Influences on consumer use of word-of-mouth recommendation sources

This article reports the development and testing of a theoretical model of the initial stages of recommendation-based decision making by consumers. Although consumers use a variety of recommendation sources, they have different motivations for the use of different sources. The model focuses on the factors that influence the likelihood of consumers using strong-tie sources (e.g., friends and family) and weak-tie sources (e.g., acquaintances or strangers) or recommendations. The factors used in the model are the prior knowledge level of the consumer about the product being considered, the perceived decision task difficulty level, and the type of evaluative cues sought by the consumer. Hypotheses are tested using data collected in an extensive field study with consumers. Two paths or routes of influence on the use of recommendation sources are proposed and confirmed in the study. His work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, andJournal of Marketing Research. His research interests center on consumer decision making and marketing education. He has published previously in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Strategic Change, The International Executive, andMarketing Education Review. His research interests include research methodology, quantitative methods, and competitive intelligence. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, andJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. His publications have appeared in numerous journals. His books includeConsumer Behavior (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986) andMarketing Management (Simon & Schuster).     

Workplace Industrial Relations 25 Years after Donovan: An Employer View

Some common management themes of the 1980s can be traced to Donovan and are revealed in practice by the 1990 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The paper considers the relevance of factors not endorsed by Donovan and concludes that, while in terms of industrial action in manufacturing — the focus of concern in the mid-1960s — there is evidence that more order and responsibility has been injected into industrial relations at plant level, we cannot yet maintain that inflationary dangers have been overcome. Collective bargaining is, however, now revealed as affecting only a minority in the private sector, and public services behaviour looks increasingly out of step. The paper suggests that future surveys may therefore need to be recast to capture changing patterns of employer – employee relationships and their links to economic success.     

Buying versus Leasing Fuel Deposits for Preservation*

In a two‐period model with two groups of countries that extract, trade, and consume fossil fuels, a climate coalition fights against climate change by purchasing or leasing deposits to prevent their extraction and seeks to manipulate fuel prices in its favor. The policy of purchasing deposits is inefficient because it leaves the first‐period climate externality non‐internalized. By contrast, the deposit‐lease policy turns out to be efficient if it eliminates strategic action in the fuel markets. In an empirically calibrated economy, the coalition's welfare and total welfare are greater with the deposit‐lease policy than with the deposit‐purchase policy if the discount rate is smaller than 2.7 percent per annum.     

Impact of the WTO on Agricultural and Food Policies

Most studies on the impact of WTO agreements on policies are ex ante simulations or focus on trade effects. We estimate ex post the impact of the WTO on agricultural policies, including both the total transfers by the policies and the policy instruments used, in particular their market distortions. We use OECD data on total support and instrument choice in agricultural policy. Our empirical analysis provides evidence that the WTO did not cause a significant reduction in the total amount of support to agriculture but that it caused a significant shift from distortionary to less distortionary instruments.     

Subsidies and agricultural productivity in the EU

This paper investigates the relationship between EU agricultural subsidies and agricultural labor productivity growth by estimating a conditional convergence growth model. We use more representative subsidy indicators and a wider coverage (panel data from 213 EU regions over the period 2004–2014) than have been used before. We find that, on average, EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies increase agricultural labor productivity growth, but this aggregate effect hides important heterogeneity of effects of different types of subsidies. The positive effect on productivity comes from decoupled subsidies, that is, Pillar I decoupled payments and some Pillar II payments. Coupled Pillar I subsidies have the opposite effect: they slow down productivity growth.     

Institutionalizing global governance: the role of the United Nations Global Compact

The United Nations Global Compact – which is a Global Public Policy Network advocating 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environmental protection, and anticorruption – has turned into the world's largest corporate responsibility initiative. Although the Global Compact is often characterized as a promising way to address global governance gaps, it remains largely unclear why this is the case. To address this problem, we discuss to what extent the initiative represents an institutional solution to exercise global governance. We suggest that new governance modes, which have arisen in the context of globalization, often adopt a multiactor, multilevel, and network‐based approach. We then analyze how far the Global Compact's institutional design reflects this multiactor, multilevel, and network‐based steering mode. Drawing on this discussion, we offer suggestions regarding how the initiative can be further developed.     

Narrowing the scope of failure prediction using targeted fault load injection

As society becomes more dependent upon computer systems to perform increasingly critical tasks, ensuring that those systems do not fail becomes increasingly important. Many organizations depend heavily on desktop computers for day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, the software that runs on these computers is written by humans and, as such, is still subject to human error and consequent failure. A natural solution is to use statistical machine learning to predict failure. However, since failure is still a relatively rare event, obtaining labelled training data to train these models is not a trivial task. This work presents new simulated fault-inducing loads that extend the focus of traditional fault injection techniques to predict failure in the Microsoft enterprise authentication service and Apache web server. These new fault loads were successful in creating failure conditions that were identifiable using statistical learning methods, with fewer irrelevant faults being created.     

Dynamics of Environmental Regulation and Voters’ Biased Beliefs: A Political Economy Approach

This paper develops a political economy model which determines the conditions of cycles in environmental regulation. It analyzes the impact of both interest groups and voters who have biased political beliefs. Such biased beliefs are the result of the influence of activist interest groups that strategically use the beliefs formation process among ignorant voters (cascade effect). The cascade effect biases the perception of the efficiency of regulatory instruments and affects the behavior of the politician. Our model seems particularly relevant to explain the evolution of environmental policies, which are characterized by scientific controversies, such as climate change policies. The high media coverage of climate issues, as well as persistent debates among experts, is a favorable context for the influence of activist interest groups that use the public’s cognitive biases.     

Global Retail Chains and Poor Farmers: Evidence from Madagascar

Global retail companies (“supermarkets”) have an increasing influence on developing countries, through foreign investments and/or through the imposition of their private standards. The impact on developing countries and poverty is often assessed as negative. In this paper we show the opposite, based on an analysis of primary data collected to measure the impact of supermarkets on small contract farmers in Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world. Almost 10,000 farmers in the Highlands of Madagascar produce vegetables for supermarkets in Europe. In this global supply chain, small farmers’ micro-contracts are combined with intensive farm assistance and supervision programs to fulfill complex quality requirements and phyto-sanitary standards of supermarkets. Small farmers that participate in these contracts have higher welfare, more income stability and shorter lean periods. We also find significant effects on improved technology adoption, better resource management and spillovers on the productivity of the staple crop rice. The small but emerging modern retail sector in Madagascar does not (yet) deliver these benefits as they do not (yet) request the same high standards for their supplies.     

The science behind the smile. Interview by Gardiner Morse

Only recently have we been able to apply science to one of the world's oldest questions: "What is the nature of happiness?" In this edited interview, the author of the 2006 best seller Stumbling on Happiness surveys the field. Gilbert explores the sudden emergence of happiness as a discipline, reviews the major findings (including the mistakes we all make in predicting how happy or miserable we'll be), and examines the role of happiness in productivity on the job. He describes what makes us truly happy-it's not a promotion or a new house-and sketches out a "happiness diet" that emphasizes small, routine efforts. Looking forward, Gilbert discusses the breakthrough work of his colleague Matthew Killingsworth, whose iPhoneenabled real-time surveys of people's moods are providing an ultra-high-resolution picture of how our emotional states shift from minute to minute. A sidebar by Killingsworth offers a preliminary look at his findings and their implications for our personal and workplace lives.