The Effects of Digital Media Advertising Content on Message Acceptance or Rejection: Brand Trust as a Moderating Factor

The goal of this study is: (1) to expand upon prior research into general online content, (2) to analyze the acceptance and rejection factors of Internet advertising messages, and (3) to examine the moderating role of brand trust in this process. The results show that, when displaying intentions relating to the acceptance of online advertising, brand trust is not a significant influencing variable. However, when studying the intent to reject a message, brand trust does act as a barrier against the negative effect of irritation, while when this trust does not exist, irritation exercises a significant negative effect on advertising value.     

Mega-events and their legacy: Image and tourism in Genoa,Turin and Milan

Hosting, or organising, a mega-event is a form of destination branding; it is a way to generate the leveraging process of the event itself and promote the image of a location. Besides, these events allow a destination to attract the attention of the public and the media, enhancing its awareness nationally and internationally. Mega-events promote greater flows of tourists and visitors, especially in the short term. Nevertheless they produce long-lasting effects, such as the attraction and stimulation of investments, urban regeneration, advanced facilities and equipment, in addition to the improvement of accommodation, services and infrastructures. Thanks to those investments and to the growth in tourist arrivals, the mega-events could have a positive impact on the local economy, also over years, but some of their most important outcomes deal with the so-called intangible legacy, or rather social, cultural and political effects, more difficult to identify and measure. They can modify local identity and image, supporting the repositioning of the hosting place at an international level. The above considerations are discussed in this study; most attention is paid to three Italian cities, involved in top events: Genoa, appointed as European Capital of Culture in 2004; Turin, that hosted the XX Olympic Winter Games in 2006; Milan, that is now organising the Universal Expo 2015.     

Marketing capabilities, stakeholders’ satisfaction, and performance

This study shows that the relationship between marketing capabilities and firm financial performance can be better understood when it is drawn using stakeholder satisfaction as an additional variable, in the context of the service industry. Results from 152 Spanish service organizations indicate that superior marketing capabilities lead to higher levels of stakeholder satisfaction, which consequently improves financial firm performance. Results complement previous research which found a strong relationship between marketing capabilities and performance when the latter includes financial and nonfinancial indicators. Marketing capabilities improve not only customer satisfaction but also employee fulfillment which, in turn, may increase financial indicators.     

The demand for season of birth

We study the determinants of season of birth for married women aged 20–45 in the USA, using birth certificate and Census data. We also elicit the willingness to pay for season of birth through discrete‐choice experiments implemented on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. We document that the probability of a spring first birth is significantly related to mother's age, education, race, ethnicity, smoking status during pregnancy, receiving WIC (Women, Infants & Children) food benefits during pregnancy, prepregnancy obesity, and the mother working in “education, training, and library” occupations; whereas among unmarried women without a father acknowledged on their child's birth certificate, all our findings are muted. A summer first birth does not depend on socioeconomic characteristics, although it is the most common birth season in the USA. Among married women aged 20–45, we estimate the average marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for a spring birth to be 877 USD. This implies a willingness to trade‐off 560 grams of birth weight in the normal range to achieve a spring birth. Finally, we estimate that an increase of 1,000 USD in the predicted marginal WTP for a spring birth is associated with a 15 pp (percentage points) increase in the probability of obtaining an actual spring birth.     

BARRIERS TO FORMAL SAVING: MICRO‐ AND MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS

This paper examines different barriers to formal saving, considering various interventions and their possible effects at microeconomic and macroeconomic levels. It presents a comprehensive review of the literature, based on a detailed classification of the barriers associated with supply‐side factors, related to access to financial products, and demand‐side barriers, related to the use and frequency of use of those products. The paper concludes that this classification and analysis contributes to a fuller understanding of the question of financial inclusion, and how to achieve it.     

Envisioning sustainability: Recent progress in the use of participatory backcasting approaches for sustainability research

This paper describes recent progress in the utilization of participatory scenario-based backcasting approaches to sustainability research that blend quantitative and qualitative analyses in order to explore alternative climate change futures, as undertaken in a range of academic, government, and private sector projects in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. These projects reveal that buy-in to policy proposals may be enhanced by participation, but there is a risk of participants being overwhelmed by the complexity of the choices they are being asked to make. Furthermore, tools are grounded in a process, which must itself be the explicit focus of attention in designing successful backcasting projects and combining participatory backcasting techniques with more interactive processes that can enhance our ability to explore highly complex and uncertain, value-laden issues. These approaches can be used to drive action and support decision-making, but for a truly consultative and consensus-oriented process to occur, it is important that a broad sample of the community be engaged in the discussion that are equipped with technical knowledge or understanding of the goals of the process in order to participate in an equitable and effective fashion.     

Political control and performance in China's listed firms

The performance implications of the involvement of grassroots local party committees of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the decision making of China's listed firms are investigated. First, we show that the decision-making power of local party committees relative to the power of the largest shareholders is associated positively with firm performance. This result suggests that party control restrains the largest shareholders from expropriation but that the existing level of party control is insufficient to control the largest shareholders. Second, we show that the decision-making power of local party committees relative to managers is associated negatively with firm performance. This result suggests that the political costs associated with party control over managers are more detrimental to firm performance than are agency problems and that the existing level of party control over managers is excessive. On balance, our results indicate that the existing level of party control is excessive and that reducing the decision-making power of local party committees would improve the performance of China's listed firms. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 617–636.     

Controlling-minority shareholder incentive conflicts and directors’ and officers’ liability insurance: Evidence from China

This paper examines the demand for directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (D&O insurance) by Chinese listed companies where controlling-minority shareholder incentive conflicts are acute due to the concentrated and split ownership structure. We hypothesize and find evidence that the incidence of seeking D&O insurance is positively related to the extent of controlling-minority shareholder incentive conflicts – a finding not previously documented in the literature. Using an event study, we find that the announcements of D&O insurance decisions in firms that engage in earnings management, and/or are controlled by a local government (such firms tend to have stronger incentives to tunnel), seem to have a negative wealth effect. In addition, the incidence of the D&O insurance decision is positively related to the proportion of independent directors and several litigation risk proxies. Therefore, the breakthrough in corporate governance and judicial reforms has created non-negligible perceived securities litigation risks in China.