Missing data and maximum likelihood estimation

The proper use of the maximum likelihood principle in the context of missing data is explored. The relationship between the false procedure of treating the predicted values as if they were observable and the E–M procedure suggested by Dempster, Laird, and Rubin (1977) is also discussed.     

Antecedents of flow in retail store shopping

“Flow” has been established as a critical determinant of an online shopping experience. Online consumers with flow experience tend to be less price-sensitive and to have favorable attitudes and high re-patronage intention. As retail stores account for 90% of retail sales, it is important to advance our knowledge of flow theory in physical retail stores. However, the antecedents (navigational challenge, web skill) derived from the extant online flow literature are not applicable to in-store shopping. To fill the void, the two objectives here are (1) to provide a theoretical foundation to develop the antecedents (challenges and skills) associated with in-store shopping, and (2) to examine their impacts on consumer flow experience (concentration, control, and enjoyment) and subsequent future shopping intentions. The results will advance the literature of flow and offer helpful suggestions to retail marketing.     

Integrated reporting: background,measurement issues,approaches and an agenda for future research

We discuss the background to integrated reporting, a new reporting framework focused on firms’ future value creation narrative. We consider why integrated reporting is an area of interest for the accounting profession, accountants, investors, regulators and managers. We provide an overview of the integrated reporting literature, discuss measurement and research design issues to take into account when designing studies on integrated reporting and identify approaches and set an agenda for future research.     

Trading Returns for the Weekend Effect Using Intraday Data

The existence of the weekend effect has been documented as early as 1885. This paper examines whether the serial dependence in returns around weekends and the magnitude of negative Friday returns can be used to produce superior trading returns. We find some success for this endeavor after accounting for transaction costs (including the bid/ask spread), especially when trading is confined to weekends for which there are large negative Friday returns and to positions opened on Friday afternoons. The effect of stocks trading ex-dividend on Mondays does not appear to bias our results.     

High Interest Rates and Exchange Rate Stabilization in Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand: An Empirical Investigation of the Traditional and Revisionist Views

The paper seeks to determine whether high interest rates have had the effect of appreciating nominal exchange rates in three Asian countries. The authors use high-frequency data for Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand during the recent crisis and its aftermath to examine the relationship between the increase in interest rates and the behavior of exchange rates. It is found that raising interest rates has had a small impact on nominal exchange rates during the crisis period.     

A novel framework for customer complaint management

Complaining is one option available to customers to express their dissatisfaction with inadequate services. Their complaints contain valuable information for service providers to improve customer relationships and operational quality, which can ultimately enhance business profitability. Customer complaints are frequently handled at the individual level, however, which addresses the symptoms rather than the causes of customer dissatisfaction. This paper presents a framework integrating a decision tree approach, a common data mining tool, into Six Sigma methodology to analyze customer complaints in aggregate and improve service quality by identifying and addressing the underlying causes of failed service. A case study of a restaurant chain was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The results indicated a significant (60%) decrease in the number of customer complaints received. Subsequent long-term benefits can be expected.     

A service innovation framework for start-up firms by integrating service experience engineering approach and capability maturity model

The service sector contributes more than 70 % to the GDP of many countries in which their services should continually be innovated to improve customer satisfaction. This study reviews the literature from 1995 to 2014 in the field of service innovation, service experience and engineering, and maturity model. Results show that the existing service innovation frameworks lack a focus on business process improvement, particularly for start-up firms. It causes the startups not ready enough to deal with inevitable challenges that may be encountered in the future. Accordingly, this study proposes a novel framework that combines the service experience engineering method and capability maturity model of integration for service to develop a new innovative service and improve service quality process for start-up firms. A practical case is implemented by applying the proposed framework. A service innovation prototype system is developed on the basis of the case study to deliver a mobile campus merchandise purchasing service.