The role of the customer–seller relationship in the intention of the customer to complain: A study of Chinese restaurateurs

The potential benefits of customer–seller relationships in the area of consumer complaints are seldom advocated, particularly in the relational oriented, Chinese society. The purpose of this paper is to explore how customer–seller relationships affect the intention of Chinese consumers to complain. Given that Chinese are collectivistic by nature, this paper also examined the effect of social approval and pressure on the act of complaining. Several relationships between personal attitudes, the subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, the extent of relational contact and the complaining intention of Chinese consumers were postulated. Results show that the complaining intention of Chinese consumers is influenced by customer–seller relationships and the social pressure on act of complaining while personal attitudes do not have any effect. Possible explanations for the results and implications for researchers and practitioners are presented.     

Modeling inter-sectoral growth linkages: An application to U.S. agriculture

General equilibrium and open economy trade theory are used along with time series data on the U.S. agricultural sector to provide insights into the structure of agricultural supply, factor returns and linkages to the rest of the economy. Output expansion and factor returns are found to vary depending on relative factor intensities, which we refer to as Rybczynski and Stolper-Samuelson like effects. The effect of the rest of the economy, particularly the increase in price of services, is found to have relatively large negative impacts on agriculture. The short-run effects of prices and factor endowments on growth in agricultural supply and factor returns are dominated by the long-run effects of technological change.     

PREFERENTIAL CREDIT AND INSURANCE AS MEANS TO PROMOTE EXPORTS

Rationales for preferential export credit and export creditinsurance are reviewed and several countries' programs are examinedto determine if these preferential programs are appropriateexport promotion instruments for developing countries. Marketfailure is the most compelling rationale for their introductionbut these arguments have not been well articulated and thereis no systematic analysis of the costs of alternative governmentresponses. Industrial countries' programs have histories ofsubsidy while developing countries' preferential programs havenot been significant factors in stimulating exports.