巨额超额准备金挑战全球央行

【摩根士丹利11月12日】美国超额准备金将突破万亿美元大关 美联储资产负债表中的超额准备金即将突破1万亿美元大关。预计到2010年1月,美国的超额准备金将达到1．2万亿美元。另一方面,其他国家的资产负债表和准备金规模也普遍处于高位。     

Antecedents to supplier integration in the automotive industry: A multiple-case study of foreign subsidiaries in China

Supplier integration has become an important concept for improving supply chain performance. The aim of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate and inhibit supplier integration in the context of the Chinese automotive industry. An inductive approach based on grounded theory was chosen as the research methodology, where data was collected through 30 detailed case interviews with subsidiaries of foreign automotive companies operating in China. The results indicate that buyer-side leadership is an important antecedent for building motivation, trust, and commitment among suppliers and for shaping their mindsets. This, in turn, facilitates strategic alignment and enables suppliers to build collaborative capabilities, which are finally shown to be a key enabler for successful supplier integration.     

Growth and inequality: Dependence on the time path of productivity increases (and other structural changes)

This paper examines the significance of the time path of a given productivity increase on growth and inequality. Whereas the time path impacts only the transitional paths of aggregate quantities, it has both transitional and permanent consequences for wealth and income distribution. Hence, the growth-inequality tradeoff generated by a given discrete increase in productivity contrasts sharply with that obtained when the same productivity increase occurs gradually. The latter can generate a Kuznets-type relationship between inequality and per-capita income. Our results suggest that economies with similar aggregate structural characteristics may have different outcomes for income and wealth inequality, depending on the nature of the productivity growth path.     

A critical evaluation of alternative methods and paradigms for conducting mediation analysis in operations management research

Mediation as a theory testing approach has witnessed considerable adoption among Operations Management (OM) researchers. Although mediation-testing methods have evolved tremendously in the past decade, their dissemination in the OM field has not seen parallel growth. These advanced techniques facilitate the testing of existing and complex hypotheses in a more precise manner. With the intent of critically evaluating existing and alternative methods for conducting mediation analysis needed to support sophisticated empirical research, this paper first reviews OM studies that tested for mediation in the past eleven years (2002–2012) from top-tier OM journals. Four commonly used mediation approaches were identified. Based on principles of good theory building, type of mediation model, and properties of empirical data, we evaluate the existing methodologies and make recommendations on how to improve the rigor of OM mediation testing. Using published OM studies in top journals as examples, we then illustrate the relevance and advantages of these recommendations, as well as their ease of use. Furthermore, we empirically show that more robust and insightful results can be achieved by adopting these techniques, which in turn have the promise of leading to better theory building and testing in the field of operations management.     

Fixing income and price targets for the poor in india

The poverty line, generally defined as the minimum income level necessary to enable a person to consume a normatively stipulated basket of goods, is widely used to set income target for the poor. But mere provision of this target income will not lead the poor to adopt the normative consumption pattern. In order to induce them to do so, it is necessary to set suitable price targets along with the income target. An attempt has been made here to fix these targets assuming that the consumers' demand pattern can be represented by the linear expenditure system. A numerical exercise has been worked out for rural India.     

Consumer substitution decisions: an integrative framework

Substitution decisions have been examined from a variety of perspectives. The economics literature measures cross-price elasticity, operations research models optimal assortments, the psychology literature studies goals in conflict, and marketing research has examined substitution-in-use, brand switching, stockouts, and self-control. We integrate these perspectives into a common framework for understanding consumer substitution decisions; their specific drivers (availability of new alternatives, internal vs. external restrictions on choice); the moderating role of a consumer’s commitment to an initially desired alternative; and the affective, motivational, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes of substitution. We use this framework to recommend new avenues for research.     

How mutual fund investors’ objective and subjective knowledge impacts their information search and processing behaviour

Contrary to the popular belief that objective knowledge (OK) (that is, what is actually stored in the memory) and subjective knowledge (SK) (that is, what individuals perceive they know) differently impact information search and information-processing behaviour, an empirical study conducted on 268 mutual fund (MF) investors suggests no significant difference in the impact of OK and SK on the width and depth of information search and information processing. The study suggests that OK and SK significantly positively impact the width and depth of information search and information-processing behaviour, however, no significant difference exists in the way they impact. The possible explanation put forward is that even though MF investors may suffer from self-deception (that is, pseudo expertise) and report high knowledge (that is, high SK), the impact of SK on actual investment behaviour is not significantly different from that of OK. The implications of the findings are also discussed.     

A comprehensive model of information search and processing behaviour of mutual fund investors

Understanding the investment behaviour, specifically information search and processing behaviour of mutual fund (MF) investors is a key to the effective marketing of MF schemes, and yet we have only limited understanding of it. This study proposes and validates a model of information search and processing of MF investors. The proposed model is arrived at by combining the limited insights from the existing studies dispersed across multiple domains of literature, viz., Traditional Finance, Behavioural Finance and Consumer Behaviour. The model suggests that: (i) MF investors’ subjective knowledge (SK) negatively impacts their perceived purchase risk (PPR); (ii) MF investors’ SK positively impacts their purchase decision involvement (PDI); (iii) PPR negatively impacts their PDI; (iv) PDI positively impacts their depth of information search (DIS) and information processing behaviour (DIP); and (v) DIS positively impacts their DIP. The model is empirically validated through structural equation modelling of data collected from a survey of 268 MF investors. The implications of the model, as are relevant for the MF marketers and the policymakers, are also discussed.     

Toward a theory of managing context in Six Sigma process-improvement projects: An action research investigation

In this paper, field studies, extant literature, and domain knowledge are used to develop a theory of managing context in Six Sigma process-improvement projects. By means of a participatory action research investigation involving ten projects in manufacturing and service firms, this paper examines the interrelationship among project context, elements, and success. Rich text-based information for each project was analyzed for the underlying patterns and relationships using the NVIVO 8 qualitative data analysis software package. The insights gained from this in-depth field investigation are presented in the form of 12 inductively derived research propositions that, when taken together, uniquely contribute to context-based theory-building in this area.