Explicating the ‘like’ on Facebook brand pages: The effect of intensity of Facebook use,number of overall ‘likes’, and number of friends' ‘likes’ on consumers' brand outcomes

This study examined the relationship between the number of overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’ on Facebook brand pages in influencing consumers' brand attitude, brand trust, brand involvement, and purchase intention, drawing upon theoretical concepts including diffusion of innovations, social capital theory, strength of weak ties, sociometric versus perceptual popularity, and prior research in online impression formation. Results of a 2 × 2 experiment revealed significant main effects of number of overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’ on key dependent measures. A significant interaction effect was also found between overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’. Additionally, intensity of Facebook use also mediated the relationships between number of overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’ with brand attitude, brand trust, and purchase intention.     

Physical activity advocacy in the UK: a multiple streams analysis of a hybrid policy issue

Physical activity is increasingly being defined as a major, complex, multi-sector issue. In order to understand more about how this expanded conception of physical activity is being factored into public policy, this article applies the multiple streams theory of policy change to examine the United Kingdom (UK) physical activity domain. Participant observation, policy analysis and media analysis are combined to examine the ways in which the political context, problem framing and policy solutions were brought together by a range of policy entrepreneurs. The study pays particular attention to how one lobby effort in the UK, the All Party Committee on Physical Activity (APCPA) attempted to elevate physical activity to a higher level of importance. The findings show how a hybrid form of organisation made up of traditional interest groups, corporations and government insiders, has successfully decreased ambiguity about physical activity and increased both official and public attention about the issue. The article suggests that while the multifarious benefits of physical activity and the diverse range of organisations involved have contributed to momentum towards policy change, these factors may also inhibit physical activity from remaining high on the policy agenda. Suggestions are offered for policy practices at a national level.     

Derivatives Activity at Troubled Banks

Because of moral hazard associated with deposit insurance, troubled banks that have a relatively thin capital cushion to absorb losses have an incentive to take speculative positions. Thus, the prevalence of problem banks among those actively engaged in derivatives markets should be of concern to bank supervisors. However, we find no evidence that bank supervisors take into account, either favorably or unfavorably, the derivatives activities of troubled banks in their decisions to downgrade bank ratings or impose regulatory actions. The derivatives activity of troubled banks should raise the same concerns expressed about banks' on–balance-sheet positions, namely, that they may not be fully exploiting hedging opportunities or may be placing their remaining capital at risk, intentionally or unintentionally.     

Bidding and Information: Evidence from Gilt-edged Auctions

Many studies have shown that government debt auctions underprice debt compared with the secondary market. This paper corroborates this for certain forms of gilt auction by comparing the price received at auction with an almost identical parent stock in the secondary market. Although the sample is small, the parent/auction stock price comparison gives a cleaner measure than used in other studies. The paper also compares non-fungible auctions (where the auction stock differs slightly from the parent at auction and merges subsequently) with fully-fungible ones (where they are identical throughout). Significant underpricing only occurs in non-fungible auctions.     

Modeling the unethical intention of software piracy: a qualitative integration of network externalities and information cascades

Information cascades and network externalities have been increasingly influential in explaining the many market outcomes of information technology (IT), but their application to ethical issues of IT has been limited. This study proposes a conceptual model of unethical intention of software piracy by integrating information cascades and network externalities in terms of a theoretical perspective from the literature of economics. In the conceptual model, unethical intention of software piracy is proposed to be influenced by the network benefits of using pirated software, while the network benefits are proposed to be affected by the overall adopter base of pirated software directly and indirectly through the availability of pirated complementary software. Accordingly, whereas the perception of others’ piracy is proposed to be influenced by the overall adopter base of pirated software, the unethical intention of software piracy is proposed to be influenced indirectly by the perception of others’ piracy through the perceived signal that piracy seems a good idea. Finally, this study also provides the conclusion and limitation.     

A Dynamic-Programming Approach to Multiperiod Asset Allocation

Academicians and practitioners recently have focused a great deal of attention on the issue of retirement asset allocation. However, research on the academic side typically has assumed a static allocation of a fixed amount over the investor's lifetime, while the advice on the practitioner side has been largely ad hoc in nature. Moreover, both academics and practitioners often fail to link allocations to the individual's attitude toward risk. This paper uses several performance measures that incorporate the individual's aversion to risk and finds the allocations in the year before retirement that maximize the expected value of those performance measures. It then uses a dynamic programming procedure to roll back one year at a time to determine optimal allocations for previous years as well. We find that the traditional advice that young investors should invest more heavily in equity (with a gradual shift to more debt as they near retirement) indeed is correct, and in fact the optimal equity allocation is even higher than commonly suggested. Deviations of the growth in an individual's income from a long-term national average did not seem to significantly affect the optimal allocations. The optimal allocations, however, vary widely as a function of (1) investor attitudes toward risk and (2) accumulated savings to date. These results suggest greater care should be taken to assess and incorporate these factors into the asset-allocation decision.     

The economics of managing carbon via forestry: Assessment of existing studies

The purpose of this paper is to assess the existing studies on the economics of using forests as a means of mitigating atmospheric carbon build-up. This assessment addresses conceptual and empirical issues and provides a basis for a comprehensive and cost efficient forest management strategy. Critical needs and opportunities for future research are identified.