Finding critical success factors for virtual community marketing

Previous studies have identified critical success factors related to using virtual communities as a marketing channel. These studies have followed two research trends that connect the virtual community to actual purchasing. One is finding relationships between the operational elements of a virtual community and members’ intent to purchase and the other is finding relationships between characteristics of virtual community members and their intent to purchase. The model for this study reflects both trends. In addition, the model reflects research related to factors of customer satisfaction and the measurement of marketing success in terms of sense of community and loyalty. Conclusions from this research have been verified empirically with survey data collected from 292 virtual community members representing nine profit-oriented virtual communities. This study confirms that operational elements of a virtual community and characteristics of virtual community members affect the success of virtual community marketing. It is also confirmed that perceptions of usefulness, trust, and commitment toward the virtual community are important intervening effects. However, not all factors studied in the model were found to be significant in relationship to successful virtual community marketing. The analysis of the results from this study should be helpful to practitioners who use virtual communities as a marketing channel.     

Appropriating the value from innovation: inimitability and the effectiveness of isolating mechanisms

Preventing the imitation of products and their underlying characteristics is a key source of competitive advantage. Isolating mechanisms, such as patents, brand name and speed to market, render an organisation's inventions imperfectly imitable by competitors, helping sustain the above‐normal returns achieved from a new product innovation. A theoretical framework is developed whereby the characteristics of isolating mechanisms, namely causal ambiguity, asset stock effects and enforceability of property rights, are shown to be important determinants of appropriation effectiveness. A multiple method research design, consisting of a survey of 238 large Australian organisations, and a further six case study organisations, is adopted. The results indicate that isolating mechanisms in the form of technological capabilities, market‐based assets and knowledge protection positively moderate an organisation's returns from their innovation activities, while being first‐to‐market is found to negatively moderate the business returns achieved. Implications for managers in increasing the effectiveness of their appropriation regime, and future directions for research are proposed.     

The appealing characteristics of download type mobile games

As the mobile game industry enjoys continual and rapid growth in the market and becomes a major sector of the service industry, it is of great interest to examine the very features that make mobile games so fascinating and keep its players coming for more. Pinpointing more precisely the very factors that increase the attraction of games will help game makers allocate corporate resources more efficiently. In addition, a more in depth analysis of the appealing characteristics enable game producers to establish an organized strategy in developing more advanced and technologically sophisticated mobile games, and to enhance their competitive advantage. In order to find these factors, we proposed a model, analyzed empirical data, and then interpreted the results. In this study, we examined the download type mobile game to find and compare factors that cause intent to play. The suggested model has three layers. The top layer is the intent to play mobile games. The second layer, the psychological perception layer, consists of two perceptive factors: perceived enjoyment, and perceived copresence. The third layer is a technological layer, used to classify the characteristics of the mobile games content into image, communication, and attractive characteristics, all of which have relationships with perceptive factors. The study shows some interesting results and we believe the conclusion and implications of this research will be useful for mobile game scholars and industry participants.     

实际汇率、股价水平和就业路径的结构主义分析

真实汇率和真实股价水平可以作为预测因子,提前预测经济活动的强弱.自然利率能够在结构性繁荣和衰退期间担当中央银行利率政策的风向标,通过保持短期实际利率与自然利率的协调,中央银行能控制均衡的通货膨胀率,并使经济沿着随时间变化的自然失业率变化的轨道发展.美国和OECD国家的数据都证实了模型的有效性.     

Stock market performance in Hong Kong: an exploratory review

This paper reviews the origin and development of the stock market in Hong Kong. The first formal stock exchange, the Association of Stockbrokers in Hong Kong, was formed in 1891. However, the activities of the stock exchange are generally regarded as insignificant until the 1970s. Since the 1980s, there have been a number of major reforms and some significant developments. These include the unification of four stock exchanges; the establishment of the Securities and Futures Commission; the closer economic relations with Mainland China; the merger of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Futures Exchange to form the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx); the launch of the second board (Growth Enterprise Market); and the demutualisation of the HKEx. The Exchange generally responded positively to these reforms and developments. As a result, the Hong Kong stock market experienced significant growth in terms of its market capitalisation ratio, turnover ratio, and the total value traded ratio. Despite the impressive growth in various stock market indicators, however, the Hong Kong stock market still faces some challenges, including regulatory challenges, as well as some concern over its future viability as a global equity hub.     

Environmental Responsibility and Firm Performance: The Application of an Environmental,Social and Governance Model

This paper investigates the way in which environmental responsibility impacts on corporate financial performance, measured by return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). Using a sample of Korean firms covering the period 2011–2012, and employing two different test methods, namely the OLS and 2SLS methods, we show that the relationships between environmental responsibility performance and firms’ ROE and ROA are positive and statistically significant. However, we show that research and development (R&D) intensity (expenditure) does not affect either environmental responsibility or corporate financial performance. The results of this analysis encourage further empirical analysis of the industries, as well as the use of more than one estimation method to determine environmental responsibility and corporate financial performance within firms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Modeling Time-Varying Correlations in Volatility Between BRICS and Commodity Markets

This article investigates the asymmetric and long memory volatility properties and dynamic conditional correlations (DCCs) between Brazilian, Russian, Indian, Chinese, and South African (BRICS) stock markets and commodity (gold and oil) futures markets, using the trivariate DCC-fractionally integrated asymmetric power autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (FIAPARCH) model. We identify significant asymmetric and long memory volatility properties and DCCs for pairs of BRICS stock and commodity markets, and variability in DCCs and Markov Switching regimes during economic and financial crises. Finally, we analyze optimal portfolio weights and time-varying hedge ratios, demonstrating the importance of overweighting optimal portfolios between BRICS stock and commodity assets.     

Designing an Alternative Public Pension Scheme: A Korean Case Study

The trends of ageing population and slow economic growth have become a major concern for public pension schemes with the defined benefit (DB) type. To mitigate the impact of this trend and secure long-term financial sustainability, several countries have recently adopted notional defined contribution (NDC) schemes. In this paper, we show how to apply an NDC scheme to the public pension system of Korea, arguably the fastest ageing country. In particular, we create a new pension system by combining the current Korean pension scheme and an NDC. Through simulations it is shown that the proposed scheme can reduce the financial instability caused by the changes in demographic and economic factors, while retaining the income redistribution component. We further consider applying a German-type automatic balancing mechanism to the proposed scheme, by using the average income to determine the return rate of the fund, to make it sustainable in the long term.