Consumer aliteracy

A large and growing segment of global society is comprised of capable but unwilling readers. Despite the proliferation of aliteracy and extant research on illiterate consumers, the topic of consumer aliteracy is unexplored. To address the issue, an eight‐item unidimensional measure of the construct is developed and validated. This consumer aliteracy scale captures reading attitudes and behaviors across a variety of written marketing materials. Results indicate that consumer aliteracy is predictive of how consumers approach written versus visual marketing information and the amount of time devoted to these information formats in a choice setting. Understanding the phenomenon of consumer aliteracy is essential for researchers studying consumer responses to a wide variety of written marketing materials. In addition, consideration of consumer aliteracy may help research that employs written marketing messages as stimuli to better detect other processing effects.     

Valuation Implications of Unconditional Accounting Conservatism: Evidence from Analysts' Target Prices

We examine whether financial analysts understand the valuation implications of unconditional accounting conservatism when forecasting target prices. While accounting conservatism affects reported earnings, conservatism per se does not have an effect on the present value of future cash flows. We examine whether analysts adjust for the effect of conservatism included in their earnings forecasts when using these forecasts to estimate target prices. We find that signed target price errors (actual minus forecast) have a significant positive association with the degree of conservatism in forward earnings, suggesting that target prices are biased due to accounting conservatism. Cross‐sectional analysis suggests that more sophisticated analysts and superior long‐term forecasters adjust for conservatism to a greater extent than other analysts. In additional analyses, we explore the mechanism through which conservatism leads to bias in target prices. We first show that analysts' earnings forecasts are negatively associated with the degree of conservatism; that is, analysts include the effect of unconditional conservatism in their earnings forecasts. Based on alternative earnings‐based valuation models that analysts may use, our evidence suggests that analysts fail to appropriately adjust their valuation multiple for the effect of conservatism included in their earnings forecasts when using these forecasts to derive target prices. As a consequence, we find that, for extreme changes in conservatism, the bias in analysts' target prices due to conservatism leads to a distortion of market prices. The evidence highlights the concern that analysts may not appreciate the valuation implications of conservative accounting which could inhibit price discovery.     

Are You Still with Us? A Study of the Post-Adoption Determinants of Sustained Use of Mobile-Banking Services

This research develops and empirically tests a theoretical model that explains sustained use of mobile banking services. While an extensive array of research has examined various theoretical antecedents of the intention to adopt and use new technologies, only a handful of studies have examined the extent of current usage of a system. Moreover, despite the huge market potential of and recent technological advancements seen in the mobile-commerce market, little is known about the factors that can influence sustained use of integrated mobile financial services after adoption. The present research examines the extent of mobile banking service usage of 370 Korean mobile-baking users in the post-adoption stage. The results of the study indicate that perceived usability, channel preference, and perceived value are three major determinants of sustained mobile banking use. The model further extends and explains that good menu design is a dominant factor in perceived usability of m-banking services, while low monetary costs (i.e., charges and fees) and provision of various banking functions can improve m-banking users' perception of the value of m-banking services. Along with the suggested model, the presented case of factors promoting successful m-banking services will help many mobile industries around the world envisage a successful and stable mobile–financial services market and accelerate their development. Implications of the findings and future research directions are also discussed.     

Competitiveness attributes of a medical tourism destination: The case of South Korea with importance-performance analysis

This study aims to explore the importance and performance of medical tourism destination competitiveness (TDC). The aims were achieved by collecting empirical data on the perceptions of stakeholders in the medical tourism industry in South Korea. Results from the importance–performance analysis (IPA) revealed that medical TDC is primarily influenced by medical treatments and services, destination attributes, and tourism-specific factors. This study not only enhances tourism literature, but also contributes significantly to the existing literature on competitiveness. The study provides useful marketing insights for medical tourism suppliers in South Korea and countries in similar situations with the relevant industry.     

