My American Cousin: A Comparison Between Indian and the U.S. Malls

Malls came into existence because of changing patterns of urbanization and ways of living. The concept has traveled from the United States to the world over. Initially, the acceptance and awareness of malls was moderate in India, but there has been a spur in the proliferation of malls during recently. Indian malls are not an exact replica of the U.S. malls: the U.S. model has been modified resulting in development of India-specific prototypes. Indian malls differ from U.S. malls in terms of financing, location, size, expansion, architecture, stage of evolution, choice of anchor tenant, entertainment-mix, and mall management practices.     

A Comparative Analysis of Arab and U.S. Cultural Values on the Web

ABSTRACT

This study aims to explore the depiction of cultural values on global websites. There exists a research gap in terms of better understanding cross-cultural differences in web communications between the Arab and Western worlds. Thus, we conducted content analysis to examine the cultural values on websites from Arab countries and the U.S. The results suggest that local websites of Arab countries and the United States tend to differ significantly from each other on cultural contents. The proposed cultural findings can serve as a guide for creating culturally congruent international websites.     

Temporary stabilization with capital controls

This paper studies both positive and normative aspects of quantity-based capital controls in a small open economy undergoing a temporary inflation stabilization plan. In the model, capital controls are implemented by choosing two policy variables: a ceiling on the private sector debt and a terminal date for removing controls; the date on which controls trigger and hence its duration are endogenously determined. Equilibrium dynamics are characterized for all feasible range of debt ceilings and durations. Temporary controls that end with the collapse of the stabilization plan are shown to mitigate consumption boom-bust cycles and dominate allocations under perfect capital mobility, thus providing a “second-best” rationale for employing them. For controls that are prolonged beyond the collapse of the stabilization plan, equilibria exist even when the debt ceiling is above the debt that accumulates under perfect capital mobility. Here, if the ceiling is sufficiently low, controls mitigate consumption cycles. Conversely, a sufficiently high ceiling amplifies consumption cycles. For prolonged controls, there is a critical value of debt ceiling below (above) which the welfare is higher (lower) relative to the perfect capital mobility case. Finally, for a given debt ceiling, prolonged controls rank lower in welfare than those that end with the stabilization plan. We would like to thank two anonymous referees and the editor whose suggestions have helped us improve the paper substantially. The usual disclaimer applies.     

A comparative study of performance appraisals,incentives and rewards practices in domestic and multinational enterprises in the country of Brunei Darussalam

Very little work in the past has focused on the comparative analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices between domestic and multinational enterprises (MNEs). The majority of the work in this area has instead concentrated on comparing the HRM practices utilised by the subsidiaries of MNEs, and has mostly been conducted in the context of developed countries. In this paper, we examine how the HR practices of appraisals, rewards and incentives are offered, explained and monitored in domestic enterprises (DEs) versus MNEs, and how they are similar or different in nature. This paper is based on primary data collected from a cross-section of firms operating in the country of Brunei Darussalam – a context within which no previous work of this nature has been undertaken. An analysis reveals several interesting results: HR practices are more advanced and better structured in MNEs that conduct performance appraisals (PA) more frequently than DEs, and their feedback system is also rapid; incentives and rewards systems in MNEs follow market ethos and principles; the HR directors and employees of MNEs are more receptive to PA than those in DEs whilst, in contrast to DEs, incentives and rewards systems in MNEs follow market ethos and principles. Furthermore, with regard to size, younger firms are more likely to be following market principles in terms of explaining incentives and rewards systems to their employees, whilst older firms claim that working for them carries social and psychological benefits for employees.     

Perceived superiority of female condoms among female sex workers in India

• This study emphasizes the importance of benefit orientation and the competitive advantage of benefits accrued from an improved social product vis‐à‐vis a current social product as components of a social marketing strategy in order to improve the effectiveness of behaviour change attempts. The views towards female and male condoms of 1939 female sex workers (FSWs) from nine cities in five states of India were investigated. FSWs perceived better peer and male client support, and a more attractive marketing strategy for female condoms over male condoms and thus were likely to use female condoms.

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An empirical study of the dimensionality of organizational justice and its relationship with organizational citizenship behaviour in the Indian context

Cross-cultural research shows that while the concerns about organizational justice may be universal, operationalization of justice standards is highly particularistic (Greenberg 2001). The present study explores the dimensionality of organizational justice in the Indian context. Apart from procedural justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice, another justice dimension, labelled as empowerment justice, emerged during the study. Next, the study tests the relationships between justice dimensions and Organ's (1988) 5-factor conceptualization of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), namely helping, compliance, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue behaviours. The perception of empowerment justice influences helping, compliance, sportsmanship, and civic virtue dimensions of OCB. Interpersonal justice significantly predicts courtesy behaviour. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Tourism development and behavioural changes: evidences from Ratanakiri province,Kingdom of Cambodia

This research paper presents the findings of a research undertaken in Ratanakiri province, Kingdom of Cambodia (Under the RETA 6190 ADB TA project on ‘Preventing the Trafficking of Women and Children and Promoting Safe Migration in the GMS’), with the aim to evaluate the impact of an airport rehabilitation project. It highlights the role that infrastructure development, with a focus on tourism-related projects, can play in a remote rural area and its consequences on local population, especially ethnic minorities. For remote areas, tourism is considered as an accelerating influence on globalisation and in-migration, which, in turn, are seen as the main factors affecting remote local communities to modify behaviours changing from valuing utility to valuing exchange. The rapidity of these cultural changes increase rural depopulation and the vulnerability of human beings to a range of negative situational factors, including loss of land, erosion of community structures and coping mechanisms, and as well as exploitative practices such as debt bondage, prostitution and human trafficking.     

Network impacts of distance-based road user charging

Distance-based road user charging is being seen as one potential mechanism to implement national road charging schemes. This paper investigates the design aspects of universal distance-based charging schemes and incorporates procedures within a detailed network supply model to represent how a range of different permutations of distance-based charges across a given network (charging regimes) affect route-choice, travel characteristics and demand for road space. The results suggest that distance-based charging can reduce number and length of trips, congestion, accidents and pollution, and provide net economic benefits and revenues. However, these benefits are not found to be uniform throughout the network. Their magnitude largely depends on the charge level, the hierarchy of charges across the network, and the difference between the charge levels.     

Contests where there is variation in the marginal productivity of effort

Summary. We provide a characterization of participants' behavior in a contest or tournament where the marginal productivity of effort varies across contestants and individual productivity is private information. We then consider the optimal design of such a contest. We first analyze contestant behavior for the usual type of contest, where the highest output wins. Abilities need not be independently distributed. We demonstrate that there is a unique symmetric equilibrium output function, that output is increasing in ability, and that marginal effort is increasing in ability, while effort decreases when the cost of effort increases. Next we consider the case where the highest output need not win, with independently distributed abilities. We analyze the contest designer's decisions in choosing contest rules optimal from her perspective. We show that the output produced, probability of winning, and contest designer's expected revenue are generally increasing in contestants' ability. We examine the relationship between the marginal cost of producing output and marginal utility per dollar of the net award for winning. Received: July 30, 1998; revised version: August 7, 2000