Is volatility risk priced in the KOSPI 200 index options market?

The negative volatility risk premium is understood as a result for a hedging demand against market declines. Although this negative volatility risk premium is observed in most index options markets, there are some doubts about its presence in the KOSPI 200 index options market. The majority of KOSPI 200 index option holders do not possess any position in the underlying market; the composition of trading groups of the KOSPI 200 index options significantly differs from that of its underlying index; in this circumstance, the presence of a hedging demand is questionable. This study shows that volatility risk does not require a premium in the KOSPI 200 index options market. Rather, jump fears influence KOSPI 200 options. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:797–825, 2009     

Malleability of taste perception: biasing effects of rating scale format on taste recognition,product evaluation,and willingness to pay

Product-related cues, such as brand or price, can influence consumers’ taste perception. Going beyond this observation, we examine the extent to which a stimulus-extrinsic factor, such as the format of the measurement tool on which consumers describe attributes of a taste sample, influences concurrent taste perception, and in turn, later taste recognition, overall product evaluation, and willingness to pay (WTP). The results of two experiments show that rating scale format (i) influences consumers’ concurrent impression of a taste sample, (ii) systematically biases later identification of the sample in a taste recognition test, and (iii) affects overall product evaluation and WTP. However, scale format (iv) does not influence ratings and downstream judgments when consumers are highly knowledgeable in the product domain. These findings demonstrate that the experience of taste is fleeting and not well represented in memory, and that like other subjective experiences, taste needs to be reconstructed based on accessible cues.     

How Much are Health Websites Influenced by Culture? Content Analysis of Online Diet Programs in the United States,the United Kingdom,and Korea

This study investigates the content of diet websites in the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), and Korea from a cross-cultural perspective using two cultural typologies: Hofstede's individualism-collectivism and Hall's low-high context. The results show a balance of the universal features and culture specific characteristics in the websites. Interestingly, the UK was in the middle between the US and Korea in several features even though the UK and the US typically had been generally included in the same cultural group in advertising studies. It was also determined that neither Hofstede's typology nor Hall's high-low context is enough to explain the cultural representations found on the websites. The need for new typologies for explaining or categorizing the cultural characteristics in advertising is suggested.