How to support the management of intangibles

The main objective of this work is the application of the concept of intellectual capital to management for business development and innovation. Concretely, we propose strengthening the ‘Intellectus’ model of intellectual capital by combining it with a multicriteria methodology called the ‘analytic hierarchy process’. The proposed methodology seeks to facilitate decision making by managers in focusing actions and resources to innovate and improve the value of their services to their clients. In particular, an application was made to the banking service sector in Chile, to identify the intangibles of greater importance in loyalty-building of clients. We identified technological capital, human capital and business capital as the intangibles with the highest priorities.     

Searching for latent class segments in technological services

The focus in this article is on uncovering segments that describe mobile phone users and on investigating the nature of these segments to get some relevant information. We use a phased approach to reach this objective. First, two segmentation bases have been compared in order to select the best variables for the identification of groups. This is done using a latent class modelling approach. Second, two different segmentation techniques are examined looking for the best model fit. Finally, the model that achieves the best results is applied to the most significant segmentation variables with the purpose of uncovering segments that describe mobile phone users.     

Bond Ratings and Income Smoothing in Brazil

ABSTRACT

In this article we use the variables proposed by Eckel (1981 Eckel , N. ( 1981 ). “The Income Smoothing Hypothesis Revisited.” Abacus , Vol. 17 , No. 1 , pp. 28 – 40 . [Google Scholar]) and Leuz et al. (2003 Leuz , C. , Nanda , D. , and Wysocki , P. ( 2003 ). “Earnings Management and Investors Protection: an International Comparison,” Journal of Financial Economics , Vol. 3 , No. 69 , pp. 505 – 527 . [Google Scholar]) as proxies to measure income smoothing and find that Brazilian companies that engage in this behavior receive better ratings in their public bond issues. Using data obtained from the National Bond Registration System and the Economatica, we evaluated public bond offerings. The results of univariate and multivariate analyses and robustness tests attest to the significance of the income smoothing factor, regardless of the rating agency. The results support the notion that income smoothing is an information-signaling mechanism and has an impact on bond ratings.     

Interactive music for multisensory e-commerce: The moderating role of online consumer involvement in experiential value,cognitive value,and purchase intention

Background music adds a multisensory element to marketing and e-commerce. Applying interactive sensory-enabling technologies (SETs) to online shopping websites is an area of interest in sensory marketing. This research examines interactive background music in e-commerce and investigates how online consumer involvement moderates the effects of interactive music. Single-factor experiments with three conditions (interactive music, static background music, and control) were conducted to investigate its impact on experiential value, cognitive value, and purchase intention of high- and low-involvement consumers among both students (Study 1, N = 251) and nonstudent samples (Study 2, N = 218). Different music genres were applied to stimuli of the two studies to demonstrate the generalizability of the findings. Results find that interactive music enhances the experiential value of e-commerce for low-involvement consumers. By contrast, high-involvement consumers show greater purchase intention under the interactive music condition due to a heightened level of perceived cognitive value. Involvement is an effective predictor of elaboration and purchase intention under the interactive music condition, but not under the other two conditions. The contribution is twofold: (a) it shows the impact of music as an interactive SET and, (b) demonstrates the moderating role of consumer involvement in the context of multisensory integration in e-commerce. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.     

阿根廷与中国:过去、现在与未来经济合作纵论

<正>首先,我们将关注阿根廷与中国两国的贸易关系。第一部分是关于1991年阿根廷经济模式的重要变化和2007年第三、四代共产党领导人完成的"改革开放政策"。在这一部分,我们将关注1991年～2007年的经济关系。我们将这段时期分成2个阶段:从1991年～2001年;2002年～2007年。     

Investment option under CIR interest rates

We analyze extensively the characteristics of the solution to an irreversible investment decision when the only source of uncertainty comes from interest rates. They are assumed to be driven by the popular Cox–Ingersoll–Ross (CIR) stochastic process. Particular attention is paid to the impact that both CIR parameters and risk aversion have on the threshold rate.     

New models for exhaustible resource development

Minerals sector firms have joined other industries in going green, and some have used the language of sustainable development in the context of the relationship between industry, environment and community. Because of its historical practices of causing severe land disturbance, water pollution and ecosystem disruption, many have thought the concept of ‘sustainable mining’ an oxymoron. Within the context of trying to find the ‘best’ models for minerals development in the fledgling Russian democracy (specifically in Western Siberia), however, we discovered a number of possibilities for creating at least a more sustainable mining sector. This paper presents in summary form some interim results from our work on sustainable development in the extractive hydrocarbon economies of Western Siberia. We identify practices along three dimensions of sustainability – environment, community and labor – and briefly discuss the implications of these practices for Western Siberia.     

Combining Discrete and Continuous Representations of Preference Heterogeneity: A Latent Class Approach

Unobserved preference heterogeneity has been widely recognized as a critical issue not only for modelling choice behaviour, but also for policy analysis. This paper examines alternative approaches for incorporating heterogeneity in recreational demand. We apply a hybrid model combining discrete and continuous heterogeneity representations of tastes to capture the defining features of both the latent class and the random parameter logit specifications. This model allows for the joint estimation of discrete segments and within segment heterogeneity providing a richer interpretation of preference heterogeneity. A database of recreational trips to forest sites in Mallorca has been used to compare the empirical performance of this hybrid approach with common specifications such as the conditional logit, the random parameter logit, and the latent class model.