Interpersonal influence and consumer innovativeness

Innovators represent a small and somewhat elusive group of consumers who are often the earliest adopters of new products. As such, marketing researchers and practitioners alike are interested in determining the personality characteristics that influence innovators to purchase a new product early in the product life cycle. This correlational study examined the relationships of three of these characteristics (susceptibility to interpersonal influence, attention to social comparison information, and role‐relaxed consumption) to individual innate innovativeness. Data were collected using self‐report surveys administered to 326 students at a large public university in the south‐east United States. The results supported hypothesized negative relationships between consumer innovativeness and both susceptibility to interpersonal influence and attention to social comparison information, as well as a positive relationship between consumer innovativeness and role‐relaxed consumption.     

Retirement and transition phenomena in the family purchase process

Research is needed on the family purchase process of retirement‐age couples, because 78 million baby boomers are rapidly approaching retirement age. Both boomers and the retirement‐age couples in this study present special opportunities to marketers through new roles adopted in retirement. This study reports on perceptions of family purchase process participation among retirement‐age couples. Results indicate that transition retirees' family purchase process participation differs from that of post‐transition retirees. This finding has managerial implications for marketers wishing to serve desirable segments of current and future retirement‐age consumers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EARNINGS YIELD AND MARKET VALUE: EVIDENCE FROM THE AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE

This paper provides new evidence on the empirical anomalies known as the earnings/price (E/P) effect and the size effect in the pricing of common stock. Previous authors have arrived at contradictory conclusions regarding the existence and relative importance of the anomalies, and the intent of this paper is to help clarify the issues. An empirical method used in a previous study of these issues is replicated and applied to a new set of firms—those traded on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). This approach assures comparability with previous results and provides a sample with different market value and E/P distributions. The results from the AMEX suggest that the size effect and the E/P effect both exist and that the size effect is predominant. These results persist even after accounting for the January effect.     

Bond indenture provisions and the risk of corporate debt

This paper examines the effect of alternative bond indenture provisions on the allocation of risk among the firm's claimants. The approach taken here differs from that of earlier studies in that risk allocation is examined while the firm's leverage (in market value terms) is held constant. In this context, four indenture provisions are examined: (1) the time to maturity, (2) the promised payment schedule, (3) financing restrictions and (4) priority rules. It is concluded that risk is transferred from stockholders to bondholders as the time to maturity and promised payment increase appropriately. Furthermore substitution of longer-term debt for an equal amount of shorter-term debt also increases the risk to bondholders while decreasing the risk to stockholders. The analysis shows that a coupon bond can be represented by a unique discount bond with the same risk and value. This permits the characterization of the effective maturity of a risky debt issue, a concept analogous to the stochastic duration of a default-free coupon bond. These results are shown to be independent of the means used to finance the debt issue. Finally, it is concluded that the relative risk associated with different bonds issued by the same firm cannot be determined by the structure of priority rules alone. It is also necessary to consider the timing of the promised payments compared to that of the other debt issues in the firm's capital structure.     

The influence of tempo,loudness, and gender of listener on responses to music

This study explores the impact of gender and two psychophysical stimulus properties of instrumental music (tempo and loudness) on hedonic responses, including judgments of music's affective character and behavioral intentions toward the music. Digital recording technology was used to create multiple versions of an original musical score that varied tempo but held pitch constant. A 2 (slow/fast) by 2 (soft/loud) by 2 (male/female) between-Ss factorial experiment was conducted. Results indicate that gender moderates the influence of loudness, such that females respond more positively to music at lower volumes. Implications for the differential targeting of men and women through music in ads and in retail environments are discussed. (c) 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Historical perspective of migration and urbanisation in Whittlesea,Ciskei

This article sets out to explore the role of historical events and politics in the migration and urbanisation of the Whittlesea subregion. The evolution of the independent national state of Ciskei from a Native reserve, bantustan and homeland is analysed. The development potential of the subregion is directly related to the subregion's peripheral location in the national spatial economy and to the regional and urban development of South Africa. The migration and urbanisation process is analysed from the first settlement by the Moravian Mission at Shiloh in 1828 to the present,Whittlesea offers focused settlement opportunities as the first base in a stepwise migration process to the metropolitan core areas. Whittlesea is spatially fragmented owing to different settlement actions, while the isolated areas are functioning independently. Migration from the subregion could be facilitated to influence an equilibrating urbanisation process at the regional and national levels.     

Social security and consumer spending in an international cross section

This paper expands the base of empirical evidence on the social security aggregate private saving issue by examining the behavior of consumer expenditure in 16 industrialized countries over the 1951–60 period. The results are mixed in that time series movements of social security exhibit a positive relation to consumer spending, while the cross-sectional variations reveal a negative association. Our overall conclusion is that the cross-country evidence provides neither empirical support for the hypothesis that social security depresses private saving nor an empirical refutation of that hypothesis. We argue that this indeterminacy of results applies also to previous studies of U.S. time series and to analyses of household cross sections in the U.S.     

Computations for constrained linear models

The article presents an algorithm for linear regression computations subject to linear parametric equality constraints, linear parametric inequality constraints, or a mixture of the two. No rank conditions are imposed on the regression specification or the constraint specification. The algorithm requires a full Moore-Penrose g-inverse which entails extra computational effort relative to other orthonormalization type algorithms. In exchange, auxiliary statistical information is generated: feasibility of a set of constraints may be checked, estimability of a linear parametric function may be checked, and bias and variance may be decomposed by source.     

STOCKHOLDER RETURNS AMONG HOMOGENEOUS GROUPS OF MERGERS

A sample of cash and stock merger transactions consummated between 1975 and 1987 is used to form homogeneous groups based on financial characteristics of both bidding and target firms. The results are used to determine how group heterogeneity with respect to financial characteristics influences intergroup differences in both bidding firm and target firm merger returns. Stockholders of bidding firms with attributes that fit the free cash flow hypothesis of merger motivation suffer wealth losses relative to firms that have characteristics consistent with achievement of scale or scope economies or financial synergies. Differences in target and merger portfolio returns are also found.