The Effects of Superstition on Choice and Latency

This study investigates the effects of superstition characteristics on choice and latency. Three dimensions of superstition are investigated—valence, accessibility, and relevance. Exposure to negative, accessible, or relevant superstition resulted in faster choices made. Superstitions that were negative or relevant led to choices favoring the auspicious product than superstitions that were positive or irrelevant. The auspicious product was also more likely to be chosen if it were associated with a superstition that was more accessible than less accessible. Findings also suggested that when superstition was relevant, the effects of a negative superstition were amplified than when superstition was irrelevant. Relevancy had less effect on positive superstition.     

Investors’ preference towards risk: evidence from the Taiwan stock and stock index futures markets

We apply the stochastic dominance (SD) tests proposed by Linton et al. (2005) and Davidson and Duclos (2000) for risk averters and risk seekers to examine investors’ preferences with respect to the Taiwan stock index and its corresponding index futures. We find that there is no first‐order SD relationship between Taiwan spot and futures. However, for second‐ and third‐order SD, we find that spot dominates futures for risk averters whereas futures dominates spot for risk seekers. The implication is that to maximize their expected utilities, risk averters prefer to buy stocks, whereas risk seekers prefer long index futures.     

A note on deficit analysis in dependency models involving Coxian claim amounts

In this paper, we consider a fairly large class of dependent Sparre Andersen risk models where the claim sizes belong to the class of Coxian distributions. We analyze the Gerber–Shiu discounted penalty function when the penalty function depends on the deficit at ruin. We show that the system of equations needed to solve for this quantity is surprisingly simple. Various applications of this result are also considered.     

The trade-off of servicing empowerment on employees’ service performance: examining the underlying motivation and workload mechanisms

Literature on empowerment as an internal marketing practice primarily documents positive effects on employees’ job performance, though increasing evidence suggests conflicting viewpoints. This study adopts an agency theoretical perspective to propose a workload mechanism, according to which the delegation of power from supervisors (principals) to service employees (agents) (i.e., servicing empowerment) is costly to employees and increases their perceived workload, which hampers their performance to serve customers. Using a laboratory experiment and a survey, this research reveals that the perceived workload and extant motivational mechanisms have conflicting effects on employees’ service performance. The former exerts a significant negative impact on tasks that involve conflicting principal-agent interests (e.g., handling customer complaints) but not on tasks with aligned principal-agent interests (e.g., organizational citizenship behaviors). Two control systems, performance appraisal (accurate and infrequent feedback) and principal-agent service goal congruence, mitigate the dysfunctional effect of perceived workload on employees’ service performance.     

The European distaste for US budget deficits: A regime shift explanation

It is the general consensus that the chief stimulus to the European recovery from the 1982 recession was exports to the United States. It is therefore paradoxical that European official circles were critical of the swingeing US budget deficits throughout the 1980–85 period even though the budget deficits were the driving force behind the high US import demands. This paper argues that the European government had become more concerned with price stability and hence was obliged to pursue contractionary macro policies in order to offset the supply-side price pressure caused by the strong dollar. The Europeans were unhappy with the US budget deficits because they would have benefited more if the US recovery had been maintained by looser monetary but tighter fiscal policies.

The contributions of this paper are: one, showing how a standard macro model can be modified to accomadate the endogenous European policy response; and two, testing the joint hypothesis of ‘new’ European concerns and of induced contraction by examining the policy reaction functions estimated over different time periods.     

Ethical purchasing perceptions and practices of Oklahoma restaurant managers

This study examined ethical business perceptions and practices in purchasing dealings between junior and senior managers in the U.S. restaurants. This study investigated the managerial style in the context of business ethics relative to employees’ loyalty, ethical working behavior, attitude, and decision‐making process of restaurant's food purchasing personnel. Additionally, organizational business ethics training for employees is a crucial component to enhance adherence to an ethical code of conduct. The findings revealed that the managers’ ethical purchasing perceptions and practices of their employees’ behaviors were not different in terms of gender, age, and years of experiences as a manager. Corporate ethical standards and managerial ethical practices can guide managers and employees as to how to behave when confronted with a dilemma with regard to ethics and personal interest. Consequently, the prime principle of management or purchasing personnel in terms of ethical dealings has tremendous impact on a firm's operational performance and employees’ morale.     

Muslim millennials’ attitudes towards fashion advertising

Abstract

Recognizing the rapid growth of fashion marketing efforts in Muslim consumer markets, this article aims to investigate attitudes towards fashion advertising between Muslim millennials from two countries of diverse advertising environments. The conceptual framework used for investigation was adapted from an existing framework for attitudes towards advertising. A sample of young millennials (n?=?1,691) responded to a questionnaire-based survey measuring items related to beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors towards fashion advertising, in addition to religiosity and fashion consciousness. Analysis of hypothesis testing was performed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings revealed that beliefs towards fashion advertising may be grouped into positive and negative factors which influence attitudes towards fashion advertising. Additionally, fashion consciousness also influences Muslim millennials’ attitudes towards fashion advertising. This article also examined the diversity of Muslim millennials in terms of religiosity, gender, and advertising environment on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors towards fashion advertising. Analysis of group comparisons was done after establishing measurement invariance in Multi-group Confirmatory Analysis (CFA). Differences in attitudes towards fashion advertising across religiosity, gender, and cross-national groups illustrate the diversity within Muslim millennials. These differences are explained in terms of differences in antecedent positive and negative beliefs. This article contributes to the literature of attitudes towards advertising by illustrating the influence of gender, religiosity, and advertising environment on attitudes towards fashion advertising in diverse Muslim markets.     

Impact of Trade Liberalisation on a Multi-Region Economy within an Inter-Regional Game Theoretic Framework

The aim of this paper is to analyse the general equilibrium effects of tariff changes in a multi-regional model that has inter-government strategic interactions, where central and regional governments react to policies of one another by implementing counter strategies to maximise their own welfare. The motivation for this paper arises from observing inter-provincial and provincial-central government competitive money creation behaviour in China and in the former Soviet Union. By engaging in competitive money creation, governments are able to cushion the impact of tariff changes on national and regional absorption. However, it is also shown that as the marginal rate of substitution of absorption for inflation increases, the impacts of tariff changes with and without competitive money creation tend to converge.     

The Political Economy of Chinese-Style Privatization: Motives and Constraints

The paper examines how the privatization of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can be successfully triggered and completed. By identifying the motives of local government leaders and the constraints that face them during transition, we conclude that: first, whether local governments are motivated to privatize their SOEs, depends on if the ownership transfer is expected to stimulate sufficiently high growth of local tax revenues without sacrificing the bureaucrats private control benefits. Second, a specific privatization program can succeed only if it manages to satisfy the managerial cooperation constraint, the workers compensation constraint, and the bank-debt-servicing constraint. The motives-cum-constraints political economy approach offers an important explanation for the pace and scope of the ongoing Chinese-style privatization.     

A Johansen model for regional analysis

A ‘bottoms-up’ regional model of the Johansen class allowing for price substitution, flexibility in classifying and reclassifying variables into exogenous or endogenous categories, and ease of computation, is constructed to demonstrate the attractiveness of Johansen type models for regional analysis. These models have been used extensively by international trade theorists with success, but surprisingly they have not caught the attention of regional economists.