The influence of redemption time frame on responses to incentives

In the present research, Construal Level Theory is used to predict that consumers will mentally characterize incentive offers differently as a function of their redemption time frames. Data from two experiments indicate that concrete features, such as the face value of an offer or its mode of presentation (as a dollar figure or as a percentage discount), are prominent for incentives with short time frames but not for incentives with long ones. In the latter case, abstract features, such as the incentive’s goal congruity or fit with personal values, are more likely to influence responses.     

Markets as networks: implications for strategy-making

Based on empirical studies of firm exchange activities in business markets, this paper outlines a business network view of the firm-market relationship, which differs fundamentally from the view assumed by neo-classical economic theory. We define business networks as sets of connected business relationships. Thus business relationships and connections between relationships are the critical elements in the business network view. It is assumed, as suggested by the Uppsala internationalization process model, that an interplay between knowledge and commitment development is the mechanism that drives the relationship and network development process. Against this background the paper discusses how strategic change is analyzed in literature on alliances and networks. In conclusion the paper presents a set of propositions about strategy-making in business network settings.     

世界主要经济体经济增长经验教训及启示

经济增长是世界各国宏观调控追求的主要目标,我国的经济正处于快速的发展阶段,借鉴美国、欧洲、拉美等地区在经济增长中的经验教训,对于我国的经济增长具有积极意义。美国的创新拉动经济增长、欧盟的区域经济发展、日本的开放经济以及拉美新自由主义主导的经济改革等都为中国经济增长提供了有益的启示。     

数据仓库建设:我国商业银行与国际接轨的先锋

新巴塞尔资本协议将于2006年底在成员国开始实施,作为国际银行业风险管理的范本,其最终实施必然对全球银行业产生深远的影响.在这样的大环境下,我国商业银行只有尽快采取应对措施,才能更好的借鉴、接轨新巴塞尔资本协议,以建立起严格科学的风险管理体系,有效地提升我国商业银行的核心竞争力.其中,数据仓库的建设是我国商业银行迎接新巴塞尔资本协议挑战的基础.本文从分析我国商业银行现行数据仓库的现状入手,就如何建立和完善我国商业银行数据仓库提出对策建议.     

Exploring the national and organizational culture mix in service firms

Using representative samples of U.S. and Japanese retail service firms, this study explores whether one particular type of organizational culture is the best with respect to business outcomes (performance and customer satisfaction) or whether the optimum culture depends on the national context in which the firm is embedded. The findings suggest that there is a significant interaction effect of organizational culture with national culture on outcomes. Specifically, the relationships between the importance placed on the cultural values of stability, people orientation, and detail orientation and outcomes are significantly greater for Japanese than for U.S. service retailers. On the other hand, the relationships between the values of aggressiveness, innovation, and outcome orientation and outcomes are greater for U.S. retailers. Further, the findings show that firms whose cultures match those of their home countries exhibit lower levels of outcomes when they operate in other countries with different cultural values. Implications are given for how service retailers might be designed and managed for purposes of improving business outcomes.     

WTO与西部特色旅游业

中国加入WTO后,各行业都受到了一定的影响,旅游业也不例外,本文主要探讨西部旅游业在这个大背景和西部大开发政策下的前景.     

管理会计在企业应用中存在的问题及对策研究

管理会计是以强化企业内部经营管理,提高经济效益为根本目标的实用性很强的学科,但由于受到企业内、外部环境的影响和管理会计本身存在的缺陷所制约,在我国企业应用中是不令人满意的。因此,如何有效发挥管理会计在企业中的管理作用是当前需要解决的紧迫问题。     

高校向事业法人实体转化中的预算管理

本文探讨了在多渠道筹资办学的新形势下,高校财务在预算管理方面的意义、作用以及建立预算管理新体系的原则、方法。     

Towns (and villages): definitions and implications in a historical setting

The measurement of urbanization rates and other uses of statistical information, for example the use of historical town growth to measure long-term economic growth, are usually based on an ad hoc population threshold to define and practically classify settlements as towns. The method, however, trades off accuracy and precision for convenience and simplicity. This paper proposes a new threshold that uses the town size distribution together with agricultural data to derive an appropriate cutoff value. The relevance of agricultural income is integrated into the classification scheme through the differential effect of local agricultural endowments on settlement size. The threshold is chosen such that the size of towns above the cutoff is statistically not influenced by local agricultural endowments, while the size of villages, which is below the threshold, is indeed shaped by them. This new approach is practically demonstrated with an application to the urban system of the nineteenth century in the German region of Saxony. This setting is used to investigate the relevance of a different classification for the development of urbanization over time and Gibrat’s law. The results demonstrate that the underlying classification scheme matters strongly for the conclusions drawn from historical urban data. They also indicate that the use of a common population threshold for a comparative analysis or temporal comparisons in a historical context increases the misclassifications of settlements.     

Consumer reliance on intangible versus tangible attributes in service evaluation: the role of construal level

The services marketing literature has traditionally characterized intangibility as the most critical distinction between services and goods, but in practice service production and consumption often involve both intangible and tangible elements. While prior research has examined and debated service intangibility from the firm’s perspective, what is missing is an understanding of how consumers weigh the relative importance of intangible versus tangible attributes in their service evaluation. Drawing on construal level theory, the authors propose that consumers with a high (vs. low) construal level rely more on intangible (vs. tangible) attributes in service evaluation. Furthermore, the effect of construal level on service evaluation is mediated by imagery vividness, with service type (e.g., experience vs. credence services) serving as a boundary condition. The authors conduct two field studies and two lab experiments and find that under a high construal level, consumers rely more on intangible attributes in their service evaluation and choice formation; under a low construal level, consumers rely more on tangible attributes in their service evaluation and choice. The findings not only offer new insights to help reconcile the disparate perspectives on service intangibility in the literature but also have practical implications on service firms’ positioning strategies that vary across time (e.g., advance selling vs. on-site selling) and space (e.g., near vs. distant outlet), as well as which attributes to emphasize in their marketing communications.