Manufacturing environments in South Korea,Japan and the United States of America: A note

This paper reports a comparative analysis of the manufacturing facilities and the degree of automation of major manufacturing corporations in South Korea, Japan and the United States. We suggest that South Korea is behind Japan and the United States in manufacturing technology, but is aggressively incorporating automated equipment or processes into the manufacturing system.This project has been supported by a grant from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.     

Analyst Earnings Forecasts for Publicly Traded Insurance Companies

Several trends in the insurance and financial services industry, including demutualizationconsolidation, and deregulation, have attracted increasing attention from investors and financial analysts. This paper investigates the accuracy of the earnings forecasts of financial analysts for insurance companies. Our empirical results indicate that analyst forecasts outperform random walk time-series forecasts. Furthermore, we find that both disagreement over earnings forecasts among analysts and the relative forecasting error in the mean forecasts is smaller for life insurers than for property-casualty insurers, whereas the relative errors for forecasts for multiple-line insurers are in between the two. Forecasting error is a negative function of firm size and the number of analysts who are following a company, and is a positive function of the disagreement among analysts.Analyst forecasts have a timing advantage over the random walk model. Our results also suggest that the fair value reporting requirement (SFAS 115), which has been in effect since 1994, has enhanced the accuracy of analyst forecasts. The SFAS 115 has improved the superiority of analyst forecasts over the random walk forecasts for life insurers, but not for property-casualty insurers, and there is a weak improvement for multiple-line insurers. JEL Classification: G15     

Further Evidence on the Integration of REIT,Bond, and Stock Returns

This study examines the integration of REIT, bond, and stock returns. Cointegration and vector autoregressive models are employed to explore the causality and long-run economic linkages among these securities. Our results show that REITs behave more like stocks and less like bonds after the structural changes in the early 1990s. Overall, results suggest that the benefits of diversification by including REITs in multiasset portfolios diminish after 1992.     

Web 2.0 and opportunities for small businesses

The burst of the dot-com balloon closed the era of Web 1.0. In the process, we observed the creation and disappearance of many small businesses globally. The dynamic and linked web pages provided new pathways to online businesses. However, most of the new online business models still followed the traditional practices of the industrial era which could be characterized by closeness, uniformity, and one-way communication. A new set of new technologies, called Web 2.0, offers new opportunities, blurs the boundaries between online and offline activities, opening a new era with flagships of openness, collaboration, and participation. In this study, by reviewing the properties of Web 2.0, we investigate opportunities for small businesses in the Web 2.0 era. The findings of this study can provide helpful guidelines for small businesses to begin using and leveraging Web 2.0.     

Crafting an environment to foster integration in new product teams

The integration of functionally diverse members in new product teams is a long-standing managerial challenge. This study addresses two questions to help meet this challenge: 1) how can the environment around teams be crafted to foster integration, and 2) does integration help teams to create superior or more advantageous new products? Based on a survey of 206 cross-functional new product teams, we learned that certain environmental factors (market-oriented reward system, planning process formalization, managerial encouragement to take risks, and managerial involvement in new product projects) facilitate integration in teams, which, in turn, leads to the creation of superior or more advantageous new products.     

The Contributions of Firm Innovativeness to Customer Value in Purchasing Behavior

The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of firm innovativeness and product innovativeness on the components of customer value mediated by instrumental and symbolic brand benefits. Over the last 10 years, the mobile phone industry in Korea has grown rapidly, with the introduction of several innovative phone features. The research context therefore is mobile phones with Internet access and their users in Korea. A major research finding is that the firm innovativeness affects product innovativeness, and hence, the instrumental brand benefits. A firm's innovativeness also has a significant effect on the symbolic brand benefits and the partnership value. Our key academic contribution is to expand the previous fragmentary studies of customer value, by classifying customer value into four components: expectation, partnership, transaction, and relationship customer values, rather than just focusing on benefits and sacrifices. Implications for managers include the verification that firm innovativeness is a source of ability for mobile phone firms to create value for customers. Instrumental and symbolic brand benefits through innovation should be the focus area for marketers and new product development (NPD) managers in mobile phone firms to communicate with consumers to increase expectation values in the prepurchase step.     

Motivations behind Consumers’ Organic Menu Choices: The Role of Environmental Concern,Social Value,and Health Consciousness

This study aimed to examine underlying motivations of consumers’ intention to visit a restaurant featuring organic menu items and willingness to pay (WTP) for organic menu items. In particular, this study incorporated environmental concerns, social value, and health consciousness as key motivators. An online survey was conducted with a self-administered questionnaire, and a total of 473 responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that environmental concern was the strongest predictor of WTP, followed by social value and health consciousness, whereas health consciousness was the most influential factor on intention to visit, followed by social value and environmental concern.     

Person-level assessment of measurement invariance

Quality & Quantity - Existing procedures for testing measurement invariance focus mainly on group-level comparisons rather than individual comparisons (i.e., the main conclusion typically...     

Style consumption: its drivers and role in sustainable apparel consumption

This study proposes style consumption (SC) as a way to foster sustainable apparel consumption. In doing so, we identify explanatory and outcome variables of SC and also examine gender differences in these variables. Based on an online survey with 586 consumers, we find that frugal apparel consumption (FAC), fashion consciousness (FC) and ecologically conscious consumption (ECC) enhance the likelihood of SC. SC in turn increases environmental apparel purchase (EAP) and sustainable apparel divestment (SAD). The results also suggest significant gender differences both in motivational and behavioural variables included in the model. Specifically, females are significantly higher than males in FAC, FC and ECC. The tendency of SC, EAP and SAD were also higher for females than males. In addition, we find that gender is a significant factor mediating the effect of FC and that of ECC on SC.     

汉代辽东犁和其作亩法

本文通过考察东北农业的实体，分析了它的力量源泉。根据《齐民要术》中登场的“辽东犁”，研究古代中国东北地区的耕作方式和作亩法，来看末冷地带东北农业的本质。东北地区的农耕是在农业的原始基础上吸收了游牧民的畜牧技术和中原度韩半岛的农业文化。这种特征在耕作方式上可见一斑，即使用了辽东犁的作亩法。