Measuring CPI's reliability: the stochastic approach to index numbers revisited

The reliability measurement of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has recently drawn much attention, as the index number has been criticized for its inaccuracy in accessing the degree of inflation. This article centers on providing a new regression specification that can help better gauge the CPI's reliability. More specifically, based on the stochastic approach to index numbers, we argue that the conventional treatment of the systematic changes in relative prices should be made time variant. We therefore propose a more comprehensive regression specification by including additional dummies that represent different general inflation rate levels and business cycle phases. Under this framework, we are more capable of avoiding possible misspecifications in the regression equation, as was experienced by Clements and Izan (1987). It also allows us to better answer the ‘Keynes’ critic’ regarding the stochastic approach to index numbers. The empirical results of Australia and the US are used to validate the merit of our specification.     

Customer Relational Benefits and Relationship-Marketing Outcomes: Comparing Three Transaction Types of Travel Product

Given the increasing popularity of the Internet and TV shopping, travel agencies are using these electronic channels to conduct business transactions. However, few studies investigate how customers' relational benefits affect relationship-marketing outcomes in the travel industry. This study examines the effects of the relational benefits on customer satisfaction and loyalty by focusing on three types of transaction used for travel products. The results indicate that confidence and social benefits, but not special treatment benefits, positively affect customer satisfaction. All three types of customers' relational benefits are positively related to loyalty. The influences of confidence benefits on satisfaction and loyalty are stronger for Internet transaction than interpersonal transaction and TV shopping transaction. The influences of social benefits on satisfaction and loyalty are stronger for TV shopping transaction than interpersonal transaction and Internet transaction. Therefore, the relationships among customer relational benefits, satisfaction, and loyalty are moderated by the three types of transaction.     

Making customer relationship management work: evidence from the banking industry in Taiwan

Soon after becoming a WTO member, Taiwan found the internationalisation and liberalisation in the financial industry ushered its domestic banks into a new era. In response to this global trend, all its banks strove to rely on customer relationship management (CRM) to enhance customer value (CV). This study aims to probe further into the connection between CV and CRM. A series of examinations revealed that (1) both functional and social value impact customer behaviour directly and positively; (2) customer satisfaction positively and directly affects customer loyalty; (3) a positive and direct relationship exists between customer loyalty and customer behaviour; and (4) the positive and significant relationship between CV and customer behaviour can be developed through mediators such as customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Consequently, banks should offer their customers different services, products, and marketing channels to meet their diversified needs to cultivate a win-win environment of CRM for both parties.     

存储领域新策略：BURA

当前，企业在其IT规模不断扩大的过程中，缩短备份窗口的通用方法，是在系统设计过程中采用一种超出现实需要的解决方案，采用多台备份服务器连接多个磁带驱动器。另一种方法则是尽可能减少完全备份的次数。尽管这些办法将有助于提高备份速度，但却会使恢复流程更为缓慢和麻烦。     

Food Expenditures Away From Home by Type of Meal

A nonnormal and heteroscedastic double-hurdle model is used to study household expenditures on breakfast, lunch and dinner away from home in the United States. In the 1992–93 period, nearly 40% of households purchased breakfast, and about three quarters of households purchased lunch or dinner in a two-week period. Wife's employment has a positive effect on the probability and level of lunch and dinner expenditures but not on breakfast expenditures. Income effects are all statistically significant and positive. The role of household composition. other demographics and region are also important.     

Observational Learning from Acquisition Outcomes of Innovation Leaders

We examine how learning from observing the acquisition outcomes of innovation leaders affects the acquisition decisions and performance of followers in an industry. Followers tend to increase the probability of acquisition and the size of an acquisition when innovation leader acquisitions produce more favorable outcomes, and reduce both when innovation leader acquisitions suffer more unfavorable outcomes. Industry competition, environmental uncertainty, prior acquisition experience, geographic proximity, and managerial incentives are important mechanisms affecting observational learning in acquisitions. Follower acquisitions perform better when innovation leaders’ acquisition outcomes convey more favorable signals, and more poorly when they convey more unfavorable signals.     

The effect of incidental affect on preference for the status quo

The authors report results from four experiments that describe the influence of incidental affect on preference for the status quo. The first and second experiments, each using different affect induction methods, demonstrated that positive affect increased and negative affect reduced the choice of the status quo alternative. The third experiment replicated the effect of incidental affect on a separate dimension of status quo bias, the preference of omission. The last experiment investigated whether preference for the status quo was affected by four specific emotions that differed along valence and certainty appraisal dimensions. Compared with affective states associated with uncertainty, affective states associated with certainty led to a greater magnitude of status quo bias. The certainty appraisals mediated the effect of specific emotions on preference for the status quo, regardless of the emotion valence. The findings extend our knowledge by showing that incidental affect can influence consumer choice through emotion-related appraisals.