Brand name influence on brand perception

The impact of hotel names on the evaluation of the hotels by customers prior to their stay was investigated. In general, hotels were rated higher on attributes consistent with the semantic associations of the name than on inconsistent attributes. This name effect was somewhat reduced—but still strong—when actual feature information was given, when consumers were explicitly told that the hotels bearing different names had exactly the same features, when consumers were provided with testimonials from former hotel guests, when consumers were informed that the name had changed in the past or would change in the future, and when the actual features were in with the image evoked by the name. The results corroborate the widely accepted assertion that consumers use brand names as diagnostic and legitimate search attributes. Most notably, the findings imply that the effects are robust and resistant to elimination. Four hundred clients of a travel agency participated in this research. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Deutschlands Auslandsinvestitionen – Eine Untersuchung auf der Mikroebene

Auslandsinvestitionen deutscher Unternehmen werden h?ufig mit negativen Folgen für die heimische Wirtschaft in Verbindung gebracht. Werden durch diese Investitionen Arbeitspl?tze ins Ausland verlagert oder „fliehen“ die Unternehmen vor zu hohen Steuern? K?nnen ?ffentliche F?rderungen oder Subventionen die Verlagerung von Unternehmen ins Ausland verhindern? Wo liegen die Hauptgründe für eine Direktinvestition im Ausland? Andreas Westermeier, 28, Dipl.-Volkswirt, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Siedlungs- und Wohnungswesen der Universit?t Münster.     

School composition effects in Denmark: quantile regression evidence from PISA 2000

Data from the first wave of the OECD PISA study are combined with register data for Denmark to estimate the effect of the socioeconomic mix of schools on students’ test scores. A major disadvantage of the PISA design for the analysis of school composition effects is the small students-per-school samples. Adding family background data from administrative registers for all same-aged schoolmates of the PISA students helps overcome this. To compensate for endogeneity in the school composition variable, the results are conditioned on a rich set of family and school variables from the PISA data. Quantile regression results suggest differential school composition effects across the conditional reading score distribution, with students in the lower quantiles achieving the largest test score gains. Mathematics results suggest that high- and low-ability students benefit equally from attending schools with a better student intake, and most results for science are only marginally significant. These results imply that mixing students of different home backgrounds could improve equity of achievement for both reading and mathematics; however, the average skill level would improve only for reading literacy. In mathematics, mixing students would not raise average outcomes, because the detrimental effect on students in the higher quantiles would offset positive effects on those in the lower quantiles. I thank Amelie Constant, Bernd Fitzenberger, Eskil Heinesen, Peter Jensen, Craig Riddell, Michael Rosholm, Nina Smith, Robert Wright and participants at the ESPE and EALE 2003 conferences and at AKF seminars, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. Financial support provided by the Danish Social Science Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.     

Why People Don’t Take their Concerns about Fair Trade to the Supermarket: The Role of Neutralisation

This article explores how neutralisation can explain people’s lack of commitment to buying Fair Trade (FT) products, even when they identify FT as an ethical concern. It examines the theoretical tenets of neutralisation theory and critically assesses its applicability to the purchase of FT products. Exploratory research provides illustrative examples of neutralisation techniques being used in the FT consumer context. A conceptual framework and research propositions delineate the role of neutralisation in explaining the attitude-behaviour discrepancies evident in relation to consumers’ FT purchase behaviour, providing direction for further research that will generate new knowledge of consumers’ FT purchase behaviour and other aspects of ethical consumer behaviour.     

Hat die Geldmenge noch eine Bedeutung für die Geldpolitik?

Seit 2001 trat im Euro-Raum ein starkes Geldmengenwachstum auf, dem kein entsprechender Verbraucherpreisauftrieb folgte. Ist die Geldmenge als Steuerungsinstrument der Geldpolitik obsolet geworden? Auf welchem geldpolitischem Konzept sollte die Strategie der Europ?ischen Zentralbank basieren? Die Autoren unseres Zeitgespr?chs: Dr. Michael Heise, 50, ist Chefvolkswirt der Allianz Gruppe und der Dresdner Bank und Honorar-Professor an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universit?t in Frankfurt a. M. Prof. Dr. Bernd Hayo, 39, ist Inhaber der Professur für Makro?konomie an der Philipps-Universit?t Marburg. Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Ruckriegel, 49, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Makro?konomie, Geld und Kredit, an der Georg-Simon-Ohm-Fachhochschule in Nürnberg; Prof. Dr. Franz Seitz, 45, lehrt Vollkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Geldpolitik und Finanzm?rkte, an der Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Weiden. Prof. Dr. Martin Leschke, 44, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Institutionen?konomik an der Universit?t Bayreuth; Dr. Thorsten Polleit, 39, ist Chief German Economist bei Barclays Capital und Honorar-Professor an der HfB – Business School of Finance & Management.     

CALLABLE PUTS AS COMPOSITE EXOTIC OPTIONS

Introduced by Kifer (2000) , game options function in the same way as American options with the added feature that the writer may also choose to exercise, at which time they must pay out the intrinsic option value of that moment plus a penalty. In Kyprianou (2004) an explicit formula was obtained for the value function of the perpetual put option of this type. Crucial to the calculations which lead to the aforementioned formula was the perpetual nature of the option. In this paper we address how to characterize the value function of the finite expiry version of this option via mixtures of other exotic options by using mainly martingale arguments.     

Household food consumption in Turkey: a comment

We comment on a recent important article by Akbay et al. anddiscuss some methodological and estimation issues arising fromtheir paper. We then suggest alternative procedures that mayhelp improve their estimates and thereby enhance their usefulnessas a basis for food policy and marketing decisions.     

(S, s) Inventory Policies in General Equilibrium

We study the aggregate implications of (S, s) inventory policies ina dynamic general equilibrium model with aggregate uncertainty. Firms in themodel's retail sector face idiosyncratic demand risk, and (S, s) inventory policies are optimal because of fixed order costs. The distribution ofinventory holdings affects the aggregate outcome in two ways: variation inthe decision to order and variation in the rate of sale through the pricingdecisions of retailers. We find that both mechanisms must operate toreconcile observations that orders are more volatile than, and inventoryinvestment is positively correlated with, sales, while remaining consistentwith other salient business cycle characteristics. The model exhibits strongamplification for some shocks and persistence to a limited extent.     

Classification and the relations of meaning

This paper intends to demonstrate the parallels between a qualitative methodology, component analysis, which is predominantly used in cognitive anthropology and linguistics, and the quantitative explorative method-cluster analysis. Social identities and their related structural categories serve as examples of the method. In the methodology and logic involved in the categorization of meaning, abstraction is the key difference between connotative and structural meaning. Abstraction and the identification of higher order categories in cluster analysis are compatible with the extraction of structural meaning from the semantic differential ratings of the affective meanings of identities. The dichotomy of exclusion and inclusion is the most relevant relation for the qualitative analysis of meaning and can be mathematically operationalized by Euclidean squared distance in k-means cluster analysis.