Exploring the Role of Attitudinal Functions in Counterfeit Purchase Behavior via an Extended Conceptual Framework

Prior research on counterfeit purchase behavior focuses on two attitudinal functions (social‐adjustive and value‐expressive) and ignores the others (e.g., ego‐defensive, knowledge, and utilitarian), despite growing evidence that consumers’ attitudes toward a product category may serve multiple functions. We address this research gap with an extended conceptual framework that incorporates all the five attitudinal functions and explores their direct and indirect effects on counterfeit product evaluation and purchase intention. A field study with 890 shoppers in Hong Kong, a popular market for both genuine and counterfeit brands, supports most hypotheses and provides useful insights into the complex sociopsychological mechanism driving counterfeit purchase behavior.     

The Effects of Issue Characteristics on the Recognition of Moral Issues

The construct of moral intensity, proposed by Jones (1991), was used to predict the extent to which individuals were able to recognize moral issues. We tested for the effects of the six dimensions of moral intensity: social consensus, proximity, concentration of effect, probability of effect, temporal immediacy and magnitude of consequences. A scenario-based study, conducted among business individuals in Singapore, revealed that social consensus and magnitude of consequences influenced the recognition of moral issues. The study provided evidence for the effects of temporal immediacy. There was marginal support for the impact of proximity and probability of effect but no evidence that concentration of effect influenced recognition of moral issues. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for researchers and organisational practitioners.     

Consumer evaluations of brand extension: The roles of case‐based reminding on brand‐to‐brand similarity

Utilizing the case‐based reminding theory in analogical reasoning, this research proposes that the evaluation of a brand extension can be improved by reminding consumers of a similar brand in the extension category. This effect is derived from a brand‐to‐brand similarity, in addition to the product‐to‐product and brand‐to‐product similarity identified in prior literature. Experiment 1 explores the idea that the effect of similar case reminders is most pronounced in moderately similar extensions than in highly similar or highly dissimilar extensions due to schema congruity. Experiments 2 and 3 distinguish the levels of similarity (i.e., product‐to‐product, brand‐to‐product, and brand‐to‐brand similarity) as a source of consumers' evaluations on a brand extension and further eliminate an alternative explanation of instantaneous learning in the advertisement setup of Experiment 1. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Corporate environmentalism pursuit by foreign firms competing in China

This study examines the relationships among environmental orientation, environmental strategy, firm performance, and regulatory stakeholder influence. Survey data collected from foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in China show that while internal environmental orientation positively influences environmental corporate (but not marketing) strategies, external environmental orientation positively influences both. These two types of environmental strategy are, in turn, found to positively affect firm performance. Regulatory stakeholder influence is found to exert a direct effect on external environmental orientation. Moreover, it is found to positively moderate the relationship between environmental orientation and environmental strategy. These findings provide FIE executives with useful insights into enhancing firm performance through the pursuit of corporate environmentalism.     

Innovation and Corporate Tax Planning: The Distinct Effects of Patents and R&D*

Using a large US sample, we find a significant and positive relation between patents and corporate tax planning, and the effect is incremental to the effect of R&D on tax planning. We employ a quasi‐natural experiment based on staggered industry‐level innovation shocks to identify the positive causal effect of patents on corporate tax planning. We also find that patents are not associated with tax planning for domestic firms, but their association with tax planning is concentrated in multinational firms, which have the ability to shift domestic income to low‐tax countries. Moreover, we find that the identified effect mainly exists in the post–check‐the‐box (CTB) rule period when shifting income among affiliates becomes more flexible and convenient. Finally, we use two income‐shifting models and find that patents, rather than R&D, facilitate tax planning through an income‐shifting channel. Overall, our results suggest that R&D and patents facilitate firms' tax planning in distinct ways: R&D facilitates tax planning as intended through tax credits and deductions, whereas patents are used by taxpayers to avoid taxes aggressively through income shifting.     

Combining grey relation analysis and entropy model for evaluating the operational performance: an empirical study

Decision-making on operational performance evaluation is a complex multi-objective problem. Through the combination of grey relation analysis and information entropy, the evaluation results are more objective and reasonable. This paper would introduce entropy into the weighting calculation of the grey relational analysis method for improving the precision. The improved decision model was applied in four notebook computer original design manufacturer companies. The result presented the proposed method is practical and useful. Significantly, the proposed method provides more flexible and objective information in determine the weights vector of the criteria. Also the study result represented that the combined method had certain scientific and rationality. The evaluation model indicates that this method be more reasonable and easier to grasp than other methods. As a result, it is easier to popularize this evaluation method in enterprises.     

Spatial Cournot Competition in a Linear City with Directional Delivery Constraints

This study investigates a sequential game of location and transportation mode choices, as well as the subsequent quantity choice. The results show that spatial Cournot competition with directional delivery constraints yields a richer set of spatial configurations, involving midpoint agglomeration, maximum differentiation and asymmetric dispersion, and a richer set of transportation mode selections, involving delivery in different directions, asymmetric delivery between duopoly firms, and delivery in two directions by each firm, depending on the fixed cost of a transportation instrument. This paper concludes with an investigation of welfare analysis on optimal locations and transportation modes.     

The Role of Regulatory Focus and Information in Investment Choice: Some Evidence Using Visual Cues to Frame Regulatory Focus

This study examines the role of regulatory focus and additional information on risk preferences in investment choice using an experimental approach. The findings reveal that situational regulatory focus plays an important role in influencing investment choice. In particular, a congruent promotion-focused image and related message increases risk-taking behavior in terms of choice for stocks rather than fixed deposits, whereas the reverse is true for a congruent prevention-focused image and related message. However, this relationship depends on the amount of information available during the decision-making process, and regulatory focus has a stronger impact on investment choice under the condition without additional financial information.