THE OPTIMAL LISTING STRATEGIES IN ONLINE AUCTIONS

This article proposes a unified framework to completely characterize the seller's optimal listing strategy in the online auction as a function of her rate of time impatience. Specifically, the fixed‐price listing, the regular auction, and the buy‐it‐now (BIN) auction are each a solution of the seller's single optimization problem under different values of the rate of intertemporal discount: The perfectly patient seller adopts the regular auction, the sellers with a medium range of time impatience adopt the BIN auction, and the most impatient of sellers adopt the fixed‐price listing. Moreover, under mild conditions, the reverse price is inversely related to the value of the seller's discount factor, either within or across formats. This in turn implies that the posted price in the fixed‐price sale is greater than the reserve price of the BIN auction, followed by that of the regular auction. These predictions offer clear empirical implications.     

How useful is venture capital prestige? Evidence from IPO survivability

This study examines the effect of venture capitalist (VC) prestige on the post-issue survivability of IPOs and how VC characteristics influence the effect. We find that IPOs backed by prestigious VCs are less likely to delist for performance failure and have longer listing duration relative to those without VC backing; however, IPOs backed by ordinary VCs are as likely to delist as IPOs without VC backing. The finding is robust for Internet and high-tech firms. We further examine heterogeneous VC characteristics and find that the ability of prestigious VCs to improve IPO survival is a function of their investment experience and managerial ability. VC prestige characterized by industry specialization and syndication networks is not related to IPO survival. Overall, the results suggest that the VC characteristics that produce prestige, rather than the prestige itself, drive the long-term survival of IPOs.     

A Dynamic Model of Auctions with Buy‐It‐Now: Theory and Evidence

In the ascending‐price auctions with Yahoo!‐type buy‐it‐now (BIN), we characterize and derive the closed‐form solution for the optimal bidding strategy of the bidders and the optimal BIN price of the seller when they are both risk‐averse. The seller is shown to be strictly better off with the BIN option, while the bidders are better off only when their valuation is high enough. The theory also implies that the expected transaction price is higher in an auction with an optimal BIN price than one without a BIN option. This prediction is confirmed by our data collected from Taiwan's Yahoo! auctions.     

Unionization,market structure,and economic growth

This article investigates the macroeconomic effects of unionization in a Schumpeterian growth model with an endogenous product market structure and a unionized labor market. The endogeneity of the market structure and the trade unionism of the labor market interact and jointly determine the equilibrium unemployment, firm size, number of firms, economic growth, and distribution of income between workers and firms. We show that unionization governs the distribution of income between workers and firms and the unemployment rate, but it does not give rise to any growth effect on the economy. In addition, unionization discourages potential entrants and hence decreases the equilibrium number of firms. These results echo the empirical observation in the sense that unionization raises unemployment and alters the distribution of income between workers and firms, but it does not give rise to a significant, real impact on the firms’ investment and the economy‐wide growth.     

An empirical study of commercialization performance on nanoproducts

Along with the trend toward the convergence between nanotechnology and other disciplines, the commercial application and the diffusion of Nan products have drawn much attention. The successful commercialization of nanoproducts is based not only on R&D breakthroughs but also on the products' attributes and the consumers' needs. However, no research has yet been carried out to investigate the effect of performance and importance on nanoproducts. The aim of this study is to discuss and evaluate the commercialization performance of nanoproducts from consumer perspectives. The importance?performance analysis (IPA) approach was used to construct a series of nanoproducts' importance attribute and performance evaluation maps to identify areas for improvement. The empirical data were compiled in a structural consumer questionnaire-based survey from consumer perspectives across different nanoproducts. Respondents were required to identify nanoproducts' innovative characteristics and the performance differences of their attributes. Both innovation characteristics and product attribute dimensions as representing nanoproduct innovations were further weighted in terms of their perceived importance and their performance. As a consequence, the proposed approach in this study is to understand how to integrate consumers' perceived importance into performance, with particular concern on the identification of market opportunities into the commercialization of nanoproducts. In addition, this study enables nanotechnology firms to develop nanoproduct technologies and to strategically market them based on their attributes and performance, thus leading to the achievement of their commercialization and the creation of a successful long-term, performance-based competitive strategy.     

