Envisioning a future purchase: The effects of consumption imagery perspective and identity on consumer motivation

When people visualize a potential purchase, they can adopt either a first‐person or a third‐person perspective. The present research examines whether the perspective adopted would affect consumer motivation, and whether this effect would depend on the extent to which the imagined purchase is connected to identity. In four studies, third‐person imagery resulted in stronger consumer motivation than first‐person imagery, but only for purchases that were tied closely to identity. Furthermore, the results suggest that the motivational effect of third‐person imagery is not based on concerns about others’ views of the self, but rather on the extent to which one feels that the imagined behavior is tied closely to identity.     

Developing a core competency model of innovative culinary development

This research investigates core competencies of innovative culinary development (ICD) by deep interviews, Delphi and Analytic Network Process (ANP). Stage I of this research employs a Delphi study that involves 16 participants to provide initial innovative culinary competencies based on 20 interviews of executive chefs, R&D managers and culinary artists. After gaining the consensus from the experts, dimensions and items of competencies are identified during Stage II. Also, ANP is adopted to determine the relative weights among the competency criteria and emphasize the interdependent relationships, thus increasing the accuracy of the results.     

An application of rule-based forecasting to a situation lacking domain knowledge

Rule-based forecasting (RBF) uses rules to combine forecasts from simple extrapolation methods. Weights for combining the rules use statistical and domain-based features of time series. RBF was originally developed, tested, and validated only on annual data. For the M3-Competition, three major modifications were made to RBF. First, due to the absence of much in the way of domain knowledge, we prepared the forecasts under the assumption that no domain knowledge was available. This removes what we believe is one of RBF’s primary advantages. We had to re-calibrate some of the rules relating to causal forces to allow for this lack of domain knowledge. Second, automatic identification procedures were used for six time-series features that had previously been identified using judgment. This was done to reduce cost and improve reliability. Third, we simplified the rule-base by removing one method from the four that were used in the original implementation. Although this resulted in some loss in accuracy, it reduced the number of rules in the rule-base from 99 to 64. This version of RBF still benefits from the use of prior findings on extrapolation, so we expected that it would be substantially more accurate than the random walk and somewhat more accurate than equal weights combining. Because most of the previous work on RBF was done using annual data, we especially expected it to perform well with annual data.     

Bayesian Graphical Models for STructural Vector Autoregressive Processes

This paper proposes a Bayesian, graph‐based approach to identification in vector autoregressive (VAR) models. In our Bayesian graphical VAR (BGVAR) model, the contemporaneous and temporal causal structures of the structural VAR model are represented by two different graphs. We also provide an efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to estimate jointly the two causal structures and the parameters of the reduced‐form VAR model. The BGVAR approach is shown to be quite effective in dealing with model identification and selection in multivariate time series of moderate dimension, as those considered in the economic literature. In the macroeconomic application the BGVAR identifies the relevant structural relationships among 20 US economic variables, thus providing a useful tool for policy analysis. The financial application contributes to the recent econometric literature on financial interconnectedness. The BGVAR approach provides evidence of a strong unidirectional linkage from financial to non‐financial super‐sectors during the 2007–2009 financial crisis and a strong bidirectional linkage between the two sectors during the 2010–2013 European sovereign debt crisis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Economic Issues in the Antitrust Assessment of Hospital Competition: Overview

Rapid consolidation in the hospital industry, as health care markets respond to consumer pressures for more cost-effective delivery of health care services, has focused increased attention on antitrust enforcement theories and actions. This paper reviews the Federal agency challenges of four recent hospital mergers that have all been denied by the courts, but for varying reasons. Questions raised include the appropriate definition of the product and geographic markets, the extent of realizable merger-specific efficiencies and the influence of non-profit status on hospital behavior. The lack of conclusive empirical economic evidence on these topics undoubtedly contributes to the current divergence of opinion among regulators, courts and hospitals. This paper also identifies how each of the subsequent papers in this special issue contributes valuable findings to inform the lively debate.     

Marginal places and tourism: the role of Buddhist centers in Italy

Religious tourism in Italy has always been an attractor at an international level. For many centuries, it has been entirely represented by the Christian pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica. In recent decades, however, the religious scenery has changed deeply, and now includes even non-Christian religions and spiritualities. In this paper we compare two (very different) Buddhist centers, both located in places of Italy where tourism is not (or is no more) a significant component of the local economy. Buddhist centers are increasingly becoming popular tourist attraction: our purpose is to investigate to what extent and under which conditions they can be actors of local tourism development. The most significant of these conditions seems to be the nature of the center itself, ranging from a hermitage relatively unconcerned about any quantitative development, to a structure where spiritual ends are reconciled both with expansion and with economic integration within the local community.     

麦肯锡调查：当今的企业如何对一线进行管理

大多数企业并未对一线管理人员提供足够的培训，或者对其职责进行恰当的定位，以创造最大价值。令该问题雪上加霜的是，高层领导常常意识不到妨碍一线绩效提高的问题。而拥有得力的一线管理人员的企业则采取与之不同的做法。     

The Development of the Institutional Investor: The Case of Australian Life Insurers 1945–85

This paper considers the post‐war development of asset management practices among Australian life insurers, which have historically been among the largest institutional investors in Australia. A complex process of adaptation and organisational restructuring allowed life insurers to transform from basic investors of policy‐holders’ funds to large multifaceted institutional investors in just three decades. Three stages in the development of investment practices are identified. These phases trace the process of expanding existing knowledge bases; diversification; and the acquisition of new skills; consolidation and the integration of these skills into institutional structures; thus completing one cycle of organisational learning and setting the stage for the next.     

CUSTOMER‐OWNED BANKING IN AUSTRALIA: FROM CREDIT UNION TO MUTUAL BANK

Since the 1990s financial sector regulation in Australia has treated credit unions and building societies the same as banks under the designated title of authorized depository institutions. This allows credit unions to choose between different organizational structures: cooperative; convert to customer‐owned banks or to demutualize. This article utilizes semi‐structured interviews to analyse the key motivations for organizational change. It examines a number of credit unions and their conversion experience to customer‐owned banks. It finds that adaptation of the credit union model was necessary to change customer perceptions, ensure future growth in the customer base and assets, and facilitate access to capital raisings with the credit rating of a bank. Despite this change customer‐owned banks retain the core principals of mutuality.