Labor market entry and earnings dynamics: Bayesian inference using mixtures‐of‐experts Markov chain clustering

This paper analyzes patterns in the earnings development of young labor market entrants over their life cycle. We identify four distinctly different types of transition patterns between discrete earnings states in a large administrative dataset. Further, we investigate the effects of labor market conditions at the time of entry on the probability of belonging to each transition type. To estimate our statistical model we use a model‐based clustering approach. The statistical challenge in our application comes from the difficulty in extending distance‐based clustering approaches to the problem of identifying groups of similar time series in a panel of discrete‐valued time series. We use Markov chain clustering, which is an approach for clustering discrete‐valued time series obtained by observing a categorical variable with several states. This method is based on finite mixtures of first‐order time‐homogeneous Markov chain models. In order to analyze group membership we present an extension to this approach by formulating a probabilistic model for the latent group indicators within the Bayesian classification rule using a multinomial logit model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

„Der Kunde ist König“ — Subjektiv empfundene Kundendominanz als Erfolgsfaktor

Luxuri?s gestaltete Einkaufsumwelten liegen im Trend, wie verschiedene Neuer?ffnungen der letzte Jahre zeigen. Gerade in solchen hochwertig gestalteten Gesch?ften und Einkaufszentren ist die von den Konsumenten beim Einkauf verspürte Dominanz, also das Gefühl, „alles im Griff zu haben“, eine wesentliche Voraussetzung dafür, dass Konsumenten ein Gesch?ft oder ein Einkaufszentrum wertsch?tzen, eine vorteilhafte Einstellung insbesondere zu Preisen und Leistungen sowie eine positive Verhaltensabsicht entwickeln Diese Gefühl der Dominanz kann durch die Ladengestaltung und durch die Verk?ufer-K?ufer-Interaktion im Verkaufsgespr?ch positiv beeinfluss werden.     

Hidden consequences of a first-born boy for mothers

Women whose first child is a boy work less than women with first-born girls. After a first-born boy the probability that women have more children increases. Higher fertility is a possible explanation for the lower labor supply of mothers.     

Customer Personal Features as Determinants of the Formation Process of Corporate Social Responsibility Perceptions

The authors of this paper introduce three customer demographic features (age, gender, and educational level) and three psychological traits (support, collectivism, and novelty seeking) as moderators in a classic model to better explain the formation process of corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions. The results of the paper can assist CSR and marketing practitioners in better segmenting the market in order to adapt their CSR and communication strategies and make them more effective. The authors test a causal model that allows them to anticipate CSR perceptions based on customer evaluations of (1) the congruence between the company and its CSR strategy, (2) the motivations of the company to implement CSR activities, and (3) the corporate credibility in developing CSR programs. Results suggest that customer psychological features are more effective for marketing segmentation than demographic features because they explain more differences among customers in the formation of CSR perceptions. CSR support and novelty seeking are the most valuable characteristics that can be applied to marketing segmentation.     

Dietary vs. transport: an analysis of environmental burdens pertaining to a typical workday

This article deals with an evaluation of some environmental impacts of a normal workday. The aim is to compare the environmental load associated to different standard meals provided by a canteen, and a series of transport options from home to the workplace, adopting the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. LCA is a holistic methodology that evaluates the environmental burdens associated to industrial productions or anthropic activities, over the whole life cycle of a product. The environmental load associated to a service is characterized by a number of impact indicators internationally accepted, such as gross energy requirement, global warming potential (GWP), ozone layer depletion and others. The present paper shows the environmental impacts, calculated with the environmental product declaration and the cumulative energy demand methods, associated to some typical food courses and means of transportation. The present analysis considers as subject a generic worker who lives and works in a European urban area. The results highlight how often environmental impacts coming from the lunch, in particular when the menus contain meat, are higher than the ones attributable to the transport. Taking into account the GWP as example, this study assesses how the contribution for producing a single beef steak (120 g) is equivalent to drive a car for ca. 30 km.     

Risk-taking in new project selection: Additive effects of bonus incentives and past performance history

The goal of this study is to investigate how past project performance history and bonus incentive pay schemes affect managers' propensity to select more or less risky projects. Performance history is manipulated via past positive outcomes (i.e. beating a target profit rate) and negative outcomes (i.e. missing a target profit rate). Two types of bonus incentive pay schemes (hurdle bonus and graduated bonus) were employed in the study. The findings are consistent with prospect theory that predicts that prior bad outcomes (negative performance history) motivate greater risk-taking than prior good outcomes (positive performance history). In addition, we find evidence that hurdle and graduated bonus incentive schemes also affect risk taking. Overall, we find an additive effect of these two factors, such that the greatest (least) risk taking occurred when participants had negative (positive) prior experience coupled with a graduated (hurdle) bonus scheme.     

Producing Environmentally Acceptable Cosmetics? The Impact of Environmentalism on the United Kingdom Cosmetics and Toiletries Industry

The Cardiff Business School, University of Wales, is currently undertaking a research programme on the influence of environ‐mentalism upon the United Kingdom cosmetics and toiletries market. This paper examines four main areas in relation to the environment and the development of environmentally acceptable products. The survey considers products and their environmentally acceptable attributes; the research of companies into the production of environmentally acceptable products; the production processes of companies and the environmentally conscious activities of companies.