Like or want? Gender differences in attitudes toward online shopping in China

While previous studies indicate that female consumers display less trust for online shopping than males do, there is little research to addresses the reasons behind this difference. Our study applies a combination of both self‐report and the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to compare the cognitive and affective components of attitudes in men and women toward online shopping in China. Although female participants showed no significant difference from male participants in affective attitudes toward online shopping in the self‐report condition, females associated online shopping more frequently with unpleasant adjectives and off‐line shopping with pleasant adjectives in the indirect IAT condition. The opposite pattern was found for the male group. This finding indicates a wanting but disliking attitude toward online shopping among the female consumers in China, which provides a unique theoretical contribution to consumer behavior theory and helps to enhance e‐marketers’ market targeting and segmentation effectiveness in China.     

Profitability of mergers in food manufacturing

Two issues are examined. The statistical significance of a number of socio-economic factors that affect the level of charitable giving are evaluated. Family wealth and age of the head of household tend to be significant determinants of charitable giving, regardless of whether it is to all charities or to religious charities only. Such is not the case for the price of giving; for instance, the price of giving is an important determinant of all charitable contributions, but almost non-existent as a determinant for religious donations. Results such as this suggest that changes in marginal tax rates prompted by a switch to a tax credit as a substitute for a deduction, and hence a change in the price of giving, may have virtually no impact on contributions to religious organizations but may affect conntributions to other charitable organizations. The extent to which some socio-economic factors changed in relative importance as determinants of charitable giving from 1982 to 1986 is also reviewed.     

Self-service activities and formal or informal market services

Household can provide themselves with services in different ways. Generally a household can produce a service itself, or buy it on a formal or informal market. On an informal market services are sold at a price substantially lower than on a formal market, because of tax evasion by both consumer and producer. This article investigates the choices made by Dutch households with respect to three services: small home repairs, car repair and maintenance, and ladies' hairdressing. The analysis shows that the mode of provision of the services is influenced not only by financial considerations, but also by the ability of the household to engage in home production, skills for and attitudes towards home production and the availability of informal market services in the local area.     

Staff localization and organizational characteristics: Western business operations in China

Localizing their staff is a common aspiration among foreign firms in China. The capability of foreign companies to build strong local management teams has been identified as crucial for their future success. However, because of the uneven progress so far, it has been suggested that some types of organizations may be more disposed to localize than others. To explore this issue, a mail survey was directed at Western business operations in China. Two sets of variables were examined: the nature of the organization in China and the characteristics of the parent organization. Unexpectedly, the results showed that the nature of the organization in China was not associated with staff localization. On the other hand, as expected, two characteristics of the parent corporation seemed to matter. International experience of the parent corporation had a positive relationship with staff localization while the percentage of turnover from foreign operations had a negative association with staff localization. Although highly tentative, due to the exploratory character of this investigation, it seems that the characteristics of the parent corporation seems to play a more important role in the localization process than the nature of the organization in China.     

Economische kroniek

Amsterdam, 6 October 1928.     

Minimum wage is efficient wage in Turkish labor market: TAR–cointegration analysis

This study has two main purposes. First one is the necessity of taking minimum wages into account, if there is a purpose to analyze the relationship between wages and productivity in an economy which has high unemployment rates and informal employment. Second one is about the analyzing method of this relationship. We choose TAR cointegration analysis for this relation. First step of this analysis is testing for stationarity of the variables. However the low power of traditional unit root tests is examined and proved in many studies but not taken into account in TAR cointegration studies in literature. This study shows that traditional unit root tests are unfavorable for the variables which have TAR structures. Because of this shortcoming of traditional unit root tests, these results must be supported with TAR unit root tests.     

素质教育：地方综合性院校师范教育的重要使命

地方综合性院校主办师范教育在发挥综合性院校学术资源和师资优势,促进师范专业与非师范专业之间的融合等方面具有一定的优势,但也面临着一些矛盾。文章分析了地方综合性院校师范教育基本的课程体系及组织实施策略。     

Exploring Mediating and Moderating Influences on the Links among Cycle Time,Proficiency in Entry Timing,and New Product Profitability*

Development cycle time is the elapsed time from the beginning of idea generation to the moment that the new product is ready for market introduction. Market‐entry timing is contingent upon the new product's cycle time. Only when the product is completed can a firm decide whether and when to enter the market to exploit the new product's window of opportunity. To determine the right moment of entry a firm needs to correctly balance the risks of premature entry and the missed opportunity of late entry. Proficient market‐entry timing is therefore defined as the firm's ability to get the market‐entry timing right (i.e., neither too early nor too late). The literature has produced divergent evidence with regard to the effects of development cycle time and proficiency in market‐entry timing on new product profitability. To explain these disparities this study (1) explores the mediating roles of development costs and sales volume in the relationships among development cycle time, proficiency in market‐entry timing, and new product profitability, respectively; and it (2) explores the moderating influence of product newness on the relationship between development cycle time and development costs and that of new product advantage on the link between proficiency in market‐entry timing and sales volume. The results from a survey‐based study of 72 manufacturers of industrial products in the Netherlands suggest that development costs mediate the relationship between development cycle time and new product profitability and that sales volume mediates the link between proficiency in market‐entry timing and new product profitability. In addition, the findings indicate that new product advantage strengthens the positive relationship between proficiency in market‐entry timing and sales volume. The results provide no evidence for a moderating effect of product newness. These results have important implications because to maximize new product profitability managers need to distinguish between costs and demand side effects of development cycle time and market‐entry timing on new product profitability. Keeping this distinction in mind should help them to better determine the relative profit impact of investments in cycle time reduction or improved entry timing. Moreover, the findings suggest that highly advantaged products that enter the market at the right time may have a highly attenuated sales volume. It also implies that new products with lower advantage may have very little leeway in hitting the “sweet spot” in market. The message is that “doing the right thing” (i.e., to develop a highly advantaged new product) may be at least as important as correctly balancing the risks of premature entry and the missed opportunity of late entry.     

非加速通货膨胀区间研究

本文构建了通货膨胀基准指标,并利用基于菲利普斯曲线和奥肯定律的状态空间模型估计了通货膨胀非加速区间.分析表明,通货膨胀基准指标的非加速区间约为 [0.5%,3.5%].对通货膨胀基准指标的预测结果显示,2008年基准通货膨胀率将上升至3.37%.但之后两年将迅速回落至0.53%和1.02%,其中2009年通货膨胀率接近非加速通货膨胀区间下限,通货紧缩风险有所加大.