The stability of risk and benefit perceptions: a longitudinal study assessing the perception of biotechnology

The study of public perceptions is considered to be important for making sound policy decisions, since the public decides which products will enter and sustain in the market. Stability of public perceptions is important for policy-makers; only if public attitudes and perceptions remain constant, policy-makers will be able to take them into account. The aim of the present study was to examine the stability of participants’ risk and benefit perceptions of gene technology over a period of two years. In spring, 2008 and in spring, 2010, the same sample of participants filled out an identical questionnaire. Results of structural equation modelling show that risk and benefit perceptions of gene technology applications are moderately stable (r = .5–.7). Furthermore, results show that people distinguish between medical, plant and food applications and applications involving animals when evaluating the risk of gene technology. When evaluating the benefits, participants also take consumer-related benefits into account, such as enhancement of functional properties. Results of the present study suggest that risk research should regularly examine people’s risk perceptions in order to gain a clearer picture of the dynamics of people’s perception and preferences not only of novel technologies, but also of entrenched technologies.     

Open-book accounting: Reason for failure of inter-firm cooperation?

Inter-firm accounting techniques such as open-book accounting (OBA) have been described as an important means for effectively managing costs in buyer–supplier relationships and for improving relationship quality. However, disclosing cost data also implies for the supplier the risk that the buyer uses the data during price negotiations to pressure the supplier's profit margin. To date, there is sparse empirical evidence addressing the extent to which cost-data disclosure does affect the supplier's perception of the exchange relationship. This study addresses this gap by investigating the impact of OBA on supplier relationship satisfaction. The findings indicate that OBA may negatively affect supplier relationship satisfaction and thus represents a potential risk to cooperation. The results further suggest that effective safeguards against opportunistic behavior, such as relational social norms, significantly attenuate the negative effect of OBA on supplier relationship satisfaction.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACTS AND JOB SATISFACTION: CLUSTERING ANALYSIS USING EVIDENTIAL C‐MEANS AND COMPARISON WITH OTHER TECHNIQUES

The psychological contract refers to an individual employee's belief in mutual obligations between them and their employer. Psychological contracts are a key management concern, as they can impact employees' attitudes and behaviors in ways that influence organizational efficiency and effectiveness. In this paper, we analyse the relationship between the psychological contract and facets of job satisfaction among non‐profit sector employees, using the nascent non‐hierarchical evidential c‐means (ECM) clustering technique. To date, this technique has been theoretically discussed but not widely applied. Based on the Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence, ECM is novel in facilitating the assignment of objects, not only to single clusters, but to sets of clusters, and no clusters (outliers). The paper compares the theoretical underpinnings and findings from ECM with those of three other well‐known clustering techniques, namely (1) the hierarchical Ward's method, (2) the non‐hierarchical crisp k‐means and (3) the non‐hierarchical fuzzy c‐means approaches. We present and interpret the cluster solutions from each clustering technique. We establish three clusters differentiated by the content of the employees' psychological contracts. These clusters are validated by considering their relationship with facets of job satisfaction, to ensure the clusters are theoretically meaningful. Comparisons of the findings from each technique: (1) provide insights into the relationship between the psychological contract and job satisfaction; (2) reveal what ECM encompasses, relative to other clustering techniques; (3) inform the selection of an appropriate clustering technique for a specific research problem; and (4) demonstrate potential future directions in the development of cluster analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浴在奢华里

手拿上好的葡萄美酒，耳边环绕优雅的古典音乐，坐在结合高科技产品、有贵重金属镶嵌的浴盆中，墙上水晶灯发出迷醉的光芒，原来沐浴也可以这样奢侈。     

Stock Market Volatility in an Emerging Market: Further Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange

We investigate the time series properties of the daily and weekly returns from the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) index for the years 1987 to 1997. We investigate whether important time-series characteristics have changed significantly over time. The Greek market has recently undergone major changes including complete capital flow liberalization, the implementation of computerized trading, as well as significant increases in market volume and capitalization; we thus contrast the 1987–90 and 1991–97 periods. Our findings suggest the dynamics of the ASE composite index returns have changed as the market has developed.     

Making use of Internet interactivity to propose a dynamic presentation of web questionnaires

Quality & Quantity - New methodologies that aim to collect data in innovative ways (e.g. big data) are putting pressure on the traditional surveys based on questionnaires. In order to obtain...