LIFO adoption and dividend payout

Adoption of the LIFO inventory costing method tends to decrease reported earnings but increases cash flows to adopting firms. This study examines the change in dividend payout ratios (cash dividends divided by earnings) accompanying LIFO adoption. The question addressed is whether adopting firms likely paid out incremental cash flows or retained them to the benefit of management. The evidence suggests that managers and directors adjusted payout ratios to partially offset the negative earnings effect of LIFO. The adjustments made were not sufficient in magnitude to achieve a neutral LIFO effect on dividend payout, and the net result was the retention of incremental cash flows generated by LIFO adoption.     

利用产学联系的中小企业ERP引进策略

本文对引入公司资源管理计划系统的必要性进行了研究,并对中小型企业运用公司资源管理计划系统的关键因素进行了深入的分析。在此基础上,我们给出了支持中小企业实施公司资源管理计划系统和促进中小企业电子商务发展的相关计划和教育产业关系模型。公司资源管理计划系统的实施,首先需要对该系统进行系统化的评估,进而选择适合公司自身环境的资源管理计划系统。除一些关键因素外,许多环境因素对引入该计划体系起着很大的影响作用。环境因素主要包括公司资源管理计划系统的专家、顾问、开发者和信息系统管理者;另外还包括公司的筹资能力和组织内的信息化程度。     

Linking green purchasing capabilities to environmental and economic performance: The moderating role of firm size

This study identifies firms’ green purchasing capabilities, classified into operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities, and measures their effects on the environmental and economic performance of a firm. We developed instruments to measure operational green purchasing capabilities and dynamic green purchasing capabilities. This study also investigates the moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between green purchasing capabilities and firm performance. The structural equation model (SEM) is used to analyse 239 responses from Japanese manufacturing companies. The results indicate that their green purchasing capabilities positively affect environmental and economic performance. Operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities have different levels of effects on green purchasing performance. A further analysis of the moderating effect of firm size shows that the high economic performance of green purchasing relies on the level of dynamic capabilities rather than firm size.     

战略导向与企业社会责任影响关系的实证研究 ——以在华韩资企业为例

以在华韩资企业为对象。探讨战略导向和企业社会责任的相关关系,以及企业社会责任对企业绩效的直接作用,并且在战略导向与企业绩效之间的关系上,对企业社会责任的中介效应进行了实证分析。研究进行了问卷调查,获得了302份有效问卷,并进行了回归分析。研究结果表明:市场导向和网络导向对企业社会责任产生直接影响,企业社会责任对企业绩效产生直接影响,并且在市场导向与企业绩效之间的关系上,企业社会责任具有中介效应。     

Marine Tourist Motivations Comparing Push and Pull Factors

This study examined the relationship between push and pull factors with regard to marine tourist motivations. The survey was distributed systematically to people intercepted at high-traffic locations in Seoul, South Korea. The results indicated that escape push motivations are closely related to static activity pull motivations, while novelty push motivations are more strongly related to active activity pull motivations. These relationships may be partially explained by the push-pull framework of tourist motivations. These results imply that a marine tourist destination focusing on static activities should appeal to tourists who have escape push motivations, while a marine tourist destination focusing on active activities should appeal to tourists who have novelty push motivations.     

Moderating effects of self-image congruity on the relationship between advertisement message strength and revisiting intention

This research note delineates the effect of restaurant customers’ perceived self-image congruity (i.e., the match between the image of a product or brand and customers’ image of themselves) on the relationship between the strength of a restaurant advertisement and customers’ intention to revisit that restaurant. This study posits that customers’ preference for a restaurant brand, formed by their perceived self-image congruity, can alter the effects of ad message strength on their revisiting intention. More specifically, due to the biasing effect caused by self-image congruity, the effect of an ad’s argument strength on behavioral intentions may be diminished when customers have a high perceived level of self-image congruity. The findings indicate that strong ad messages elicit significantly higher revisiting intentions than weak ad messages when customers perceive a mismatch between the image, the brand, and themselves; however, no significant difference in revisiting intentions was detected between strong and weak ad messages when customers perceived a match between image and restaurant brand. Furthermore, this study examines how gender-based information-processing tendencies influence this effect of self-image congruity on the relationship between ad message strength and revisiting intention. Overall, this study provides a theoretical understanding of the biasing effect of self-image congruity on customers’ information processing and has important managerial implications for restaurant marketing.     

Red price? Red flag! Eye-tracking reveals how one red price can hurt a retailer

Retailers present prices in red color to signal savings. Past research has shown that presenting all prices in red increases perceived savings from the store. However, in practice, retailers often present just one price in red in promotion materials with multiple prices. Will consumers perceive higher savings from the store even if only one price is presented in red? This research examines this prevalent retail practice using a theoretical lens. The theoretical framework predicts that two unique learned associations with red color (red: Savings and red: Stop) play a key role in shaping consumers' perception of savings from stores that highlight only one price in red. This research proposes and empirically demonstrates that consumers perceive lower savings from stores that present only one price in red. The theoretical framework is validated using a multi-method approach that combines the strengths of behavioral and physiological (eye-tracking) methods. Findings from this research suggest that presenting only one price in red lowers perceived savings from the store, which may hurt sales.     

Are REITs inflation hedges?

This study investigates the relationship between returns on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and anticipated inflation. It was motivated by the contradictory findings in the literature concerning the inflation-hedging characteristics of financial and real assets. We employ the methodology developed by Fama and Schwert, which represents a generalization of the Fisher equation. Two different measures of anticipated inflation were used to estimate the regression equations. The results show that REITs generally tend to behave like equities with respect to their hedging characteristics, regardless of how inflation expectations are measured. When we used a survey measure of anticipated inflation, however, we found some evidence that REITs are partial hedges against anticipated inflation.