Understanding user experiences of online travel review websites for hotel booking behaviours: an investigation of a dual motivation theory

Online travel review websites (a form of social media) have become an important information source for online travellers. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the issue of the adoption of social media websites. Recognising the theoretical gap in tourism, this paper tries to understand users’ experiences in using social media, associated with user satisfaction and determining the success of an information system. The findings of this research indicate that, in accordance with the motivation theory, both extrinsic (i.e. the argument quality of consumer reviews) and intrinsic (i.e. the credibility of the source) motivation play important roles that enhance user satisfaction. Specifically, the completeness, relevance, flexibility, and timeliness of the argument quality as well as the trustworthiness of source credibility positively influence user satisfaction, leading to intentions to reuse the website and purchase the tourism product. Practical implications for online tourism marketers are also discussed.     

CROSS‐COUNTRY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND POLITICALLY DRIVEN INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS

Grossman and Helpman highlighted a political framework to internalize inefficiency incurred due to unilateral trade policy implementation by sovereign countries. This paper extensively adopts their framework to explore the effects of special interest politics on governments under negotiation to forge international environmental standards to control global emission. Particular attention is given to a case in which negotiation is driven by transferring the abatement technology. Within a specific factor model of international trade, improving the abatement efficiency through technology transfer can give the most mutually beneficial outcome, achieving the lowest level of global pollution compared to other political benchmarks.     

Microstructure and reverse stock splits

In this paper we show that, similar to NYSE/AMEX stocks, NASDAQ stocks exhibit significant ex date returns for reverse stock splits. Although the 10-day cumulative return after the ex date is close to –10%, this does not violate market efficiency, because the average bid-ask spread for the reverse split stock is at least double this return. We also document that these large negative returns are mostly due to a drop in the ask price while bid prices barely change at all. Furthermore, the ex date returns are negatively related to trading volume.These results suggest that there is abnormal selling and a significant buildup of market makers' inventories near the ex date. To reduce the inventory buildup, market makers lower ask prices to induce buying by investors, resulting in the observed negative returns. Lowering bid prices, an alternative strategy for reducing inventories, is not attractive to market makers due to competitive factors and the reduction of commissions associated with a smaller number of transactions. Notably, selling investors have no incentives to sell their stocks early to avoid the observed negative ex date return, since this return is largely an ask price phenomenon and does not represent realized returns to sellers.     

Partial Ownership For The Public Firm And Competition

This paper investigates the issue of partial ownership (partial privatization) of a state-owned public enterprise. We elaborate on the framework of Matsumura (1998) by allowing for managerial inefficiency, and show that under moderate conditions partial ownership is a reasonable choice of government in a monopoly market as well as in a mixed duopoly market, where a public firm competes with a profit-maximizing private firm. We also provide some economic rationale on the result that neither full privatization nor full nation-alization is optimum.     

A Cross-Section Analysis of the Determinants of Life Insurance Consumption in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

This study examines some of the key factors affecting life insurance consumption in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It also attempts to gain an understanding of the different characteristics of the market in life insurance in each territory. Income and life insurance consumption are found to be strongly correlated, which is consistent with previous studies. Education is a significant factor. Price is found to be insignificant, largely conflicting with previous studies. Levels of social security are not significantly related. The one-child policy in mainland China has a negative effect on life insurance consumption. Differences in the level of economic development reveal a variation in life insurance consumption. Generally, the more advanced the economy, the greater the life insurance consumption. However, mainland China, which is a low-income country, shows the greatest potential.     

Technology convergence capability and firm innovation in the manufacturing sector: an approach based on patent network analysis

As a consequence of the convergence between manufacturing technology and the foundation technologies of Industry 4.0, it is becoming more important for firms to formulate an innovation strategy for their technological capabilities. In this context, the present study measures firm‐level technology convergence (TC) capability using patent network analysis. A firm’s TC capabilities are measured using three centrality indices pertaining to a patent network, which is constructed based on the relationship between patents and their international patent classification. For the empirical analysis, panel regression is conducted to observe the effect of TC capabilities on innovation for the top 30 firms in four manufacturing industries. We find that the TC degree positively influences the firms’ overall innovation, namely their total number of patents, and negatively influences their convergent innovation, calculated as the ratio between the number of TC patents and the total number of patents, while the effect of TC betweenness is the opposite. These findings imply that while concentrating on similar technologies may promote quick technology application, it could hamper the enhancement of a TC’s potential. To promote TC, a firm should thus develop technologies more likely to be involved in TC.     

Optimum tariff on imports from imperfectly competitive labor-managed firms

This paper develops a model of international trade between a labor-managed economy and a capitalist economy and examines the short- and long-run optimal specific tariff in the presence of foreign imperfect competition among labor-managed firms. It will be shown that the underlying conditions for the optimal tariff rule are different from conventional wisdom.     

A microstructure examination of trading activity following stock splits

In a study of 1,131 stock splits spanning the period 1983–1989 we observe an increase in the number of trades as well as a reduction in the mean trade size following the split. Combined with earlier reported findings of an increase in the number of shareholders postsplit, we conclude that the number of liquidity traders increases after a split. We confirm the previously observed increase in the bid-ask spread following a split, and upon decomposition of the spread find an increase in its adverse selection component in the postsplit period. This is consistent with the finding by Brennan and Hughes (1991) of an increase in the number of analysts following a stock after a split. Further, observing a decrease in market depth following a split we determine that Kyle-type models incorporating diverse private information for informed traders most correctly describe the nature of security trading. Since this decrease in postsplit market depth is not related to the trading volume or the split factor, we reject price correction explanations for stock splits.     

Technological Upgrading under Tariffs and Equivalent Quotas*

This paper compares the effect of tariffs and that of equivalent quotas on the domestic firm’s production technology choice when it competes with a foreign firm in the domestic market. It is shown that under Bertrand price competition, the ranking of technology under tariff protection and quota protection is ambiguous, as it depends on the relative strength of the strategic vs output effects. The equivalent quota regime can generate a higher‐technology (implying a lower production cost) choice than the tariff regime if the strategic effect dominates the output effect. In contrast, the technology level is necessarily higher under the tariff regime than under the equivalent quota regime when the firms engage in Cournot quantity competition.     

Toward sustainable consumption: Researching voluntary simplifiers

This article examines and extends the notion of voluntary simplifiers (VS). VS are individuals who have freely chosen a frugal, anticonsumer lifestyle that features low resource use and environmental impact. The article will begin by reviewing empirical work with VS and their mainstream counterparts, non‐voluntary simplifiers (NVS). It will go on to identify and locate within this literature an intermediate group: beginner voluntary simplifiers (BVS). BVS may support some aspects of sustainability (such as buying fair‐trade coffee or recycling domestic waste) without either embracing a complete lifestyle change like VS, or completely dismissing ethical or environ‐mental features of products and services they consume, like NVS. Insight into the complex decision‐making processes of BVS is crucial for the understanding of the concept of voluntary simplification and is therefore important for the advancement of sustainable consumption. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.