中国食物供求分析及预测：基于贸易历史、国际比较和模型模拟分析的视角

研究分别从贸易历史、国际比较和模型模拟的视角对中国未来食物供求平衡状况进行了展望和模拟分析。(1)贸易历史的角度的经验结果显示,中国食物贸易净进口呈扩大态势;(2)中国大陆与日本、韩国及中国台湾地区的国际比较结果表明,中国未来粮食净进口可能会进一步扩大,尤其是对蛋白质来源食物需求可能会快速扩张;(3)基于中国食物供求局部均衡模型的模拟分析结果显示,中国谷物和油料作物供求平衡的缺口将不断扩大,主要谷物和油料作物的自给率将不断下降,同时,中国采取的玉米产业需求抑制政策对中国粮食供求平衡具有深远影响。综合以上不同视角的结果可以看出,要根本解决中国食物供求平衡问题,有必要建立食物安全与其他安全的综合安全观,实现4个方面的战略转变。即:第一,从重视确保数量向重视确保国内外资源战略转变,如签订粮食供给的政府间协议。第二,从重视总体粮食安全向重视主食安全、区域安全、运输安全(或航道安全)、流通和分配渠道安全、不同收入群体家庭食物安全转变。第三,从重视单一的食物安全向产业安全和质量安全转变。第四,从重视本国食物安全向全球视角转变。     

日本农业支持政策的最新趋势及启示

二战以来,日本农业分别经历了农业社会、工业化时代和全球化时代3个阶段的发展和变迁,其经验和教训对于中国农业发展具有一定的启示。研究对日本农业支持政策的演变及动向、特征与发展趋势以及目标机制和运作方式等方面进行了分析和探讨,结果显示:日本农业的变革涉及法律约束力、经营规模、农业贸易政策和国内支持等各个方面;日本农业的发展依赖于财政补贴,虽然其补贴强度呈下降趋势,但日本农业国内支持政策对保障农民收入、提高农产品竞争力仍具有重要作用。依据日本经验和教训提炼出的启示主要有:农户组织化经营要有计划地组织引导;农业经营规模的扩大要有序推动;农业剩余劳动力的就地消化要下大力气推动;国内支持政策应尽可能由纳税人负担。最后需要说明的是,降低农业支持水平与规模扩大的关系要根据实际情况合理辩证地处理。     

玉米秸秆还田的受偿意愿分析——基于河北、山东两省的农户调查数据

秸秆还田作为目前秸秆资源化利用的主要方式之一,它有增加土壤有机质、改善土壤质量、提升作物产量等作用,同时还有保护生态环境、减少农业面源污染等功效。但秸秆还田所带来的成本增加,在某种程度上影响了农户秸秆还田的积极性,因此,给予农户一定补贴等激励措施势在必行。文章以玉米秸秆还田为例,基于河北、山东两省的农户调查数据,分析两个地区农户玉米秸秆的利用状况,在此基础上研究农户秸秆直接还田受偿意愿的影响因素。结果表明,农户受访者年龄、秸秆还田是否增加成本、秸秆还田增加的费用是否由政府承担、秸秆焚烧查处力度是否强、与秸秆不还田相比秸秆还田增加的费用这5个因素对农户秸秆还田受偿意愿有着显著的正向影响,而受访者是否是村干部和秸秆还田是否改善土壤质量这两个因素对农户秸秆还田受偿意愿有着显著的负向影响。     

Task type's effect on attitudes towards voice assistants

There is an emerging interest in examining user attitudes towards voice assistants (VAs); however, there is limited research on how user attitudes are formulated in different contexts. Drawing from the stereotype content models, the current study attempts to investigate how users perceive and evaluate voice assistants (VAs) in different contexts (i.e., functional vs. social tasks) based on warmth, competence and trustworthiness. Study 1 (N = 123) employs a within-subjects design to examine how task type (functional vs. social) affects user perceptions and attitudes towards a VA (i.e., Google Assistant). Study 2 (N = 116) and Study 3 (N = 61) examine the boundary effect of perceived psychological power and ease of use. The findings show that attitude is significantly more positive in functional tasks (vs. social), and this effect is mediated by perceived competence. This indirect effect is also significantly moderated by perceived ease of use. Perceived warmth does not mediate the effect of social tasks on attitude, and trust in VAs is a direct outcome of functional tasks. Taken together, this study contributes to both theory and practice in many ways. Specifically, the findings are the first to demonstrate a direct effect of task type on consumer perceptions and attitudes. Additionally, the findings indicate that user evaluations of VAs are still dominated by user perceptions of the competence of the VAs.     

Love thy neighbour: Evidence from capital structure decisions

We examine how the peer effects arising not only from the leading firm but also from a slightly better performing firm affect the capital structure decisions of a firm. There is a large body of literature documenting the importance of peer effects, but it is unclear whether managers pay close attention to activities of slightly better performers. This study uses both book- and market-value based approaches to estimate the peer effect measures. Our analysis shows that: (1) our peer effect measures induce the convergence of the follower firms' capital structure towards better performing firms; and (2) the capital structure converges more towards a slightly better performer.