Single-case technique for teaching the tax research process

This article describes an instructional technique using a single current tax case to demonstrate the many facets of tax research methodology. The technique is just one resource used for teaching the graduate tax research course, and provides for a richer contextual environment in which to learn the tax research process. Using a single case based on actual events, the many sources of statutory and judicial tax authority were incrementally evaluated to solve the tax problem, and integrally analysed for the final conclusions. In addition, the case centred on a very public and political tax issue, which generated increased interest among students and illustrated the political process associated with tax law development. Application of the technique for desired learning outcomes and assessment objectives are also discussed.     

Stochastic stability and time-dependent mutations

This paper considers stochastic stability analysis in evolutionary models with time-dependent mutations. It takes a class of time-homogeneous Markov models where the transition probabilities are approximately polynomial functions of the mutation parameter and allows the mutation parameter to decline to zero over time. The main result shows that as long as the mutation parameter converges to zero slowly enough and its variation is finite, the resulting time-inhomogeneous model has a limiting distribution regardless of the details of the mutation process. Moreover, a bound on the required rate of decline is explicitly expressed as a function of the minimum coradius of the limit sets and the transition probabilities within the minimum coradius set.     

Analysing interconnectivity among economies

As international financial integration gathers pace, interconnectivity has increased tremendously among financial institutions, financial markets and financial systems, a phenomenon to which the recent global financial crisis perhaps provided the best testimony. The interconnectivity among financial entities at various levels is multilateral in dimension and highly complicated with numerous feedback loops. To contribute to the understanding of the complexity of the global financial system, this study shows how the interconnected relationships can be disentangled into simple and quantifiable bilateral interdependence linkages, using 11 Asia-Pacific economies as an example. A major finding is that all these economies register a significantly higher sovereign risk once the condition that another economy is in distress is imposed.     

It's time to retire. Retirement

Companies have been so focused on down-sizing to contain costs that they've largely neglected a looming threat to their competitiveness: a severe shortage of talented workers. The general population is aging and with it, the labor pool. People are living longer, healthier lives, and the birthrate is at a historical low. During the next 15 years, 80% of the native-born workforce growth in North America--and even more in much of Western Europe--is going to be in the over-50 age cohort. When these mature workers begin to retire, there won't be nearly enough young people entering the workforce to compensate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a shortfall of 10 million workers in the United States in 2010, and in countries where the birthrate is well below the population replacement level (particularly in Western Europe), the shortage will hit sooner, be more severe, and remain chronic. The problem won't just be a lack of bodies. Skills, knowledge, experience, and relationships walk out the door every time somebody retires--and they take time and money to replace. And while the brain drain is beginning now, the problem is going to become much more acute in the next decade or so, when baby boomers--more than one-quarter of all Americans, amounting to 76 million people--start hitting their mid sixties. Based on the results of their yearlong research project, the authors of this article offer recommendations for gaining the loyalty of older workers and creating a more flexible approach to retirement that allows people to continue contributing well into their sixties and seventies. Companies can no longer afford to think of retirement as a onetime event, permanently dividing work life from leisure.     

Instructions to Authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions to Authors     

Assessing the predictive validity of two methods of measuring self-image congruence

The predictive validity of two measurement methods of self-image congruence—traditional versus new—were compared in six studies involving different consumer populations, products, consumption settings, and dependent variables (brand preference, preference for product form, consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, brand attitude, and program choice). The traditional method is based on tapping the subject’s perception of product-user image and the subject’s perception of his/her self-image along a predetermined set of image attributes and adding the self-congruity scores across all image dimensions. Three problems were identified and discussed in relation to the traditional method: (1) the use of discrepancy scores, (2) the possible use of irrelevant images, and (3) the use of the compensatory decision rule. The new method is based on tapping the psychological experience of self-congruity directly and globally. The findings demonstrated the predictive validity of the new method over and beyond the traditional method. His research interests are mostly in self-concept, quality of life, and systems theory. His research interests are mostly in pricing and product quality. Her research interests are primarily in family decision making. Her research interests focus on the social psychology of clothing and patronage of clothing retailers. His research interests are mainly in the social psychology of travel and leisure behavior. His research interests are mainly focused on self-concept, quality of life, environmental marketing, and sports marketing. His research interests are mainly in self-concept and value-expressive advertising. He is the Academy of Marketing Science Distinguished Professor of Business and is the founder of the Academy of Marketing Science. He currently serves as the organization’s executive director. His research interests are mostly in consumer behavior and advertising.     

Anti-shopping tourism: a new concept in the field of consumption

In this article, based on qualitative research in Hungary, we propose a new phrase for the field of tourist consumption. Our notion ‘anti-shopping tourism’ refers to the resistant attitude towards consumption and spending money during shopping-related tours. The research discussed in the paper analyses participants’ motivations, attitudes and behaviour on one-day coach trips that include various programmes, for example, sightseeing, lunch, spa visits and even a range of gifts, for a very low price, in exchange for participation in a professional sales show during the trip. Our main goal is to explain and, from an economic and anthropological point of view, conceptualise this form of tourist attitude, and to show how this unique way of travel may be situated in a certain historical setting in Hungary, more than two decades after the collapse of the socialist regime. In order to understand how the participating individuals negotiated this unique form of travel that exists in a grey zone of the institutionalised travel industry, notions such as debt, sacrifice, resistance, gift, seduction and informal contract are discussed and connected to the phenomenon.