members that can exert proximal influence on the diversity‐productivity relationship. As predicted, results reveal that high levels of HRM investments influence the gender diversity–workforce productivity association to form a U‐shaped curvilinear relationship. Organizational identification also yields the same moderating patterns. Research and practical implications are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Evaluating Industrial Relations Systems of OECD Countries from 1993 to 2005: A Two‐Dimensional Approach

This article uses both cross‐sectional and longitudinal methods to evaluate the national industrial relations systems of 30 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1993 to 2005. We adopt a pluralistic view of industrial relations that gives equal weight to efficiency and equity, along with a general systems model consisting of input, process and output. We rank each country in terms of a combined score of efficiency and equity. We find that the 30 OECD countries can be separated into three distinct groups (high on both equity and efficiency; high on efficiency but low on equity; moderate on equity and low on efficiency), and that these groups exhibit considerable stability over time.     

A day without a search engine: an experimental study of online and offline searches

With the evolution of the Web and development of web-based search engines, online searching has become a common method for obtaining information. Given this popularity, the question arises as to how much time people save by using search engines for their information needs compared to offline sources, as well as how online searching affects both search experiences and search outcomes. Using a random sample of queries from a major search engine and a sample of reference questions from the Internet Public Library (IPL), we conduct a real-effort experiment to compare online and offline search experiences and outcomes. We find that participants are significantly more likely to find an answer on the Web (100 %), compared to offline searching (between 87 % and 90 %). Restricting our analysis to the set of questions in which participants find answers in both treatments, a Web search takes on average 7 (9) minutes, whereas the corresponding offline search takes 22 (19) minutes for a search-engine (IPL) question. Furthermore, while raters judge library sources to be significantly more trustworthy and authoritative than the corresponding Web sources, they judge Web sources as significantly more relevant. Balancing all factors, we find that the overall source quality is not significantly different between the two treatments for the set of search-engine questions. However, for IPL questions, we find that non-Web sources are judged to have significantly higher overall quality than the corresponding Web sources. In comparison, for factual questions, Web search results are significantly more likely to be correct (66 % vs. 43 %). Lastly, post-search questionnaires reveal that participants find online searching more enjoyable than offline searching.     

The Effects of Central Banks’ Rate Change Patterns on Financial Market Variables

This study examines whether different patterns of change to the benchmark interest rates of central banks are associated with their contributions to variances in the forecast errors of three financial market variables: the long-term interest rate, the foreign exchange rate, and the stock market index. On average, the central bank’s interest rate accounts for approximately 20% of the variance in each variable. We find that the total range of changes is more important than the frequency of changes. The panel regression shows that the range and frequency of policy rate changes is positively associated with the volatility of long-term interest rates but no association with the volatility of stock prices and exchange rates. These results suggest that small and frequent adjustments of policy rates are desirable for reducing the volatility of interest rates. The panel VAR represents interest rate channel is a more important than exchange rate and stock price channel.     

High‐performance work systems and workplace performance in small,medium‐sized and large firms

This article draws on the Organisational Growth and Development (OGD) life cycle model to explore the relationship between high‐performance work systems (HPWS) and performance in firms of different size, thereby extending understanding of congruence or ‘best fit’ theory within strategic HRM debates. With reference to management control theory, economies of scale and the availability of specialist managerial skills, the article hypothesises that while an HPWS–performance relationship might exist in small, medium‐sized and large firms, the relationship will be stronger in large firms than in both small and medium‐sized firms, and stronger in medium‐sized firms than in small firms. Analysis of data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey demonstrates, however, that there is no association between HPWS and workplace performance in medium‐sized firms, in contrast to the positive relationship between HPWS and performance found in large firms and between HPWS and labour productivity in small firms.