Mean-reversion in international real interest rates

This paper examines the mean-reversion property of real interest rates. Many past studies have reported puzzling outcomes of the mean-aversion of real interest rates for a number of countries. In the article, we employ panel unit root tests and carry out half-life estimation based on the bias-corrected bootstrap. These findings of the paper provide strong evidence that, in both major Western and East Asian capital markets (including several emerging ones), real interest rates are mean-reverting. In addition, we find evidence that the degree of mean-reversion of the real interest rates is positively correlated with that of output growth, which is consistent with the implications of standard intertemporal behavior.     

Understanding donors: A case of university performing arts programs in the USA

• The purpose of the study was to: (a) to examine the factors that influence donor behavior, (b) to determine which specific perceived benefits are predictors of donor behavior, and (c) to examine the influence of gender, age, and income level of university performing arts program (PAP) donors. Secondary data from the Value and Impact Study, collected by 14 Major University Presenters (MUPs) was used. Results of data analyses using 1771 donor responses suggest that identification with the PAP, familiarity with planned giving options, and public recognition are important predictors of donor behavior. Donors highly value priority seating, advanced notice of programs, and ability to purchase single tickets in advance of public sale. Additionally, age, gender, economic status, and perceived benefits were found to be important variables for understanding donor behavior. Given these results, implications for future research and practice in relationship marketing are discussed.

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managing intraorganizational diffusion of innovations: Impact of buying center dynamics and environments

Companies often introduce organizational innovations into their corporate environment with the aim of improving their operational efficiencies. While this practice has become a well-accepted percept among both practitioners and academics over the years for its intuitive appeal, there is an increasing evidence to suggest that companies often fail to fully capitalize on the adopted innovation throughout their organizations. To this end, this study sets out to identify the factors that play a tangible role in facilitating the intraorganizational diffusion of innovations. In this context, we not only examine the roles of buying center dynamics and environments in the intraorganizational diffusion process but also assess the impact on the innovation-adopting firm through the high level of intraorganizational diffusion.     

Internet Interconnection Economic Model and its Analysis: Peering and Settlement

Peering and transit are two types of Internet interconnection among ISPs. Peering has been a core concept to sustain Internet industry. However, for the past several years, many ISPs broke their peering arrangement because of asymmetric traffic pattern and asymmetric benefit and cost from the peering. Even though traffic flows are not a good indicator of the relative benefit of an Internet interconnection between the ISPs, it is needless to say that cost is a function of traffic and the only thing that we can know for certain is inbound/outbound traffic volumes between the ISPs. In this context, we suggest Max{inbound traffic volume, outbound traffic volume} as an alternative criterion to determine the Internet settlement between ISPs and we demonstrate this rule makes ISPs easier to make a peering arrangement. In our model, the traffic volume is a function of a market share. We will show the market share decides traffic volume, which is based on the settlement between ISPs. As a result, we address the current interconnection settlement problem with knowledge of inbound and outbound traffic flows and we develop an analytical framework to explain the Internet interconnection settlement.     

Antecedents of open innovation at the project level: empirical analysis of Korean firms

The concept of open innovation has recently gained wide academic attention, as it seems to have significant impact for company performance. Most empirical investigations about this emerging concept have been case studies of successful early adopters of open innovation, and their analyses have largely been at the company level. Although case studies at that level provide meaningful implications, the new phenomena merit a more in‐depth examination: that is, we need to collect and analyze data on multiple companies to explore more systematic findings about open innovations across companies. Moreover, analyses may need to go down to the individual project rather than the whole company level because innovation activities are often conducted as part of research and development (R&D) projects. To meet these needs, this study examines companies' open innovation efforts at the level of the individual R&D project. Specifically, the present study focuses on project‐level openness to better understand the mechanisms of open innovation. It explores systematic relationships between various antecedent factors and the degree of openness. Project‐level openness could be affected by team and task characteristics, such as team size, learning distance, strategic importance, technology and market uncertainty, and relevance to the main business. Relevant data collected from 303 companies in Korea were used to identify the antecedents that affect inbound and outbound openness. The research findings are expected to help provide a concrete theoretical framework suited for more generalized application and further practical development of open innovation strategy.