‘When buying into the business,we knew it was seasonal’: perceptions of seasonality in Central Otago,New Zealand

Although the majority of the academic literature makes a convincing economic case when suggesting that seasonality is problematic, it is, arguably, equally important to consider whether businesses themselves perceive seasonality as a distinct problem. This paper considers the extent to which businesses and operations, variably involved in tourism, perceive seasonality. A case study of the Central Otago region of New Zealand is offered. The results suggest that although seasonality is perceived as a salient issue for the sector itself, it is not universally perceived to be inherently problematic from the perspective of the individual business/operator. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Market power among physicians in the U.S., 1983–1991

The growth of health care costs and expenditures recently led to suggestions for innovations that would affect demand for health care. However, supply side issues were largely ignored in the debate despite the fact that the American Medical Association has controlled entry since it was granted that power by legislators early in this century. We consider the supply side of the market for physicians' services over 1983–1991. Our estimated index of market power indicates nontrivial power among physicians. This suggests that conventional policy tools could reduce costs in this market. This, in turn, could effectively lower insurance premiums.     

Governance and uncertainty: the trade-off between administrative control and commitment

This study elaborates upon the motives for initiating equity-based collaborations vs. acquisition of another firm already having a desired technology. We characterize both minority direct investments and joint ventures as options to defer either internal development or acquisition of a target firm. In domains where learning about growth opportunities dominates investment activity, this incremental mode of governance economizes on the cost of committing resources to a technology with an uncertain value. Using a sample of 402 transactions in the biotechnology industry, we find strong support for the theoretical model. The findings suggest that the cost of commitment in the face of technological uncertainty may offset the administrative benefits of hierarchical governance. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

客户愉悦对提高客户忠诚度的作用

事件之间的关系 当企业赢得了客户永久的忠诚时,请一定谨记赢得忠诚度本身并不是我们的最终目标。而只是帮助企业通向最终商业成功的一个步骤。企业试图通过构建客户的忠诚度来取得更进一步成就的这个过程,我们称之为满意——利润链。     

Consumption situations and the effects of brand image on consumers' brand evaluations

This research examines the role consumption situations play in determining the effects of brand image on consumers' brand evaluations. Results from the first experiment suggest that when consumption situations are experimentally manipulated for the same brand, conspicuousness does not significantly moderate the relative effects of actual and ideal congruence on brand evaluations. Further, marketers can manage the effects of image congruence (between brand image and self-image) by promoting varying consumption situations. Results from the second experiment demonstrate how a dynamic concept of situational ideal self-image (the image consumers perceive as being ideal to project in a particular situation) is a better predictor of brand attitudes than are static concepts of self-image such as actual and ideal self-image. Developing effective brand images must be coupled with a consideration of the potential situations in which the product is to be consumed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Patterns of Rural Development: A Cross‐Country Comparison using Microeconomic Data

This article proposes a general pattern of rural development in which increases in per capita income are associated with a decline in the importance of agricultural production and a rise in the importance of non‐agricultural income sources. Following the approach to examining Engel’s Law, we use data from 15 developing countries and a merged dataset to test whether such a pattern emerges. The analysis shows a strong, positive relationship between per capita income and the share of income earned from rural non‐agricultural wage employment and a negative relationship between per capita income and agricultural production.     

Beyond just desserts: The gendered nature of the connection between effort and achievement for accounting students

The paper evaluates gender differences in the achievement of accounting students using data from students at a large public institution in the USA. Whether one gender outperforms the other is a question that has remained open in the literature, primarily because measures have been confounded by rewards for effort. This paper finds that in an environment where effort is not materially rewarded per se, but serves as a significant means to prepare for grade-bearing evaluations, females do not significantly outperform males. Female student do, however, exert a greater amount of effort. Measures used in this study were assembled by the computer software that managed the student interface, providing practice questions, quizzes, and examinations. Implications for educational choices made by accounting instructors are offered.     

Forming and updating of product category perceptions: The influence of goals and discrepancy

Consumers categorize products to facilitate storage and retrieval of product information. Product categories are flexible in structure and may be altered to enable efficient processing, storage, and retrieval of information. The joint effect of two factors, learning goal and discrepancy, on the differential formation of category structures is examined. The learning goal influences the formation of initial category perceptions and is proposed to affect tendencies to subtype a new brand at different levels of discrepancy. Study results indicate that subjects who must make judgments about a new, strongly discrepant brand are influenced more by learning goal than are subjects presented with a moderately discrepant brand. Implications for marketing strategy are discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Stochastic volatility models: conditional normality versus heavy‐tailed distributions

Most of the empirical applications of the stochastic volatility (SV) model are based on the assumption that the conditional distribution of returns, given the latent volatility process, is normal. In this paper, the SV model based on a conditional normal distribution is compared with SV specifications using conditional heavy‐tailed distributions, especially Student's t‐distribution and the generalized error distribution. To estimate the SV specifications, a simulated maximum likelihood approach is applied. The results based on daily data on exchange rates and stock returns reveal that the SV model with a conditional normal distribution does not adequately account for the two following empirical facts simultaneously: the leptokurtic distribution of the returns and the low but slowly decaying autocorrelation functions of the squared returns. It is shown that these empirical facts are more adequately captured by an SV model with a conditional heavy‐tailed distribution. It also turns out that the choice of the conditional distribution has systematic effects on the parameter estimates of the volatility process. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.